Innholdsfortegnelse for 5/16/2023 i Amateur Photographer

7 daysA week in photography THIS striking symmetrical image, by Silke Huttchen, has been named the winner of the German Society for Nature Photography’s member competition. Silke is only the second woman to have won the contest in its 51-year history. This, and the growing number of women entrants, is ‘a good sign that the historically male-dominated genre of nature photography is increasingly reflecting society in a more realistic way,’ said the organisers. Silke’s photo also came first in the Urban Nature category. See the other finalists at www.gdtfoto.de/seiten…

7 daysA week in photography NIKON has announced the Z 8, a pro-spec full-frame mirrorless camera that places practically the same feature set as the flagship Z 9 into a smaller, lighter, and lower-priced body. It’s aimed at pros and serious enthusiasts shooting both stills and video, while pursuing subjects as diverse as wildlife, portraits, weddings, and landscapes. Externally, the Z 8 looks much like the Z 9, just without a vertical grip. Internally, it has the same 45.7MP full-frame stacked CMOS sensor and Expeed 7 processor. Its ultra-fast, silent electronic shutter promises minimal subject distortion and enables blackout-free viewing during continuous shooting. On this note, the Z 8 is capable of 20fps in raw, 30fps in full-resolution JPEG, and 120fps at 11MP, all with autofocus tracking. Its intelligent subject-recognition…

The Dailies by Thomas Demand £40, MACK, hardcover, 96 pages, ISBN: 9781913620943 At first glance, this book appears to be a collection of snapshots of the mundane, but when you examine closer you can see something strange is going on – all is not quite as it seems. Thomas Demand constructs, photographs and destroys meticulous paper models for his setups in order to capture seemingly minor, everyday moments – and all taken with the simplest of equipment, his iPhone. Demand himself describes the work as a form of Haiku, simple fragments which are strung together in a bid to inspire refection on our daily lives. Taking the time to look at each image you might be struck by the beauty in the ordinary, and realise the careful composition required to…

Every year, the Sony World Photography Awards is separated into two competitions – an Open and a Professional. As you might expect from the title, the Open competition can be entered by anybody, amateur, professional or somewhere in between. The Open competition is further split into several categories, comprising Architecture, Creative, Landscape, Lifestyle, Motion, Natural World & Wildlife, Object, Portraiture, Street Photography and Travel. While the professional categories show off superb talent, there’s always something special about the Open competition, which arguably is a little looser, freer and more creative. Perhaps it’s because the Open category is based on a single image, rather than a portfolio, but it’s here where we see some of the wackier, more daring and downright strange imagery. The overall Open Photographer of the Year went…

Testbench LENS TEST The primary selling point of the new 26mm f/2.8 pancake lens from Nikon is its incredibly small size. At just 23.5mm in length, it’s the slimmest AF lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras available, and at just 125g it’s barely noticeable in your kit bag – or even your pocket. This makes it appealing as part of a walkaround camera for street photography, where discretion is welcomed, but thanks to its wide angle, landscapes and architecture are also subjects worth considering. All that said, it’s a bit oddly positioned in the current Nikon Z line-up, with it not providing too much that you can’t pick up elsewhere for better value. For example, there’s already a 28mm f/2.8 lens, which you can buy for less than half the price…

ALL-TIME GREATEST ALBUM COVERS Five years after his 1975 departure as the lead singer of prog rock superstars Genesis, Peter Gabriel was still struggling to be a solo star. Despite the success of his 1977 single Solsbury Hill, Gabriel hadn’t yet made a massive commercial breakthrough. But his third album, aka ‘Melt’ due to its creative cover image, proved to be a hit thanks to a fusion of compelling songs with an unforgettable cover art package. Here’s how it came about… Released in May 1980, Peter Gabriel 3 was the sound of a singer/songwriter who was finding his inspiration from dark places, with haunting tracks such as Games Without Frontiers, No Self Control, Lead A Normal Life and Intruder. The album’s cover art seemed to perfectly reflect the underlying darkness…

