Monday 5 December 2011

Skyscapes...


Today we had the final theme of the Year, with a high level of participation by the club members and a good variety of images, although clouds were by far the most popular subject.

Above is my favourite image, a fantastic photograph of the Ebro Estuary taken at 7 o' clock in the morning just before sunrise using an 8 second exposure taken by Nico.

...and below my other favourite for a clever use of composition and having such a great eye is from Rosie who chose the Pavillion in Victoria Park as her subject.

There are many more great images to be seen, so take the jump to our gallery pages if you want to see more. 'Thumbs up' and comments are always very much appreciated, so don't be shy about giving your opinions.

Have a great Christmas, hope Santa brings you some new photographic toys to play with and I look forward to starting our theme schedule once again in 2012 !

Monday 28 November 2011

Wet Plate Photography...



Also known as the Collodion Process, this technique invented in the mid 1800's was rendered all but obsolete by the dry plate technology that arrived in the early 1880's. However, the process is experiencing somewhat of revival recently with many artists now using this old technique; like Sally Mann and Joni Sternbach just to name a few.

Rather than attempt to explain the process here, I came across this very nice video from [FRAMED], which shows very nicely whats involved and the very distinctive results that can be achieved.

I find it totally fascinating and I am currently tracking down a suitable workshop to attend... Anyone else interested ?

Monday 14 November 2011

Earth from ISS...


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Check out the really impressive time lapse video taken from the ISS with their Low Light HD Camera.

The Aurora Borealis is incredible, along with the electrical storms, and you also get to appreciate just how much light pollution there is.

Enjoy !

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Kickstarter...



Kickstarter is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects. Project creators present their idea to the world and potential supporters decide whether or not to pledge money, when, and only when the funding goal is met is the pledged money passed on to the creator to complete his/her project.

As complete ownership and control of the project always remains in the hands of the creators, they normally offer something in return for the support given dependent upon the amount pledged.

There are many categories such as music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and of course photography.

Which brings me to the project of Tim Mantoani above, even though he has already surpassed his target, you may want to consider to be part of the group of people that are supporting the production of his book that he will explain to you above.

Personally, I consider the 20x24 Polaroid Camera to be one of the great photographic achievements of the last century and his idea of using it to photograph famous photographers with their favourite photo's really got me interested.

Take a look and see what you think.

Tilt-Shift Lens...



I know that no one in the club has a Phase One medium format camera (yet !), but this highly entertaining video from Adrian Weinbrecht regarding the newly available Schneider-Kreuznach Tilt-Shift lens for this camera system; very nicely explains the use of these sorts of lens and I thought would be of interest to all of us.

One Day on Earth...


One Day on Earth - Motion Picture Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

One Day on Earth founded in 2008, created the first ever simultaneous filming event in every country of the world for the date 10.10.10.

With 11.11.11 getting close they will once again repeat this challenge of trying to showcase the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy and triumph that occurs in a single day on planet earth.

Form more information on how you can become part of this wonderful initiative, please hop on over to the One Day on Earth webpage.

LIFE.com 2011 Photo Blog Awards...


Life.com recently announced the winners of their first Photo Blog awards.

Having gone through 300 of the most popular photographic blogs on the web, they compiled a list of what they consider are the most compelling, most consistently insightful and surprising photo blogs for this year.

You can find out who where the winners and why they were selected here.

Out of the 20 my favourites are feature shoot, PDN Photo of the DayAmerican Suburb X, Whats the Jackanory, La Lettre de la PhotographiePictory Blog and 500 Photographers.

The ESAC Photoclub Blog was not selected, better luck next year I suppose ;-)

Friday 28 October 2011

El Pais Photo Contest...


El Pais recently announced a Photo Competition with Prize money of 5000 Euro's for each winner of the two themes, Portrait and History.
    You have until the 20th November to submit your images, all the details can be found here.

    Good Luck !

    Wednesday 26 October 2011

    Tips on staying creative...


    29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.


    It happens to the best of us, we lose focus, things just don't flow as they did before and our motivation goes down.

