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Artensoft Photo Mosaic Wizard builds perfect photo mosaics out of your own images in just seconds. Make your own photo mosaics in five easy steps!

The innovative photographic mosaic software will guide you through the process of creating true mosaics out of ordinary photographs. Have great fun with friends and family, produce perfect photo gifts, and make unique posters in five easy steps!

System Requirements: Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/7; 20 MB HD space; enough space in "My Pictures" folder for program files storage; .NET Framework 2.0 or higher

The program is available for $79.95, but it will be free for the Giveaway of the Day's visitors as a time-limited offer.

The Easy Accounting Solution is giving away a free copy of their easy-to-use Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that aids photographers with their bookkeeping needs.

The Easy Accounting Solution for the Photographer allows photographers to:

* Manage their customer database
* Keep track of their jobs
* Produce invoices
* Track which products are selling the most/least
* Track income, expenses, assets and liabilities

There are also tabs for:

* A detailed checkbook
* Tracking major tax deductions, and
* One that lets photographers know how their business is doing overall on a month-to-month basis (Income Statement)

Here is what you have to do for a chance to win a copy of The Easy Accounting Solution for the Photographer:

1. Go to the Easy Accounting Solution for the Photographer Facebook page and click the "Like" button; and

1. Fill out the form below.

One winner will be drawn at random on August 5, 2010 at 08:00 EDT.

Additionally, all the other participants will benefit from a 15% discount for their purchase by entering the code below at the time of placing their order.
Discount Code: PN15
Expires: August 9, 2010

Secaucus, NJ, July 28, 2010 /PN/ Continuing its record of 3D technology leadership, Panasonic yesterday announced the development of the world's first* digital interchangeable twin-lens, making it possible to shoot 3D with an interchangeable lens system camera. As a new member of Panasonic’s powerful lineup of interchangeable lenses as part of the LUMIX G Micro System**, the twin-lens will allow high-quality shooting in 3D. Panasonic plans to release this new lens for sale before the end of the year.

“This year will be remembered as the ‘First Year of 3D Era’ and Panasonic has already taken the lead by launching 3D-capable VIERA™ televisions and Blu-ray™ 3D Disc Players,” said Darin Pepple, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “With Panasonic’s development of a twin-lens capable of 3D shooting, the company is providing consumers with a way to capture their own 3D content, which they can then enjoy watching in the comforts of their own home. Panasonic is dedicated to evolving the 3D ecosystem, letting consumers create and display lifelike 3D images in their homes.”

Currently, 3D shooting with an interchangeable lens system camera is possible only by using panorama systems or by combining two lenses and two CCDs. However, these systems are not ideal and have difficulty capturing moving objects. Panasonic's new 3D lens for the LUMIX G Micro System features two optical systems installed within the diameter of the lens mount, creating stereo images from the left and right lenses that are then processed with a 3D image processing system. Thanks to Panasonic's advanced technologies in optical technology, image processing systems, and lens barrel design, the 3D lens will be compact in size.

This new compact 3D-capable interchangeable lens will be easy to handle and allow instant 3D shooting, without distortion or time lag between left and right images – even when shooting moving objects.


*For a digital interchangeable lens of July 28, 2010.
** Compatible models to be announced at a later date.

About Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company

Based in Secaucus, N.J., Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company (PCEC), is a Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC) and the hub of Panasonic's U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. Panasonic is pledged to practice prudent, sustainable use of the earth's natural resources and protect our environment through the company’s Eco Ideas programs.

Fresno, CA, July 28, 2010 /PN/ Old glass negatives bought by a painter for $US45 at a garage sale a decade ago have been authenticated as the work of the photographer Ansel Adams and are worth at least $US200 million ($223 million), the owner's lawyer says.

"Do you have any idea how many people were photographing Yosemite in the 1920s and 1930s? Millions! It could be anyone," the managing trustee told the WSJ.

''She grew up in Yosemite. She was an intelligent, well-read woman. I find it hard to believe she would misspell those names,'' he said.

''It's an unfortunate fraud,'' said Bill Turnage, managing director of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. He said he was consulting lawyers about suing Mr Norsigian for using a copyrighted name for commercial purposes.

In addition to the handwriting issue, Matthew Adams said in a statement he didn’t understand how the negatives could have possibly fallen out of the hands of his grandfather, who he said was very careful with the storage of his work. Furthermore, he said the negatives did not carry the photographer’s typical numbering system.

The $200 million that Mr Norsigian could make from authenticated photographs includes sales and licensing deals.

