DENNIS HYLANDER COMMENTS ON PHOTOWEEK!

• Dennis Hylander Comments on PhotoWeek! –
Dennis Hylander, one of the best known names in UK wedding photography (he used to be famous!), has commented on last week's PhotoWeek! story on Helmut Newton:

"In the very early 60s Helmut and I had our studios in the same office building known as Block Arcade in Melbourne's city centre. As a busy portrait photographer I never have enjoyed a shoot with the model! For me the kick was to achieve the result working with the female client who was ready to give me her all!"

Most PhotoWeek! readers are the kind of professionals best described as those who make their living by selling prints. Photographing experienced models is a rare luxury! Taking a good studio portrait of Jo Public is much harder! [expand story >>>]

Over four decades, Dennis Hylander has made an extraordinary contribution to UK wedding photography, and many of our wedding photography awards are named after him. His autobiography, "I used to be Famous" was published in March.

Related Stories:
photoweek/2008/06/helmut-newton-at-topshop
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NIKON D700 OUT NOW!

•  Nikon D700 Out Now! – Nikon's vigorously rumoured new DSLR, the D700, was officially launched on July 1. We haven't handled one, we haven't even seen one for real, we don't have any first hand knowledge of it, but in true PhotoWeek! spirit, here's our expert assessment anyway!

If you loved and coveted the ground-breaking available-light performance of the D3 (and you did), but the D200/D300 was more your bag (or your purse!), then D700 might be for you. It's pretty much a D300 fitted with the big full-frame sensor from the D3, and a large bright finder. It gives you the high-ISO, low-noise performance of the D3 in the smaller, lighter, (cheaper!) D300 shell. By the time you read this, printed magazines will be full of it, after which PhotoWeek! won't mention it again. [expand story >>>]

The pro world wouldn't really class this body as a full-on professional camera. But the D700 will certainly produce professional quality images, which, coupled with build quality (and this body does have build quality) must be one of the main criteria for choosing a camera for professional use. We haven't seen this kind of wide dynamic range, high resolution, high ISO and low noise in a mid-range Nikon SLR since... erm, to be honest, since the days of film. Worthy budget photographers could probably shoot weddings quite acceptably on a D700 now – and leave their film camera at home.
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ECONOMIC CLIMATE THREATENS WEDDINGS?

• ECONOMIC CLIMATE THREATENS WEDDINGS? – Easter means we're just seven weeks from Whitsun, traditional start of the wedding season (highest wedding numbers trace a curve from May to September, with a peak in June). This year's weddings are already booked, but what's going to happen next year? Will engaged couples find it easy to spend? [expand story >>>]

Couples and their parents generally need to draw on savings, and to borrow, to finance weddings and honeymoons. And couples need mortgages and help from Mum and Dad to move into new homes. Mum and Dad often provide this by releasing some of the equity in their own homes. What we're seeing at the moment, though, is that loans and mortgages are becoming very much harder to get. Savings tend to get left where they are too, when there's a lack of assurance about the future.

In recent weeks we've seen lenders surprise borrowers by calling-in their loans and credit cards, and we've seen mortgage deals pulled before completion.

The market for wedding photography, always pressured by the steady decline in weddings, now looks to get just another bit colder and more bearish. Perhaps studios who didn't fill their books this year should think now about diversifying in time for next? [add comment]

KODAK MPA WEDDING & PORTRAIT AWARDS 2008!

• Kodak MPA Wedding & Portrait Awards 2008! – It's come around again! The 2008 MPA Kodak Wedding & Portrait Awards is now open for entries! Entry fees are just a pound a pop, you can submit as many entries as you like, and all the money goes to the PACE Centre, a charity for physically disabled children, based in Aylesbury, Bucks. [expand story >>>]

The competition is open to any professional photographer (not just MPA members) but the materials used need to be from Kodak. Closing dates for entries are May 31 and August 30, 2008.



The Pace Centre (shown in their YouTube video above) helps children with motor disorders (such as cerebral palsy). PACE provides education and therapy for children from 6 months to 12 years and beyond. [add comment]

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS SURRENDER TO POLICE

• Wedding Photographers Surrender to Police! – Two wedding photographers surrendered to Police last month after they were detected allegedly making purchases on a credit card stolen from a bat-mitzvah they had photographed. The husband and wife team, Steve and Susan Raab, surrendered in Philidelphia, USA, and were released on bail within hours. [expand story >>>]

Mr. Raab has been charged with credit card fraud, and his wife has been charged as co-conspirator. 6abc Action News has the story on video.[add comment]