May's other-worldly photo competition

To celebrate the launch of my newest book, Surreal Photography: Creating the Impossible, it seemed entirely appropriate that the theme for May's competition should be surreal.

Whether you construct a meticulous composite of gods and monsters battling it out in an as-yet undiscovered universe, or create a scene at five degrees to the world we know using papier mache, we don't mind. It can be Photoshopped to Kingdom Come or created entirely in-camera, what we're looking for is a strong image.

The Ilex Press, publishers of the book in the UK, are very kindly supplying a copy of the book as a prize. You have until Friday 31 May to submit your entry to our Flickr pool and link the image in May's thread. Please remember: it is one entry per person and the image must be posted to the thread.

I think that just about covers the details, but I have produced The Rules for your reference. Good luck!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me, Haje, or Gareth to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the relevant monthly thread within the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me, Haje, and Gareth) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Photocritic.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

This competition was launched when Photocritic and Small Aperture were still hosted by Pixiq. Unfortunately, it was lost in the transition. This is a re-posted article containing the same details, although the exact content will be slightly different.

Making or taking photographs?

You often hear people say that 'real photographers' make photos; people who just take photos, well, take them. Me? I take photos. My photographs are moments sliced out of time and captured as pixels. That's thievery.

Sweet on April

A smore has to be just about the sweetest thing I can think of

I was going to make this month's photo competition theme 'cake', but then I decided that my own preference for cake over sweets or chocolate shouldn't restrict your photographs. So instead the theme is sweet. It can include cake, chocolate, desserts, or sweeties. Just make sure it's sugar- (or honey-) based!

The photographer of the winning image will win her- or himself and 12 inch Fracture, and get to revel in the glory of the announcement, too!

You can participate by submitting your image, just the one, to the Small Aperture Flickr pool and then linking it in this month's thread. (That last bit is important.) The competition opens today, Friday 5 April, and runs until Friday 26 April 2013.

The Rules have been reproduced for your reference, so now it is just a case of good luck!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me, Haje, or Gareth to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the relevant monthly thread within the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me, Haje, and Gareth) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

A marvellous March photo competition

For the month of March we're looking for images that make use of patterns. Get creative looking for Fibonacci spirals in vegetables, ancient mosaic tesserae, or jars lined up on a shelf. If your image comprises a pattern, we want to see it!

Thanks to the wonderful team at Fracture, the winning entrant will be able to claim a 12 inch Fracture for free.

To submit an entry, head over to the Small Aperture Flickr pool, and link your image in the March 2013 competition thread. (Remember, we've changed the rules slightly and the image must be in the thread as well as in the pool.) It's still one entry per person. The competition opens today (Friday 1 March) and closes on Friday 29 March 2013.

I've reproduced The Rules for your reference, so all that remains is to wish you good luck!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me, Haje, or Gareth to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the relevant monthly thread within the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me, Haje, and Gareth) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

Our fabulous February photo competition

After a hiatus for the month of January, the monthly photo competition is back! Huzzah!

We're feeling refeshed, and we hope that you are, too. In honour of that, this month's theme is relax. Any photograph that conveys a sense of de-stressing, putting up your feet, and unwinding is fair game; from the dog stretched out in front of the fire, to your children curled up with a book, to your very old and tatty but extremely comfortable slippers, we want to see them.

The photographer of the winning image will be eligible to claim a 12 inch Fracture.

We've made a slight change to the submission rules. Nothing major, but from now on, you need to link your image to the relevant thread in the Flickr pool, not just submit it to the pool. February's thread is here. And it's still one submission per person.

February's contest runs from today (Friday 1 February) to Friday 22 February 2013.

As ever, here are The Rules for your reference. Best of luck!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me, Haje, or Gareth to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the relevant monthly thread within the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me, Haje, and Gareth) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

Going round: October's photo competition

For no reason other than I think it's a good idea, this month's competition theme is round. So anything that is circular, spherical, or your take on that shape, is fair game.

There's a 12" Fracture up for grabs if your entry is the one that catches our eye.

You have from today (Friday 5 October) until Friday 26 October 2012 to submit your entry. Yes, entry in the singular because it's one submission per person, please.

Here are The Rules, for your elucidation. Otherwise, good luck and we're looking forward to judging!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

Photographing fun - June's photo competition

It's June. June's rammed with some of my favourite events and the weather is supposed to be 'flaming'. Whether or not it will be is another matter, but there's meant to be a whole heap of fun happening. So that's your challenge this month: fun in a photograph. From flying kites on a beach to getting all dressed up for Royal Ascot or covered in strawberry juice, capture a moment of people utterly enjoying themselves.

I bet you can come up with some crackers.

If it's your photo of fun that rocks our world, you'll win yourself a fabulous 12 inch Fracture, thanks to the super people there.

