Brand new site celebrating time-lapse photography!

It's pretty incredible what you can knock up in a day if you're suitably caffeinated–or slowly on your way to getting sozzled. In the case of the Triggertrap Company Hackathon, I decided to build a site celebrating one of my favourite hobbies: time-lapse photography.

A screen shot of a website? What's next, an interpretative dance recital of a haiku poem? Actually, come to think of it, that's not such a bad idea.

Primelapse.com is the name, and it is a collection of a load of rather fabulous timelapses from around the world, organised by location, technique, and theme.

If HDR photography is your poison, we've got you covered. Looking for time-lapses from California? Done. How about a load of timelapses taken from space? Yeah, sure, why the hell not.

It's a brand new site, so there's a load of things I still want to add to the site, but for now, we've got the first hundred or so timelapses live on there, so why not pop over and have a look?!

How the iPhone copes with only having a f/2.8 aperture

If you ask any photographer whether they would be willing to take photos with a fixed focal length lens, many would say 'yes'. Prime lenses are as old as photography itself, and there are many excellent reasons to embrace them. Ask the same photographer if they'd be happen to work with a fixed-aperture lens, however, and you wouldn't get many good responses.

And yet, this is the reality of taking photos with an iPhone 4: It doesn't matter how bright or dark your scene is, you're stuck with a f/2.8 aperture lens. This is a problem if you want to use the iPhone with an external flash (not that you could anyway - here is why) - but how does the iPhone cope with extremely bright situations?

The lower limits

As you (probably) know, an exposure is controlled by 3 factors: ISO, Aperture and shutter speed. If aperture is fixed, you have to deal with any lighting situations with the other two. In low light, the iPhone will ramp up the ISO.

In fact, if I press my iPhone against a dark surface and take a photo, the camera reveals its limits:

This incredibly boring photo reveals the limits of the iPhone's camera: It won't use slower shutter speeds than 1/15th of a second, and it won't go beyond ISO 1,000:

The upper limits

Similarly, it's easy to test the iPhone's upper limits, by pointing the camera at a ridiculously bright light source. The sun will do. This photo:

... Reveals the other set of extremes:

... Which is that whilst the iPhone is still stuck at f/2.8, the maximum shutter speed is an incredible 1/30,000th of a second.

Putting these two figures together (about 4 EV steps of ISO and another 11 EV steps of shutter speed) reveals the exposure range available to an iPhone  photographer: an impressive 15 stops of difference from the lowest light to the brightest lighting situations.

Of course, this is nothing compared to the extreme shutter speed, aperture, and ISO ranges of modern SLR cameras, but hey - it's not bad for a device you keep in your pocket at all times!

My first adventure in time-lapse photography

I love experimenting with photography, but I've never really had much of a chance to play with time-lapses until I started working with the Triggertrap.

So, in the process of testing it all, I did a load of time-lapses, and I figured that (since we've now finally launched our iPhone version) it was time to show off some of my experiments as well.

This one is a work in progress, as I haven't quite finished all the balancing, and some of the cuts aren't quite where I'd like them... I also need to fix some of the flicker... But I'm rather proud of it as a first attempt!

Team Leica publish book for charity

A gorgeous spread from the book, showing pictures by Gez and Ivan.

So, what do you do if you've got a big heart, an empty wallet (after buying that fancy Leica), and a lot of creative people in the same room? You create a book, of course, celebrating some of the most awesome photography by your users - and raise some money for charity at the same time.

Well, that's what the Leica Users Forum did anyway, aiming to repeat the success from previous effort - their first book was published in 2010 and raised over £12,500 / €15,000 / US$19,500 for their chosen charity, The Association for International Cancer Research.

And now, of course, they're doing it all over again.

This year, they've selected their 100 best photographs submitted to the judging panel.

Interestingly, even though all the photos were taken on Leicas, more than 20 different camera models were used to take photos, and yet, only 13 of the shots in the book were taken on film - the rest were taken with the Leica M8 and M9 digital rangefinder cameras.

So far, the 2012 Book has raised nearly £4,000 already, so if you want to be part of history, ogle a lot of fabulous photos, and help fight off cancer in the process point your browsing device at the Blurb page for the book, and dust off your credit card.

