Keith Trainor SWPP Masterclass

LONDON - Leading UK event photographer Keith Trainor will deliver a lecture and masterclass entitled "Event Photography USA" on January 18, 2008 at the Novotel London West Hotel. Keith is giving the lecture as part of the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers' annual convention. The lecture will be sponsored by photographic supplier www.photomart.co.uk in association with the US photographers' workflow software company, ExpressDigital (the makers of DARKROOM). Keith's lecture and masterclass will be delivered in the 200-seater Bourgogne theatre of the Novotel London West hotel, from 3:00pm till 5:00pm on Friday, January 18, 2008. "Event Photography USA - Do We Match Up?" will include Keith's report on SEPCON 2008. SEPCON is the Sport and Event Photographers convention being held at IMAGING USA in Tampa, Florida in the New Year. Keith says, "With lots for me to see there, I know I'll be bursting at the seams with new information. I hope my audience will find it interesting and thought provoking." Places at this excellent London lecture may be booked for just £60 by calling the SWPP on 01745 356 935. Admission to the SWPP Convention is free to those who pre-book, or £5 on the door. (Keith has also been invited to deliver a different lecture at SEPCON itself: "Event Photography on White - A New International Trend". This will cover Keith's technique of shooting event portraits against a drop-out white background. If you're at SEPCON, be sure to catch it!)

Nativity Play Photos!

Nativity Play Photos could be the latest innovative offering from pioneering photography studios and photo labs. Nativity Play Photos are essentially portrait packages marketed at this time of year to parents of children taking part in nativity plays. These professional portraits show the child in their nativity costume. Photographers and photo labs who successfully introduce and promote this product should experience repeat business from families year after year. Offerings like this are about creating "occasions", and take a leaf out of the book of the gift and card trade. By promoting new "occasions", such as "Back to School" and "Nativity Play", independent photographers and labs can differentiate themselves from the competition, establish profitable new "traditions", build lasting relationships with families, and stimulate demand at otherwise quiet times in the calendar. Why not take some nativity shots in your studio now, and put large format promotional prints of them up in your window? Go ahead, steal a march on the portrait chains!

Oscar Gómez leaving PhotoWeek!

PhotoWeek's Production Editor, Oscar Gómez, is to depart the publication at the end of this year. This current PhotoWeek is to be his last issue. He is returning to Spain to pursue a career in rock music. Oscar was the first Production Editor at PhotoWeek, and introduced a number of stylistic improvements and new features, including the original illustrations that now accompany many of the news shorts. During Oscar's tenure in the post, the subscription base of PhotoWeek swelled to more than 6,000 readers - about 50% more than most photographic industry trade publications in the UK. Oscar will be missed from the office. All here wish him every success for the future.

Keith Trainor UK Lecture!

The UK's leading speaker on Event Photography, Keith Trainor, is to deliver a lecture entitled "Event Photography USA" at the 2008 SWPP Convention in London. Keith's lecture will be delivered in the Bourgogne theatre at the Novotel London West Hotel on Friday, January 18, 2008 from 3:00pm till 5:00pm. "Event Photography USA - Do We Match Up?" will essentially be Keith's report on SEPCON 2008 (Tampa FL) USA. Keith says, "With lots for me to see there, I know I'll be bursting at the seams with new information that the audience will find interesting and thought provoking." The lecture is sponsored by www.photomart.co.uk in association with ExpressDigital and the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers.

Keith Trainor USA Lecture!

The pioneering white background style of leading UK event photographer Keith Trainor's is really taking off in the USA - so much so that he has been invited to deliver a lecture on it at SEPCON, the sport and event photography conference, at IMAGING-USA in Tampa, Florida on January 8, 2008. Keith's lecture will be entitled "Event Photography on White – A New International Trend" Keith's lecture is being hosted by the US Society of Sport & Event Photographers (SEP) and it is sponsored by the leading brand in event photography software, ExpressDigital (the company behind DARKROOM workflow productivity software).

SEPCON 2008!

SEPCON, the US Society of Sport & Event Photographers annual conference, will be held in Tampa Florida from January 5-9, 2007, as part of the wider IMAGING USA convention.

Free DyeSubs! Magazine!

Free DyeSubs! Magazine! - the new December issue of the FREE! downloadable PDF magazine for dye sub anoraks, DyeSubs!, is available for download now! Click here to get it!

IStockPhoto Raises Prices!

The Getty owned microstock agency IStockPhoto is to raise its prices again next year. The move has generally been welcomed. The business models and pricing of microstock photography have proven extremely disruptive in the stock photography market generally, and have still not settled down.