As ever, entries go in the Small Aperture Flickr pool, between today (Thurday 7 June) and Thursday 28 June 2012. Remember: one entry per person, please.

If you've any questions, please get in touch. Otherwise, I leave you with The Rules for your edification.

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

Get floral for May's photo competition!

It's May; so spring is springing in the northern hemisphere and autumn is falling in the southern hemisphere. Sprouts are sprouting, shoots are shooting, and blossom is blooming one side; head the other and trees are turning to flame. It's an excellent time to photograph plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees. Your monthly photo mission, therefore (should you choose to accept it), is flora.

The wonderful people at Fracture are supplying the prize for the talented winner.

As usual, entries need to go in the Small Aperture Flickr pool and you've from today (Friday 4 May) until Friday 26 May to submit your entries. Remember, please that it's one submission per person, though.

Any questions? Ah yes, last month's winner. Well, between Haje launching Triggertrap Mobile and me being up to my eyeballs in various projects, we're running behind. We apologise; we haven't forgotten and we'll get there. We promise.

Otherwise, here are the rules, in case you need them.

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

A photo competition for April!

For April we'd like to see your photographs of glass vying for the top spot in our competition pool. (Don't ask me how I came up with the theme; I don't know.)

So perhaps you'll photograph an interestingly lit wineglass, maybe some delicate Venetian glass perfume bottles will catch your eye, or a window could be just the thing that gets your creative juices flowing. As long as the photo features glass, it's eligible.

The super team at Fracture are providing a 12" Fracture for the talented winner.

The competition opens today (Thursday 5 April) and runs until Thursday 26 April 2012. Entries should be submitted to the Small Aperture Flickr pool, but please remember that it is one photograph per person. Thank you.

The Rules have been produced below, for your reference:

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

Team Leica publish book for charity

A gorgeous spread from the book, showing pictures by Gez and Ivan.

So, what do you do if you've got a big heart, an empty wallet (after buying that fancy Leica), and a lot of creative people in the same room? You create a book, of course, celebrating some of the most awesome photography by your users - and raise some money for charity at the same time.

Well, that's what the Leica Users Forum did anyway, aiming to repeat the success from previous effort - their first book was published in 2010 and raised over £12,500 / €15,000 / US$19,500 for their chosen charity, The Association for International Cancer Research.

And now, of course, they're doing it all over again.

This year, they've selected their 100 best photographs submitted to the judging panel.

Interestingly, even though all the photos were taken on Leicas, more than 20 different camera models were used to take photos, and yet, only 13 of the shots in the book were taken on film - the rest were taken with the Leica M8 and M9 digital rangefinder cameras.

So far, the 2012 Book has raised nearly £4,000 already, so if you want to be part of history, ogle a lot of fabulous photos, and help fight off cancer in the process point your browsing device at the Blurb page for the book, and dust off your credit card.

The photos are gorgeous, and the cause is good. What are you waiting for?

Gallery: Embedded with the Territorial Army

For one of my final years of university assignments (I was an International Journalism student at Liverpool John Moore's University), I contacted the Territorial Army to see whether they would let me come along on a training exercise. They agreed, and I spent a long week-end in the rain and the fog, chasing people holding guns with my Canon.

This was back in 2003, and I just re-discovered and re-edited the original files. I remember clearly editing them, one by one, in Photoshop, the first time around. This time. I gave them the Lightroom treatment, in order to make them look like older photographs; Like the ones you might see coming out of the makeshift dark-rooms in conflicts in the 1950s and 1960s, perhaps.

The photos are in the gallery carousel above. Enjoy!

Hallelujah! Guidance for security guards when it comes to photographers

It’s taken bloody long enough and has come at the expense of dads being told that they can’t take photos of their kids in shopping centres, but finally there is some guidance for jumped-up heavies in uniforms who pass for security guards on what they can and cannot say and do to photographers. It’s the result of some pretty lengthy discussions that involved the Home Office, the British Security Industry Authority (BSIA), and photographers’ representatives such as Amateur Photographer and SceneThat. But by Juno, I’ve read it and it’s clear and reinforces some important points that we’ve been trying to teach them for a while now.

As far as I’m concerned, these are the edited highlights. You can go peruse the rest of the document – and it’s only four pages long – on the BSIA website.

• The size and type of cameras are not, in themselves, indications of suspicious behaviour. Large cameras, lenses and tripods should therefore not be viewed as being more suspicious than other types of equipment.
• If an individual is in a public place photographing or filming a private building, security guards have no right to prevent the individual from taking photographs.
• Security guards cannot delete images or seize cameras, nor can they obstruct individuals from taking photographs.
• Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places. This includes where an individual is in a public place but taking a photograph or film of a private building.

There is more, but this alone should help photographers reinforce that they’re not terrorists and by taking a photo, they’re not breaking the law or doing anything that’s otherwise nefarious. I think I’ll print out a copy and keep it in my camera bag.