The photos are gorgeous, and the cause is good. What are you waiting for?

One simple step to improve your photos

When I'm asked what I do for a living, the responses that I get range from the infuriating: 'You must have a really great camera' to the inane: 'People write books about photography?' as well as the interesting. One of the interesting ones landed my way the other evening when I was chatting to someone whose wife enjoys taking photos.

'What one thing can my wife do to improve her photos?'

My answer was immediate, and pretty simple: 'Evaluate them.'

If you want to get better at taking photos, it's all very well being told that you need to practise, practise, practise, but you need to do a little bit more than that. You see, unless you critically assess your photos to work out what worked, what didn't, and why, all that practising will just result in a harddrive full of images that suffer from the same flaws and foibles. So you need to evaluate them: the good, the bad, and the what should I do differently.

Haje has written a very helpful guide to practical photo evaluation. His approach is both creative and technical and I would definitely recommend it for people whose photographic knowledge is above average and are serious about improving. But if you're just starting out, or if you just want to know how to make your holiday snaps that bit better, it might be a touch too complex. 

So here's a simpler version.

• You do this at home on a big screen. Don't try to evaluate photos properly on the screen on the back of your camera. That's a recipe for disaster.
• When you look at the photo, choose one thing about it that works. Is the composition bang-on? Have you captured the moment perfectly?
• Then ask yourself: Why is it working?
• Now identify one thing that isn't working. Is the exposure slightly off? Are the eyes not quite in focus?
• In which case, what do you need to do to improve it?
• Next time, make sure that you do it!

If you follow this process for every photo that you take, you'll quickly discover that you probably have certain photographic strengths and particular photographic weaknesses. By identifying them, you'll be able to build on what you do well, and make adjustments and improvements to remedy the areas where you struggle. With time, you should notice that you're taking better photos all round, and maybe even that what you're good at and what you find less easy, change.

Then, as you learn more, you can progress to far more thorough photo evaluations, and grow even more advanced!

Some of my best photos from 2011

2011 has been a pretty crazy year all around. This year, I have:

• been to four different continents and a dozen different countries
• taken tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of photos (and 6,000 of them were good enough that I decided to keep them in my Lightroom library).
• gotten engaged.
• I've (nearly) brought my photography gadget Triggertrap to market 
• Seen one of my books go on sale, and finished another one that'll go on sale in 2012. 

It's been an incredible ride. But really, in this post, I just wanted to share some of my fave photos from 2011 with you - they're in the gallery above!

Happy new year, and have a well-exposed 2012!

Rock on,

~ Haje

Rights and Respect in photography

Today, I stumbled across an article on Found Photography, titled ‘Your rights as a photographer‘. At first, I was intrigued, thinking that it would have something to do about copyright.

Instead, it turned out to be about photographing Amish people, who, according to the article, "The Amish don’t like to be photographed because it might cause them to be tempted by pride". The article then finishes with some tips about your rights, if you come across Amish people in public places, and what your rights are regarding photographing them.

This reminded me of a different discussion I had a while ago, which regarded photographing people who didn’t want to be, also for religious reasons: Some Native tribes, for example, believe that a photograph of them means you steal their soul. It would, therefore, be less than wise to photograph them.  

The rights, as described in the article, are as follows:

1. Almost anything you can see you can photograph. If you can see it, you can take a picture of it. If you are standing on public property you can photograph anything you like, including private property. It is important to realize that taking a picture is different than publishing a photo, which leads to point number two.

2. As long as you are not invading someone’s privacy, you can publish their photo without permission. You can take someone’s picture in any public setting and publish it without consequence (even if it portrays the person in a negative way) as long as the photo isn’t “highly offensive to a reasonable person” and “is not of legitimate concern to the public.” You can even publish photos if you took them on private property. While you may be punished for being on private property, there is no legal reason why you can’t publish the photo from prison!

3. As long as you aren’t using someone’s likeness for a purely commercial purpose, you have the right to publish the photo. You can use your photos of other people without their permission for an artistic or news purpose, but you can’t use them for a commercial purpose (such as an ad). You could sell a photo of a person without their permission, but you couldn’t use the photo in an ad saying the person endorses your product.

