3 photo exhibitions worth seeing in Madrid

They are :

- Gabriele Basilico. Fundacion Astroc. Paseo de la Castellana, 56.
Architecture photography
- Jose M. Mellado. Blanca Berlin. Calle Limon, 28.
He is considered to be number 1 in digital photo in Spain. Photos of his travels to Cuba and Iceland
- John Baldessari. Pepe Cobo. Calle Fortuna, 39
Combination of human body, painting and sculpture

Hope you enjoy them,

Ruben

Photographic Competition in Madrid...

The Fundacion para el conocimiento madri+d has opened the Fourth edition of its annual Photographic Competition, this year titled "La ciencia en la ciudad, la ciudad en la ciencia" ("Science in the city, the city in Science").

Its open to everyone older than 16 and resident is Spain (i.e. no restriction on nationality).

Prizes go from 1500 Euros to the photo elected by the judging panel, to 600 Euros for the photo voted by the general public, down to 120 Euros for the 20 chosen finalists.

You can enter up to a maximum of 3 images (JPG format between 500kB and 10MB) which have to be sent in, no later than midnight on the 16th April.

The images will then be available for viewing on their web page and public voting will be open between the 23rd April and 19th May (This is where Jose Manuel's voting robot comes into play ;-) ).

Selected images will also be exhibited during the Science Fair at IFEMA between the 24th and 27th April.

The final results will be announced after the 22nd May.

You can find all the finer details here, and also take the opportunity to checkout the winners of previous editions of the competition so you can get at least get an idea of the standard. The image you see above was last years winner.

Sources of inspiration...

Icelandic Photographer Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson combines great landscapes, with impeccable technique and processing, plus oodles of talent to come up with a stunning set of landscape images sure to make all but the most critical go wow..!

If you enjoy landscapes, night photography and aurora borealis don't waste anymore time click here to see Örvars' flickr stream.

Canon launches European wide Photographic Competition...

Being as some of our members have had competition success in the past I thought you may like to know about Canons European photography competition called "The Assignment" which challenges photographers from all over Europe to enter their best images in the categories - Portrait, Landscape, Sport and Macro.

Each participant will be given the choice of competing nationally (only eligible to win Canon equipment) or internationally (also eligible to be selected to participate in the Assignment). Further details can be found in the press release below.

I didn't read anywhere that you could only use Canon equipment so I don't see why the Nikonians amongst us can't participate as well.

Pre-registration is required and has already been open since the18th February and closes on the 17th March after which you can upload your image, the competition itself running until 1st May.

Anyway, as I said before check out the press release below plus the website indicated to get up to date with all the details (and if you prefer it in spanish you can go here).... and above all.... good luck !

... and no, I won't accept entering this competition as an excuse for not presenting images at the club themes ;-)

Canon UK Press Release

United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland, 19 February, 2008: Canon is pleased to announce The Assignment, the European photography competition that is set to take the continent by storm. Pre-registration for the contest – which offers four overall winners once-in-a-lifetime prizes – is now open at http://www.canon-europe.com/theassignment.
Across 19 European countries, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK. The Assignment challenges amateur photographers to submit their best work in one of four categories: Portrait, Landscape, Sport and Macro. In every country, winning images will be selected by a distinguished judging panel from a shortlist created by online public voting; the winners will receive €2,000 worth of Canon EOS kit as a reward.
Each national category winner will also be judged against those from all other competing countries by the expert panel, chaired by award-winning reportage, portrait and travel photographer Vicki Couchman. The top two winners in Europe per category (Portrait, Landscape, Sport and Macro) will then be taken on a trip to Vienna, to experience the thrills of a match at UEFA EURO 2008™ before competing head-to-head in a photographic shoot out.
The final four European category winners will win the opportunity to plan, then follow their own personal ‘dream assignment’ – each of which will be filmed for broadcast across Europe later in the year.
“The Assignment will help amateur photographers across Europe to realise their ambitions,” said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging, Europe. “Canon EOS has revolutionised D-SLR photography, and with this high-profile competition we hope to inspire even more people to take up this rewarding, creative hobby.”
Pre-registration for The Assignment begins on 18 February at http://www.canon-europe.com/theassignment. Each registrant will gain free access to exclusive online video tutorials with head judge Vicki Couchman.
The competition opens on 17 March and runs until 1 May. Public voting ends two weeks later. For more information, visit http://www.canon-europe.com/theassignment.

more "What the Duck"...!

