Street photography festival in Italy
The Italian StreetPhoto Festival, an international festival for street photographers, has been announced this week. The festival will take place in Rome, Italy between April 13-15, and will feature guest talks, workshops, photo walks, portfolio reviews and exhibitions of street photography works. There will also a be a photography competition to go with the festival, although there is little information on this at present. For a full rundown of the program, head on over to the festivals program page.
Fujifilm X-A5 compact camera released
Fujifilm this week announced the successor to its X-A3 camera, the small and compact X-A5, a 24.2MP APS-C (non-X-Trans) sensor, along with a new kit zoom lens, the Fujinon XC15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ lens. There is no viewfinder in this little camera, but it does have the ability to take the full range of x-series Fujinon lenses, This makes it an excellent gateway camera for those looking to get into the X system without shelling out for a flagship body or the more expensive compacts in the Fujifilm lineup. Of interest for Street Photographers is the inclusion of Fuji film simulations, and the relatively small and compact size, although it must be said the companion zoom might make pocketing this bad boy a little difficult compared to say, the Ricoh GR. In Australia, The X-A5 and 15-45mm lens will be sold as a kit locally, and will have an RRP of AU$899. In the US it has a sticker price of sub $600.
Aussie Street Photography Competition for Head On Photo Festival
Aussie Street have teamed up with Head On Photo Festival for a $1000 first prize and exhibition at this year's festival in May. ussie Street was established in 2017 by a group of like-minded photographers from around Australia. The collective showcases the best street photography from around Australia and will hold exhibitions, competitions and workshops in 2018.
You can follow the Aussie Street team on Instagram at @Aussie_Street and dont forget to @mention that @zonefocus sent you.
Instagram introduces post scheduling
Instagram has been in the news this week, with a change that sort of kinda benefits photographers...well, sort of. Instagram has introduced the ability to schedule posts for its business accounts. This is a feature that a lot of power users of instagram and certainly serious photographers have been wanting for quite a long time. It’s a convenience feature more than anything, though as instagram feed is not chronological and therefore the time that you post is not really relevant any longer. However if you only have limited time during the week to turn your attention to instagram, this will help to batch schedule your uploads for times that will allow you to spread posts throughout the week. As of writing it is still only available via third party apps and services, most of which are paid (think Hootsuite etc) and you do need a business account to make it work. If you are interested in this kind of thing it may be worth a look. I know my social media management service of choice, Buffer, are working on it.
Add some interest to your instagram street stories
Speaking of instagram, here is a cool little trick to make your Instagram stories just that little bit more interesting. Peter McKinnon's latest YouTube upload details the steps needed to created a story that uses a fade effect to bring in elements of a photograph and add some visual interest. You will need Photoshop and Premiere Pro, but I am sure there are other ways to achieve the same effect.
If you are interested in giving it a go check out Peter's video starting around the 6" mark, and give me a link to what you make in the comments below.
That’s all for now, see you next time.