Whilst this is all correct, and really important to keep in mind, there is a different consideration to keep in mind, which brings me to the point of this article...

Respect in Photography

As a photographer, I have experienced feeling that I have touched people in a ways I wish hadn’t. An accidental invasion of privacy, so to speak, which made me feel as if I had commited the rudest form of sexual harassment – without even being aware of it.

In photography, One day, you can take a photograph of someone who is not wearing any clothes, but it will be okay. The next day, you can take a picture of someone who is fully dressed, even if you don’t see their face, and it is the worst of possibly imaginable sin. What is okay in one situation can be wrong in another.

The legal aspect

Many countries in Europe have added the European Convention on Human Rights as part of their set of laws. This convention has something that is devastating to privacy, called Section 10.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include to receive and impart information without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” In practice, this is roughly the same as the 1st Amendment in the American Bill of Rights – the freedom to expression.

The conclusion drawn from the 1st amendment and Section 10 is that you can always take pictures. Even on private property, you have the right to photograph anything you can see.

Despite of something being legal, it doesn’t mean that you should, though.

The moral aspect

Several minority cultures believe that taking a picture is the same as stealing somebodys soul. Taking a picture of a member of such a culture is inexcusable. Upon having taken the picture – as far as they are concerned – it is too late.

If you, as a photographer – especially as a professional photographer – make the mistake of taking a picture of a member of such a minority group, you have fucked up beyond forgivenness. Call it a breach of professional conduct, or a kick to the shins of common sense.

Other times, however, you meet people of whom you really couldn’t have known their aversion to photography. I have experienced taking a picture of a couple looking wonderfully in love. When they realised I took the picture, the male half of the couple came over and asked me for the film. Apparantly he was married, and didn’t want me to publish the picture. What was I to do? I decided to promise him to not use the image, and deleted it off my camera. Not a legal choice - a moral one.

In the grand scheme of things, I haven’t been a photographer for all that long. Situations like that will arise again, I am sure. And I am certain that modesty, along with a dose of appropriateness, will get me through those situations.

I have a few friends who work as wartime photographers. In the job, they see some of the most horrible things known to man. The pictures in the newspapers are the mild versions of some of the pictures I have seen people come back with. And the pictures never go outside their photo albums. Why? Because some things don’t need to be shown.

A man far wiser than me said to me once: "These things are not secret, but they are sacred, and should not be taken lightly".

I know of no respected photographer who didn’t have respect for the subjects s/he photographs. And – even if you aren’t the best photographer in the world – showing respect will get you the respect you need to get a good start in the lion’s den that is Photography.

Your favourite rules of photography

There are many ways to learn photography - one of the easiest ways is to learn a set of 'rules' that work like a shortcut toward getting awesome photos. You'll have heard of a lot of them before; there's the Rule of Thirds, for example, the golden mean, or simpler rules, too: Such as "get your photos in focus" and all the rules-of-thumb to do with equivalent exposures etc.

Do you know of any other “rules” for photography? Which rules to you stick to most of the times, and what rules do you love to break for best effect? Leave a comment below!

Rest In Peace, Steve Jobs

I'm perfectly happy to admit that it's a little bit curious to be sad about the death of a man I've never met... But there can be little argument that Steve Jobs' impact on the worlds of technology and - indirectly - photography have been absolutely immeasurable.

My thoughts go out to his wife and his four kids - and all the others he leaves behind.

Steve Jobs, thank you for being a strong and inspirational figure.

Editor's note: All of us here at Pixiq are saddened by the death of Steve Jobs. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, and to everyone who was touched by Steve Jobs. RIP Steve.

Why Projects are Good for You

Do you sometimes feel like you’re snapping away aimlessly, fluttering from one photographic subject to another with no rhyme or reason, like some sort of gormless butterfly? Do you feel like you’re at saturation point with your usual subject matter? Have you said to yourself recently “oh look, a lovely sunset. I should get my camera out really, but…meh”? This is, in some ways, a good sign. You’re not content with just taking a photograph, you want more out of your end product. What you need, my disillusioned friend, is a project.

