The Art of Photography Show 2008 is a world-class international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art — images shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, photograms, etc. The Art of Photography Show will be exhibited at the two-level Lyceum Theatre Gallery, a perfect venue for exhibiting a large showcase of awesome photographic art.

The online entry process is very easy, simply filling out a short registration form and then uploading your JPEG image files. Due to numerous requests for a little more time, we have extended the entry deadline to March 3rd at 11:59 pm (California Time).

Entry Fee: $25 for the first entry, $10 for each additional entry. There is no limit to the number of entries an artist may enter. Artists who entered work in any previous Art of Photography Show or the Art of Digital Show will receive a $15 discount towards the Art of Photography Show 2008.

$1,000 1st Place Award
$ 800 2nd Place Award
$ 600 3rd Place Award
$ 400 4th Place Award
$ 200 (11) HM Awards

This is the fourth year of this annual photographic exhibition. Approximately 20,000 people are expected to view the Show during the four-week run at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery. One of our key aims is to sell the work which is exhibited at The Art of Photography Show. Additionally, we will be pursuing a vigorous marketing and publicity campaign, to bring maximum media attention to the artists who are juried into the exhibition. Our great love of this art form (and being photographic artists ourselves) prompts us to ‘pull out all of the stops’ in order to showcase a truly excellent presentation of photographic art, to elevate and promote this art form, and to provide substantial benefits to the exhibiting artists.

More details and participation

Articles that caught my attention in February:

30 Photos That Inspired Me to Learn Photography
Industrial Photography
Night Photography Tips for DSLR Users
Make the Best of Bad Weather – 6 Challenges for Photographers
Sports Photography – How to Get Inspired with Photography
4 Steps for Choosing Your Next Lens
Photography before Photoshop
An Introduction to Pinhole Photography
Photography fair avoided stereotypes

I finally found an article with very good examples of infrared photography.

When these infrared filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, very interesting “in-camera effects” can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the “Wood Effect.”

The effect is mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow. Chlorophyll is transparent at these wavelengths and so does not block this reflectance (see Red edge). There is a small contribution from chlorophyll fluorescence, but this is extremely small and is not the real cause of the brightness seen in infrared photographs.

Source

The Photography Prize worth £30,000 is awarded annually to an international photographer who is judged to have made the greatest contribution to photography over the previous year. This year’s finalists are John Davies (UK), Jacob Holdt (Denmark), Esko Männikkö (Finland) and Fazal Sheikh (USA). Founded in 1996, the Photography Prize has become one of the most prestigious international arts awards.

This year’s shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize shows a welcome shift of emphasis. Whereas 2007′s nominees had rather intimidating, introspective themes, this year each of the artists has flung his net outwards with a keen, almost evangelical fervour, to create social observations which make full use of photography’s talent for conferring beauty on the ordinary. Walking around this exhibition, you begin to feel optimistic that these works herald new ambitions for the medium.

John Davies (b. 1949, UK) has been nominated for The British Landscape at the National Media Museum, Bradford, UK (13 October 2006 – 4 February 2007). His panoramic black & white photographs, taken between 1979 – 2005, document the changing post-industrial British landscape.

Jacob Holdt (b. 1947, Denmark) has been nominated for his publication Jacob Holdt, United States 1970 – 1975, published by Steidl GwinZegal, Germany (2007). In the early 1970s, Holdt spent five years hitchhiking across the US, living with and documenting the lives of the people he met – from the poorest Southern sharecroppers to some of America’s wealthiest families.

Esko Männikkö̈(b. 1959, Finland) has been nominated for his retrospective Cocktails 1990 – 2007 at Millesgarden, Stockholm, Sweden (1 September – 4 November 2007). A portraitist of isolation, Männikkö documents with great humour, warmth and integrity the lives of those who inhabit the periphery.

Fazal Sheikh (b. 1965, USA) has been nominated for his publication Ladli, published by Steidl, Germany (2007). Sheikh is an artist-activist who uses photography to create sustained portraits of different communities around the world.

Exhibition Catalogue:
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008 exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, edited by Stefanie Braun. The catalogue includes a short story by Riikka Ala-Harja inspired by Esko Männikkö’s work, a fictional response to John Davies’ photographs by Sarah Hall and essays by Dr Caroline Blinder and Mary Warner Marien contextualising the work of Jacob Holdt and Fazal Sheikh.

