As a photographer who specialises in family and newborn images, Louise’s timeless images aim to tell a story about each family. She does this by creating a relaxed and organic atmosphere to capture the raw beauty of the special bond between family members. “If the subjects aren’t fully relaxed, then it shows,” Louise says. “But taking a short break to reset can really help.” Lots of patience is required, especially with newborns but, having young children of her own, she understands what’s required to get the balance between the perfect shot and a happy and calm family.

Louise prefers working in her clients’ homes and shooting with natural light. “For this shot, we were in their apartment, which had high ceilings and was flooded with natural light,” she says. “Capturing babies and young children requires you to increase your shutter speed as there are sudden movements and changes in facial expressions.” With her background in design, Louise uses a mixture of textures and fabrics to create further depth and interest. “The new mother chose a beautiful dress from a collection I have for these sessions. The delicate sleeves add a touch of elegance to the image,” she says.

In post-production, Louise carried out some basic editing steps, adding some texture around the newborn’s hairline to ensure she visually dominated the frame. “Newborns tend to have a red undertone to their skin, which quite often has patches and pimples, so I took the saturation down along with the texture,” she explains. “Once I had removed the main blemishes, the skin appeared much smoother but I avoided heavy airbrushing to keep the subject looking natural.”

Louise B is a London-based photographer. Her career started with working in fashion design, where part of her job was Product Photography. Later Louise worked at at WGSN, a world-leading trend forecasters, with clients such as Vogue and Alexander Mc Queen to name a few. After the birth of her first child, she pursued her long passion for photography, enrolling on a course at the British Academy of Photography. Louise is also a supporter and volunteer for the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) which supports parents through birth and early parenthood. 

Tech details

Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.8
Aperture: f/1.8
Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
ISO: 320

On Friday, April 24, Oppo India held the Oppo Ambassador Conclave in Mumbai to showcase the Find X7 Ultra and announce the Imagine IF Photography Awards contest. The initiative, with renowned director and screenwriter SS Rajamouli as its Indian ambassador, aims to inspire creativity in mobile photography. Oppo launched the Imagine IF Photography Awards globally in 2023, and this marks its inaugural year in India. The first edition of the awards saw over 700,000 entries from 51 countries.

Imagine IF Photography Awards 2024: Contest details, prizes

Participants can submit their smartphone photographs for ‘Round 1’ until June 15th (midnight IST). From these entries, 50 winners will be announced in the last week of June and proceed to Round 2. The second phase will begin in early July, with the final six winners announced on July 25th, 2024.

The competition is open to all Indian citizens over the age of 18. There are nine entry categories: landscape, portrait, colours, unfading moment, fashion, snapshot, light, travel, and collection. A panel of expert photographers will judge the entries, including celebrity wedding and portrait photographer and Oppo Imaging Expert Joseph Radhik, wildlife photographer Arzoo Khurana, fashion photographer Arjun Mark, and other global judges.

The Gold winner will receive a cash prize of Rs 5,00,000, two Silver winners will receive Rs 2,00,000 each, and three Bronze winners will receive Rs 1,00,000 each. Additionally, all five winners will have the opportunity to attend the 2024 Paris Show, receive the latest Oppo phone, and collaborate with Oppo India on photography-led projects. For more information, visit the official event website at https://imagine-if.oppo.com/en/categories/?dataTab=guide. Oppo India encourages all mobile photographers to seize this exciting opportunity to explore their artistic expression and bring their creativity to life.

Oppo Find X7 Ultra showcased in India

These details were announced during the Oppo Ambassador Conclave in Mumbai, which began with the unveiling of the Find X7 Ultra. Unfortunately, the X7 series, despite being one of the best photography-focused phones of the year, is only available in the Chinese market.

