Atkins Ciwem Environmental Photographer of the Year 2014

Winner of the Atkins Ciwem environmental film of the year 2014: Mohammad Fahim Ahamed Riyad, In search of life, 2014

“A fireman is looking for any signs of life after a fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh. About 400 shanty homes were gutted and four people died in this incident, including a six-year-old child. However, no casualties were ever officially reported and the reason of the fire remained unknown.”

Winner of the Forestry Commission England exhibition award 2014: Luke Duggleby, Wrapping the surviving tree, 2013

“Cambodian Buddhist monks and local villagers bless one of the remaining large trees in an area destroyed to make way for a banana plantation. Whilst arriving too late to stop the destruction completely, by wrapping an orange cloth around the remaining trees and praying, they are making the trees sacred with the hope to deter future loggers. Following uncontrolled forest destruction in the Central Cardamom protected forest in south-west Cambodia, an eco-warrior monk movement has begun to try and protect areas of forest at risk.”

Winner of the Atkins City Scape award 2014: Faisal Azim, Life in the circle, 2013

“According to a government report, the total number of beggars, or vagabonds, across Bangladesh is now more than 900,000. The literal meaning of ‘vagabond’ indicates a person who has the capacity to work but is choosing not doing so. It also refers to a person who has no specific place of residence. A vagabond appears to contradict the right to life and freedom of movement, which are guaranteed as fundamental rights by the Bangladeshi constitution. There are allegations of physical, mental and even sexual torture against people in shelter centres.”

Winner of the Ciwem award 2014: Bogumil Kruzel, Man in the face of nature I, 2014 

“Wieliczka Salt Mine. Engels Leaching Tower, 135m below ground level. A few such towers were built in the mine. Saline water flows through the tower, dissolving lumps of salt placed inside to produce fully saturated brine.”

see the full article here

Nikon D810 – first look and review

Nikon have updated their ground breaking D800 with the snappily named D810 here is some information and a review from DP Review

Two years after Nikon shook up the high-end DSLR market with the 36MP D800 and D800E, it has consolidated the 800-series with the release of a new camera, the D810. The D810 replaces both previous 800-series models, and will be offered at an MSRP of $3299 – about the same as the D800E, and a little more than the D800. Why is the D810 priced like the D800E, and not the D800? Well, the D810 takes the D800E’s ‘AA filter cancellation’ trick one step further by dispensing with an AA filter entirely, which should result in a camera that offers greater resolution than either of the two models that it replaces.

Anti-aliasing filter aside, the D810 is not by any means a reinvention of the popular D800/E concept, but the handful of major changes should make the new camera more capable than its predecessors. Perhaps more importantly, they should also make the camera more attractive to potential buyers who have been weighing up whether or not to jump into full-frame. The D810 isn’t a camera that you should necessarily sell your D800 or D800E for, but it’s a better camera than both older models – at least on paper.

Following Nikon’s general philosophy a few of the refinements made in the D4S have trickled down into the D810 and videographers especially should be pleased with a couple of the additions to its video feature set. Other welcome changes include a redesigned shutter and mirror mechanism to mitigate resolution-reducing shock from shutter actuation, and a new S-Raw mode for reduced-resolution raw capture (Nikon owners have been asking for that one for years).

Nikon D810: Key Specifications

36.3MP Full-frame CMOS sensor (no AA filter)
ISO 64-12,800 (expands to ISO 32-51,200)
Electronic first-curtain shutter and redesigned mirror mechanism
New ‘RAW Size S’ 9MP Raw mode
Expeed 4 engine
Max 5fps shooting in FX mode, 7fps in DX (with battery grip + EN-EL18 / AA batteries)
3.2in 1,229k-dot RGBW LCD screen with customizable color
OLED viewfinder information display
Improved Scene Recognition System allows face detection in OVF mode
‘Split screen zoom’ display in live view allows horizons/lines to be leveled precisely
51-point AF system with new ‘Group Area AF’ mode (inherited from D4S)
New ‘flat’ Picture Control mode (intended to appeal to videographers)
Auto ISO available in manual exposure mode
Zebra strips for focus checking in video mode
Uncompressed HDMI output with simultaneous recording to memory card
Built-in stereo microphone

D810 versus D800/E: Specification highlights

36.3MP full-frame CMOS sensor with no AA filter (D800E has effects of AA filter ‘canceled’)
5fps maximum shooting in FX mode (compared to 4fps in D800/E)
New ‘Group Area AF’ mode (5 AF points can act together)
New electronic first-curtain shutter and redesigned sequencer/mirror balancer to reduce vibrations
New ‘highlight-weighted’ metering option (to preserve highlight detail in contrasty scenes)
1080/60p movie recording with built-in stereo mic (compared to 1080/30p with monaural audio)
3.2″ 1,229k-dot RGBW LCD screen (compared to 3.2″ 921k-dot RGB)
Power aperture available while shooting video to SD/CF card (compared to only when using HDMI)
The ability to record to memory card while simultaneously outputting video over HDMI
New ‘flat’ Picture Control mode (intended for videographers who need broader dynamic range)
Unlimited continuous shooting (previously 100-frame limit)

See the full review here