Photographer Captures Wacky Facial Expressions on His Dog

Photographer Andy Seliverstoff over St. Petersburg, Russia, has been working on a heartwarming photo project that will put a smile on your face, particularly if you're a dog lover. It's titled, "Little Kids and Their Big Dogs."

If you're in the market for a high-end full-frame camera, chances are good the Canon 5D Mark IV, Sony A7R II, and Nikon D810 are all contenders. Check out this side-by-side comparison if you're having a hard time deciding which of the three is best for you.

Fine Art photographer Lucas Zimmermann's long exposure photographs of traffic lights in the fog are oddly satisfying. At once creepy and serene, his 2013 series Traffic Lights and this month's follow-up Traffic Lights 2.0 are both worth checking out.

Magic Lantern may soon release their most popular feature since RAW video. A few of the folks who constantly improve the Canon software add-on have just found a way to generate 14-bit lossless DNG RAW files in-camera!

Artists have long used the golden ratio as a guide for creating aesthetically pleasing art, as it's believed that the human brain is hardwired to find the proportions inherently beautiful. Take a look at the work of legendary photographer Ansel Adams, and you may find the golden ratio tracing out many of their notable features.

If there is one genre of street photography I specialize in, it is street portraiture. I love talking with my subjects, engaging with them, and focusing on their faces. If I started shooting street portraits all over again, this is the advice I would give myself.

Ever wonder what the difference between an F-Stop and a T-Stop is? If you've never bothered to look up and understand this bit of light transmission trivia, listen up: this simple video does the work for you.

My original 52 Week Challenge in 2016 was a huge success, with tens of thousands of photographers participating from around the world. In celebration of those who have completed the first challenge, a new challenge is now here!

Apple has just announced its latest generation of Macbook laptops. In the week that marks the 25th anniversary of the company's first notebook, Apple is trying to redefine the modern notebook again with the introduction of a new "Touch Bar" secondary display above the keyboard.

Peter Thoshinsky joined the San Francisco Police Department back in 1982. After serving as a cop for 31 years, his career in the department took a major turn: he became the official "historical photographer" for the SFPD.

One woman just received a big lesson on how NOT to treat photographers, and one photographer is being praised for how she handled an extremely difficult client.

When photographer Tamás Szarka of Budapest, Hungary, takes his down Strawberry for walks, he often brings a camera to capture the 6-year-old boxer's crazy facial expressions as she sprints around.

Have you ever asked yourself what the best focal length for your first (or your next) prime lens should be? If you use mostly zoom lenses, Adobe Lightroom may be able to help.

Burhan Ozbilici's stunning photo of a gunman moments after assassinating the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov spread like wildfire over social media. While many within the photojournalism community quickly declared the image as the "photo of the year," and worth of top prizes, one voice offered dissent.

Brides magazine recently published an advice article titled "Essential Questions You Need to Ask Your Wedding Photographer," and some of the "pro tips" may raise eyebrows among wedding photographers.

We recently shared the story of a photographer who had hard drives containing virtually all her professional work stolen from her home shortly before Christmas. If you don't want this type of devastating data loss to happen to you, look into the 3-2-1 strategy of backups.

Complaints are starting to surface online from iPhone 7 and 7 Plus users who are experiencing serious issues with their new smartphone's camera. So if your iPhone cam has been showing a black screen, generating strange tinted photos, or experiencing unfounded 'overheating' issues, you're not alone.

Milan-based filmmaker David Drills made this short film titled, "Master of Camera". It's a beautiful 2-minute portrait of Gian Luigi Carminati, a 76-year-old man who has spent his entire working life repairing cameras.

Another year has come to a close. As we wrap up 2016, here's a look back at the 10 most popular posts published on PetaPixel over the past 365 days.

Sphere is a new lens that's designed to turn any DSLR camera into a 360-degree camera. It captures a full 360-degree view horizontally and a 180-degree field of view vertically.

Source: Photographer Captures Wacky Facial Expressions on His Dog

Photographer of the Day: Stephanie Stafford

Vanelli Robert Vanelli (Vanelli to his friends) is a working photographer, educator and author living in Florida. After a successful career as a three-time, Triple Crown Karate champion, Vanelli turned his attention to teaching the visual arts. As an experienced educator, Vanelli has created several photography and digital workflow programs including Click for Kids.

Currently he is teaching workshops, writing for Photofocus and creating tutorials for various plug-in companies and for the Vanelli and Friends series.

You can find out more about Vanelli at www.VanelliandFriends.com

Source: Photographer of the Day: Stephanie Stafford

303 Magazine’s Best Photos of 2016

The photographers at 303 Magazine are curios, adventurous, always looking for the most interesting person in the room. 365 days have passed since we put together our last "best of" for their work and it never gets easier to grab just a few for you to see. Below are some of our favorites, but to see more make sure to keep reading and follow us on Instagram.

Colorado is home to the most beautiful, intimate and historic venues in the world. Our photographers are lucky enough to shoot them on almost a nightly basis. From major national acts to small local bands, we have covered it all this year. Get a photographic glimpse of our highlights then make sure to check out our music Instagram dedicated to just our best music photography at @303Music.

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Denver is full of interesting people, each with their own story. From Lumberjacks, musicians, chefs and fashion shakers and movers, 303 photographers were there to take their photos.

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303 photographers captured images of historical buildings, an ever expanding and changing skyline and the unique architecture that Denver has to offer.

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We're convinced the D in Denver stands for delicious because, as you see, we ate a lot of tasty (and tasty looking things) this year. From incredible desserts to plates popping with color, these photos will undoubtedly make you drool. So grab a napkin and get ready to feast your eyes on the best food photos of the year. 

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From the high fashion on the runways to the cool and casual street style, and a few fashion editorials in between, we worked tirelessly to showcase all angles of Denver style. Plus, designers all over the city proved this year they would not be confined to just fabric with many using everything from paper, hair and feathers to create incredible masterpieces. 

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Source: 303 Magazine's Best Photos of 2016

Powerful photos visualize slow creep of climate change in Louisiana

Virginia Hanusik?s everyday images tell the story of a changing coastline Climate change presents photographers with a unique challenge; how to instantly capture the massive impact of an incremental, slow-moving phenomenon. In Louisiana, one camerawoman believes she can help tell that story through detailed, real-time images of the state?s slowly sinking coast.Virginia Hanusik?s photo project, Backwater, came from her desire to capture the impact of climate change on urban and coastal Louisiana without resorting to cliches. By snapping pictures of homes and landscapes in the Delta region, an increasingly vulnerable area that?s always had a close relationship with its shifting waterways, Hanusik wants to show the impact of sea level rise and shifting sediment, and how residents and communities are dealing with the challenge (some have even begun relocation efforts).?I?m really focusing on buildings and infrastructure as symbols of larger issues,? she says. ?It?s not about photograp hing after a major flood or a storm. Those are powerful images, don?t get me wrong. But I?m more focused on daily life.?

Home Overlooking Lake Martin near Breaux Bridge, LA

Beginning of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, Norco, LA

Hanusik, who grew up in New York?s Hudson Valley, became intrigued with the subject after her work in coastal reclamation and water management for a New Orleans-based startup accelerator exposed her to the state?s unique relationship with rivers and the Gulf. The channeling of the Mississippi River and decades of government projects meant to tame and shape waterways and coastal land?as well as the slow impact of climate change?have sped up erosion, making the Louisiana coast both a unique place to study, as well as a representative sample of what other areas are experiencing in a slowly warming world.?It became a personal endeavor for me to understand and visualize these complex issues of coastal restoration and s...

