When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?
There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.
Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition.
Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...
If you've not already seen this, here's Commander Chris Hadfield's rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded on the International Space Station on Sunday. It was his farewell before returning to earth after nearly five months in orbit. If you have already seen it, there's no harm in watching it again.
Via sources too numerous to mention
I know, it's a title that makes me sound like a spoiled brat. You might have visions of me stomping my feet and tossing my iPhone to the ground in the throes of a tantrum because I can't have my way to take a picture of my sweet potato and chickpea tagine with jewelled saffroned rice. That's not quite how it might seem, I promise.
Last week, the New York Times reported on the growing number of eating establishments that are prohibiting their clientele from photographing their food. No iPhones at Ko in New York and no flashes at Seiobo in Sydney or Shoto in Toronto. It's all becoming too distracting and disturbing, for diners and staff alike, especially when people start rearranging furniture and standing on chairs. Their houses; their rules. And with behaviour like that, I'm not surprised that restaurateurs have called time on wannabe Bon Apetit photographers or people who are too involved in Instagram to actually enjoy their slow roasted pork belly properly.
So I'm here to plead for a little moderation.
I'm the first person to stand up for no flash; apart from it being a terrible disturbance to other people who are eating or working, it does horrible things to images of food that can make them look distinctly unappealing as opposed to wickedly tempting. If you want to do justice to the raspberry and mascarpone creme brulee with brandy tuile, that you're meant to be enjoying and a pastry chef has burned his fingers making, you'll switch off your flash. We don't want slimy looking custard, thankyouverymuch.
As for people who think that they can stand on a restaurant chair in order to get the perfect overhead of their grilled seabass with steamed vegetables, they can go to bed with no supper. You wouldn't do that at a dinner party hosted by a friend, so why do you think it's acceptable when you're in public? Besides, by the time that you've finished faffing, your meal will be cold, you'll not enjoy it as much, and it will have been a waste of time, effort, money, and a dead fish.
Furthermore, if you're meant to be enjoying delicious food, wonderful wine, and charming company, why are you pansying about on Instagram or wittering on Twitter?
But not allowing a discreet smartphone snap or a compact camera capture? That feels a little draconian to me. Without doubt, I'm biased. I take a lot of photos of food. I love cooking and eating, and obviously I love photography: I photograph food that I make and I photograph food that eat when I'm out. I do it because I'm proud of what I've created, because I think that what I've been served looks beautiful and I want to capture that, and because I like to make memories of my restaurant experiences.
I don't want to disturb other diners and I don't want to ruin my own enjoyment of my meal, especially if I'm paying a lot of money for the privilege. What I want is a swift image to revel in. No flash, no furniture rearrangement, no Instagram. Just a discreetly snapped picture that I can look back on years to come to help me recall how perfect that grilled halloumi salad on a terrace a few hours outside of Auckland was.
When I take photos of food in a restaurant it's a compliment. Please accept it as such.
Untitled. 1971-1974 from Los Alamos - minnows sign
Regarded as one of the pioneers leading to the acceptance of colour photography as an artistic medium, William Eggleston is this year being recognised for his outstanding contribution to photography at the Sony World Photography Awards.
Born in 1939 in Memphis, Eggleston picked up his first camera, a Canon rangefinder, in 1957. His experiments with colour started in 1965 and his great breakthrough, and that of colour photography, came in 1976 when the Museum of Modern Art, New York, exhibited his first solo collection of colour photographs. Colour photography had moved from the realm of advertising to the world of art.
Astrid Merget, Creative Director of the World Photography Organisation says of Eggleston: 'William Eggleston is a without a doubt, one of the great pioneers of our time. His influence on colour photography and subsequently on many of today's most revered working photographers, is one to be admired, respected and awarded.'
The Wilson Centre for Photography has loaned a selection of Eggleston's prints for display at Somerset House as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition from 26 April to 12 May 2013. The majority of these prints are from his Los Alamos and Dust Bells series and the 10.D.70.V1 portfolio and were taken between 1965 and 1980.
Mr Eggleston's award will be presented to him on Thursday 25 April at the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Gala Ceremony.
Images are copyright Eggleston Artistic Trust and courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.
A smore has to be just about the sweetest thing I can think of
I was going to make this month's photo competition theme 'cake', but then I decided that my own preference for cake over sweets or chocolate shouldn't restrict your photographs. So instead the theme is sweet. It can include cake, chocolate, desserts, or sweeties. Just make sure it's sugar- (or honey-) based!
