“Wall of Shame” calls out photographers who steal other photographers’ work

The blog named stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com speaks for itself. “Photo Stealers”, as it’s officially named, is a self-proclaimed wall of shame “dedicated to photographers that feel that it’s okay to steal other’s work and post it as their own.”

The majority of photographers who have made this virtual wall of shame are wedding photographers – whether that’s a coincidence or says something about who’s stealing photos is anyone’s guess.

Source: stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com

One such photo-stealer – who robbed a professional wedding photographer’s images for her website – at least admitted that the photos weren’t hers…in a backwards, messed up sort of way: “The images currently on this website we’re [sic] taken by Robin Bradshaw of Bullet Photography. They are a representation of the photojournalistic style I aspire too [sic] and they are temporary whilst I build my portfolio in 2012.”

It takes a little digging to even find this proclamation of dishonesty (and two grammar mistakes in one sentence is shameful in itself). Interestingly, the photo-stealer has since taken down her website, so maybe this Tumblr can have a greater impact?

Intense look at Aurora Borealis over three years

Photographer Chad Blakley of the photography tour group Lights Over Lapland spent three years creating thousands of hours of footage of the Aurora Borealis, as seen from Abisko National Park in Sweden. The resulting time-lapse is a beautiful representation of this magnificent event – but warning, the music is on the intense side and not quite what we anticipated for what looks like a more soothing event. (via Mashable)

Polaroid introduces new Z2300 instant digital camera

Polaroid jumps back into instant photography with their new insta-print camera, shown for the first time at the CEA Line Show (a conference for companies selling products in the media, retail, trade, and analyst space) in NYC this week. The Z2300 has a 10 megapixel camera that can print 2×3 inch prints “in less than a minute.” You can even print with the iconic Polaroid classic border! Users can review images before printing, as with any other digital camera. Price starts at $159.99 and 50-sheet packs of paper for $24.99. (via Market Watch)

Photographer John Wark captures aerial shot of Colorado fire damage

32,000 people evacuated the Colorado Springs area this week as a fire raged near the foothills. Officials said that over 20,000 homes and 160 commercial buildings were threatened and in the fire’s path.

PhotoShelter member and aerial stock photographer John Wark captured a telling shot of the damages, shown below, which was featured on the deverpost.com. Forest services have made significant progress in controlling the fire, but there’s already been significant damage as neighborhoods have been reduced to charred rubble.

Photo by John Wark/Aerial photographs of the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs, Colorado between June 24, 2012 and June 27, 2012 show the destructive path of the fire.

Photos of Olympic hopefuls realizing they’re going to London

How you would feel in the exact moment when someone told you that you’re going to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London? BuzzFeed – known for collecting topical photos and putting them into a streamlined post – has founds 26 photos of Olympics hopefuls realizing that they’ve achieved their goal of going to the Olympics. Mainly features track runners – and boy, is the joy obvious.

Image by Jamie McDonald / Getty Images

Image by Mike Blake / Reuters

Image by Adam Hunger / Reuters

7 tips for better firework photos

With the Fourth of July in the U.S. on the horizon, The New York Times  Gadgetwise blog asked PhotoShelter member and photojournalist Kike Calvo to share his 7 tips for better firework photos. Here are a few of his tips and tricks:

• Scout it out. It’s best to scout out the setting before the fireworks begin, even when they are being set up.
• Focus First. You want a lot of depth of field so you get a lot of real estate in focus.
• Expose yourself. The big trick to catching fireworks is to have long shutter speed, so you capture the entire path of the rockets, and better yet, several in one photo.

Get the rest of Kike’s tips on Gadgetwise!

Photo by Kike Calvo via Gadgetwise

Amsterdam-based photographer Robert Bentley Harrison was featured in Flavorpill this week for his personal project, “The Extraordinary.” The project is a series of photographs showcasing the elderly to “celebrate the faces and identities of those over the age of 80.” While society often pushes these individuals to the sidelines, Harrison’s black and white portraits reveal something lovely and complex about their old age.

Photo by Robert Bentley Harrison via Flavorpill

DIY BackPack OctoDome for lighting solo shoots

Can’t afford an assistant but still want to get a well-lit shot? Try the Backpack OctoDome for solo lighting, “invented” by New York photographer Ian Spanier. Spanier attaches a Photoflex OctoDome to a LowePro Scope Porter 100 AW birdwatching backpack. He’s a member of the Lowepro Team and Photoflex Pro Team, and put together this idea when he was assigned to shoot Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler but couldn’t pay to hire an assistant. It takes some configuring, but luckily he’s posted the full DIY tutorial on his blog. (via PetaPixel)

Source: PetaPixel

Now you can own a Hasselblad for (kinda) less

Late last week, Hasselblad announced a revised pricing structure that would reduce the price of the H4D-31 by 22.9%, bringing it to a mere 11,995 Euros. The so-called “ultimate photography tool” – the 60 megapixel H4D-60 camera – has been reduced 20.59% to 23,900 Euros. “This is a groundbreaking move and a very important day indeed for every photographer who aspires to own one of the best cameras in the world,” said the sales and marketing director at Hasselblad. “For many, price has long been the biggest barrier to ownership.”

So now are you going to buy one? (via Imaging Insider)

Zuckerberg’s wedding photographer sniped

By now you might have heard that what was supposed to be a little daytime party turned into a surprised wedding between Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan. But who took the couple’s photograph, the one posted to Facebook and quick to receive over 1.5 million likes? We wouldn’t find out for a few hours until Zuckerberg reposted the pic with credit, only to get 8 likes (but 13,000+ shares).

Photo by Noah Kalina via Facebook

The credit, we now know, is to Brooklyn-based photographer Noah Kalina who made his name in 2006 when his video “Everyday,” which features a timelapse of self-portraits taken daily for six years, went semi-viral. But New York Magazine makes a good point:

“The introduction of photo-sharing was a crucial part of Facebook’s financial success — all those amateur uploads helped make Zuckerberg a very wealthy man — and so it seems oddly fitting that Zuckerberg reflexively treated the professional photo, snapped by someone who originally made his fame through social sharing, like one of those amateur shots.”

