Professional Photographer of the Year 2014

Professional Photographer of the Year is a prestigious award recognised by the big players in the photography industry. There are 14 single image categories and one triple image category, plus there will be an overall winner chosen from the category winners, and that person will win the coveted title of PPOTY 2014.

How to enter

The Professional Photographer of the Year awards are only open to digital submissions but to all photographers, worldwide. Please ensure you understand the terms and conditions before entering.

To enter use the form at the bottom of the page. If you are not a member of the site please register and ensure you give us complete and up-to-date contact details. If you are already registered with the site, login and the details we have in your profile will be pre-filled in the form but please make sure your full contact details are correct and up-to-date. You can then upload your images via the form and select the category using the dropdown menu.

What can you win?

Each winner will receive a professionally produced print of their winning image, a specially designed and created logo they can use for the marketing purposes on their stationary, social media or website, and will be invited to the exclusive awards night with magazine staff, judges, the other category winners, the competition sponsors and specially selected VIP guests. We will also be printing a PPOTY Special supplement in the January 2015 issue celebrating the winner’s images, including an interactive multimedia version that will be emailed to magazines purchasers, subscribers and winners.

Categories and deadlines

There are 15 categories, 14 of which require a single image to enter and ONLY the Portfolio category allows three images to be entered. We will shortlist after the deadline and inform winners accordingly. We will celebrate with the winners at an awards ceremony in November 2014, at a location yet to be finalised. The closing date for the competition is: 31 August 2014.

The 15 categories of the PPOTY 2014 competition are:

 

Black & White

For some, this is the only form of serious photography. We want to see the medium used to its fullest with deep dark blacks, bright whites and every shade of grey in between. The subject matter of the shot should be perfect for mono.

 

In the Studio

We want to see your mastery of lighting, modifiers, reflectors and styling, from high-end fashion to commercial still life. The judges will be looking for creativity and flair.

Medium Format

Medium format is about optimum quality. To enter this category, entries must be shot using a medium format camera, whether on film then scanned or the latest Hasselblad HD5.

 

Street Photography

Images can be shot on anything from CSC to a DSLR, or even a top-end compact. Entries can be candid street shots of protests and news events to grabs of couples embracing or evocative and funny narratives.

 

Family Portraits

From a stylised couples shoot to the Brady Bunch on camera, we want to see your creative interpretation of this lifestyle subject. And family can include those four-legged and feathered friends too – but there must be a person in the image.

 

Portfolio of 3

This is the ONLY category in the competition where entrants are invited to submit more than one image, in this case, a total of three. It should be treated as a triptych; a story made up of three connected elements from one single shoot.

 

Prime lens

No zooms allowed – but the subject matter can be anything. So from your 8mm fisheye to a 600mm monster, show the judges can use your feet as much as your camera.

News

From dodgy politicians to ‘papped’ celebs, this category allows entrants to show off their technique. Entries can include anything from images taken in the bun fight of a press call to feature-based images that create a narrative.

 

Wedding

The modern wedding photographer is a creative artist. Judges will be looking for everything from candid captures to good narrative and emotions caught.

 

Action and extreme sports

For those whose skill lies in freezing moving subjects, this category will allow entrants in the action arena to demonstrate their skills – from surfing to rugger and from a Nikon D4 to the GoPro Hero 3. The moment is king.

 

Location Flash

From a brace of new wireless speedlights to a top end Bron Scoro S and Pulso G monoblocks, your submitted image should show your skill at lighting a subject, from an outdoor fashion shoot or environmental portrait to a car showcase or epic interior shoot, your main light should be artificial.

 

Travel

Travel photography is about capturing the ambience and character of a destination. The judges will look to learn about a location from the image, whether that’s with the use of a landmark, local inhabitants or its wildlife.

  

Fashion

This category is all about style. From the clothes and make-up to the hair and lighting, combined with precision lensmanship – take the judge’s breath away.

 

The Turning Pro award

In association with PP’s sister title, Turning Pro, this category is for all of those starting out in the industry, whether it’s a as a university student or those training for a second or third career, turning their passion into their job.