The photographer of the winning image will win her- or himself and 12 inch Fracture, and get to revel in the glory of the announcement, too!
You can participate by submitting your image, just the one, to the Small Aperture Flickr pool and then linking it in this month's thread. (That last bit is important.) The competition opens today, Friday 5 April, and runs until Friday 26 April 2013.
The Rules have been reproduced for your reference, so now it is just a case of good luck!
The Rules
If you've any questions, please just ask!
March's competition theme was patterns. We wanted to see pictures comprising Fibonacci spirals, ancient mosaics, or even jars on a shelf. You gave us some great images including flower petals, ice crystals, tapestry, and masonry. The winner that we* went for, however, was this row of clouds perching above the crest of a mountain range in northern Italy.
![Queueing [EXPLORE]](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54ca877ce4b014ea90e14bda/54ca9f5de4b021f8b6d68cc1/54caa178e4b021f8b6d6c132/1422565752067/7977757192_a2770a949d.jpg?format=original)
Well done to Maria Antonietta for Queuing! She's won herself a 12 inch Fracture.
We'd also like to congratulate flickphoto10 for the second-placed image In Line:
Thank you to everyone who entered. If you want to be in with a chance of winning a 12 inch Fracture this month, the details of April's competition will be going up soon!
* The usual suspects have been indisposed for their selection duties this month. I recruited a stunt-double, though.
We hear it just about every day: the publishing world has changed. Sales of dead-tree publications are down; access to free content and self-publishing services is on the up. For both publishers and wanna-bee authors, this is both a good and a bad thing: it's a rickety market for publishers, but with wonderful opportunities for revolutionary thinking; authors no longer have to channel themselves through the strictly controlled layers of publishing houses, but how do they get their work noticed?
Ilex, one of the leading photo publishers in the world, believes it has the answer to this conundrum, combining the freedom of e-book publishing with the solidity of traditional publishing in the form of Associate Publisher Adam Juniper's brainchild: Ilex Instant.
You take your e-book idea to Ilex and they give it the traditional editorial treatment with an editor and a designer. When it's ready, it's released into the big scary world of sales, but with the advantages of looking great, reading well, and having the weight of a well-respected publisher behind it. Ilex's name is known the world over, but its books are sold under many other different brands too, including Pixiq's (for example The Complete Guide to Digital Photography and Creative Portrait Photography). They're also known as innovators, being the folks behind The Photographer's i Magazine (which, of course, can be bought from the site in PDF so it's no longer tied to tablets).
As the sales roll in, the profits are split between you and Ilex. You never know, it might be a stepping stone to seeing your name on the cover of a printed book, too.
Adam told me: 'Now we'll be a "hybrid publisher", not just producing the books we think photographers need but letting photographers lead the way, and paying them to do it.'
It's still early days for Ilex Instant; the first exclusive material is a little way off yet. However, you can access much of Ilex's catalogue of books on a chapter-by-chapter basis that, usually, costs little more than a cup of coffee. But as a special treat for Pixiq readers, Ilex is offering you a free e-book. Browse the site, choose your book, and then enter the code PIXIQMAR2013 at the checkout. If you register in the social section of Ilex's site before the end of March, you can be in the running to win an iPad Mini, too.
Ilex Instant, definitely worth a look.
Starry Tree by Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan, Winner, Low Light, Open Competition
The swanky gala awards ceremony for the Sony World Photography Awards 2013 draws closer, and the winners of the ten Open categories, the 3D category, and the Youth cetegory winners have just been announced.
Taking the spoils of a Sony A77 each for their prowess in the Open categories are:
These ten amateur photographers are now up for being awarded the title Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year on 25 April 2013 at the aforementioned swanky gala ceremony, and will be presented with $5,000 in addition to their new camera.
As for the 3D award, that's going to Matjaž Tančič, a Slovenian fashion photographer based in Beijing and Ljubljana.
The overall winner of the Youth category will also be announced on 25 April, but the finalists for that honour are:
The professional photographers have been shortlisted; the winner of the Iris d'Or will be unveiled on 25 April in London.
(All images copyright their respective photographers and courtesy of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards.)
All photos are about telling stories. From a beautiful lily in bloom to a shell exploding as it careens through a pock-marked wall in a war-torn suburb, they're about conveying a narrative. Much like words, that are also used to express an opinion or tell a tale, sometimes they are about truth and sometimes they are about fantasy. It doesn't matter which type of story a photographer chooses to tell with her or his images, the important factor is that the audience knows which type of story they're looking at: a real one, or a constructed one.
