Latest Leica...

Leica M9 Titanium Special Edition.

500 only.

Price €23,400.

Ouch !!!!

Best Photography How-To Books...

I found this interesting entry over at The Online Photographer regarding recommended How-To books, plenty of the readers have also left comments adding to the list originally suggested by Mike.

Could be useful .?

Frank Ockenfels 3...

Camerabag.tv recently put up their latest entry regarding one of my favorite photographers Frank Ockenfels.

Frank, who appears to be an all round good guy, as you can see from all the comments written by attendees of his presentations and workshops, has the amazing talent of being able to do everything photographic, and do it well.
 
There has been much discussion over the need for professional photographers to specialise in order to survive in the commercial world, but Frank is a clear case that there's always an exception to the rules.

As you will see in the video interview on Camerabag.tv he is the owner of an amazing selection of analogue camera's that he uses to create the various effects you see in his images and his studio/home looks like a place I could spend hours looking at all the photographs, books and journals he has everywhere.

Apart from the video interview on Camerabag.tv, this blog entry on A Photo Editor will give you a very good insight into this fascinating character from the world of photography..!

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is Martin Stranka from Prague and to be honest I can't describe his photography any better than is written in his Flickr bio: 

"The work of Martin Stranka exists in that space between dreams and waking, those split seconds when a person has a foot in both worlds. Light like the first rays of twilight filtering through a curtain when even the dust seems to glitter with some sort of hidden purpose or meaning.

The language of stillness.

The solitary sound of your own footsteps echoing down the streets of a deserted city. And on every building the flickering image of a silent film like faded memories.

Martin's images.

So personal yet somehow universal they seem like your own memories. Your moments.

And maybe they are..."

If you would like to see more than his Flickr stream, you can find his website here.

Previous featured photographers:
July '10 - m_i_n_o_r's
June '10 - AndersonImages'
May '10 - Siprico
April '10 - Lucie Debelkova
March '10 - Kent Mercurio
February '10 - Midnight-Digital
January '10 - Art Libre
December '09 - Ray maï
November '09 - *6261
October '09 - Vladimir Longauer
September '09 - LJ
August '09 - alex.alexander
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is Xavi Fuentes from Barcelona, Spain. In his biography he explains that he discovered photography a 'bit late', which doesn't seemed to have stopped him from creating such beautiful imagery.

You will see that he mainly concentrates on black and white photography with his wonderfully composed seascapes.

He is also winning awards for his photography having recently collected two 1st places at the PX3 Awards in Paris for 'Book Proposal' and 'Nature'.

If you would like to see more than his Flickr stream, you can find his website here and his blog here.

Previous featured photographers:
June '10 - AndersonImages'
May '10 - Siprico
April '10 - Lucie Debelkova
March '10 - Kent Mercurio
February '10 - Midnight-Digital
January '10 - Art Libre
December '09 - Ray maï
November '09 - *6261
October '09 - Vladimir Longauer
September '09 - LJ
August '09 - alex.alexander
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima

PHotoEspaña 2010...

The 13th edition of this international festival of photography began on the 9th June and will finish on the 25th July.

This year the common theme is 'time' and there are 69 exhibitions with works from 372 artists from 41 countries, along with various events to promote photographic art amongst the populace.

More details regarding artists, venues and events can be found on their website.

Macro...

Despite many absences due to holiday/mission/World Cup season, many photographs were still presented (even by those who couldn't attend).

As expected for a macro theme, the primary subjects for our cameras where insects and plants, two of which you can see here.

However, a few of the members found more non-conventional subjects with Nacho's images generating many comments from the audience.

As always, all the images are available on the gallery pages, so go and leave some 'thumbs ups' and comments if you feel so inclined.

Its summer so time to take a well earned rest and we will return with our usual theme 'Holidays', sometime in September.

Enjoy the holiday period and once again thanks for all your efforts in presenting photo's.

This months featured photographer...

For this months featured photographer, I've looked for some landscape photography that will impress anyone.

Michael who hails from Colorado, USA, travels a lot and has accumulated a top quality portfolio. Apart from his Flickr photostream you can find out more about him and his work on his website.

Previous featured photographers:
May '10 - Siprico
April '10 - Lucie Debelkova
March '10 - Kent Mercurio
February '10 - Midnight-Digital
January '10 - Art Libre
December '09 - Ray maï
November '09 - *6261
October '09 - Vladimir Longauer
September '09 - LJ
August '09 - alex.alexander
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima

A cute trick

Reading some lens reviews I stumbled about this cute trick to create your own creative highlight shapes. In the digital age, you could also use the tool of your preference, but it still would be much more work.

Embarrasingly enough, it took me a moment to figure out how it works - you are effectively replacing the closed aperture of your lens by a frontside aperture, while keeping the normal aperture wide open. I might give it a try some day.

MADRIDFOTO 2010...

MADRIDFOTO, is the only fair in Spain or Portugal specialising exclusively in photography and audiovisual art and opens today at the Palacio de Deportes in Madrid.


The fair will consist of more than sixty stands installed in a total space of 4000 m, apparently, special attention has been made with respect to the functionality of this area, and I quote, "ensuring that it is easy to negotiate and dotted with areas for taking a rest, socialising and exchanging opinions".

The 12th is VIP/Media day, with the rest of its duration being open to the general public, entrance fees are 15 Euro's at the box office or 13 Euro's if you buy online from the MADRIDFOTO website.

Looks like it could be worth a visit..

Marc Silber TV...

Marc Silber, a successful professional photographer is now interviewing many other professional photographers and hosting the video's for all to see, in an attempt to gather what is needed to take great photographs in various disciplines.

Apart from the gratuitous SanDisk advertising in each one, they are really quite interesting, plus it always helps to listen to a professional describe how he/she works.