Fuente de la noticia: curbedFecha de publicación: 28-12-2016 21:50visto: 0

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Recommended Video section of our Architecture videos - Watch More Videos in Architecture videos  
Source: Powerful photos visualize slow creep of climate change in Louisiana

The Ice Caves of Apostle Islands. USA

Favorite winter holidays are in full swing, so let's talk about a winter natural miracle – about so cold, but amazing place on the earth. Imagine that every winter thousands of tourists and photographers rush here – to the Apostle Islands on the Lake Superior, in order to see incredibly beautiful views of the frozen caves!

This phenomenon is quite rare, so the tourists visit these places every day to catch the icy landscapes, and photographers make truly unique photos. And they are not afraid to take pictures of the enormous icicles hanging from the vaults of the caves. During severe frosts, these caves are particularly fabulous and resemble the palace of the Snow Queen. Those who wish to see the caves with their own eyes need to overcome approximately half a kilometer across the ice off the coast of Lake Superior in Cornucopia, Wisconsin, to the Apostle Islands. At the northern edge of Bayfield County, Meyers Beach you will have an opportunity to witness the lake's miracles. Try to get here rather early to find a place in the parking lot (along Meyers Road and one side of Highway 13).

Centuries of wave action, freezing and thawing, have sculpted the coastlines of the islands of Lake National Nature Reserve. Before freezing, the waves wash the cliffs of rocky islands covering them with ice coat. Frozen waterfalls inside the caves, breaking and crumbling in different places, form fantastic ice arches, where the icicles hang from the ceiling like the garlands. It is necessary to keep the thickness of the ice cover under control to ensure a complete safety for the tourists. Rather changeable weather, the wind and the waves often make the ice unstable, but the number of those wishing to see the ice caves is not getting smaller.

The beauty of the caves is unique and is constantly changing, which means that the scenery will always be different, and will never cease to amaze. Nature always creates a new landscape of ice formations, so if you visit the ice caves every year, you will never remain indifferent or frustrated, every trip will present you new and exciting surprises.

Part of the most spectacular scenery of the Great Lakes is located in a place where the waves interact with sandstone of the Devils Island, forming extensive sea caves. Thin arches, vaulted chambers and freaked passages in the cliffs on the north coast of the Devils Island, on the Sand Island and along the mainland near the western boundary of Lakeshore are worth it to come here.

Before coming here, you should be completely prepared. Wear sturdy waterproof boots in order to prevent slipping on the ice. It is recommended to take a ski pole as well as to wear ice cleats on the boots. Of course, you should wear warm clothes, because of the low temperatures. Beware of falling stones and ice around the rocks and caves, do not stand under the icicles when the temperature drops. Do not risk if the ice conditions are unsustainable. Avoid cracks in the ice, even on the coldest days. You may call the Apostle Islands Ice Hotline at 715-779-3397 Ext. 3 and know the current ice conditions.

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Source: The Ice Caves of Apostle Islands. USA

Aerial Photos of Wildfire Victims Lying in Their Burned Down Homes

As each new year approaches, people usually start thinking about what they can do better or improve in the new year. As a professional landscape photographer, I thought it would be fun to give some tips to people starting out with landscape photography.

Brazilian photographer Ricardo Stuckert recently had a helicopter flight diverted due to a storm, but the change in plans led to a set of remarkable photos: Stuckert spotted and photographed an uncontacted Amazonian tribe.

When it comes to cameras, I'm something of a minimalist. Slap a great sensor behind a fixed focal length lens and let me go shoot—the limitations won't upset me, they'll challenge and delight me.

My name is Sam Vox. I am a freelance photographer from Tanzania. I became a full-time photographer because of my Instagram account. In this post, I'll share how I grew my Instagram account without using any online services.

If you were to ask me about a specific time in my life when photography made a significant impact, I would say the fall of 2011. For my birthday, my husband surprised me by taking me out for lunch at a tiny burger dive, and then stopping in at the local art museum. He's not exactly an "art-lover" per say, so I was a little confused by the move... until he explained what they were showing.

Christmas is often called "the most wonderful time of the year," but for one Canadian photographer, this year's holiday season has been anything but. On Christmas Eve, Johany Jutras returned home and found that burglars had stolen her precious backup hard drives and photo archives.

I covered an event some months ago over a period of a few days during which, as you can imagine, many hundreds of photos were taken. Due to the popularity of this event, (we've covered it over a number of years, thankfully) I knew the folks that were a part of it were really going to be anxious to see, share, print, etc.

Toronto-based photographer Peter McKinnon created this short video that shares 8 clever, quick, and easy camera hacks in the span of about 90 seconds.

Prior to January 22, 1987, Associated Press photographers were given a choice of shooting B&W or color film on photo assignments. But on that day, something happened that caused AP photographers to switch to shooting every assignment in color: it was the suicide of American politician R. Budd Dwyer.

Just before sunset a few days ago, a gorgeous double rainbow appeared over the San Francisco Bay. I happened to have a fisheye lens attached to my camera, so I ran outside and snapped the shot above.

The Taiwanese company STC Optical has created a slide-in filter for Canon and Nikon full frame DSLRs that can reduce light pollution in astrophotography. It's called the STC Astro-Multispectra Clip Filter.

There is a big craze for Sony full frame (FF) mirrorless cameras at the moment, and seeing people rush onto that bandwagon is like watching lemmings following each other over the cliff.

Famous photographers throughout history have produced some incredible images that have stood the test of time, but it's not only their photographs that are inspirational. Their acute insights into the creative process have guided generations of photographers and shaped the way even today's best photographers think about their subjects and scenes. If you're stuck for inspiration, or even motivation, we've put together 50 quotes from the most inspirational and talented photographers the world has seen to help you get your mojo back.

After sharing his 8 camera hacks in 90 seconds, Toronto-based photographer Peter McKinnon is back again with another helpful video for beginners. In the 6-minute one above, he shares 5 basic tips that can help you instantly improve your photos.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I wonder, what else do "they" say? In order to find out I've culled together the best quotes on the subject of photography. I hope they inspire you.

Many years ago when I was a starry-eyed undergrad I would ask every photographer I came across the same question: "How do I take better photos?" 
 I was extremely lucky to have many talented and generous photographers take me under their wing to show me the ropes. Without their valuable advice there is no way I would have become the photographer I am today. 

 Ironically, the number one question I now get asked as an Open producer is "How do I take better photos?" 

 So along with some tips that I've picked up over the years, I've recruited some outstanding snappers across Australia to share their own secret techniques about how they take their photos to the next level. 



Canon's next entry-level full-frame camera might not have a mirror box. A new rumor is claiming that Canon's first full-frame mirrorless camera will spell the end of the 6D series so as not to cannibalize the company's entry-level full-frame user base.

One hundred and nineteen dollars. That's it. That's all you need to open a door to a world of photography previously known only to the most extreme DIYers and commercial photographers for whom purchasing decisions are usually made for them by client requests.

Photographers are a narcissistic breed. Not me, of course, but my colleagues are. We've got profiles on dozens of websites and we must tell the world what we are doing at our jobs every day and in real-time -- we just have to. It's compulsory.

Industrial designer and photography enthusiast Jordan Steranka wanted to design an elegant and flexible wrench that could be adjusted to a wide range of diameters, so he turned to the world of camera lenses. His concept "Aperture Wrench" is what resulted.

Source: Aerial Photos of Wildfire Victims Lying in Their Burned Down Homes

The 4 Stages Of Getting A ‘Perfect’ Shot Of Your Kids

You can dress them up in adorable coordinating clothing and illuminate them in the most optimum lighting. You can use the fanciest camera money can buy. You can have an arsenal of creative props and the most spectacular location and recall a million cute poses you saw on Pinterest.