Wild Card

We have teamed up with good friend Stewart Randall at Folio Albums to bring you this brief - it will be fun and require creativity to complete. Shoes; we tend to take them for granted but they are extensions of our personalities. So, with this in mind, and the title of 'Pumps', we would like you take an enviromental portrait - showing something about the character of a person (of any age) in question, from the perspective of their shoes. The only restriction being that you are NOT allowed to show their face. 

The Photographer of the Year Award 2014

Chosen from the winners of the above categories, the judges will choose one photographer who will be crowned the Professional Photographer of the Year 2014

Unlock Your Creativity: 7 Stages To Experiencing “The Zone” + Why It’s Good For You

by Chasejarvis 

There are times when the work is easy. When it’s 3am and there is a connected feeling, when ideas flow effortlessly. When the inner critic who otherwise stunts creativity gets gagged, bound and shoved into a dark closet. And then there are the opposite times. When the feeling of being “blocked” or stunted creatively is powerfully frustrating and the inner critic rages supreme – where nothing of value seems to find its way to the surface.

Whether trying to break a creative block or sustain a creative flow, we have been searching for a secret on this topic for centuries. And unless you’re completely new to this blog, you’ll know that unleashing the creative potential in everyone is a lifelong mission of mine – both personally and at scale (ala creativeLIVE). I’ve given some talks on how I believe creativity is the new literacyand anything we can do to further creative forces – I’m all for it.

Today, however, I’d like we’re on the verge of something great. Getting unstuck using science. In this upcoming book The Rise of Superman (Amazon link here), author and personal friend of mine Steven Kotler breaks down the science of this state of mind, the science of ultimate human performance (called “Flow”)

YOU know what flow feels like. You’ve felt it creatively when amazing ideas flow like water, in life when everything is just right, or perhaps in sports where you’re “in the zone”. THAT’S flow. So what actually happens in our brains when we achieve this feeling of effortless creative energy? You might be surprised to find that there is a sequence and a science behind this “zone” of flow that you we can actually tap into with regularity, and in Rise of Superman, Kotler sets out to decode exactly this. He’s been releasing a series of trailers and interviews with artists (me!) and elite athletes (Dean Potter, Travis Rice, Danny Way, others) and has uncovered some common threads to their own experiences with Flow.

For all our benefit, I reached out to Kotler with a few questions about Flow and his upcoming book. The interview below is our back and forth…Enjoy.

CJ: How did you come to the idea of flow?

There’s two answers here. The first is this is not my idea. Flow research dates back to the 1870s. There’s 150 years of really hard work that has gone into this topic. Thousands and thousands of researchers have worked on it. I just stumbled into that lineage. The story of how that happened is told in my second book (West of Jesus), but the very short answer is that flow states saved my life. Literally. I spent 3 years in bed with Lyme disease and the doctors had given up on me. No one knew if I would ever get better, but for complicated medical reasons they had pulled me off drugs—so there was literally nothing anyone else could do for me.

But it was a series of flow states that brought me back to health. It was radical and rapid. I went from like 10 percent functionality back to about 80 percent in under six months. I wanted to understand how this was possible. I mean, on the surface, it seemed crazy. An altered state of consciousness beats back a chronic autoimmune condition—like how the hell does that work. So, some 15 years ago, I decided to find out. That’s where all this started for me.

CJ: Where does the term “flow” come from, and is there actually a definition of flow?

The technical definition of flow is “an optimal state of consciousness where we perform our best and feel our best.” But the reason these states as called “flow” is because of the sensation conferred. When you’re in flow, every action, every decision, leads fluidly, seamlessly to the next. In other words, flow feels flowy.

CJ: Is flow on a progressive scale, or are you either in or out of flow? My own experiences say it feels like a scale…a progression, but what does your research tell us?

When University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi did his groundbreaking research on flow, he discovered there are seven different attributes to the state. This is essentially a checklist of things experienced in flow: intense concentration on the task at hand, the merger of action and awareness, the loss of a sense of self, the distortion of time, etc. And flow is progressive. It exists on a spectrum that is sort of like emotions. With anger, you can be mildly irate or deeply homicidal. The same is true for flow. When only a few of these categories show up, we’re in a state of “micro-flow.” When all ten show up at once, we’re in “macro-flow.”