Jyotirmoy Mitra, West Bengal, India About Jyotirmoy Jyotirmoy is a retired bank worker, who took up photography when he finished work. Favourite subjects I love ICM landscape and abstract photography most. You can find your subjects everywhere. How did you get into photography? It was a dream from my childhood to have a camera of my own, but finance was the main constraint. After retirement, I purchased a digital camera and started to learn various aspects of photography. What do you love about photography? I am bad at drawing – so my camera helps me to draw. What was your first camera? Canon EOS 70D. Current kit Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Favourite lens Canon 16-35mm f/4. Favourite accessory ND filters – 3 stop and 10 stop. Dream purchase Canon…

● £194.86 ● www.kingston.com Kingston’s XS2000 range of SSD drives are genuinely pocket-sized storage devices that offer incredible speeds to photographers and filmmaking wishing to work on the move. Available in four capacities, 512MB, 1TB, 2TB and an impressive 4TB, the pricing ranges from £62.87 to £369.17 offering competitive value for an SSD of this specification. I tried the 2TB drive, which should offer enough storage space for most photographers to back up a significant amount of their photo or video projects for use on the move. Kingston quotes the drive as having a maximum potential speed of 2,000MB/s for both read and write, which is impressive, but it does come with a caveat. To obtain the fastest speeds, you must have a computer that states explicitly it uses USB…

7 daysA week in photography THE 2023 round of the Close-up Photographer of the Year competition (CUPOTY), in association with Affinity Photo and a range of other sponsors, is now open for entries. The overall winner gets a £2,500 cash prize, a universal license for Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, plus a NiSi macro focusing rail and macro close-up lens. Each category winner gets £250 and other extras. ‘Close-up Photographer of the Year is an annual competition revealing the hidden wonders of the world via close-up, macro and micro photography,’ explains co-founder and regular AP contributor Tracy Calder. Tracy and her husband Dan set up the contest in 2018, and it is open to people from any country, using any camera, phone or microscope. There are 11 categories this year:…

7 daysA week in photography Manchester Central Library, free. Until 24 June. Open Mon-Thurs, 9am-8pm, Fri-Sat 9am-5pm Working in the industry for the last 50 years, Jill Furmanovsky’s music portrait CV is a veritable who’s who in the world of music. Subjects include Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davies, The Police, Bob Marley, Chic, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, The Cure, Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder, The Pretenders, Beyonce and more besides – over 80 images are included in this extensive exhibition. There’s an audio tour narrated by Jill herself available to visitors, who can listen through their own headphones. Other sections of the exhibition include ‘Meditations from the Pit’, which aims to encapsulate the sheer joy of working with live musicians, as well as intimate on-the-road shoots, which were carried…

Technique GARDEN BIRDS ON A BUDGET Ben Hall Ben is one of the UK’s leading professional wildlife photographers with multiple international awards to his name. He is the author of two wildlife photography books. Ben leads workshops both in the UK and further afield and lives with his family on the edge of the Peak District National Park. See more at www.benhallphotography.com, Instagram: @benhallphotography Garden birds are perhaps the most accessible of all wildlife subjects, but with the rising cost of modern cameras and long lenses, it can become hugely expensive. With some careful thought and cost-cutting measures, however, you could be taking fantastic images of your garden visitors in no time – all without having to remortgage your house! Creating a feeding station The simplest and most effective way…

Testbench CAMERA TEST It’s easy to understand how a digital camera that costs over £8,000 but can only shoot black & white pictures might seem the height of foolishness to many people. That the Leica M11 Monochrom is the fifth no-colour camera launched by the company in the past 11 years perhaps demonstrates that either Leica is a glutton for punishment, or there really is a market for this kind of product. Crazy or not, Leica holds something of a monopoly in this area, as no other brand has previously seen fit to apply itself to this artistic little niche, although Pentax has recently announced a K-3 III Monochrome. There is a very healthy level of activity in digital black & white photography, but only these two firms ask that…