In pictures: 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

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The winners of the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards have been announced, with Edgar Martins named as Photographer of the Year for his series, Our War.

Image source, Edgar Martins

The project is an homage to Martins’ friend, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was shot and killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.

Martins chose to reflect on the question: how does one tell a story when there is no witness, no testimony, no evidence, no subject?

Image source, Edgar Martins

Image source, Edgar Martins

“It is a huge honour to be recognised – and although I am philosophical about awards and the subjective nature of someone’s choice, knowing that there were over 180,000 entries to this year’s Professional competition is very humbling,” says Martins.

“In this case, it is also quite an emotional experience because I get to honour my friend on a world stage and bring attention to the family’s plight to find his remains.”

Martins’ work triumphed in the Portraiture category of the Professional competition.

Here are the other category winners, alongside comments from the photographers.

Architecture & Design

“Tieshan cement factory is located in Guilin City in Guangxi, south China.

“The factory was built in 1996 and played an important role in Guilin’s economic development and urban construction.

“However, because it was originally located in the Li River scenic area, the cement factory has now been relocated, leaving behind the old buildings, water towers, pools and railway tracks.”

Creative

The Right to Play by Lee-Ann Olwage

Image source, Lee-Ann Olwage

“The Right to Play creates a playful world where girls are shown in an empowered and affirming way.

“For this project, I worked with girls from Kakenya’s Dream in Enoosaen, Kenya, who have avoided FGM [Female genital mutilation] and child marriage – showing what the world can look like when girls are given the opportunity to continue learning in an environment that supports them and their dreams.”

Documentary projects

The Women’s Peace Movement in Congo by Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

Image source, Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

“Nearly 20 years on from a conflict that killed five million people and upended tenfold more lives, the Democratic Republic of Congo is once again sliding into chaos.

“Pairing rare visuals of the front lines with portraits and in-depth stories from women, this long-term project follows activists as they mobilise.

“While media crews come in briefly to shoot scenes of war and displacement, I have spent many months in hard-to-access areas, covering conflict and documenting the slow work of peace from a unique perspective.”

Environment

Miruku by Marisol Mendez & Federico Kaplan

Image source, Marisol Mendez / Federico Kaplan

“Miruku focuses on the Wayuus, an indigenous community from La Guajira, Colombia’s coastal desert.

“Commissioned by 1854/British Journal of Photography and WaterAid, the project examines how a combination of climate change issues and human negligence have led its various members to experience a stifling water shortage.

“We framed the story from a female perspective to get a better understanding of how gender inequality and climate vulnerability interrelate.”

Landscape

Event Horizon by Kacper Kowalski

Image source, Kacper Kowalski

“At the start of winter, I set out on a journey in search of harmony.

“When I could, I flew over frozen bodies of water, fascinated by their icy forms.

“Between January and March I made 76 solo flights in a gyrocopter or a motorised paraglider, covering approximately 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles), spending 200 hours in the air.

“My photographs were taken above bodies of water near Tricity in northern Poland.”

Portfolio

Image source, James Deavin

Image source, James Deavin

“This portfolio was shot in the first half of 2022 in Saudi Arabia, where I was based at the time.

“Given more time, I think these pictures would have fallen into more defined projects or narratives, perhaps relating to the large migrant worker and expat population (of which I was part), or Saudi car culture.

“As it is, I believe this collection shows my style and technique as a photographer – there is no deliberate connection between the images, other than I was searching for special photographs that could eventually develop into projects.”

Still Life

The Sky Garden by Kechun Zhang

Image source, Kechun Zhang

“Three years ago I settled down in Wenjiang and there is a tree nursery within walking distance of my home.

“Exotic trees and rocks from all over the world can be seen there, including Japanese black pines and maple trees.

“There are workers lifting these trees and rocks with mobile cranes every day, transporting them and planting them in newly-built parks, neighbourhoods or streets in the city.

“I walk through the woods and take photographs when the trees and rocks are being lifted into the air. Together, these images create the Sky Garden series.”

Sport

Female Pro Baseball Player Succeeds in All Male Pro League by Al Bello

“Kelsie Whitmore is the first female professional baseball player to play in an all-male pro league.

“She plays outfield and pitches for the Staten Island Ferryhawks in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

“Her debut in the Atlantic League was as a pinch runner and she became the first woman to start an Atlantic League game, when she played as a left fielder.

“Later, she was the first woman to pitch in an Atlantic League game – and on 3 September 2022, Kelsie became the first woman to record a hit in association with major league baseball.”

