Absolutely thrilled to share that the 16th International Color Awards have honoured some of my work. It’s great to have my work judged alongside other photographers’ work from 72 countries, by a jury of international photography curators, editors and other professionals.
I received one win, as an Honorary Mention in the Silhouette category, for one of my street photography pictures. The photograph was made on the King’s Road in London, using my Leica M10-D and lovely 1970s Leica 50mm Summicron.
The still life photographs were made using a Benro geared head and tripod. Lighting was with PixaPro and Godox lights. As always, all photographs were shot in raw. The raw files were then processed in LightRoom Classic on my Mac Pro, using calibrated Eizo CG monitors and finished off in Exposure Software’s X7.
With thanks to the jury, comprised of members from The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Art Channel, London; Groninger Museum, Netherlands; Koller Auctions, Zurich; Preus Museum, Norway; Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery, New York; Publicis Groupe, Warsaw; Chung 24 Gallery, San Francisco; Kolle Rebbe, Hamburg; Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr Auctions, Brussels; Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia; William Shearburn Gallery, Saint Louis; Museo d’arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo), Bologna; and Clamp, New York.
Absolutely thrilled to share that three of my photographs have been shortlisted for the British Photography Awards 2022. The chosen images span my photojournalistic work as well as my creative product photography, specialising in writing instruments.
Alongside the judged categories, there is also a a public vote, which helps choose the separate People’s Choice Awards winners.
I’d appreciate it tremendously if you would pop over to the shortlisted images of 2022 and cast your votes. It’s one vote per category. As luck would have it, my three images are in different categories; Commercial: Product, Documentary and Macro. If you like the photographs, your support will as always, be deeply appreciated. You could even vote for all three images, if they appeal to your visual tastes of course! The public voting will close on November 4th.
My photojournalistic, portrait, commercial, corporate and street photography work can be seen on my main Instagram, Terakopian.
All images were shot in raw and processed on an Apple Mac Pro using calibrated Eizo CG screens, with LightRoom Classic and finished in Exposure Software’s X7.
Immensely proud, excited, honoured and delighted to share that my portfolio of five portraits, are a finalist in the prestigious UK Picture Editors’ Guild Awards.
The portfolio is shortlisted in the DMGT Portrait Photographer of the Year category, alongside three folios from colleagues. My gratitude to the team of judges, made up of the UK’s picture editors for their stellar work.
Alongside the judged categories, there is also a public vote category. For the first time, photographs from the shortlisted finalists in the nine categories will be put to a public vote, so that you may choose your favourite, for the IMAGO Photograph of the Year. There is a prize of two tickets to New York, chosen at random from the public voters.
Once you have registered and confirmed your registration, you can access the voting page, you will see all selected entries, to vote. You can vote for one photograph only. If you like my highlighted portrait of the miner for the public vote, it is ID: 1105 in the DMGT Portrait Photographer of the Year section. The UK Picture Editors’ Guild will choose a name at random from those who voted and will receive two tickets to New York courtesy of Norse Atlantic Airways.
All images were shot in raw and processed on an Apple Mac Pro using calibrated Eizo CG screens, with LightRoom Classic and finished in Exposure Software’s X7.
Angelika Ghazaryan, a descendant of Genocide Survivors, at the 106th Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide of April 24th, 1915. Members of the British Armenian community gather at the remembrance service for the 1.5 Million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Empire. US President Joe Biden has become the first US president to issue a statement formally describing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide by the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) on the day that Armenian communities around the world marked the killing of 1.5 million Armenians. St Yeghiche Armenian Church, London, UK. April 25, 2021. Photo: Edmond Terakopian. Camera Gear: Lumix G9 and Voigtlander 29mm f0.8 MFT Super Nokton Lens.An XR protestor is seen through the broken window of a bus, which was broken when the Police stormed the bus as the Extinction Rebellion action began. Extinction Rebellion protestors block off the southern end of London Bridge. London, UK. August 31, 2021. Photo: Edmond Terakopian. Camera Gear: Panasonic Lumix G9 and Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f2.8II.A mourner commemorates the victims of the Genocide, during a church service, as candles lit in prayer illuminate the back of the church. Joe Biden has become the first US president to issue a statement formally describing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide by the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) on the day that Armenian communities around the world marked the killing of 1.5 million Armenians. (London, UK) 106th Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide of April 24th. Members of the British Armenian community gather at the remembrance service for the 1.5 Million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Empire. St Yeghiche Armenian Church, London, UK. April 25, 2021. Photo: Edmond Terakopian. Camera Gear: Lumix S1 and Lumix S Pro 70-200mm f2.8.Extinction Rebellion protestors block off the southern end of London Bridge. London, UK. August 31, 2021. Photo: Edmond Terakopian. Camera Gear: Leica M10-D and a 1960s Leica 50mm Rigid Summicron.
Absolutely thrilled to receive the good news from Los Angeles that three of my pictures have been judged into the winner’s circle with honourable mentions and that two other images have been nominated, in the 15th International Color Awards, from close to 6800 entered images.