Projects are hard. You have to come up with an interesting theme with an element of originality, work out what form it’ll take, ideally write a project statement and then figure out how it’ll all come together once it’s finished. It’s a long term, complicated process. Which is why it’s very good for your photography. Now I don’t claim to be Mr Project who lives at Project House, Project Lane, Lower Project, Projectsville, Projectstershire but I thought I’d offer a little advice to get you started on and excited about project work. Let’s look at a few key elements that should factor into your project, whatever if may be.

An image from the early stages of a project I'm working on, looking at possessions.

Shoot What Interests You

The well known saying “write what you know” holds a lot of truth. If you write about something that you know about, you do so from an informed standpoint. Writing about an area in which you are knowledgeable gives you a solid foundation from which to create something entertaining and artistic. With photography, it’s slightly different. Rather than just shooting what you know, you should shoot what interests you. Even if you’re au fait with the subject matter, if the subject doesn’t interest you, the work is likely to lack that passion which, in my opinion, is an essential ingredient for creating a piece of work that has real artistic value.

With writing, you can break the “write what you know” rule in a way, but not properly. You may wish to write about something that you know little or nothing about but are interested in: this is still possible but first you must research the subject in some way. Therefore, you can never truly write about something you don’t know about. With photography, you have the freedom to shoot something you are not familiar with. A perfect example of this is the British photographer Leo Maguire, who has spent four years entering and documenting the lives of two families from the Irish traveller and Romany gypsy communities. The subject interested him, yet he knew nothing about it. This is the advantage we have as photographers. Whatever you shoot, be sure that you genuinely care about it.

Have A Plan

So you know what you want to shoot, now you need to think about how you’re going to shoot it. For the sake of example, let’s say you have an unhealthy interest in apples (is that possible, given their inherently healthy nature?) and want to create a project around apples. Apples is the project for you, you appley weirdo. You need to consider a number of factors – will you be shooting all the different kinds of apples you can find? Will you be documenting the journey of an apple from being picked to ending up on a supermarket shelf?

Those are the only two things I can think of for apples, probably because I don’t care enough about apples.

Then you need to think about the overall structure and presentation of your final project. If you’re just shooting apples and the different varieties you can eat, you may want to take each individual apple, set up a mini studio with clean, white light, take a shot of the whole apple, cut it neatly in half, take another shot, turn the pieces over, take another, get in close for that essential pip detail, take another. Then you’ll want to put those four images into a 2X2 square format, mounted into a frame, and entitle it “#12 – Braeburn, 18th August 2011″. Maybe if you’re following the life of an apple, you’ll want to order your final images into a sensible, chronological order, then turn them into a photobook, sprinkled with facts about apple production and quotes from people involved in the process.

Why am I talking about apples so much?

The point I’m making is if you have an idea of how the finished piece will look in your mind’s eye before you begin, it will help the final project look more cohesive and connected. Also, knowing what form you want your end product will take means you will shoot accordingly, in a fashion that will suit the layout, media and presentation you have in mind for the final piece.

Be Efficient: Set Targets

This one is very important. Simply put, make it like a homework project. If you don’t set yourself targets and goals, you’ll never actually get it finished. Going back to the apples (I’m committed now), it might be “photograph and post-process two apple types a week” or “have 30 apple types photographed and ready to be printed by the 1st of September”. It doesn’t matter too much exactly what your targets are, just set a goal that is quantifiable in some way.

Be flexible - the initial layout of these pieces was significantly different to their current form.

Be Flexible

Once you’ve got the wheels in motion, you may find that there are elements of the project that you don’t like, don’t work or don’t excite you. This can happen to you at any time. You need to be prepared to change things, to cut things and to rethink things. This may feel frustrating at first, but think of it as a natural evolution of the project. If, halfway through your freaky apple project you think “What in the Jimmy Cricket am I doing, photographing apples all the time?! Pears are my one true passion!” then go ahead and restart your project using pears. More sensibly, if the 2X2 format looks boring to you, evolve it and make it 3X3, or a single, ultra high detail single photo of an apple exploded into several sections.

When I wrote that last sentence I meant the photo exploded into sections, not the apple, but now I’m thinking it would be more interesting to explode the apple. Heck, let’s have two images in a diptych format: one of a pristine, perfect Golden Delicious and one of that same apple smashed up all over the clean, white studio background. See what happened in those last few sentences? That’s the evolution of an idea. By remaining flexible we’re now on our way to a much more interesting, artistically valuable project.