Wildlife & Nature

Cities Gone Wild by Corey Arnold

Image source, Corey Arnold

“Cities Gone Wild is an exploration of three savvy animals – black bears, coyotes and raccoons – that survive, and even thrive, in the human-built landscape while other animals are disappearing.

“I tracked these animals in cities across America to reveal a more intimate view of how wildlife is adapting to increased urbanisation.”

The Open competition celebrates the power of single images.

Dinorah Graue Obscura has been named Open Photographer of the Year 2023 for her photograph titled Mighty Pair, entered in the Natural World & Wildlife category.

The image shows two crested caracara birds, on a tree branch in southern Texas, USA.

Image source, Dinorah Graue Obscura

Long Jing, of Yunnan Arts University, has been awarded Student Photographer of the Year 2023 for his series titled Keep the Yunnan Opera.

Jing went behind the scenes to show the dwindling groups of performers and spectators at performances in southwest China.

Hai Wang, also from China, won Youth Photographer of the Year 2023 for an image on the theme, Your Everyday.

The photograph depicts rows of brightly-coloured, empty chairs set up for a school ceremony which was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic.

Alessandro Cinque is announced as the first-time winner of the Sustainability Prize.

This brand new prize, developed in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures’ Picture This initiative, recognises the stories, people and organisations whose actions highlight one of the United Nations’ environmental Sustainable Development Goals.

Image source, Alessandro Cinque

Cinque won for his series Atrapanieblas (Fog Nets), which documents an innovative solution helping to tackle chronic water shortages in Lima, Peru.

An exhibition of the winners and shortlisted images takes place at Somerset House, London from 14 April to 1 May 2023.

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Time To Plant Catnip: San Leandro Photo Of The Day

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SAN LEANDRO, CA — It’s important for gardeners to plant something for the entire family. Buddy is pleased that Miyo Burnett is planting catnip for him. He seems to be sampling the plant before it is even in the ground.

Thank you for sharing your photo, Miyo!

If you have an awesome photo of nature, breath-taking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny, or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution images that reflect the beauty and fun that is Northern California, and that show off your unique talents.

Email it to [email protected].

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San Antonio-based Nature Sweet sues rival alleging copy cat packaging

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This photo shows NatureSweet Cherub Tomatoes next to Sunset's "Angel Sweet" tomatoes.


© Provided by mySA

This photo shows NatureSweet Cherub Tomatoes next to Sunset’s “Angel Sweet” tomatoes.



By now you are probably familiar with the yellow and clear bubble container of NatureSweet’s tiny tomatoes, but a new lawsuit filed by the local company says another business is a little too familiar with the packaging. San Antonio-based Nature Sweet is suing Ontario-based produce company Mastronardi Produce LTD and its U.S. arm Mastronardi Produce-USA Inc. over its Sunset brand cherub tomato containers, according to a news release.

NatureSweet claims in the lawsuit that Mastronardi’s containers for its cherub tomatoes “unlawfully mimics” NatureSweet’s trademarked clear container with a yellow lid. A photo of the two products side-by-side on a produce shelf show Sunset’s packaging for its “Angel Sweet” tomatoes also uses a clear plastic container with a yellow lid. 

NatureSweet says in the complaint filed Wednesday, April 12, that Sunset only recently made the change to its packaging, which was a clear container with a thin, plastic green peel-away seal. 

“In 2021, instead of using its current design or packaging referenced on its website, defendant sought instead to mimic NatureSweet’s packaging in an effort to increase its sales via consumer confusion,” the complaint reads. 

NatureSweet filed a similar lawsuit in August 2021, and Mastronardi removed the similar packaging from store shelves. However, Sunset has released similar packaging “for a third time.” 

NatureSweet seeks any profits Mastronardi made from the packaging, removal of the packaging from store shelves, and an order permanently barring the company from using similar containers and advertising in the future. Mastronardi hasn’t responded to the lawsuit. 

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Only One Photo Away | Opinion

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I live a 428.7-mile drive away from my mother. As she prepares breakfast for one in my childhood home, I lie asleep, enveloped in the sounds and stenches of my first-year dorm. While she fixes her hair for a big meeting, I have a heated debate on Annenberg Hall’s top five beverages. While she settles down with her favorite show before bed, I try to calculate how many times my Solo cup has been filled in the past hour.

Clearly, my mom and I lead very different lives. But despite the distance, we’ve found a way to stay connected beyond phone calls or text messages: through images in our shared camera roll.

A few months before moving to Cambridge, realizing that I’d never have enough storage capacity on my phone to keep up with the thousands of images I’d presumably be taking at college, I decided to give in to a nebulous, all-knowing space: the cloud. As a result of that decision, every image I take can be accessed from my mother’s device, and vice versa.