Question on macro lenses

One question:

I am interested in start playing with photography with macro, but the lenses are quite expensive considering it is just a trial. On the other hand I have seen in the web macro-rings, but don't know how easy or dificult to use they are, how they work and, the most importat, how good or bad the results are.

Any one with experience with them, any general hint, any one willing to give away his/her nikon macro?

Cheers

For Night Photography Fans...

Brendan Austin has finished a project called Darkspace which has been shot inside tunnels. A perfect example of how to make an exposure in difficult conditions and then how to present the results for maximum effect.

Should we plan a trip to the M-30 tunnels and give it a go ? ;-)

Anyway, for more Night Photography you could do no better that check out the blog of Andy Frazer who is an aficionado of after hours photography...

Clyde Butcher.. inspirational landscape photographer...

Clyde Butcher is a photographer that I admire not only for the beautiful images he takes, but also for his no nonsense approach to photography.

He never gets weighed down with technical issues, he keeps everything simple.

As you can see from the image above he uses large format camera's (that one looks like a 12x20 and thats in inches !). Only recently using digital technology to scan his negatives to produce inkjet prints along with his hand printed photo's.

If he can't find the equipment he needs, he builds it, he has no problems wading around the everglades completely oblivious to the snakes, mosquitoes and crocodiles. He's straight talking, unpretentious..... a real pioneer...

Have a look at this article over on 'double exposure' which gives a brief insight into the man.

Then if you want to find out more you can visit his own site here.

World Press Photographer of the Year Winners...

This image of a US soldier in Afghanistan was chosen over more than 80,000 other images to win the World Press Photo Contest for 2007.

'This image shows the exhaustion of a man – and the exhaustion of a nation,' said Gary Knight chairman of the judging panel.

Apparently this year more than 5,000 photographers entered.

All the images of all the winners can be found here.

PDN 'World in Focus' Winners...

PDN recently published winners of its 'Ultimate Travel Photography Contest' with more than 80 images showcased.

Images submitted were as diverse as Hammerhead sharks waiting to be groomed near Cocos Island, Costa Rica to a Solar Eclipse in the Libyan desert.

The contest was divided into six categories: Human Condition, Extreme Exploration, Urban Landscapes, Snapshots, Wilderness and Open Series.

As I know a lot of you enjoy travel photography, click here and prepare to be amazed.

Geometry Theme Presentation...

The club members got off to a strong start in 2008 with a total of 12 members presenting images for the 'Geometry' theme set late last year.

As we have come to expect the images presented covered a diverse range of subjects and idea's.

We also welcome Alberto and Raymond who presented images for the first time..



The discussion was lively and jovial and you really must come along even if you haven't presented any images as it really is a lot of fun, to look at, and hear the comments regarding the images, plus the off the cuff anecdotes of Jose Manuel.... and of course to see if I can get through a presentation without messing up the slide show.... :-)



All the images are on the gallery pages and please give your 'thumbs up' to the those that you most like.... remember it all counts towards the Yearbook content. Of course comments left on the gallery pages are also very welcomed.

OK then, next theme is 'Whatever you want 2008', presentation is provisionally set for 10th March... As you may guess this is a completely 'open' theme, the only requirement being that the image(s) must have been taken this year...

Thank you all for your participation, and if the way you all started is anything to judge by... this is going to be a good year for the club... hasta la proxima..!

Report: the ESAC photo club Nikon D80

I had the pleasure to borrow the club's new Digital-SLR, a Nikon D80 over the holiday period. It was my first hands-on experience with a single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera. In principle anyone can start using it without any prior experience by selecting the AUTO mode (or one of the selectable scenes: portrait, macro, night, landscape). For me this worked pretty well in most circumstances. In fact, it became quickly evident that the basic quality of the images is already better than your average point-and-shoot compact.

Compared to a point-and-shoot the Nikon is quite heavy and I was forced to use a tripod in low light situations (which I would normally never have thought about! ;-p.



The focal ('zoom') range for the current lens (18-44mm) is not very large but it is quite sufficient for first use.

