My 10 year old son Ashley received a letter in the mail today, indicating he had won first prize in the "Plant and Animal Habitats" category for Years 4 to 7 of Chevron Australia's Focus Environment photography competition.

As can be expected, he was pretty excited about the win, and is looking forward to the presentation ceremony in October.

Here's his winning photo, taken in our back yard with one of my favourite lenses, the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens:

explorative spider

photo by Ashley, aged 10

back yard, Western Australia
Canon EOS 350D, 100mm f/2.8 macro @100mm, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO200

Update (19 October 2009): We attended a presentation evening on 15 October, where Ashley received a certificate, and a cheque for $200, as well as $1500 for his school.
All the winning photos from the 2009 competition have now been published on Chevron's website, and the winning entries for each of the categories can be seen on these pages:
        People and the Environment
        Nature's Moods
        Plant and Animal Habitats

The Spirit of Tasmania, have announced a photography competition open to photos taken in Tasmania. The Spirit of Tasmania is a boat which sales between Melbourne and Devonport (Tasmania) on a daily basis.
Note that the competition is only open to Australian residents, and only photos taken in Tasmania within the last five years are eligible. Each person can submit up to three photos into this competition.

The prize pool is valued at nearly AUD$9000, and includes several Canon 1000D DSLR cameras, a return journey on board Spirit of Tasmania for two adults, and a seven-night Tasmanian accommodation package.

Prize categories include:

• Judge's Choice Award: chosen by a panel of judges.
• Tasmania's Choice Award: awarded to the photo that receives the highest number of votes from Tasmanian voters.
• People's Choice Award: awarded to the photo that receives the highest number of votes from the remainder of Australian voters.
• Best Kid's Photo Award: chosen by a panel of judges.
• 'My Favourite Tassie Devil' Award: awarded to the best photo taken of you and a Tasmanian devil as chosen by a panel of judges.

A prize will also be awarded to one person who votes for the submitted photos.

Links for 'Capture the Spirit' competition:

• information about the competition
• competition entry page
• gallery of photos submitted
• terms and conditions (and also here)

Entries for this competition close on 30 November 2009, and judging will take place on 11 December, with winners being announced on 16 December.

Having written recently about Getting Your Kids Started In Photography, here's a list of reasons why you should get your kids into photography.

Ashley (my 10 year old son)
Mandurah foreshore, Western Australia


1. Encourage Creativity
   
   Photography encourages a child's creativity by making them think about colours, composition, framing, light, depth-of-field, etc. The creativity is not just limited to the photography either, but also extends to how the child uses the photos they take. For example, photos can be used by the children for scrapbooking, making bookmarks, making cards, etc.
   
   
2. Keep Them Entertained
   
   Photography has the potential to keep children occupied for many hours. This includes the action of taking the photos, as well as post-processing, learning more about photography by reading, etc.
   
   
3. Get Them Outdoors
   
   Today's children often spend too much time indoors, behind the tv / computer / game console. Outdoor photography provides another reason for them to enjoy the outdoors, both close-to-home in your back yard, and the greater outdoors, in parks, forest, etc.
   
   
4. Share Your Passion
   
   As you're reading this photography blog, I assume you have at least a passing interest in photography yourself. Getting your kids into photography allows you to share your passion with them, as well as sharing your photography gear with them.
   
   
5. Photography is a Great Social Activity
   
   Photography can be a great social event, particularly if there are multiple photographers in the family. I regularly take my two older children (aged 8 and 10) on photography outings.
   I also have taken my children on a number of photowalks with other friends and colleagues.
   
   
6. Capture Memories
   
   Photography allows children to capture their own memories from their own viewpoint of significant events, such as birthdays, family outings, holidays, etc. These photos can mean a lot more to the children than just the photos taken by a parent, as the children will often see different things to photograph, and will see them in a different way.
   
   
7. Potential Source of Income
   
   In the longer term, photography can potentially provide some income to the child, either via micro-stock agencies, print-on-demand prints (such as redbubble.com), or by taking photos of events and people and selling prints. As the children's photography prowess improves, there may be opportunities for doing family/group photos of friends and family, and possibly also weddings of friends and family.
   
   
8. Photography Doesn't Have To Be Expensive
   
   You don't need to spend a lot of money to start your children in photography. A cheap new or second-hand point-n-shoot camera is all that's needed to get started. With digital cameras, the on-going costs are minimal, as there's no film-developing costs.
   
   
9. Photography Requires Less Manual Dexterity than Other Visual Arts
   
   Compared to other visual arts such, as painting and sculpture, photography depends least on manual dexterity, making it ideal for kids of all ages.
   
   
10. Photography Has No Age Boundaries
    
    There are no age limits for starting photography. Children of any age can enjoy it.

Nicholas (my 5 year old son), Mandurah foreshore, Western Australia

Someone emailed this to me, and I thought it was quite appropriate, given the big focus on Santa and gift-giving at this time of the year, with many people forgetting the true meaning of Christmas.

I believe this poem was originally penned by Rev James Spellman of Ohio (ref).

Having recently written about getting your kids started in photography, I decided to sit down with my 10 year old son Ashley, and my 8 year old daughter Michelle, and get some feedback from them about their thoughts on photography.
Here are the results.


