Photocritic photography blog

A friend of mine sent me a link the other day, and I’ve been deeply fascinated by it - and its concept - ever since. The website is known as ‘best pic ever’, and it’s probably a pretty good description of what the site does - and what it does really quite well.

Click on ‘random image‘, and you’re offered a series of weird and wonderful images. Some of them are truly some of the most creative photographs I have seen in my life. Others are less technically proficient, but are still likely to make you grin broadly.

Not all is well in paradise, however: Where are the photos coming from? Read the rest of the article »

For photographers who sell microstock, or who sell a photo every once in a blue moon, getting serious pay-outs for a single photo may sound as a dream. For those of us who deal in licenced photography, however, serious levels of payment aren’t unheard of. Personally, my best-selling set of photos have netted me a fair sum of cash: They’re very specific, and get sold again and again.

Today, I stumbled across the work of Thomas E. Witte, in a brilliant article over on Sports Shooter. Witte managed to snap a couple of photos that turned out to be pure gold dust: A high school football player who doesn’t have any feet. The photos netted him $12K.

What makes me wonder, though: Could it be argued that the photographers have an obligation to their subjects directly? Should Witte give the football player some of the money he earned in this case? Or does the opposite apply — like for photographers who cover conflict zones — that if you get involved, you are immediately unable to do your job properly? Read the rest of the article »

If you’ve been around on the Intergoogle for a while, you can’t have failed to find Digg. It’s a delightfully Web 2.0-ified anarchy of a website, where users can submit links, and where the community votes on them. It’s a clever idea, and certainly worked well for Digg (they’re wildly popular, and are making a fortune).

Now, there’s a brand new website which promises to do the same for the world of photography. Read the rest of the article »

A few months ago, I ran a story on how the UK government was trying to restrict public photography. It seems as if they’re now playing the back-pedalling game in a big kind of way. Once the petition hit 60,000 signatures, the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement which can be summarised into ‘uh, no, we never intended these kinds of changes to be made’.

What I really want to know: Do you have any stories of instances where people tried to stop you from taking photos? Leave a comment! Read the rest of the article »

I’m a bit of a Canon kid. I admit it. So when Canon launched their new flagship camera, the Canon 1D mk3, I decided I had to do a bit of a news coverage round-up.

Canon tonight launched what it calls — and really is — the world’s fastest digital SLR (D-SLR) camera, the 1D Mark III. Based upon the current 1D Mark II and the 1D before it, the new Mark III brings a host of new features. The camera will be Canon’s flagship high-speed D-SLR, suitable for sports and types of photography that requires fast shooting speeds. Read the rest of the article »

I’m all for petitions in an effort to try and get stuff done. Recently, the UK government introduced an on-line petitioning system, which seems to be working really well. In fact, the currently on-going petition to stop the introduction of progressive road taxing in the UK is a smashing success: it’s got a whopping 1,546,226 signatures as I’m writing this.

Of course, photographers in the UK also have things to be disgruntled about, and one crafty photographer decided to set up a petition in an effort to allow photographers some more freedom… Read the rest of the article »

A couple of days ago, Photocritic broke the story about Olan Mills going under. It was a weird one, because I don’t generally run corporate news stories like that. However, the story struck a chord with me, because I know what it is like to be struck down without a job as a photographer, and how much trouble it can cause.

I know that this type of thing is a nightmare for those concerned: Sure, the people who were waiting for prints are ripped off, and are left without presents and money, but the real victims of this one are the studio staff and day-to-day employees of the chain. Strangely, it appears as if our article was the only one considering much of this aspect (except for the Mirror, who ran the tabloid-a-licious headline “1,000 workers sacked by recorded phone message“). Other news media also picked up the story, including local press (2, 3), but other than that it has been oddly quiet.

Except from right here, of course. Lots of Olan Mills employees found the Photocritic article. Among the stories, there are some truly moving stories of the adversities the staffers and lower management of Olan Mills, along with a dose of fear about what is going to happen in the future.

Not exactly the kind of Christmas story you want to read, but it’s worth having a look…

Comments on this thread are turned off, please add any comments or insights you might have to the original thread.

Just heard a disturbing piece of news, which was confirmed by the Olan Mills website yesterday: Olan Mills has gone into administration, effective immediately.

According to my source, the UK chain has tried to sell its business for a while, unsuccessfully. The staff have been told they will not be paid for this month, and the area managers have been told to lock up the stores and go home. There have been reports of some store employees taking equipment home (cameras, computers, studio lights, etc), holding it as ‘hostage’ against unpaid wages.

Can anyone shed any light on if this affects the US company as well? It’d be rather surprising to see one of the most famous portrait studio chains go tits-up…

n

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