This element of truthfulness has been a matter of hot debate in photojournalistic circles over the past two weeks. It started when Paul Hansen was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year prize for his image of two young boys being carried to their funeral in Gaza. It's a raw and emotive photograph, overwhelmingly blue and dusty in tone. You can feel the cold numbness of heartache seeping through the screen when you look at it. And that, for many people, was the problem with the winning image. This chilled, depressed feeling had been processed into the image specifically for its entry into the competition in order to evoke an emotion in its audience. The tone of the image, the feeling that you get when you compare the competition version with the press version is quite different. Rather than acting as a record of events, it had been transformed into a work of art.
This is problematic for the inegrity of the competition. If it's a press photo competition, should the images not be as they were submitted to publications? Shouldn't they be about assessing the photos used to report the news over the past year and settle on which one tells the story best? If we are content to see images that have been manipulated in post-production in order to produce a response win the industry's major prize, are we also content to see these sorts of images tell the story of the news?
News reporting isn't about art and isn't about winning competitions. First and foremost, it is about telling the stories of those unable to tell them themselves, of keeping the world informed, of bringing light to situations that might otherwise remain festering pits of darkness. It isn't pretty and it is often thankless, but it is vital.
Then comes the Paolo Pellegrin situation, which also arose from his entry into the World Press Photo competition. This is a degree messier than the Hansen situation. His entry into the documentary category was of an ex-Marine sniper in The Crescent, a dodgy (putting it mildly) area of Rochester, New York. Except that the caption on the image was outed by Michael Shaw of BagNewsNotes as not being entirely accurate. Shane Keller, the subject of the image, claims that although he was in the military he was never a sniper; furthermore, the photograph was not taken in the Crescent, but in his basement in an area of Rochester that most definitely isn't the Crescent. Rather than being a proper documentary image that is part of telling the story of the area, it's a bit more posed, maybe even staged, than that. What's more, it looks as if the caption for the image had been lifted from an article in the New York Times published in December 2003.
So we have a situation where a documentary photograph that has been entered into contests and in some cases recognised, isn't necessarily what it claims to be. If this alone isn't disturbing, I'm particularly perturbed by Pellegrin's response to the situation. (And no, I'm not even going to venture into the debate about whether or not BagNewsNotes should have contacted Pellegrin for his comments prior to publication. That's a whole different issue.)
As far as Pellegrin is concerned, this isn't an issue. He might have misunderstood Keller's description of his role in the military and he wasn't sure if the area where the image was taken was indeed The Crescent. But because it tells the story that he aimed to tell, about the deprivation, the gun crime, the drug abuse, and the complicated relationship that exists between them all in Rochester, it doesn't matter. As for the captions, that was a simple mistake.
I'm sorry Signor Pellegrin, but none of those explanations is good enough. You see, if you're a photojournalist or a documentary photographer, I have to be able to trust you. I have to be certain that the stories you are telling through your pictures are accurate. So this means that you need to be certain of whom you're photographing. You need to be certain of where you are taking photographs. And you need to be certain that the captions you attach to them are accurate and indeed your own.
This kind of storytelling isn't about setting up shots to tell the story that you want them to tell; this kind of storytelling is about telling the truth. If I can't trust you here, can I trust you anywhere else?
Photojournalists are the eyes of the world and we rely on their integrity as we rely on their bravery. We have to be certain that the stories that they are telling are the truthful ones, not the fantastical, beautiful, artistic ones. The truth is often ugly: so be it.
For the month of March we're looking for images that make use of patterns. Get creative looking for Fibonacci spirals in vegetables, ancient mosaic tesserae, or jars lined up on a shelf. If your image comprises a pattern, we want to see it!
Thanks to the wonderful team at Fracture, the winning entrant will be able to claim a 12 inch Fracture for free.
To submit an entry, head over to the Small Aperture Flickr pool, and link your image in the March 2013 competition thread. (Remember, we've changed the rules slightly and the image must be in the thread as well as in the pool.) It's still one entry per person. The competition opens today (Friday 1 March) and closes on Friday 29 March 2013.
I've reproduced The Rules for your reference, so all that remains is to wish you good luck!
The Rules
If you've any questions, please just ask!