Many thanks to all the judges (The Armory Show, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Art Channel, London; V&A Museum, London; Koller Auctions, Zurich; Preus Museum, Norway; Publicis Groupe, Warsaw; Fila, New York; Chung | Namont Gallery, San Francisco; Kolle Rebbe, Hamburg; Tilton Gallery, New York; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Cornette de Saint Cyr Auctions, Brussels; Podbielski Contemporary, Milan and RedKite NFT, London) and many congratulations to the other winners.
As some would have seen, I’ve started to branch out into creative still life photography, specialising in fountain pen and stationery. It was a thrill to see one of these pictures receive an honourable mention.
Here are the five chosen images. All photographs were made using Lumix cameras, using Leica DG, Olympus and Voigtlander lenses. The images were shot in raw, processed on an Apple Mac Pro with Eizo CG monitors and processed using Adobe LightRoom Classic and finished in Exposure Software’s X7.
Three Honourable Mentions at the 16th Annual Black & White Spider Awards
Very happy to share that several of my monochrome images have had awards success at the BW Spider Awards. During the online Gala Ceremony, attended by by over 11,000, I was thrilled to receive three honourable mentions and also discover that five other images had also been nominated.
Honourable Mentions
Photojournalism – A Vigil By Smartphone Lights. Fundraising and Candlelight Vigil. Following miltary action by Azerbaijan with the backing of Turkey from the 27th of September, against the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and Armenia, a war has ensued in the region. Armenian communities in the diaspora gather to raise funds with the defence effort and humanatarian crisis in Artsakh and Armenia. Members of the Armenian community in the UK gather for a candle lit vigil (using smartphone lights as a result of health and safety rules) and fund raising event for the Armenia Fund (Himnadram) with the support of the Armenian Apostolic Church in London. St. Yeghiche Armenian Church, South Kensington, London, UK. October 10, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian.
Shot on a Lumix S1 and a Sigma 85mm f1.4 DG DN Art lens.
Americana – Classic Corvettes. The Classic Car Drive In Weekend (a new style of socially distanced, COVID-compliant classic car show for buyers, collectors and petrol-heads as well as movie-goers). Bicester Heritage, Buckingham Road, Bicester, Oxfordshire, UK. September 18, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Lumix S1R and Sigma 85mm f1.4 DG DN Art lens.
People – A chorister is dressed in traditional Armenian choir outfit, with a more modern face visor as protection following guidelines. Churches Allowed To Open After Easing Of UK COVID 19 Lockdown. The Apostolic Orthodox Armenian Church is one of the most ancient Christian institutions. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion. Having live streamed services during the pandemic lockdown, St Yeghiche Church opened its doors for public worship on Sunday 5th July 2020. Kensington, London, UK. July 05, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Lumix S1 and S Pro 70-200mm f2.8.
Nominations
Architecture – Concord Road, Industrial Estate, Park Royal, London, UK. December 15, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Lumix LX100M2.
People – Brighton beach, as on of the hottest days of the year comes to an end. As the COVID 19 lockdown has been relaxed, thousands of beachgoers flocked to Brighton as temperatures hit 30C (lower than the maximum temperature in South East England, which topped 36C). Authorities in Brighton have taken action to reduce the crowds at their beaches, on one of the hottest days of the year, with fears that social distancing will not be possible. Brighton, UK. August 07, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Lumix G9 and Leica DG 50-200mm.
Portrait – Professional Dancer Faye Stoeser. The Millennium Bridge, Bankside, London, UK. September 15, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Leica SL2 and Sigma 85mm f1.4 DG DN Art.
Portrait – A portrait of Jim Connor (former picture editor, The Herald, Glasgow) enjoying a pint of Guiness at The Long Hall pub in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. January 17, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Sigma fp and Leica 35mm APO Summicron SL.
Portrait – Yoshie At Quant. A portrait of fine art photographer Yoshie Nishikawa at the Mary Quant exhibition. Victoria and Albert Museum. London, UK. February 07, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
Shot on a Sigma fp and Leica 35mm APO Summicron SL.
All the images were shot in raw and processed on an Apple Mac Pro (2013 model) in Adobe’s Lightroom. The monochrome work was then finished in Exposure Software’s X6. To maintain absolute and precise control during processing, calibrated Eizo CG monitors were used.
The OWC Aura Pro X2 1.0TB NVMe SSD Upgrade for the Mac Pro 6,1 (Late 2013)
The Mac Pro (Model identifier: MacPro6,1, late 2013) is a frustrating machine in some professional environments. On the one hand, it’s a genius piece of design, with a radically revolutionary cooling system which works wonders, very quietly, in a form factor which is truly unique.