Featuring wild birds photos from Danube Delta – Romania. Enjoy the beauty of my country!






And some other wildlife from Danube Delta:

In this second week of “photo critique” I received 3 wonderful images. Let’s see them.

Ieva Miltiņa

Technical Aspects

This is an instant portrait with a good natural lighting. I would have preferred a more shallow DOF. The fingers are out of the photograph so this not technically correct. Everything else (contrast, colors, white balance, sharpness) is ok. I notice some warm tones over the image but I like this. The image looks sharp, which is important from my point of view. White balance is good: the white is neither bluish nor yellowish.

Visual Aesthetics

It’s important for an image to be quick, instant, natural, but in this case, the position of the mouth is not exactly a pleasant one. I notice that the pattern of her clothes goes well with the pattern formed by the windows at the back. The message transmitted by the image is clear: the morning cigarette on the balcony (or something like that). The eyes look beautyfull and every detail on the face of the model look very good.

Technical Aspects

This second portrait is much better in my opinion. I am very pleased with the composition, sharpness and DOF.

Visual Aesthetics

I love this natural smile, I love the coloring, the tones, the softness of the image in overall and the sharpness over the eyes. It really catches me. What I don’t like is the position of the watermark. It’s disturbing and I would have rather placed it in some corner. This image is worth to be featured in some magazine.

The other 2 images will be commented next week.

Adrián Mihálko

Technical Aspects

Even if there is an obvious underexposure, this image is a good example of exception from the rules. I noticed, in the high resolution image, that there is no noise but some pixelation in the shadows area, probably because there was some noise reduction applied. Nothing wrong with that – it’s not very visible. The image is rather soft than sharp but in this case it’s the right thing for entering the atmosphere of love.

Visual Aesthetics

Kudos for making a creative picture! Originality is much appreciated. The image creates a special mood and I’m sure this will make a great gift for someone special. I like the idea that the light forms a hearth while entering the darkness. Maybe you can consider duo-toning the image since there are some green and blue pixels there that don’t make much sens. Great job!

Do you want your photo to receive a critique at photoaxe.com? Send your image at laurentia.fr[at]gmail.com and next week your photo will be commented here.

Step by Step:
Increase the dynamic range of a RAW image by creating two exposures in Camera Raw and then merging them together in Photoshop.

Functions:
• Shooting Modes: Program AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Speed Priority AE, Manual Exposure
• Movie Mode: MOV format, H.264/AVC, IMA-ADPCM (stereo); 640 × 480 (30 fps); 1920 × 1080 (FHD HQ/FHD Normal, 60 fields per second), 1280 × 720 (HD LP, 30 fps); 512 × 384 (300 fps), 432 × 192 (600 fps), 336 × 96 (1200 fps)
• Effects: Date and Time, Calendar, World Time
• Flash Modes: Auto, Flash Off, Flash On, Red Eye Reduction, External Flash
• Focus Modes: Auto Focus, Macro Mode, Infinity Mode, Manual Focus
• White Balance: Auto WB, Daylight, Overcast, Shade, Day white FL, Daylight FL, Tungsten, manual WB
• Metering: Multi-pattern, center weighted, spot by imaging element

Technical Data:
• 2.8-inch LCD + 0.2-inch electronic viewfinder
• 6 megapixels
• 12x optical zoom + 4x digital zoom
• Focal Length: 7.3 to 87.6mm/Approx. 36 to 432mm
• Aperture: F2.7 (W) to F15*5 (W), auto switching
• ISO Range: Auto, ISO100, ISO200, ISO400, ISO800, ISO1600
• Flash Range: Approx. 1.64′ to 34.12′ (W), approx. 3.61′ to 20.67′ (T)
• Focus Range:
Normal: Approx. 15.75″*2 to infinity (W)
Macro: Approx. 1.97″*2 to 19.69” (W)
Manual: Approx. 1.97″*2 to infinity (W)
• Exposure Compensation: -2EV to +2EV (in 1/3EV steps)
• Continuos Shooting: High speed Maximum is 60 frames per second; Flash Maximum is 7 frames per second
• Shutter Speed:
Auto: 1 to 1/2000 second
Aperture Priority: 1 to 1/2000 second
Shutter Priority: 60 to 1/40000 second
Manual: 60 to 1/40000 second
• Self Timer: 10 seconds, 2 seconds, Triple Self-timer
• File Format: RAW (DNG*1), JPEG (Exif Version 2.2)
• SD – Secure Digital memory
• Rechargeable lithium ion battery (NP-100)
• Dimensions: 5.03 (W) x 3.13″ (H) x 5.12″ (D)
• Weight: 23.67 oz

