Murphy Hill GalleryArt is Subjective

An exhibit demonstrating the winners of previous year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards at Stockwood Discovery Centre, on 18th January in Luton. The magnificent exhibit of hundred photographic snaps of wildlife, including commended and winning snaps would be on display till March.

British Wildlife Photography Awards were made to celebrate both pro and amateur photographers’ talent, while highlighting the wealth of British natural history simultaneously. It has 12 separate categories. There is a very special category for Wildlife in HD Video.

With 12 separate classes including a very special category for Wildlife in HD Video, the awards beautifully reveal the grandness of the wildlife of the country. Also, there are 2 junior categories to urge young people to get in touch with nature with photography.

Well known television presenter and naturalist Chris Packham stated that these stunning pictures by so many talented photographers show the beauty, diversity and breadth the precious wildlife of the country as well as and the requirement to protect their habitats. British Wildlife Photography Awards are without any doubt one of the most significant photography awards in United Kingdom.

He added that anything here which raises the public’s awareness of the importance to protect and conserve Brit wildlife is quite close to his heart and these awards afford a spectacular insight in the habitat and behavior of the Brit wildlife.

The winning photographer would get #5000. Category winners would get a Canon PIXMA PRO 10 Printer and Canon PowerShot S110 Camera.

Huge news for keen photographers – The Evesham Observer has collaborated with the Specsavers Evesham to start the spec-tacular photography contest – Life Thru a Lens to search the region’s top amateur nature snapper.

The collaboration of the Observer and Specsavers Evesham are challenging amateur photographers of the region to click the stunning nature Evesham as well as its fencing region has to offer. Therefore, whether it is a shot of the splendid Vale country side, or a picture of the wildlife relishing River Avon, or even an iconic picture which depicts the stunning local scenery, your opinion matters.

The contest is open to amateur snappers, made up of 2 age categories – one is under sixteen’s and another one is sixteen and over. There are several prizes up for grabs, and the winning entry from the under sixteen’s class getting a Pentax Optio WG-2 digi – cam worth £ 250.

In the meantime, the sixteen and over category winner will get half a day’s learning tutorial from well known nature photographer Lee Webb.

CT Wong stated that it was such a brilliant scope to showcase the magnificent green space as well and local wildlife in and around the Vale of Evesham. He added that as one can imagine, they are really looking ahead to seeing what the local talent has to offer.

The Observer will showcase some of the top snaps in the newspaper before a shortlist will be picked out by Rob George (Observer editor), Specsavers Evesham’s CT Wong and nature photographer Lee Webb.

Jim Verhagen agreed that he is not at all the friendliest person to speak with on the beach. If you want to start a basic conversation with him, there is a possibility that he would walk right away from you in the middle of the conversation. It is not true that he does not like people; he really likes wildlife of LBI. He rather has an unusual relationship with a certain gull. However, Jim Verhagen is an integral part of the North Beach community.

Jim Verhagen maintains his Wordpress blog called site Readings From the Northside. The site even has a pretty steady following. Jim was raised in North Beach, but later he went to Ithaca in New York for his college and his eventual career. In the year 2008, he bought a house in North Beach and sees the balance be there as much as possible.

Jim Verhagen stated that they got Readings From the Northside going in the year 2008 when there was a seal that crawled up from the water in North Beach one night at sunset. It was the most amazing thing. The name comes from him morning jaunt to the beach. Earlier he used to say – ‘I’m going to the beach to take the readings,’ by saying that he meant taking water temperatures and to see if there were shells or flies.

Earlier, it started as an amateur photographer blog to offer a taste of the beach, but later it turned into quite an endeavor. In the early 1990s, Jim entered into web hosting, designing and in e-commerce business.

In recent years, a high form of marriage photography named – trashing the dress has been in vogue. Now a bride in Israel has been criticized for taking it to another extreme level.
During a photo shoot on a beach in Tel Aviv, in Israel, Ms Natasha Samuel lit her wedding attire on fire deliberately for a post- wedding photo shoot.

After that, she ran into the sea to extinguish the flames. A fire extinguisher was also present at the spot to put out remaining flames. However, the photography community is not happy with this.