The theme for February's photo competition was 'relax'. A lot of the entries, unsurprisingly, featured people with their feet up! And it happened to be two of those that we selected as our winner and our runner-up.
First to our winner, by Igor K:
He has won a 12" Fracture for his beautiful image that sums up taking the weight off your feet and letting the day flow away.
Our runner-up is Rob-Shanghai. I love this anonymously captured moment.
Well done! And thank you to everyone who entered. March's competition will open later today. We hope to see you and your entries over in the thread on Flickr.
'The Three Guys' by Michele Abramo Puricelli (aka Michael Abraham), Italy, Finalist, 3D competition, 2013 Sony World Photography
Last year's Sony World Photography Awards saw the inclusion of a 3D category, reflecting the revival of the interest in and the continued innovation of the genre. This year the category was opened up for entries again, and this morning its three finalists were announced.
First there's Michele Abramo Puricelli (aka Michael Abraham), from Italy, who has been working with 3D imagery since 2009. His image, The Three Guys, was taken of three desert guides in Morocco, before embarking on a trip across the Sahara.
Matjaž Tančič is from Slovenia but now splits his time between Beijing and Ljubljana. It was the Hui-style living rooms in old village houses in Yixian, China that inspired his final-reaching image, Timekeeper.
Warehouse Wonderland is American Nick Saglimbeni's entry. It was shot as a fashion feature for WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful #2. WMB 3D: World's Most Beautiful was the first magazine to be designed and photographed entirely in 3D.
The winner of the category will be announced on 19 March, treated to a trip to the awards ceremony in London, and presented with a bundle of Sony 3D photography equipment.
If you want to see the images for yourself, the three finalists will be exhibited at the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, held at Somerset House, London, between 26 April and 12 May.
If you're feeling that your Photoshop skills could benefit from a bit of refinement or perhaps that you'd appreciate getting to know Photoshop's darkest secrets, the online learning start-up creativeLIVE launched its Photoshop Week special yesterday. Over 40 different classes are available for free until Saturday. (And you can catch up if you missed anything.)
The range of lessons is quite extensive. You can swing from practical advice on managing your workflow and getting into good habits, to more focused classes on blending modes or brushes or retouching or working with text, via getting the most out of actions and presets, and then unlock some of Photoshop's hidden secrets.
Lessons last approximately 90 minutes and are led by one from a team of 12 tutors who include Ben Willmore, Kevin Kubota, and Aaron Nace.
creativeLIVE usually works by offering the live stream of a lesson for free and a download of the lesson at a fee. As the classes run off Pacific Standard Time this can be inconvenient for those of us based in Europe: a 14:45 class will be live streamed at 22:45 here in the UK (and there are re-casts later in the day to help you catch up). The rules change a little over Photoshop Week, however. You can pay to purchase the course in advance, or you can enroll and catch up with a class for free over the course of the week.
If you're not sure which of the lessons you'd like to join, you can buy the entire bundle for a special price of $299 right now. That'll increase significantly at the end of the week, however.
All the details on all the classes are here.
Marie Colvin (1956-2012)
About a year ago, I was having a drink in a bar in Coromandel, New Zealand with some fellow travellers. When the conversation turned to me and what I do for a living, one of my companions asked me what sort of photography I admired the most. Without hesitation I responded 'photojournalism'. The fantastic images that are produced in the direst of circumstances by people driven to tell the world what's happening leaves me breathless.
About the same time, Marie Colvin was reporting on the deaths of a group of civilians in the Syrian city of Homs. It was one of the last reports she filed.
On 22 February 2012 Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed in Homs, Syria. Their deaths weren't unfortunate incidents encountered in the terror and confusion of conflict. Eye witness evidence, including that from Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy, suggests that the make-shift press centre was deliberately targeted by Syrian government troops. Colvin had never been a journalist who pulled her punches, and the implication is that her coverage of the deaths those civilians, including a young boy, at the hands of government forces, had been a step too far for the Syrian regime.
Colvin's and Ochlik's deaths weren't the only losses to the journalistic community last year. In fact, 2012 was the most dangerous year on record to be a journalist: 90 of them were killed whilst on assignment. In addition, there were those injured and those held captive or missing.
For seven members of the journalistic community this brings the prospect of a day without news too close. Aidan Sullivan, David Friend, Lynsey Adarrio, Tom Stoddart, John Moore, Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC, and Sara Sofanelli are the key players behind the A Day Without News? campaign, launched today, on the first anniversary of Colvin's and Ochlik's deaths, with the ultimate aim of bringing about the prosecution of those who deliberately target or threaten journalists.