    Check out the video above to get some ideas on how to get your creativity back on track.

    Tuesday 25 October 2011

    Bruce Gilden...


    Bruce Gilden from FLY16x9 on Vimeo.

    Bruce Gilden is a well known street photographer, famous for his strong character and in your face approach. The video above gives a very good insight into the techniques and thought processes Bruce goes through. There really are some golden nuggets of information in there so its well worth a watch.

    Tuesday 19 July 2011

    Inside Out Project...


    JR a parisian street artist who scooped the 2011 TED Prize is known for his constant attempts to challenge and combat social equalities with his use of art.

    He basically enters problematic or marginal area's, makes contact with the locals, takes their photographs and comes back with enormous posters and pastes them in the street for all to see... or on trains... or on buses... or on bridges... or on steps... or on roofs... or on security towers...

    As you can see above he uses a lot of inginuity with respect to location for his images, and his ability to engage members of the public is quite extraordinary as you will see from watching the very emocional video below which will give you an excellent insight into his projects in various countries across the world.

    If you would like to get involved, just go here to find out all the details, and you can see more video's on the Inside Out YouTube channel.

    Wednesday 13 July 2011

    Portrait Photography the Rube Goldberg way...

    This is just so good.... Just how many photography accessories can you recognise ?



    ......and if you want some 'behind the scenes' action here you go...

    Martin Schoeller and the TIME 100 list...

    TIME Magazine recently released their 'TIME 100' list of the most influential people in the world and I quote "They are artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry. Their ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution"

    Martin Schoeller just happened to be one of the photographers who was chosen to photograph these honoured person's.

    Martin has a very distinctive style, especially when it comes to lighting and concept which you will see if you track down his work on 'Close Up' and 'Female Bodybuilders'. You will also note that he uses both digital and film to complete his projects.

    Anyway back to the Times 100.... Below you will see a 'Behind the Scenes' video of how he went about the task. I love these sorts of videos as it always gives you an insight into how a photographer works and the techniques they apply to produce the work they do.

    Monday 4 July 2011

    Polarising Filters 101...

    Probably the one filter every photographer should have in his bag is the polariser, great for saturation, removing unwanted reflections and generally souping up you images (you can even use it a neutral density filter, if you need to lose a few stops of light) .

    Take a look at the video below for a quick tutorial on the sort of things you can achieve with the most versatile of all the filters.


    Polarizing Filters for Photo and Video from Olivia Speranza on Vimeo.

    Thursday 30 June 2011

    'Flying' video camera's...

    GoPro's are those little sport video camera's that you can stick onto you bike helmet (amongst other things) to record your daredevil downhilling skills for example.

    However, they also seem to be popular with our feathered friends to show off their daredevil flying skills !

    Check out the video below and all will become clear...



    (I think thats enough of the 'aerial' theme... I'll find something different for next month... I promise !)

    Wednesday 29 June 2011

    Psychography...

    Latest Camera Technology...



    This has popped up on quite a few web pages recently and is the new 'light field' capturing camera from Lytro. Apparently all you have to do is take the picture and then you can select the focus point later on (click the image above wherever you like to see what i mean).

    Maybe a few of our Scientist members could gives us an insight into what exactly are light fields and their potential uses ?

    Photography from Space...



    Continuing the 'aerial' theme, ESA's Paolo Nespoli appears to be making a name for himself recently with his images of the earth captured from the International Space Station. The one you see above is of Lake Gairdner in Austrailia.

    Paolo is taking images every few days and then sharing them with the inhabitents of the earth via his Twitter account !!
     
    You can also check out his Flickr pages for the latest images.

    Kite Photography...

    Cris Benton a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley is a self confessed 'tinkerer' with a talent for constructing, flying and taking aerial photo's with a kite.

    The images that he has created are really quite stunning and in the video below you begin to get an idea of what is involved with this type of photography and also the ingenuity that Cris shows with respect to the rigs he constructs to hold and move the camera.

    You can find more images and information at his website here.

