Is It Worth Sticking With Flickr?

Flickr is fast approaching it’s ten year birthday and has had over 8 billion photographs uploaded to it but in recent years it has been overtaken by services like 500px, Instagram and even Facebook when it comes to deciding where to share your photos on the web. It’s not so much that Flickr was offering a bad service, it was just offering almost the same service as when it started up.

After rumours that Yahoo! may be looking to let Flickr go or even close it down a new CEO, Marissa Mayer, was appointed mid-way through last year and things have started to change. So is it worth sticking with Flickr? Let’s look at the pros and cons…read more here

On Lightstalking  Mark McGowan writes. Mark is a UK based urban landscape and architectural photographer, looking for the hidden details of city life, trying to show the city from a different point of view. You can visit his website here.

Alison Ryde

The Oxford School of Photography Flickr group can be found here

Click Here: Is It Worth Sticking With Flickr?

Study exposes social media sites that delete photographs’ metadata – British Journal of Photography

Facebook and Twitter consistently remove the metadata from images, a new study by the International Press Telecommunications Council has revealed.

Study exposes social media sites that delete photographs' metadata – British Journal of Photography.

The interesting part about this article is the comment posted by James Dodd, here is a bit of that “The number of these thieves who actually had a budget to purchase images in the first place is next to none, so we can’t moan as if we’re losing money because this money didn’t exist. Heck, people are now googling more for free photographs than they are for photographers, this is just the nature of our industry……”

7 Basic Tips That Will Make Your Stock Photographs Sell

On Lightstalking this useful article by Rachael Towne,  a professional photographer and editor of Photoluminary.

The microstock model is a relative newcomer in the world of commercial photography. Previously, only an elite few were able to make a decent living with stock photography since it required a lot of specialized training, expensive equipment and the elusive knowing the right people at the right time. The advent of digital photography turned this traditional stock world upside down and has made it all but obsolete. Anybody with a decent digital camera and a basic knowledge of photography has the potential to earn money with their photos now. However, in order to really make it big and earn a living with microstock, there are some things that are very important to know and do.

Click Here: 7 Basic Tips That Will Make Your Stock Photographs Sell Like Hotcakes

FORMAT International Photography Festival Derby March- April

This festival is one of the foremost held in the UK, featuring a wide range of activities including exhibitions, talks, tutorials, workshops and events. Spending time in Derby might not be your idea of fun but having such a huge range of photographic events in place for just one month might convince you to stay. The one thing that is irritating is their website, I am sure they think it looks very pretty and hip but it is a problem to navigate around. Spending time clicking to try and find venues listed is not my idea of a good website.

Established in 2004 by Louise Clements and Mike Brown, the biennale festival celebrates the wealth of contemporary practice in international photography and is now one of the UK’s leading non-profit international contemporary festivals of photography and related media.

FORMAT is focused on developing opportunities to platform the work of international photographers and to provide links for local/national practitioners to show work, exchange opportunities, skills and knowledge and for audiences to see, debate, develop and engage in the best of what photography is and can be.

8th March – 7th April

Here are just a few of the events.

Derby At Work Photo Walks

Walk and photo workshop with a photographer. Start at QUAD, learn street photo skills and explore the theme of Factory. End at the Chocolate Factory where a selection of your work will be exhibited as part of Derby At Work.

QUAD

Dates and Times 14. 21, 28 March & 4 April 13:00 -16:00 & 18:30 – 20:30 Cost: Free

Pinhole Photography Workshop

Venue The Photo Parlour Dates and Times 9, 16, 23, 30 March & 6 April 10:00 – 14:00 Cost: £23/17

Photography Day hosted by the Guardian Picture Desk

Talk led by Guardian Head of Photography Roger Tooth and award-winning Guardian photographers, with a focus on photojournalism, editing and the range of photography in newspapers today. Portfolio reviews by Guardian editors and photographers: bring your portfolio, join in the discussion or just come to listen.

Venue QUAD Dates and Times 16 March 11:00 – 16:00 Cost: £20

Self Publish, Be Happy Workshop

A two day intensive workshop conceived for people interested in publishing their own photography book run by Self Publish, Be Happy founder Bruno Ceschel.

Venue QUAD Dates and Times 23 & 24 March 11:00 – 17:00 Cost: £210

To see all of the events go to the FORMAT International Photography Festival website here

The 7 Common Habits of Remarkably Talented Photographers

From that other excellent antipodean photography blog, Lightstalking, we get this article by

Tiffany Mueller,  a professional music and fine art photographer. She has been published in various publications including magazines, art journals, as well as photography books. She blogs at Life Is Unabridged.