This strategy has its pitfalls. By nature, a photo album presents an opportunity to create meaningful bonds between photographer and viewer. A touching objective, sure — but there are parts of the college experience one just doesn’t want their parent to see. Thus, I created a hidden album, which she has yet to find. The rest of my life, however, is fair game.

Predictably, sharing these intimacies, abstractions, and minutiae with my mom has stimulated a dialogue unlike any other. I’ve been forced to field a variety of interesting questions, like why my posture looks so bad in pictures, what the name of that person in my photo album who looks like Mark Zuckerberg is, and why there aren’t any pictures of me studying.

But regardless of these small annoyances, our shared space is still a wonderful thing. It represents a step towards the transparency that can be fostered between parents and children, despite the jolt of fear that this vulnerability often elicits for people my age.

Such an anxiety is all too familiar to me: As a child of a single-parent immigrant household, I craved my mom’s praise. I kept my head down, did well in school, and made nice friends, trying my best not to cause her any problems. I concealed from her facets of the real me. I’ve found that since entering college, the shared album has started to break down this barrier.

Beyond acting as a device for introspection, the photo album also helps to ease the burden of our physical separation. As I imagine may be the case for many of my peers as well, attending college away from home has created some strain on my relationships. Communicating long-distance is hard, and sometimes I can’t muster up the energy to give a play-by-play of my week over the phone.

But when I struggle to find the right words, my photo album can fill in the gaps. My camera roll tells the little stories of my life: the happy moments, like the day I got free Zinneken’s, to the less pleasant ones, like the time I realized that the strange smell in the dorm was coming from a molding slice of what I imagine was once pizza that my roommate had left in the fridge six months prior. When I can’t find the words to describe how I feel after a bad night out or convey the feeling of my pounding headache, the album has me covered.

Ultimately, the album acts as a sort of interactive diary. Nothing compares to the simultaneous feelings of joy and surprise that come with discovering a picture of my mom’s new Swiffer, or stumbling on a sneaky shot of my middle school gym teacher walking her dog.

Before consciously internalizing the idea that my photos exist in a common space, I never realized how much of my life I chose to capture through images. This semester, I have begun to reflect on what kind of narrative I’m creating through photography — how true a picture (no pun intended) I’m painting of my time on campus. In one fell swoop, a collection of my favorite people, best meals, and most questionable outfits can be accessed, my album an amalgamation of all of my highs and lows.

But despite the wide array of pictures that it carries, not every important moment makes it into my shared album. The story of my semester extends beyond my Tatte order to the more visceral moments of college existence: late-night heart-to-hearts, sweaty dance parties in the middle of the common room, and the butterflies I get before taking an exam. In that spirit, I’ve recently started trying to distill the collection: I print out my most impactful photos to let myself reflect on what I believe is truly worth sharing.

If you struggle to pick up the phone to call your loved ones during a hectic week, I recommend trying out a shared album or two. It’ll give you the convenience of streamlining your life updates — but more importantly, it’ll let you share a piece of yourself with those who care.

Julia S. Dan ’26, a Crimson Editorial comper, lives in Straus Hall.

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March Showers Bring April Flowers: Walnut Creek Photo Of The Day

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WALNUT CREEK, CA — Patch reader Judy Mathieson sent in this lovely photo of a spring flower in Walnut Creek.

We looked up this pretty purple flower and it is called Cerinthe major Purpurascens, also known as Honeywort.

Thank you so much for sharing, Judy!

It’s Your Shot: Pictures You Take and We Share

Have you got the next incredible photo? If you have an awesome photo of nature, breathtaking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny or something unusual you happen to catch, we’d love to feature it on Patch. We’re looking for high-resolution images that reflect the beauty that is the East Bay, and that show off your unique talents.

So, bring ’em on. No selfies. Not here.

Send your photos to [email protected]. In your email, please be sure to include information about when and where the shot was taken and any other details about what was going on.

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Just who is an undercover officer?

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Los Angeles police officers stand outside their department as crowds block Main and First Streets in downtown Los Angeles. ((Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times))


© (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles police officers stand outside their department as crowds block Main and First Streets in downtown Los Angeles. ((Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times))

As fallout continues around the Los Angeles Police Department’s release of undercover officers’ pictures, the question of who actually works undercover is far from settled.

Should it only be officers involved in the most sensitive assignments — embedded with drug cartels, terrorists and other criminal networks — who grow beards, dye hair, shed their identities?

Or should it also include those who only go undercover part time, busting johns who solicit sex or bartenders who sell alcohol to minors? And what about officers with fake online profiles?