    Kite Aerial Photography on MAKE: television from MAKE magazine on Vimeo.

    Thursday 2 June 2011

    African Air...

    Flying in a motorized paraglider over one of the most diverse continents in the world, George Steinmetz captures in his photographs the stunning beauty, potential and hope of Africa's landscapes and people. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/african-air

    It's been a while since we've mentioned MediaStorm and when I saw this video on the aerial photography of George Steinmetz I thought it was time to remind everyone of this great site and concept.

    You should also check out George's website as well, as it's really quite spectacular.

    PHotoEspaña 2011...

    PHotoEspaña 2011 has started this month and you can get all the information regarding participants, events and galleries here.

    By the way that's a photo of Jackie Onassis taken in New York in 1971, by the worlds most famous paparzzi, Ron Galella.


     

    

    Monday 30 May 2011

    Extreme Fish Photography...

    Marc Montocchio is a specialist in capturing unique and stunning images of ocean wildlife in their natural habitat. His hands on approach often leads to him getting into all sorts of extreme situations with the sea creatures he is trying to photograph.

    Born in Durban, South Africa, Marc now travels the world in search of adventure and images. In the video below you will see a 'behing the scenes' look at his latest project of capturing Blue Marlins being fished in Bermuda, check it out, its well worth a look and you'll see just how dangerous things can get.

    (via fstoppers)

    Tuesday 24 May 2011

    TPOTY 2010...


    This fascinating image of a young boy playing with his 'pet' shark in Indonesia, was one of the images that won the 'Ecounters' section of the recently released 'Travel Photographer of the Year Awards 2010'.

    It's well worth checking out this BBC audio slideshow that gives a good overview of the photo's along with commentary from Chris Coe the founder of the yearly competition which started in 2003.

    Contre-Jour...

    Contre-Jour or 'backlighting' as it is more commonly known, is the technique of shooting directly at a light source.

    This can cause lens flare, rim lighting, silhouettes and the effect is not always predictable either, which adds to the fun and makes it a great technique to try out and experiment with.

    Our members presented a whole spectrum of images covering all aspects mentioned above. I really liked Alberto's image you see over there on the left, the rim light makes the ball literally jump of the screen.

    You can see the rest over on the gallery pages, and please leave some 'thumbs ups' and comments.

    Next theme is 'Photograph a Stranger', this webpage offers some tips that may help you out.

    Good luck and I'll see you all again on the 28th June.

    Thursday 19 May 2011

    Invited Speaker - Carlos Borrego Iglesias (Part II)...

    The recent presentation of Carlos Borrego to the club was our first photographer of our 'invited speaker' initiative. The club hopes that this will provide the members with the opportunity to understand and improve their creativity in photography by receiving first hand knowledge from advanced and professional photographers explaining their particular process.

    Carlos' presentation was a fantastic mix of presentation of his photographic muse's, the reasoning behind his fascination with abstraction, along with a fun exercise in exhibition preparation and sequencing, topped off with some unusual camera techniques demonstrated with his very own equipment.

    I came away from the presentation highly motivated and ever more appreciative of the amount of dedication and passion photographers proportion to their art.

    Carlos promised to pass on his list of muse's which you will find below:
    That's a lot of homework to get through !


    Thanks Carlos, hope to see you again next year !

    Monday 16 May 2011

    Susan Burnstine...

    During Carlos' presentation last Friday I was very much reminded of the work of Susan Burnstine, that I have enjoyed ever since I started to investigate the world of plastic camera's a number of years ago.

    Susan's superbly ethereal images are produced entirely in-camera, well really, in any one of her 21 home made camera's, she has even gone as far as moulding her own lenses.

    She has her own column in the UK magazine Black+White Photography and has exhibited extensively, she will also shortly release her first monograph 'Within Shadows' at the The Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition next month.

    In the video below, Susan explains a bit about her technique and why she produces the images she does.

    Monday 9 May 2011

    Stephen Dupont...

    Stephen Dupont an Australian born Photojournalist and portrait photographer has received many international awards for his amazing work over the years.

