In celebration of iStockphoto’s 10th year in business The Guardian is launching a new photography competition, celebrating Britain in 2010. There are four categories, each offering a £500 prize – plus a grand prize of £1,500 for the best overall image. What are you waiting for? It’s time to get snapping …

Enter the Britain iS competition here

Please all sign this petition against proposed UK government plans to amend copyright protection for photographers. This could enable anyone to use your images without paying you a penny if there is no IPTC metadata embedded in the file. You can read more about the issue in these articles from the British Journal of Photographers:

UK Government to tackle Orphan Works

Government unveils plans to reshape UK’s copyright law

Here is the petition to sign:

Petition to: Abandon plans to amend copyright protection for photographers.

If you want to create lighting diagrams for your own reference or to show others how you did a shot, check out lightingdiagrams.com

Alexey & Julia Ivanov of Studioxil.com have produced a series of excellent guides on how to achieve their look, both in terms of lighting and makeup.

There’s something for everyone, no matter if you’re new to studio lighting or an expert… Jump in and enjoy !

http://www.studioxil.com

Awesome to see Canon announce this firmware upgrade coming on June 2nd.

It will allow the following manual controls when shooting HD video:

• Full aperture selection
• ISO speed: Auto, 100 – 6400 and H1
• Shutter speed: 1/30th – 1/4000th second

The one thing in the original firmware that was inhibiting really creative video’s was the automatic exposure. Read more about it on DPReview:

Canon announces update for EOS 5D Mark II: Digital Photography Review.

Hopefully this won’t impeed the efforts to create the ‘5D Free firmware‘ or maybe this is a sign that Canon will release offical versions that mean it’s not needed ? Time wil tell.

New iPhone App from onOne software is coming soon… It’s exciting to see a company thinking outside the box yet again with the iPhone.  Coming to the iPhone appstore soon is a DSLR remote (Canon only at first) that will let you adjust settings, see liveview, and take shots remotely. Your camera needs to be hooked up to a laptop and your iPhone on the same wifi connection for this to work.

I can see a load of instances this would be of great use to stock shooters. There will be an introductory price of $9.99 on appstore release.

Read more about it here.

Video of it in us here.

Pre-release FAQ’s here.

It’s been over four years since we published version one of the UK photographers rights guide.  We’re now very happy to be able to publish version 2 of the guide.

This is intended to provide a short UK guide to the main legal restrictions on the right to take photographs and the right to publish photographs that have been taken.

The guide was written by Linda Macpherson LL.B, Dip. L.P., LL.M  is a freelance legal consultant specialising in Media Law and Intellectual Property Law. She is also a part-time law lecturer and has presented seminars on law for photographers.

The guide is a 2 page PDF, it will print out front and back of an A4 page allowing you to make leaflets to hand out. The guide is intended as an overview of the current legal situation in the UK for photographers, it is not a definitive bible of UK law.

Please do not deep link (direct link) to the PDF or rehost the guide on your website.

If you find the guide useful please link to either www.sirimo.co.uk/ukpr or http://www.sirimo.co.uk/2009/05/14/uk-photographers-rights-v2 or leave us a comment. (Comments from the old V1 guide have been kept as there is a lot of great discussion in there).

By downloading this guide you accept the fact that neither Linda Macpherson or myself accept any responsibility at all for any omissions or errors whatsoever. There is a full disclaimer in the guide, this is just a before you download it warning ! Also Neither Linda Macpherson or myself accept any responsibility for any replies given to comments left. If you require full legal advice please consult a lawyer.

FREE Download – UK Photographers Rights v2 (right click and save as)

This guide was created for Acrobat 5 and above. If you have a problem opening the PDF, please update your copy of Acrobat Reader (it’s free to do so).

USA photographers rights guide www.krages.com/phoright.htm
Australian photographers rights http://www.4020.net/unposed/photorights.shtml

Over the next year we hope to gather thousands of self-portraits of photographers-professional and amateur—from around the world, each holding up a white card with the words, ‘Not a crime’ or ‘I am not a terrorist’. www.not-a-crime.com

A Labour MP (Mitchell, Austin) has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons condemning police action against lawful photography in public places.

His EDM reads as such:

That this House is concerned to encourage the spread and enjoyment of photography as the most genuine and accessible people’s art; deplores the apparent increase in the number of reported incidents in which the police, police community support officers (PCSOs) or wardens attempt to stop street photography and order the deletion of photographs or the confiscation of cards, cameras or film on various specious ground such as claims that some public buildings are strategic or sensitive, that children and adults can only be photographed with their written permission, that photographs of police and PCSOs are illegal, or that photographs may be used by terrorists; points out that photography in public places and streets is not only enjoyable but perfectly legal; regrets all such efforts to stop, discourage or inhibit amateur photographers taking pictures in public places, many of which are in any case festooned with closed circuit television cameras; and urges the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers to agree on a photography code for the information of officers on the ground, setting out the public’s right to photograph public places thus allowing photographers to enjoy their hobby without officious interference or unjustified suspicion.

Every UK photographer should write to/email their MPs asking them to support the EDM. People with websites and blogs should also link to it there.

Here’s the full story at Amateur Photographer…

Find your MP with just your postcode and email them at this link.

Apologies if you’ve tried to get on the site and couldn’t. A non-specific ‘mySQL error’ caused the downtime, I’m back online now. I’m also going to catch up on posting some images !

A beautiful woman sitting on an old chair in front of a large fireplace.

Click any image to purchase and license it as a high resolution royalty free stock photograph.

Beautiful woman on chair : Click here to license as a royalty free stock photograph, or order a fine art print

Woman on chair

Woman on chair : Click here to license as a royalty free stock photograph, or order a fine art print

A beautiful woman sitting on an old chair in front of a large fireplace.

Staring into camera

Staring into camera : Click here to license as a royalty free stock photograph, or order a fine art print

A beautiful woman stares into the camera, her hands framing her face.