But when it comes to capturing a group photo of your kids, it's a total crapshoot (no pun intended!). There's a reason pro photographers are so in-demand, and it's this: Trying to get a good picture of a gaggle of kids is about as pointless as man-nipples. Unless you're a trained professional, photographing kids is mostly just an exercise in frustration, and it typically goes something like this…

You start out with the best of intentions. They look so cute! Look at those adorable outfits and that freshly-combed hair! This is going to be such a good picture. You're going to Instagram the crap out of this. Or maybe you'll get a great new Facebook cover photo. Or both! You call them over and tell them you'd like to take their picture. You artfully arrange everyone, ignoring the fact that they look less than thrilled. You are upbeat, hoping your cheerfulness will rub off on them and they'll have the happy, glowing faces you envision. They're holding the pose! Yessss! This is gonna be the best photo ever.

You prompt them to smile, but then encounter your first problem: One or more of them is making the "picture face." You know the one — the over-exaggerated smile/grimace hybrid that looks like a deer in headlights, a constipated deer. You tell them to look more natural. "But not that natural," you say to the one who takes that as a cue to make his face all droopy. OK, he finally looks normal. Everything looks good. Let's do this!

You raise the camera to capture the perfect shot, but wait, it's out of focus. By the time you push a few buttons on the camera (and utter a few choice words), someone has either 1) stood up, 2) started fighting, or 3) decided to look everywhere but where they're supposed to be looking. By this time, their composure is crumbling fast. As soon as one is re-posed, another pops up, like a game of whack-a-mole.

Everybody's patience is ebbing away, especially yours. Your voice gets that "edge" to it when you say things like:

Smile. Smile. Smiiile.Scoot in closer. Closer. (most often accompanied by wild waving of one hand)He is supposed to be touching you.No, your brother does not stink.Come on, you guys. Look right here.Look at me.Look. At. Me.Stop making that face.Stop pinching.Stop looking so disgusted.Seriously, just let me get a picture. Please.We'd have been done hours ago if you'd just stand here and smile like a normal human being and look at the camera for two seconds and can we PLEASE! JUST! GET! A PICTURE!

Your visions of that perfect photo have faded, and now you're just on a mission to capture a shot where everyone's eyes are on the camera, and no one looks like they're drunk. You've abandoned the hope of having them maintain the cute pose, and settle for them all being clumped together closely enough to fit into the frame.

Instead of "cheese," they ask if they can say "buttholes," and you're too tired to care — at least it makes them smile naturally. You take a million photos in rapid succession in the hopes that one just might be at least kind of decent. You finally tell them you're finished, because you're so over it, at which point they scatter to the four winds like dry leaves.

And when you finally scan your weary way through the camera roll, deleting the ones that are blurry or otherwise unacceptable, you realize with dismay that your very best shot ended up looking something like this:

But you put too much effort into getting the photo to delete it. You decide to post it anyway and pretend like you weren't actually trying to get them to pose, like you didn't just spend 10 minutes failing to arrange them.

You can always caption it, "LOVE capturing these candid photos of the kids!" for good measure.

Source: The 4 Stages Of Getting A 'Perfect' Shot Of Your Kids

Photographer of the day: Jeff Clouet

Category: Street.

Photograph: "x-stairs" by Jeff Clouet (username "Jeff Clouet" on Flickr).

Originally shared on the Photofocus Flickr community right here.

Why I picked this image: 

This street photo by Jeff Clouet stands out by its symmetry. The escalators form interwoven X's while the tiles form a mesh of squares and rectangles. The black and white processing works the symmetry and contrasts out nicely.

This photo is also full of human elements that breath life into the image. Take a close look at the individuals and see the stories behind them. Are they interacting with someone? Are they shopping or on a lunch break? Or do you see the woman who seems to have noticed the photographer? I enjoy looking closely at images like this and would love to see it as a big print on a wall.

Have you ever tried to take a pleasing street image wth many people in it? Give it a try and find the stories what people in this fleeting moment may be doing.

To learn how your work can be featured on the site, please read this article.

Marco Larousse Marco Larousse is a fine art street and documentary photographer, a teacher, writer and speaker of photography related topics - MarcoLarousse.com. Marco has a background in photography of 30+ years.

Marco's approach to photography is "reduce to the basics and focus on the story and the subject." Growing up with the limitations that film photography has taught him, he still enjoys the basic approach to photography today. For Marco the camera is a tool and a mere extension of his instincts.

Marco is the producer and co-host of the Photofocus #Inspiration and #Mirrorless podcasts episodes.

Contact Marco on twitter @HamburgCam

Latest posts by Marco Larousse (see all)
Source: Photographer of the day: Jeff Clouet

Year in Review: China through foreign photographers' lens

People walk on a sightseeing platform in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, August 1, 2016. The image has been named one of the Pictures of the Year by Reuters. [Photo/Agencies]

Editor's note:

Nothing captures a moment like a photograph. Whether it's a historic or inconsequential event, after a while we forget the details: the names, the story and sometimes even the place. But what we do remember is the image.

Here we walk down memory lane to see how some of the best foreign photographers viewed China in 2016.

Source: Year in Review: China through foreign photographers' lens

Beautiful Adventure Photography by Eric Bunting

Eric Bunting is a talented 25-year-old self-taught photographer from Minnesnowta, USA. Eric focuses on landscapes, travel, nature, portrait and lifestyle photography. "Exposed to the outdoors at an early age he fell in love with exploring every aspect of our natural world. He now strive to share his passion for the outdoors through his photography and adventures."

"There's no better time than now. Don't hesitate. Don't wait. You never know what you may find"

Fox Island Alaska

Girdwood, Alaska

Hope, Alaska

Incredible view in Seward, Alaska

Kenai Peninsula

Lost Lake Seward Alaska

Península de Kenai

Seward, Alaska

Zion National Park

More info: instagram / facebook / website

Source: Beautiful Adventure Photography by Eric Bunting

This ‘Goodnight Moon’ Parody Pokes Fun at the New MacBook Pro

Swedish photographer Tomas Jönsson has taken and shared two photos with what he claims is an unreleased Nikon D7** full-frame DSLR. They're low-light photos so utterly unbelievable that, if they are indeed legitimate, they mean Nikon has an incredible ace up its sleeve.

Canon's next entry-level full-frame camera might not have a mirror box. A new report is claiming that Canon's first full-frame mirrorless camera will spell the end of the 6D series so as not to cannibalize the company's entry-level full-frame user base.

We've seen some interesting DIY flash diffusers, but I can't remember ever seeing someone use a blown up balloon. Which is a shame, really, because it's a cheap and effective way to soften your pop-up flash, or even a small speedlight.

Following up on their incredibly popular experiment attaching a GoPro to the end of an arrow and stabilizing the spinning footage, the guys over at Corridor Digital decided to step it up for their next try. This time, Sam and Niko launched the GoPro out of a high powered air cannon.

AP photographer Burhan Ozbilici is a photojournalist incredibly dedicated to his job; so dedicated, in fact, that he kept on taking pictures when a gunman shot and killed Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey. The photos he captured have instantly risen to iconic status.

It's become something of a YouTube tradition for photographers. Every December for the past 3 years, The Camera Store TV hosts get together to reveal their picks for best and worst camera gear of the year... while getting drunk.

I ditched my DSLR in favor of an iPhone back in 2012, well aware of what I was giving up. But I love to travel light, and by using the iPhone as my only camera, I could get rid if the heavy and bulky backpack with all the lenses and stuff.