    Not only is he a great photographer he also produces hand made books of his images and exhibits extensively.

    His passion for Afganistan, a country he has visited for over fifteen years almost cost him his life with a suicide bomber attack outside a police station he was visiting at that moment.

    He also appears to have an amazing ability to connect with his subjects and project a level of trust and compassion which allows him to get close to people often in the most dangerous and marginalized regions of the world.

    In the video below you will see him taking polaroids of people in the middle of Kabul with a Polaroid Land camera, his approach with respect to his book making and some of his portraits of members of the notoriously dangerous and violent 'Red Devils' gang from Papua New Guinea, an image of which you can see above.

    Stephen Dupont Profile - ABC Sunday Arts from Stephen Dupont on Vimeo.

    Sunday 8 May 2011

    Everything you wanted to know about lens cleaning but were afraid to ask...



    Do you clean your lens with your T-Shirt or any old cloth you have lying around ?, then you might want to check out this video if you want to see how the professionals do it.

    Apparently, we should clean our lenses twice a week, maybe we should ask Timothy Allen what he thinks ;-) (see below).

    Time Lapse Photography...


    The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

    Time Lapse Photography is a cinematography technique which allows the viewer to see time passing at an apparently accelerated rate.

    There are many examples out there on the web, but the one above by Terje Sorgjerd has to be the best I've ever seen. You will see that he must also have had his camera mounted to a motion control rig which adds yet another dimension to his video.

    Take a look at this wikipedia page just to see what things you have to take into account, now imagine the amount of work Terje had to do, pre-planning each shoot, lugging around all the equipment, setting it up, choosing the composition and just being around in the right place at the right time... really impressive !!

    Wednesday 4 May 2011

    Albert Watson...


    Albert Watson is one of the worlds most successful Fashion/Commercial/Art photographers. Born and raised in Scotland, he moved to the United States in the seventies and took up photography as a hobby. His career effectively started after being introduced to a Max Factor art director who eventually bought a couple of shots from him after a test session.

    Watson's distintive style caught the eye of many fashion magazines and he began working in both Los Angeles and New York. His first celebrity portrait was of Alfred Hitchcock which is one of his most famous images to which he has added literally hundreds of  well-known iconic photographs of movie stars, rock stars, rappers, supermodels, presidents and royalty. In 1976 he finally settled in New York where he has remained until today. 

    Now having reached almost 70 years old he continues working and exhibiting all over the world.

    RETV recently interviewed him to discuss his life, career and what he thinks it takes to make it in the photo industry today and the answer is not to be a equipment lover as you will see from the video below.


    Fall 2010 Feature: ALBERT WATSON from RETV from Resource Magazine on Vimeo.

    Thursday 28 April 2011

    Newborn Photography...


    Cute no ?...

    How on earth could you get a newborn only a few weeks old to pose like that ?...

    Well you have to do no more than take a look at the video below from [FRAMED], which features the work of Laura Farris and Amanda Andrews, for a wonderful insight into the world of Newborn Photography and to get an idea of the huge amount of creativity, attention to detail and patience that's required to get these sort of shots.

    A very big thank you to Laura who very kindly granted us use of her fantastic image above.


    Tuesday 26 April 2011

    Simplicity...


    Simplicity... its really quite difficult to take a'simple' image isn't it ? Does simple mean a single element, a single colour, a single theme or a combination of the above ?

    Looking at the image above it looks like Benja had no problem in facing up to the challenge with his deceptively simple image of tyre tracks in the sand. The club would also like to welcome Richard who presented for the first time.

    Have a look at the galleries page and you'll see the varied interpretations, please leave comments and a few 'thumbs up' wouldn't go a miss either.

    Next theme is 'Contre-Jour', looks simple right.. lets see how easy it is to come up with something original !

    Until next month, thanks for all the images and the attendance to the presentation.

    Thursday 14 April 2011

    Ryan Muirhead...

    I've just discovered a rather nice web page called [FRAMED] who provide a free weekly broadcast hosting different photographic talents who share a piece of their wisdom, work, processes and art.

