‘Hard World’ by Sudipto Das / The Times of India
2007 Environmental Photographer of the Year and Urban Environment Category Winner
‘Waiting for the freeze’ by Ian R. Nelson
Changing Climates Category Winner
‘Pyramid of horses’ by Yvan Van Hoorickx
Arts and the Environment Category Winner
‘Alien Cave’ by Robert Eavis
Technology and Innovation Category Winner
‘Foraging’ by Stuart Meikle
Social Environment Category Winner
‘Child care ‘ by Nitin Khatri
‘Desert track’ by Marianne Louw
‘Desert trees’ by Rob Louw
‘Head in the sun’ by Philippe Moës
‘Local view’ by Felipe Balestra
‘Monsoon’ by Dhiman Bose
‘Retreat of the glacier’ by Manuel Arrebola Arévalo
‘Long autumn’ by Ly Hoang Long
‘Sign of the times’ by Matthew Atkins
‘Burnt’ by David Hoffman
So, my favorite photography contest has been finally announced:
CIWEM’s Environmental Photographer of the Year Competition, open to all professional and amateur, national and international photographers working with digital and traditional photography, opens the gates as follows:
CATEGORIES
Changing Climates
World of Difference
Quality of Life
The Natural World
DEADLINE: July 31st 2008
To enter: http://www.ciwem.org/awards/epoty.
The competition seeks to celebrate photographers who use their ability to raise awareness of environmental and social issues. It encourages entries that are traditional, contemporary, avant-garde, ironic, creative, experimental, subversive, subtle, strong, resonant, challenging, political, original and beautiful. But most of all, the competition celebrates the power of photography to inspire people around the world to start taking care of our environment.
The entries will be judged by some of the most respected environmental photographers in the industry, including Gary Braasch, winner of the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography, Anthony Epes and Ronnie Israel.
The competition is organized by CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management), so winners will have their winning work published in CIWEM’s international monthly magazine WEM, take part in a roving exhibition throughout the year and be showcased on CIWEM’s popular website. The overall winner will receive recognition as the international Environmental Photographer of the Year.
Individual pieces of work will be judged on impact, creativity, composition, originality and technical abilities as follows:
* Impact – does it illustrate immediate, subtle, strong or resonant messages?
* Creativity – is it unusual, thoughtful, beautiful, subversive or ironic?
* Originality – is the subject treated differently, is the subject matter new?
* Composition – consider the perspective, balance, clarity of meaning and focus of statement
* Technical Quality – consider clarity, focus, lighting and exposure, and colour
Under the motto “Your most impressive creations in 2007“, Carl Zeiss, the manufacturer of premium lenses started a photography contest.
In order to participate, the use of a lens from Carl Zeiss is obligatory for participation in the contest. Also, the images must be taken in 2007. A short, written description of how the photo originated is also requested. Deadline: 7 January 2008.
Upload your photos in one of the 2 categories:
* In the first category, photos can be submitted that have been taken with a Sony digital camera, a Nokia camera phone or a Logitech webcam.
* In the second category you can enter photos created with an SLR, rangefinder or medium format camera.
Winning and Prizes:
Decisive evaluation criteria are personalized composition and creativity. The prizes include a Nokia N95 8 GB, Carl Zeiss lenses and Carl Zeiss binoculars. All winning photos will be published on the Carl Zeiss website.
Details on http://www.zeiss.com/photo
I find the idea of a GPS Photo Finder quite interesting so here’s what I found out while digging around:
CA—ATP, a leading manufacturer of DRAM and flash memory solutions, recently introduced the ATP GPS Photo Finder, which is a portable photo accessory that allows for convenient geotagging of digital photos taken by any digital camera.
From now on, to all those friends and family members that ask me where I toked that killer shot, a precise answer will be given by this cute device. The ATP GPS Picture Tracker uses SIRF Star III GPS chipset for high accuracy and positioning, has 128mb of Flash memory, and will run for about 8 hours on a decent pair of AAA batteries. It only works with JPEG files.
What is really convenient about this GPS photo finder, is the fact that unlike other new solutions on the market, is universally compatible with any digital camera using jpeg image files, allowing users to geotag pictures from multiple camera brands and models, and can also be used on the go without the need for a computer. It is designed for use with Google Earth & Google Maps. Pictures can currently be viewed also using software such as Picasa which supports geotagging. The advantage in this case is that this software has a free version.
Aside from Picasa and Google Earth, you can use Geotagged images in enabled Satellite Navigation devices, and I’d imagine it would be incredibly useful for surveyors, architects, geocachers, or anyone else who needed to know exactly where they took their images at a later date.
How it works?
Plug in your camera’s memory card into the Photo Finder’s built-in card reader or USB port, and it automatically finds and tags your images without any additional software or hardware.
How and where to purchase?
The ATP GPS Photo Finder is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2008, price to be announced.
However, some review models were send around so here’s a nice and informative review.
In the previous DOF Tutorial I was telling you that Depth of field is influenced by three main factors: 1) Aperture, 2) Focal length, and 3) the distance to the subject. Now I will show you details about each of these factors.
1) Aperture:
The relationship between aperture and depth of field is quite simple:
A large aperture like f/2 gives a shallow depth of field.
A small aperture like f/16 will give you a large depth of field.
Let’s review the examples shown before:
F/1.4
F/5.6
F/16
So if you only want a small part of your image to be in focus, you should use a larger aperture like f/2 or f/4.