We've seen our fair share of strange, voyeuristic, and sometimes ethically questionable photo and video projects, but this one tops the list. After having his phone stolen, film student Anthony van der Meer hatched a plan: he had another phone stolen on purpose, and then followed the thief around for weeks using a hidden app.

Over on Instagram, there's a guy who goes by "Kirby Jenner" who has attracted over 440,000 followers with cleverly Photoshopped photos. For each photo, the guy humorously inserts himself into a photo of celebrity Kendall Jenner.

Nicky Bay is a Singapore-based photographer who captures the beauty and diversity of insects in Singapore's rainforests through macro photography. He made 46 trips out into the wild in 2014, capturing tens of thousands of photographs and sharing thousands of photos online.

Image sharing site Dronestagram is no Instagram, with its 600 Million users, but the drone-specific social network does contain some of the best aerial photography on the Internet. And today, they revealed their 20 best drone photos of 2016.

Macro photography on the cheap usually involves reverse lensing or buying some affordable extension tubes for your kit. But what if there was an extreme macro lens out there that was also extremely affordable? Enter the ZY Optics 20mm f/2 4.5x Super Macro Lens.

I know that for a lot of people, the cold keeps them inside, but it can be really rewarding to go out in the bitter cold. Tonight I got the bug to go out and shoot, but the air temp was -15°F (-26°C), with a windchill of -30°F (-34°C).

Tag along with photographer Manuel 'Manny' Ortiz on a recent trip to a snowy park with his favorite portrait subject (his wife), favorite portrait lens (the Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM), two speedlights, and the new a6500 mirrorless camera to see what this pint-sized shooter (the camera, not Ortiz) can do!

When it comes to cameras, I'm something of a minimalist. Slap a great sensor behind a fixed focal length lens and let me go shoot—the limitations won't upset me, they'll challenge and delight me.

Ouch. The DJI Mavic is one of the most adored drones released in 2016, and why not? It's small, it's fast, and it captures beautiful footage. But is it durable? Can it survive being sprayed with water, rammed into walls, walloped with basketballs, and set on fire? Let's find out!

It's not every day you get to experiment with new forms of media. We have seen astonishing new ways to move the camera from drones to gimbals which can push the boundaries of photography and videography.

Toronto-based photographer Peter McKinnon created this short video that shares 8 clever, quick, and easy camera hacks in the span of about 90 seconds.

Once Syria's largest city, Aleppo has been the worst-hit city in the country since the Battle of Aleppo began in 2012 as part of the ongoing Syrian Civil War. Now a series of before-and-after photos reveals just how much the once-vibrant historical city has been marred by war.

The above photo is taken at 28mm at f/11 on an ancient Minolta 28-85mm lens, the focus was set to about 2.5 meters and according to the depth of field scales everything should be in focus... but it isn't.

Source: This 'Goodnight Moon' Parody Pokes Fun at the New MacBook Pro

AP photographer who captured moment assassin killed ambassador was not assigned event

The photographer who took the haunting picture of the Turkish assassin standing next to the sprawled out body of a Russian ambassador recalled the chaotic shooting and how he was not even assigned to attend the gallery opening in Turkey's capital.

"I decided to attend simply because it was on my way home from the Ankara office," Burhan Ozbilici, the photographer for The Associated Press, wrote in a first-person essay Tuesday.

But the photograph Ozbilici took Monday of Mevlut Mert Altintas and the dead ambassador landed on the front pages of major newspapers across the world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and New York Post.

The picture was as brutal as it was simple: Altintas, 22, a Turkish policeman, is seen in a dark suit holding a gun and yelling. The body of Andrei Karlov, his target and the Russian ambassador to Turkey, is seen on the floor. Everything is white and sterile: the walls, the floor. There is no trace of blood.

"Don't forget Aleppo, Don't forget Aleppo. Those who have a part in this atrocity will all pay for it, one by one," he yelled, it was later reported.

Video from before the shooting shows Altintas lurking behind Karlov in front of the new exhibit called "From Kainingrad to Kamchatka, from the eyes of travelers." Altintas appeared calm and -- while Karlov spoke -- stepped off to the right. Altintas was still in the frame when he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a small gun.

He opened fire. Karlov was hit several times and fell. The horrified audience ran for their lives; some found refuge behind nearby columns and others lunged behind tables. Ozbilici, however, managed to take pictures of the killer and disregarded the old adage: If you can shoot him, he can shoot you.

"This is what I was thinking: "I'm here. Even if I get hit and injured, or killed, I'm a journalist. I have to do my work. I could run away without making any photos … But I wouldn't have a proper answer if people later ask me: "Why didn't you take pictures?"

While newsrooms across the country have cut back budgets on photo desks, photojournalists have played pivotal roles in conflicts ranging from Iraq to Syria.

Matthew McDermott, a photojournalist for more than 20 years who covered the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2005 earthquake in Haiti, said photojournalists often have one thing in common: they are adrenaline junkies.

"You're in this moment," McDermott said, "and you know there's a chance for bodily harm, but that's all secondary. You're there to take the shot."

McDermott said photojournalists are also often pressured by their editors to come up with the picture.

"If you're bosses know you were there, you better not let someone beat you," he said.

Rick Shaw, the director of Picture of the Year International, told FoxNews.com that Ozbilici's photograph was outstanding.

"Photojournalism is a balance between photography as an art form and journalism, which is content-related," he said. "Any photograph that reaches the highest level for both is an exceptional picture."

Shaw went on to say that individual news organizations often will identify at what point a photographer stops covering an event, but said during breaking news, the decision is ultimately up to the photographer.

"Conflict photojournalists are in this situation two to three times a day," he said. "But it's not until something like this happens that we are awakened to these photographers' responsibility and danger."

Edmund DeMarche is a news editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EDeMarche.

Source: AP photographer who captured moment assassin killed ambassador was not assigned event

Mobile 'clothesline gallery' a hit with Gaza's young generation

Mahmoud "Ezz" al-Zanoun displays his photography for Gaza children, November 2016. (photo by Diya al-Masri)

Author: Ali Dolah Posted December 19, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An exhibition of works by photographer Mahmoud "Ezz" al-Zaanoun has been traveling around the Gaza Strip since Sept. 25, starting at the Beach camp. However, his images depicting a Gaza most people never imagine aren't hanging on the walls of a gallery or museum, but on clotheslines strung in the alleys of the poorest and most populated refugee camps in Gaza and in neighborhoods devastated by war with Israel.

Summary⎙ Print Freelance photographer Mahmoud "Ezz" al-Zaanoun brings moments of joy to Gaza children with exhibitions of his photos on his mobile clothesline gallery. Author Ali Dolah Posted December 19, 2016

TranslatorJoelle El-Khoury

Under the banner "Arts Are Not a Business," Zaanoun goes to devastated areas and marginalized camps to affirm that the arts are the best tool for delivering the message to Israel that Palestinians have a love for life and can use the simplest of tools to create joy.

For his exhibits, Zaanoun enlists the help of local Palestinian children to attach regular clothesline to the sides of buildings and walls and hang his photos from them. After they finish the installation, the children take a closer look at the images, and Zaanoun explains the details of each one, such as where and how they were taken, and answers the children's questions about them.

"I have been taking photos for 10 years, but I have never taken part in any exhibitions in Gaza, nor have I posted them on social media, like photographers usually do," Zaanoun told Al-Monitor. "I do not want my photos to be exhibited in private galleries like other photographers, as only a certain class of people visits them. I wanted them to be pinned on clotheslines to allow the largest number of people to view them."

