Eyelevel Gallery launch

Anglesey-based photographer Adrian Cann launches
EYELEVEL GALLERY - a new Virtual Gallery space
to showcase photography online when bricks & mortar Galleries are closed.

Eyelevel Gallery’s first exhibition features work by photographer Philip Butler titled ‘Small Hours’.

Inspired by the 1977 John Martyn track of the same name - a brooding nocturnal soundscape recorded across a lake at 3 a.m. - Small Hours is a collection of photographs produced to document the peaceful cinematic atmosphere that isolated points of artificial light create after the sun has set. Captured in and around his small hometown of Malvern, Butler wandered the streets after dark searching for inspiration.

His photographs have been published in a number of different magazines and newspapers including C20 Magazine, RPS Journal, La Vangaurdia, Digital Camera, The Modernist and The Guardian.

Ffoton’s Brian Carroll spoke with Eyelevel Gallery curator Adrian about Small Hours, the inspiration to create the new website, its aims and submission guidelines for photographers interested in having work featured. Listen to their conversation in the audio below.

Philip Butler’s Small Hours photobook

Eyelevel Gallery opens its virtual doors to the public on Saturday 20 February 2021 at www.eyelevelgallery.co.uk

The Small Hours exhibition us free to view and runs 20 February - 1 May 2021. A selection of prints are also available for sale on the site.

You can view more of Philip Butler’s work on his website > www.philipbutlerphotography.com
The Small Hours photobook is available via the ADM Publishing online store > www.artdecomagpie.bigcartel.com

You can listen to John Martyn’s atmospheric Small Hours free on Spotify here >

Ffoton Socials return online

Join us for new supportive community discussions and guest talks as we double-up on our popular Monthly Ffoton photography socials -now online during Covid-19 lockdown

We’re excited to announce the return of a double-dose of our monthly Ffoton socials online via Zoom in the immediate future.

AVAILABLE IN TWO FLAVOURS!

We will be hosting Ffoton Socials every second and fourth Thursday of each month: one being a small, friendly and supportive Community Discussion social between twelve people; and the other with a guest speaker talking about their work or services contributing to the wider photography community.

These online Ffoton Socials are not only a unique opportunity for those new to or studying photography to meet and engage with other photographers in a relaxed, friendly and supportive environment but also offer a platform to build new relationships for ongoing discusson, advice and personal & professional development.

• Monthly Community Discussion Socials are free to join but limited to twelve participants on a first-come first-served basis.
  Places can be booked using the form at the bottom of this page.

• Our Guest Speaker Socials have lots of places available at just £3.00 per place/event or £5.00 for two events (one event per month). Places can be booked via our online store here.

---

Guest Speaker SocialS

Thursday 25 February 2021

Euan Ross - photographer and founder of Biblioscapes.com

Euan Ross is a Glasgow-based photographer and founder of Biblioscapes.com - a website and Podcast which he describes as "the digital library of my personal collection of photobooks".

Euan is being modest - we think the Biblioscapes website is more than that!

Biblioscapes hosts an extensive and growing library of video flip-throughs of the photobooks in Euan's collection with new entries added weekly. In late 2020, Euan added a 'In Discussion' section to the website - a Podcast in which he talks with the artists, photographers, book designers and publishers who have worked on the books in his collection.

Euan will share his background in photobook collecting and the fascinating ‘origin story’ of Biblioscapes and its ongoing development with a new Podcast series. There will be an audience Q&A and discussion.

Book a ticket for this event here >

---

Thursday 25 March 2021

Cary Benbow - independent writer on photography

Indiana, USA-based Cary Benbow is an independent writer, editor, staff writer at F-Stop Magazine and photographer.

Cary's articles, interviews and book reviews have been published widely in a number of online and print magazines and he's a regular contributor to the popular F-Stop Magazine on Medium. He is also the publisher of Wobneb Magazine

With photography articles and reviews being important components in promoting new work, exhibitions and photobooks and those delivered online gaining more popularity and large audiences, Cary will talk of his background in writing on photography and his approach to keeping a finger on the pulse of good work being produced internationally. This event is a great opportunity for photographers to interact directly with a knowledgable writer based in the USA but whose work reaches audiences worldwide.
There will be an audience Q&A and discussion.

Book a ticket for this event here >

---

Community Discussion Socials

Complete the form below if you’d like to join our first Community Discussion Social.
Places will be allocated to the first twelve respondees.

Pixelrights offer 30% discount to Ffoton followers

Announced a few weeks back with our sixth #urbanwales ticket winner for The EYE International Photography Festival, Pixelrights have partnered with Ffoton to offer our followers and Podcast subscribers a massive 30% discount on all new Pixelrights online portfolio accounts - for the lifetime of the account!!

If you're looking to refresh your photography website or create your very first online photography portfolio to promote your work, take a few moments (or 14 days with the free trial!) to explore the features offered by Pixelrights and compare them to other hosted website alternatives. We're sure you'll agree that the 30% discount (for the lifetime of your account) offers fantastic value for money, with the added benefit of leading-edge technology working behind the scenes to protect your image copyright. 

We've provided some of the background to their new technology below, but have a look at this in-depth interview with Pixelrights executives on Shutterbug for more detail on the copyright security advances made by the company.

Pixel rights, based here in the UK, have created their new .PXLR image format for the benefit of the online photographic and creative community. The .PXLR image format improves the rendering of your images on screen and helps to protect your photos from accidental and intended theft, through the use of technology and notifying/educating visitors to your website.

View fullsize

For those interested in the technical wizardry behind the scenes, here's what happens when you upload one of your photograph JPEG's to your Pixelrights account...
Pixelrights image server converts the original JPEG into the encrypted .PXLR format, creating ready-to-transmit image data files at several sizes which are cached on their servers, in increments of 50-100px.
When the SmartFrame is rendered in the front end, the most appropriate size is selected and displayed. In order to achieve 100% pixel-perfect rendering, SmartFrame can be set to resize in the same increments as the cached image data files. 
This is the technique used in all Pixelrights portfolios and it helps to avoid blurred images and render quality visuals each time, particularly noticeable when resizing patterns and thin lines.