After a few hundred pictures (mostly taken in RAW format, which I now need to post-process. more on that experience later) I tried using the semi-manual functions (P,S.A on the program dial). This I found quite a challenge. To get a better feeling for aperture/shutter-speed combinations and the effect on e.g. you depth of field (blurring of background) you can use the depth-of-field preview button located on the front of the camera.

Competition success...

Congratulations to Manuel and Jose Manuel (again !) who recently both got second place in Photo Competitions with their respective companies Deimos and INSA.

The image above from Manuel show locals crossing the river to go to the Sunday Market in Kashgar, China...

And below from Jose Manuel is the road leading to Monument Valley, USA...

As always you can view all the images from club members by clicking the link over on the top right of the blog...

Our first book is published ....!

As you probably all know already the club has published what we hope will be the first of many books representing the images of its members.

Congratulations to José Manuel for getting the cover image with the 'most popular' photo of 2007.

If anyone would like further copies you can order them directly from Blurb in either hard or soft cover editions.

Thank you all once again for your efforts this year, because without you all we could not have achieved what we have... you should all feel very proud of yourselves...

The Marlboro Marine...

Mediastorm have their latest presentation of the effect that the Iraq war has had on Marine Lance Corporal James Blake Miller.

The presentation documents both his time in Iraq and his coming to terms with what he did and saw upon his return home. Plus the coming together of a soldier and photojournalist under extreme circumstances...

Autumn Theme Presentation...

Although not with as many images as normal (maybe the cold weather starts to take its affect), we battled against a badly focusing projector and blindless window to present our latest theme 'Autumn'.

There was plenty of lively discussion with the two images you see here generating the most comments regarding composition and post processing technique.

As a side note, we also got plenty of good resturant recommendations from José Manuel and I finally got to use my slideshow software.

Anyway, all the images in their glory can be found on our galleries webpage, please go and take a look and if you like any of them click the 'thumbs-up' symbol that appears when you hover your mouse over the image, so we can all see what are the most popular images.

You might want to check back on your own images as well, as since I have taken the password off the site, we have started to receive comments from outside of ESAC !

So... next theme is 'Geometry' and you get a break over Christmas as well, hope to see the number of images presented next time back to full strength.....!

6 Billion Others...

Yann Arthus-Bertrand of 'Earth from Above' fame, has put together this very interesting project which aims to create a sensitive and human portrait of the planets inhabitants.

More than 6000 interviews were performed in 65 countries where people were asked for there concerns regarding family, their experience, what made them laugh or cry and what gives life meaning etc...

Its absolutely fascinating to see and hear the thoughts of ordinary people from around the world. Yann states "The idea came to me while we were taking the shots for "Earth from Above" in Mali, one day when the helicopter was out of action. The pilot had gone and I was waiting for him in a little village where I started to have a discussion with someone. I stayed there the whole day, In the evening, by the fireside, that man I'd been talking to told me his entire life, his desires, his wishes, his ambitions - they could be summed up in four words - "to feed my family". In spite of the poverty, the drought, I still thought I understood the whole situation. But in fact I didn't have a clue until that man put it to me, just like that, looking me straight in the eye, not complaining, not asking me for anything. That meeting changed me, it changed the whole way I see the world..."

6 Billion Others....... take a look...

'Antartica: The Global Warning' recently won 1st place in the book category of the 2007 International Photography Awards.

What looks like a stunning body of work, also contains a message of the affect that man is having on his own planet. This one goes on my shopping list for future book purchases.

Check out the website as well you won't regret it....

printer for photography

Hi there

Maybe this is not the channel for this, but I'd like to get some advice from you. I plan to buy a printer basicly for printing pictures, though I'd like to use it as a general purpose printer as well. Could you give me any advice about it? (models, things to be taken into account, etc etc). I'd like to learn about colour calibration and so on too, any hint?
I know printing you holiday photos at home is not a good idea, but still I'd like to work on some specific pictures and get a nice printout, what implies some trial and error etc etc you'd better make at home.

All your ideas are welcome!

Thanks

Ricardo

Star gazing......

There is a lot of information regarding Astrophotography on the web, but this article recently posted on Naturescapes.net I find particularly interesting as its a very good place to start your investigation into this potentially exciting aspect of photography...