Industry leaders, influencers, and Oppo ambassadors attended the event. Rajeev Masand (COO, Dharma Cornerstone), Anubhav Sinha (Director), Sudeep Chatterjee (DOP), Monaz Todywalla (CEO, PHD Media India), and Raj Kamble (COO, Famous) led discussions on the evolution of smartphone photography, AI advancements, and the rise of content creators.

“As an artist, I’ve always believed in pushing the boundaries of creativity, exploring uncharted territories, and inspiring others to do the same,” said SS Rajamouli. “The Oppo Imagine IF India Photography Awards 2024 represents a bold step towards celebrating innovation and imagination in mobile photography, and I am thrilled to be a part of this initiative. Let’s capture the extraordinary, let’s imagine the impossible, and let’s create a legacy of inspiration for generations to come.”

Sushant Vashistha, Head of Digital Marketing, Oppo India, said, “Oppo India is proud to bring the Imagine IF Photography Awards to the country, providing a platform to showcase the incredible talent of Indian photographers… This year, we can’t wait to see some incredible photographs from India being showcased on the global stage.”

My inputs

I was fortunate enough to attend the Oppo Ambassador Conclave, and it was an inspiring experience. The discussions on mobile photography’s evolution were incredibly insightful. Oppo’s dedication to pushing the limits of smartphone cameras is evident, and the Imagine IF Photography Awards serve as a testament to this commitment. I’m eager to see the stunning images that Indian photographers will submit for this exciting contest.

I have been using the Find X7 Ultra for the past few days and I am impressed by its camera capabilities. It is unfortunate that the X7 series won’t be released in India. However, the discussions about Oppo’s commitment to innovation leave me hopeful that the Find X8 series, rumored to arrive next year, will be available in the Indian market.

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Editor’s note: This interview is the fifth in a series highlighting professionals at work in the Chesapeake Bay arena. Listen to the full interviews in our Chesapeake Uncharted podcast.

For Jay Fleming, a body of water is his body of work.

Over the past decade and a half, the Annapolis native has devoted himself to visually documenting the Chesapeake Bay. His Nikon camera freezes in time indelible images of life on and underneath the water: sea-cured men dredging for oysters, blue crabs bobbing, wading birds wading and skipjacks casting rippling reflections in the tide.

Along the way, Fleming, 36, has established himself as one of the region’s top nature photographers. He has compiled his photographs into a pair of books: Working the Water (2016) and Island Life (2021). His work has also been seen on display at gallery exhibits and gracing the walls of countless businesses and homes.

His mother is an official with the Maryland Department of Natural resources, and his father is a former National Geographic staff photographer. It might seem like he was practically born into the business, but his initial path was circuitous.

Fleming graduated from St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland with a degree in economics. After stints with the Maryland DNR and the National Park Service at Yellowstone, he found his calling as a photographer for Maryland’s seafood marketing program. Within a few years, he left that job to concentrate on his own photography full time.

In addition to selling his prints, he shoots assignments for glossy magazines and leads photography workshops on the Bay and around the world.

“Every time I’m out on the water and I can watch the sun come up, I consider myself fortunate,” he said. “When I’m out on the water on a Monday and I think about all the people I know who have to sit in an office, I know that I picked the right path for myself.”

The Bay Journal caught up with Fleming during a rare moment on land at his office and gallery on Maryland’s Kent Island. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: How did you end up pursuing the Bay as the subject of your art?

Answer: I grew up in a photography family. My dad [Kevin Fleming] was a photographer. He basically shot for about 50 years, and he worked for National Geographic. My dad was over in Delaware, and we would always go out shooting together. And it got to a point where we got really competitive when I was, like, 15 years old.

Sometimes, I was actually shooting better pictures than him, which bothered him. But we still enjoyed it. At a certain point, I realized I needed to find my own territory. I had grown up on the Bay fishing and crabbing, kayaking, all that, so that’s when I kind of took a deep dive into what was going on in the Bay.

Q: Did you ever take any formal photography classes?

A: Nope. I took AP studio art in high school. But other than that, no formal training — just learning on my own and learning by mistake.

