50 amazing Flickr streams

50 amazing Flickr streams by Photocritic

Beyond the stuff I’ve been posting in my twitter stream, I haven’t really had much time to post proper blog posts here on this blog recently – and my apologies about that. What I have been doing, however, is browsing Flickr to get some amazing inspiration, ideas, and tips for the whats and hows of photography. Throughout the past few weeks, I’ve been keeping bookmarks of my best finds.

I’ve found a whole load of amazing photographers who have made me smile, filled me with wonder, made me shy with inadequacy, and proud to be part of this whole ‘photography’ thing. My only shame in all of this is that there are many more than 50 good – nay, great – photographers out there – so I would very much like to encourage you to post a comment with your favourite Flickr streams…

So hereby, without further ado or messing about – my top 50 recent finds on Flickr.

Report: AV Evening Wed. 28th Jan.’09

A small group of members – including Harry and Susan who are once again out from France – attended the meeting.  Contributors were Neels Beyers who presented two AVs – one on windsurfers, and the other on kitesurfers … he is a master at nailing the action shots.  Elsa sent her AV on the Richtersveld (set subject slides by Paddy) using beautiful music from Lord of the Rings.  Nettie showed an AV on ‘An Overberg Stream’ – depicting the waterfall and stream running through Volmoed.  Furthermore, there were three AVs sent down from the Magaliesberg Foto Fun Club – one on the Richtersveld, one on ‘The Art of a Lily’ and one of a child eating an ice-cream. Finally we were shown a documentary audio-visual on the ‘Birkenhead’ – the informative and engrossing story of how the ship ran aground on what is now known as Birkenhead Rock, and of the men who sent the women and children out first in the lifeboats, knowing that they would probably lose their own lives with the sinking ship.

Irmel discussed audio-visual plans for the year – she and Paddy are finalising an excellent program which will shortly be put up on this website.

Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009

Welcome to Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009. I’m delighted you are considering taking part this year and hope you do.

For Mark Carwardine’s complete introduction to the competition and suggestions and insider tips to help you to win, see the February issue of BBC Wildlife (on sale 22 January – 19 February).

Here’s some useful information on how to enter and what you could win.

This year, we are proud to welcome Veolia Environnement as the competition’s title sponsor. Veolia is a world leader in environmental services.

How to choose your images
One of the biggest challenges is choosing what images to enter and the right approach is crucial. Be honest with yourself and edit ruthlessly. It’s all too easy to become emotionally attached to certain images and this is when people tend to enter ‘almost’ shots. Resist the temptation: mediocre shots won’t win. Be critical of your work and only enter your very best. Make an initial selection – ideally two or three times as many as you are allowed to enter – and then get other people to comment and even make the final selection for you. They will find it easier to identify the really good ones.

How to process your images
When you have made your final selection, the images need to be processed ready to enter the competition. For many newcomers to digital photography this can be a bit of a stumbling block. A surprising number of imaginative and well-composed images do not make it into the finals simply because they have been badly processed. For some top tips visit www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto.

THE CATEGORIES
You stand a better chance of winning in some categories than others. There are a phenomenal number of entries in categories such as Behaviour: Birds, Animals in their Environment and Animal Portraits, so the competition in these is intense. There are more opportunities to excel in categories with fewer entries (below) – all you need is some imagination.

» Behaviour: All Other Animals. This category has huge scope, but you must show genuinely interesting behaviour.
» Urban and Garden Wildlife: This is a surprisingly weak category with relatively few entries. Don’t forget that it has to be an obviously urban or suburban setting.
» Nature in Black and White: Introduced in 2005, this category has huge potential. Enter any wild landscape, animal or plant and try turning some of your colour pictures into black and white.
» One Earth Award: Don’t rely on shock value, but strive for genuine photographic merit. Winners explore our relationship with the natural world or our damaging influence symbolically or graphically.
» In Praise of Plants: Plants are everywhere but this is often a weak category because there’s a tendency to take simple, unimaginative shots of them rather than truly creative works of art.
» Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife: Images of well-known endangered species have to be truly exceptional to stand out. Check out the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and try to photograph some of the more unusual subjects.
» If you’re aged 18–26 and considering entering the Eric Hosking Award, there is one golden rule: critical editing. Make sure that all the pictures you enter are strong.