    Whilst looking through the content I came across the video on Ryan Muirhead a young photographer from Utah in the States. As he is a film addict and you all know that I have a bit of a soft spot for that sort of stuff as well, I'd thought you might appreciate the heads up.

    You will see that he is a lover of natural light portrait photography and he doesn't tend to venture too far from his home to make his pictures and just to round things off he's also a bit of nutter.


    Wednesday 13 April 2011

    Life in Frame

    Enrico Mignotto is an Italian photographer with an interesting project (who doesn't?). He just puts an old frame in the middle of the street in different European cities and takes pictures of what happens around. Simple as it seems the results are extremely interesting (at least for me :) )
    You can visit the exhibition in Bologna, but if it falls a little bit too far for you it can still be viewed at his web site Life in Frame. I hope you enjoy.

    Friday 8 April 2011

    Seeing with Sound...


    | Artists Wanted | In Focus : Pete Eckert from Artists Wanted on Vimeo.

    Watch this video, I'm not going to say much here, I think Pete Eckert deserves to tell his story all by himself.

    Thursday 7 April 2011

    Basic Lighting Setups...

    Do you know what Rembrandt, Split, Broad, Butterfly or Loop lighting is ?

    Do you know your key from your fill from your rim ?

    Well in the video below Jay P Morgan will not only explain what they are, he will show you exactly how to set up your lights as well (what a nice guy he is !).

    Zip on over and take a look at his blog and youtube channel as there are many more examples from the simple to the complex... enjoy !!

    David Bailey interview in the Telegraph...

    David Bailey the only remaining member of the 'Black Trinity' from the 60's (made up of Donovan, Duffy and of course Mr Bailey himself), has recently given an interview with Andrew Graham-Dixon of the Telegraph.

    Whether you love him or hate him he is always controversially consistent with his comments and wit, see below for a great example :

    AGD: Is there such a thing as a great photograph that’s been touched up? 

    DB: I think so. I mean Raphael used Photoshop didn’t he? 

    AGD: Did he? 

    DB: Of course he did. When Medici said to him: “I fancy that bit of stuff over in Portugal, can you go and take a photo of her?” he didn’t show her dandruff and her scabby skin and her black teeth and the spots, did he? He used Renaissance Photoshop.

    'Renaissance Photoshop'... fantastic !, if you want to read the rest of this very entertaining interview you have to do no more than click here.

    Tuesday 5 April 2011

    Whatever you want 2011...

    Taken by Michele
    As always the club started its thematic presentations with the always very popular 'Whatever you want'.

    18 members presented images and we welcome Michele, Viney and Helen who presented their photographs for the first time.

    While the actual turnout was still not quite up to standard, we still managed to have a lot of lively discussion and pass on a few tips and tricks between us.

    All the images are available in their glory on our gallery pages, so take a look, leave some thumbs up and make some comments as its alway motivating to see that other people have took the time to look and comment on your hard work.

    Next theme is 'Simplicity'.. see you all again soon..!

    Sunday 3 April 2011

    Studio for 70 Euros...

    This is not the first time we have featured Bert Stephani on our blog.

    This time the photographer from Belguim shows us that with a couple of halogen working lights, shower curtains and old blankets you can produce shots like the one over on the left.

    What are the disadvantages, you may ask.... for a start the lights generate a lot of heat, so you have to be a bit careful about placement and in the end the amount of light you have to play with is not that much, so expect to be using a tripod and slow shutter speed.

    Well, in the end thats not so bad, the fact that you are forced to use a slow shutter speed along with a wide aperture is something I really like, it just gives a look that is more analogue and it this case fits the moody portrait perfectly.

    Anyway, I'll handover to Bert to explain further in his video below and you can always check out his blog which is an absolute goldmine of information (and yes, if you like the idea of using an iPad to see each image instantly after its taken, he has a blog entry for that as well !)

    Friday 1 April 2011

    Mickey Smith Surf Photographer...