Q: You’ve been successful working your way into the waterman culture. How were you able to win that trust?

A: What I do is an incredibly valuable marketing tool for the seafood industry. It’s bridging the gap between the seafood harvesters, the seafood processors and then the consumer. So, it’s educating people as to where the product is coming from, the process by which it’s being brought to shore and the people who are involved with it.

Q: So, you call up a waterman and say, “Hey, can I hop on your boat with you at 5 a.m.?”

A: Pretty much, yeah. There’s a little more to it than that. But finding the right boat to go out with involves finding the people who are following the [regulatory and legal] rules because people who aren’t following the rules — they’re not going to want to be photographed.

Q: Tell me about your first book, Working the Water.

A: That idea of documenting the whole seafood industry was really inspired by a couple of people. Art Daniels, who was a skipjack captain on Deal Island, was the first one who led me out to shoot pictures on a workboat. I went out dredging with him in the winter. I connected with him through his grandson, Lee Daniels, who works for the state now. I got to see that whole process, and I really became interested in seeing more of it.

Q: The number of watermen on the Bay continues to dwindle. Sea level rise threatens many remaining islands. Does that drive you, this idea that “if I don’t do this now, it may be lost to history”?

A: Absolutely. That was how I felt about my [second] book, Island Life, even more. Smith Island and Tangier Island [the Bay’s last inhabited offshore islands] have changed a lot since I started working on that book in 2010. I shot a picture of the last house on Holland Island about six months before it went into the water [in 2010]. That picture’s become somewhat of a historical piece because it was, like, the last time anybody went out there and really documented that house before it was completely gone.

Q: It gives you an appreciation for what the future might be.

A: I saw Holland Island foreshadowing what could happen to Smith Island and Tangier Island. A lot of other islands in the Bay have disappeared or are disappearing, so it’s not a new phenomenon. But the idea of having these active communities with a working seafood economy still happening on them going away within our lifetimes is pretty scary. And I knew that I needed to document that.

Q: Is there anything we can do to help these communities?

A: Buy local seafood and ask where your seafood is coming from. As an individual, that’s what you can do to support the seafood industry: Buy local seafood.

Q: The current Chesapeake Bay cleanup agreement expires in 2025. Do you have any advice on restoring the Bay going forward?

A: I think a lot of emphasis needs to be put on these [invasive] blue catfish. I think we spend a lot of effort and money on projects that really have no tangible deliverables. There’s nothing where we can say, “Oh, look what we’ve done.” You need some sort of suppression program, [so] you could go and say, “Look, we killed 2 million blue catfish.”

Listen to the full interview at bayjournal.com/podcasts.

Follow Moderator, BoredPanda staff

Hey there, Pandas! My name is Diana (though some prefer to refer to me as Diane, Deanna, and even Liana sometimes), and I am a Community Post Moderator Lead for Bored Panda.

As my position title states, I am one of the people (employed Pandas for bamboo) over here who work with the community side of things on this website to ensure all is well, and while at that, I also help various creators and artists get recognition for the incredible work they do by connecting them to a large worldwide audience.

Other than that, outside of work, you can find me brewing a nice cup of coffee, making a pizza from scratch, or baking brownies. I also love traveling, concerts, and cats (heavy on that, because I am a cat mom).

Read more »

Delhi: Oppo India has announced the imagine IF Photography Awards in the country. The initiative—with Director and Screenwriter, SS Rajamouli as its Indian ambassador—is aimed to spark creativity in mobile photography. 

Oppo launched the imagine IF Photography Awards globally in 2023. The inaugural edition of the Awards witnessed over 7,00,000 entries from 51 countries. This is the second year for imagine IF, and its first foray into India.
 
“As an artist, I’ve always believed in pushing the boundaries of creativity, exploring uncharted territories, and inspiring others to do the same,” Rajamouli said. “The OPPO imagine IF India Photography Awards 2024 represents a bold step towards celebrating innovation and imagination in mobile photography, and I am thrilled to be a part of this initiative. Let’s capture the extraordinary, let’s imagine the impossible, and let’s create a legacy of inspiration for generations to come.”

