2012 National Photographic Portrait Prize - Call for Entries

I can still remember the delight and honour I felt last November when I received a phone call from The National Portrait Gallery letting me know that my entry had been selected for exhibition in the 2011 National Photographic Portrait Prize.

It was great to travel down to Canberra for the opening of the exhibition and the announcement of the $25,000 prize winner. While I have had a good number of my own exhibitions and included in various group shows this was certainly the most prestigious one I have been part of.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 - Selected for Hanging - Images by Paul Foley

The walls of the gallery were covered with a variety of photographic portrait styles and subjects. The very worthy prize winner, 'Miss Alesandra' by Jacqueline Mitelman, was a classic study of character bathed in beautiful light.

The exhibition is still travelling around Australia and worth a visit if you are nearby. It is in the Fremantle Prison Gallery, Western Australia, until November 27th, 2011 before moving to The Yarra Ranges Gallery in Lilydale, Victoria on January 26th, 2012.

In the meantime you can view it online here. 

Entries are now being accepted for the 2012 Prize and you have until this October 31st (2011) to submit your work online. 

According to the official announcement:

'The National Photographic Portrait Prize is an annual event intended to promote the very best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers. The exhibition will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery from 16 March to 20 May 2012 and tour to selected venues throughout 2012.

With the generous support of VISA, the Gallery is offering a prize of $25,000 for the most outstanding photographic portrait.'

If you are interested in entering please click through to the Call for Entries. 

The feeling of seeing something you create on the wall of a prestigious gallery and as part of an important exhibition is pretty cool! Good luck to all who enter.

Portrait Workshop
If you are a keen DSLR photographer you may want to check out the portrait workshops I am holding this October & November in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. I'm looking forward to sharing my skills and insights to help you make thoughtful, compelling portraits. Please click here for more details.

Portrait Workshop in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens

I am very pleased to let readers know about the Environmental Portrait Workshop I am running in association with the Friends of the Botanic Gardens this October and November.

I have developed it to help owners of DSLR cameras get the most from the unique capabilities that come with the great optics, large sensors, quick focussing and very intelligent exposure systems found in the modern DSLR.

The half day workshop will teach keen amateur photographers, novice and experienced, how to make portraits like a professional with lots of the insights and ideas I've learnt and used over the last 25 years.

In  the beautiful grounds and buildings that Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens are famous for students will spend the morning learning:

• the mechanics of the DSLR & why it is perfect for dynamic, thoughtful portraits
• understanding selective focus and how to use it
• how to frame and compose faces
• how to place subjects in the environment to help your portrait tell their story
• how to use the natural and built environment to shape and control the light in your pictures
• about professional light shaping tools and reflectors and some inexpensive DIY alternatives
• how to use and control your camera's flash system in the automatic and manual modes.

To round out the morning I'll demonstrate modern off camera flash lighting techniques and equipment to give you ideas and inspiration to help you really grow as a creative photographer.

The class runs from 9.30am to 12.30pm but arrive by 9am for a cuppa and a 'get to know you' chat. From 12.30 to 1.30pm The Friends will provide lunch while we review the lessons and I'll answer all of your questions.

To help you get the most from the morning you will be able to submit up to 5 photographs for me to assess and advise on in the month after the workshop. This one on one picture specific tuition will really help your photography and challenge your creativity.

The first workshop is scheduled for October 22nd with another one on November 26th and as numbers are limited to 15 for each it's a good idea to book soon. Just click on your preferred date to be taken to the booking form.

Cost: Friends of the Gardens $150, non-members $175, includes lunch at 12.30 pm. Find out more about becoming a Friend here.

Other classes to follow

These Environmental Portrait workshops are just the beginning. Other half day courses will include close up flora photography and the artistic landscape. For those wanting to really take control of their photography, set up their own digital darkroom and learn about affordable fine art inkjet printing there will be a full day workshop.

The day will begin with a photograph you create in the morning and end with a beautiful archival print you take home with you in the afternoon. Along the way you learn all about the RAW file (the digital negative), creative composition as well as making accurate, easy to print exposures. After lunch you will learn about setting up a digital darkroom and how to calibrate your monitor. You will get hands on use of Lightroom, Adobe's intuitive RAW processing software, while you prepare your file for printing and then print it on a beautiful fine art paper.

Please drop me a line to register your interest or pass this on to any keen photographers you know.