This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is Maxi, who I assume is from the north of Spain.

To be honest I couldn't find out anything more than the obvious fact that he is a very good surf photographer.

Enjoy...!

Previous featured photographers:
October '10 - Gary Newman
September '10 - Martin Stranka
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

HDR Video - FACT or FICTION?

Right, I'm going to sneak this in before Neil takes away my posting rights... this one aimed at the videography wing of the club. Maybe some of you saw this when it rolled up on Slashdot a few months ago:



Now if you happened to have a pair of 5Ds and a beam splitter lying around the house I guess you could do this at home if you had enough patience. But I have to say that it does really look quite unreal. The clip of the man just looks like he's just lost a fight with a bag of icing sugar.

I think we've just trained to see pictures and film in a certain way and it will take some time to untrain our brains to accept HDR as soemthing which corresponds to our perception of the world.

A Challenger Appears

TalkUrbex is one of the sites on the urban exploration scene that caught my attention; a mainly British group of borderline lunaticsintrepid explorers who spend their free time mooching around decaying asylums, hospitals, factories and military bases.

Much of their time is spent into and around places with unsafe floors, walls and roofs, without much light to see with and all the time playing Hide and Seek with security guards and/or police. However they are also pretty decent photographers. Their shots are shooped to hell and back and they do appear to have an indecent love of HDR pictures but there is a pretty stark beauty to their work.

There does appear to be similar Spanish scene, for example Rutas Abandonadas has a nice showcase of locations (it appears that the Vicente Calderon does not qualify yet but surely just a matter of time).

Holidays 2010...

Always a popular theme and this year was no exception with almost 40 images presented.

Once again the club members have travelled far and wide with images from Iceland, Cuba, Patagonia, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Holland, Spain and the list goes on.

Daniel and Marion presented images for the first time and below you see the epic 'man conquers mountain and satiates his thirst' shot from Daniel and a clever shot from Marion with the jet aircraft contrails mimicking the bridge supports.

Above you will see Celia's iceberg image which drew a lot of comments from the spectators.

If you want to see more (and I can't believe you don't...) head on over to the gallery pages to check out all the images. And whilst your there if you feel like leaving some comments and giving some thumbs up, it's always greatly appreciated.

Next theme is 'Landscapes', so, until then...

Happy shooting..!.

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is Gary Newman, who is from Bristol in the UK. Most of the photo's on his Flickr stream have been taken in the Bristol and West Country area.

As you can see he dedicates his time to landscape and cityscape imagery and there really is a great collection of inspiring photographs.

Enjoy...!

Previous featured photographers:
September '10 - Martin Stranka
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

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 !

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer originally from Guam, but now living in San Diego, is Kent Mercurio with, amongst many others, his wonderful landscape images very reminiscent of Micheal Kenna and Josef Hoflehner.

A master of the use of film and long exposure with a number of different medium format camera's, spend sometime browsing his Flickr stream or his webpage, it's well worth it.

Previous featured photographers:
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

The Man Who Shot the Sixties...

THE MAN WHO SHOT THE SIXTIES from CHRIS DUFFY on Vimeo.
Brian Duffy one of the 'Terrible Trio' of British photographers from the sixties, probably not as well remembered as David Bailey and Terence Donovan, is often considered the more talented. After deciding to 'chuck it all in' he took most of his negatives from his studio and burned them before leaving photography completely to pursue other activities.

Recently his son Chris has put together what remains of his father photographic legacy and also staged Duffy's first exhibition in decades. The video above is absolutely fascinating as Duffy explains his entrance into the photographic world and features people like David Bailey and Joanna Lumley who explain what he was like all those years ago. It's almost an hour long but well worth a view.

More details about Brian Duffy can be found on his website here.

Yearbook 2009 published...

As you already know, our yearbook has finally been printed and most of you have already received your copy.

The yearbook has increased once again, this time from 160 to 200 pages. With a new style cover which shows all the images presented in all the themes throughout the whole of 2009.

You will also see a blurb badge on the top right of the blog, just in case you would like to buy more copies for friends and family (just click it and it will take you to the shop). There is also a 'book preview' with a selection of images to give an idea of what the books about.

As always, thank you all for contributing and making the club the success that it is, we could never really hope to produce this book if it wasn't for your enthusiasm and participation in the club activities...!

Club 'Themes' Poll...

Poll will close on the 10th February...

NatureScapes Images of the Year 2009...

NatureScapes has just posted its 'Images of the Year 2009'.

Follow this link to see all the winning images.

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is Chris Dessaigne a.k.a Midnight-digital, he has a very complete profile, a part of which I include below for you to get a feeling about what sort of art he produces :

"Christophe Dessaigne is a French artist who lives in the south of France, in a small town called Perpignan, near Spain on the Mediterranean coast. His creations are open doors to fantastic and dreamy horizons where digital photography serves the fanciful imagery of surrealist photo-montages. His universes are desolate, vast and insubstantial. Gigantic scaled structures rule the landscapes, dwarfing human beings to the size of ants. His post-apocalyptic kingdoms, equally poetic and terrifying, are visions of the end of the world. His work has appeared in cover art book and CD covers in Europe, and has recently been featured in Advanced Creations and PSD Photoshop Magazine. His photographic visions are invitations to remote and chimeric territories. A travel into a mysterious journey."

