westPHOTO Competition blog page

take a look y'all, for any info on the Annual westPHOTO Prize, past present and future. Every year we do a comp and exhibition, every year it just gets more and more exciting to do these comps. Definately one of the most rewarding aspects of working at westPHOTO.

http://www.westphotophotographyprize.blogspot.com/

westPHOTO Blog Launched

Good News Bloggers,

westPHOTO, the Agency that I run has now launched it's very own Blog. Expect some really good posts on current photographers we admire as well as competition news, job opportunities and much more:

http://westphotoagency.blogspot.com/

Favourite Chicken and Ribs

Book review: Fall River Boys - Richard Renaldi

Fall River Boys Is a book by Richard Renaldi, who regularly took trips to visit fall river to create this book. The Towns name sparks romantic almost hollywoodien (sic) thoughts of middle America, prosperity amongst epic nature. His images hold a notion of romantic youth, and also of the decay of American cities and suburbs. Fall river in his own words is An industrial landscape well past its boom years". The remnants of this industry can be seen in the background of portraits and throughout the book.

I like renaldi's honest depiction of different boys, they all seem to have a unity, growing up or living in Fall River, that is present in the portraits. A slight aura of despair lingers over the portraits, almost as if, the boys cannot leave or will always be boys of fall river.









Image Copyright Richard Renaldi

Latest takeaway shot on 5 x 4 with a 150mm Lens.

Carolina Chicken

Image taken on my Toyo 5 x 4 camera, a new addition to the Sanctuary series

Microstock - Self Improvement

Although It's a topic not usually talked about by photographers of my Ilk. But because I run a student picture Library and Agency (www.westphoto.co.uk) I find myself regularly explaining the differences to students between RM and RF sites. This regularly brings up the topic of what is Microstocking good for if you are a student.

My usual answer that it is a good way to train yourself for Macro and RM photography (if it will still exist by the time they get there). Keywording and management are two things you improve on by uploading to microstock, so this site Microstock Diaries, I think would be useful to any young photographer practicing on Microstock. It's a good blog because it (usually) avoid lengthy discussions of money based topics such as RPI (revenue per image) which beginners won't be too interested in.

Microstock Diaries - For People Selling Photos Online