World Press Photo Supervisory Board Chairman Pieter Broertjes and Michiel Munneke announced that Munneke will leave his position as Managing Director per 1 November 2014.
Munneke holds a master’s degree in Communications from the University of Amsterdam, he started his career at World Press Photo in 1994 as an intern and was hired one year later as a project manager in the exhibitions department. In 1997, he became head of the contest and education departments, where he managed the Joop Swart Masterclass and laid the groundwork for the organization’s current educational programs by initiating several workshops for local journalists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was then appointed deputy managing director in 1999 and managing director in 2001. The supervisory board has great respect for the way Munneke developed the organization into a strong international brand that enjoys high esteems with both the photographic community as well as the public.
Broertjes: “Under Munneke’s leadership, the organization has grown: revenue and staff has doubled, the yearly photo contest has been reformed, a multimedia contest has been added, and the educational programs are now an essential part of the yearly schedule. Munneke is leaving behind a healthy organization that is ready for the future.”
Munneke: “I have spent my whole working life dedicated to this wonderful foundation and the last 12 years as its director. I feel honored to have led this great Dutch initiative for more than a decade. Over the past year, we have developed a new strategy and now it’s time for me to pass the torch and make my next step.”
About World Press Photo
World Press Photo organizes the leading international contest in visual journalism. The foundation is committed to supporting and advancing high standards in photojournalism and documentary storytelling worldwide. Its aim is to generate wide public interest in and appreciation for the work of photographers and other visual journalists, and for the free exchange of information. The activities include organizing annual photojournalism and multimedia contests and global exhibition tours. The Academy programs strive to stimulate high-quality visual journalism through educational programs, grants and by creating greater visibility through a variety of publications. World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization with its office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where it was founded in 1955.
World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon.
Sigma DP Quattro has been officially announced recently, it’s the next generation of its DP series of APS-C sensor, fixed focal length cameras after the revolutionized Sigma DP2 Merrill. The Sigma dp Quattro has turned many heads with its radical design that incorporates the new Foveon X3 direct image sensor paired with the newly developed TRUE III (Three-layer Responsive Ultimate Engine) image processing engine to deliver high-definition, 3D-like photographs with outstanding rich color details.
Sigma DP (dp1, dp2 & dp3) Quattro series comprises three fixed focal length cameras, each of which features a different basic focal length for a different fundamental photographic approach: the wide-angle dp1 Quattro at 19mm, the standard dp2 Quattro at 30mm, and the medium telephoto dp3 Quattro at 50mm (respectively equivalent to 28mm, 45mm, and 75mm on a 35mm lens). Moreover, the three models share an exciting new camera body that brings out the best performance from the lens and image sensor.
The dp2 Quattro (featured here) with a solid and lightweight magnesium body has 29 million high resolution effective pixels (The Quattro sensor uses three layers to detect color information, top layer captures 19.6 million pixel resolution, with lower two layers capturing 4.9 million pixel resolution each) with a fixed 30 mm f/2.8 lens, improved optics with auto-focus performance and better high ISO capabilities than its Merrill predecessors.
The Camera has already acclaimed the Best Design award in the Technical & Design category at the TIPA Awards 2014.
Sigma dp2 Quattro Camera images
The price and availability date are yet to be announced, sure AAB world shall have it here in Kuwait on it’s release.
Check the official announcement [here]
Ms Palmira Coutinho, Goa’s first professional lady photographer passed away at the age of 89 due to ill health. She was recipient of the Goa State Cultural Award in Photography. She had the proudest moment when she appeared on the cover of the internationally acclaimed British Photographer, David Bailey’s book “Locations: The 1970s Archive”.
An interesting spotlight of her exciting career was when she went clicking during the 1974 Exposition of St. Francis Xavier in Goa, which she photographed. It was then she was spotted by renowned British Photographer David Bailey. Consequently, he visited the Hollywood Studio and shot her picture, perhaps just for curiosity sake, as he had met the only professional woman photographer in Goa, who after her husband untimely death in an accident single-handedly raised her seven children while simultaneously photographing and managing the studio. Years later, he remembered Palmira and traced her through the internet after BBC had done a documentary on him, and decided to interview her for a special series. Palmira was in for surprise, when she received an autographed book brought out by Bailey, containing photographs taken at her studio, with her picture on the book’s cover.
In her career, Palmira has photographed Mother Teresa, former Portuguese President Mario Soares, Pope John Paul II and former President of India Zail Singh, amongst other personalities.
May her soul rest in peace.
Two photo enthusiasts at the world-famous three day-long annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance exotic car festival began bidding against each other for the chance to own an ‘Ultimate luxury’ olive wood-handled Lunar camera, crafted by the iconic camera brand. When the bid reached $28,000 neither party wanted to lose out on a Lunar, so a deal was struck for an extra camera to be auctioned – for a joint record-busting price that raised a total of $54,500 for a spina bifida charity.
The deal also included a unique set of Classic Motorsport photographs shot over decades with a Hasselblad camera by Concours Show founder and chairman, Bill Warner. Warner said: “Hasselblad is simply the ultimate camera. It’s the Mercedes-Benz, the Porsche and the Ferrari of cameras, all in one.
Michael Hejtmanek, President of Hasselblad Bron Inc. said: “We knew our new, retro-look Lunar range was compelling – especially the rich-veined olive wood edition with its advanced technology and supreme ergonomics – but for a pair of them to raise $54,500 for Spina Bifida Jacksonville at this auction is just outstanding.”
The Lunar Limited Edition is available to only 200 pieces worldwide featuring a bold red Italian leather grip with yellow gold top plate, the Lunar Limited Edition from Hasselblad is the ultimate good fortune indulgence.