The fraught and complicated issue of covert police activity has been made more so, as Los Angeles Police Department and police union officials try to claw back the images released in response to a March public records request. They argue that the danger such public photos present to officers who have assumed aliases to infiltrate the underworld overrides calls for transparency.

But some critics dismiss the LAPD’s claims as overblown and accuse the department of drumming up hysteria in the media as cover for its efforts to expand the definition of which officers’ identities should be kept from the public.

The photos’ release has raised fresh questions about just how much oversight there is of these undercover operations, given the LAPD’s “horrific history of spying” on and keeping lengthy dossiers on politicians, activists and others, said longtime civil rights attorney Carol Sobel.

“They had a Red Squad that infiltrated activist groups; the LAPD targeted the likes of Cesar Chavez [and former Mayor] Tom Bradley,” said Sobel. “To maintain their cover, undercover officers were known to have had sex with activists.”

The city released the images last fall in response to a public records request and related litigation by Knock LA journalist Ben Camacho. Camacho subsequently provided the images — complete with officers’ names, ethnicity, rank, date of hire, division/bureau and serial numbers — to the activist group Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which published them online in mid-March.

Camacho has posted communications with city officials prior to the photos’ release in which they said the disclosure did not include any undercover officers. But after the photos were published last month, LAPD Chief Michel Moore and other officials began to suggest in news interviews that the photos of some undercover officers were accidentally released and posed a safety risk.

The disclosure has spawned several legal challenges, the most recent of which came last week when city officials filed a lawsuit against Camacho and Stop LAPD Spying over the photos’ publication. The city’s suit was roundly condemned by 1st Amendment and media rights experts who said it smacks of restrictions on free speech — particularly since the city itself provided the images.

Amid the unfolding controversy, LAPD officials have avoided the term “undercover.” Moore has repeatedly used the phrase “sensitive assignment” — a term that could encompass a broad variety of officers.

In a departmentwide email last week, Moore said he ordered an audit of officers in more sensitive roles whose personal information wouldn’t be released in the future. Certain roles, he wrote, “require this added level of anonymity to preserve officers’ safety and to ensure that investigations are not compromised if the identity of the employee as a police officer is revealed.”

“As employees of this Department and dedicated guardians of the City of Los Angeles, you deserve to feel protected and supported by your employer. I recognize that many of you feel that the Department did not meet this expectation. Apologies only go so far, and words must be followed by action,” Moore wrote.

He included a list of units and divisions whose officers’ photos would automatically be excluded from future public disclosures. Among them are: divisional narcotics enforcement details; vice units; gang enforcement details; the Gang and Narcotics Division; Major Crimes Division; Robbery-Homicide Division; Special Investigation Section; Special Operations Division; Crime Impact Team; Internet Crimes Against Children; all division or bureau-based surveillance teams; and officers who regularly serve on task forces.

Such exemptions could include officers working undercover only part time, Moore wrote.

Others who would be excluded from future public disclosures are officers who do online surveillance, work plainclothes details, conduct long-term investigations of violent offenders or networks, investigations that are of “such extraordinary or unusual nature that it creates an unprecedented level of threat to your safety.”

Also excluded, Moore wrote, are “any positions which require regular, repeated, or extended contact or exposure to violent criminal offenders, outside of the standard duties required of patrol officers” and “any position which would expose you to criminal offenders who have extensive financial and technological resources which could be used in retaliatory action against you or your family.”

A review of a recent LAPD roster shows there are at least 307 officers combined in the Gang and Narcotics, Robbery-Homicide, Major Crimes and Special Operations divisions alone. It was not immediately clear how many more are assigned to the other “sensitive” units mentioned in Moore’s email.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission, William Briggs, commission president, said he remained concerned about the disclosure and asked Moore what was being done to ensure officers’ safety. He asked the department to look into whether “we can simply prohibit the release of certain identity information such as photographs because of the danger that it places department personnel in.”

After the meeting, Moore said in a news briefing that “to date, the vast majority of our operations, undercover operations included, have not been impacted by this.”

But, he added, “we know that the potentiality is there.”

Some longtime police observers said officials with the LAPD and Los Angeles Police Protective League have at times offered different definitions of what it means to be undercover officer.

“It’s anybody’s guess,” said Hamid Khan, of Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a group that wants to abolish the Police Department and first published the photos on a website called, Watch the Watchers.

If anything, the department was using the controversy to be less transparent, Khan said, adding that this is particularly troubling given its history of surveillance of communities of color. Stop LAPD Spying tweeted Tuesday that the city appeared to be quietly deleting LAPD personnel rosters from its public data portal.