What do you think? Tired of hearing about Facebook?

Behance grabs $6.5 million in first round funding

Behance - the online portfolio marketplace and platform for artists, graphic designers, web designers, and other creatives – has grabbed $6.5 million in its first round of funding, mainly from leading investor Union Square Ventures. Behance has grown to over 2 million projects on the site since its start in 2006 will the mission of helping creatives showcase their talent and gain online exposure. (via VentureBeat)

Co-founder and CEO Scott Belsky is one of over 20 speakers participating in Luminance, PhotoShelter’s conference this fall in NYC. Check out our full list of speakers, including Facebook, Tumblr, Christie’s, 20×200, and more.

Gene Lower’s shot of the solar eclipse

Arizona sports and event photographer Gene Lower of Slingshot Photography captured this shot of the solar eclipse on a golf course, which was featured in Sports Illustrated‘s iPad edition this week. Gene photographs for the Arizona Cardinals and his work has been shown in Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine, and more.

Photo by Gene Lower

Google+ Photographer’s Conference

Did you follow the Google+ Photographer’s Conference this week? If you weren’t there to attend the live event in San Francisco, check out Google+’s event page for photos and tagged posts from photographers like Peter Hurley, Sergey Brin, and Scott Kelby.

It’s evident that Google+ is trying really, really hard to build a mass following among photographers, but from the looks of things it’s not “blowing up” among the greater community. What do you think? Have you been paying attention to Google+? We want to hear your thoughts, so leave them in the comments.

The Death of Flickr

Or, as Gizmodo more aptly names it, “How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet.” In his version of a case study, Gizmodo editor Mat Honan tells of the story of how Flickr went from its beginnings as a homely Internet startup, to its acquisition by Yahoo, to its downfall brought on by a corporate environment and forced integration.

“This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way.”

If anything, just check out this post for the comments and the discussion over whether Flickr is for “serious” photographers.

Leica sets record for most expensive camera ever sold

Last weekend at the WestLicht Photographica Auction, the 1923 Leica O-Series sold for a record-breaking price of $2.79 million. Previous to that, the same model sold in 2011 for $1.89 million. Appreciating much? Watch the live video below to see how it all went down.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Friends of Anton auction raises over $100,000

This past week, Christie’s held its first-ever auction of contemporary photojournalism prints at its NYC auction house. The event marked the one-year anniversary of South African photojournalist Anton Hammerl’s death in Libya. Friends of Anton, the organization that has come together to help secure the future of Anton’s three young children, raised over $100,000 from prints by notable photojournalists like Robert Capa.

Several members of the PhotoShelter team, who helped sponsor the auction, attended the heartfelt event. “The print auction was really incredible and touching,” said PhotoShelter CEO Andrew Fingerman. Anton’s colleagues spoke, as well as his wife who shared some prepared words from Anton’s three children. Chris Owyoung, who works on the marketing team at PhotoShelter, was there and captured a few images – check them out in his gallery here.

Photo by Chris Owyoung

Caroll Taveras’ Photo Studio project on Kickstarter

Brooklyn-based photographer Caroll Taveras wants to take the concept of small-town photo studios to communities around the world. Her Photo Studio project, now on Kickstarter, says:

“Small town photo studios in the first half of the twentieth century were once abundant and in a way taken for granted. When people lived in one area for many years the relationship between photographer and subject was often long term. In an age of digital media…having access to a photo studio in your neighborhood, where everyone can be photographed with a 4×5 view camera is not only a fun activity, but a necessary addition to the historical and social documentation of our time.”

With a pledged goal of $8,500, Caroll hopes to take this project to London. To reach more about her endeavors and back her goal, please visit her Kickstarter page.

Photos by Caroll Taveras

Facebook opens on NASDAQ

At roughly 11:30am EDT today, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the bell on Wall Street to officially open Facebook on NASDAQ at $42.05/share. Fortunately, someone at Facebook was there to mark the event on Zuckerberg’s timeline.

Enough said.

European stock site Fotolia receives $150 million in funds

Fotolia – the “leading” microstock agency in Europe – announced this week a $150 million growth equity investment. Fotolia prides itself on its community of crowdsourced and professional images, with other 17 million images, vectors, and videos sold royalty-free. The investment signals the apparent success – and growth – of microstock agencies.

Photos of Mexico’s drug war: 50,000 dead in 6 years

One of the latest of The Atlantic‘s In Focus photo stories centers on Mexico’s drug war, quoting more than 50,000 death since 2006. “Warning: All images in this entry are shown in full,” says the article. “There are many dead bodies; the photographs are graphic and stark. This is the reality of the situation in Mexico right now.” See the full set of images here.

Photo by Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images

Curious how Alan Taylor chooses which stories to feature? Hear him speak at Luminance, PhotoShelter’s conference this fall in NYC.

Lytro to host photowalks at Bay Area Maker Faire

On May 19th and 20th, Lytro will be hosting several photowalks at the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA – a self-described “part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new”. The Maker Faire attracts tech enthusiasts, crafters, engineers, artists, and more to show off what they’ve made. Lytro’s photowalks will be an opportunity to get a live demo of their light field camera, which allows you to focus your shot after the picture is taken.

Source: Lytro

You can win two free adult passes to the Maker Faire by sharing a picture of something you’ve made to Lytro’s Facebook Wall or tweet the link to @Lytro with #MakerFaire. Deadline is 12pm PT on Wednesday, May 16. Five winners will be randomly chosen and join Lytro’s Director of Photography Eric Cheng for a photowalk. Learn more about the Maker Fair Challenge here. Not in the San Mateo area? Eric Cheng is one of over 20 speakers at Luminance on September 12 & 13 in NYC.

