[News] NPPA The Best of Photojournalism Winners

The (US) National Press Photographers Association 'Best of Photojournalism' winners have been announced. You can view the winner, category winners and honorary mentions here.

For me, photojournalists are the creme de la creme of photographers - they're not there to create aesthetically pleasing, technically perfect, though often vacuous, compositions. The images they take are searing, powerful reminders of the "world out there" and the need for us to remember that world and to respond in a politically responsible way. It's a pity that many of their images do not make it to our daily press. How much more powerful would our response to the Kashmir earthquake have been if The West Australian had published this image and this image and also this image?

The photographs in the Local Portrait and Personality category are amazing. And the stories they illustrate are shocking and confronting.

Have bear hat, will travel

I recently acquired a head accoutrement in the shape of bear's ears, and have been having a bit too much fun with them on Flickr.

It was designed and crafted by Creative Caps, by Cate of Fremantle (actually, my friend Kate).

It's generated enough interest on Flickr that one of the Perth Flickrites, Scroop, had commissioned one for himself.

Who knows, this could be the beginning of a whole new business for Kate! :-)

[Event] The Amazing Race, Goomaling style

This Saturday, the wheat-sheep belt town of Goomaling comes to life with keen competitors roaring across highways and byways in a scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts: The Goomaling Amazing Race (GAR)!

Patterned after the TV Amazing Race, the GAR sees teams of up to four people scouring the countryside in search of clues, completing challenges, all in the hopes of becoming GAR champion for 2006!

Entry charge is $50 for teams of 4, dress-ups are optional (but encouraged) and having fun is mandatory.

Get your camera, check your engines, sharpen your smarts, and prepare for the most amazing race of your life!

Highlights from the 2005 GAR include:

• sheep chasing trials (wear a mouth guard)
• scaling a rock wall
• hole in ones at the golf course
• getting stuffed with marshmallows
• count the hay bales in the paddock
• and more!

[Event] FotoFreo - Fremantle Photography Festival (Mar 25 - Apr 30, 2006)

This weekend, Fremantle erupts in a festival of photography. Loads of free exhibitions and talks, as well as workshops, seminars, presentations and screenings. FotoFreo is on from March 25 to April 30.

Website: www.fotofreo.com

• Exhibitions (mostly free): www.fotofreo.com/2006/exhibitions2006.shtml
• Speakers: www.fotofreo.com/2006/speakers2006.shtml
• Presentations and screenings: www.fotofreo.com/2006/films2006.shtml
• Seminars: www.fotofreo.com/2006/Seminar2006.shtml

[Event] Site Unseen - Student Photographers Exhibition (27/3-15/4/06 - Fremantle Prison)

Site Unseen - Student Photographers Exhibition: 27/3-15/4/06 - Fremantle Prison

Spectacular work by student photographers, exhibited from 10am - 5pm daily. It aims to showcase the work of student photographers (tertiary students), to help launch them into the world of professional photography.

Website (http://www.siteunseen.com.au)
Gallery of 2005 photographs

Perth Flickr Meet

Well, it was good fun. In attendance:

• Noodlez - Michael
• Mikule - Michael
• Scroop - Lucien
• Ozone - Craig
• Luny - Anthony
• Devar - Ben
• Sengster - me

Devar took a lot of photos; Scroop brought his Canon FG1 and Yashica TLR Medium Format which most of us drooled over; there was a lot of talk about lenses, Flickr, equipment; thanks to Scroop, Ozone and Urbanphotographer for getting the rounds; I realised how many serious photographers there are in Perth; I tried out Devar's 580EX speedlight on my EOS350D; Scroop, Ozone, Devar and I segued to D'Tandoor on Oxford Street for dinner.

Great catching up with all of you - we'll have to do it again soon!

Ozone (Craig), 1/2 of Luny (Anthony) and Noodlez (Michael), taken with Devar's 580EX flash, I think.

Nice glamour-shot portrait of Noodlez.

Scroop (Lucien) being serious.

Devar (Ben) with Scroop's Yashica TLR - the next camera that I'm going to get.

Ozone, who wins the "Loudest Shirt Award" for his super-saturated Mambo shirt.

ArtistsWA

ArtistsWA (www.artistswa.com) is a website showcasing the work of WA artists, including photographers. The brain child of Petar Ceklic, creator of Teknoscape (www.teknoscape.com.au), Perth's premier forum for dance music and electronica, ArtistsWA aims to be a space where local WA artists can have an online presence.

If you would like to submit your photography work for inclusion in ArtistsWA, please get in touch with me: sengmah [at] gmail dot com - send in a short bio, and four photographs (500 pixels wide) that you think best represent your body of work/interest in photography.

[News] World Press Photography Competition - Winner and Awards

The results of the 49th World Press Photography Competition are in and the winning photograph, as well as a gallery of all 65 awarded prizes are available for viewing at the World Press Photo website (www.worldpressphoto.nl). An exhibition of the prize-winning images will make an extensive international tour this year. The closest it will be coming to Australia (much less Perth) is Wellington, New Zealand, on 16 June to 9 July, 2006.

Street portraiture

One of my Flickr contacts, Craig Biertempfel aka 'Btezra', constantly amazes me with his street portraits. Craig has the ability to connect with people, and in the course of his interactions with them, obtains powerful and touching portraits. Craig's interest isn't in the act of taking the photograph or the photograph itself, but in the connection he can make with the person looking at the camera lens. The photograph is a by-product of this connection and by far and large, they are excellent. Craig's Flickrstream is highly recommended.