Khan said he doubted the city’s claims that officers’ lives were in danger because their photos were public. The site is only publishing information about officers that a judge ruled the public is entitled to — and not private data such as officers’ addresses, he said.

“Giving them the ability to retroactively redefine [undercover] is really dangerous,” said attorney Shakeer Rahman of the city’s lawsuit, which he called a clear attempt by officials to “intimidate community groups that are critical of LAPD.”

“One elected city attorney defines undercover in one way, and another comes in and says actually we’re going to define it much more narrowly,” said Rahman, who has represented both Camacho and Stop LAPD Spying in past legal actions against the city. “If they’re allowed to do that, that could really be ripe for abuse.”

Within the LAPD, officers who work in an undercover capacity generally fall into one of two tiers. Only about 50 or so officers are truly considered “off the books,” working on deep cover operations with outlaw biker gangs, terrorist groups or drug cartels. Their names are kept out of the department records and are known to only a handful of superiors. Most have changed their physical appearance and assumed fictitious identities, all the way down to a new driver’s license. Some are based outside the state.

Dozens, if not hundreds, more officers work in varying degrees of anonymity on a part-time basis, from doing low-level drug buys to running surveillance on chronic violent offenders. The department also maintains a secretive cadre of investigators, known as the Special Operations Division, which keeps an eye on other cops suspected of misconduct.

According to an LAPD training bulletin, undercover officers must submit detailed operational plans, outlining which department personnel and equipment will be involved and relevant information about the location, such as whether security bars or dogs are present.

Undercover officers are instructed to immediately identify themselves “and cooperate with any direction given by the uniformed officers and calmly explain the situation to the officers while continuing to follow instructions and commands.”

“More importantly, personnel assigned to UC [undercover] or surveillance operations should avoid making any sudden movements, which includes reaching for police identification. Such movements could easily be mistaken for a threatening gesture,” the bulletin says.

A former LAPD supervisor, who because of the nature of the work could not be named, said there are at least three dozen officers and detectives who have worked in the most sensitive types of investigation involving counter-terrorism. Such investigators usually work with other agencies with higher levels of security clearance, the supervisor said.

Dan Murphy, a consultant with the Minnesota-based firm 360 Security Services, said that photos spread online could be “potentially very dangerous to the lives and safeties” of undercover officers, who often go to great lengths to build and maintain their covers. To be effective, they have to earn the trust of the people they’re investigating — knowing that any whiff of their true identities could put them at risk.

“Underground criminal networks do a lot of work, they do a lot of background work, they make sure they know who they’re dealing with if they’re making money,” Murphy said. “There are many instances when [undercover officers] find themselves moving up the food chain in an organization, and they need to be covered in ways so that their identities can’t be revealed with a five-minute online search.”

An undercover LAPD veteran who regularly deals with Mexican drug cartels said they now use counter-surveillance. The cartels get photos and video of takedowns by the Police Department and its federal partners and compare the images to booking photos of suspects to identify undercover operatives. The release of officers’ photos makes that effort much easier, he said.

“This is the most serious compromise of undercover operations in decades,” said the investigator and supervisor. “We have had cartels come after specific detectives, but nothing like this that threatens so many of us. … They can put faces to names and compare images to those released.”

Murphy, a retired New York City Police Department detective sergeant who worked “many” undercover operations, said he recognizes that people don’t want to live in a “police state.” But, he thinks the push for “full transparency” around law enforcement ignores the fact that some investigations have to be carried out in secret to succeed.

Most police departments today have safeguards against abuses, having learned from past scandals in which questionable tactics eventually came to light, he said.

“If you make a criminal case, that all comes out in a courtroom,” he said.

Like most big-city departments, the LAPD has long maintained an intelligence-gathering wing.

In the 1980s, before Karen Bass became the L.A. mayor, she was part of a group of activists who — with the American Civil Liberties Union — sued then-Police Chief Daryl Gates and the LAPD for spying on them. In retaliation, Gates released information about Bass’ trips to Cuba and falsely asserted she had gone there to learn guerrilla warfare.

Until the program was shut down in the late 2010s, the department used to send undercover officers into schools to pose as students — a program that was popularized in the “21 Jump Street” TV show and movies.

But officers who conduct surveillance aren’t necessarily all undercover, said Sobel, the civil rights attorney.

“They order officers into uniform for all these large protests,” she said. “When they put officers in uniform at protests, it exposes them as officers.”

In 2019, the department drew fire after it was revealed that the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division sent an informant to secretly record the meetings of Refuse Fascism, an anti-Trump group. Civil rights advocates and other critics at the time blasted the department’s tactics for needlessly infringing on the group’s 1st Amendment rights, since it has rarely been linked to violence.