Zaanoun also said, "I wanted the photos to be different from the traditional ones filling social media pages and to show the beauty of the Gaza Strip, distant from the reality faced by the citizens. I have always wanted to visit marginalized and devastated places and hang photos taken with my simple cameras on clotheslines just like wet clothes are pinned to the lines."

Through his "simple" tools, Zaanoun believes he shows the world that a person can make something out of nothing. His photographs convey love and hope for life, despite its difficulties, and the sorrow and pain that the residents of the besieged Gaza Strip face daily.

Zaanoun likes to take pictures of nice scenes from Gaza, showing its bright sides, to send to the world the message that Palestinians deserve to live free and decent lives filled with love and joy.

"There are plenty of beautiful things around us, which we should be looking out for by opening our eyes to them," Zaanoun explained. "What I offer differs from that of other Gaza Strip photographers, as I focus on natural scenery, the sunset and reflections of light on water."

Through shots representing life and hope, Zaanoun reveals the rarely imagined side of Gaza. "I tried to be unique with photos reflecting the sunset and showing children on bicycles and people playing in the sand at the seashore. Also, the photos were taken from a low angle to be flattering."

The photograph that gets everyone's attention shows a Palestinian bride in an alleyway of a camp amid photos of natural landscapes, a sunset, the sea, photos of young men taking selfies, children on a boat and others in a car. Zaanoun's photos reflect an attempt to overcome the harsh reality of Gaza.

Zaanoun explained that through his mobile exhibitions, he is trying to help children living in poor and devastated areas escape the psychological pressure they are under. He shows them pictures of places different from those where they live, teaches them about photography and releases their hidden talent and spirit by allowing them to use his cameras to snap photos themselves.

Mohammed Mustafa, 12, was surprised at the photos he saw hanging on the walls near his house one day as he returned from school. He saw beautiful outdoor scenes of Gaza for the first time. Having been focused on a boat in a photo displayed in the Beach camp, he told Al-Monitor, "These photos are very interesting. I do not want the exhibition to end. I want to continue to enjoy looking at these photographs that show the beauty of our city."

Rahaf Hamdan, 13, was preoccupied with Zaanoun's camera, holding something in her hands that she had previously only seen on television but had always dreamed of having. Hamdan asked if Zaanoun would be coming back, so she, along with her classmates, could again hold a camera and take photographs like his.

Zaanoun exhibited photos in mid-October in the Jabaliya camp, in mid-November in the Nuseirat, Bureij and Maghazi camps and is preparing an exhibition for mid-December in the Rafah camps. Zaanoun said he also plans to give photography lessons to children, seeing how it positively affects them psychologically, helping them overcome the scars of life in Gaza and its wars.

Zaanoun has won several awards for his work, including the 2013 Best Humanitarian Photography Award at an Arab photography exhibition sponsored by Dar Safi Publishing in Washington. In 2014, one of his photos reflecting the reality of women in Gaza won first prize in a contest sponsored by the Arab Cultural Association in Finland. He also won the Anadolu Agency's Best Photo of the Year prize in 2014 for his photo titled "Struggle for Survival in Gaza."

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/gazan-photographer-exhibition-clothes-lines-refugee-camps.html

Source: Mobile 'clothesline gallery' a hit with Gaza's young generation

Brave firefighters prevent a catastrophe

Theses images were caught by Express photographers Jim Runkle, Spencer McCoy and Phil Mapstone of firefighters attacking the early-morning blaze at the vacant furniture store building at 37 Bellefonte Avenue in downtown Lock Haven on Friday.  Amid bitter cold, take note of the firefighters on the ladders, manning the spray guns, while their colleagues stay at the bottom of the hydraulic-powered ladders watching them as they're enveloped by thick smoke and icy mist.

Source: Brave firefighters prevent a catastrophe

Street Photographers Get 'eXposed'

Work of many talented street photographers in San Francisco is being recognized at The Harvey Milk Photo Center. The exhibition includes 52 works of 28 street photographers, with all images captured within San Francisco, California. The exhibition was the brainchild of David Christensen, the Director of the Harvey Milk Photo Center. A group member, CJ Lucero, brought the group to David's attention and, after having reviewed the images from the SF Facebook page, he became determined to present the work to the public. The groups' administrators then labored over several months to put together this amazing show: that team included Michael Kirschner, RE Casper, Denis Englander, and James Watkins.

"People see these moments all the time and say to themselves, 'I wish I had a camera'. We're the guys with the camera." SF Street Photography Groups President Michael Kirschner 

"eXposed" is the name of the exhibit taking place now through January 22, 2017.  A selection of San Francisco Street Photographers work will be featured at the esteemed Harvey Milk Photo Center. Street photography is considered one of the toughest genres of photography, capturing a unique moment that will never happen again, and cannot be reset. By tapping into the emotion of the subject in a fast moving urban environment with an abundance of people, buildings, cars, trains, and uncontrollable lighting is incredibly challenging and rewarding.

Street photography, in general, has such a range of emotion, I'd imagine in a bustling city encompassed in 49 miles, there is a lot to cover! The rough realities of living on the streets mixed with the high profile business women and men all mixed together in this vast metropolitan jungle make for a big range of visual representation. 

Street photography groups like these are all over the US and exist in cities of all sizes, this group started in 2013 and engages photographers of all levels to share and engage with each other. Combing their work experiences and wisdom with each other, it offers great benefits to the members and let's be honest, sounds like a lot of fun! James mentioned to me that sometimes you end up shooting alone and other times you'll have a small group gathering to stroll the streets together.

When asked what must have gear piece is with him on all his shoots James says his Tamrac Stratus 15 Shoulder Bag, exclaiming that it has lots of capacity for his street photo needs. Also, being a hip shooter, he finds his two-axis hot-shoe bubble level to be an indispensable piece of equipment. You just snap it onto the camera's hot shoe and you can keep that camera reasonably level in those times when you're not looking through the viewfinder.

On how this group got its start and the purpose it serves, James Watkins says

​By undertaking this exhibition, we trying to sustain our group's effort to bring together a diverse community of visual artists dedicated to documenting and preserving photographic images of life in the City of San Francisco. In doing so, we hope to do our part to promote the continued growth and public appreciation of street photography.

All images used with permission from SF Street Photography Group.

Group Website: http://sanfranciscostreet.photography/

Facebook Page (where it all started):  https://www.facebook.com/groups/sfstreetphotography/

Source: Street Photographers Get 'eXposed'

mark neville's provocative portraits of suburban life and small-town discos

Mark Neville distributed his first-ever photography book to 8,000 households in the small Scottish town of Port Glasgow, and nowhere else. He had spent a year living in the former shipbuilding town, documenting the lives of its residents during a period of post-industrial recession. Once the project was finished, he enlisted the members of the local boy's football club to go door to door, giving the book of images to its subjects. The boys earned enough money to buy uniforms and help pay for their away games. But some of the town's residents were less happy. One group of Protestant residents organized a public book burning behind the local Catholic Club.

That was 2005. Since then, Neville has embarked on a number of projects that similarly explore hard-strapped small-town communities — and the ethics of social documentary photography. "So often, these photo books end up on the coffee tables of white middle-class people like me," says Neville, "And not on the tables of the people in them." To level out this hierarchy of audience and subject, Neville tries to make work not only about but also for the communities in which he immerses himself (often for years at a time). This means the way his projects are shared is almost as important as the images themselves.

From 2010 to 2012, he photographed the residents of Corby, a town in the North of England affected by toxic waste contamination following the repurposing of the local steel works. He sent the only copies of the resulting book, titled Deeds Not Words, to 433 local authorities in the UK in an effort to change public policy on waste removal. In 2012, Neville documented the social divide between two neighboring suburbs of Pittsburgh, to illustrate lasting economic and racial inequalities. The images formed a slideshow for the nearby Andy Warhol Museum.

