Friday, February 19, 2010

How to display your digital images


Everybody should have their best images printed big and displayed on their walls. This is photographic fact.

Almost everybody never displays their best images on their walls as a large-scale print. Another photographic fact.

I've had some experience of bad printing, not least with my own ageing printer but also from independent developers.

But done well, prints can add something extra special to those images which are usually seen on a computer monitor.

Recently I've been looking at various homes for my images including cups, postcards and Christmas cards.

I also had an image reproduced on canvas by Mcanvas Prints.

I emailed a jpeg, the canvas arrived at my door.

I used an image (pictured here with me) which included bright colours. You can see the actual image on this blog here.

The quality of the finished canvas is excellent.

Technical stuff: HP Vivera ink, 300gsm cotton canvas. The canvas is also coated to protect it from dust. And stretcher bars, with wedges which allow for re-stretching, are made of kiln-dried fir wood.

My canvas was 12inx18in in size (that's a ratio 3:2, landscape shape) stretched over 3/4in deep bars. I also used mirror wrap which replicates the edge of the image around the frame. 12inx18in costs £47.

McanvasPrints, based in London, was established in 2007. They are very helpful on how to prepare your image. They hand-stretch the canvas prints.

Pictured: Garry Cook with his print.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Howarth where are you?


During the month of December 2009 I worked tirelessly on my Christmas! project.

One Saturday morning I found myself at Manchester's Trafford Centre, capturing images of shoppers as the seasonal rush picked up pace.

In the past I have lost email addresses and not come up with the goods. In this case, I've got the email but can't quite decipher it. The email keeps bouncing back.

All I know about this family is that they are from Preston and, from their email, their family name is, I think, Howarth. If this is you or you know this family, get in touch.

The mum who asked for a copy of the photograph (not pictured) was a lovely friendly lady. I would love to reunite her with this image.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Quick guide to stock photo libraries and agencies

I sell images via stock agency Alamy.


I remember around the end of 2007/beginning of 2008 it was big news that they passed the 10million mark of images in their library. Now they have 17.84m (I just checked).


Alamy is one of the biggest and best agencies around. They’ve done a good job of competing with Getty and Corbis Images. Here in Britain they do very well in providing images for newspapers.


But there are hundreds of stock agencies around the globe. I read about agencies closing almost on a weekly basis. I read about agencies launching always on a weekly basis.


Image buyers have an impossible job when searching for the perfect photograph for their needs. It is too easy to fall into a routine of checking two, maybe three libraries and ignoring the rest.


Discovering new libraries takes time, a commodity most picture editors have not got.


That job is made a little easier by this pretty nifty new resource StockPhotographySites.info


The base directory lists almost every online agency in the world. The site organizes agencies into clear categories. It’s a great starting point and a fascinating site to browse.


The site is run by Technology Relations. They also photo resource sites


Through StockPhotographySites.info I found the brilliant Red Bull Photofiles who licence free use of their branded images. Here is one of the images.

(c) Getty Images/Red Bull Photofiles

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

It’s competition time!

January is the big month for photography competitions. Most of the deadlines for competitions here in the UK – and those abroad which us Brits are eligible to enter – are in January (one or two are in December).

So, in the interest of helpfulness, here are links those photographic competitions which enjoyed a late December/January deadline.<o:p></o:p>


This should come in useful for 2011. Competitions listed in date order. Where possible, new dates for 2010 are listed. Some grants deadlines are also listed.


Renaissance Photography 2010

Deadline: Jan 15, 2010
Les photographies de l'année

Deadline: Jan 15, 2010
Flash Forward

Deadline: Jan 17, 2010
Let’s Do Lunch

Deadline: Jan 20, 2010
Centre Awards

Deadline: Apr 30, 2010
Lucie Awards

Deadline: Sept 23, 2009
Great British Life
Deadline: Sept 30, 2010
Terry O’Neill Award
Deadline: Oct 22, 2010


Scottish Nature Photography Awards
Deadline: November 30, 2010
BJP Project Assistance Awards – this award is no longer running.


Deadline: Dec 5, 2010 (though this was extended to Jan 2010)
Donkey Art Prize
Deadline December 15, 2010
Lens Culture

Deadline: TBC
Northern Arts Prize
Deadline: TBC
Popview
Deadline: TBC

A sad day for a pheasantry and photography

Photography is not always happiness.

Sometimes, as in the case of the work produced by the best photojournalists, it can visualise the extreme horrors of war.

It can highlight the fragility of life and capture the moment of death. Eddie Adams image of Vietnam's chief of police, shooting a suspected Viet Cong collaborator in the head taken February 1, 1968, is as extreme of an example as I can think of.


But did you know the Victorians often photographed their dead babies, smartly dressed, as keepsakes?

Infant mortality was much higher in Victorian times than it is now, the attitude to photographs of the dead was much different to what it is now. If you ever get the chance to see any do so.






They are fascinating to look at. It is a theme I have looked at exploring in my own photography.

All of this is a roundabout way of showing you a snapshot of life before it is killed. In this case, a pheasant caught in flight shortly - very shortly in fact - before it was bundled under a car with catastrophic circumstances. That car contained Anna Byrom and Garry Cook.

The event was traumatic for all concerned. We're very sorry.



NOTE: I wasn't driving.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

A sad day for a pheasantry and photography


Photography is not always happiness.

Sometimes, as in the case of the work produced by the best photojournalists, it can visualise the extreme horrors of war.

It can highlight the fragility of life and capture the moment of death. Eddie Adams image of Vietnam's chief of police, shooting a suspected Viet Cong collaborator in the head taken February 1, 1968, is as extreme of an example as I can think of.



But did you know the Victorians often photographed their dead babies, smartly dressed, as keepsakes?

Infant mortality was much higher in Victorian times than it is now, the attitude to photographs of the dead was much different to what it is now. If you ever get the chance to see any do so.




They are fascinating to look at. It is a theme I have looked at exploring in my own photography.

All of this is a roundabout way of showing you a snapshot of life before it is killed. In this case, a pheasant caught in flight shortly - very shortly in fact - before it was bundled under a car with catastrophic circumstances. That car contained Anna Byrom and Garry Cook.

The event was traumatic for all concerned. We're very sorry.


NOTE: I wasn't driving.

PC Hard drives part II

This is an information update on behalf of Garry Cook for all photographers in reference to this blog about buying internal hard drives for your PC.

I have just bought a Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5. It cost £210 from dabs for £229.87.

My PC was failing to boot up because my existing 1TB (that's 1,000 gigabytes if you're confused) was almost full - 930gbs of images.

Apparently anything over 800gbs used on a 1TB drive means problems. As this drive was not my boot (C:) drive I did not think this would affect the running of the computer. I was wrong. So take note in future, folks.

The Caviar Black has a 64mb buffer which kind of means it's a bit more hardcore and heavy duty when it comes to processing large RAW and TIFF files.

This drive was purchased in January 2010. On February 1, 2010, the price had dropped by five pounds. I expect this figure to decrease steadily. Keep your eyes peeled.

I thank you.