Category Archives: Photography

Images On Flickr

Just a quick note to let you all know that I’m now also posting my images onto Flickr.

For professional purposes and ordering prints, my Photoshelter site is still the one to use, but for browsing pictures and leaving comments, do check out my Flickr page.

New FaceBook Fan Page


FaceBook & Twitter are a great way of keeping in touch and networking, both in a professional and a social sense.

I’ve just set up a FaceBook page HERE for anyone who’s interested in my work. There are already seven projects on-line to look at and I’ll be updating it with more photographs as time goes on.
Please feel free to pass on the link to anyone who is interested in photography, journalism and technology. So, swing by and click the “Become a Fan” button. From time to time I’ll be sending out updates on my work and also any news which will be interesting. Cheers 🙂

HRH Prince Charles Speaks At The Sony World Photography Award

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales speaks at the Sony World Photography Awards 2009, and announces the winner of the Prince’s Rainforests Project Professional Award, Daniel Beltrá. This video was shown on the night of the awards.


As I mentioned in an earlier post, Daniel Beltra won the Prince’s Rainforests Project Professional Award. This video is from the evening of the awards ceremony and has a clip showing Daniel’s visit to the Palace to meet HRH and receive his award.

Beltra Wins Prince’s Rainforests Project Award

Fires burn the Amazon rainforest to clear the ground for cattle or crop farming in Sao Felix Do Xingu municipality in Para State, Brazil, August 13, 2008. Photo: Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace


Congratulations to Daniel Beltra for winning the Prince’s Rainforests Project Award. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Daniel for over three years now and a nicer and more dedicated photographer you could not find.


Daniel Beltrá, is announced as the winner of The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP) Award at this year’s Sony World Photography Awards Gala ceremony in Cannes, France on Thursday 16 April 2009. 

 

The Spanish photographer, now based in Seattle, beat off stiff competition from some of the world’s finest environmental photographers to win a fully-funded assignment to document three rainforest regions of the world. On behalf of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony Eco, he will travel through the rainforest nations over the course of three months.  

Daniel Beltra on a recent assignment in the Amazon.

The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP), founded by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, recognises the global role played by rainforests in climate change and aims to achieve consensus about how the rate of deforestation might be slowed and stopped. There is a growing awareness of the need to urgently protect the world’s rainforests, their people and their resources. The project is working alongside other governmental and non-governmental initiatives to find a solution to deforestation for the rainforests nations, with the aim of making the trees worth more live than they are 

dead. The project is also working to inform and engage public interest on this subject, collecting mass support to make rainforests central to any future climate change strategy.  

In a video message at the awards night, HRH The Prince of Wales, said: “Photographic imagery can tell a compelling story about the truth of the situation and, the truth is, if we lose the fight against tropical deforestation, then we lose the fight against climate change.” 

 

Daniel Beltrá, on the announcement of his award, commented: ”Winning The Prince’s Rainforests Project category at the Sony World Photography Awards is a tremendous honour. It is an incredible opportunity to work as part of a team of the most qualified professionals that are focused in protecting the world’s tropical rainforests. Tackling their destruction is one of the most effective ways to combat carbon emissions and global warming. His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales’ leadership in this matter is an example to all of us. I hope the photos I produce will make a strongly persuasive argument for the urgent preservation of the world’s tropical rainforests.” 

 

Well known for his environmental and conservational photography, for the last twenty years, Daniel Beltrá’s images of the rapidly changing planet have appeared in many of the world’s most prestigious magazines and newspapers. His photographic career began with the Spanish news agency, EFE, after which he became Gamma Agency’s correspondent in Spain. In 2001 he moved to the United States where his work is now represented by Reportage by Getty Images. Beltra has also freelanced with Greenpeace since 1990. 

 

Tom Stoddart, Chair of the PRP Award Judging Committee said: “For over two decades Daniel’s cameras have highlighted man’s devastating impact on the planet by depicting the destruction of ancient forests, peoples, oceans, species and the ozone layer.  His passion and talent to inform in tandem with his artistic eye, makes him the perfect recipient of this most prestigious and important award.” 

NG Infinite Photograph

National Geographic’s infinite photograph which was made from over 300,000 pictures. Neat!

Too Much Reliance On Photoshop

I grew up shooting film and got into the profession when we were shooting black and white film for the papers. There was always the art of the darkroom where pictures were brought to life, but for colour, one had to basically reply on getting it right in camera for colour negative and much more so for slide film.

Compared to Photoshop, the level of change one could bring to a black and white image in a darkroom was miniscule. We now live in a digital age and I have for the most part embraced this age of megapixels and terabytes and given up the days of D76 and Multigrade. However, these are just tools and the importance of the photograph is as has always been; there is a purity and a challenge to get it right in camera and I for one will keep this approach to photography. If we’re talking of any form of photojournalism, then the viewer has to be able to trust the image and its content.
I’ve lectured and made presentations in several venues, including Cambridge University, and judged several competitions as far and wide as the Russian Press Awards to the British Regional Press Awards. The one thing that I’m seeing more and more, as each generation of photographer who joins our ranks of professional image maker, is the total reliance of all things digital and binary, and up to a point, a loss in the purity of getting it right; the art of taking a picture.
My comments aren’t about the aesthetic of composition, the content nor the timing, but the finished product. Photoshopping, to Photoshop, has become a commonly used verb, and alas has also become a commonly used technique to spruce up a picture. I’m not talking about the extreme crimes of removing or adding elements, but of ridiculous use of contrast, saturation, luminance, dodging, burning and masking. I see this more and more.
Recently, three Danish photographers were asked to submit their RAW files to the Picture of the Year competition in Denmark. The judges felt that they could not trust the images they were looking at and wanted to see the original untouched images. I for one applaud this. Photography is about presentation, but most of it is actually in the picture taking part. Its more challenging and is harder, but trust me, its so satisfying when you get it just right.
Give it a try! Set your camera’s to shoot neutrally. Zero adjustment on all things and take the time and care to expose your images properly. Try a hand held incident light meter or learn to use the spot meter properly and choose the manual mode. All digital images, be they scans or digitally taken images need some tweaking; white balance correction (in camera or after the fact), some sharpening and a tweak in luminance using levels or curves. The image should look like what you saw, not what you can imagine!