Contrary to what many people believe, the majority of journalists who cover conflict and disaster aren't thrill-seekers or adrenaline junkies. They're people who passionately believe that stories need to be told; that knowledge trumps ignorance. Their work is inherently dangerous, Colvin admitted that she was forced to weigh 'bravery against bravado', but it should not make them direct targets and their deaths should not pass with impunity.
In early February this year, Westminster Coroner's Court ruled that photojournalist Tim Hetherington had been unlawfully killed when he and a group of other journalists were mortared in Misrata, Libya, on 20 April 2011. It was the same attack that killed American photojournalist Chris Hondros. This ruling, that Hetherington's death cannot be attributed to the ghastly phrase 'collateral damage', re-inforces the fact that to deliberately target a journalist is to perpetrate a war crime.
For A Day Without News?, the aim is to successfully prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes against journalists. When reporters and photographers are no longer considered legitimate targets or expendable and foolhardy it might help to ensure their safety, and the continued reportage from conflict zones, that little bit more. If we're to avoid a day without news, journalists need to be able to do their job, to report the news. This is becoming increasingly difficult with the risks too great for freelances and retained staff alike. Since 1992, 971 journalists have been killed and there are now fewer journalists covering the conflict in Syria than there were in Libya.
A Day Without News? is asking that you show your support for the journalists who report on events across the globe, through your tweets, likes, blogs, and the campaign's own website as they seek the prosecution of those alleged to have committed war crimes against those who report the news. So that we can all continue to read, watch, listen to, and indeed, write, the news.
Back to school - If you'd like to learn more about taking photos, why not try the Photocritic Photography School? Regular lessons and feedback on your photos from Haje and me - go on, sign up, you'll love it!
It's relatively simple to create a website for yourself; even if you haven't got the hosting business down, head over to Tumblr and you can post photos, share your thoughts, and inflict cat videos on the rest of the world with mind-bending simplicity. The only barrier to entry is an internet connection and in the circumstances, that's not really a barrier at all.
An app on the other hand, is a far more complicated beast to create that usually has a pricetag to match, reflective of the hours of work required to put into one. New York-based Kleverbeast doesn't think it should be exclusive, either in terms of cost or ability to create one. It has, therefore, devised a series of app templates that you can customise for your needs. It aims to cater to a variety of different creatives, but when it comes to photographers, it's suggesting showcasing your portfolio and even building in monetisation options, for example print sales.
As the Kleverbeast team puts it: 'You can make apps that look like Flipboard but with prices that you'll find at H&M.'
The basic package costs $29 a month; the pro package is $199 per month and allows for multiple editions and in-app commerce. There's also an option for something entirely customised, with an accordingly entirely customised price.
Creating a Kleverbeast app is a relatively simple drag-and-drop process that can be customised with a few clicks. You might be creating an app to a template, but it's fairly easy to pull together something that looks different from anyone else.
You can check out Kleverbeast's introductory video:
The question that I keep coming back to, though, is 'Is an app the best way for a photographer to display her or his portfolio?' If I were, for example, to be perusing the market for a wedding photographer (I'm absolutely not, by the way), I wouldn't want to have to download an app for every photographer who caught my eye. I'd just want to be able to get a flavour for their work: if I liked it, I could get in touch; if I didn't, I could close a browser tab and move on. Apps are wonderful for return visitors, and therefore ideal for news sites and completing your weekly grocery shop, but are somewhat redundant for single or infrequent visits.
I'm not sure then, that $29 per month for the basic package, with an additional $250 fee if you want help to navigate the App Store approval process, is worth the expenditure. If I'm missing something obvious, though, do pipe up because I love the idea of someone being able to simply and quickly build their own app.
Bolted. Adam Pretty, Australia, Finalist, Sport (Getty Images)
The Sony World Photography Awards' list of finalists for 2013 was announced this morning. The juries have narrowed down their selections from 122,000 entries from 170 countries. The Youth and Open category winners will be revealed on 19 March; the professional winners, together with the winner of L'Iris d'Or will be unveiled at a ceremony in London 25 April.
I've chosen a selection of my favourite images from the professional category here, but you can browse many more over on the WPO site, and if you're around London between 26 April and 12 May, you can see the winners' exhibition at Somerset House.
