Category Archives: Pictures

Kew’s Seed Bank Hits 24,200 Species

Posted on October 16, 2009 | Leave a comment
Kew Seed Bank 2009 – Images by Edmond Terakopian


Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank partnership celebrates banking its 24,200th species, a Yunnan banana seed – a pink wild banana from China which is an important staple for wild Asian elephants (Musa itinerans). Royal Botanical Gardens Kew is celebrating collecting, banking and conserving 10% of the world’s wild plant species. Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, Wakehurst Place, East Sussex. The seed is banked inside the vault which is kept at minus twenty degrees centigrade.

Must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. Its astonishing to see the size of the project and how much has been achieved already. It still leaves 90% to be collected though, so visit their web site and see if you can help out.

At work with my 5D MkIIs and Think Tank Photo bag and pouches

Photographically speaking, I took a couple of Canon 5D MkII bodies and mostly used the 15mm f2.8 Fisheye, 16-35mm f2.8L II, 35mm f1.4L, 50mm f2.5 Macro and the 85mm f1.2L II.
What really surprised me was how well the cameras and lenses behaved, but more so the batteries; I was going from minus 20 degrees centigrade (which reached minus 30 near the coolers because of the wind chill) to hot and humid greenhouses and then back again to the arctic temperatures. After having shot over 1000 RAWs, both cameras’ batteries showed full power! Astonishing.

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Conflict Photography

Posted on August 25, 2009 | Leave a comment
How does one cover a conflict? The conventional way is to show either frontline action with soldiers or the effects it has on human life by photographing death and suffering of people caught up in the conflict. Both, very powerful ways of documenting our inhumanity.

I came across a third way, which had I not seen it, but only been described the method, I would have automatically have suggested that it would not work. It was of the remains of war and specifically the places, or spaces which are abandoned as war settles in and destroys.

Furniture is seen in the living room of a house that was damaged during the Hezbollah-Israel summer war 2006, in Bint Jbeil, south of Lebanon.


The project is called Abandoned Spaces by photographer Dalia Khamissy. I first saw the project at her presentation at Photo Forum in London. It was a unique and surprisingly emotional look at the Lebanon war of 2006. The reason I say emotional is because there isn’t a single person in the photographs, but the spaces which they have left abandoned, destroyed by bombs and gunfire, speak so much about who they were and how they lived during happier and more sedate times.

You can see the project HERE and there is an interesting article on her work HERE.

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Miss England 2009

Posted on July 29, 2009 | Leave a comment


Miss England 2009
Originally uploaded by edopix

Here’s a quick post to let you know that I have posted a selection of images from the Miss England 2009 contest. You can find a small edit on my Flickr page and also a much larger edit with opportunities to buy prints and downloads for publishing on my Photoshelter page.

It was an interesting job lasting two days; a day of rehearsals followed by another morning of rehearsals and the evening’s competition. Surprisingly tiring though. I shot the rehearsals with a couple of Canon 5D MkII bodies, 16-35mm f2.8L II, 35mm f1.4L, 85mm f1.2L II, 135mm f2. When the contest began I added a Canon 1D MkIII and a 70-200mm f2.8L lens. All the spare lenses were carried in a ThinkTank Photo Skins pouch set attached to a Belly Dancer harness. Made the job so much easier!

The hardest thing was to get natural shots of the contestants when they were off stage. They have been taught to be so aware of the camera that they would immediately pose. After a while though, as they became bored, it became easier and I managed a few nice candid moments.

The 5D MkII surprised again; the light backstage was so dim, that I thought even with my f1.2 and f1.4 lenses I was going to struggle; as you can see, the camera helped me make some rather nice images. Amazing.

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From the Upper Deck

Posted on July 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

253 to Euston
Every once in a while I come across a project or a set of pictures that stops me in my tracks. This is one of those instances. I first became aware of Przemek Wajerowicz images through Twitter; he started following me and after looking through his posts, I followed him back. He has a great blog with new pictures every day.

9 to Aldwych
Its a genius idea, and as with all genius ideas, its so simple. He photographs from the upper deck of the buses in London. Its such a great idea, and even more so, a great set of photographs. His eye is for the obscure and quirky; I definitely recommend you have a look through his work; do pay close attention though as there’s usually something very subtle going on within the frame too.

36 to New Cross
When I asked him to send me a short biography, all he had to say was “I am just an ordinary guy who takes photos”. Well, they are superb! In the ‘about‘ section of his web site he describes this work as “Only a sketch pad of ongoing photography project. All photos were taken with 50mm lens”.

If the Mayor of London’s office had any sense, they would approach him immediately to exhibit his work and also start using his beautiful imagery to promote the bus service (Come on Boris!).

I’d go even as far as saying that Przemek is like a modern day Henri Cartier-Bresson on the busses.

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The Press Photographer’s Year Winners Announced

Posted on July 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

PPY (Press Photographer’s Year) have announced this years winners.



A big congratulation to all the authors of the chosen works and specially to the author of the Photograph of the Year, the biggest accolade given in the competition, Rosie Hallam.

I’m happy to say that one of my images, a shot of Barack Obama, has made it into the “Selected” photographs (its number 108 in the slideshow).

A big congratulations also to the winner of the Multimedia section, Abbie Trayler-Smith, who’s audio slideshow can be viewed below:

Still Human Still Here; Refused asylum seekers in the UK. from Anna Stevens on Vimeo.

The exhibition opens at the National Theatre’s Lyttleton Foyer on July 4 and will continue until August 31st.

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Posted in News, Photography, Pictures

Its Fashion Darling!

Posted on June 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

Its Fashion Darling! from Edmond Terakopian on Vimeo.

Photo slideshow of several years of work from London Fashion Week.

Technical Notes:
Photos were edited and processed using Aperture. Audio was put together using Soundtrack Pro and the slideshow was done on Final Cut Pro.

You can see all of the photographs used in this Flickr set.

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Posted in Photography, Pictures