January 20, 2012
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
Posted in software 
No Comments »
January 20, 2012
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.
Posted in current affairs No Comments »
June 1, 2011
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.
Posted in announcements, current affairs No Comments »
March 30, 2011
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.”
Posted in current affairs No Comments »
November 30, 2010
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
Posted in features No Comments »
October 21, 2010
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).
Expression 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.
http://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
Posted in announcements No Comments »
June 9, 2010
Adobe Press Release:-
SAN JOSE, Calif., – June, 2010 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe(r)
Photoshop(r) Lightroom(r) 3 software for Windows(r) and Macintosh, the essential digital photography workflow solution that allows photographers to quickly organize, enhance and showcase their images from one application. First released as a public beta in October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles growing image libraries and provides an unrivaled raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve the highest image quality. The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimize workflows and allow images to be shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.
“There have been over 600,000 downloads of the Lightroom 3 public beta, which has supplied us with a huge amount of valuable feedback from a passionate community of professional and advanced amateur photographers,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe. “The open dialog we have with our customers allows us to further improve Lightroom and provide the best tools they need to produce high-quality images. We’re happy to see that so many people are anxiously anticipating the final release, so they can start taking advantage of all the new features they had a hand in developing.”
Public Beta Process Perfects Lightroom 3 New Features
Re-built from its core to be lightening fast and responsive, Lightroom 3 adds power throughout the application to provide a fluid experience for photographers. Images load almost instantaneously, and the import experience has been redesigned to be more intuitive, with added previews and default selections that give users quick access to sort through and find images. Helping streamline and adapt to photographers’ changing workflows, Lightroom 3 now allows users to import and manage DSLR video files, as well as take advantage of tethered shooting for select Nikon and Canon cameras.
New state-of-the-art photographic tools help photographers bring out the best in their images. Unrivaled Luminance and Color Noise Reduction tools help produce a clearer picture from high ISO or underexposed images while still preserving details. The highly-requested Automatic Lens Correction feature can dramatically improve the results possible with any lens by allowing users to apply profiles that correct for undesirable geometric distortions, chromatic aberrations, and lens vignette effects that most lenses introduce to the image. Users now also have a straighten tool to perfect vertical and horizontal perspective, additional presets for applying more photographic adjustment styles, and three new contemporary vignette styles and a Grain effect to add a more natural look with images.
Lightroom 3 Expands Image Showcasing
Output options have also been enhanced in this release, with new capabilities to publish collections on online sharing sites. Flickr(r) users have the ability to synch their accounts to Lightroom with one click, and integration with additional online photo sharing sites can be added via third-party plug-ins. Customizable print layouts provide more refined control over how photographers present final images, and new watermarking features with options to modify text, size, location and style, help give professionals and amateurs flexibility for branding images. Lightroom 3 now also includes the ability to export polished slideshows as video files with the option to add audio and title screens.
Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Macintosh is available now at www.adobe.com/store, for pre-order via Amazon.com and NewEgg.com and will be available soon at retail and online outlets such as Frys, BestBuy.com, Costco.com, Walmart.com, Staples.com, OfficeMax.com, OfficeDepot.com and select camera stores.
The estimated street price is USD $299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for qualified registered Lightroom users. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OS X v 10.5, 10.6 with Intel(r) based processor, or Microsoft(r) Windows(r) 7, Windows Vista(r) Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise or Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4 processor, 2 GB RAM and a 1,024×768 resolution screen.
Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom. Join the Lightroom community on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lightroom) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/lightroom).
Posted in Lightroom, announcements No Comments »
rss
podcast feed
follow Listowner
Today, The Digital Economy Bill underwent its Committee Stage and Third Reading in the House of Commons. In the course of the debate, 
listen in iTunes