Sparkler$ – an animated GIF project

Last fall we spoke with motion picture director and photographer Ryan Enn Hughes on The 360 Project, which was built off the concept of creating a 360-degree photograph in black space. Now Ryan is back on our radar with “Sparkler$“, his first published animated GIF project featuring jumping subjects light painting with sparklers. This totally awesome video shows a behind-the-scenes look at the setup, lighting, and execution of the project. Check out his website for the finished animated GIFs.

Brian Smith publishes “a book 30 years in the making”

PhotoShelter member and celebrity portrait photographer Brian Smith says he’s been working on his latest book for over thirty years. “Drawing upon the best lessons I’ve learned over the last three decades photographing portraits of the rich and famous, the book blends lavish celebrity portraits of a coffee table book with the technical how-to insights with a side dish of behind-the-scenes celebrity stories,” says Brian on his blog.

The result is Secrets of Great Portrait Photography, filled with all of Brian’s tips and tricks to make every person who comes in front of your camera feel like a celebrity. It’s a sexy, inspiring book that’s a must-have for any portrait photographer or fan of Brian Smith.

Photo by Brian Smith

Tumblr: Welcome to Storyboard

In an effort to curate and highlight more in-depth features, Tumblr has recently created the Storyboard – a collection of the top Tumblr stories found within the massively diverse community. Every day the editors will select one story to feature on the Storyboard Tumblr, and it launched with content from The New York Times, photographer Theron Humphrey, and singer Michael Stripe from R.E.M. Users can submit their own content for consideration by tagging their posts with #storyboard, and the editors will select the most compelling and viral to share.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fighting back Cleveland’s inner city boxing

The latest project for the photojournalists and writers of Facing Change: Documenting America (FCDA) - a collaborative non-profit that produces and publishes under-reported issues in America – showcases a boxing coach dedicated to getting drug dealers and addicts off the streets. How? By getting them into boxing and hoping to change their outlook on life for the better.

“Boxing coach Fred Wilson and boxer Deloren Grey navigate Cleveland’s economic depression, violent tragedies and personal convictions to confront the enduring challenge of competitive boxing. This unconventional 13 minute film by Emmy award winning photographer Anthony Suau and famed jazz artists Curtis Lundy, Victor Lewis and Frank Lacy explores the complexities and hardship of inner-city life in the midst of the great American recession.”

Photo by Anthony Suau

To see more of Anthony’s work and the project, please visit Fighting Back Cleveland’s Inner City Boxing.

Landon Nordeman wins James Beard Foundation Journalism Award

Congrats to PhotoShelter member Landon Nordeman for his 2012 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in Visual Storytelling! Landon won the award for his portrait work with Saveur, capturing the masters in the kitchen in stories including “Soul of Sicily,” “BBQ Nation,” and “Heart of the Valley“.

Photo by Landon Nordeman

Carli Davidson on My Modern Met for “Fetch”

She’s at it again: pet photographer Carli Davidson, famous for her “Shake” series, is back with a new series titled “Fetch”, which captures dogs catching balls, Frisbee’s and other objects midair. We caught the photos on My Modern Met - are these hilariously fun photos the next Carli projec to go viral?

Photo by Carli Davidson

Logan Mock-Bunting on CNN Photos

PhotoShelter member Logan Mock-Bunting was also received some great publicity this week in CNN Photos for his work photographing the Performance Freediving International’s Deja Blue II. If you’re not familiar, freediving is diving to the depths of the ocean without underwater equipment – most significantly, without an air tank. To stay true to the sport, Logan also freedove to capture these athletes competing for the longest time underwater.

Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Source: CNN Photos

Your news here

Have a new photo project, media coverage, or something else that you think is feature worthy? Let us know by emailing marketing@photoshelter.com with a brief description and any relevant links. We’re always looking for cool, noteworthy, weird, or just plain interesting news.

There’s an old NY Times TV ad where a couple talks about the sections they grab first on Sunday, and one of the pair says “I like the mag-uh-zine,” and that’s me. Not only does the magazine feature great long form reporting, it also has fantastic photography by some of the best photographers. Here’s a little sampling.

The book is divided into a few main sections: 1) Portraits, 2) Documentary, 3) Photo-Illustration, 4) Style, 5) Projects, and 6) Tearsheets. Sounds like a good way to organize a website. But I digress…

Here’s a great portrait of my friend Alexandra Beller taken by Robert Maxwell.

Taryn Simon started a project photographing people who had been wrongly convicted of crimes in the places where the alleged perps were arrested. The project spawned a book called The Innocents, which is also fabulous, by the way.

VII’s Stephanie Sinclair photographed forty year old Faiz Mohammed and his eleven year old bride, Ghulam Haider in Afghanistan. Like Steve McCurry’s “Afghan Girl,” the color in the photo is stunning, and the subject matter is tragic.

Jeff Coons’ photos illustrated a piece on “gay animals.” The crew built sets for each animal pair and hired an animal wrangler to position the animals for these humorous images.

Yes, I watched “Baywatch” growing up. And if I was German, I’d love David Hasselhoff even more. Jeff Reidel captured this reinterpretation of The Swimmer for a style piece. I love the staged narrative style of photography, and Jeff nailed it with this one.

Yale Senior Art Critic, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, spent a lot of time in Times Square with a mounted strobe capturing passerbys. Although this image didn’t get him sued, it does have the same “lost in time” feeling about it.

I’ve covered Paolo Pellegrin’s images for the Magazine’s movie issue many times before, but hell, they really are great images. Still love this one of Tony Stark Robert Downey, Jr. after all these years.

As if the images aren’t great enough, you even get a little back story on each of the images. This is definitely one you want on your bookshelf. And at under $40, it would make a great gift. Get it.

Photographing track & field – the world’s most dangerous sport?

