National Photography Symposium 2012

Redeye presents its fourth National Photography Symposium on 27 to 29 April 2012.

It takes place in London, in and around Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA, as part of what promises to be a highly stimulating hotbed of photographic events at World Photo London.

The National Photography Symposium explores the most critical and talked-about subjects for photography and photographers. It’s strongly recommended for anyone interested in the development of photography in the UK, who might want to understand or influence how the big decisions get made.

Subjects include work and the economy, collaborations, archives, press ethics, the print market, and a host of informal discussions and inspiring presentations.

Speakers this year include Simon Norfolk, Jem Southam, Anne McNeill, Peter Kennard, Esther Teichmann, David Hoffman, Pete James, Sara T’Rula, Pauline Hadaway, Neil Turner, Andrew Wiard, and more confirming all the time.

link: More details

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Online ‘Usage Calculator’

The AOP has launched a public, free to use, Usage Calculator. Its intended to be a key tool to help you in your usage negotiations whether you are a photographer, agent, agency or client.

The Usage Calculator is an online version of the calculations in Beyond The Lens (Rights, Ethics and Business Practice in Professional Photography).

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UK Student Bursaries

The Royal Photographic Society currently has two bursaries available for students. The first is themed around environmental awareness and closes on 31 May 2012 (details here: www.rps.org/bursaries) and has a second available for over 25s; the second is to support postgraduate students undertaking photographic research or studying Masters courses in photography at UK Colleges and Universities (details here: http://www.rps.org/education/Bursary-Information) and closes on 29 June 2012.

The environmental award offers £3000 and the post-grad award £3500.

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Lightroom v4 and Camera Raw 6.7

The new Lightroom version 4 is available as of 6 March.
Its got a new lower price of $149 / £95, or upgrade for $73 / £60

The new version of ACR is also available
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cameraraw6-7/

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2012/03/adobe-camera-raw-6-7-and-dng-converter-6-7-available-on-adobe-labs.html

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Survey: Copyright claims court


The AOP is canvasing a survey…

Following on from the Hargreaves report, the Government have recognised that a small claims court which deals with copyright cases is needed. A consultation has been issued to which the AOP are replying.

Please complete a short survey to enable us to submit evidence to back up our reply.

Many thanks for your help.

Click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QTL2X66

 

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New light on Adobe upgrade options?

There has been much disgruntlement amongst Photoshop users on the changes Adobe have made to their upgrade paths. Many were wooed into trying the full Adobe Suite and then found that they could not upgrade to just Photoshop, when they found they didn’t really use the rest of the package. Others who typically skipped a version as upgrades were released, now find that they are out of the loop if they don’t have the immediately preceding version to upgrade from.

Well now Adobe have published the following press release which might be seen to dangle a carrot…

Upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 customers

With these great new releases coming in the first half of 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

We’re very excited about the upcoming release of Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 software and Adobe Creative Cloud CS6 will be a major new release of our creative desktop tools, with huge improvements for every type of creative professional. Adobe Creative Cloud will be our most comprehensive creative solution ever, giving members access to all of the CS6 desktop software plus additional services, new tools, Adobe Touch Apps, and rich community features. In addition, Creative Cloud members will receive continuous upgrades and updates to all products and services as part of their membership.

link: Adobe Upgrade Policy

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AOP works on a new home

Its gratifying that the latest newsletter from The Association of Photographers reports what we have know has been needed for many years… that a new business model for the organisation is finally being put in place… whuhay!

Along with this is the final abandonment of its grandiose plans for expensive showcase premises in the East End on London, remnants of the advertising glory days of bygone years.
The Leonard Street building has been sold. Instead the Association is refurbishing a building which will be more pragmatically located…

The new premises, located on Downham Road, near Haggerston station on Kingsland Road has a double shop front on Downham Road and the rear of the property is almost 70 feet wide. This will have floor to ceiling glass windows and doors opening out onto decking, overlooking the end of a large canal basin. We will now have space that not only provides us with a separate open plan office and adequate storage, but also facilities for members to use when they call in and a bespoke multi-purpose members room that can host talks, workshops, Board meetings and the AGM.
The plan is to move into the completed premises in June/July.

