master photography…

Fujifilm-MPA wedding and portrait 1st round winners

June 17th, 2011 . Posted in Awards | No Comments »
Tags: Awards, Fujifilm, MPA, portrait, wedding

The Master Photographers Association (MPA), has announced the winners in the first round judging of the 2011 MPA/Fujifilm Wedding and Portrait Awards, sponsored by Fujifilm.

The prizes in the wedding category go to John Parris (2), David Armour, John Newman and Stuart Wood. In the portrait section the winners are David Calvert (2), Stuart Wood, John Parris and Adam Hirons. They now go forward to the final judging in September 2011.

Photo from the Wedding Category – by David Armour

Open to ALL professional photographers, these consumer awards are a joint initiative between Fujifilm and the MPA and they are designed to help photographers drive business to their studios by offering the subject of the winning image a substantial cash prize. The subject of each of the two overall winning photographs will receive £1,000 and runner-up consumers in each category will be presented with a £50 shopping voucher.

The Awards are also a major fundraiser for the MPA’s adopted charity, the PACE Centre in Aylesbury (www.thepacecentre.org). From each £2 entry £1 is donated straight to PACE.

Says Colin Buck, MPA chief executive: “These Awards not only help photographers promote their businesses, they also raise considerable funds to help PACE continue its amazing work with children with physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy. We are very grateful to Fujifilm for their support of the Awards.”

The overall winning photographers will receive the title of ‘MPA/Fujifilm Wedding (or Portrait) Photographer of the Year 2011′ a trophy and a publicity package to help them promote their success. Presentations to the winning photographers will take place at the Master Photography Awards Dinner in October 2011.

The second and final submission period is now open, with a closing date of 30 August. The MPA/Fujifilm Wedding and Portrait Awards are open to ALL professional photographers, not just MPA members. Full details and entry forms are available on the website www.thempa.com/mpa-wedding-and-portrait-awards.php

Hasselblad to distribute Broncolor in UK

June 17th, 2011 . Posted in General News | No Comments »
Tags: Broncolor, Chris Burfoot, distribution, Hasselblad, UK

Hasselblad is set to become sole distributor of broncolor lighting products in the UK.

’We will use the same approach with bron as we have with the new-look Hasselblad UK’ – Chris Russell-Fish, Hasselblad UK MD and Global Sales and Marketing Director

Chris Russell-Fish, Hasselblad UK MD and global sales and marketing director, announced the move following months of negotiation with the Swiss-based lighting manufacturer.

Hasselblad will take over from JP Distribution on July 1st and promises ‘a dynamic array of new ideas and solutions‘ for bron customers nationwide in coming months.

Said Russell-Fish: “I believe we can do a great job for bron users in the UK. Like Hasselblad products, bron equipment sits at the top end of the market. We plan to make a great deal of noise in coming weeks and months around this excellent lighting range.”

Russell-Fish has appointed photo-lighting expert Chris Burfoot as the new broncolor UK manager.

Burfoot, who first started ‘working with light’ in the Eighties said: “Our objective is to create far more awareness around the award-winning bron brand and focus hard on customer service and support for existing users. We also plan a programme of ‘hands-on’ open days with broncolor partners in a non-selling environment – mirroring the success of the popular ‘Hasselblad Studiodays’ programme, and under the name of ‘The beauty of broncolor’.

This premium lighting brand has been built on a rock solid foundation of quality, consistency and reliability. The new-look bron customer care programme will work in exactly the same way as Hasselblad’s renowned ‘Hasselbuddy’ customer care support.”

Hasselblad UK owns the London-based Pro Centre, the photo-equipment rental company, but Russell-Fish insists the bron distribution deal will be no threat to any other brand they work with.

He said: “The Pro Centre acts completely independently as a rental centre. This will simply be an additional line. Bron will be a completely separate entity for us in the same way as our new Hasselblad studio and Didgeridoo services. And just as we have developed energetic new programmes for Hasselblad customers in the UK, we will do the same with bron over time. There will be a separate bron customer care and maintenance team in place in the near future.”

Hasselblad is currently in talks with broncolor with a view to new product launches.

A new website is to go live from the 1st July 2011 at www.ukbroncolor.com, with links to and from the Hasselblad (www.hasselblad.co.uk) website.

£10,000 for Master Photographer’s Cherub client

June 17th, 2011 . Posted in Awards, General News | No Comments »
Tags: baby, cherubs, Halifax, Kyte, MPA, photography, prize, win, winner, £10k

Qualified Master Photographer, Jennifer Robertson – owner of Kyte Photography in Halifax – has won an amazing £10,000 for a local family with one of her award-winning photographs.