This triptych of projects about post-industrial communities comprises just three of the nine works included in Neville's new book Fancy Pictures (Steidl). It's his first monograph, and the first time many of his images will be seen outside of the communities they document.

Can you start by telling me about the project in Pittsburgh? Why did you choose these two suburbs, Sewickley and Bratton, in particular?There used to be a massive amount of money in Pittsburgh. Three of the top five wealthiest people in America used to lived in Sewickley, near Pittsburgh. It was the industrialists a hundred years ago — Carnegie and Mellon. They had these amazing summer houses, with private zoos and things like that. A lot of them are now owned by dotcom millionaires and basketball players. It's still a very pleasant place to live. Then you have the other suburb, Braddock, which is the opposite.

The project was commissioned by the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. A week after I finished my project for the New York Times Magazine, "Here Is London" in 2012, I was on a plane to America. I was there for five months. I worked day and night, just shooting, shooting, shooting. I looked at the extremes of American life, and all the social inequalities seemed to be about race somehow. The first night, we drove around in a car and four times I spotted a driver being pulled over by police. Every time, it was a white policeman and a black driver, and you think, "Well, something's wrong there for a start."

Was being a foreigner helpful or hard?It's quite useful to be "the other" actually. It kind of says you're not part of whatever's going on, which gives you a level of implied impartiality. I work hard to build up relationships with the communities I work with. I tend to live where I'm working. I move my whole life. And I push to get as much time as possible.

Who did you stay with in Pittsburgh?In Sewickley, I stayed with a family called the Smiths, who run an advertising agency. They were very generous. There's a whole flurry of parties in Sewickley. One of the expressions is that "the gutters are awash with whiskey," something like that. They call it "the Sewickley whirl" — of dinner parties, cocktail parties. They invited me to all their parties. In Braddock, the poorer bit of town, I stayed opposite one of the last remaining steel mills. If you'd gone to Braddock in the 70s, there would have been lots of shops, employment. Then with the demise of the steel industry, it faded away. There was a problem with crack cocaine in the 80s. So the suburb is kind of on its knees, and its population is mainly African American. Whereas in Sewickly, you rarely see a black or brown face.

The images of the two suburbs feature very striking visual parallels — showing how the two communities work, dress, and party differently. Did you seek out those visual contrasts or did they happen organically?The Pittsburgh and London projects followed chronologically, and they were two of the only projects I've ever done that had a mainstream platform: one was disseminated through the New York Times Magazine, one was in a slideshow at the Andy Warhol Museum. Quite often in my projects, I target my audience and I can control who sees the work. But with the London and Braddock-Sewickley projects I knew I wouldn't be able to control who saw the work in the same way. So the images themselves had to convey all the meanings I wanted them to. The images had to be much more aggressive, in a way. So I used those contrasts — those pairings of images — and looked at the extremes much more than I'd done in other projects: mainstream and subculture, black and white, rich and poor, youn g and old. All those very obvious opposites, if you put them together in a book or slideshow they can punch home a pretty powerful message about inequality.

Another thing I did with both of those projects was that I tried to echo the visual style of photographers in Britain and America who looked at those countries undergoing recession in the 1980s. I used film stock that looked like it could have been from the 80s. I tried to light the images so they looked like they could be Garry Winogrand photographs. It gives them a kind of timelessness but it also suggests that social forces haven't improved in 30 or 40 years. People are still subject to the racism, the same wealth inequality. In fact they're not the same, in some cases they're worse. So it was a visual way to make that point through the images.

How much do you try to construct or direct your images?Very rarely. Usually, it's me standing on a chair in a nightclub for four hours waiting for the perfect composition to happen!

How did you end up as an artist-in-residence in Port Glasgow?I'd done an MA at Goldsmiths, an MA at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam, a BA at Reading University. I'd ticked all the boxes you're supposed to if you want to be a successful Young Turk, you know? But I still wasn't going anywhere. So my partner and I moved to Glasgow and I put in a proposal for a public art competition. By that stage, I was sick of trying to pander to an art world audience, and thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to make work for a different audience?' So much public art is forced on people. I thought that if I gave everyone a copy of the book at least they'd have some control over it. I also thought it would be a kind of critique. I'd always been intrigued by this kind of uncomfortable voyeurism I had, looking at a book by someone like Martin Parr. There's some kind of exploitation almost of the subjects — because they're not getting these books or benefitting from them. I wanted to make everyone there fee l some sort of ownership towards the book. But I still had very mixed reactions. Some people hated it.

After a year of trying to make sure everyone would be happy with the result, how did that feel?Oh god, I was so upset. But the fact that I did get this variety of responses was wonderful. With the public, and with a working-class community in a town like Port Glasgow, rather than the art world, you never know what you're going to get. That makes it very human and very real.

One note that runs through nearly all of your projects is images of clubs and dancing. What draws you to those settings?It's a number of things. I want to make technically brilliant images, and I want drama and emotion, and those are things you can get in a nightclub. For example, the image on the front cover of the Port Glasgow book, "Betty Dancing," it's not only a strong image in itself, it also somehow encapsulates all the feelings associated with the project — about community, celebration, about the book being a symbolic gift. Also, a lot of the towns I work in — deindustrialized towns — these communities have been through such hell. On a Friday, you might have a job but you don't know if on Monday it's going to be gone. So there's a sense that you've got to live for the moment. It doesn't matter how much money you've got in your bank account, you'll go out, and you'll get completely hammered. These are, generally speaking, quite heavy-drinking communities that I've bee n working in. How people choose to celebrate and let off steam is kind of integral to how these societies are. Dance and clubs are also just so fascinating. They're all about community.

Why did this seem like the right time to collect all your projects in one book? And the right time to make a book that's commercially available?This monograph is not an artwork. Usually, my books are part of art projects. This is a survey. First and foremost, I'm an artist. I'm interested in the debates about representation, ethics, and audience. So it's really important to me that those ideas can be discussed. And because my work has been sent out mostly not to the art world, it's very difficult for that to happen because nobody's seen it! So I thought that after about ten years of consistent work, I want those ideas to be discussed. Coming out with a publicly available book right after the Port Glasgow project would have defeated the whole purpose of the work. But now, so many years after the project's completion, I think it's a respectful time. All the projects have reached some kind of endpoint, where it's only going to be useful to have them discussed.

"Fancy Pictures" is out now through Steidl.steidl.de

Source: mark neville's provocative portraits of suburban life and small-town discos

One photographer’s spiritual struggle in Jerusalem

In 1853, the archaeologist and photographer Auguste Salzmann travelled to Jerusalem to photograph the city's religious monuments. The resulting photographs were published in 1856 as the album Jerusalem: A study and photographic Reproduction of the Monuments of the Holy City. Forty-two of them are currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum as part of the first solo exhibition of Salzmann's photographs, appropriately titled 'Faith and Photography: Auguste Salzmann in the Holy Land.'

Jerusalem, Valley of Jehoshaphat, Northwest Side, 1 (1854), Auguste Salzmann.

The album was intended primarily as an archaeological compendium of the Holy Land, and Salzmann took his documentary task seriously, scrupulously photographing each site from varying distances and perspectives. Nevertheless, like many of the first generation of photographers in the 1850s and 1860s, Salzmann came to photography by way of older visual media, and this debt is betrayed even by his most staid images. He deploys the same peculiar mix of traditional Romantic visual tropes (sublime landscapes, crumbling ancient ruins, nostalgic melancholy) and the novel verisimilitude of photography that so many Second Empire photographers use to great effect. Salzmann's landscapes clearly (perhaps too clearly) invoke his mentor Gustave Le Gray and his aestheticisation of the architectural record echoes Charles Marville's photographic catalogue of Haussmann era Paris.