[To go deep on the 7 Stages, how to get there, and what that unlocks, pickup the book here.]

CJ: Your book connects some very diverse terrain: action-sports, creativity, business, and neuroscience. How did you realize that flow crossed between them all – what’s the thread?

This wasn’t actually my realization. Very, very early flow researchers (back in the 1870s) believed they were looking at an experience brought on by high risk behavior (the action sports category), but, in the 1940, famed psychologist Abraham Maslow discovered the flow experiences are a commonality shared by all successful people. Then, when Csikszentmihalyi got involved in the 1960s and 70s, he discovered the state is ubiquitous. Everyone everywhere has access to flow. So flow applies in pretty much every domain. But this isn’t a business secret. Companies like Toyota, Microsoft, and Patagonia have flow woven into their corporate philosophies. A lot of the really innovative things that companies like Google and Facebook do to manage their knowledge workers comes down to flow science. Flow is everywhere in business—it’s just that most people are unaware of it.

Here’s a 3 minute video interview of yours truly and Steve Kotler about flow and creativity. You’ve felt it before, but you wanna get back there again, don’t you?

CJ: I’ve read the advance copy of the book. I’ve sat for interviews w you, etc. The book is really focused on action sports, but flow is certainly present in so many other areas – ie the creative process — as well. Tell me about that.

Flow is arguably as well-linked to creativity as it is to athletics. As a writer, I would be absolutely unable to function without flow. Every idea I’ve ever had for a book has come out of a flow state. Every article I’ve ever written that has won awards was written in a flow state. To put this in scientific terms, in recent years we’ve begun to look under the hood of creativity. We now know that the three key mental functions that produce the most creativity are mental risk-taking, pattern recognition (our ability to link ideas together) and the size of the database searched by the pattern recognition system. Flow massively amplifies all three functions. It jacks up our ability to take risk by making us feel less fear. It amps up pattern recognition and expands the size of the database the pattern recognition can search. This is why studies have shown people are far more creative in flow. It’s a huge boost. In work done at the Flow Genome Project, we found that most people report being 7x more creative in flow—that’s a 700 percent boost in creativity. More importantly, at Harvard, Teresa Amiable discovered that not only are people more creative in flow, they report being more creative in the days after a flow state. Thus flow doesn’t just amplify creativity in the moment, it literally trains the brain to think more creatively over the long haul.

CJ: One of the core arguments of your book is that the chemistry and function of the brain actually change during flow. How does portions of the brain shutting down help me be more creative?

Flow is caused by profound changes in neurobiology including something known as “transient hypofrontality.” Transient means temporary. “Hypo” is the opposite of “”hyper,” it means to slow down or deactivate. And frontality is show for the pre-frontal cortex—i.e., the part of your brain in charge of higher cognitive functions—shut off. One of the areas deactivated by flow is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This part houses your inner critic—that relentless, defeatist nag that is always part of waking consciousness. When the inner critic shuts off, we feel this as tremendous freedom, as liberation. This is fantastic for creatives. It means the portion of the brain that is always judging creative ideas—shooting them down before they get off the ground—is turned off. This allows you to move from idea to idea far faster.

CJ: You have compared the chemicals released in your brain during flow to some of the most addictive drugs in the world. Does this mean that people have similar feelings in flow that they might experience on drugs?

That’s a really interesting and complicated question. Flow cocktails five of the most powerful neurochemicals the body can produce and each of these neurochemicals have a drug analogue. For example, when you snort cocaine. All the drug does is cause the brain to release copious amounts of the neurochemical dopamine. Well, dopamine is released in flow. So are norepinephrine (speed), anandamide (marijuana), endorphins (heroin) and serotonin (ecstasy). You actually couldn’t produce this cocktail with drugs. Trying to take all those drugs at once and you’re going to end up drooling or dead. But the brain does it naturally. So yes, being in flow is an altered state, just like being on drugs. Does flow feel like any one of these drugs—not exactly. It actually feels a lot better. Moreover, while being addicted to drugs can lead backwards, being addicted to flow—because the state requires meeting challenges and learning new skills—leads forwards.

CJ: In your book and communications, you talk about this concept of “flow hacking,” or doing things to help trigger a flow state. Do you mean that people can create flow in their own lives?