Previous featured photographers:
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

Hand-held Macro Photography...

Since the club recently purchased a macro lens for its members. I thought that this article recently published on the well known Naturescapes website maybe of some interest.

Crying Wolf...

Jose Luis Rodriguez has had his title of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year removed, after the judges re-convened on evidence that the wolf which appeared in the winning image was not wild but indeed a trained one available for hire.

The wolf apparently called Ossian was allegedly photographed at Canada Real Open Center near to el Escorial.

The photographer denies that the wolf was hired for the shoot and states that he wasn't even there when the photograph was taken, as his camera setup was activated with infra-red triggers.

Further information can be found on various news sites (BBC & el Mundo).

There are many debates on many Nature web boards of the impact of this decision both on the integrity of the competition and nature photography in general. I'm not going to comment on any of that, but looking at Jose Luis' work you have to say he is a very talented photographer indeed (Pbase galleries, Mirada Natural galleries and his personal website).

Sun Bouncing....

Amongst some of the clubs recent purchase's was the Sunbounce MICRO-MINI PRO with flash bracket. This light, fast to assemble reflector, can be used with both available light and with flash to direct the light exactly to where you want.

The material for the reflector is white on one side and a mix between gold and silver
on the other (see image below), which produces a wonderfully warm light, like that found at the beginning and end of the day, without being too over the top.

I hope to get more of these products for the club in the future, especially the SUN-SWATTER and BOUNCE-PRO, which means you can effectively work in the midday sun and still produce wonderful images, something that's no very easy to do in Spain with its unforgivingly harsh midday light.

Also, take a look at the video above where Bert Stephini of Squeeze the Lime fame, gives us a more light hearted look at the MICRO-MINI's many uses.

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is one of the more popular groups on Flickr, this 'invite only' group has many fine art images covering the colour, B&W and alternate processes genres.

Happy New Year to all of you and enjoy the images..!

Previous featured photographers:
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, and our last for 2009, is Ray maï or Rémi Tinel and he is from India, he say in his profile that photography makes him go out and meet people, saving him from a selfish life.

As you will see from his photostream his favourite subject is street portraiture and his images are full of emotion and are often heart wrenching to look at.

He was recently featured on Spotlight Seven if you would like to learn a little more about what makes him tick.

Previous featured photographers:
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

Scary and amazing...

Cooliris... cool software...

Cooliris is one of the simplest and fastest way's to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop.

You can effortlessly scroll an infinite "3D Wall" of your content without having to click page to page. It will handle Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Kodak Gallery, smugmug or any supported site.

You can get the browser plugin from here.

Animal Kingdom...

As much as the club members enjoy taking holiday photo's, it seems they equally enjoy animal photography.

Forty-four images were presented, with a wide range of interpretation of the theme.... cats where a popular subject and land, sea, air and cuddly animals were all covered.

Nicolas presented for the first time and we welcome our newest member to what hopefully will be a photographically fruitful future...

Above you see Nico's wonderful reflection image of a swan gliding smoothly down the Danube (made you look twice didn't it !) and Baerbel's exquisite butterfly image full of melting pastel colours and a testament that film certainly is not dead.

As always the rest of the images can be viewed on the gallery pages, please leave comments and click those thumbs-up on all the photo's that you like.

As this was the last theme for 2009 the members can now take a well earned rest and just leaves me to say a big thank you to all, for your enthusiasm and participation which I hope will continue at their high levels in 2010.

One in 8 million...

The New York Times has a fascinating feature called 'One in 8 million' which is an oral history project in which a different individual among New York City's 8 million residents is profiled each week of 2009. The criteria chosen by the NYT to profile subjects is "Interesting person. Great talker. Never before mentioned in the NYT."

Its a fascinating series with a mixture of human interest stories with great photo reportage.

You can check out all the featured New Yorkers here and if you want to know some more background regarding the whole concept take a look here.

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is 6261 or TEIKO she is from Japan and has a real talent when it comes to creating wonderfully atmospheric images.

She still uses film and from what I can see Rolleiflex, Pentacon and Hasselblad camera's.

Her Flickr stream is well worth a visit...

Enjoy...

Previous featured photographers:
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 Vladimir Longauer a Slovakien who now resides in Dublin, Ireland.

Looking at both his Flickr and DeviantART galleries, you'll see a wonderful mix between landscape and portrait photography, a lot using shallow depth of field effects and something he calls 'tilt' where he deliberately puts the lens on his camera in crooked manner !!

He has also been featured in Issue 14 of Blur e-magazine (previously known as Bulb) and you can find his personal website here.

Enjoy...

Previous featured photographers:
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

One for the iPhone users...

You may remember Chase from previous blog entries, and he continues to innovate with his latest application for the iPhone. I'll let Chase explain what its all about in his video above... you should porbably check out his blog for further details and also his new iPhone image sharing site at thebestcamera.com.