Now all they need to do is work out a more realistic membership fee structure, a way of continuing to provide support for ‘photographers rights’ for the years to come, and delivery of a service which is worth the money for those beyond the cosy enclave of East London and the West End. Then, maybe, they will get the membership numbers and regain the respect that the organisation has deserved in the past.

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AOP downsizing

aop banner

Press Release: For immediate release 1 June 2011

Starts:

The Association of Photographers is pleased to confirm that it has sold the building it owned in Leonard Street and is now leasing space back, until it has found and purchased new, more suitable premises.

The sale was prompted by the Association’s decision in December 2010 to close the AOP Gallery this year, after 25 years of continuous operation and almost 13 of which at Leonard Street in order to focus on the core activities of the Association and be able to offer more to members.

With the growth of online galleries and other means of disseminating work, demand from members to use the Gallery has fallen to a trickle over the last few years, leading the Board to suggest that the resources required to keep it open, could be better channeled into other activities that provide far stronger benefits to the membership as a whole. The membership voted in favour of selling the building at a General Meeting in February this year.

The Association will continue to curate and produce exhibitions of members work, predominately through its Awards Shows. One of the benefits of closure will be that many new venues are now available to the Association through which partnerships can be built and where members could put on exhibitions, should they choose.

The Gallery will be closing at the beginning of August and the last show will be announced separately, later this week.

At the end of September this year, we will be holding a series of 3 new exhibitions that will run into Photo Month, each at a different location and each representing the winners of the Association’s Awards.

The first exhibition, presentation and Awards Evening will be The Photographers Awards at P3 in Marylebone. This will be followed by The Assistant Awards exhibition, presentation and Awards Evening, which will be held at the Hoxton Gallery. The third exhibition, presentation and Awards Evening will be The Open Awards and we are planning to hold this at the Truman Brewery. (More information will be provided separately)

We will continue to hold our monthly career talks, portfolio critiques and one-off seminars in suitable and appropriate spaces, borrowed or hired for the event.

Change can be difficult, but we believe that this opportunity presents us with a new and exciting time for the Association which will allow us to focus more on the activities that benefit our entire membership and encourage more to join us.

The relocation of the Association is a first step to providing increased benefits to our membership, better value for money and more activity in the areas that our members value the most. Our core values of promoting, protecting and educating have remained relevant throughout the Association’s history and we expect them to be so even more in the future. The business of photography has never been tougher and there are huge pressures facing our members and the industry as a whole. It is fundamentally important that we continue to support our members in every way we can.

Ends.

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Pink Door

Photographer Rodney Rascona is featured heavily in the ongoing drive to support the Haitian appeals to help the rebuilding of those areas devastated last year.

His work can be seen in The Pink Door Photographs exhibition. It goes on show in London, first to an invited audience then to the general public, in June.

The backstory of why these images were created: http://tiny.cc/kau7o

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UK Arts Funding Axe

As you may know the UK government is making cuts in lots of areas.

The arts are so often seen as a “luxury” by politicians and that’s where some of the heaviest cuts fall.

Funding in the photography sector has felt that axe in today’s announcement.
All in all not a good day for the arts; for photography specifically, Side Gallery, Hereford Festival, The Culture Company, Pavilion, Four Corners lost their funding.

This is despite the ‘Creative Industries’ (art, design, advertising, music and the like) being responsible for a very significant parts of the UK’s gross national product. The creative arts contribute a lot.