Projects are Good for You

Projects are good for you because they teach you form, discipline and planning. Not only that, but photography comes into its own once you start creating images that are relevant to each other. A strong photo series can be an exciting journey – a story can be told, a theme runs through that can be followed, understood, appreciated and enjoyed. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a project is worth ten thousand. Finally, projects are good for you because they should make you think more deeply about every aspect of your photography, which means that your work will improve substantially. Don’t worry too much if your project isn’t too original at first, just getting into the habit and the process of creating and completing a project is more important. Plus, it’s incredibly fun and will refresh your enthusiasm for photography.

(How do you tell if a butterfly’s gormless?)

Don’t Be Scared of Studio Lighting

To clarify, this month’s Photography Concept on Friday is not a self-help guide for photoaugliaphobics ( people with a fear of glaring lights – of course I looked that up ) – it’ll centre more around the basics of studio lighting and the basic properties of light. If you’re interested in a bit of studio lighting but don’t know where to start, or would like to know at least a little before you begin, then this month’s PCoF is for you. 

Specular Highlights and Diffuse Value

Softboxes were placed very close to the model here, meaning there is very low contrast between the specular highlights and the diffuse value, giving flattering, evenly lit skin.

Now it’s very easy to go into too much detail too quickly with studio lighting. I am writing from the point of view that you have never seen or considered the principles of lighting before, so please don’t roll your eyes too far back into your head if any of this seems obvious. Everyone starts somewhere – I started to improve my studio lighting the moment I got these concepts into my head.

Specularity refers to an object’s shininess. If you imagine a snooker ball in a pub (or snooker hall, if you’re a more reputable sort than myself), the bright white spot on that ball is the specular highlight of the ball.

Diffusity refers to how evenly spread out light is across an object. The more diffuse the light, the less contrast there is. This is represented by a more gradual transition from light to dark across an object. An object with a strong specular highlight has a higher contrast value around that highlight, as the brightness of the object changes much more suddenly.

In Short – Specular Highlights mean more contrast, Diffuse Lighting leads to less contrast.

Now, let’s look at a situation where we control the light source- we’ll ignore the different properties surfaces can have for now, to keep it simple (a snooker ball is a lot more reflective than human skin, for example. If your skin is as reflective as a snooker ball, see a doctor).

Controlling Light

There are two factors we should keep in mind for basic control of lighting. These are the size of your light source and the distance of your light source from the object being lit.

Size of Light Source

The size of your light source determines how it lights the object in question. Assuming the distance is the same, let’s look at the difference between a torch and a softbox (which look like this).

A torch has a very focused, directional beam – the light isn’t very diffuse. When you use a torch in the dark, it only lights the small area you point the torch at. On our imagined snooker ball, this creates a strong specular highlight, giving high contrast to the ball. If we replace this with a softbox, a much larger light source, we create a light source with more diffuse, spread out quality. This will lessen the contrast on our snooker ball, and light it more evenly than the torch will.

In Short – The larger the light source, the more diffuse the lighting, giving us less contrast. The smaller the light source, the more focused the lighting is on one point, giving us greater contrast.

As an extra point if you’re not confused yet – the more diffuse the light, the darker it is, due to the light available from the light source being spread more thinly.

Distance of Light Source

Due to the Afro of Doom in this pic, I had to move the light sources much farther away. This has led to a greater contrast between the specular highlight and the diffuse, which is why we see the stronger highlights on the bridge of the nose, for example. To combat this, I used my large light source for the face and brought the smaller one in for the hair.

The distance of the light source shares many qualities with the size of the light source, seeing as they are almost exactly the same thing as far as your camera is concerned. The closer the light source is to your subject, the larger it is and the further away it is, the smaller it is. Therefore, all the qualities pertaining to size of light source apply here also. There are two differences, however.

The first, most obvious difference is that the closer the light source, the less far the light has to travel, meaning the light is stronger.

The second, less obvious difference, is the difference between the specular highlight (high contrast area) and the diffuse value (low contrast area). The closer you place the light source, the less difference there is between the specular highlight and the diffuse value. The farther away you place the light source, the greater the difference there is between the specular highlight and the diffuse value.