For certain. Flow has 15 triggers—that is, pre-conditions that lead to more flow. Anyone can pull these triggers.

CJ: Besides jumping off a cliff on skis, what’s one trick you might use to help you get into flow?

As I said before, flow has 15 triggers and risk—or what we call “high consequences”—is only one of them. But even here, within the high consequence trigger, their possibility. For example, sure, you can jump off a cliff and take a physical risk. But you can also use emotional risk, social risk, creative risk—it doesn’t matter. It’s also very individual. A shy guy needs only to cross a room to talk to a pretty gal to pull this trigger.

But the most important thing to know is that flow follows focus. This is why people recommend always following your passion if you’re chasing flow. Why? Because our brain pays way more attention to stuff we’re passionate about. Put differently, a lot of what we call “flow hacking” is really ways of tricking the brain into paying more attention to the here and now.

CJ: I understand that you do a lot of consulting with business leaders on how to facilitate more flow in their workers.

Yes, I have done a fair bit of this work. My partner in the Flow Genome Project, Jamie Wheal, has done far, far more. The flow triggers we’ve been talking about are really accessible—it is not hard to design businesses around them.

CJ: Now that the book is releasing, you’re going to continue to work on flow research through the Flow Genome Project. Can you tell us a bit about that?

The Flow Genome Project is an international, trans-disciplinary organization dedicated to decoding flow. As you pointed out above, we do a bit of consulting, but our core focus is to seriously advance flow state research. We’re also in the process of building Flow Dojos—dedicated flow research and training facilities. But the most important thing to know is this is an open source project. The goal is to hack ultimate human performance. This is relevant to everyone—who doesn’t want to be able to perform at their best. Thus, we want everyone involved. Go to ourwebsite, sign up for Flow Hacker Nation, and get involved.

Photography Workshop by Martin Middlebrook, July 7-11

Award winning English Photojournalist Martin Middlebrook will be holding two separate week-long photography workshops this summer.  The Cape Cod workshop will be held at the Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, July 7-11. The Boston workshop will be based at Principle Pictures on Albany Street, July 14-18. Middlebrook teaches photographers to explore the potential in everyday things by developing a method of looking at the familiar and imbuing images with greater depth. Spend 8 hours a day with this leading humanitarian photojournalist in a small group amid a gorgeous summer setting. And free your photographic creativity.

Martin says: “These workshops are designed to teach one basic idea – that technical competence can release your inner creativity. Photography only becomes instinctive when you don’t think about your camera’s settings or composition, the whole of your brain is then free to maximise the potential you see before you.”

Middlebrook has built an enviable reputation. His portfolio, Afghanistan ‘From the Other Side’ has been showcased worldwide including exhibiting at the prestigious British Museum in London. Additionally he has won Honourable Mentions at the International Photography Awards, and was a winner in the 2013 project ‘The Other Hundred’. In addition, Martin has published over 70 articles for photographic magazines in the UK, including being lead columnist for Professional Photographer Magazine for the past three years.

Middlebrook believes: “The values I pass on will help you make better and better pictures, whether you are an enthusiastic amateur or someone looking to turn your passion into a living. I guarantee the ideas and techniques I share will change the way you take pictures, and make you think about the process of excellence in an entirely new way.

Each workshop has a capacity of 12 students. To reserve your place or for further information please contact Anne O’Brien at:anne@martinmiddlebrookphotographyworkshops-usa.com. Or visit:

 www.martinmiddlebrookphotographyworkshops-usa.com or

www.facebook.com/MartinMiddlebroookPhotographyWorkshopsUs

Monday, July, 7th,

through Friday, July, 11th

8:30 am

to 10:30 pm

Location: Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

Aerial Photography and Privacy – Where Do You Draw The Line?

BY KERRY GARRISON · APRIL  2014

Aerial photography is not new, we have all seen the effects and benefits of it with tools like Google Maps and Google Earth. But where does the line get drawn in terms of privacy? If you are sitting in your backyard, typically not view able by any of your neighbors, you have a certain expectation of privacy. However, satellites and airplanes are taking pictures of your yard on a regular basis. We need to ask ourselves, where do we draw the line?