Turns out track and field isn’t as passive a sport as you thought. Brigham Young University photographer Jaren Wilkey was out on a perfectly beautiful day photographing BYU’s Katy Andrews in the 3000 meter steeplechase race (think running but with jumping obstacles and water pits) when she tripped over the water barrier, flinging herself head over heels into the shallow pool. “I just happened to be there with a GoPro HD Hero 2 waterproof camera shooting video…and it caught the whole crash,” says Jaren.

What do you do when you happen to catch someone totally biting it? Slow it down frame-by-frame, of course! Fortunately Katy was a good sport about the whole thing, and Jaren posted the video to the BYU Photo blog, as well as the images that he shot at ten frames a second – gives you a “different perspective on the crash.” Ouch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Crowdfunding a trip to Syrian refugee camps

Collaborative photography duo Zin Chiang and Benedicted Guillon have been traveling and photographing together ever since they met at a hostel in Morocco. Their latest project, Side x Side, is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter with the ultimate goal of financing a trip to the Syrian refugree camps in Hatay Province, Turkey. The photographers aim to document stories from the refugees’ point of view, using their own unique perspectives as a way to juxtapose how we all see the world differently.

Chiang and Guillon

The campaign has just 9 days to go and aims to raise $3,270 to fund the trip. Backers will receive specialty prints and photobooks. Check out their Kickstarter project to learn more.

Ben Lowry on cellphone photography

iPhoneographer and prominent photojournalist Ben Lowy is a Hipstamatic lover. So much so, that they’re naming a Hipstamatic lens after him. An interview by The New York Times Lens Blog this week says, “Mr. Lowy does not shrink from controversy. For the last four years, he has been ardently defending cellphone photography…As he sees it, shooting with cellphones and Hipstamatic is no different than picking black-and-white film over color…”

Some photographers believe that once you alter an image, it’s no longer photojournalism – it’s photography as an art. That might be all fine and well, but then what do we say when images taken with Hipstamatic or Instagram win prestigious awards for photojournalism? Ben Lowy says he’s still just photographing what’s in front of him and not doing any post-production. It’s definitely a hot button issue these days, so check out the full interview.

Oh, and be on the lookout for The Ben Lowy Lens on Hipstamatic.

Photo by Benjamin Lowy/Source: Lens Blog

Co-founder & CEO of Hipstamatic Lucas Allen Buick will be speaking at Luminance, PhotoShelter’s photography-technology-business conference this fall. Check out the full list of speakers and learn more about Luminance.

Photos of shelter dogs help people consider adoption

Dallas-based photographer Sylvia Elzafon has been photographing what she calls the “Shelter Series” since 2005 in an effort to get potential dog buyers to consider adoption. Now she’s reaching out to mainstream media to try to spread the word that shelter dogs are just as adorable as any other pup. The Huffington Post put up a full slideshow of her work – here are a few of our favorites.

Photo by Sylvia Elzafon

Photo by Sylvia Elzafon

Photo by Sylvia Elzafon

Photographer could win $120 million in case against Agence France-Presse

Freelance photographer Daniel Morel claims that in January of 2010, Agence France-Presse (AFP) uploaded his images of earthquake-devastated Haiti without his permission and transmitted them to WAPIX, Getty Images, and ImageForum. Morel was under a distribution contract with Corbis when the earthquake struck and he happened to be photographing in Port-au-Prince. After photographing, Morel immediately uploaded his images to Twitter; soon after, another Twitter user claimed the images to be his own and that’s when AFP Photo Editor Vincent Amalvy downloaded nine photos from that account.

Amalvy later became aware that the photos were in fact Morel’s, and he changed the captions to reflect that. Still, Morel argues that this is a case of internet piracy and that AFP is liable for copyright infringement. AFP argues that it had the right to distribute Morel’s images based on Twitter’s terms of service, which grant license to third parties to rebroadcast his photos.

Morel’s representative writes, “Such sophisticated content providers as AFP and Getty Images, known for their aggressive protecting of content, should be held to a higher stand of care…” If the infringement case goes through, Morel could be awarded damages upwards of $120,300,000, reports the British Journal of Photography.

But what do you think? Twitter has since updated its terms and conditions, but do you think  AFP would be protected by Twitter’s new terms of service? These are the extreme terms-of-use cases of photographers’ nightmares.

Wowed by Blackberry 10′s new camera app

The Blackberry World Keynote this year included a demo that wowed photographers and consumers alike. The new camera app, a rebranded version of Scalado Rewind, lets you select someone’s face and scroll through framers captures before and after you hit the shutter button. RIM, which makes the Blackberry, has apparently been working with Scalado on camera technology and has licensed some for the Blackberry 10, reports PetaPixel. Is this enough to make the Blackberry compete with the iPhone in terms of cellphone photography? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see.

Source: PetaPixel

But enough about us – here’s what we found in the rest of the photo and Internet community this week:

The Oatmeal: How (not) to get more likes on Facebook

Facebook has made some of us mildly obsessed with getting more “likes” for our Facebook Pages. So satirical comic connoisseur The Oatmeal posted a humorous “guide” on how to get more likes on Facebook – or rather, ways not to get more likes, such as blindly sending out messages to old friends and requesting that they like your Page. Because, in The Oatmeal’s words, you sound like this:

Source: The Oatmeal

So how should you get more likes? “Put your energy into making things that are LIKEABLE,” they say. Instead, create things that are hilarious, sad, beautiful, interesting, inspiring, or simply awesome.” Amen to that.

Brad Mangin donates archival slides to The National Baseball Hall of Fame

Longtime PhotoShelter member and baseball stock photographer Brad Mangin completed a very special project this past winter: he sorted through his online archive of over 50,000 Major League Baseball photos and selected 2,386 original slides to donate to The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY. Brad has been photographing the MLB for 25 years and the Hall of Fame holds a special place in his heart – he made another donation back in 2002, making his total number of donated images over 4,000. Brad also gave the archivists trusted client download access to his PhotoShelter archive, meaning that they can download any image they want for the Museum’s needs. “Memories and Dreams”, the official magazine of the Museum, recently published a story about his donation.