After that scandal, the LAPD implemented a series of reforms to provide oversight of such operations in the future, including requiring the approval from senior officials such as the president of the Police Commission.

But it’s exactly because of the department’s unchecked surveillance over its history that sites such as Watch the Watchers are needed, said Khan, of Stop LAPD Spying.

“For us, it’s extremely, extremely concerning about how vast this surveillance, spying and infiltration apparatus is,” he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Best photography courses, classes and experience days to try in 2023

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In this modern world, our first response to seeing something new or beautiful is to whip out a phone and take a picture of it. Be it a cute animal, a gushing river or an ancient building, you can guarantee that within seconds, it will be caught up in the endless cloud of selfies and pics. So, does that mean that today, all of us are photographers?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: There’s so much more to learn about the art of photography, from knowing how to work with angles and lighting to understanding the million-and-one settings in your camera. Plus, not everyone has a natural eye for what makes a great photo.

But it’s never too late to learn, which is why we’ve assembled this guide to the best photography experiences to do in the UK.

In this list we’ve put courses, classes and tours where you can better learn the art of the camera, covering a range of subjects including babies, dogs, buildings and mountains.

Whether you want to seriously learn the beginnings of photography, or just fancy dripping about with a camera for a few hours, there’s something here for you to snap up.

Have we captured your attention? Good. Here’s a list of the best photography experiences to try in 2023.

Best photography courses and experiences at a glance

  • Wildlife Photography Experience in Chester Zoo, £150
  • Edinburgh at Night Photography Workshop, £75
  • Two Hour Videography Course in London, £46
  • Astrophotography Online Course, from £29.95
  • London Street Art Photography Tour for Two, £40
  • Discover Smart Phone Photography Course, £49
  • Snowdonia National Park Photography Experience, £140
  • Full Day Photoshop Online Interactive Training, £32
  • Home Projects Eight Part Online Photography Course, £29
  • Action Dog Photography Workshop, £99
  • Online Portrait Photography Course, £49
  • Coastal Photography Weekend Breaks, from £725
  • Private Full Day Canon Lesson in Worcester, £150
  • Online Child and Baby Photography Course, £95
  • Online Flower and Plant Photography Course, £95

Best photography courses and experiences to do in 2023

Wildlife Photography Experience in Chester Zoo

chester zoo

Experience Days

Fulfil your dream to work with animals with this wildlife photography experience at Chester Zoo. Led by a passionate wildlife photographer, you’ll learn all the basics of camera settings and shot composition, and will get up close to orangutans, elephants, tigers and more. But be careful – they might snap back at you!

For more zoo days, check out the best animal experiences to try in 2023.

Buy Wildlife Photography Experience in Chester Zoo for £150 at Experience Days

Edinburgh at Night Photography Workshop

Edinburgh experience

Edinburgh roan-lavery | Unsplash

See the historic Scottish capital like never before with this Edinburgh at night workshop. Through the lens of your camera you’ll capture the twinkling lights, gorgeous views, and nighttime atmosphere of ‘Auld Reekie’. Plus, you’ll receive expert technical advice to help you cope with low and unnatural lighting – this experience is best suited to intermediate photographers.

More like this

Buy Edinburgh at Night Photography Workshop for £75 at Experience Days

Two Hour Videography Course in London

videography course

Virgin Experience Days

Cameras aren’t just about awkward posing and frozen moments anymore. In fact, videography is one of the most valuable skills you can learn if you want to advance in media, so why not try this two-hour course in London?

Perfect for aspiring filmmakers, you’ll start day learning how to handle and use a DSLR camera. Then, when you’re ready, you can plan spill out onto the streets and plan, film and edit your very own movie.

Buy Two Hour Videography Course in London for £46 at Experience Days

Astrophotography Online Course

Astrophotography

Virgin Experience Days

Is there anything more beautiful than the night sky? Although many of us try to capture its magnificence through our phones, the moon and stars are notoriously hard to photograph. Enter this online Astrophotography course. Over 16 lessons, you’ll master the task of photographing the stars while learning lighting and editing skills, plus you’ll receive feedback on your work from an instructor.

Buy Astrophotography Online Course from £29.95 at Virgin Experience Days

London Street Art Photography Tour for Two

London street art

Virgin Experience Days

On this tour, you’ll head into the artsy streets of east London in search of hidden gems, be it small pieces of graffiti or huge murals. While walking through the likes of Shoreditch, Hoxton and Brick Lane, you’ll get to appreciate and memorialise all of the unique art that gives the area its character. At the end of it all, you’ll also receive Banksy’s Street Art Book and a good set of photos.

