lomographicsociety:

A Useful Tip: The Sunny 16 Rule

When we have no light meter, when we have one but forgotten at home, when we do not know how to use it and when we did not download the app, or do not have smartphone: The Sunny 16 Rule is our salvation!

Okay, so at the moment there’s not much sun here in the UK, but when it does come out this handy tip from lomography has you covered! And if you are considering getting back into film or trying it for the first time, check out these cool Lomography cameras! 

We think really good photography should invoke a strong emotional response. Which is why when we saw Jan von Hollenben’s work, we had to feature it. If his recent work on the series Action Heroes, doesn’t invoke a smile then we don’t know what will.  

Capturing Children in new and creative ways isn’t easy but Jan does just that in his work. Using layers and playing with perspective he creates real action hero escapism in this piece of work. Do make sure you click through and visit his site to see the rest of this series but also his other work too. 

So, as ever, rather than just post the images, we wanted to get a few words from our featured photogrpaher, Jan. 

So how did you get into photography? 

“My dad is a director of photography in television and my mom is a child therapist!

For my 13th birthday I got a bright red snapshot camera and started to imitate my dads earlier stills photography when he still was very experimental with his imagery.

This continued through college taking part in photo workshops over 4 years until I started teaching it myself. A university degree in history and theory of photography and 5 years of having fun in various places within the London photographic industry as art director, photographic director, picture editor and founder of two photographic communities gave me all the necessary understanding of the ‘how to do photography’.

I never wanted to become a photographer initially, as I hated the idea of an exhausting and difficult career. However, when  my personal portfolio suddenly took off in 2006 when showing it to a few people and the internet helping spreading the images through a thousand blogs, I opted for a trial of being a professional photographer! That trial is still going on today and is the greatest job that I can imagine. I wonder when its gonna be over? Until then I will get the best and most and greatest out of it!”

What’s you dream photography location or shoot? 

“It can be anywhere friendly and peaceful (urban or rural) with 2-3 sweet and lovely people, all the time in the world and no plan at all but the goal of taking some images.

I love improvising from nothing. There is so much freedom and you can create the best photographs out of only a few very simple things.”

What inspired the Action heroes concept? 

“A few years after ‘Dreams of Flying’, the kids that originally starred in them grew up. They were becoming teenagers and started thinking very differently about their heroes and stars. 

Narrative structures changed into examination of the ego. Besides being interested in creating stories, they were eager to play roles, challenge themselves and discover their identity!

The Action heroes stem out of that interest and need to depict role play differently when being a teenager! We established some archetypal and modern characters and also added an extra level of photography to it (the complexity got thicker). The kids do not only lie on the floor, we also placed objects onto the finished photographs and rephotographed them in order to achieve a three dimensional setting.”

And finally, what advice would you give to young photographers? 

“Please please please: Make always sure when taking pictures to have fun and work hard at the same time!  :-) “

instagram:

Prague’s Astronomical Clock

The Prague Astronomical Clock, or Pražský Orloj, is a medieval clock mounted on the southern wall of Prague’s Old Town City Hall. Clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel manufactured the Orloj’s astronomical dial just over 600 years ago in 1410. Despite being the world’s oldest working astronomical clock, the Pražský Orloj still provides an overwhelming amount of information.

This sophisticated clock’s dials, hands and markings display the times of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, the height of the sun at midday, the times of the solstices and equinoxes, how the Sun moves through the zodiac and how the Moon and the Sun move in the sky above them. It also tells the time—in three different ways! The Orloj is a beautiful and intricate representation of the human desire to understand and explore the heavens.

To see more photographs of this truly amazing clock, visit the Pražský Orloj | Astronomical Clock location page.

The World Photo Organisation reveals the 10 finalists of the Student focus 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. Five of the final entries in the gallery above show the future of photography remains strong, with over 20,000 students taking part, from over 230 universities. 

The judges, photography collector, curator and consultant W.M Hunt plus British photographers Jonathan Worth and Leonie Hampton, were asked to select six images from the six continents, plus four favourites from anywhere in the world to make a list of 10 finalists from the entries.

All will now compete to win the overall Student Focus title and €35,000 worth of Sony digital imaging equipment for their university.

Each student will have their images exhibited at Somerset House, London as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition from 26 April – 12 May.  The photographs will also be published in the 2013 edition of the annual Sony World Photography Awards book.

The finalists also receive a Sony α65  camera on which will shoot a series of images exploring what the word ‘family’ means to them; the judges will select an overall winner from these images.  All students and their professors will be flown to London by WPO to find out which school has won the 2013 Student Focus title and €35,000 worth of Sony digital imaging equipment, when it is revealed at the glamorous Sony World Photography Awards Gala Ceremony on 25 April.

Remember some of the names(each photo includes a caption of the photography behind the image), we may well be hearing about them in the future!