Source: manginphotography.net

To read the full story, check out Brad’s blog post here.

Time-lapse overview of Portland made with 300,000+ images

The team at Uncage the Soul took 308,829 separate photos of Portland over the course of 51 days in March and April. The result? A stunning 4-minute time-lapse video that was presented at TEDx Portland to a standing ovation. The team reports that each second of the video took roughly 3.8 hours to create. (via PetaPixel).

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to optimize your images for Google search

As a photographer with a website, it’s important to optimize your images for the web. Included in that is doing whatever possible to build the best SEO. HubSpot recently posted a general guide on how to optimize images for Google search. With that, here are a few tips on what to do so Google can index your images:

• Only use Google-supported image formats: BMP, GIP, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG.
• Use descriptive keywords in your filenames and alt text.
• Provide context for your images in the surrounding text.
• Choose keyword-infused anchor text when linking to your images.

You can find out what more Google has to say about optimizing images for search in their blog post. And for photographers specifically, check out our free SEO For Photographers Guide + Bootcamp, with a comprehensive overview of SEO and 4-week email course with additional content and guidance.

Google+ Photography Prize

This past winter, Google+ held its first photography contest in conjunction with the Saatchi Gallery in London. The contest was specifically for students, and users submitted content by creating a gallery on their Google+ Page and sharing it with a hashtag related to the contest. Over 20,000 students from 146 countries submitted work, and the final winner was 24-year-old Swedish student Viktor Johansson for his sports photography image.

Photo by Viktor Johansson/Source: Google+

You can see the full list of winners and their photos here.

Sean Gilligan’s behind the scenes Forbes magazine shoot

After attending the “What Photo Buyers Want” webinar with Forbes‘ Senior Photo Editor Michele Hadlow (“Killer Portraiture is King“), NYC commercial photographer Sean Gilligan was inspired to share a behind the scenes look at a shoot he did for Forbes back in the day. Although Sean has shot for Forbes more recently, he shared a photograph from his archive of Robert Mitchell, an investor in the business of yellow cake uranium. What makes Sean’s blog post so awesome is that he breaks down every decision he made for that shoot – from researching the local diner as a location to bringing his grandmother’s retro porcelain dining set as a prop.

Sean also offers 7 tips on how to deliver to clients like Michele:

• Do your homework about the publication you are shooting for and your subject.
• Don’t just do typical work that you think they expect.
• Show your willingness to experiment & let your creative voice come through.
• Show variety.
• Take a chance.
• Deliver an image, which captures how fascinating the subject really is.
• If you have genuine enthusiasm & interest in your subject, it will come through in your image.

Photo by Sean Gilligan

Video interview with top photo agent Frank Meo

TWiT Network is known for their videos and podcasts covering everything from computers to the Internet to personal technology. Their show, TWiT Photo, focuses on the obvious and last week they interviewed New York City photo agent Frank Meo on how to select the right agent for you, portfolio tips, and the bottom line of what it costs. Frank founded The Photo Closer, an NYC-based team of advisers that work to help photographers in their career development. Frank has been in the business for over 25 years, so be sure to check out his insightful tips.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Meridith Kohut’s photos of life inside a brothel in Cartagena

PhotoShelter member and New York Times photographer Meridith Kohut had work featured in a NY Times slideshow this week. Her images, titled “Life Inside a Brothel in Cartagena“, depict the women who live and work in the Angeles Bar Club in Cartagena, Colombia. “Cartagena has a thriving and legal prostitution business, much of it oriented toward foreign tourists,” says Meridith. In response to the recent scandal with U.S. Secret Service, Meridith says: “Many here are perplexed over why the Americans have made such a fuss over something as unremarkable, in local eyes, as a man taking a woman to a hotel room, and paying for sex.”

Source: The New York Times

Art Wolfe’s 2012 seminar tour

Drawing from a 36-year career, renowned nature photographer Art Wolfe is now teaming up with Calumet Photo in 2012 to bring the Art of Composition lecture series to new cities. For years Art has been traveling the world leading seminars and tours to help photographers develop both their technique and outlook on photography. The goal of this new lecture series is to change the way you see, giving you a new outlook on life and photography. For more information on locations and dates, check out Art’s workshop website.

10 Secrets of Successful Photography Websites

Previously offered only to new users, the 10 Secrets of Successful Photography Websites is now available to everyone and anyone looking to amp up their photo website. This free guide is an overview of the basic principles that make up a photography website that will appeal to your ideal clientele. It includes a walk-through of each of the 10 things that the best photography websites must have, and real examples of photographers using these tactics to find success online. Included in the guide are tips on:

• How to define your online audience.
• How to create a simple, uncluttered website.
• How to create a SEO “keyword hitlist”.
• How to ensure visitors can link to your content.
• How to measure your traffic and see results.

Luminance 2012

This week we were really excited to announce Luminance 2012 – a very different photography event. Most photo conferences focus on gear and technique, but something more significant has been happening around us, and the creation and consumption of images has changed drastically in the past decade. We created Luminance to ask the question of how photography is changing and how society is responding to that change.

The conference is in New York City on September 12&13, and features two days of 20-minute TED-style talks from industry leaders in photography, technology, design, and social media. Our list of kickass speakers includes Joe McNally, Tumblr, Hipstamatic, Facebook, Lytro, Zack Arias, and more.

To learn more about the speakers and get info on location, schedules, and early-bird discounts, visit: photoshelter.com/luminance

Landscapes captures with good old fisheye lens

Surrealist landscape photographer Randy Scott Salvin uses a good ol’ fashioned fisheye lens to to take a series of pictures that he later stitches together into one jaw-dropping 360-degree image. The result is his “Alternative Perspectives Photography”, which captures stunning shots of his native New York City like the Empire State building, as well as other iconic American landscapes such as the Big Sur in California.