THE JUDGES
Mark Carwardine (Chair) Zoologist, writer and photographer
Laurent Geslin Photographer
Chris Gomersall Wildlife photographer
Orsolya Haarberg Nature photographer
Josef (Sepp) Hackhofer Nature photographer
Tim Harris Manager: Nature and Garden Collections, Photoshot.
Tony Heald Wildlife photographer
Rosamund Kidman Cox Editor and writer
Jan-Peter Lahall Photographer
Tor McIntosh Picture editor
Vincent Munier Nature photographer
Erik Sampers Photo Director, Terre Sauvage
Brian Skerry Marine photo journalist
Sophie Stafford Editor, BBC Wildlife

  
THE PRIZES
» The title Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year will be given to the single image judged to be the most striking and memorable of all the category winners.
» The winning photographer will be presented with £10,000 at an awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London, in October. Each category winner receives £500 and every runner-up £250. Special Award winners receive £1,000.
» All winning images are displayed in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, and then toured around the UK and many countries overseas.
» The pictures will also be published in a free supplement with the November issue of BBC Wildlife and in a hardback book.
HOW TO ENTER YOUR IMAGES
» Many of the rules and category definitions have been carefully revised to make them clearer, so even if you’ve been entering the competition for years and think you know what we’re looking for, visit www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto to check.
» Translations of the rules will be available online in Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
» New for 2009. The competition now accepts scans of transparencies (all formats) and digital images. Up to three pictures may be entered in each category. The original transparencies or original digital capture as it was recorded by the camera will be requested and must be supplied if an image reaches the final stage of judging.
» Enter online at www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto. Closing date for online entries: Friday 27 March 2009.
» Closing date for postal entries (CDs only): Friday 20 March 2009.
» Fees: £25 for online entry (£20 if entered by 28 February) or £27 for postal entries (CDs only, please).
» The Young Photographer competition is free to enter for photographers aged 17 and under. Read the full rules online.

For more information
Tel: 0207 942 5015
Email: wildphoto@nhm.ac.uk
Website: www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto

PhotographyBB Magazine – Issue 12 is Here!

PhotographyBB online magazine coverPhotographyBB Magazine – Issue 12 is Here!

VANCOUVER, CANADA – PhotographyBB announced today, the release of the twelfth edition of the PhotographyBB Magazine Online. The PhotographyBB Magazine Online is quickly becoming a leading resource in the future of free information distribution, offering our readers: Digital Photography tips and techniques, DSLR camera function training, and image post processing tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop™, and RAW processing in Photoshop Lightroom™.

Lodge & Hotel Photography Workshop

We have received notification of a workshop that might interest some members.

David Rogers will be hosting the 2009 Hotel and Lodge Photography Academy at Steenberg Estate in Tokai, Cape Town from 20 to 24 April 2009. The five-day certificate program will be aimed at photographers wishing to gain experience, improve their skills and further their career in this exciting industry.

See here for more details.

ScottCritiques.com

ScottCritiques is a new site on which professional photographer Scott Bourne will critique images. These critiques will be along the lines of our evaluation evenings but probably more in depth.

Read the welcoming post linked below and decide if you want to submit some of your own images for critique, or just follow along and learn from the critiques on others’ photos.

Welcome to ScottCritiques.com « scottcritiques.com

How did you shoot this? There’s Always One

To be a creative photographer it’s not enough to be technically profficient and au fait with the rules of composition; you also need to be able to think leterally.

How did you shoot this? There’s Always One | All Day I Dream About Photography

For this picture I had to figure out a way to turn a glass of water upside down. A quick check on the electric internet didn’t reveal any commercially available antigravity devices so I had to come up with something more in the realms of possibility.