He has stored the negatives in a vault, and the photographs will go on display at Fresno State University in October.

Have your creative drive rewarded with a high-performance G-Tech storage system or €5,000 towards your next project.

Unlike other creative competitions, you will be rewarded not just for the aesthetic qualities of your entry but also for the invention and drive which went into creating it.

Submissions are encouraged across the fields of photography, music and filmmaking in both Professional and Amateur categories. Besides great prizes, best entries will go on display at an exclusive exhibition at London’s Brick Lane Gallery in November 2010.

Prizes:

Category Winners: Overall winners in each category of photography, music and filmmaking in both Professional and Amateur entries will each receive a 4TB G-RAID – the highly acclaimed professional high-performance dual-drive storage system from G-Technology.

Apollo 15 embarked 39 years ago, on July 26 of 1971, and was the ninth manned mission in the Apollo program, the fourth mission to land on the Moon and the eighth successful manned mission. Two astronauts, Commander David R. Scott and LM (Lunar Module) pilot James B. Irwin, are shown during their 4 days on the lunar surface. Shortly thereafter, the Apollo 17 mission landed, in December of 1972, and would be the sixth and final mission in which humans would roam the moon. The photographs from the 17th mission include Commander Eugene A. Cernan, LM pilot Harrison H. Schmitt and CM (Command Module) pilot Ronald E. Evans. Some activities depicted in the collection of twelve images include; the retrieval of a film canister on the outside of a spacecraft, the preparation of a LRV (Lunar Roving Vehicle), collection of lunar samples and, of course, the overall exploration of the moon’s surface.

Astronaut James Irwin gives salute beside U.S. flag during lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA)
Maker: NASA
Date: August 1, 1971
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Apollo 17 Astronaut Evans Retrieves Film Canister During Space Walk
Maker: NASA
Date: December 14, 1972
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Cernan Driving the Rover
Maker: NASA
Date: December 1, 1972
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Apollo 17 onboard photo of area near the Valley of Tourus-Littrow on the lunar surface.
Maker: NASA
Date: December 14, 1972
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Apollo 17 Lunarscape: A Magnificent Desolation
Maker: NASA
Date: December 1, 1972
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Apollo 17 Command/Service modules photographed from lunar module in orbit
Maker: NASA
Date: December 1, 1972
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Scott Gives Salute
Maker: NASA
Date: August 1, 1971
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) during the Apollo 15 mission, July, 1971
Maker: NASA
Date: July/August 1971
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Lunar Activities During the Apollo 15 Mission
Maker: NASA
Date: July/August 1971
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt Collects Lunar Rock Samples
Maker: NASA
Date: December 14, 1972
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

Astronaut Irwin with LRV
Maker: NASA
Date: July 26, 1971
Medium: color print, chromogenic development (Ektacolor) process
Dimensions: Image: 26.5 x 34.2 cm . Overall: 27.6 x 35.6 cm
George Eastman House Collection

• Collects and preserves objects that are of significance to photography, motion pictures, and the life of George Eastman.
• Builds information resources to provide the means for both scholarly research and recreational inquiry.
• Keeps and cares for images, literature, and technology to tell the story of photography and the motion picture in history and in culture.
• Cares for George Eastman’s house, gardens, and archives, maintaining them for public enjoyment and as a memorial to his contribution to our lives and our times.

July 25, 2010 /PN/ Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is launching a Flickr photostream Monday, Buckingham Palace announced.

Over 600 photographs of the British royal family will be put up on a new Buck­ingham Palace page on photo-sharing website Flickr, which "will provide a unique glimpse into the life and work of the modern monarchy". The site will initially have 600 images and 28 sections covering senior members of the royal family including the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Princes ­William and Harry.

The album will allow Flickr users to use the photographs in blogs and other media, the Daily Mail reported.

The Flickr account is a collaboration between Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Clarence House and is the latest attempt by the Royal Family to harness the power of new technology.

It follows the launch of the Royal Family channel on YouTube in 2007 and the establishment of the British Mon­archy Twitter account in 2009. The bank of Royal photographs will grow as new images are added to the collection.

Flickr has become a world phenomenon since its launch in 2004 and is now home to more than four billion images and around 27 million people from all over the world use Flickr to organise and share their photos on the internet.

The British Monarchy Flickr account can accessed by visiting www.flickr.com/photos/britishmonarchy

Diana Topan

Do you have what it takes to be a Times photographer?

The Times has launched the ninth Times Young Photographer of the Year Award. The competition, which for the second year running is sponsored by Canon, seeks to find the country’s best young photographer.