In an interview with The Daily Mail UK, Randy – who also works as a music video director – says: “When I began shooting landscapes, I was compelled to push the perspective. After experimenting heavily with panoramic photography, I developed a technique that could realize my desire to turn the real into the surreal…The photographing of the images is the actually least time consuming part of the process. What takes the longest is finding the places that are worthy of shooting and getting to the spot that’s best to shoot them from.”

As New Yorkers, this one of Battery Park is our favorite. What’s yours?

Photo by Randy Scott Salvin

Rawreporter wants to get photographers more work

What if you could receive photography assignments just by checking into your location on your smartphone? That’s what the new startup Rawreporter wants to achieve with its free app, which will send you location-based assignments from media partners and bloggers looking for imagery. Photographers and videographers can then send in their work for consideration. It’s an interesting business model for photographers who are looking for extra work, but it seems more geared toward amateur photographers and on par with players like CNN’s iReport, says Venture Beat. Check out their current list of content here and let us know what you think.

Mark A Johnson wins prize in the Defenders of Wildlife photo contest

Ocean stock and fine art photographer Mark A Johnson learned this week that he won second place in the Wild Lands category of the 3rd annual Defenders of Wildlife photography contest for his photo of Ke’e beach in Hawaii. Congrats to Mark and thanks for sharing!

Photo by Mark A Johnson

“A Cover Story” by Joe McNally

Joe McNally, who will be speaking at Luminance, posted an interesting article that starts off with full disclosure on the overall cut he got for an image that appeared on a Newsweek cover, but was sold through Getty Images. The breakdown is informative about percentage cuts and the like, but he goes on to talk nostalgically about how editorial rates have changed and the simple fact that it’s nothing new that some magazines have bigger budgets than others – and whatever magazine you shoot for puts you into their certain “group”.

Joe compares shooting for Newsweek vs. TIME: “TIME was the big boy on the block, ” he says. “As a shooter or an agent you could always expect more days, or bigger stock checks from TIME…I shot a lot more for Newsweek, the poorer cousin of the newsweeklies, and got used to doing more with less.” Perhaps not the romantic image of photojournalism you wanted to hear, but at least it’s real.

Nikon releases the SLR D3200

Yesterday Nikon announced the release of the Nikon D3200, its latest digital SLR equipped with a new CMOS image sensor and 24.2-million pixel count. The camera also offers an improved Guide mode, which was very popular with the earlier D3000 and D3100 models, that displays instructions for shooting according to situation types, scenes or subjects. For those unfamiliar with high tech, the Guide makes it easier to figure how to set up the camera and what settings to use when photographing. Definitely trying to tap the consumer market with this one.

Source: nikon.com/news

Google+ vs. Pinterest: What’s worth your time?

We’re all for keeping up with the latest in social media trends, but it’s important to make the best of what limited time you have and not spread yourself too thin across multiple platforms. So how do you decide which social media site is right for you? There’s a lot of components to take into consideration, like how many and what type of users you’d be interacting with.

Two of the hottest trends in social media right now are Google+ and Pinterest, so HubSpot has compiled a list of 35 facts to help you compare and contrast. Here are four of the most noteworthy:

• Google+ has 170 million users vs. 10.4 million on Pinterest
• Users spend an average of 3.3 minutes on Google+ vs. 97.8 minutes on Pinterest
• 0.22% of referral traffic comes from Google+ vs. 3.6% from Pinterest
• 63% of Google+ users are male vs. 80% female on Pinterest

So what’s the best choice for you? Do you use either site? You can also read more on Allen’s opinion in “Hey Photographers! Pinterest Is Not For You“.

Oh, and did we mention that the first phase of a brand new PhotoShelter launches tomorrow, March 24th? Hard to forget, since it’s such a major upgrade in the way you use PhotoShelter. So if you’re a member, expect some big and exciting changes come Saturday. And if you’re not a member…well, why not give us a try for free?

“Why This Photograph is Worth $578,500″

PDN reported last week that 36 of William Eggleston’s prints sold for a total of $5.9 million at a Christie’s auction. That launched a spur of comments on photography blogs about how Eggleston’s work is rather unremarkable, and how one particular photo – “Memphis (Tricycle)” , which sold for $578,500 and is shown below  - is a snapshot that “any fool with a camera could have taken”.

Photo by William Eggleston/Source: PetaPixel

In response, freelance photographer David Cohen for PetaPixel wrote a post on why, in fact, this particular photograph by Eggleston is worth more than half a million dollars. But what starts as a defense of the photo’s value turns into something much deeper: how consumers have come to misunderstand the way in which art is valued, and what perception must be taken in order to understand its significance. “To understand which factors are responsible for the value of a work of art, you must first understand what art is,” writes Cohen. “Art is a way of seeing the world. It challenges perceptions, evokes emotions and stimulates thought.”

Cohen goes on to explain how the greatest works come in times of change – from Impressionism to Expressionism, from black and white to color. Eggleston’s work represents just that – “a movement that gave us an entirely unprecedented looks at the way we live, and forever changed the art of photography.” We appreciate PetaPixel’s response and acknowledgement of photography as an art; plus the significance a simple, even mundane, photo can have on the world.

Professional British photo awards hit by controversy

Beyond the cash prize (if there is one), photo awards are often touted as great opportunities for extended exposure and recognition. But sometimes there’s that lingering question whether they’re worth the entry fees (if there are fees) or whether art buyers and clients actually use them to find new photographers.

Now there’s another question thrown into the mix – are they even fair? The British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) was thrown into the hot seat this week when it was revealed that four of the BIPP’s seven judges won awards, reports BBC. Contest rules state that judges are allowed to enter the competition, but are not allowed to oversee a category in which they’ve entered. A surge of complaints from entrants has caused BIPP to reconsider the rules, though they maintain that the judging is unbiased.

What do you think? Should contest judges be able to enter the competition for which they are judging? Tell us in the comments.

Can mold be beautiful? Artist says yes.

