New York-based freelancer and PhotoShelter user, Robert Caplin, likes to experiment. Earlier this year, he picked up a Canon 5D Mark II and started to play with the video options. But instead of recording something banal like taxis outside his window, he decided to make a music video of his sister.

That experience got him hooked on the moving pictures. He helped create a short film entitled Betrayed, and then started playing around with time-lapse photography with a static mount as well as a moving mount that is typically used with telescopes to track the movement of stars.

A few weeks ago, he stopped by our offices to show us some of his tests, which were just a pre-cursor of his time lapse photography of the 2009 World Series.

World Series Time-Lapse by Robert Caplin from Robert Caplin on Vimeo.

Not only is it well-composed and interesting to watch, but it seems like great stock footage material...

And yes, he also shot some stills of the game.

Today we're proud to announce July's PhotoShelter featured photographers, whose diverse and inspiring images will be displayed in the "Images" tab of the PhotoShelter homepage slideshow throughout the month.

Have a look at July's 20 winners.  We couldn't help but notice a whole bunch of water images - it just may be our subconscious desire to get out of the office and enjoy the summer weather. 



Other timely images include:

• Jock Fistick's photo of Michael Jackson from the 1988 Bad tour
• William Alix' image of Iran election protests in Paris
• And some summer delights, like Gordon Stillman's grilled sausage (mmmm)
  

Like what you see? Embed our July featured slideshow in your own website or blog by clicking the up arrow in the lower right of the above widget.

Want to submit your images for consideration? Here's how. Images must be submitted by the 20th of the month, and winners are posted on the first Tuesday of the following month.

Miki Johnson wrote a story about (and conducted a video interview with) Art Wolfe and Jim Martin, released yesterday on the liveBooks blog. Art is a World-renowned conservation and fine art photographer, and Jim is executive director of Art Wolfe Inc.

I recently went up to Seattle to visit Art and Jim, and get a tour of their operation. We ended up going to lunch, spending some time talking about tequila, but most of the time talking about how they are changing their business model, in part, by selling Art's stock images themselves, via PhotoShelter.

During my tour through his gallery and studio, I realized just how diverse Art is in terms of his work (he shoots more than just "Fur and Feathers"), and his business model, which in addition to stock, includes books, a television show, classroom workshops and lectures, and in-the-field shooting workshops to crazy and dangerous cold arctic places.

Art's studio comes complete with a full classroom, with computers on every desk. I immediately envisioned PhotoShelter training sessions being conducted there. Hmmm... could happen. If you like that idea and think you would attend, send me a note.

Some other really cool photographers also use Art's studio to conduct workshops, too.

One really cool opportunity that just opened up is a 4-day "Master Class with David Alan Harvey," coming up pretty soon - April 11-15, 2009. If you ever wanted to spend some quality time with someone like DAH (member of Magnum, his work frequently appearing in National Geographic), here's an opportunity.

More info on that here:
http://store.artwolfe.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=175

If you're ever in Seattle, make a visit to the SODO neighborhood and check out his gallery. It's worth going out of your way just to see all the nice huge prints on display.

At lunch, I suggested that he needed to add a bottle of Don Julio 1942 to his tequila collection. It might make his trips to remote arctic regions a little warmer.

Images from twenty-five Redux photographers fill the pages of "American Youth," a 240-page book that examines the newest generation of 18-24 year olds.

Redux is marketing the new book, which will be available in early May, in a few interesting ways.

First, they've got a blog dedicated to the book. It contains stories from the photographers, and even share image outtakes. It's a really nice way to continue the storytelling even after all the pages of the book have been printed.

The blog is really interesting and educational, especially the parts where the photographers talk about the assignment itself.

Some stuff that is especially cool...

Angie Smith on photographing tailgaters in Southern California.
http://americanyouthbook.com/blog/?p=127

Cheerleaders! Outtakes from John Keatley
http://americanyouthbook.com/blog/?p=112

Second - they're on Twitter, and making great use of it. I must admit, when I first heard of "Twitter" I thought it would die out like 8-track tapes, but after we set up a PhotoShelter Twitter feed, I quickly realized how this medium was a way to quickly reach a very large audience.