Prizes:

The winner will win a six-month full-time contract with The Times, where they will be trained in the skills of photojournalism. They will also receive the following Canon camera equipment:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera body

Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 L lens

EF 70-200 F/2.8 L IS lens

Canon 580EX II Speedlite flash

Each of the six finalists will also receive a year’s membership to the British Press Photographer’s Association. The finalists will have their work displayed at Canon’s Pro Photo Solutions exhibition at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London on October 26 and 27. The winner will be unveiled there in a reception hosted by the Editor of The Times.

a. Lifestyle

b. Portraiture

c. Reportage

Renowned American poet Allen Ginsberg's photographs of himself and Beat personalities are featured in first scholarly exhibition and catalogue, at the National Gallery of Art, until September 16 2010

July 23, 2010, Washington, DC /PN/ Some of the most compelling photographs taken by renowned 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) of himself and his fellow Beat poets and writers—including William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac―are the subject of the first scholarly exhibition and catalogue of these works. Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg will explore all facets of his photographs through 80 black-and-white portraits, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 2 through September 16, 2010.

The works are selected largely from a recent gift to the Gallery by Gary S. Davis as well as from private lenders. Davis acquired a master set of Ginsberg's photographs from the poet's estate, including one print of every photograph in Ginsberg's possession at the time of his death. If more than one print existed, Ginsberg's estate selected the one with the most compelling inscription. In 2008 and 2009 Davis donated more than 75 of these photographs to the National Gallery.

"We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Gary Davis for his dedication to Ginsberg's work and for his donations to the National Gallery," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "Joining other large and important holdings of photographs by such 20th-century artists as Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, André Kertész, Irving Penn, Alfred Stieglitz, and Paul Strand, this Ginsberg collection will allow future generations to study the evolution of the visual art of this important poet in all its rich complexity and to assess his contributions to 20th-century American photography."

Exhibition Support

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art.

The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Trellis Fund.

Additional support is provided by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc.

The Exhibition

The same ideas that informed Ginsberg's poetry—an intense observation of the world, a deep appreciation for the beauty of the vernacular, a faith in intuitive expression—also permeate his photographs.

When Ginsberg first began to take photographs in the 1950s, he—like countless other amateurs—had his film developed and printed at a local drugstore. The exhibition begins with a small selection of these "drugstore" prints.

The exhibition showcases examples of his now celebrated portraits of Beat writers such as Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg himself, starting just before they achieved fame with their publication, respectively, of Naked Lunch (1959), On the Road (1957), and Howl (1956), and continuing through the 1960s. In the photograph Bob Donlon (Rob Donnelly, Kerouac's ‘Desolation Angels), Neal Cassady, myself in black corduroy jacket... (1956), Ginsberg captures the tender, playful quality of his close-knit group of friends.

Photographs such as The first shopping cart street prophet I'd directly noticed... (1953) and Ginsberg's apartment at 1010 Montgomery Street, San Francisco (1953), reveal his self-taught talents and careful attention to the world around him.

The second section of the exhibition presents Ginsberg's later photographs, taken from the early 1980s until his death. These images were immediately embraced by the art world in the 1980s, and works such as Publisher-hero Barney Rosset whose Grove Press legal battles liberated U.S. literature & film…(1991) and Lita Hornick in her dining room...(1995) were exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. Prestigious institutions acquired Ginsberg's photographs for their permanent collections, and two books were published on his photographic accomplishments. Ginsberg was not simply a happy bystander, witnessing these events from afar; he was one of the most active promoters of his photography. With their handwritten captions by Ginsberg himself, often reflecting on the passage of time, his photographs are both records and recollections of an era.

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997)

Allen Ginsberg began to take photographs in 1953 when he purchased a small, secondhand Kodak camera. From then until the early 1960s, he photographed himself and his friends in New York and San Francisco, or on his travels around the world. At the same time, he was formulating his poetic voice. Ginsberg first commanded public attention in 1955 when he read his provocative and now famous poem Howl to a wildly cheering audience at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. It was published the following year by City Lights Books with an introduction by William Carlos Williams.

Together with On the Road (1957), written by Kerouac, Howl was immediately hailed as a captivating, if challenging expression of both a new voice and a new vision for American literature. Celebrating personal freedom, sexual openness, and spontaneity, Ginsberg and Kerouac came to be seen as the embodiment of a younger generation—the Beats—who were unconcerned with middle-class American values and aspirations and decried its materialism and conformity. Ginsberg abandoned photography in 1963.