All images are copyright their respective photographers and are used by kind permission of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards.
After a hiatus for the month of January, the monthly photo competition is back! Huzzah!
We're feeling refeshed, and we hope that you are, too. In honour of that, this month's theme is relax. Any photograph that conveys a sense of de-stressing, putting up your feet, and unwinding is fair game; from the dog stretched out in front of the fire, to your children curled up with a book, to your very old and tatty but extremely comfortable slippers, we want to see them.
The photographer of the winning image will be eligible to claim a 12 inch Fracture.
We've made a slight change to the submission rules. Nothing major, but from now on, you need to link your image to the relevant thread in the Flickr pool, not just submit it to the pool. February's thread is here. And it's still one submission per person.
February's contest runs from today (Friday 1 February) to Friday 22 February 2013.
As ever, here are The Rules for your reference. Best of luck!
The Rules
If you've any questions, please just ask!
Canon IXUS 255 HS, available in pink, black, and silver
Canon brought out four new compact cameras, as well as the Powershot N, at CES; three weeks later and it has announced another four compact cameras. Today we're introduced to the IXUS 255 HS, IXUS 135 HS, IXUS 132 HS, and the Powershot A2500. (Or the ELPH 330 HS, ELPH 115 HS, and Powershot A2500 in the States. Yes, only three new cameras there.)
You know the drill: they'll all have smart auto mode with an improbable number of scene options (58, in the case of the IXUS 255 HS), they'll be HD video-ready, they'll all have a slew of filters, there'll be some quirky new introductions in an attempt to keep compact cameras relevant, and then you'll blink and you will barely be able to tell the difference between them.
In the case of the 255 and 135, they have wi-fi connectivity to allow you to share your images via your mobile or your tablet, and you can latch on to GPS via your mobile, too. All of them include Canon's new Eco mode, that aims to reduce battery use by 30% and there's also ZoomPlus technology, that supposedly allows you to double the reach of your optical zoom digitallly, but still maintain image detail.
The IXUS 255 (ELPH 330 HS in the US) is a fairly grown-up compact, with a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor coupled with a DIGIC 5 processor that should be competent in lower light situations and allow for higher speed shooting. Its lens is 24mm at its widest point and has a 10× optical zoom. There's also Intelligent IS to help reduce camera shake whatever you're up to, and the same Hybrid Auto that we saw in the Powershot N, that uses both smart auto and scene detection to grab the best shot and can create a montage of four second video clips grabbed before every shot that you take over the course of a day to produce some sort of meta-shoot.
The IXUS 135, IXUS 132 (ELPH 115 HS in the US), and Powershot A2500 all have 16 megapixel sensors with DIGIC 4 processors and 28mm lenses at their widest. Whilst the IXUS models have 8× optical zoom and Intelligent IS, the A2500 has a 5× zoom and slightly less wizzy Digital IS.
There's no UK pricing or availability for these cameras as yet; I'll be interested to see what sort of difference there'll be between the IXUS 135 and IXUS 132 with really only wi-fi to choose between them. But the Powershot A2500? I think that could make an excellent first camera for a little one.
(In the US, the ELPH 330 will be around $230; the ELPH 115 $170; and the Powershot A2500 will be in the region of $130.)
I'm a fan of second-hand camera kit, especially lenses. But in order to be able to buy second-hand gear, it relies on people actually selling on their old stuff. It's not just good value, it's good for sustainability, too. I also happen to be a bit of a picky madam; I'm not keen on using auction sites, for either buying or selling. So an online service run by a physical company? I like the sound of that.
To complement its physical and online first- and second-hand sales, Wilkinson Cameras (a camera retailer based in the north west of England) has launched WeBuyAnyCamera.com to take your unwanted kit off your hands without having to go to one of their branches.
The system seems simple. You submit a detailed description of the gear you want to sell via the webuyanycamera site. A real live human being then assesses your wares and makes you an offer, usually within 24 hours of you submitting your inquiry. If you accept it, you bundle up your kit and send it to them; they inspect to make sure everything is as it should be and make your payment.
You can have a cash price paid directly into your bank account, take payment in Wilkinson vouchers, which gets you an extra 10% on top of the cash price, or use it in part-exchange against new kit.
Better yet, if they value your gear in excess of £500, they'll arrange for its collection, free of charge. You just have to package it.