However I personally feel it was still an extravagantly ridiculous shopping, not much information regarding to the Photo enthusiasts has been published yet.
Celebrity and destination wedding photographer Joe Marie Smallwood captured a real wedding in Cabo, Mexico, for the first time using only the Nokia Lumia 1020, ditching her professional equipment. The photos were released in partnership with Nokia, which is hoping to show off the power of the Lumia 1020’s camera with the gallery. The camera is the Lumia 1020’s main selling point, and if these photos have used no software other than what’s available on the smartphone, they are pretty stunning.
The Lumia 1020 features a 41-megapixel sensor, along with Pro Cam and Creative Studio applications. In both apps you can adjust White Balance, ISO, retouch certain aspects of a photo, and add other creative options.
“The quality of the photos we took at the Cabo wedding using the Lumia 1020 were crisp with a great depth of colour and totally exceeded our expectations,” said Smallwood. “The 41-megapixel sensor is pretty outstanding for a camera phone.”
You can check out the wedding Photography on her blog [here]
I’m generally asked in my workshops which is the best camera or the best lens. Well the answer is simple, don’t worry much, you as a Photographer need to be in total control, understand exposures and composition. The rest will follow suit.
Check out the Nokia Lumia 1020 Commercial
Transcend Information Inc launches its Ultimate & Premium Series 1000x and 800x CompactFash cards. These cards are designed for Professional photographers and videographers faced with the demands of capturing fast action in continuous burst mode or recording lengthy Full HD video. These cards offers incredible high-speed performance and extra-large storage space. The Ultimate CF cards have a transfer rate of up to 160MB/s (read) and 120MB/s (write), while the Premium CF cards have a transfer rate of up to 120MB/s (read) and 60MB/s (write). The cards are with built-in MLC Flash chips for guaranteed perfomace and durability, they also offer built-in ECC (Error Correction Code) technology with read-retry, which detects and corrects error during data transfer.
The Ultimate CF100x are available in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and
The Premium CF800x are available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB
The Photography Society of India announced the result of the 64th All Indian Exhibition of Photography 2014. The contest received 2375 prints in six section – Monochromes, Color, Nature, Creative Digital, Journalism and Travel. The judges selected 390 photographs of which 220 selected photographs were displayed at the Jehangir Art Gallery from 29th January to 4th February 2014.
The Photography Society of India (PSI) is one of the oldest institution in India promoting Photography. The competition itself attracts thousands of photographers and winning here is quite prestigious as the benchmark are high and judged by renowned senior photographers appointed from all over India.
The Winners are:
1. Best Monochrome – Prakash Revdekar “Race”
2. Best Pictoral Color – Suwarna Gawde “Jari Mari”
3. Best Nature Print – Anand Nirgude “Lion Attack
4. Best Creative Digital Print – Goutam Chatterjee “A Hopeful Light”
5. Travel Print (Gold Medal) – Astro Mohan “Mamooth Kitchen”
My friend “Astro Mohan” has won 3 awards in the National Photography Salon 2014. Apart from the Gold Medal in Travel section, his print “Elephant day out” and “Three Chariots” won the Silver Medal in Photo Journalism and Certificate of Merit in Photo Travel section respectively. I’ve mentioned about “Astro Mohan” in my blog [here and here] earlier.
Congrats to all winner. Check the entire list of winners [here]
Browse through the winning photographs by Astro Mohan
ShutterXpose is pleased to announce “Photography 101” a foundation and intermediate course for Novice, Beginners and Amateurs. This course should help you to understand the basics of camera operation, related camera jargon’s in simple and easy to understand language, learn exposure and how to balance exposure setting for capturing amazing and stunning images.
This course will be a 2 hrs session held on Friday’s at Better Books, Salmiya.
You can book your seat by sending a confirmation mail to admin@shutterxpose.com or join via the Facebook event page. You can also call on the mobile numbers mentioned in the banner to book your seat.
For more information on the contents of the course, click on the image banner
The GulfRun Karting Endurance Race 3 will be held this weekend. The event will be special this year as it will be a fully fledged endurance race that follows International regulations from start to finish, taking place at the recently opened SIRBB Circuit, Shuwaikh – Kuwait.
The track is converted into an exciting carnival before the race, the karts have been imported and the marshals fly in from the UK specially to regulate the race.
This event is open for a maximum of 18 teams which will be racing non-stop for 24 hours. In order to have a fair competition between participants, registration is only open for residents of Kuwait (Kuwaiti/Expats).
This would be a great event to photograph sports action.
Event Schedule:
December 5, 2013: Assigning Karts and Race Practice
December 6, 2013: Start of 24 hour GulfRun Karting Endurance Race (Time: 4:00 PM)
December 7, 2013: Finish of 24 hour GulfRun Karting Endurance Race (Time: 4:00 PM)
For complete detail of the event, click [Here]
Tamron announced a new SP 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens to its arsenal. This super telephoto lens with a stylish external finish will bring a broad 4x zoom range to both sports and wildlife photographers, and is most likely to replace the current 200-500 mm f/5-6.3 Di LD (IF) at some stage.
This new lens is equipped with Vibration Compensation (VC) and speedy Ultrasonic Silent Drive (USD) which were both missing in the 200-500 mm model as well being shorter at the focal length. It also features the latest eBAND and BBAR (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection) coating to help suppress flare and ghosting to achieve high class image quality.
The early marketing images captured by a blogger and available on the Tamron website are quite sharp and impressive. It however is quite early to conclude how the lens will perform in extreme conditions and low light. Though the lens is designed for Full Frame, it can be used with APS-C format DSLR cameras.
The lens was recently showcased at the French photo show, le Salon de la photo. No official date for worldwide shipping is announced as yet, the lens will be available for Nikon, Canon and Sony mounts.
Lens Specification:
