Talk: From silver print to digital photography

As part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, there is a talk about photography in Cambridge on Saturday 2nd November, from 2pm to 3pm.

Photography was an amazing concept when it was invented in the 1830s, enabling clear moments to be captured forever and teaching us so much about history. But now digital technology blurs the boundaries between past and future, and once again creates a new concept for photography. Explore this fascinating concept and question its limits at this talk as part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Festiva Of Ideas

See the Alliance Française website for details.

Milton Photographic Club Talk

Peter Higdon from Milton Photographic Club is giving a talk on photographing parks and garden on Sunday 11th August at Milton Country Park.

The talk is titled “I’m a photographer, get the gardener out of here” … he introduces the talk by saying “Ever wondered why your photographs of a garden are something of a disappointment? Perhaps, its the gardener to blame! A well designed garden with well stocked borders, winding paths, and secret gardens isn’t good news for the photographer.”
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June Meeting Stuff

Francis gave us a brief talk about next month’s subject: Reflections and Shadows. You can download the notes if you need a copy.

Also, if you were intrigued or inspired by the iPhoneography on display this month, Colin has pointed out this link to an article in a birders webzine about attaching lenses to your iPhone.

Countdown to Spring: Competition

East of England Environment Agency

Competition for Banner Photograph on their Twitter Account

After months of rain and snow, the Environment Agency is counting down the days until spring with a photography competition open to everyone in the east of England. Environmental enthusiasts have been urged to get their thinking caps on and their lens caps off to capture an image that reflects the upcoming season.

To celebrate the Spring Equinox on Wednesday, March 20, one photograph submitted for the contest will be selected to serve as the banner photograph on their regional Twitter account (@EnvAgencyAnglia) during the season.

The only rules for entry are that the image must be a landscape photograph and it must have been taken in the east of England (from North Lincolnshire to Essex, and as far west as Northampton).

Almost 3,000 people follow the Twitter account @EnvAgencyAnglia, so the winning entry will get a lot of exposure when it serves as our account’s banner image.

The photograph can be of anything from blooming flowers to sun-kissed rivers, so get creative and think of what you think represents the spring in the east of England.

Anybody who wants to enter can submit their photographs by sending them with the hashtag #springcountdown on Twitter or email them to angliandigital@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Lioness Steals Camera

Colin pointed out this story (in the Daily Telegraph), but I have found another version online at the Huffington Post with more pictures.

As Colin says:

Just thought it might be of interest to club members – and a warning when photographing locally – beware of lions.
At the very least, the lion shows discrimination and taste. No doubt, had the camera been a Nikon one, the lion would have left it alone!

Adobe Lightroom Beta

For those of us interested in editing our photographs, maybe thinking of moving past Google’s excellent and free Picasa but not quite up to spending £550 for a copy of Photoshop, Adobe do have 2 more reasonably priced programs: Lightroom and Elements. These both have 30 day free trials, and are worth looking at.

Lightroom is currently on version 3, but version 4 is about to be released (in March) and until then you can download the Beta version for free here. That’s a great opportunity to play with it without spending any money.

Afghan Girl: Before & After

Last month, Adrian gave us a presentation on the work of professional photographer Steve McCurry. He is most famous for the National Geographic cover picture of a 12  year old young refugee in Afghanistan, known only as “Afghan Girl”, and memorable for her striking eyes as she stares at us from the image.

Tying in nicely with this month’s assignment is this article (from 2002) describing how she was finally tracked down. Here are the Before and After pictures which Steve McCurry took when he went back after 17 years for a new portrait:

Afghan Girl before and after

Picture House YOUR STORY Competition

I thought I’d mention this, as it is relevant to last month’s documentary assignment. Picture House cinemas, including our very own Arts in Cambridge, are holding a photography competition:

Tell us YOUR STORY in 10 pictures, and you could see it presented on the big screen in all 19 Picturehouse cinemas, plus win a Kodak Zi8 pocket HD video camera!

Full details are available on their website.