Jennifer entered her favourite photograph of the family’s twins, Darcy and Noah White, into the ‘Cherub of The Year’ Competition, run by the Master Photographers Association (MPA).

The Cherub programme is designed to capture a baby’s first year via three different photoshoots and Jennifer’s photograph was shortlisted from thousands of entries from all over the UK.

The win is even more poignant as the twins’ parents Julie & Phil, also from Halifax, didn’t think they could even have children after several traumatic miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and IVF.

Mum Julie says: “We used to walk past Kyte’s studio windows to look at the amazing photographs of cute babies. We knew if ever the day came along when we were lucky enough to have children of our own there was only one place to go!

“I cried when I first saw the photographs. Jennifer had captured the twins’ personalities in a magical way. We will have these wonderful memories of their first year forever – they have stopped time for us. To win £10,000 on top of all this is just the icing on the cake!”

This latest accolade for Jennifer comes just 6 months after being voted the ‘Cherubs Photographer of the Year 2010′ at the prestigious Master Photography Awards last October.

Since Jennifer launched Kyte Photography 10 years ago – with business partner Lynne Fletcher – their studio has built a strong reputation for producing contemporary lifestyle portraiture and cutting edge wedding photography. Her background in newspapers and advertising has seen her photograph dozens of well known celebrities from the Beckhams and Kylie Minogue to Paul McCartney.

Says Jennifer: “Kyte is already well known in the region for the quality of our baby photography, but to be recognised at a national level is a great honour. And to win £10,000 for a family who have been through so much is even more rewarding.”

The Cherubs bay photography programme is open to all professional photographers in the UK. For details on how to become involved please email cherubs@wpsmedia.co.uk

Our Royal Wedding issue…

April 27th, 2011 . Posted in Master Photography magazine | No Comments »
Tags: abbey, album, cathedral, church, fashion, magazine, Master Photography, May 2011, photography, royal wedding, Skye Tan

Enlarge this document in a new window
Publisher Software from YUDU

See inside for great ‘big church setting’ wedding examples, and the albums nominated by our top wedding album suppliers as their own choice for William & Kate!

Perfect Layers – free trial dowload

April 21st, 2011 . Posted in Software | No Comments »
Tags: Aperture, Lightroom, onOne, Perfect Layers, photoshop, Software, trial download

onOne Software are announcing that a Public Preview of Perfect Layers is now available to download and try out, free of charge.

Perfect Layers is a standalone application that works on its own allowing you to create and edit layered Photoshop files. If you use Lightroom or Aperture and you’ve ever wanted to or wished you had the ability to create a layered file, then this is definitely for you.

Being able to take two or more files and combining them into a single layered file or taking a single image and duplicating it to create multiple layers and use blending modes to enhance them is very powerful and opens up all kinds of creative things you can do.

onOne have been working closely with Scott Kelby from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals on Perfect Layers to refine the feature set and get great ideas in general on Lightroom users need. Scott has been playing with early development builds of Perfect Layers and he (and the rest of his team including Matt Kloskowski and RC Concepcion) are very excited about the possibilities that Perfect Layers will bring to Lightroom users.

The Perfect Layers Public Preview will expire on June 30th, 2011. The final version, 1.0, will be available for purchase in mid-2011. At that time, Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 owners will receive a free product update that will include Perfect Layers 1.0. Suite owners and anyone interested in Perfect Layers can download the free public preview now.

Epson Print Academy Classes

April 11th, 2011 . Posted in Training | No Comments »
Tags: Academy, classes, Epson, printing

Professionals and amateurs who want to get the most from their printing and digital imaging will have the chance to learn from the experts at four Epson Print Academy classes offered in association with aspect2i and running throughout 2011.
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Adobe launch software by monthly rental

April 11th, 2011 . Posted in General News, Software | No Comments »
Tags: Adobe, CS5, CS5.5, photoshop, rental, Software

You can now install Photoshop’s latest edition, or any other parts of the Creative Suite, on monthly terms. The costs depend on whether you sign up for a year, or just rent a single month’s use of the programs selected. Photoshop CS5, for example, costs only $49 for a month’s use – enough time to tackle a major project needing the features of this edition, for those owning older versions and not wanting to upgrade.

See:

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cssubscription.html

A new version of the suite, CS5.5, has just been launched with additional modules for converting or creating content to use on mobile platforms such as Android phones or iOS.