Here is an image from Google Earth of my backyard, of course, it shows my neighbor’s yards as well as I cannot zoom in any more with these tools.

Ok, so the resolution isn’t that great, I might be able to see that someone was in the backyard but could certainly not pick out someone specifically as the resolution simply isn’t good enough.

In the next image, this was taken from a quadcopter about 40′ off the ground.

This picture certainly is much clearer, has more detail, and could be zoomed in to actually distinguish a specific individual. Zoomed as close as I could get, we can see myself standing there controlling the copter.

The question we have to ask is how close is too close? If we accept that Google, Government, and other services are routinely taking pictures of our private space, then when does it become unacceptable?

From a photographer point of view, I fully understand and believe in the concept of the expectation of privacy. I wouldn’t hold my camera over the fence to take pictures of my neighbor’s yard, but obviously we have made it acceptable for an airplane at a few thousand feet to take that same picture. If the FAA regulations say that a remotely piloted vehicle must stay under 400 feet above ground level, is it then 500′ that becomes acceptable? Does that mean I can fly a full sized, manned helicopter down to 500′ and use a nice 600mm lens to snap away unfettered?

If we are to believe that we still have any privacy in our yards, than any aerial photography would have to be banned. One the other hand, if we accept that we are under aerial surveillance already, does the expectation of privacy no longer extend outside the walls of your house?

What is expectation of privacy? It really comes down to two key concepts:

• Subjective expectation of privacy – a certain individual’s opinion that a certain location or situation is private; varies greatly from person to person
• Objective, legitimate, reasonable expectation of privacy – An expectation of privacy generally recognized by society

So let’s take my neighbor’s back yard. “He” may hold the opinion that his backyard is private space and a photo from a quadcopter would be an invasion of his privacy. Certainly he is entitled to his opinion. On the other hand, as a society, we have already recognized that our backyards are not private or we would not allow services like Google Maps/Earth to exist.

From Wikipedia:

In general, one cannot have a reasonable expectation of privacy in things held out to the public. A well-known example is that there are no privacy rights in garbage left for collection in a public place.^[2] Other examples include: pen registers that record the numbers dialed from particular telephones;^[4] conversations with others, though there could be a Sixth Amendment violation if the police send an individual to question a defendant who has already been formally charged;^[5] a person’s physical characteristics, such as voice and handwriting;^[6] what is observed pursuant to aerial surveillance that is conducted in public navigable airspace not using equipmentthat unreasonably enhances the surveying government official’s vision

Using this example, it can be argued that a modern multi-rotor copter is easily available to the general public and that a basic camera attached to it does not unreasonably enhance the operator’s vision.

Until this is tested in the courts, we really don’t have a definitive answer as to what is reasonable or not. I would prefer to err on the side of caution and not go around filming people’s yards without their permission. However, there is another side to this as well. I have security cameras all around my property, there is no way to adjust them so that they can’t see into my neighbor’s yards. Should I not be allowed to secure my own property even if it peers into an adjoining yard?

This article was not intended to be a definitive solution or legal basis for aerial photography, I am hoping it starts up a discussion with you, the readers, and I really want to hear what you all have to say on this.

Curiosity, Adventure & Discovery – Beautiful Portraits of Children by Monika Koclajda

Monika Koclajda is a Polish portrait photographer and mother of two lovely daughters, a combination that has inspired her talent and passion for children’s portraiture. She enjoys capturing unique moments that show her children’s emotions and expressions.

“I am a simple person, leading a simple life and taking simple pictures,” Monika writes on her profile, yet despite the simplicity of the scenes she photographs, her portraits reveal a depth of feeling, undoubtedly connected to her experience as a mother. Each of her photos could be part of a long narrative about childhood, full of curiosity, little adventures and moments of discovery.

To see more of Monika’s photography, visit her website, 500px or Facebook page.

Window of happiness

Welcome

Taming

Maja

Idyll

Little crocodile hunter

Parting

Another boring sunday

Why so serious ?

I wanna remember…

Autumn masquerade

Expanding the horizons of imagination

Lazy evening

Family portrait

Untitled

Home alone

Before bedtime

Afternoon walk

Dance of joy

Let it snow