Craig's street portraits inspired me to try my hand at obtaining consensual portraits of strangers. Unlike Craig, I'm still too photography-focused; for me, the obtaining of a consensual portrait of a stranger is still the focus of my interactions with them. Gradually, I'm trying to teach myself to value the interaction, and to see the photograph that emerges from that interaction as a product of the moment's connection between two strangers. I've had a fair few successes, where the portrait taken shows this momentary connection, when the person photographed isn't just interacting with the objective camera but with the photographer looking at him/her through the lens. Here are three such portraits of which I am proudest.

John (Big Issue vendor, Fremantle)

Shane Haase (Artist, Fremantle

Josh (Davilak Tavern, Fremantle

Street portraits can be hard work but, as I'm starting to discover, only if the purpose of your interaction with the person is the photograph. At the end of the day, I've found that the more satisfying portraits become reminders of the interaction I've had with the person - the morsels of insight into the person's life, into his or her past.

[Event] Inaugural Perth Photographers Flickr Meet

The inaugural Perth Flickr Photographers Meet will take place at The Paddo (Paddington Ale House - 141 Scarborough Beach Rd, Mt Hawthorn) on Sunday 19th Mar, 5pm onwards. For more information, visit this thread.

If you're a Perth Flickrite, or a Perth amateur photographer wanting to meet other amateur photographers, why not come on down?

Image (c) The Paddington Alehouse; sourced from their website (http://www.paddo.com.au)

Flickr-itis

I've already mentioned Flickr a fair few times in previous entries. For me, Flickr is proving to be a useful resource and an addictive forum through which I can showcase my work, receive comments and connect with other photographers in the wide, wide world.

What is Flickr?
Technically, Flickr (www.flickr.com) is a web application that lets you upload, store, display and manage your photos in a personal online gallery which you can share with friends, families, strangers and contacts. More importantly, Flickr is the space within which an online community has formed, to share photographs and images, to create interest groups (including online forums), and similar fun stuff. In Flickr, your photographs are displayed within a continuous photostream; you can then create sets (or albums) by nominating specific photographs for inclusion in specific sets; you can also submit photographs to public groups, which are special-interest forums for showcasing and discussing pictures related to specific topics, activities or themes.

Flickr is free, but you can sign up for a 'Pro' account, which provides you with unlimited uploads, unlimited photos and unlimited sets. A 'Pro' account retails for about $24.95USD (about $25AUD) per year. If you've got the $$$ and you think an online studio/workshop/forum/space for your photography is the way to go, then it's a recommended investment.

Flickr is also sickeningly addictive. Once your photographs are in your 'stream, you have a couple of sets up and running, and have joined a few groups and formed a number of contacts, people begin visiting your 'stream, viewing your photographs, leaving comments and nominating your photographs as 'favourites'. It's another avenue to connect with others on the web.

To get started, have a look a few of these recommended streams:

• John(C) - www.flickr.com/photos/cumisky
• AnomalousNYC - www.flickr.com/photos/anomalous

SLS action at Scarborough Beach

On the weekend just past, I "covered" the 2nd day of the SGIO Senior State SLS championships at Scarborough Beach for North Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club (www.ncslsc.com). A perfect day with terrific swells that made for many dramatic shots of surf boats and surf skis struggling against the surf - such as these North Cott boaties who were tipped over!

Cott Jesters

This photo of the Cott Jesters boat crew was taken on Friday afternoon at Cottesloe Beach. I had dropped in after work to photograph the Sculptures by the Sea, and happened upon these group getting ready to train for the weekend's SGIO Senior State SLS Championships at Scarborough Beach. I took a fair few shots of the crew getting out and coming back from their practise run, but this is by far my favourite, if only because of the lighting, clarity and very subtle 'posing' of Michael 'Corky' McCorquodale, the rower in the foreground.

Best viewed large.

[Photo opp] Sculptures by the Sea @ Cottesloe Beach

The Sculptures by the Sea installations at Cottesloe have been a favourite of Perth Flickr photographers. The exhibits will be on the beach (and lawns) at Cottesloe until Sunday 19th March - so head down there and have a look if you haven't already.

My photo set of the sculptures.

Perth Flickr Photographers with photo sets/'streams of said sculptures:

• QuiBon
  
• Ozone71
  
• Yellow Filter
  
• A moment captured
  

Website: http://www.sculpturebythesea.com/

Lovers by Qui Bon

Welcome to Light Box WA: Photography in WA

Since taking up photography as a serious hobby in 2005, I've come to treasure all the bits and pieces of information about photography, particularly in Western Australian conditions, that I've come across from my reading, conversations with photographers, research on the Web and so on. WA is a great place for the photography enthusiast, boasting unique light conditions, landscapes, people and events to satisfy the most ardent hobbyist photographer.

Light Box WA will serve as a repository for all things related to photography in WA, including:

• announcements for photography events in WA photography opportunities for enthusiasts
• reviews of photography resources and equipment
• discussions of issues pertaining to photography in WA
• the thoughts of a hobbyist photographer living and 'shooting in WA.

So, welcome to Light Box WA. I hope you findthe articles and entries here informative, and get involved in the discussions here.