Buy London Street Art Photography Tour for Two for £40 at Virgin Experience Days

Discover Smart Phone Photography Course

Smartphone course

Virgin Experience Days

Smart phone cameras have come a long way in the last few years, to the point that even professional movies have been filmed on a smart phone. So, to help you better understand this piece of kit we all own, try out this phone photography course.

With the option to take place in person or online, you’ll learn all the settings, modes and features your camera has. Led by an award-winning photographer, you’ll cover topics such as mood lighting, composition and portraiture, as well as going over Still Life and Landscape Photography.

If you want to check out one of the best smartphone cameras to date, take a look at our guide to the Samsung Galaxy S23.

Buy Discover Smart Phone Photography Course for £49 at Virgin Experience Days

Snowdonia National Park Photography Experience

Snowdonia

Virgin Experience Days

If you like to be thrown in at the deep end, you can learn the beginnings of photography while surrounded by one of Britain’s most majestic and photogenic settings: Snowdonia. It will be hard to focus on the techniques of photography when surrounded by the grandeur of this north Wales mountain range, but if you can pay attention, you’ll be able to hone your skills and come home with an incredible set of photos, as well as getting a view of a lifetime.

For more great days out in Wales, take a look at the best things to do in Cardiff in 2023.

Buy Snowdonia National Park Photography Experience for £140 at Virgin Experience Days

Full Day Photoshop Online Interactive Training

Photoshop

Virgin Experience Days

If graphic design is your thing, prepare to meet your new best friend – Photoshop. One of the most creative and useful tools available, you can learn the art of Photoshop through this intense one-day crash course. Taught by an Adobe instructor, your session will include all the essentials of the programme, plus it will be recorded so you can watch it back for reference.

Buy Full Day Photoshop Online Interactive Training for £32 at Virgin Experience Days

Home Projects Eight Part Online Photography Course

Online course

Virgin Experience Days

With this voucher, you’ll have access to eight online photography courses that will take you from beginner to pro. Across the seven hours of lessons, you can submit your photos for feedback, get support from a tutor and have access to the iPhotography community chat, which has over 100,000 photographers.

Buy Home Projects Eight Part Online Photography Course for £29 at Virgin Experience Days

Action Dog Photography Workshop

Dog photo course

cristian-castillo-Unsplash

Get up close to some very good boys with this dog photography workshop. In the woods of West Sussex, you’ll come across a group of highly trained working gun dogs and will get to chance to photograph them as they train. The pups, usually Setters, Springers and Labradors, will be jumping, running and searching as they perform a series of seek and retrieval exercises – so there’ll be plenty of action shots to capture, as well as some cute faces.

Buy Action Dog Photography Workshop for £99 at Into the Blue

Online Portrait Photography Course

Portrait photos

Into the Blue

This 18-module portrait course is currently having a major discount, with £100 off the price. Much like the other online courses, this experience will take you through all the skills and knowledge required to take a good portrait photo. It’s perfect for beginners, plus it can give you feedback, tutorials, and even a graduation certificate at the end.

Buy Online Portrait Photography Course for £149 £49 at Into the Blue

Coastal Photography Weekend Breaks

Devon coast

richard-brannen Unsplash

Get ready to leave it all behind and head down to the coast this spring with these incredible weekend photography breaks. In either Dorset, Devon or Suffolk, you’ll get a full package holiday complete with a hotel stay, meal reservations, and one-to-one tuition with a photography instructor.

Buy Coastal Photography Weekend Breaks from £725 at Into the Blue

Private Full Day Canon Lesson in Worcester

Worcester photo

Experience Days

This experience is unique in that it focuses on one particular brand of camera: Canon. It’s also one of the rare experiences that provides the camera for you.

Taking place in Worcester, you’ll meet your instructor Richard who has spent over two decades working in photography with a Canon camera. Under his guidance, you’ll learn about Canon’s auto focus system, metering, and exposure techniques.

Buy Private Full Day Canon Lesson in Worcester for £150 at Experience Days

Online Child and Baby Photography Course for One

baby photography

Red Letter Days

If you’re a parent, chances are you’ll be used to snapping photos of your little one – but what if you could learn to do it better? With the help of a professional, you can learn how to take some frame-worthy photos of your child as well as learning how to use and handle various cameras.

Buy Online Child and Baby Photography Course for £109 £95 at Red Letter Days

Online Flower and Plant Photography Course for One

Flower photography

Red Letter Days

Be at one with nature with this online plant photography course and learn how to see the beauty in everything, from the brightest bouquet to the garden weed. This course is currently discounted from £109 to £95, so don’t leaf it to the last minute to buy!