In 1983, with this rich, full life largely behind him, Ginsberg became increasingly interested in ensuring and perpetuating his legacy. Inspired by the discovery of his old negatives and encouraged by photographers Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank, he reprinted much of his early photographs and made new portraits of longtime friends and other acquaintances, such as the painter Francesco Clemente and musician Bob Dylan. With his poetic voice refined, Ginsberg, also added extensive inscriptions beneath each image, describing both his relationship with the subject and his memories of their times together.

Unlike many other members of the Beat Generation whose careers were cut short, Ginsberg wrote and published deeply moving and influential poetry for the rest of his life, including Kaddish (1961), his soulful lament for his mother, and The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965 –1971 (1972), which was awarded a National Book Award in 1974. Using his fame to advance social causes, he also continued to capture public attention as an outspoken opponent to the Vietnam War and American militarism and as a champion of free speech, gay rights, and oppressed people around the world. In the midst of this popular acclaim, Ginsberg's photographs have not received much critical attention, especially in the years since his death in 1997.

Although Ginsberg's photographs form one of the most revealing records of the Beat and counterculture generation from the 1950s to the 1990s, tracing their journey from youthful characters to aging, often spent figures, his pictures are far more than historical documents. Drawing on the most common form of photography—the snapshot—he created spontaneous, uninhibited pictures of ordinary events to celebrate and preserve what he called "the sacredness of the moment."

Curator and Exhibition Catalogue

Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, is the curator of the exhibition.

Published by the National Gallery of Art and DelMonico Books, an imprint of Prestel Publishing, a fully illustrated catalogue includes an essay by Greenough, exploring the connection between Ginsberg's poetry and photography, and a 1991 interview between Ginsberg and Thomas Gladysz. The 137-page catalogue will include 92 illustrations and will be available for purchase in the Gallery Shops in hardcover and softcover. To order, please visit our Web site at http://shop.nga.gov/; call (800) 697-9350 or (202) 842-6002; fax (202) 789-3047; or e-mail mailorder@nga.gov.

General Information

Technicians cleaning birds at the Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Fort Jackson, Louisiana on Wednesday, 21 July, 2010. The center is moving further inland to Hammmond, Louisiana on Friday, July 23.

Photo © BP p.l.c.

Aneesoft Flash Gallery Classic 2.0 is a simple yet powerful flash gallery making software that helps you bring your digital photos to life and express your creativity in an ultimate way. This is very useful tool for everybody to create a Flash photo gallery for sharing on website, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook, etc. No Flash skills needed.

Whip up a flash photo gallery in just three easy steps:

Step 1: Add digital photos and sort them into the desired order. You can adjust photos with handy editing tools.

Step 2: Choose a Flash gallery template and add appropriate background music to enhance the show.

Step 3: Publish flash gallery as SWF, HTML or EXE file, or make a windows screensaver

Voila! Your creation is ready for your audience. Just embed your flash gallery to your preferred website or blog and share it with your friends or family.

System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7; 1 GHz+ processor; 512MB system memory; Adobe Flash Player 10.0; 40 MB hard drive space for installation

The program is available for $39.95, but it will be free for the Giveaway of the Day's visitors as a time-limited offer.

Download link: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/aneesoft-flash-gallery-classic-2-0/

July 20, 2010 /PN/ In an attempt to demonstrate their concern with this whole situation where the Gulf of Mexico got in the way of their oil, BP have set up a photo gallery on their official website called "Response in pictures."

Here is one of the pictures of the Houston Command Center, which was on the site until earlier today, when John Aravosis has noticed that it is a fake photo, with three cut-and-paste underwater images into a wall of video feeds from remotely operated undersea vehicles:


As Aravosis highlights, the shot has been poorly Photoshoped. Here is a close-up which allows one to see some of the cutting and pasting:


After the story was picked up by The Washington Post, BP posted a low-resolution version of the "original":

Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, said that there was nothing sinister in the photo alteration. He said that a photographer working for the company had inserted the three images in spots where the video screens were blank.

"Normally we only use Photoshop for the typical purposes of color correction and cropping," Dean said in an e-mail. "In this case they copied and pasted three ROV screen images in the original photo over three screens that were not running video feeds at the time."

John Aravosis pointed out the alterations Monday evening on his Americablog.com and observed, "I guess if you're doing fake crisis response, you might as well fake a photo of the crisis response center." The photo doctoring comes as BP has promised transparency in a bid to regain the public's trust.

Diana Topan