I think I probably agree with everything here so read on

One of the best ways to improve yourself is by observing the habits of those you find to be inspirational and talented. In doing so, we hope to learn what it is they have done that helped them achieve success. Of course, there’s no set route to the top of the photography game, but if you were to do a case study on the habits of some our favorite photographers chances are you’d find some very similar habits among them.

Here are some of the greatest photographers ever just in passing ©Magnum photographers

Click Here: The 7 Common Habits of Remarkably Talented Photographers

 

30 Things you Should Know to Help you Start a Photography Business

2 of my favourite photography blogs are based in Australia, in some ways I am not surprised by this as down under photography is taken seriously. You see photo galleries even in small towns and professional photographers seem to be genuinely interested in the craft of photography rather than it just being a means of making money. Does that mean I don’t think photography is taken seriously in the UK, well maybe. Not amongst the people who read our blog or come to us as students to learn but I do find many commercial operations are satisfied with the pictures that ‘Sarah’ from accounts can take because she has a good camera. Yes I exaggerate but the idea that making good pictures is just about having a decent camera does seem prevalent. The concept that a photographer with an understanding of communicating through images and experience of different situations and knowledge about the technical aspects is not one that many organisations take to heart when requiring images for a web site or brochures. So it was with pleasure that I found this from Digital Photo School in Melbourne suggesting that being a photographer requires more than just owning a camera.

©Keith Barnes

So here is some of the article from Digital Photo School by Gina Milicia that I suggest you read if you are thinking of becoming a photographer

1. Find the best photography course or workshops that work for you. try OSP as a start

If you are going to invest in a photography course/workshop do some serious research first.

It’s a huge investment so find out who the teachers are. Are they industry professionals that are going to be teaching you relevant styles and techniques?

Is the style of teaching suited to your personality and photography?

Who are the ex students that have gone on to create successful careers?

Consider weekend workshops and online courses held by experts in their fields.

2. Find a great mentor

3. Get as much industry experience as you can

4. Be Flexible when looking for an internships

The details of these points and the other 26 can be found here

 

 

Amensty International Media Awards 2013

The Amnesty International Media Awards were established in 1992 to recognise the best in human rights journalism.

They celebrate the breadth and quality of human rights reporting across the media – including broadcast, digital and print.

Over the past two decades the awards have grown in prestige, recognising excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledging journalism’s significant contribution to raising public awareness of human rights issues.

There are 10 categories in total, including the Photojournalism category for photographers. Entrants may submit a series of up to six photographs from a single portfolio, some or all of which must have been published on a UK website or in the UK press.

Photographers have until 01 March to submit their entries online or by post. There is a reduced entry fee for images submitted before midnight on 01 February.

There are 11 categories in the awards, recognising newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, digital and student journalism. Each is judged by an independent panel.

Further details here

Afterlight

Only four images in this set but an interesting idea

By Jan Kriwol
see the others here

Colour Run, Olympic Park, Sydney

Runners cheer after they finish the Colour Run at Sydney Olympic Park

Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters

10 Photography Grants and Scholarships for Amateurs and Professionals

The last thing from Lightstalking this time is an article by:

Jacob Maentz

I’m a freelance travel, culture and documentary photographer based in the Philippines. My passion lies in creating images that communicate a strong sense of place and cultural awareness in unique, challenging situations. You can see my work at www.jacobimages.com

For many of us photographers, whether hobbyists or professionals, there are times when additional resources are needed to continue or progress our work. Photography projects can be very time intensive and often require a lot of financial resources to see them to the end. I am a big believer in hard work, but without financial support our hard work can often go nowhere. One avenue of finding those financial resources is through photography grants or scholarships. I have complied a short list of ongoing photography grants and scholarships for those amateurs, students or working professionals. Again, this is a short list and there are many others out there if you search for them. Those listed below cover most all genera of photography, but most emphasis editorial, photojournalism and documentary.

Here are just two of the grants available, go to Lightstalking to catch the rest

Focus for Humanity (FFH):
FFH offers a Fellowship of up to US$5,000 for a non full-time photographer keen to focus on photography as a career and probably within the humanitarian or cultural field, but who needs that final push or help to overcome that last barrier that is stopping them turning full-time. The fellowship is awarded by means of a competitive portfolio review and an assessment of an online application form.

Getty Images:
Getty Images offers two types of grant. The first, Grants for Editorial Photography, is available to both professionals and students. Since 2005, they have awarded five Grants for Editorial Photography annually to professional photojournalists. Each grant provides $20,000, plus editorial, logistical and promotional support. They also award four student grants of $5,000 per year to photojournalism students at accredited schools. The second, Grants for Good, consists of two grants of $15,000 annually, to cover photographer, filmmaker and agency costs as they create compelling new imagery for the nonprofit of their choice.

Click Here: 10 Photography Grants and Scholarships for Amateurs and Professionals