Q. How long have you been taking photos?

10yo: Err...I don't know...from when I was about six or seven.

8yo: About two and a half years or something, when I was about six.


Q. How did you learn how to take photos?

10yo: My dad told me how to, and I just tried.

8yo: Dad taught me. He taught me how to hold the camera still, how to focus, and how to press the button.


Q. How complex was the first camera that you used?

10yo: I just needed to get used to it, and then it was pretty easy. Then other similar cameras are pretty easy to use.

8yo: It was pretty simple.

With technology continually advancing, digital cameras are becoming cheaper, with manufacturers packing more powerful electronics into smaller and cheaper cameras. I think it's fair to say that most households in western society would own one or more digital cameras.

Digital photography is great for children, because the ongoing costs are very low, compared to the costs of buying and processing film. When using a digital camera, children also get instant feedback, as they're able to see the photo they've just take on the LCD screen on the back of the camera.

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia

I introduced my children to photography at a fairly young age, and in this post, I want to share some ideas and suggestions for getting your children into photography.

I recently received an email from a photo researcher, on behalf of her client, a book publishing company, requesting use of one of my photos ("Numbat" - shown below) for inclusion in a college textbook.

The email included some details on how the image would be used (1/4 page), the size of the print run (40,000 copies), and the distribution of the book (US and Canada), and requested details of my reproduction rights for the photo, indicating that if they were approved, I could then submit an invoice.

As I've had similar requests in the past, I responded with details of the reproduction rights, as well as a price for the use of the requested photo.

The conditions I specified, including the price, were considered acceptable, the photo researcher then requested an invoice, payment was arranged, and I provided a high-resolution copy of the photo.

I suspect the photo researcher found my photo in my photo gallery while searching the internet for suitable photos.



Selling photos in this way can be as easy as described above. You just need to publish your photos on the web, either on any of the many photo-sharing websites, a social networking site, or in your own photo gallery on your website. Tagged each image with appropriate keywords, and an appropriate description, to ensure search engines will know the context of the photo, and can direct appropriate visitors to your photos.

It's important to point out that you need to make sure your contact details are easy to find, else a prospective buyer will not be able to contact you to purchase a photo!

The post is a follow-up to this review that I published yesterday.


I have to admit that the brief review of the Compassion, Courage and Friendship from RedBubble.com that I posted yesterday was written in a hurry, as I wanted to get it published yesterday. I did not get much of a chance to look through the book, but quickly took some photos, jotted down my first impressions, and posted it.
Since then, I have let some work colleagues look through the book, and have also had some more time to look through it myself, so I thought I'd post some additional thoughts on it.

As mentioned yesterday, the quality of the book is great, with very good colour reproduction on glossy pages. All text is very legible, and the choice of fonts works well, and the cover of the book is a creative creation based on four art items from RedBubble members.

The editor has done a great job of trying to keep pages with similar themes together. In most cases, the content (photo, drawing or writing) of the left hand side bears some relation to the content on the right hand side, and definitely helps to provide some cohesion when reading through the book.

Most of the photos included in the book are fantastic, with the following ones being my favourites:

• Brothers by Katrina Lenarczyk / Zash Photography
• Jodhpur, India by Karen Cook
• The Proud Mother by Margriet Meintjes
• Generations by Shane Smart

2 of my favourite photos in the book

I recently received a pre-release copy of a book titled Compassion, Courage and Friendship from RedBubble.com, an Australian-based company that provides print-on-demand services.

I've previously posted a review of a canvas print from RedBubble.com, and was very happy with the quality of the print.

This book is no different, with the presentation and print quality being very good.

The book consists of a variety of photos, drawings and writings submitted by RedBubble members. A number of judges chosen by RedBubble staff had the task of narrowing down the submitted material, to determine which items would be included in the book, The resulting book contains 71 submitted items from RedBubble members.

With each page containing a single item (photo, drawing or piece of writing), the layout is clean and simple, and the choice of fonts does not detract from the subject material.

The reproduction of the photos and drawings is very good, with the colours being represented correctly, and the photos have lost none of their sharpness. (I compared some of the photos in the book with the large versions on the RedBubble website, using a colour-calibrated monitor.)

front cover

photo

On Saturday, I attended a workshop called "Photographing Real People", conducted by Greg Perry, at the London Photographic Studio in Rockingham.

I was one of 8 students, and Greg spent a few hours talking us through various ways to pose individuals, couples, and groups, and how to interact with the subjects while you're taking photos of them. He threw in plenty of useful tips, tricks and techniques, ranging from lighting suggestions, clothing guidelines for subjects, through to some information on post-processing.

We also had the opportunity to put a lot of it into practice immediately, by taking some shots of three models in a studio environment, with Greg providing assistance and commentary.

While the opportunity to shoot the models was certainly useful, I believe the value was in the large amounts of practical information shared by Greg during the afternoon.
At a cost of $77 for 3 hours, I reckon it was very good value.

Here's some of my photos from yesterday afternoon:

Geoff

Amy

David and Amy

David

London Photographic Studio advertise workshops on their website, and the "Photographing Real People" workshop was also advertised on flickr and redbubble.