Jerusalem, Valley of Jehoshaphat, Tomb of Saint James (1854), Auguste Salzmann.

Yet Salzmann's Jerusalem photographs rarely achieve the sublime heights of either Le Gray or Marville, and only with assistance from the inherent natural beauty of the region (see, for example, his splendid Le Gray-inspired Chemin de Naplousse or his eerie series of the Valley of Jehoshaphat). Romanticism was fundamental to early photography because it grounded the medium in established artistic paradigms, thereby (the hope was) elevating it from a pseudo-scientific process to an actual art form. Unlike Le Gray or Marville, however, Salzmann's Romanticism reads as an aestheticising veneer for the photography's documentary powers rather than a means of transfiguring and elevating the medium into art. In other words, beautiful though it is, Salzmann's endless catalogue of Jerusalem is not that original, and maybe a little bit boring.

This doesn't mean that Salzmann's photographs are uninteresting, however. Part of why they are aesthetically unsatisfying is because Salzmann's primary concern in Jerusalem was not aesthetic. The struggle at the heart of this collection of photographs is not the quarrel about photography's place between art and mechanical reproduction, but rather a spiritual struggle between the demands of faith and the constraints of reality, between what was believed and what could be scientifically verified.

Jerusalem, Damascus Gate, Interior (1854), Auguste Salzmann.

Some of this fight is waged outside the frame, as in Salzmann's photograph of the so-called Arch of The Solomon Bridge, an otherwise nondescript image of a wall whose title inserts it into archaeological debates about whether the wall in question was actually part of the bridge or part of the foundations of a mosque built above it. When the fight to verify faith is waged within the frame, it is waged by means of photography's brutal and incorruptible realism, not by any pretensions of artistry. Photography was to make Christian religious beliefs self-evident by presenting those convictions as inherent to and embodied in the real monuments that it captured so precisely. The more monotonous, the better; this boring truthfulness only bolstered the argument that the religious significance of these sites was self-evident and incontrovertible, rooted in their very physical substance.

Truthful though it may be, however, photography cannot travel back in time. Salzmann's attempt to use the documentary capabilities of photography in 1853 to substantiate religious faith born thousands of years previously is, of course, doomed by his anachronistic misunderstanding of photography's relationship to time (among other things).

Jerusalem, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Details of the Capitals (1854), Auguste Salzmann.

Until recently, Salzmann's belief in the power of photography to transcend space and time felt like a beautiful folly, one rooted in a charming – if naive – excitement about technological advancements and the human quest for knowledge, whether scientific or spiritual. In our 'post-truth' era, however, Salzmann's photographs no longer appear as hopeful foibles. Instead, they loom as melancholy premonitions of the day when truth and personal conviction would become so entangled as to stifle our quest for understanding altogether.

'Faith and Photography: Auguste Salzmann in the Holy Land' is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until 5 February 2017.

Source: One photographer's spiritual struggle in Jerusalem

Filmmakers, Photographers to Vendors: Build Encryption into Your Cameras

More than 150 filmmakers and photographers — including Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief), Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), and Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) — have signed a letter calling on manufacturers including Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Olympus and Sony to build encryption features into still and video cameras.

The open letter, published by the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation, claims that new security features are necessary to protect the safety of filmmakers, who may legitimately fear the seizure of their cameras by hostile authorities, as well as that of their subjects, who could face repercussions for their appearance in unencrypted interview footage.

"On countless occasions, filmmakers or photojournalists have seen their footage seized by authoritarian governments or criminals all over the world," the letter says. "Because the contents of their cameras are not and cannot be encrypted, there is no way to protect any of the footage once it has been taken. This puts ourselves, our sources, and our work at risk."

The letter cites Windows and Mac computers and Apple's iPhone as well as secure apps including WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal as examples of technology that protects communication from end to end. While photo and video content can be encrypted as soon as it is stored on a PC or mobile device, it's the time frame between acquisition of sensitive footage and the shooter's ability to transfer it from unencrypted storage that generates anxiety for filmmakers.

"Encryption features will allow us to continue to tell the most important stories, from some of the most dangerous places in the word. You can help us reach that goal by starting to work towards building encryption into your camera products," the letter concludes.

Source: Filmmakers, Photographers to Vendors: Build Encryption into Your Cameras

Photography Services with Bidvine

I love taking photos of my daughter. However I seem to have loads of pictures of her and none of us as a family. That's because I'm always the one taking the photo. I decided that we really needed to get some professional photos of our family to show off around our home, and to pass onto our family. To help with this I came across an online service called Bidvine which is really easy to use, and allows photographers in London that are signed up to the service to put a quote together.

Bidvine follows a simple step by step process:

Step 1 – Select the type of service you require and enter your postcode. We were looking for a professional photographer, however there are also other professional services including cleaners and personal trainers.

The next set of questions are all tailored to your chosen service, and the handy progress bar across the top of the page shows how quick and easy it is to obtain your quote.

Step 2 – I selected the type of portrait photography I required. As I am after family photography with our daughter, I selected Family and Children or Baby.

Step 3 – I chose areas where I would like the photos to be taken. Natural light is always best so I selected Outdoors or Home. At least with being at home we can get some nice shots of my daughter on her swing in the garden.

Step 4 – I selected Artistic and Natural, as I hope to get some fun and natural shots of us as a family.

Step 5 – I selected the budget. I know roughly how much photographers cost from our wedding photography, and wanted to get a good price for our family photographs.

Step 6 – I selected for the photographer to visit me as I wanted the photographs to be at home or outside.

Step 7 – The final step is to sign-in to Bidvine to allow all your quotes to be sent directly to you.

That's it. In seven simple steps and signing up to Bidvine using Facebook I now have a number of photographers reviewing my requirements and putting together a quote for me.

The confirmation screen told me that I would receive the quote by Saturday. However what's really good about Bidvine is that I've received 4 quotes within an hour of publishing my request. All the quotes are within budget and I've received these by either email or text message. My next steps are to choose a photographer who can take some fun family photographs for us.

Claire x

This is a sponsored post

Source: Photography Services with Bidvine

How to make it as a radio broadcaster: Ian Robertson

Tips from making it as a radio broadcaster from former Scotland scrum-half and now legendary BBC Radio commentator, Ian Robertson

At the workplace: Robertson prepares to commentate on England v Wales in the Six Nations

By Graham Jenkins

The Forward Pass Podcast – Ian Robertson

Welcome to The Forward Pass, a series of conversations with leading rugby union journalists, broadcasters, presenters and photographers who will offer the next generation of media professionals – and fans – an insight into how they cover the sport.

The latest industry veteran to join host Graham Jenkins to reflect on a colourful career both playing and reporting on the sport is BBC Rugby correspondent Ian Robertson.

Read extracts from the podcast and listen to the complete conversation below.

Injury brought a premature end to your international career at the age of 25 – did you feel robbed of many more Test caps?

"I did the cruciate ligament in one knee and the medial ligaments in the other and if I had been a horse they would have shot me so that was the end of it…

"It's just life isn't it? Loads of rugby players get injured and it is part and parcel of the game, I wasn't huge, I was 12st and 5ft 8in and there were some lumps going around in our team like Peter Stag who was 6ft 10in and 18st, so there were big lumps of meat charging around rugby pitches even back then."