Take a look at the latest videos here.

This months featured photographer...

For this months featured photographer, I had a hunt around for someone whose main work was in the field of macro photography, to try and provide some possible inspiration for next months theme.

The one that impressed me the most was Siprico, and judging by the number of comments he receives on his images on Flickr, I'm not the only one to think so.

Previous featured photographers:
April '10 - Lucie Debelkova
March '10 - Kent Mercurio
February '10 - Midnight-Digital
January '10 - Art Libre
December '09 - Ray maï
November '09 - *6261
October '09 - Vladimir Longauer
September '09 - LJ
August '09 - alex.alexander
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima

Unusual/Extreme Perspective...

What I thought would be a difficult theme with a low number of images, turned out to be easy for many of you with more than 30 images being presented. Well done to all of you.

Silvia and Ivan presented images for the first time, with Silvia's dramatic image of a tower in Aukland and Ivan's Fake Tilt/Shift of a village in Bulgaria going down well with the members attending the presentation.

Thanks to all of you for putting in the effort and presenting so many high quality images.

All the images are available on the gallery pages, so go and leave some 'thumbs ups' and comments if you feel so inclined.

Our next theme will be 'Macro'... so I hope to see another big turnout for all the images of little things... see you all in June for the presentation..!

5 Photographers a week for 100 weeks equals....

Pieter Weisse has come up with this great idea of show casing each working day a photographers work for the next 100 weeks building up a fantastic resource of reference material of 21st Century photographers. Check it out here...

Amazing images of Eyjafjallajokull volcano...

The Boston Globe have a fantastic gallery of 35 images from the recent Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in Iceland, well worth a look.

David Fokos...

David Fokos on Plum TV from clifford reese on Vimeo.
I came across David's work recently and being a fan of the long exposure and good old analog Black and White Photography, I thought he warranted a mention on our blog.

You can quickly draw parallels between his work and that of Michael Kenna and Josef Hoflehner and it was extraordinary to note that he can spend up to a hundred hours post processing each image, he appears to be an absolute perfectionist ensuring that every image that makes it into his portfolio is of the maximum possible quality.

His artist's statement is also very interesting with respect to his reasoning of why he does what he does :

"Using long exposures, ranging from 20 seconds to 60 minutes, I have worked with the camera’s unique ability to “average time” in order to examine and understand the mechanisms of human perception and to reconcile our differing subjective and objective views of the world.

I believe that our sense of experience is built up over time - a composite of many short-term events. For example, if you meet someone for the first time, your impression of that person is not a snapshot in your mind of the first time you saw that person, but rather a portrait you have assembled from many separate moments. Each time that person exhibits a new facial expression or hand gesture, you add that to your impression of who that person is. Your image of that person - how you feel about that person -- is formed over time, rather than upon a single expression or gesture.

Likewise, I believe that our impression of the world is based upon our total experience. For example, the ocean has always made me feel calm, relaxed, and contented. If I were to take an instantaneous snapshot of the ocean, the photo would include waves with jagged edges, salt spray, and foam. This type of image does not make me feel calm - it does not represent how the ocean makes me feel as I stare out over the water. What I am responding to is the underlying, fundamental form of the ocean, its vast expansiveness and the strong line of the horizon, both of which are very stable, calming forms.

With this series of images I have used the camera as a scientific instrument, the way a biologist might use a microscope or an astronomer a telescope, to reveal what is felt but often unseen."

The video also provides a unique insight in how he works and its always interesting to see a professional in action.

For more information and more of his stunning imagery you can check out his website.

Chase Jarvis and creativeLIVE...

Chase Jarvis has recently announced his latest initiative of offering training/workshops via a GoToWebinar environment completely free. You can watch any of the presentations free when they are broadcast live, if you would like to view missed presentations or keep them on you local hard drive then you have to pay.

There is a wide variety of topics from "Fundamentals of Digital Photography" though to "DSLR Cinema", plus many well known photographers and instructors such as Art Wolfe and Vincent Laforet involved.

You can also participate live in the class via GoToWebinar and twitter technologies.

I've seen a couple of the classes and there not too bad, and they are broadcast at reasonable times for the Europeans as well.

Anyway, watch the video above for a short overview and hop on over to creativeLIVE.com to see the current course availabilities and schedules.

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer originally from Prague, but now living in Kuwait, is Lucie Debelkova. Her travel imagery is absolutely wonderful and she has now visited 78 countries, so there is plenty of variety in her photo's too.

In her Flickr profile she explains her evolution with respect to her equipment choice, plus you should also visit her website which gives a bit more of an insight into what makes her tick.

As I know there are a lot of travel photography fans in the club, hopefully these images will provide further motivation and inspiration in your own images.

Previous featured photographers:
March '10 - Kent Mercurio
February '10 - Midnight-Digital
January '10 - Art Libre
December '09 - Ray maï
November '09 - *6261
October '09 - Vladimir Longauer
September '09 - LJ
August '09 - alex.alexander
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima

Jane Bown...

Whatever you want 2010...

We started the years presentation's with the usual 'Whatever you want' theme and 15 members presented a total of 43 images. Not a bad start to the year if I do say so myself.

As we have suffered a lot with the weather this winter there were a number of 'snowy' images, with this one by Debbie catching the presidents eye due to its composition and great usage of depth of field.

There was a fair variety of images presented as you may imagine, and the participation to the presentation itself was lively, with lots of discussion and questions.

As always, you can view all the images over on the gallery pages, where you are encouraged to leave comments on fellow members images, plus an explaination of your own, and don't forget to give a thumbs up to all those that you like.

Next theme is 'Unusual/Extreme perspective', until then... happy shooting !