    Mickey Smith is a Cornish surf photographer who now lives in Ireland. The video above gives an insight into the mindset of these photographers have and you also get to see that you need to know what your doing in big waves, and even if surf photography isn't your thing, if you love the ocean, you're going to enjoy the video... a lot.

    If you do like what you see above you might also want to check out a short film with Mickey and a few other surfers which is set in Ireland (see here)

    Thursday 24 March 2011

    Holga and the New York Times...


    Came across this nice article in the New York Times 'Lens' section about the Holga, a 120 film, medium format plastic toy camera made in China.

    The camera has a cult following due to its ability to give you results that you weren't quite expecting, say goodbye to digital perfection and hello to light leaks, soft edges and a complete lack of control..... all very liberating don't you think ?

    Randy Smith of Holgamods fame gets a mention for his inventiveness when it comes down to modifying these cheap plastic cameras. I bought mine with a waist level finder from him a number of years back. Real nice guy to deal with, honest and open, does it because he loves it not because he is on some sort of get rich scheme.

    There are mentions of a number of photographers who actively use this camera and I have to admit I liked a lot the work of Richard Sintchak whose image you see above.

    The Holga world is a big one and there is a lot to explore, if you are tempted to buy one, get it from Randy who will make sure you get something just to your liking.

    Wednesday 23 March 2011

    Invited Speaker - Carlos Borrego Iglesias


    The club is very pleased and honoured to announce that Carlos Borrego Iglesias, will be visiting us on the 13th May to give us a talk on his photography and creative vision.

    Carlos from Barcelona, already has a number of exhibitions under is belt and is a passionate and creative artist and advocate of analogue photography.

    A very big thank you to Miguel for organising everything and I think that this is an amazing opportunity for all of us to experience close up, the work of a fellow photographer.

    You can see more of Carlos' fantastically creative work on his web site and Flickr page.

    Mark Tucker and his latest project...

    We've seen Mark's work in the past and I recently dropped by his web pages, just to take a look at what he's been getting up to.

    He images still continues to amaze and inspire me and its great to see he still maintains his passion for homemade camera's. In this case, not made by himself but by John Minnicks, whom I'm trying to find out more about, but if like me, you don't have a Facebook account your going to be out of luck.

    You can see the camera in action above and its a custom design using as its base, the Graflex RB Camera from the early 1950's. You may also notice that the lens attached is the famous Kodak Aero Ektar often used by David Burnett.

    I have to admit that I really want one of these camera's as the thought of having a 4x5 reflex camera (meaning that you don't lose the viewfinder image of your subject when you load the film into the back) is really appealing, and it looks like a quite compact package as well.

    Anyway Mark has set up a new blog to show the results of his new project to photograph special people in the Nashville area.

    If you don't remember Mark from our past blog entry his web page is here and his 'normal' blog here.

    Winners of Sony World Photography Open Contest announced...


    The Open contest specifically devised for amateur photographers has ten categories in total; Action, After Dark, Architecture, Arts & Culture, Fashion, Nature & Wildlife, Panoramic, People, Smile and Travel.

    .. and its James Chong's image from the Travel category you can see above.

    More than 51,000 submissions from 148 countries were made with the Asian entrants scooping up almost half of the available prizes.

    You can see more of the entries over on the World Photography Organisation's web page.



    Friday 11 March 2011

    Madrid Foto announces dates...

    MADRIDFOTO starting on the 5th May will be in Pavilion Number 1 at IFEMA.

    With more than 5,000 sqm exhibitors from as many as seventy international galleries, publishing houses and journals will participating.

    MADRIDFOTO is the only international fair in Spain specialized in contemporary photography, and is designed to encourage new private, corporate and institutional collecting.

    THIAPS produces book...


    THIAPS, the International Analogue Film Society who are strong advocates of Analogue Photography, have recently released a book which is comprised of many images that have been shown on the Society's web page "Film is not dead it just smells funny" over the past three years.

