Table of contents for July-August 2016 in Capture

In the wake of our most successful year of Australia’s Top Emerging Photographers, I’m very excited to report that Capture is taking a bold step forward; one that reaffirms our commitment to helping to nurture emerging talent. On 1 August this year, we’re holding our first-ever Capture LIVE event at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse. The event, Emerging Photographers’ Masterclass, Passion2Profit will feature keynote presentations by some of Australia’s best-known photographers, including Kelly Brown, Dan O’Day, Peter Coulson, and William Patino – all of whom are recognised and highly respected within their chosen field of specialisation. Just some of the topics they’ll address include harnessing social media to make the most of your follower base, how to get your first big break and what to do with it, developing a signature…

LINK www.hipa.ae The theme for this year’s competition, the richest in the world, offering a staggering US$400,000 in prize money, was “Happiness”. The overall winner, taking out the Grand Prize in the main category, was Spanish photographer, Antonio Aragon Renuncio. His image, shot in the West African country, Togo, won him US$120,000. The winner of 1st prize in the Happiness category, Hameed Husain Isa, from Bahrain, won US$25,000 for his image of two old friends embracing. The 1st prize winners in the other categories – General (Francisco Negroni Rodriguez, Chile), Wildlife (Steve Winter, USA), and Father and Son (Khaled Alsabbah, Palestinian Territory), each took home US$15,000. Along with the category prize winners, two additional Special Awards were also announced – a Photography Appreciation Award that went to documentary photographer, Oscar…

The old adage, ‘adapt or perish’ seems to be a common theme in the world of photography. Whether it is going from film to digital, or simply upgrading your gear, photographers will always need to adapt to remain relevant in the industry. So, with CGI now reaching a standard where the lines of reality and fantasy are blurred, an interesting question arises. Will photographers have to learn, or learn how to work with CGI in order to survive? But perhaps this question is more immediate in the commercial photography industry where clients and creative agencies are trying to reduce costs at every turn. Simply put, CGI means any imagery that is computer-generated or modelled in 3D, and these days it is being used to generate anything from backdrops to entire…

See Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat, VIC, various locations, 19 August – 17 September. The Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) is a month-long festival of contemporary Australian and international photography. Held every two years, the seventh BIFB presents two major exhibition programs, along with an integrated program of workshops, seminars, audio-visual projections, master classes, artist talks, portfolio reviews, and photographic competitions. The BIFB Core Program is a curated exhibition of 20 leading photographic artists, while the BIFB Fringe Program is an open-entry presentation by more than 200 artists. Exhibitions are staged in more than 80 venues across Ballarat, including historic buildings, cafes, galleries, and public spaces. www.ballaratfoto.org Tough and Tender (group exhibition), National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT, 15 July – 16 October. This exhibition presents raw and intimate photography from…

A wave has hit the photography industry in the form of camera-carrying, flying machines. What began as a trickle has turned into a flood of unmanned aviation vehicles sweeping across the photographic landscape. Everywhere you look there are photos and footage from new aerial perspectives only made possible by drones. They have become the industry’s latest obsession, and image-makers everywhere are scrambling to get their hands on the latest drone technology. The question now is whether they are here to stay. And are they a worthwhile business investment, or just a new-toy fad? Popularity spike No one can deny that the drone market is booming. Back in 2010, the US Federal Aviation Authority estimated 15,000 drones would be sold in America by 2020. In today’s landscape that estimate is laughable.…

The business environment is tough, and competitive, and everyone is looking for value. But value doesn’t mean cheap. The most desirable gear of 2016 is kit that offers something special, is packed with features, or is the best of the breed. Some of the broader trends in equipment relate to power, weight and data management. Improved battery technology is allowing longer life at the same, or even reduced weight for numerous devices, including lighting and drones. Data files continue to grow in size as stills and video are captured in increasingly higher resolution, including 8K for some video cameras. Data storage, management, and workflow has never been more important to photographers. Our 2016 roundup of Objects of Desire features gear that’s exceptional because of what it offers, and should make…

The “napalm girl” is one of the world’s most famous photographs, and David Burnett is intimately connected to it. No, he didn’t take it, and he’s famous for many other things – among them having photographed every American president from JFK to Barack Obama. However, he did share that day in June 1972 with its photographer, Nick Ut, and the story he has to tell about it is both terrible and wonderful. The photo shocked the world. Just 25 at the time, Burnett was in Vietnam with Ut, taking photos for Time and Life magazines. He and a number of other journalists were observing a battle at the village of Trang Bang, from a short distance away. As he changed a roll of film, a Vietnamese air force fighter came…

Janyon Boshoff A dirt and dust-speckled vehicle racing across the desolate Australian outback sounds like a scene from George Miller’s Mad Max. Such was the vision of the creative team when they briefed Sydney-based photographer, Janyon Boshoff to shoot the key visual and collateral for the Volkswagen Amarok Naked Ute concept to run alongside the TV commercial. Inheriting the vehicles and the location from the TVC shoot, Janyon quickly realised that the desolate landscape required from the brief did not match the location. Fortunately, an expansive dry lakebed was nearby. “The AD and I scouted the area briefly at midday and it didn’t look amazing, but I knew it would change dramatically in low light,” says Janyon. Then, as the winter sun rapidly faded and the light diminished, relatively early…

The secret and minuscule lives of insects is often an alien world to those unaided by powerful microscopes. Our perception of these tiny creatures is usually limited by our mammalian vision, leaving entomologists confined to science laboratories and the labyrinths of dusty museum collections. Microscultpture is a collection of enormous prints and an interactive website that reveals the beauty of these tiny critters while garnering a whole new audience for entomology. All in the details For Levon Biss, a British photographer who has been shooting campaigns for international brands for the last 18 years, the decision to undertake a long-term project photographing insects was as much a personal one as it was a practical one. Yet what started out as a series of photographs not necessarily intended for any audience…