It is a UK-only service, but people elsewhere in the world, please remember to sell on your old kit and take a look at second-hand goods. It's good for the environment and helps out people whose finances are a bit strapped.
A 35mm film scanner that functions via your smartphone? That sounds like a fairly cool idea to allow you to free your negative imprints, no matter how old or how recent, and share them digitally, courtesy of Lomography. It works by photographing a negative with your phone's camera (iOS or Android) that has been back-lit by the scanner. You then edit it using the custom-built accompanying app, and are able to archive, email, and share it. Simple.
All being well, the Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner should be available in March this year.
There is, however, something that I find particularly curious about this product (apart from it not being compatible with 120 film). Why has Lomography turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter to fund it?
It's true that Kickstarter doesn't have any stipulations about the sorts of people or organisations who can use it to seek funds, but the general feel is that it's an option for creative projects that might not be able to secure funding through more traditional means.
As Kickstarter itself says on its website:
We started Kickstarter as a new way for creators and audiences to work together to make things. The traditional funding systems are risk-averse and profit-focused, and tons of great ideas never get a chance. We thought Kickstarter could open the door to a much wider variety of ideas and allow everyone to decide what they wanted to see exist in the world.
I'm not convinced that Lomography, a company with an annual turn-over of $40 million and 350 employees, according the the FT, can be classed as an organisation that would struggle to secure a bank loan for a project that seems entirely reasonable.
This leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable. First, people have a limited pot of funds that they're able to donate in support of projects. When a company that could secure external funding through traditional means seeks the support of individuals, it is depriving other projects that might otherwise struggle to secure a bank loan or seed funding from amassing the funds that they need to launch.
Whilst it is all very well to say that funders have the ability to choose to whom they lend their support and donate their contributions, Lomography has a huge following and a professional PR department. They have the ability to reach a greater number of potential funders than media-shy Joe Bloggs who's a brilliant inventor with no assets to act as security against a loan. Kickstarter is designed to give everyone a fair crack at achieving funding and realising their ambitions; when well-known brands start to get in on the act, the odds suddenly become skewed against the small people again.
Second we come to the term 'profit-focused' in the Kickstarter blurb. Kickstarter wants people to be able to create products or host events that fulfil their ambitions; they might not succeed in making a profit, but that isn't the point. It's about giving people a chance and unleashing potential. If a project does take off and conquer the world, so much the better; it isn't, however, the pivotal principle behind its inception or the key factor that determines whether or not it should be granted funding. It's about moving away from risk-aversion and profit obsession and allowing cool things to come to fruition.
Lomography, on the other hand, is a business and it is out to make a profit. I find it highly unlikely that it desperately needs to secure alternative funding for the scanner because it can't manage it through any other channels. From here, this feels like a cheap loan for Lomography that relies on Joe Public.
No, Lomography looking for Kickstarter funding isn't illegal and it isn't against Kickstarter's rules. It just comes across as really unfair.
The Smartphone Film Scanner project page is here, but if you'd like to contribute to project that's closing soon, take a look here.
I have asked Lomography to comment on its choice of funding source. I am yet to receive a response.
15:30 GMT, 16 Janaury 2013 - Lomography has sent a response. It's quite long, I doubt you want to read all of it. However, the pertinent points are these:
In order to continue to develop and release new films and cameras while also keeping up with the demand of a digital world we felt it necessary to start a crowd funding project to create a new product that otherwise would remain on the back burner for a few more years.
Part of the idea behind using kickstarter was to involve our community in our endeavors and to give back with some really fantastic incentives.
Sites like Kickstarter are a great way to help us fund some of our more off-beat projects. We want to continue introducing new products and keeping the film world fresh. This is just one way for us to continue making the future analog.
Wow! December 2012's black and white themed installment saw the most ever entries to our competition. Thank you so much everyone who submitted a picture. It was a delight to look through them to select a winner.
After a lot of deliberation–there were, afterall, a lot of pictures–we decided that Almost Gone by Rob-Shanghai should take the spoils of a 12 inch Fracture. We loved the story, the composition was great, and we felt that it made the most of being in black and white.
Congratulations Rob!
However, seeing as there were so many entries, we only thought it fair to name some runners up, too.
And we have:
Sweep's Festival, Rochester, by Tim Allen - pin-sharp and beautifully framed.
And Monterey Fog, by Luca Pisanu - haunting and delicate.
You're a super lot.
We're taking a hiatus from the competition for January, but we'll be back in February, and we hope you will be, too!