Third, they are making use of PhotoShelter embedded slideshows (shown above.) These little Flash-based gems allow their images to "go viral," and (legally) spread all over the web, giving their images, their blog, and their book exposure in places they never even knew existed. Click that little triangle on the lower right and you'll see the code that makes it go viral.

And fourth, since they are using PhotoShelter, they were able to seemlessly integrate PhotoShelter galleries into their blog, which gives them a more powerful image gallery creation system than what's normally available for most blogging tools.

Photographers with images in the book are: Marc Asnin, Ben Baker, Nina Berman, David Butow, Peter Frank Edwards, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Eros Hoagland, John Keatley, Andy Kropa, Erika Larsen, Gina LeVey, Joshua Lutz, Preston Mack, Kevin J. Miyazaki, Darcy Padilla, Mark Peterson, Michael Rubenstein, Greg Ruffing, Q. Sakamaki, Erin Siegal, Angie Smith, Ben Stechschulte, Brad Swonetz, Nathaniel Welch, and David Yellen.

I also spotted this line in their blog:

"We will have an event in May to celebrate.  Stay tuned here for details."

Nice. Can I get an invite?

Last month, David Walter Banks gave me a call. He told me he was in New York City, and wondered if we could meet up. I said sure, and he came to the PhotoShelter office with Matt Slaby. I always like to meet up and hang out with photographers -- especially when I really love their work, which is the case here.

They were in New York, showing their portfolios around, looking for work, making contacts, and other making-the-rounds and paying-your-dues networking fun that nearly all serious photographers do at one point or another in their career.

But what is really interesting about these two guys is the teamwork they have. They are both independent freelance photographers, both looking for work, both could be considered "competitors" yet they're going door-to-editor-door together, and they're happy about it.

It doesn't stop there, though. They've also got the work of four other photographers tucked under their arm. Six photographers, all working as a team to promote each other individually and as a group.

Each member of the group has their own unique style, and brings their own personal vision to the table. If a photo editor doesn't think one of them is a fit for them, no problem, there are 5 other portfolios to check out - right then and there. In this economy, this is a smart move.

They're calling themselves "Luceo Images," and their approach to marketing, networking and support of each other is a very refreshing thing to see -- especially in today's business climate. There is strength in numbers, and they know it.

Banks and Slaby joined with fellow photographers Kendrick Brinson, Matt Eich, Kevin German, and Tim Lytvinenko to form Luceo Images a year ago, and they're celebrating this fact with an Anniversary Print Sale, where they are selling collector's prints for a limited time.

Brilliant. Opening up another revenue stream while showing off their work and getting their name out there all at the same time. (Would I be writing about them right now if they didn't have some really good timely reason for me to do so? Probably not.)

They announced on their blog that people can choose between 24 different 11x14 fine art prints for $99 each. Great prints for a really great price. How'd they do it?

They're using a PhotoShelter Personal Archive account to do the print sales, and they've teamed up with AdoramaPix to make the prints. Two services that actually work really well together.

We actually have prints here in the office, hanging on the wall, made by AdoramaPix that we absolutely love. Their quality is amazing and you seriously will not believe how good their prices are.

When David and Matt were chatting with me, I was really impressed with their spirit, and their marketing smarts. It's one thing to be a great photographer. It's another (rare) thing to be a great photographer that has a knack for marketing. These guys have it, and it was fun to just sit down and toss ideas around with them.

I encouraged them to go talk to Ingrid over at AdoramaPix because I thought they would make a great match, and a perfect partner for their print sale. All six members of Luceo Images are PhotoShelter users, and I knew that with our manual print fulfillment abilities, they could sell images using PhotoShelter's built-in e-commerce tools, and then have AdoramaPix handle the making of the prints - knowing that the prints were going to be good.

Congrats on your first anniversary, David, Matt, Kendrick, Matt, Kevin, and Tim. May you have many more print sales in your future.

Luceo Images prints for sale.

Luceo Images blog: http://luceoimages.wordpress.com
Luceo Images website: http://www.luceoimages.com
Luceo Images print sale: http://www.luceoimages.com/store/

AdoramaPix blog: http://www.adoramapix.com/Blog.aspx
AdoramaPix website: http://adoramapix.com