Making your own grey cards

BEFORE: The Apple iPhone 4 has a great camera, but it's struggling with white balance. By using a grey card, I can fix it...

Most cameras are capable of creating 'acceptably good' white balance on your photos. And even if they're failing, you can make a pretty decent guess for what you think the white balance should have been in post production.

But what if you want to take the guesswork out of the equation, and get perfect white balance every time? The professionals use something called a 'gray card' (or 'grey card', depending on where in the world you learned to write English). The name says it all: it's a gray piece of card or plastic that you can use to balance your photographs.

Finding yourself a gray card

Does that sounds a bit high tech? Well, it really isn't - and the great news is that you can use just about anything that is neutrally coloured. Of course, without advanced colour calibration equipment, it's hard to find something that's actually perfectly neutral. For our purposes, however, you don't need to do that: anything that's just about gray will do. Why? Because once you have your photos balanced consistently, it's easy to make sure they are all well-balanced.

You can use anything that is neutrally coloured, but we would recommend using something that's light gray - it gives the camera the best colour reading, and it makes it easier to do your balancing in post production, too. The lids on coffee cups tend to work pretty well, and personally, I've been using my Macbook. The matt, light silver material is relatively neutral, and since I tend to bring my laptop on photo shoots with me, it's always there when I need it.

Printing off a gray card

If you know what printer you are going to be using to print your images, you could create your own gray card as follows:

1. Open up a photo taken with your camera in Photoshop. This ensures that the correct color profiles are in your image file.

2. Delete the image, and fill the frame with 18% gray.

3. Send the file to your printer, and take it with you on shoots.

The key thing here is that your 'gray card' may not be perfectly neutral, but the important thing is that your printer thinks it is neutral - so if you colour balance your photographs to this particular card, your images should come out neutral when you print them next. Clever, eh?

It could be argued, of course, that if you're serious enough about white balance that you are going to use a gray card, then you may as well buy a set of gray cards that are definitely perfectly colour balanced, but having a home-made set of cards is much better than shooting without anything, so it's a great place to start.

How do you use a gray card? - Whatever you've decided to use as your gray card, the way you use it is pretty simple, and I've covered the process as a video and how-to article; How to use a grey card.

Getting a professional-grade gray card

Of course, you could just decide to go full hog and get a professional gray card. It just so happens that I'm selling some lovely A6-sized cards 

Capture Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets. London Borough. Home to the Tower of London, Canary Wharf, and what is traditionally regarded as the East End. Did you know that it took its name from being the shambling conglomeration of hamlets that surrounded and serviced William the Bastard’s imposing castle to the north of the Thames? (Now can’t you just tell I’m a historian by training? Don’t worry, lesson’s over.) It’s also a gem for street photography. And the council is somehow managing to encourage people to get out there and have a go at it.

Tower Hamlets council is looking for photographs that summarise the borough in a snapshot. They want people, places, life; everyday and extraordinary. It’s all part of the the Mapping the Change project that aims to document change across three London boroughs.

Anyone over the age of 18 can submit up to five images that they believe capture the essence of Tower Hamlets. The photos must’ve been taken in the borough within the past five years and you need to state exactly where they were taken. (Handy-dandy map here.) So if you happen to be in Outer Mongolia but have photo of Brick Lane that you think deserves a look, why not submit it?

Finalists’ images will be displayed at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive in November and December. There are prizes on offer for the winners, including a camera, a portfolio review, and shopping vouchers. The terms are straightforward, too, which makes a change.

The deadline’s 17 October, so you probably ought to get cracking. All the details are on the project website.

(Picture’s mine, taken on the corner of Brick Lane and Hanbury Street.)

International Day for Street Children

April 12th marks the global launch of the International Day for Street Children. The idea behind today is to show governments around the world that recognising the rights of street children is just as important a task as recognising the rights of children with homes. To celebrate the launch, cities across the world are doing a wide variety of things. In London, we’ll be using the power of photography to get the message across.

For one night only, there will be a photo exhibition marking the event. This one is a little different to your usual gallery viewing, however: the photographs will be projected onto the face of the National Theatre on the South Bank. The images themselves will highlight the daily struggle that street children across the world must live through every day.

Angel, Rag Picker, 6 years old, Mexico. Image credit: Marcus Lyon

The campaign is backed by Liverpool and England footballer Steven Gerrard, by Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle and is supported by Aviva, whose Street to School programme aims to get 500,000 young people back into education or training by 2015.

So why is it important? Street children are those who sleep on the streets, work on the streets or spend a significant amount of time on the streets. They are some of the most vulnerable and marginalised children in the world and, as such, have no support or protection from the state or parents / families and, as a result, have no voice.