Buy Online Flower and Plant Photography Course for £109 £95 at Red Letter Days

We’ve got plenty more great Going Out content for you, from the best VR experiences and the best immersive experiences, to how to get cheap train tickets.

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Lifetime access to this AI photo editor is on sale for 80% off

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Multiple monitors and cameras on table

Multiple monitors and cameras on table

TL;DR: The Luminar Neo Lifetime Bundle is on sale for £63.96, saving you 80% on list price.

Anyone can take a picture, but for a while, you generally needed a professional if you wanted great-quality edits of your photo after the fact. Now, you can use the same type of technology that generates pictures from words to touch up and re-imagine a photo in moments. Luminar Neo is a Red Dot and TIPA award–winning AI photo-editing software that gives you control over the look and feel of your pictures without needing years of experience and a bunch of expensive software. If you want a lifetime of AI-powered photo touch-ups, then snatch a lifetime subscription to Luminar Neo while it’s only £63.96.

Luminar NEO is easy to use and can make some major changes to your pictures. Some of the tools that come built-in let you enhance landscapes and portraits, adjust layers, change lighting, and more. You can also make some major changes like replacing the entire sky, retouching someone’s skin, and even changing the entire composition. Don’t like that someone wandered into the frame in your holiday photos? Erase them. Luminar lets you seamlessly remove unwanted objects from your photos.

On its own, Luminar Neo gives you a lot of control over your pictures, but this bundle comes with six additional add-ons. If your nature shot is looking a little bare, add some delightful fluffy clouds with a click. Or if your pictures don’t quite capture how vibrant and green your spring holiday was, add the colours of nature with the Spring Adventure add-on. Change colour, lighting, colour grade, and more with these versatile AI filters.

Whether you want to capture the rose-colored nostalgia of your holiday or edit a blemish out of your selfies, you don’t have to be a pro when you can let a robot do it for you. Get a lifetime subscription to Luminar Neo Lifetime Bundle on sale for £63.96.

Luminar advert

Luminar advert

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Credit: Luminar

Luminar Neo Lifetime Bundle (opens in a new tab)

£63.96 at the Mashable Shop

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Originally published

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Rappers defends Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors’ intimate photo shoot after Cam’ron post

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Rappers defends Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors intimate photo shoot after Camron post
Rappers defends Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors’ intimate photo shoot after Cam’ron post

The rappers community came forward to defend Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors’ intimate photo shoot after rapper Cam’ron revealed he did not watch Creed III because of it.

On Saturday, Cam’ron shared on Instagram two photos of the Creed III stars from a photo shoot for their recent feature in The New York Times.

The first photo showed Majors hugging Jordan from behind as they both look forward into the camera. In the second image, the actors are resting their heads on each other.

“The reason I didn’t go see creed,” the Hey Ma rapper captioned his post.

While Cam’ron did not mention, whether this caption was a criticism of the intimate nature of Jordan and Majors’ photo shoot.

However, Award-winning songwriter and rapper Skillz hit back soon at Cam’ron’s line of thinking.

“We are our own worst enemies smh. I tell all my homies I love em…Why? Cuz I do! Sometimes it throws em off but Ion care, Ima keep saying that ish. Tomorrow aint promised. We all getting older man & death is definitley certain. Its already hard enough out here for black men as it is bro,” (sic) Skillz wrote in his own Instagram post.

Skillz added: “How come men cant have healthy relationships with other men without masculinity or sexuality being questioned?”

Rapper Masta Ace commented on Skillz’s post, “Well said Skillz…. !!!! I’m sharing this absolutely!”

Jarobi White, a founding member of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, commented, “I think being afraid to show love to brothers because of being seen as gay is well…. Gay.”

DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia wrote “My brother missing out cause its an Amazing movie! I’ve watched it five times and I’m not just saying that because we had the theme song in the trailer.”

With its release on March 3, Creed III has earned $58.7 million in its opening weekend in North America and a further $41.8 million overseas, according to Vibe.

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Poodle Poses For Sunset Portrait: Fremont Photo Of The Day

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FREMONT, CA — Jon Miller shared this photo that he snapped on Monday. He told Patch, “A stunning sunset tonight (Monday, 10Apr’23) with Mission Peak partially shrouded in springtime stray clouds with my dog, ‘Miss Parti’ (Parti Standard Poodle) in the foreground.”

It’s nice to see the hills green!

Thank you for sharing your photo, Jon.

If you have an awesome photo of nature, breath-taking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny, or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution images that reflect the beauty and fun that is Northern California, and that show off your unique talents.

Email it to [email protected].

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