Online Photo Greetings!

ExpressDigital have added a Photo Greetings feature to their PhotoReflect.com online storefronts. Once photographers using PhotoReflect.com storefronts sign up for the program, greeting cards are automatically offered as a product to customers visiting the photographer's Internet storefront.
There are 28,000 photographers using PhotoReflect.com online storefronts. It is free to sign up, and photographers manage their own storefronts. After shoots, they post the photos for sale, and PhotoReflect.com takes care of the hosting, website development and credit-card processing. Photographers can choose to fulfil their own orders or select from over 200 labs connected to the ExpressDigital Labtricity network.
PhotoReflect.com will roll out a presence in the UK in 2008, and the ExpressDigital Labtricity network, which is already operating pilot labs here, will go live on the public network then too.

Learn to shoot a sprout!

Tesco commissions a great deal of commercial photography, but it's worth remembering that this photography is specified by the chain's agencies. The supermarket giant's new look fruit and citrus packaging, rolled out this winter, has had inspirational photography specified as one of its design features by creative agency, Arbor.
The agency behind the packaging redesign, Arbor London, said Tesco wanted to make its packaging more interesting, as well as to convey the idea of fruit as natural products from particular locations.
Arbor was also the agency behind the Learn to Love a Sprout campaign.

Corbis Correction!

PhotoWeek erroneously reported recently that Corbis would be closing all offices except London and New York. While it is true that London and New York will remain open, so will fourteen other offices world wide. Only eight are closing. We apologize to our readers for this factual error.

ExpressDigital DARKROOM Templates!

ExpressDigital has announced an expansion to their Darkroom product line called ExpressDigital Templates. ExpressDigital Templates are border kits created for professional photographers to use with DARKROOM.
ExpressDigital partnered with Synchroplex Imaging Systems to offer these high quality sport template kits. 18 kits are available for sale, covering many different sports. The founder and CEO of ExpressDigital, Graham McFarland, says "We have always recognized borders as a great way to help photographers increase their sales by adding additional value to traditional photos."

Doubt Over Photo-Me Handover?

Photo-Me is insisting its replacement Chief Executive will actually take up the post as planned, despite admitting that he has so far not signed the contract.
The troubled photo booth company described Chief Executive designate Thierry Barel as having "taken up the position" and promised he would sign the contract on his return from a business trip.

Digital Photo Frame Prices To Drop!

Digital photo frame prices from the manufacturers, which some analysts predict must rise due to excess reseller demand pre-Christmas, may fall in the following months.
The fall is predicted because of the increasing number of portable media manufacturers piling into digital photo frames in the Far East. 65% of these manufacturers say competition will push prices down.

NOTICE: PhotoWeek Xmas Holiday!

Due to the holiday season, PhotoWeek will not publish an issue on December 24 or December 31.
Our next issue after the holiday will come out on January 7, 2008.

Genius of Photography on YouTube!

A poster called EvilBakura has started posting BBC's new Genius of Photography series on YouTube in ten-minute chunks.
We'd guess the postings probably breach intellectual property laws, and we'd hate it if our own work was filched in the same way, but its nice to be able to catch bits we missed.

Eye-Fi WiFi SD Card!

www.photomart.co.uk is testing a number of units of the Eye-Fi WiFi wireless 2GB SD card, imported from the US. The Eye-Fi card is a 2GB SD camera memory card that automatically transmits the images taken on the camera to your computer and photo sharing sites.
Eye-Fi works with almost any camera. www.photomart.co.uk's testers say it is a doddle to set up, and to use the card you just put it in your camera.

MITSUBISHI 8" ROLL FED

www.photomart.co.uk are offering a special promotion on new units of the Mitsubishi 8" Roll Fed ordered from now. Till the fifth of January 2008 we're including a first box of two rolls of CK3810 10"x8" media with each machine ordered.
Units of Mitsubishi's revolutionary new 8" Roll Fed printer have actually arrived in the UK now and are shipping to customers. The printer doesn't currently have an official Mitsubishi designation (although it's expected it may be christened the CP3800 next year), and the authorized units in the UK are unbadged, but it comes with a full Mitsubishi warranty. www.photomart.co.uk is despatching units to early adopters now.
The Mitsubishi 8" Roll Fed comes with XP drivers for use in a standalone configuration. If you need Vista drivers, you'll have to wait a while. And although new models of Mitsubishi kiosks will ship with drivers for the 8" machine pre-installed, we're still several weeks away from seeing driver upgrades available for existing kiosks.