In a House of Lords debate of 2007 quoted by the website They Work For You.com…

“The creative industries are not a cultural sideshow. They are not trivial just because a lot of them relate to entertainment. They are a key economic driver; indeed, they are the fastest growing sector of the economy, growing at 5 per cent per annum and generating 7.3 per cent of the UK’s GDP. They are bigger than the financial services sector and provide jobs for around 2 million people. Recent technological advances, the internet, digitalisation and so on are only increasing their potential. The UK has the third largest computer and video games market in the world, the third largest market for music sales and the economic benefit of the visual arts sector is estimated to be in the region of £1.5 billion per annum. In an era which has seen manufacturing jobs halved since 1997, the creative sector is the new economy. Real value nowadays lies in design, not manufacture.”

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Kodak Easy

In an occasional pointer to some useful products we’re pleased to list some Kodak consumer products that you might jam in your pocket. For a list of various items go here “Kodak EasyShare Mini reviews

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Lucie Awards winner Rodney Rascona

pink door

Photographer Rodney Rascona has been named Winner of Lucie Awards’ 2010 Photographer of the Year: Deeper Perspective.

Rodney writes…
“The images known as “The Pink Door Photographs”, a series of iconic portraits created in Haiti weeks after the earthquake…was recognized, nominated for and won, a LUCIE at the 2010 LUCIE Awards ceremony at the Lincoln Center in New York at the end of October out of a pool of some 15,000 submissions from 106 countries. I was one of three photographers from it’s sister organization, The International Photography Awards (IPA) to be nominated to take home a LUCIE statuette that night. To be honored that the evening by my peers and to have been recognized in a room full of some of the industry’s best image makers won’t soon be forgotten.”

Link: video of the 2010 finalists http://www.photoawards.com/en/
(Rodney’s Pink Door photos appear at 3:50)

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Finnish Arts Council Award: Gary Wornell

gary wornell

Ellie Kennard, one of our Prodig Listmoms, writes…
I am incredibly proud of my brother, Prodig member Gary Wornell, an
artist and photographer who has just been presented with an award in
Finland where he now lives.

“YLE Finnish Broadcasting Organisation
Arts Council of Häme Art Award
26.11.2010

Arts Council Award goes to Artist Photographer Gary Wornell

The article translated in English:

The Arts Council of Häme Art Prize has been given to the Riihimäki artist
Gary Wornell. He is internationally recognized for pioneering new working
methods in ink jet printing.

The three thousand Euro prize is awarded for nationally or internationally
significant work.

Canadian born multidisciplinary photographer and graphic artist Gary
Wornell came to Finland via England in 1995. Like a chameleon the artist
has changed and adapted to new technologies in looking for new
directions. He was surprised to receive the award.

“This came as a big surprise for me. Normally one just goes on with
one’s work, but it’s wonderful” said the artist.

“The last year has been very busy and I have travelled a lot and worked
towards new product with Japanese and Chinese papers for inkjet.”

The last few years Wornell has developed new ink jet printing techniques
that extends the range and expands the possibilities of the field. As an
artist Gary Wornell is an inventor breaking new ground in the field of ink
jet art not limiting himself to one art form.”

Image: Pakistani women at the Wagah border ceremony, Lahore, 2010 : © Gary Wornell

Link: www.garywornell.com

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Offer via Peter Krogh

Phase One, the owner of Expression Media software has created a limited time deal to get a copy of Expression Media 2 image catalog software for FREE with the purchase of my book, The DAM Book, Digital Asset Management for Photographers (O’Reilly 2009).

microsoft-expression-media-2Expression Media 2 is a great tool for managing a photo collection. It can catalog and organize hundreds of file types, including nearly every image file format, and dozens of audio, video, text and other document formats. Expression Media 2 normally retails for $199. During the month of October, it comes free with the purchase of a $49.95 book.

I have found that many people think this offer is too good to be true.
What’s the catch? There is none – Phase One simply wants to get the word out that they are serious about helping digital photographers take care of their images.

I have set up a special page where purchase must be made in order to get the free software.

dam-book-kroghhttp://thedambook.com/prodig

This offer only lasts another 10 days.

Peter Krogh Author,
The DAM Book,
Digital Asset Management for Photographers
Second Edition May, 2009
www.theDAMbook.com

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