The photographer was Mr Eric Simantov. After a friend of the bride doused her wedding dress with flammable article and set the thing on fire, reported a leading news agency.

He told that all brides are looking for something which has not been done before. It was his idea to use actual fire; there was no use of Photoshop.

This ritual has increased rapidly in recent times across the world as women arrange for photographers to take picture of their marriage attire before it being destroyed. This is a target to create a picture which contrasts the beauty of wedding attire with mundane backgrounds.

A well known wedding planner told a leading newspaper that trashing the wedding dress absolutely is an increasing trend, and she is really excited to see the new things people come up with. She stated that this is very risky.

Pam Smith just had one job in her life and that was the band director at the Pleasant Valley High for 28 years. Once she went to Pleasant Valley, she felt very comfortable being the parent-away-from house for her band students.

She told that her students became her kids. At times she think that she was born to teach. Once you start, it becomes very natural and she enjoyed this very much. It was really a great experience for her. Her students were like her family.

Pam Smith moved hometown of Jasper in the year 1978 to go to the Jacksonville State University. There she received her BS, master’s as well as Ed.S degrees in music. In Walker County’s Cordova High School, she was a member of an all girl trumpet band.

She told that they would not let the girls play drums that is what she would have liked, so they would not let the boys be in their trumpet line. Pam told that she was very independent as a kid, almost to a fault.

Apart from music, she also had interest n photography. After her music career with the band ended, she spend more time with photography. Nature has always been her focus in her photography. She, in fact, has her website -  www.naturereflectionsphotography.com.

Pam Smith has been on 6 safaris to Africa to capture the snaps animals. She has been to South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania with her buddy Judy Glass and Larry Martin, a wildlife artist. She told that she has always liked photography and have always had a camera. After she made her first safari, she got really serious about it.

Ray Turkin, a fine art photographer fron Teaneck, will teach a 2 session class – Photo Editing for Beginners at Teaneck Community Education Center, on 17th  April and 24th April from 7 pm to 9 pm. Now do you have digital snaps but does not know what to do with those, then this classes are perfect for you. Join Ray’s class and learn how to process digital snaps on a computer.

Ray will keep things very simple as well as he will look at step-by-step procedures to organize snaps, make general adjustments, as well as share pictures with family and friends. To register for these class – call at 201 833 5514 or contact – Teaneck Community Education Center, One Merrison Street.

Turkin’s extensive travel and his interest in hiking have afforded him the scope to capture all the nature’s beauty with his camera. He generally emphasizes on the on the utilization of natural light to bring out subtle textures, colors, shapes and create moods.

He tales a course on – The Basics of Digital Photography of at The Art School at the Old Church in Demarest. He is also an instructor at Teaneck Community Education Center and at times he also offers private instruction. Ray Turkin also took a workshop on taking pictures of flowers at The Art Center of Northern New Jersey in New Milford. To add to that, he also conducts slide presentations which shows locations where he has gone and has arranged his “Meet the Artist” events.

Rick Milton has seen some of his clients grow up before his eyes, rather I must say his camera lens. There is hardly anything cooler than to photograph the marriage of somebody that he photographed when they were a little kid in preschool or at elementary school. Milton told that kids are his favorite. He love the little guys. Those kids call him Mr. Rick.

Rick Milton Pho­tography, owned by Rick himself, is at 3830 Wash­ing­ton Road. It opened his door for twenty seven years ago. The busiest time of the studio is from June to through Christmas. Milton told that there is not a lot of downtime for them. They were diversified enough that when one thing is slow, they were working on something else.

Rick works along with his wife Pam, who works as the office manager. His daughter Shelby also works part time since high school. He also has another photographer as well as a bookkeeper on staff.

The best thing Milton did till now as far as learning to run a business is learning to delegate it to his wife. Pam has a good business responsibilities on her shoulders. She runs the day-to-day business of the studio and that is very important. This is an art form, but it is actually a business. Unfortunately, that is one of the reasons that a lot of people could not make it.

After graduating from Art Institute of Atlanta, Milton started his career at a photo stdio in Atlanta. He used to go to Augusta for work. Later, after getting all necessary equipment, he started his own business in Evans.