    It took them 6 months to create a short list of photographers who they wanted to participate in the UNLIMITED GRAIN project. They also had so many images that they decided that one book would probably not be enough, so hence a series of books will be released of which Portrait Photography is the topic covered by the first one. Following books may cover landscape, urban, street and nocturnal photography.

    Based on the 'preview' you can see above, this looks to be a worthwhile series of books to collect and will be a motivation to any analogue photographer and maybe even encourage the digital users out there to give film a go as well.

    Thursday 3 March 2011

    Blurb's Storytelling Video Series...


    Storytelling Series: Daniel Milnor from Blurb Books on Vimeo.

    Blurb have been running these short video stories for a while now on authors that they consider to have an inspirational story to tell.

    They really are quite a nice insight in to the motivation and thought process behind the creation of a book. The series covers authors of many different styles of books, but the video you see above, of course, is about a photographer (in this case its Daniel Minor who also has a very interesting blog you might want to take a look at as well).

    You can check out the whole series so far over at Vimeo.

    Wednesday 2 March 2011

    Angelo Musco...


    Angelo Musco and his team spent an amazing 2 years of 8-15 hour days putting together this image called 'Tehom'. Using tens of thousands nude bodies the image you see above is just a small part of the final artwork which you can see below.


    'Tehom' refers to the 'great deep' of the primordial waters of creation, mentioned in the Bible, and biblical/mythical references appear to be the inspiration of a lot of his work which you can see on his website (Although I consider these images to be Contemporary Art, other work colleagues may not agree, so I give prior warning that these may not be work safe).

    Angelo recently had his first solo exhibition in the States and it took one week just to mount all the individual images that make up the final huge art works, see the video below.



    (credit 500 Photographers for bringing this to my attention)

    Thursday 24 February 2011

    Red Bull Illume Quest 2010 Winners...

    Red Bull has been running this great competition to celebrate and honour the best action and adventure sports photographs on the planet.

    Below you will see a few of my favourites, if you would like to see all the finalists you can go here.

    I know it doesn't have much to do with photography, but while we are on the subject of Red Bull activities, you might want to check out the video at the bottom which is just incredible !


    Overall Winner and Illumination Category Winner - Chris Burkard

    New Creativity Winner - Eric Berger

    Energy Winner - Stuart Gibson

    Tourist photo's, an artistic approach...

    Saw this pop up on the Online Photographer the other day regarding the work of Corinne Vionnet a Swiss based photographer and her use of readily available tourist snaps on the web.

    Corinne 'collects' hundreds of these images and then artistically blends them all together to produce the final art work.

    Do you happen to have any online images of the Alhambra, maybe they form part of the one you see here.

    Apart from the copyright discussions that ensued on the Online Photographer I find it fascinating that so many people take the same image of the same thing from the same place.

    There are more examples over at My Modern Met of all the typical tourist spots.

    Wednesday 23 February 2011

    Phase One IQ180 Back...



    With an incredible 80Megapixels the Phase One IQ180 Medium format Back will be available in May this year and once again raises the bar for image resolution and quality.

    I would really love to have one of these for the club, but its slightly out of our price range at more than 30,000 Euros.

    However, if you do have the means for such an item, you may want to head over to the Luminous Landscape for a hands on report to tempt you even further and it will also give you the perfect excuse to upgrade you computer as well, handling 480Megabyte 16bit TIFF files is not something to be scoffed at.

    Anyway, the video above which shows Jens Honoré on the Sitges Terramar Racing Circuit with an IQ180, is worth a look (check out what happens around 0:55 for a good example of photographer/subject trust !)

    There are some more 'In Action' videos over on the Phase One site if you also want to see what Fashion and Architectural Photographers have to say.

    Monday 21 February 2011

    Selection of Themes for 2011...

    Poll will close 7th March.


    Friday 4 February 2011

    Something to make you smile...

    DIY Beauty Dish...


    The Chinatown Special: The Best DIY Beauty Dish from The Browyoungs on Vimeo.

    The Beauty Dish gets it name for a very obvious reason... the quality of light it produces is very flattering in portrait photography.