In Short / To Simplify – All you really need to keep in your head here is that the farther away you place the light, the more contrast you will have between the shiny bit and the non-shiny bit. As you put the light closer, the difference between the two will be lessened, allowing for much more even lighting. So, for even lighting, put your light source closer. For higher contrast, move it back.

Oh Sweet Lord My Brain What Have You Done?

Essentially, explaining the basics of lighting is the equivalent of explaining the offside rule in football – it’s actually fairly simple but once you start trying to explain it, it sounds horribly complicated. It’s really not. What I suggest to you is, take this mini guide, go and rent some portable studio lighting (when I rented mine a few years ago, it only cost me £40 for a week), find some unsuspecting victims (or snooker balls) and try this stuff out. It’s not nearly as daunting as you might think. Go on, get some studio lights and try it yourself, it’s fun!

In the future, I’ll do some more lighting write ups, if people have found this useful. Just remember, if you’re still having trouble with the difference between size of light source and distance of light source, use this handy, cow based reference.

Switching space and time

What happens when you want to interchange time and space in a video? Yep, it can be done: watch and find out, in this video by Last Future.

On the Vimeo page, he explains… ‘I was sitting in a train traveling through The Netherlands recently when for some odd reason I decided I had to take a video of the landscape passing by. I had no real use for it but decided to try and make something of it.

I remembered slit-scan photography, a method where a slit is moved across the picture plane essentially taking a temporal image, where different times of the scene are captured on different parts of the film.’

Combining the technique of slit-scan and a spot of video editing, he came up with a brilliantly unique video…

Temporal Video Experiment from lastfuture on Vimeo.

And if you want to try to wrap your head around how he did it, there’s a making of video, too!

Temporal Video Experiment – Making Of from lastfuture on Vimeo.

News in brief: An infographic for newbie photographers

I was sent this photography infographic this morning, and whilst I don’t put much weight in the statistics because I think that the sample size was way too small to allow anything verging on meaningful analysis, some of the comments are worth bearing in mind if you’re just starting out. And probably not forgetting, either.

Shoot anything and everything: you never know with what you might fall in love. Get to know your equipment properly. And whilst we might not miss the faff involved with film, learning to use it will really teach you about cameras and photography. Click through to see the whole thing.

Click to Enlarge Image

Via:Online Printing

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: It’s all about the final result

I stumbled across a lovely article by ctein on The Online Photographer, where he talks in great detail about a rather bloody fantastic image.

“Making that photograph was a significant challenge”, he writes, and explains how he managed to push the boundaries of what was physically possible in photography, in order to to capture a picture of a space shuttle back in 1975.

In all the hard work he did to get the photo, he learned a brutal lesson… the story of which is definitely worth a closer read…

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

One day, one camera, lots of pictures: Bristol Photomarathon

For all you lovelies in and around the Bristol area, or perhaps if you fancy a day out taking pictures in one of my favourite cities, a one-day photomarathon is being organised as part of the Bristol Festival of Photography. On Saturday 5 March you’ll have seven hours and one disposable camera to capture a series of images from a specific list. Running is not compulsory.

I have to say, I rather like the idea of providing everyone with a disposable camera for the day. Not only does it level the playing field, but it gives anyone, whatever her or his photographic experience, an opportunity to have a go at photography. And there’s no running involved.

Whether or not you manage to capture all the images on your list, your pictures will still be exhibited online, and the organisers, Second Look, are trying to arrange a giant projector display, too. That sounds rather groovy. If you book your place in advance, it’ll cost £7; turn up on the day and it’s £10.

Interested? More details are available here. And remember, this is Bristol. In March. Take your waterproofs.

Wish you were here?

I doubt very much that you wish you were right here. As lovely as the Small Aperture mansion is, it’s pretty drafty right now. How about the Isle of Jura, just off of Scotland’s west coast, for a week next summer? Sounds ideal to me, especially if I could win the trip there with a photograph.