Estonian artist Heikki Leis shared his photography series “Afterlife” with Flavorwire for what they’re calling “Dazzling Photos of Rot and Fungus“. Heikki’s photos are wonderfully illuminated, that’s for sure, but are layers of rot and bubbles of moldy perspiration beautiful? It’s your call!

Photo by Heikki Leis/Source: Flavorwire

2012 photography grant call for submissions

The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for International Photography is once again seeking entries for outstanding work in global and social documentary photo reportage. Covering such pressing issues as health, poverty, war, famine, religious/political persecution, and much more, photographers from all over the world ages 18+ are encouraged to apply. Entries are due by May 31, 2012. For more information on entry rules, please visit mrofoundation.org. The winning photographer receives a $5,000 grant.

Jim Goldstein’s Mastering Star Trail photo video course

Among many things, outdoor and nature photographer Jim Goldstein is known for his fantastic star trail photography, and now he’s sharing his secrets in a 4-day online workshop called “Mastering Star Trail Photography“. This video course is for any photographer interested in learning how to make great astronomy landscape photos. The course runs for one hour per day from March 26-29 at 9am PST, and includes instruction and pro tips on every aspect of star trail photography. Admission to the live online stream is free, or you can pre-order the videos before the workshop starts on 3/26 for $74.99 – and with purchase you get a copy of Jim’s eBook, “Photographing the 4th Dimension – Time“.

Jim’s photo video course will cover everything from gear to technique to editing, so it’s well worth investing the time to tune in. We’re huge fans of Jim’s work and even featured one of his star trail photos in 20 Stunning Photos of Nature’s Rarities. For more information on Jim and the workshop, visit Inspired Exposure’s webinar page.

Photo by Jim Goldstein/Source: Inspired Exposure

Free webinar: Creating the mood with texture, color, and sharpness

Educator, photographer, and author Katrin Eismann hosts a free webinar featuring color management, editing, and enhancement techniques that you can use to improve your digital workflow. Katrin, Chair of MPS Digital Photography Department at SVA, will show us how to expand Photoshop’s capabilities with HDR effects to enhance your digital photos. Two sessions are available: March 29th at 12pm EDT and 2pm EDT. More info here.

Russ Taylor’s “Sparkling Sands” photo featured on National Geographic News

National Geographic News blog posts daily nature and science headlines, often accompanied by photo slideshows. This week PhotoShelter member Russ Taylor‘s photo was featured in a slideshow on bioluminescence in the sea’s waves, caused by marine microbes called phytoplankton. Scientists are just starting to figure out these creatures create their unique illumination – in the meantime, we’ll enjoy the awesome photos that capture it.

Photo by Russ Bishop/Source: National Geographic News

New technology will allow cameras’ focus to mimic your eyes

“We take it for granted, but the human ability to focus instantly on particular objects in our field of vision is a remarkable skill,” writes Killian Fox for The Observer in “Autofocus and the importance of ‘defocusing’“. While we might look at digital cameras as highly advanced, the truth is that our eyes are the most advanced tool in our arsenal. But now two scientists from University of Texas are working on developing technology that will allow for greater speed and accuracy in digital photography. The new autofocus system would actually use defocus, which better determines the focus distance and would improve future digital cameras. Be on the lookout for more.

The Photo System by David Jay

Judging by wedding photographer David Jay’s website, he does not fool around. The photographer-speaker-entrepreneur-lover has spoken at WPPI and PPA conferences over the years, and has now released The Photo System: A 10 Step Guide to Starting Your Photography Business. It’s a flashy, interactive online guide compiling his top tips for getting started in the photo industry including “making friends”, “building a workflow”, and “marketing and branding”. Each step has a “Let’s get practical” section with additional reading, assignments and questions to ask yourself. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Source: thephotosystem.com

Jennifer Davick films legendary ham man

PhotoShelter member and food photographer Jennifer Davick produced this nano-documentary on legendary ham man Allan Benton, whose pork products are used by esteemed chefs like David Chang and Thomas Keller. Benton speaks about the process of making ham and bacon (drool), and the family recipe that was developed in a log smokehouse behind his Tennessee childhood home. Davick incorporates a neat smoke effect from inside the smokehouse – check out her work below. The video was also recently featured on New York Magazine‘s Grub Street here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

10 of art history’s most controversial photographers

Cultural news and critique website Flavorwire quoted Norman Mailer: “Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.” If you’ve seen her work, you might agree. Arbus is just one of the photographers named in Flavorwire’s “10 of art history’s most controversial photographers”. Also included was Irina Ionesco, who photographed her own child in heavily stylized and arguably disturbing poses; Jan Saudek, whose work “explodes” with surrealism, political metaphors, and sexual innuendos; and Steven Meisel, whose fashion shots have taken on themes such as post-9/11 hysteria. Check out the full list – with images - here.

Photo by Diane Arbus/Source: Flavorwire

Homeless people as wireless transmitters at SXSW

Marketing agency BBH had the innovative idea to outfit 13 volunteers from a homeless shelter in Austin with mobile Wi-Fi devices, offering Internet access in exchange for donations. Volunteers wore T-shirts with the line: “I’m Clarence, a 4G Hotspot” and were told to head toward the most densely packed areas, The New York Times reports. While participants said that they regarded the project as an employment opportunity, critics focused on the obvious divide between the impoverished volunteers and self-involved Internet community. Needless to say, the backlash had BBH employees scrambling to explain themselves.

7 photographers you shouldn’t hire for your wedding

Chicago Tribune photographer Alex Garcia wrote a steamy news blog post for the Tribune this week on the 7 types of self-proclaimed wedding photographers to avoid when hiring for their big day. “With the smoke and mirrors of technology,” he says, “you might hire someone you really shouldn’t and jeopardize your wedding day album.” Alex quotes the story of his brother, whose wedding photographer claimed to loose almost all his photos in a mysterious lab accident; the remainder of images were out of focus or too far away to use.