To have more of the image in focus, use a smaller aperture like f/16.
For the purpose of achieving depth of field, you will need to be able to control the aperture, and therefore I recommend shooting in Aperture Priority mode. In this mode, you can choose the aperture and the camera does the rest for you and chooses the appropriate shutter speed. If you are comfortable with choosing both shutter speed and aperture yourself, please feel free to shoot in Manual mode.
2) Focal length:
The second parameter that has an influence on the depth of field of a photo is the focal length of the lens you are using. The focal length of a lens gives an indication of the field of view that the lens covers.
A lens with a 28mm focal length for example, is called a wide angle lens and covers a big field of view. It allows to capture a whole landscape in a photo for example. 28mm is a short focal length.
On the other hand, a 300mm lens is a super telephoto lens and only covers a very small field of view. It allows you to zoom in and isolate your subject, like a flying bird for example. 300mm is a long focal length.
If you stand at a given distance from your subject and take a photo with a 28mm wide angle lens, the depth of field will be relatively large and many things around it will be in focus.
Now, if you take a photo of the same subject, from the same distance, but “zoom in” using for example a 300mm telephoto lens, then the the depth of field will be a lot thinner and the background behind your subject is more likely to be heavily blurred.
With a 28mm wide angle lens at F/4 both the bottle and the surroundings are sharp.
With a 200mm zoom lens at F/4 the bottle is sharp but the background is blurred.
What this means in practice is, that in order to get a shallow depth you should zoom in closer to your subject. To get a larger depth of field, zoom out.
3) Distance to the subject:
The third factor that will have an effect on the depth of field, is the distance to your subject – also called focusing distance – that we discussed earlier.
The rule is quite simple:
The closer you are to your subject, the smaller the DOF will be.
The farther you are from your subject, the greater the DOF will be.
From 3 meters away with a 28mm lens, everything is in focus.
With the same lens, but from only 20cm away the depth of field is shallow.
So in order to get a shallow depth of field, you should move closer to your subject. Moving away will help obtain a larger depth of field.
This is the reason why the depth of field is usually so thin in macro photography. Macro lenses have a specific mechanism that allow them to focus at only a few inches from the camera. This effectively creates very small depths of field.
On the contrary when shooting landscape photography, you’ll notice that if you focus on the infinite, the depth of field will be very very big, usually ranging from a few meters away to the infinite.
Summary: How to achieve the desired depth of field.
For shallow depth of field:
a) use a large aperture like f/2,
b) move closer to your subject,
c) zoom in and use a longer focal length.
For large depth of field:
a) use a small aperture like f/16,
b) move further away from your subject,
c) zoom out and use a shorter focal length.
Please do remember that you can, if necessary, use all three together. In other words, if you want to achieve a shallow depth of field, you can try using a large aperture. However, if that doesn’t give a shallow enough depth of field, you can in addition move closer to your subject and zoom in.
Here’s what captured my attention in December and had not yet had the chance to share with you:
Basic Course in Photography
Intro to Sports Photography Techniques
Learn photography online with PPSOP and Adorama
Strictly No Photography, Photos You Were Not Allowed To Take
The Myth of Photojournalistic Wedding Photography
Top five tips for indoor photography
The Art Of Non-Invasive Street Photography
A beginner’s guide to digital photography
Photography tutorial: Spontaneity in your people pictures
Contemporary Wedding Photography
Photo Tips for Christmas Lights
16 Inspiration Portrait Photography Techniques
Top Best 55 Photoshop Tutorials For Professional Photographers
How to Recreate Depth of Field in 7 Steps [Post-Production]
Photoshop Tutorial: Turning day into night
Professional Photography Equipment Guide
Top Deals On Digital Cameras
Advertising Photography – How To Mesmerise Your Audience
Take Incredible Self-Portraits
Tips for Photographing Outdoor Sculpture
Ultimate Time-Lapse Photography How-To
More Photography Tips on Christmas Photos
Beginning In Photography: Shooting In Low Light
Top 10 Photography for Real Estate Posts In 2007
Best street photography/photographers
If you have just purchased your Nikon D80, the controls on the outside of the camera coupled with all the menus and custom settings can be … all » downright overwhelming. We give you a structure for looking at the controls as well as a repeatable ritual for taking great photos with your new camera. You spent a bundle on this camera. Let it be an extension of your hands rather than a struggle. The Nikon D80 is a powerful piece of equipment. A solid understanding of its features and controls can really unleash its potential. Once you learn how the camera’s components work together, you’ll have all the tools you need to capture the best image under all conditions.
Understanding AF Area Selections Topics include:
• Be Prepared (To Get the Shot)
• Shutter Priority
• Aperture Priority/Depth of Field
• Focus Alternatives
• Metering and Bracketing
• White Balance/Color Temperature
• ISO
• Playback Options / Image Review
• Understanding Histograms
• Exposure Compensation
• Flash Overview
• Custom Settings
• Tripods and Telephoto Lenses
• Programmable Buttons
• RAW (NEF) Files
• Composition
• My Menus
• Bracketing versus Post Processing
• Shutter Priority to Achieve the Effect You Want
• Self Timer and Delay for Rock Solid Results
Take great pictures with your Nikon D80! All you need is this training DVD and about 93 minutes, and you’ll have the knowledge and the confidence to create the images you want. The topics are arranged in chapters, so you can move at your own pace, and return later to individual subjects.
