A photography professor at Coventry University in England is publishing his undergraduate-level photography classes online and in an app, making instruction and education available for free to photographers all over the world.

Picbod (Picturing the Body) and Phonar (Photography and Narrative) are, respectively, second- and third year undergraduate classes taught by photographer Jonathan Worth. Students who are not enrolled in Coventry University can follow the courses online, and can also choose to participate by asking questions, making comments and submitting photographic work they do based on class assignments. Those who choose to follow the classes can also listen to lessons and guest lectures from photographers like Elinor Carucci and Grant Scott. Comments, and links to articles and information of interest, are also shared amongst the students via the #picbod and #phonar Twitter hashtags, and via course Facebook pages, further fostering the community feel of the courses. All of the material also lives on the Web sites and in the app, so outside students can take the courses at their own pace. The material will be updated as each new class at Coventry University is taught. (more…)

Yes, the Super Bowl was nearly a month ago and no, our beloved NY Jets did not make it again this year (though Rex Ryan “guarantees” next year will be our year) but we still think you’ll enjoy the below video showing how Sports Illustrated photographers covered the big game.

Remember the days when there were “film” runners? Well, now there are fleet-footed “card” runners helping to move over 11,000 images per hour from 11 Sports Illustrated photographers at the Super Bowl. That’s a lot of photos of men in yellow spandex! See how they handled it:

© Jeff Rich. River Clean-up on the Swannanoa River, Asheville, North Carolina

Earlier this week Photolucida announced that Jeff Rich was selected as the 2010 Critical Mass Book Award winner for his survey of the French Broad River Basin watershed in North Carolina and Tennessee. Rich’s project includes landscapes, documentary images of cleanup workers and people using the French Broad for recreation, and portraits of people who live near the river.

“In the 1950s The French Broad River was one of the most polluted in the country,” Rich writes in his artist’s statement. But, he notes, the French Broad Watershed was cleaned up after the 1972 Clean Water Act was passed. However, “Due to weak enforcement of the Clean Water Act’s mandates and consistent non-point source pollution, the French Broad River is now becoming less healthy for the first time since the passage of the Clean Water Act, which threatens the reversal of such enormous progress.”

Rich’s work was recognized by a panel of 215 photography industry professionals. 549 photographers entered the Critical Mass competition this year.

The 31st annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International 2011 officially kicked off Thursday, February 17th with WPPI U, a two-day workshop geared towards emerging photographers who were given the opportunity to learn lighting, marketing and postproduction from pro photographers including Jerry Ghionis, Cliff Mautner, Doug Gordon and Dane Sanders. Sanders, author of Fast Track Photographer and Fast Track Photographer Business Plan, emphasized that photographers need to value their worth and not sell themselves short to clients, advice that seemed to be an underlying theme throughout the week’s course lineup.

Platform classes later in the week drew thousands of attendees, all of whom seemed interested in learning how to increase their business and continue making money in a bad economy. Popular topics ranged from how to price your wedding packages and upsell to clients to why you should be embracing new ways of storytelling, including the use of DSLRs that also record audio and shoot HD.

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Photographer Jim Krantz spent four days in the Colorado mountains working with an extensive crew, a RED Camera, and the Canon EOS 5D on a job which also resulted in a piece for himself called “The Way of The West,” consisting of a mini booklet and accompanying DVD. “I was the project’s  live-action director and still photographer,” Krantz says. “That process allowed me to shoot photos, capture live-action footage and later, pull stills from the RED camera motion footage.”  To read more about what Krantz terms his “transmedia” promo, check out Right Stuff in PDN’s May print issue.

The self-proclaimed King of All Media Howard Stern has added another medium to his media arsenal: digital photography. Stern, who hosts a show on Sirius Satellite Radio, just tweeted thanks to “the good folks” at Adorama Camera in New York City for helping him purchase a Nikon D7000 digital SLR.

Contrary to what some Stern critics might say, the controversial radio host has good taste (at least when it comes to DSLRs). We named the D7000 camera of the year for 2010.

Happy shooting Howard and looking forward to seeing your pics! (As long as they’re not of your private parts!)

Click on the picture to watch the video!

So you’ve heard of WIN-Initiative, an alternative boutique stock agency, right?

If you haven’t, there’s no doubt that you will soon. WIN is becoming more and more visible on the photo industry radar.

What’s going on at WIN? We’re shaking things up by pursuing authentic, provocative and inspiring images.

Can stock really be a fun way to make an additional stream of income? Yes, we want to show you a way that is “stock monster” free. We focus on artistic work so you can enjoy being creative again.

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Attention procrastinators:
Due to overwhelming demand and the high-volume of last-minute submissions received yesterday, PDN has extended the deadline to enter the Photo Annual until Monday, February 21, at Midnight EST with no further late fee. Forms and rules can be found at www.pdnphotoannual.com.

But we urge all of you procrastinators out there: Please do not to wait until 11:45 pm EST on Monday to start filling out forms and entering your photos, videos and Web sites, or to contact the tech team with questions or concerns you may have as you upload your entries. The jury of curators, photo editors,book publishers, art buyers and art directors have to  begin the  judging very soon!

Go to www.pdnphotoannual.com now, while you’re calm, and enter your best work.

The Arizona Republic is reporting that Tucson photographer Jon Wolf and his attorney, Ed Greenberg of New York, demanded $125,000 from the newspaper’s owner for unauthorized use of Wolf’s image of Chrstina-Taylor Green.

Green was the nine-year-old girl killed in Tucson on January 8 when a gunman opened fire on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a supermarket. Numerous media outlets, including The Arizona Republic, published Wolf’s portraits of Green without permission.

An attorney for Gannett Co., which owns The Arizona Republic,  says in the newspaper’s report that Gannett “respects intellectual property” and will pay a “standard licensing fee” for its use of the photo. The Gannett attorney doesn’t specify what that fee will be, but says it will be “far shy” of $125,000.

Wolf and Greenberg have been taking a beating in the Tucson media for their efforts to collect fees from media outlets all over the country that used Wolf’s image without permission.

A week ago, Greenberg told PDN he believed that the unauthorized use of Wolf’s images by media outlets around the country was “the most expansive infringement of a photographer’s copyright in history by far.” He was poised to file suit in federal court on Wolf’s behalf to force the Associated Press, The New York Times, AOL, The Wall Street Journal and a number of other media outlets to pay up. But in the face of harsh criticism–including a public dressing down from Christina-Taylor Green’s family–Wolf announced on his blog earlier this week that he wouldn’t file suit just yet.

Wolf is feeling the backlash on Facebook. More than 1,200 people have endorsed a call on the social networking site for a boycott of his business.

Tucson’s ABC affiliate, KGUN, has aired several reports which have helped stoke public sentiment against Wolf and Greenberg. The station has described Greenberg as the New York attorney Wolf hired “to shake money out of some media outlets.”

The station has also depicted Greenberg and Wolf as being in a rush to profit from the photo by registering copyright the first business day after the shootings took place, and by getting the Green family to sign a release on that same day to license the photo to the media.

Related story: Public Outcry Stalls Lawsuit Over Portraits of Tucson Shooting Victim

No, just because you own a Canon Digital Rebel doesn’t mean you should become a wedding photographer. To wit, check out these horrendous amateur wedding photos and try to understand why any self-respecting bride or groom would settle for paying less when booking a photographer.

Some wedding pros we know might do well to link to this page on their website to prove to clients how bad it can get if they decide to go the cheap route.