The competition, open to all Indian citizens over 18 years, features nine entry categories—Landscape, Portrait, Colours, Unfading Moment, Fashion, Snapshot, Light, Travel, and Collection—and will be judged by a panel of photographers: Celebrity Wedding and Portrait photographer and Oppo Imaging Expert Joseph Radhik, Wildlife photographer Arzoo Khurana, Fashion photographer Arjun Mark, and other global juries. 

Sushant Vashistha, Head of Digital Marketing, Oppo India, said, “Oppo India is proud to bring the Imagine IF Photography Awards to the country, providing a platform to showcase the incredible talent of Indian photographers. As the sole smartphone brand featured in Paris Photo 2023, Oppo showcased a collection of outstanding images, including those by renowned photographers and winning entries from the 2023 Oppo Imagine IF Photography Awards. This year, we can’t wait to see some incredible photographs from India being showcased on the global stage.”

Participants can share their smartphone photographs for ‘Round 1’ until June 15, 2024 (Midnight IST). From these, 50 winners—announced in the last week of June—will proceed to Round 2. This second phase will commence in early July, and the final six winners will be announced on July 25, 2024. 

From the top winners, the Gold winner will be awarded a cash prize of INR 5,00,000, two Silver winners will win INR 2,00,000, three Bronze winners will win INR 1,00,000. All five winners will get the opportunity to attend the Paris Show and the latest Oppo phone, besides getting an opportunity to collaborate with Oppo India for the photography led projects.

The awards were announced on the sidelines of the Oppo Ambassador Conclave in Mumbai that commenced with the unveiling of the OPPO Find X7 Ultra. 

Industry leaders, influencers, and Oppo Ambassadors, including Rajeev Masand, COO, Dharma Cornerstone; Anubhav Sinha, Director; Sudeep Chatterjee, DOP, Monaz Todywalla, CEO, PHD Media India; and Raj Kamble, COO, Famous, led discussions on the evolution of smartphone photography, AI advancements, and the rise of content creators. 

The third edition of the Flotsam surf film and photography festival kicks off on the Gold Coast tomorrow.

The celebration was born out of a desire to showcase the creative side of the surf industry which took a big hit during the Covid-19 pandemic as border controls and rules on how much time you could spend outside left photographers and filmmakers severely restricted.

Over the next 12 days the non-for-profit association will be hosting an eclectic mix of pop up short film installations, photography exhibitions, movie screenings, workshops and photo meets. Each of these offerings will feature work from some of the biggest photographers in the industry.

One of the biggest event being held across the 12 days is the Flotsam International Masters of Surf Launch which is being dubbed as “arguably the largest exhibition of leading surf photographers ever assembled”. The showcase has been curated by lens man Ted Grambeau and features a single image chosen by over 30 photographers including Andrew Shield, Christa Funk, Corey Wilson, Jason Childs, Todd Glaser and more.

The exhibition will be held on 3 May and includes a cocktail lunch at the Kirra Beach House. Every photo will go under the hammer and the proceeds will be donated to each photographer’s chosen beneficiary.

On 5 May the “Surf Girls” exhibition will feature a number of women’s surfing films and shorts. It will be shown at the Tugun Village Community Centre. Ecuadorian born, Australian-raised surfer Pacha Light will be on hand, alongside filmmakers Lucy Small and Maddie Meddings to share behind-the-scenes stories from the films which aim to show the evolution of women’s surfing.

The third stop of the Tracks Party tour has also been included as part of the festival. On 10 May surf punk band Goons of Doom and genre-bending act DJ Eddy will take to the Coolangatta Hotel for a night of partying, dancing and all round carnage.

To learn more about the festival and purchase tickets for the various offerings, click here.