    The above video, gives a quick overview of how to build one and here you will find one of the best and most detailed tutorials I ever seen.

    This is one for that weekend when you can't find anything to do :-)

    FujiFilm FinePix X100...

    This little camera is causing quite a stir at the moment and looks like being one of the hottest sellers in 2011.

    It's retro on the outside and cutting edge on the inside.

    For more information go here and for a pre-release review check here.

    Danny Santos, Weekend Warrior...


    Danny Santos II is a self confessed weekend warrior who likes to shoot strangers in the streets of Singapore. 

    He's been shooting street photography for about 2 years and is a graphic designer by trade.

    In this article, Danny explains his motivation and exactly what he goes through when he spends his weekends wandering up and down Orchard Road asking strangers if he can take their pictures. Would anyone dare to do this on Gran Via in Madrid ?, maybe we should put it as a theme ?

    If you want to know more about Danny, who is very articulate as well as an excellent photographer, you can check out the following sites:

    His Flickr page
    His Webpage

    Thursday 27 January 2011

    Pep Bonet...



    Found out about this guy from the 500 Photographers website (by the way this is definitely one of the pages you should visit daily), and what really struck me was his approach to photography, travel and I suppose in a way, life in general.

    Whilst War/Disaster photography is always difficult to view and digest, and almost always leads to questions regarding the morality of the photographers involved, I think its worth to see the video above and take a bit more of a look into the work and philosophy of Pep Bonet.

    Saturday 22 January 2011

    GIGAntic PANoramas

    Panoramic photography is surely one of the areas having gained most from digital photography. Some people push it to the limit - or beyond, regarding the capacities of normal PCs. At the GigaPan website one can find images with hundreds of gigapixels, stitched together from thousands of individual images. Via the Web interface one can zoom into the images and find details invisible in the full image. See, for example, this nice panorama of Prague at dawn or this (relatively low resolution) sunset shot of Madrid.

    These photographers are helped by the hardware sold by GigaPan which moves the camera around automatically. Should we consider a GigaPan EPIC Pro for the Club to create such special images ourselves? Since Neil is now with Gaia, he should soon know everything about dealing with enormous datasets :-)

    Wednesday 19 January 2011

    Yearbook 2010 published...


    Firstly, congratulations to Silvia whose photo graces the cover of our fourth edition of the Yearbook as the most popular image on our gallery pages in 2010.

    This year we have reduced the number of pages to take advantage of the new premium lustre paper, which I think really adds a lot to the look and feel of the book.

    Above you can take a quick look at the 'Book Preview' which hopefully gives you an idea of what to expect.

    I may be biased, but I think this years edition is our best yet and if it wasn't for you all taking the time and effort to produce the images you do throughout the year, the club could not produce such a high quality product. Many thanks to all of you for your time and enthusiasm !

    Wednesday 5 January 2011

    In the bag with David Burnett...


    In The Bag with photographer David Burnett from PhotoShelter.com on Vimeo.

    We've spoken about David Burnett in the past, recently I came across this series on Photoshelter which gets various photographers to open and explain what they have in their camera bags. Always interesting to have a nose around in the bag of a professional photographer.

    Blog Overhaul...

    As you may have noticed the blog has been given a new look and a few new additions.

    Firstly, you'll see the previous slideshow panel for our featured photographer has been changed for a very nice 3D Cloud style widget (many thanks to Roy Tanck for making this available).

    Also, all the blog posts have now been labeled/tagged and you can now select entries based on their labels by using the label widget over there on the left. If you post remember to choose one of the already existing or add your own.

    I'll also tidy up the links lists over time.

    Hope you like it..
     

    Tuesday 4 January 2011

    Best of the Best Of's...

    Life Pictures of the Year 2010
    Reuters Best of Year
    BBC Pictures of the Year 2010
    New Scientist 12 Best Pictures of the Year
    LA Times 2010 The Year in Pictures
    mnsbc The Year in Pictures
    NY Times 2010 The Year in Pictures

    ...if you've got any more add them as comments.. Happy New Year by the way ;-)