His cautionary tale brings up the age-old battle that legitimate wedding photographers (and all photographers for that matter) continue to face: can anyone with a nice camera claim to be a professional?

One type of photographer Alex says to avoid is those who don’t have past work to show. That’s whywedding photographer Chip Litherland suggests actually shooting a handful of weddings for free (cringe!) if you’re seriously looking to make it. “You’ll need to show off work in order to score the clients you want,” he advises. Learn more of Chip’s tips to success in “From Photojournalists to Wedding Photographer: Video with Chip Litherland”.

Photo by Chip Litherland

Could time-lapse photography save the planet from global warming?

National Geographic photographer James Balog had been a skeptic about climate change until about 20 years ago when he started seeing the evidence firsthand in the world’s melting glaciers. In an effort to show the artistic and scientific impact, James founded The Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) in 2007, where he and his team pointed 27 cameras at 18 glaciers around the world. The result was 8,000 frames worth of time-lapse footage per year that showcased changes so slow that they might be rendered inconsequential – until you see it all put together in the film Chasing Ice by Jeff Orlowski.

Orlowski bought the rights to Balog’s EIS project and directed this harrowing film to communicate the science and knowledge that scientists already have about global warming. Photographers will be amazed by the hardware it took to set up camera stations in the world’s harshest environmental conditions, and everyone will take a moment to think about the dire consequences presented by climate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“My journey into Syria’s nightmare”

Algerian photojournalist Zohra Bensemra for Reuters contributed a blog post titled “My journey into Syria’s nightmare”, where she details her trip into the war-torn and ravaged lands of Assad’s regime. “In Libya, miles divided the warring parties,” she explains. “In Syria, enemies are yards apart.” Zohra and her colleague were constantly approached by locals who wanted to show them the destruction and death apparent on every street corner. They didn’t have to look hard to find bodies, bombed buildings and rockets whizzing overhead. Trying to photograph was a nightmare within a nightmare, as the group tried to figure out who was enemy and who was friend. Read her full story and see the incredible images here.

Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Source: Reuters Blog

OPENPhoto: Money, power & sex – an African photographic competition

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is launching an African photographic competition around the OpenForum - a conference on African democracy and governance – called OPENPhoto. The OPENPhoto award will recognize photographers based in Africa whose work highlights how inequality plays itself out within the parameters of money, power, and sex. The winner and three runners-up will be exhibited at the OpenForum conference and online. Enter by April 9, 2012.

Warren Winter argues that the camera you use matters not

“All that matters is what you produce, period. Period!” states Warren Winter in his blog post “Pixel Pimp – How Can Millions of Great Pictures Be Wrong?” on The Photo Brigade. His rant comes from a place where photographers spend all day arguing about Nikon vs. Canon, and now whether the iPhone is an acceptable means of capturing photos. But these are just tools, he argues, and if it’s a unique and beautiful image, then we should quit worrying about what camera it came from (he also says that what makes a good photo depends on your definition of what a good photo “is”).

Winter’s so-called rant is a welcomed relief from all the naysayers who spend more time hating on new technologies than actually taking pictures. “…don’t be afraid of change,” he says. Right on.

You can also check out Warren Winter on The Photo Brigade’s Agent on Demand program (AoD) – with 25 years of experience, Winter is now offering his advice in 15-minute blocks of time on everything from negotiating contracts to how to price stock licensing requests.

Bumblejax turns Hipstamatic & Instagram prints into art

Print vendor Bumblejax specializes in creating handmade, gallery quality wall art from your digital photos. Now they’re offering iPhone wall art by printing and mounting your photos to unique materials such as bamboo, acrylic and aluminum. iPhone wall art is available at 7×7″, 12×12″, 18×18″ and 24×24″ depending on the resolution.  Says Co-Founder Corey Dwinnell, “Iphoneographers are embracing the product as a higher quality alternative to the canvas option. We are seeing an increase in galleries highlighting this medium and the acrylic product in particular really stands out from the crowd.” Learn more about the process and pricing here.

Source: Bumblejax

5 things every new Lightroom user should know

PhotoShelter member, New England nature photographer, and Lightroom veteran Jerry Monkman of EcoPhotography invited fellow PhotoShelter member Bret Edge to guest post on his blog this week. Bret was once a stubborn Photoshop user who worked with Lightroom mainly for RAW converting and some editing work. Now he has shifted 90% of his processing work to Lightroom, and is sharing his 5 top tips for new Lightroom users – including keywording from the start, backing up, and more. Read the full post here.

New York gets ready for AIPAD

Starting March 29th, The Association of International Photography Art Dealers’ Photography Show returns to New York with 75 of the world’s leading galleries presenting their latest in art photography. This year’s show is set to be the biggest yet, with a greater emphasis on female photographers in numerous solo exhibitions at some the city’s top museums. Specially curated exhibitions of work by earlier photographers include Julia Margaret Cameron, Ansel Adams, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Source: British Journal of Photography Online

Randy Santos captures Washington D.C.’s cherry blossom peak season

It only comes once a year – and no, we’re not talking about Christmas. We’re talking about cherry blossom season in Washington D.C., captured in stunning photos by Washington D.C. stock photographer Randy Santos. One of Randy’s cherry blossom photos was featured in the latest issue of Popular Photography magazine, shown below. Also be sure to look at his full cherry blossoms gallery on PhotoShelter.

Photo by Randy Santos

This tiny feature could keep Pinterest from getting sued

The latest in the Pinterest copyright infringement debate says that because users are required to add a caption before “pinning” photos, Pinterest could argue that having photos on its site is protected under “fair use”. This report comes from Business Insider, saying that captions make commentary required, which is protected and even encouraged under fair use. Still, the jury is still out on whether Pinterest has found a solution to its copyright questions.

Read Allen’s view on the site in his blog post, “Hey Photographers! Pinterest is Not for You” and “Pinterest is Still Not for Photographers: Round 2“.