You went back to teaching but a career in the media beckoned?

"Yes, the world works in wonderful and mysterious ways. I was teaching at Fettes College in Edinburgh and because I got injured I missed all of the Five Nations in 1971 and in fact never recovered properly to play at a top level again. The following year a great man that everyone will know, called Cliff Morgan, came up to Edinburgh to visit me and I met him in Princes Street at the Balmoral Hotel and he said that he was switching from radio to do TV where he would share the rugby with Bill McLaren. Cliff was very versatile and a brilliant broadcaster, and he said that there's a gap for someone in radio – 'are you interested?'

Influence: Robertson was given an opportunity by the great Cliff Morgan (far right)

"I said 'I am!' and we had a long chat about it, and he said I would have to come down for a formal interview and before I got there on that day he had had a long chat with me and told me what they were looking for, this is what it is all about, I know you will be capable of doing it and I know you will do it really, really well so I went down and had my interview and got the job – and that was the start of it all back at the beginning of April, 1972."

Were you looking for a move into the media?

"No, funnily enough I was very happy teaching. I taught English and History at Fettes, loved the job and it was sheer chance that my injury came in 1971 and this was a year later. It never crossed my mind, but when he turned up and described the job I just thought I would love to do that and I've loved every minute since.

"I've seen an awful lot of great moments, some disappointing moments but it was a wonderful opportunity to follow the game I love."

Do you remember the first game you called?

"It was a strange game, Rosslyn Park v Coventry, and it was not a great position to be commentating from but I did. I learnt all the names and had a great, great friend who was the greatest rugby commentator of all time who was Bill McLaren and I spent a lot of time with him. I went up to Scotland for several days and discussed everything with him and he told me how he went about it, which was a pretty good blueprint for any potential commentator whatever the sport.

The voice of rugby: The incomparable Bill Mclaren and now World Rugby president Bill Beaumont

"For each game he had a set of notes that had roughly 1,200 statistics on them. Every player in the match got four lines and there would be seven or eight statistics on every line and they would be in four different colours, blue, red, black and green and if a player was injured he would know immediately what colour to go to and which fact he was looking at.

"He would do it for Scotland v England – he'd do it for Jed-Forest v Gala. He did it for every match and would phone the secretaries and get the details of all the players, the number of injuries they had had, facts and figures and he said if a player is injured and it looks bad I will be able to talk about him for three minutes without any problem at all as I will have it all in front of me although, he said, I tend to learn it all off by heart every week and don't often need to look at my notes!

"With that sort of help at the very beginning I knew at least what I should be doing and how important it was to have a huge bucket full of facts and figures for every match."

You were certainly blessed to be able to learn first-hand from two greats like Cliff and Bill?

"Yes. It wasn't a bad couple of people to befriend on the outset of the tour of the world of rugby. Both were such brilliant, brilliant people and such great fun, I was doubly blessed, there's no question about that.

"Bill and I stayed friends throughout our…he was just a brilliant commentator and he would put in these countless hours of work to make sure he wouldn't be in trouble if anything happened he would be able to keep talking about it and of course he had a wonderful turn of phrase…TV and radio are two different art forms and Bill was the consummate master of both."

You also had a spell writing for the Sunday Times?

"I got an offer from the sports editor of the Sunday Times in 1980, John Lovesey. The long-term correspondent there was Vivian Jenkins who was one of the all-time great journalists and he'd retired and his successor John Hopkins was switching to golf. I talked about it with one or two of my colleagues at the BBC and they said that it would be a great thing to do even if you only did it for five years and then came back to broadcasting.

"I was the luckiest lad on earth because I talked about it to the head of sport at the BBC and he said they would still like me to work for them…which meant I was able to keep broadcasting."

You have also penned a number of books including a biography of actor Richard Burton?

"That was because of Richard Burton's brother, Graham Jenkins worked in BBC Radio Sport and after Richard died the family wanted to put out a biography of him and I helped pen the first draft.

One of the greats: Roberts penned the autobiography of the iconic Gareth Edwards

"However, we realised it wasn't full of all the great actors that had worked with Richard because neither myself nor the publisher knew them. So we brought in a specialist guy who was in the theatre world who put it together while keeping some of the biographical detail that I had done about his upbringing in Pontrhydyfen. He rewrote the bulk of the book but still gave me a great credit.

"I have also done four books with Gareth Edwards and I co-authored Andy Irvine's autobiography and Bill Beaumont's. I used up quite a lot of paper in those days."

Radio remains your fondest medium?

"I love radio, it is instant and it is just a great part of the media. I am very, very lucky and very, very privileged to have had such a run. Every Lions tour since 1983, every World Cup as a commentator and every England tour abroad. It has been a wonderful, wonderful life.

"Rugby people by and large are great people, very easy to work with, there are some pretty bright guys playing rugby, and interviews the vast majority will make an effort to give a very good interview."

Has the role of commentator changed during your career?

"I don't think the art of commentary has changed much. It is easier now as there is far more assistance, for example the TMO, when you are not sure why a penalty has been given, which happens from time to time, and you can hear the referee, we're wired up now, we weren't of course 40 years ago, and we can hear every word from the referee, what he is saying to the players and what is going on, why he is awarding this or that, going to the TMO and hearing him describe what he thinks has happened and why he thinks it is or isn't a try.

Iconic moment: Robertson commentated on the 2003 World Cup win

"But the actual art of doing the commentary is more or less what it has always been, trying to get over the emotion, the passion, the excitement, everything that is going on in a game of rugby and making sure that you can translate that for the listener and get them every bit as excited as you as a commentator are."

You most have many memories but England's World Cup Final triumph in 2003 must stand out and your famous 'He drops for World Cup glory' line?

"The art of commentary is the last of the great ad-lib shows on radio and TV, it's live and it's the ability of the commentator to capture every bit of the emotion and accurately describe what is happening.

"My position was way up in the back of the stand which would have been about 50 yards from the near touchline and this was going on in the middle of the pitch slightly on the far side. So they would be the best part of 90 yards away from where I was and when he struck the ball with his right foot having said Jonny is going to drop for World Cup glory, I suddenly grabbed my binoculars and stuck them up to my head and kept talking as it was his right foot and we knew he had never kicked a drop goal with his right foot in a big match.

"The words just came tumbling out and I wasn't even aware of it at the time. Then there was the restart and mike Catt kicked the ball away and the final whistle went – and I didn't think too much about it, I just remember thinking thank goodness that was Jonny's drop goal and not Mike Catt…It wasn't until we listened back that night that and realised that we nailed that – and it's been played a few times since."

Unforgettable moment: Robertson says to convey the emotion on the pitch

Ian Robertson's top tips for a career in radio broadcasting:

+ Do your homework!

"Follow Bill McLaren's example and be prepared. If a player is injured then be able to talk about them non-stop for 2-3 minutes."

+ Say what you see

"You don't state the blindingly obvious on TV but with radio the listener could be driving up the M1 and they do not have a picture in front of them…so paint a picture for that person."

+ Embrace the pressure

"The pressure is always there but you live with it and enjoy it. You have got to have the adrenalin flowing through you if you are going to capture the essence of the match whether it is a big game or a club game."

+ Swallow a dictionary

"Make sure you practice. Go to a match and commentate, sit there and describe it and always have something to say. Just describe what is happening in front of you at full volume with every word in the dictionary at your disposal."

+ Sell the game

"Try to convey the emotion, the passion, the excitement, everything that is going on in a game of rugby and make sure that you can translate that for the listener and get them every bit as excited as you as a commentator are."

Source: How to make it as a radio broadcaster: Ian Robertson