He's certainly not one for letting the grass grow under his feet !!

Dan Winters...

"People aren't gonna remember the things you do, there gonna remember how you made people feel..." says Dan Winters in his video where he describes his photographic process and the motivation behind both his work and approach to photography.

Its good to hear the emotional side behind photography and not just the technical chit-chat that we are endlessly bombarded with.... very refreshing indeed...

If you want to know more about him you can check out his web site here, and these articles at strobist and FLYP.

Chema Madoz...

Chema Madoz is a master of changing the ordinary into something sublime and unexpected... Just where does he come up with all his ideas... amazing..!

Holidays 2009

Look like the club members really enjoy holidays.... and REALLY enjoy showing off their photo's....

We had almost 50 images to go through in what was once again, a couple of hours of wonderful stories of holiday adventures, mixed in with a good smattering of photographical tips and techniques.

The members have once again travelled far and wide with a full range of photo's to be appreciated from landscapes to sunsets and travel reportage to the comical...

Above you see a wonderful sunset taken by Toni and below a contrasting image from Bjoern with sublime muted colours and tones...

We only have one more theme before its time to start putting together the book for this year... So I look forward to another high level of participation to close the year perfectly....

As always please go and check out the gallery, leave comments and give your thumbs up to all those photo's that you like...

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is Lee Jeffries who goes under the flickr name of LJ.

His specialty, as you will see, is street portraiture that goes from being candid to heart wrenching.

I couldn't find too much out about him, but he has his own web site here and looks like he does a lot of charity work for the homeless as well.

Enjoy...

Previous featured photographers:
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

Zuckerman on Wisdom...

Andrew Zuckerman always looked up to his elders and identified them as the ones having answers to many of life's questions....

Using this as a motivation for a personal project... he travelled the globe to photograph and interview 50 significant personalities from the world of politics, art, religion, music, fashion, film and TV... all of whom are 65 years old or above.

The result is the book 'Wisdom' with an accompanying DVD documenting all those wise words on subjects as diverse as Love, Work, Environment, Conflict and of course... Wisdom...

There are some wonderful videos on his website for the book here... don't forget to look at the ones regarding 'the making of' as well just to see the enormity of the project he took upon himself and to get some insights into why he chose to shoot it the way he did and just how much equipment he needed to achieve the look of all the images.

.... and for more information on his other projects check out his personal website here...

zemotion....

Zhang Jingna (张晶娜 aka zemotion) is a 21 year old photographer from Singapore who has had a meteoric rise to fame after trying out photography only 3 years ago.

This former International Air rifle champion always liked the idea of becoming a photographer and in the same year as picking up a camera won the 'Singapore Master Photographer of the year 2007'...!

She has already worked for the likes of Mercedes Benz, Ogilvy & Mather, Pond's, Wacom, Architecture International, Harper's Bazaar, L'Officiel and Cleo.

Plus launching her photobook 'Something Beautiful' in 2008.

She is also very active on all the major photographic websites such as Flickr and deviantArt.... and even has time to run her own blog and personal website... which is really quite impressive..

Her work which is predominately fashion orientated shows a maturity beyond her years and includes many self portraits. The overall effect is very cinematic and the retouching all being done by herself as well.

It really is worth while checking out her images in further detail...

This months featured photographer...

This months is another anonymous photographer from Flickr, whose mastery with the Hasselblad 500 I find mesmerising along with his subject selection and shallow depth of field techniques....

Here is what he says in his flickr profile :

'What lenses or cameras do I use? Does it really matter?
Is it all about your creativity, skills, self expression, originality and ART?

It's more than just an idea to please your eye, isn't it?

Should your work reflect your personality and style?

What makes you wonder around in one spot for few hours on some rainy Wednesday with a hope of capturing an extraordinary person or moment?

What is the meaning of my photographic quest?'

Enjoy...

Previous featured photographers:
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima

Wise words on pet portraiture...

The Five Biggest Photographers on the Internet...

Photo District News (PDN) have an interesting article where they attempted to identify 5 photographers that they think dominate the 5 most popular photographic platforms; those being blogging, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

They also tried to ensure that they were photographers only known for their online work.

Very interesting read and don't forget to look at the comments as well... personally I think the list is a little short at five and heavens know why facebook and twitter are considered to be photographic platforms..!......

.....and they should have looked at smugmug as well, for sure we would have got a mention.. ;-)

Anyway, take a look at the article here on the PDN website.

Clay Enos and Street Portraiture...

Above is an interesting video which would have come in handy while preparing for the 'People' theme recently.

Here we have Clay Enos showing how he sets up a street studio then invites passers by to have their picture taken.

You can see more of his work on his website here.

He's also the photographer behind all the images for the film 'Watchmen' by the way.

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is falsalama, couldn't really find out a lot about him other than that he is an English photographic artist currently living in Tokyo.

However, what you will find in his Flickr stream is some absolutely stunning street and portrait photography...

Enjoy...

Previous featured photographers:
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima