Category Archives: Photography

Bristol, England-based photographer Fergus Coyle has been crowned the overall winner of the Betser Prize – an international photography competition celebrating Chinese culture. His photo of Hankou Bund, a popular park that sits on the banks of the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China, was taken in 2017 – just 24 months before the city became forever linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Coyle’s image, which shows people posing for photos, joining in group exercise and taking a walk in the green-less park, also won the environment category at the Global SinoPhoto Awards (GSPA). The first place prize consists of a cash prize of approximately $2,000 / £1,650 / AU$2,950 plus a catalog of ‘The Family of Man’ exhibition presented by Paul Lesche, the director of Centre National de l’Audio/Visuel (CNA) in Luxembourg, where the GSPA was held. 

As 2022 came to an end, so did our Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) 2022/23 competition. Over the twelve rounds in 2022 we selected 120 images to join our shortlist, ten images from each month. And as 2023 arrived, it was time for our illustrious panel of judges to decide the overall first-, second- and third-placed images.

The photographer of the first-placed image overall, as decided by the judges, receives a voucher to the value of £1000 from MPB as well as a trophy and the title ‘Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2023‘. The photographers who come second and third receive vouchers worth £500 and £250 respectively.

We are now delighted to reveal the top three images in reverse order:

Third place: Sara Jazbar

Sara had a brilliant competition with a collection of superb shortlisted images, this one is from our sixth round which had the theme ‘Sport and Action’. This image is a favourite of the Jabber team as well as our panel of judges. Sara shot it with her Nikon D500 and Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens during a day spent in a hide near Venice, her patience and skill were rewarded.

Congratulations Sara, as the photographer of the third-placed image, a voucher for £250 to spend at MPB is heading your way.

Second place: Angi Wallace

Angi’s image was shortlisted in the ninth round of the competition, which had the theme ‘Perfect Pets’. This little Cuban tree frog was one of the more unusual pets that we saw, but what really impressed us was Angi’s timing and composition. We love the fact that the frog is looking directly into the lens and seems to be smiling enigmatically. Angi shot the image with her Sony A7 II and Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens.

Congratulations Angi, your image has come second and a voucher for £500 to spend at MPB is heading your way.

First place: Angi Wallace

Yes, Angi has come second and first! This stunning image of a puffball dispersing spores was shortlisted for the sixth round (‘Sport and Action’) and it demonstrates that ‘action’ doesn’t have to be high-octane! We loved Angi’s interpretation of the brief and so did our panel of judges. Congratulations Angi, as well as receiving a second voucher from MPB, this time for £1000, you are the Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2023.

Thank you to all our wonderful judges who took on the task of deciding the winners from the shortlist:

Ben Brain – Photographer, journalist & Sigma ambassador
Sophie Collins – Chief Marketing Office at MPB
Donna Crous – Food photographer, author, Nikon Europe ambassador and Rotolight Master of Light
Kate Hopewell-Smith – Wedding, portrait & boudoir photographer, Sony ambassador
Sanjay Jogia – Wedding photographer & Canon ambassador
Pete Reed OBE – Three times Olympic gold medal-winning rower and keen documentary photographer
Dominique Shaw – Photographer and co-founder of York Place Studios and Fujifilm ambassador
Craig Strong – Lensbaby founder
Christina Vaughan – Founder of Cultura Creative, the home of inclusive stock photography
Jeremy Walker – Landscape photographer, author & former Nikon ambassador

Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2023/24 competition round one: Winter

The new Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) competition is now underway with a prize fund of £7,750 from MPB. The theme for the first round is ‘Winter’ and there’s a voucher to the value of £500 up for grabs.

Follow the link to find out more about CJPOTY 2023/24.

You can enter by clicking on the CJPOTY button at the top of the page.

About MPB

Founded by Matt Barker in 2011, MPB is the world’s largest platform for used photography and videography kit. MPB has transformed the way people buy, sell and trade equipment, making photography more accessible, affordable and sustainable.

Headquartered in the creative communities of Brighton, Brooklyn and Berlin, the MPB team includes trained camera experts and seasoned photographers and videographers who bring their passion to work every day to deliver outstanding service. Every piece of kit is inspected carefully by product specialists and comes with a six-month warranty to give customers peace of mind that buying used doesn’t mean sacrificing reliability.

A radical playground in 1960s Amsterdam is revealed in a series of previously unseen images by German photographer Ursula Schulz-Dornburg. Here, she picks out her favourite shots.

Located on an island that was only accessible by rowing boat, Jongensland was one of several “junk playgrounds” established after the second world war.

The aim was to foster independent thinking among young boys, by giving them a place that that they could make their own, with little or no adult supervision.

Schulz-Dornburg’s images – now published for the first time in the book Huts, Temples, Castles – show the creativity that resulted from giving children this level of autonomy.

The photos, captured in 1969, reveal how the children turned discarded materials into elaborate self-build structures, in a practice known as “junkology”.

Here, Schulz-Dornburg reveals the thinking behind some of her favourite shots:

“This photo gives you a sense that Jongensland was more than just an environment that allowed children to naturally develop their minds. It was also a free space for young boys to wander, experiment and even wreck without controlled supervision, so they had to learn to take charge of their behaviour,” she said.

“At times there could be conflicts and injuries, but it taught the children how to pick themselves up and learn from their actions.”

“Seeing the impressive structures that these young children made by hand highlights the striking difference in our culture today, where technology plays a big part,” she said.

“I like how this image highlights the social dynamics among the children. The boy courteously maintains his external relationship with his peers but is also curious about their private lives,” she explained.

“It perhaps speaks of the way children navigate each other during the post-war period.”

“Here we see how the children had to work together to construct their space in Jongensland,” she said.

“It is heartwarming to see the form of the structure slowly coming together, with the children bouncing ideas off each other for the next steps in their construction.”

“The creation of Jongensland brought a universal change towards the understanding that children can achieve anything when given undivided freedom and opportunity to make and create,” she said.

“I think this image captures that.”

OM Digital Solutions will be releasing an M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO lens according to details within a slew of new camera firmware updates the company has announced.

OM Digital announced firmware updates for the OM System OM-5 and Olympus E-M1X, E-M1 Mark III, E-M1 Mark II and E-M5 Mark III cameras. Among the performance enhancements detailed within the firmware updates is compatibility with a 90mm f/3.5 IS PRO Macro lens.

This lens is not yet officially within OM Digital’s lens range, suggesting it could be announced within the next few weeks.

The official description in the firmware updates for the four cameras states: “AF operation when a M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO lens is attached has been optimized.”

The new 90mm F3.5 Macro lens compatibility is the only addition within the new camera firmware updates. OM Digital has made no announcements about the new lens.

Via 4/3 Rumors

Getty Images has announced legal proceedings against AI image generator Stability AI, claiming that the firm processed ‘millions’ of images from its library to train its AI.

Getty claims that Stability AI illegally used millions of images from its archive to train its Stable Diffusion image generator and should have paid licensing fees.

Getty Images clarified its decision to open legal proceedings at London’s High Court of Justice:

This week Getty Images commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London against Stability AI claiming Stability AI infringed intellectual property rights including copyright in content owned or represented by Getty Images. It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators.

Getty Images believes artificial intelligence has the potential to stimulate creative endeavors. Accordingly, Getty Images provided licenses to leading technology innovators for purposes related to training artificial intelligence systems in a manner that respects personal and intellectual property rights. Stability AI did not seek any such license from Getty Images and instead, we believe, chose to ignore viable licensing options and long‑standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand‑alone commercial interests.

In potentially damaging evidence, The Verge has published images it created using Stable Diffusion, which shows the familiar Getty Images watermark. What’s more, further analysis has shown that Stability AI’s technology uses a large amount of content from Getty and other stock image sites.

The potential lawsuit raises many questions about the future of AI in photography and how AI art tools like Stable Diffusion will move forward when their development depends on the use of human-created imagery. Stability AI has said that photographers will be able to opt out of Stable Diffusion going forward, but many experts believe this isn’t going far enough.

No date has been set yet for the proceedings.