Friday Shout-Outs, Congrats, and Coolness

This week, we hang out with a bunch of dogs, and I finally discover a really talented photographer, making me think – where the hell have I been? We check out a killer website, some nice photos of clouds, and supply the details to a must-enter contest. And, who knew there was art hiding there?

Shout-Outs are a regular Friday thing, and you can be part of it too. Send us suggestions! If we think it’s worth shouting about, it will show up here in the blog on a Friday. To submit something, scroll to the bottom to see how.

BEST IN SHOW FOR DOGS
Mark Bryan Makela
is a London based photogrpher specializing in editorial, documentary
and portraits. He produced a very amusing gallery of images from the
annual ASC Flushing Spaniel Show, a unique dog show that features only spaniels – about a thousand of them.

Best in Show – Images by Mark Makela

“All 12 spaniel varieties compete for the prestigious ‘Best in Show’
award at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania,” he writes.

“Spaniel owners from all around the country, often boarding flights
and traveling for days by caravan at costly expense, make the pilgrimage
for the 3 day event in January, showcasing their dogs before
distinguished judges.”

I really like how he brought his own unique style to this event, and
showed us his talent as a photographer as well as his sense of humor.

SUPER TALENTED
The work of Jonathan Hyams, a freelance photographer based in London, UK, came to my attention the other day as I was trolling through Twitter. To be honest, this was the first time I ever saw his work, and that’s kinda embarrassing because this guy is really amazing.

Three of his documentary projects just blew me away, and I suggest you take a look as well. Zimbabwe’s Economic Migrants; Gold Miners, Sex Trafficking In India, and his most recent The Stranded Nomads of Karamoja.

I’m obviously late to this particular party, because he has already won numerous awards, including Hello! Magazine Young Photographer of the Year 2008 in association with Getty Images and Nikon; and the AOP Open Award 2009 (Judges Choice), both for his reportage work on war-torn Northern Uganda.

Portfolio – Images by Jonathan Hyams

Take a peek at his portfolio!

DUDE, YOUR NEW WEBSITE IS KILLER!

Bram Belloni, a photographer based in Amsterdam, specializes in editorial, documentary and portrait photography. He recently launched a new website, and I’m totally loving it. I think you should go check it out.

He is using PhotoShelter combined with WordPress and a modified Graph Paper Press theme. The site is very well done, and feels more like a deep rich web home for his images, projects, thoughts and ideas. I went there and got (unexpectedly) totally into his work, dug deeper and deeper into it – learning about him as I did.

In my opinion, this is exactly what a great website is supposed to do – turn normal web surfers into fans.

While you’re checking out his site and his really cool photography, be sure to take a look at his “Outtakes” book preview. The book contains “images that were not relevant to an article, but too good to trash,” he writes on his blog.

“Images shot just before, or just after, the ‘official’ shoot. Pictures that are works in progress. Pictures he believes should have been published. Or simply good shots that deserve publication. This is his own selection, uncoloured by the choices made by the client.”

ENTER THIS CONTEST!
This past week, the folks over at Graph Paper Press have been busy. They just launched a new product, called “Graph Paper Press Pro” that offers “fast, simple & secure WordPress hosting, killer themes & plugins in two minutes flat.”

In other words, you can have a sweet WordPress site even if you’ve got no technical web wizard skills. Take the 2 minute video tour (below) for even more info.

Graph Paper Press Pro from Graph Paper Press on Vimeo.

I also want to call your attention to a contest because, well, you gotta be in it to win it – knowwhatI’msayin’?

PhotoShelter and Graph Paper Press are giving one lucky photographer matching PhotoShelter Pro and Graph Paper Press Pro accounts for one year. Get all the tools you need to launch and manage a stunning website for your photography from Graph Paper Press Pro, combined with 100GB of online backup, robust e-commerce, secure image delivery, and business and marketing tools from PhotoShelter.

How to enter:

On Facebook: Post a comment below the Going Pro giveaway thread linking to your current site, and let us know why you should get the Pro accounts!

On Twitter: Tweet the following: “I want to Go Pro with @photoshelter and @graphpaperpress” and you’ll be entered!

We’ll select one lucky entry on Friday October 1, at 5pm (EDT)!

CLOUDY AND COOL
Photographer Brigitte Bailleul has a pretty cool gallery of images all about Clouds.

Clouds – Images by Brigitte Bailleul

“I delight in taking pictures wherever life takes me, and knowing some of these pictures find their way to other people’s homes, either in a publication, publicity or as an art print,” Brigitte said.

ART HIDES IN INDUSTRIAL SURFACES
“Industrial Surface Art” is the name of a gallery of images by J. Scott Mosel, a photographer based in Washington, D.C.

I thought these were really addicting and fun to look at, so I thought I would pass them along.

Industrial Surface Art – Images by Scott Mosel

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I am always looking for things to include here in our Friday Shout-Outs – so if you have anything you think is worthy, let me know. One great way to do that is to post a note to Twitter with my name in it (@heygrover) and that way I won’t forget it later. Don’t have Twitter? Email me, grover-at-photoshelter-dot-com.