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle said:

“Filming Slumdog Millionaire opened my eyes to the horrendous conditions that street children in India are forced to endure on a day to day basis – an unimaginable mix of poverty, hardship, cruelty and abuse. That’s why I’m supporting the International Day for Street Children and the Louder Together campaign. These children need a voice and need to be heard by the international community I urge everyone to go online and pledge their support at www.streetchildren.org.uk.”

Photo by Dan Lynch. Projected image by Marcus Lyon.

So make a quick visit to www.streetchildren.org.uk today and grab a free ‘Louder Together’ Twibbon to pop on your Facebook or Twitter profile – it only takes a sec, it’s free, and it’ll help raise the awareness of International Day for Street Children.

Don’t forget to pop down to South Bank and watch the projection on the face of the National Theatre. It will take place today (12th April 2011) at approximately 7:30pm.

Our February photo competition

Hot on the heels of the amazing January photo competition with its collection of awesome photos comes February’s turn. This month we thought that we’d challenge you to show us how much you love your camera equipment, what with Valentine’s Day coming up and all. Yep, we want photos of your camera equipment. It doesn’t matter how or what: maybe a macro of your macro; perhaps a portrait of self with camera; even a study of your tripod. Get creative with your kit in more ways than one!

The even better news is that the lovely guys over at Fracture have agreed to sponsor the competition and they’ll be providing a 12″ fracture for the winner. Muchly awesome.

You’ve from today (Wednesday 2 February) until Wednesday 23 February to submit your entries (one per person) to our Flickr pool.

The Rules haven’t changed since last time, but they’re at the bottom, for your reference. Any questions? You know where to find me. Otherwise: go forth and take beautiful pictures!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t have written for Small Aperture or be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Small Aperture.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

Our December photo competition

Hello, one and all! It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means that it’s time to start our photo competition. Once again, we have a groovy prize lined up for the winner! This month, we’d like you to submit a portrait for our contemplation and consideration. Black and white, or colour, it doesn’t matter. What we want is a picture of a person to make us go ‘Oooh!’

The competition opens today, that’s Wednesday 1 December, and runs until Wednesday 22 December in the spirit of Christmas, we extended it to 29 December 2010. Please submit your entries to the Small Aperture pool on Flickr.

The rules are the same as October’s and November’s, but I’ll reproduce them here for you. Again, Haje and I will aim to have the results to you within a week of the competition closing.

Good luck!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t have written for Small Aperture or be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Small Aperture.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

iPhoneography meets environmental activism

Photographs of water + online exhibition = increased awareness of water pollution.

That’s the equation Greenpeace is working on, anyway. It has joined forces with Steply, the iPhone photo-sharing app, to create a user-curated online gallery of water-themed photographs and bring to people’s attention just what it is that we, and heavy industry, are doing to the earth’s water supply.

It’s a pretty simple process. If you use Steply, you take a photo to make Poseidon and the Naiades proud, you tag it with #gpwater in the photo description, and you share it to Steply between now and 12 December 2010. Steply will even send you a ‘special item’ to show that you support the campaign. (Although they’ve not been so kind as to tell me what the ‘special item’ is. I’m guessing it won’t be a Rolex.) If you don’t already use Steply, you can download it here.

Greenpeace is hosting the Hope and Pain exhibition of water-themed pictures by Eugene Smith, Aileen Mioko Smith, and Lu Guang at the Blindspot Gallery in Hong Kong, from 4 to 12 December, too.

You can find out more, and look at everyone’s contributions, here.

Fujifilm Student Awards

The nice people at Fujifilm are running a competition to remind UK-based photography students that shooting on film can be a fun and rewarding process. It’s the 2011 Student Awards, with a first prize of £200-worth of film, a trophy, and a professionally designed 15 photo portfolio.

This year’s theme are the five senses. Entrants can submit as many photographs as they’d like, and it won’t cost them anything, either. Of course, all pictures have to have been shot on film, and Fuji film, too.

The competition is now open and runs until 28 February 2011. More information, including The Rules, are available from the competition website. I’m really looking forward to seeing the results of this one.

Pennies for pictures at Tailcast

There are probably a few of us who wouldn’t mind making a few extra pennies from our photographs, but possibly in a hands-off, not-really-having-to-deal-with-practicalities kind of way. You know: rather than having to make and mail out greetings cards made from your photos yourself, let someone else make them and send them out. If this sounds appealing, I might have just the website for you.

It’s called tailcast and it allows members to upload images and words that they can then make into greetings cards or wall art, or allow other people to transform them into cards or canvases. If someone uses one of your images to make a card, or a piece of wall art, you get a 20% commission on the piece.

Is 20% a reasonable commission? I don’t know. But if you’ve a few images that you’re happy for other people to make into postcards or to hang in their living rooms, it’s a pretty easy way of making a bit of beer-money.

Check it out at tailcast.com.