On the other hand though, it’s an extremely limited machine that allows for extremely little internal expansion; something which frustrates many professional users, myself included. Around five years ago though, I had to take the jump and reluctantly got a middle specced machine. My two previous Mac Pro machines had been the affectionately known as the cheese grater chassis. Hugely expandable, with four internal hard drive bays, several expansion slots and dual optical bays that many, including myself, converted to housing SSDs. However with the need for more video and larger raw files, the time came and I got my Mac Pro (3.5GHz 6-core Intel Xeon).
I these expandability terms though, the 2013 Mac Pro though, is extremely limited. One of the big problems is single internal hard drive; in this case, a blisteringly fast NVMe SSD, which is tiny in physical size, and unless you have sizeable funds, is also small in capacity when bought from Apple.
I made do with the built in 256Gb SSD for around 4 years. Moving my Desktop and Document files to my iCloud kept things manageable, but I could only ever have around 22Gb of free space, which would occasionally fill up with cache files (no idea from where, as everything configurable was always assigned to an external SSD attached via Thunderbolt 2 for scratch disk purposes) and constant system messages telling me to clean up my Macintosh HD. Super frustrating, a time waster when on deadline and impossible to do as there was nothing to throw away or configure differently.
I’ve been a huge fan of OWC, having used their various SSDs, RAM and external drive boxes for probably over a decade. In fact, this very machine’s RAM was upgraded as soon as I bought it from the standard 16Gb, using the 64.0GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit.
In the end, my frustrations pushed me to looking into upgrading my Mac Pro 6,1’s internal, Macintosh HD, SSD. After a few days of thought, I realised the sweet spot, both for usability and financially, would be opting for the 1Tb size. I also decided to go for the kit, which includes an external case called the Envoy, to house the Apple 256Gb SSD and use as an external drive. So I headed to OWC’s European shop and ordered the Aura Pro X2 SSD for Mac Pro 2013 1TB Kit. The other capacities available are 240Gb, 480Gb and 2.0Tb.
As with everything from OWC, all the specialist tools you need are supplied, along with superb instructions on their website. Upgrading the SSD is very straightforward and most should be able to do it. One crucial thing to check is that you’re running macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later. This is an absolute must, as with High Sierra onwards, the firmware of the Mac Pro 6,1 is updated automatically, which will allow for support of the OWC SSD.
Although I have a Time Machine backup that runs constantly, for extra safety, I formatted a Samsung T5 SSD and made a fresh Time Machine backup onto this (you can have multiple Time Machine drives). I also got another external drive and using Carbon Copy Cloner, cloned my Macintosh HD. Always better to be safe!
As with anything computer related, switch everything off and never touch any part of any circuitry. The static charges that we can build up can fry circuitry, so take your time, be careful and don’t touch anything that’s a circuit or a connector. Once the outer case is remove, you simply unscrew the one retaining screw for the Apple SSD and slide it upwards and out. You need to carefully attach a small heatsink onto the OWC SSD to allow it to cool properly. Whenever attaching a heatsink, its always paramount to make sure you don’t touch the surface of the chip, to ensure it’s clean of any grease or debris. This allows the heatsink to adhere fully and properly, aiding in removing heat to maximum efficiency. Then install the OWC SSD card (firmly yet gently, making sure it’s seated completely in the socket on the motherboard), secure it with the supplied retaining screw, put the outer case back on, lock, attach your cables and you’re almost ready.
I opted to use the Time Machine backup on the Samsung T5 to restore my Mac onto the new OWC SSD. On power up, I held down the Cmd-Opt-R keys until a startup screen appeared. Then formatted the drive using Disk Utilities to APFS. Once done, I chose the Restore From Time Machine Backup option. Chose the Samsung T5 as a Restore Source, then chose the new OWC SSD as the destination, which I had named Macintosh HD in Disk Utility on the previous step and clicked on Restore. There are full instructions for formatting the OWC Auro Pro X2 SSD and the various ways of installing or restoring your data on the OWC website. With every step, you have a helping hand. Just make sure you make a couple of backups as I did, as a safety and peace of mind measure.
I went off to get some dinner, but I think in under an hour the “new” Mac was up and running. As always after a restore, you may need to log back into a few things, but apart from this, everything was running smoothly and perfectly.
I’ve been using my Mac Pro with my new 1Tb OWC Auro Pro X2 SSD for thee days now. I haven’t switched off the machine and it’s been purring along, speedily and without any errors or space issues. With the mightily impressive new Mac Pro (2019 model, MacPro7,1) being so ridiculously expensive and priced well out of the single creative professional’s budget, many of us will be looking at upgrading our current machines to get more out of them. Apple Macs have in my decades of experience, shown that they work well for many years; much longer than one would expect a computer to work. However with more demands from us with bigger raw files, heavier bit rates and ever larger video pixel sizes, our machines need the occasional boost.
Even with the upgradeably challenged form factor of the affectionately called Dustbin Mac Pro, changing simple things like the SSD and upgrading the RAM to 64Gb (128Gb is possible, but from my research for most workflows won’t bring much if any improvements over 64Gb – your needs may vary though, so do your research), can bring a new lease of life and usability. Plus, it comes with a five year warranty. Its a no-brainer!
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