The Isle of Jura and Visit Scotland have dreamed up a competition where three people and their partners can win a week’s holiday on Jura, as well as an Olympus E-PL1, by submitting a ‘postcard’ of a destination that inspires them. Take the photo, explain what makes the place amazing, and submit your postcard. The judging panel includes Jim Richardson of National Geographic fame. (He’ll also be on-hand to give the winners a two day photography master-class.)

Entries are being accepted between now and 21 January 2011. All of the details are available on the competition website.

P.S. Deer out-number humans 30 to 1 on Jura
P.P.S. My favourite whisky comes from Jura

A snapshot of Times Square

The New York Historical Society wants your pictures of Times Square. It doesn’t matter if your photographs are architectural, portraits, reportage, or snapshots. Whether you’re a tourist or a super-enthusiastic amateur isn’t important, either. It’s about creating an archive of contemporary views of Times Square that will be searchable today and in the future.

There are some things take into consideration, though. Your pictures need to have been taken between 21 November 2010 and 31 March 2011. They need to take in Times Square from West 42nd to 47th Streets at Broadway or Seventh Avenue. They need to be in guf, jpg, or png format. They need to be at least 1,200 by 1,500 pixels (which is 8″ by 10″ in old money). And you can correct the colour and crop a bit, but nothing that alters the original subject matter is allowed.

Of course, the photo (or photos, you can make multiple submissions) must be yours, but you should check out the submission details for yourself. You can do that, and find out how to submit your photographs, here.

(Headsup to Photography Blog.)

Nikon offers a leg-up to budding photographers

Breaking into a creative market professionally can be utterly soul-destroying. I’m sure that the bitter tears of frustration shed by budding actors, artists, musicians, photographers, and writers could sink a fleet of battleships. (My family has probably contributed more than its fair share; we’re a mixture of actors, musicians, photographers, and writers.) Over at Nikon, though, they’re trying to ease the course for at least one up-and-coming photographer.

They’ve just launched the Nikon Foundation. Through something that seems to be part-competition and part-interview, they’re offering a three month paid assistantship to fashion photographer John Wright. If you’re in your final year of a photography-based course at a UK or Ireland higher education establishment, you’re eligible to enter.

You’ll need to submit a portfolio of between five and 12 images and tell the judging panel in a letter of 500 words why you’re the best person for the job. Get it right, and you’ll have a three month paid assistantship and £4,000-worth of Nikon equipment as your prize.

What are you waiting for? Hurry over to the Nikon Foundation website right now!

Always keep your eye on the ball

Sports photography isn’t all glamour: there’s getting frozen on a football pitch in February, withered at Wimbledon, and soaked at Sandown. Then there’s getting hit by a ball struck by Tiger Woods. It’s what happened to Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain yesterday.

Woods mis-struck his ball in the rough and it careened straight towards Pain and his Nikon D3S. Pain held his nerve and snapped his shot before the ball thumped into his camera, bounced off his chest, and dropped at his feet. Then he made a swift exit.

It might’ve been down to Woods’ play, but I’m not sure I would’ve hung around, either!

Thank you to Bits and Pieces for the headsup, and head to the Mail online for more.

The photo is obviously Mark Pain’s. I’m not that much of a golf buff, really. And I don’t read the Mail.

Lensbaby gets adaptive

You might think that we’d planned our 10 titillating tilt-shifts to co-incide with Lensbaby’s most recent announcement, but I can promise you that we didn’t. It’s just a happy coincidence that if you’re so inspired to have a go at tilt-shift photography with your Micro Four Thirds camera or your Sony α NEX camera, you can do so with Lensbaby’s Tilt Transformer and Composer.

The Tilt Transformer will allow you to attach any Nikon mount lens onto your Micro Four Thirds or Sony α NEX camera. Whether you want to have a go with a prime, a macro, or a fisheye lens, the Tilt Transformer will be your friend.

The Lensbaby Tilt Transformer for all your Nikon glass

If you don’t happen to have a box of Nikon glass lying around ready to attach to the adapter, you can attach the Composer to the Tilt Transformer and play around producing tilt-shift pictures until your heart is content.

The Lensbaby Composer + Tilt Transformer

The Tilt Transformer is available for $250 from Lensbaby or Amazon US, whilst the Composer and Tilt Transformer together costs $350, also from Lensbaby or Amazon US.