Functions:
• Shooting Modes: Auto, Manual, Picture Stabilization (Anti-blur), Movie
• Scene Modes: Natural Light, Baby, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Beach, Snow, Fireworks, Sunset, Flower, Party, Museum, Text
• Movie Mode: 640 x 480, 320×240 pixels, 30 frames/sec. With monaural sound, AVI format (Motion JPEG)
• Effects: Slide show, Trimming, Single frame, Multi-frame playback, Sorting by date, Image rotate
• Flash Modes: Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro
• White Balance: Automatic scene recognition, Preset (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light)
• Metering: TTL 256-zones metering

Technical Data:
• 2.5 inch LCD
• 8.2 megapixels
• 3x optical zoom + 5.1x digital zoom
• Focal Length: 6.2mm – 18.6mm, Equivalent to 35 – 113mm on a 35mm camera
• Aperture: F3.2 – F5.2 (Wide) / F4.8 – F8.0 (Telephoto)
• ISO Range: AUTO / Equivalent to ISO 64 / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600
• Focus Range:
Normal: Approx. 40cm / 1.3ft. to infinity
Macro: Wide angle : Approx. 15cm / 6in. to 40cm / 1.3ft., Telephoto angle: Approx. 40cm / 1.3ft. to 80cm / 2.6ft.
• Shutter Speed: 8 sec. to 1/2000 sec. (depends on exposure)
• Continuous shooting: Top 3
• Self timer: 10sec. / 2sec. delay
• File Format: JPEG (Exif Ver. 2.2)
• Internal memory (Approx. 8MB), xD-Picture Card (16MB – 2GB), SD/SDHC memory card
• NP-45 Lithium-ion battery
• Dimensions: 91.0(W)x55.0(H)x22.0(D)*4 mm / 3.8(W)x2.2(H)x0.9(D)*4 in.
• Weight: 110g / 3.9oz.

Functions:
• Shooting Modes: Auto, Baby mode, Picture Stabilization, Red-eye Reduction, Digital Zoom, Portrait, SP (Scene Position), Movie
• Scene Modes: Landscape, Sport, Night, Natural Light, Beach, Snow, Fireworks, Sunset, Flower, Party, Museum, Text, Manual
• Movie Mode: 320×240 pixels, 30 frames/sec. With monaural sound, AVI format (Motion JPEG)
• Effects: Slide show, Trimming, Single frame, Multi-frame playback, Sorting by date, Image rotate
• Flash Modes: Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro
• White Balance: Automatic scene recognition, Preset (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light)
• Metering: TTL 64-zones metering
Technical Data:
• 2.7 inch LCD
• 8.2 megapixels
• 5x optical zoom + 6.9 digital zoom
• Focal Length: 6.2mm – 31mm, Equivalent to 37 – 185mm on a 35mm camera
• Aperture: F3.2 – F5.2 (Wide) / F4.8 – F8.0 (Telephoto)
• ISO Range: AUTO / Equivalent to ISO100 / 200 / 400 / 800
• Focus Range:
Normal: Wide angle : Approx. 40cm / 1.3ft. to infinity, Telephoto angle : Approx. 60cm / 2.0ft. to infinity
Macro: Wide angle : Approx. 5cm / 2.5in. to 80cm / 2.6ft., Telephoto angle : Approx. 50cm / 1.7ft. to 80cm / 2.6ft.
• Continuos Shooting: Shutter Speed: 1/4 sec. to 1/1500 sec. (Auto mode), 4 sec. to 1/1500 sec. (All other modes)
• File Format: JPEG (Exif Ver. 2.2)
• Internal memory (Approx. 12MB), xD-Picture Card (16MB – 2GB), SD/SDHC memory card
• NP-40N Lithium-ion battery
• Dimensions: 95.6(W)x55.4(H)x23.0(D) mm / 3.8(W)x2.2(H)x0.9(D) in.
• Weight: 141g / 4.9oz.