Press Release - Black and White Spider Awards honours Plymouth, UK photographer

Here's the press release I issued yesterday/today

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS HONORS PHOTOGRAPHER HIGHTON RIDLEY FROM PLYMOUTH, UK
PLYMOUTH 24 FEBRUARY 2010 - Amateur photographer Highton Ridley of Plymouth, UK was presented with the 5th Annual Black and White Spider Awards Nominee title in the category of Nature at a prestigious Nomination & Winners Photo Show attended by 35,000 online viewers who logged on live from 154 countries to see the climax of the industry's most important event for black and white photography.
Thousands of images were received from 68 countries worldwide. The awards international Jury included captains of the industry from Magnum Photos, The Armory Show, Fratelli Alinari, Contrasto to Tate and Hamiltons in London who honored Spider Fellows with 84 coveted title awards in 28 categories. The judges reviewed the entries online for eight weeks before making their final nominations and Highton Ridley's "Haystack and Tracks" an exceptional image entered in the Nature category, received a high percentage of votes overall.
"The Spider Awards celebrates photographers who operate at the highest levels of their craft," said Basil O'Brien, the awards Creative Director. "Highton Ridley's work represents black and white photography at its finest, and we're pleased to present him with the title of Nominee."
You can view the 5th Annual Winners Gallery at www.thespiderawards.com/gallery5 and Highton Ridley's Nominee image here http://www.thespiderawards.com/gallery5/gallery.php?x=a&cid=45&g=n
BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS is the leading international award honoring excellence in black and white photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in black and white photography.
Contact: Highton Ridley (Mark)
Telephone: (removed)
Email: Highton.Ridley [@] gmail.com
Website: http://www.highton-ridley.co.uk/monochrome

I sent it to the local newspapers and local tv news. If anyone knows of other good places to send it, I'd love to hear...

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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See my award-winning shot - now in official Spider Gallery

I announced a while ago that Haystack and Tracks reached nominee status, one step before winner, in the 5th Annual Black and White Spider Awards...

Official Notification

Well, yesterday I got an email from the Awards Team giving me the official Nominee Button, telling me that my Nominee shot is now in their official gallery and that my certificate would be sent in the post sometime in April

Great news and it gave me such a lift. I'll definitely be framing and hanging the certificate in pride of place on the wall!

Haystack and Tracks

You can buy cards, posters and canvases featuring this image from my online store...



comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Wowee! I made it as a nominee in the 5th Annual Spider B&W Awards!!

I was dumbfounded to find out I made it to nominee status in the 5th Annual Spider B&W Awards!!

Haystack and Tracks

I'm over the moon about it because the winners get chosen from the "nominees". Here is the image, it got chosen for the Nature category:

Haystack and Tracks

...and here is the Spider Awards page it's on.

I didn't get chosen as a winner though :( so that means I just got pipped at the post! but who cares? A nominee! Woohoo!!

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Tutorial on using my new Zazzlit Gadget on your blog or web site

After something like five or six intense days, I've finished both my Zazzlit Gadget and the tutorial on adding and using it.

What is it?

Regular readers will know that I've recently opened a Zazzle shop (basically they make it dead easy to get your images onto products. No set-up fees.)

In these tough economic times, sales of my work through my web site have dropped off. People aren't really spending on fine art the way they used to. Not mine, anyway (and I keep hearing the same story from other artists).

The shop is a way to offer my work, albeit in a different way, at a much more affordable price. And it's starting to work.

So what is the Zazzlit Gadget? It's a way for Zazzle storekeepers to display just the products they want, in a small gadget in their blogger side panel or on their web site. Zazzle provide a couple of brilliant panels but they don't allow you to narrow down the products displayed.

But my Zazzlit does! I had to write it because I couldn't find one anywhere that did the job half decently, one that any shopkeeper could use. The thing about the Zazzlit Gadget is that I can put one on each of my sites / blogs and get them to display the type of gear most suitable to the folks who visit those places.

Tutorial - a piece of cake

My tutorial shows you in 5 easy-to-follow steps, with live working examples, how to point and click a Zazzlit onto your blogger blog.

Another revenue trickle / stream is always good...

I'd encourage any of the serious artists who follow me to sign up for a Zazzle shop - apart from the effort in uploading images and applying them to products, any sales made are pure profit. If you do, get things moving by using Zazzlit.

I'm not saying this is an instant earner but if you already sell your work and have a good handful or two of regular followers, then with Zazzlit you should see some additional revenue.

As usual, I'm after your feedback. What I want to know is, was the tutorial easy to follow and understand or did it frighten you?!

Secondly would you/will you use Zazzlit on your Zazzle store or does it have any drawbacks that need fixing?

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Christmas prize draw

I can't quite call this a freebie draw because it's only open to those who have made a purchase from my zazzle store.

What's up for grabs?

Win a mounted, signed fine art print, your choice of print. They sell for around £75 ($125) in the galleries where I have work. Imagine it, you buy something from my shop as a Christmas present for someone else and you could win the print of your choice for yourself!

As usual, there will be three winners (if enough folks enter) selected from The Hat of Wonder And Hope.

Rules

[Update] Ends 14th December

• Buy something from my zazzle shop (see panel below)
• Make a post about it on your own blog
• In your post, link to my shop using http:zazzle.co.ukhightonridley* as the destination url (note the asterisk on the end)
  
• Comment on this post to let me know you're in and what you bought. Or if you prefer, email me at highton dot ridley (at) gmail.com to tell me instead.
  

Just think, with three prizes an' all, if I only make a few sales, you're almost bound to win!

There's funny, romantic and inspirational cards and wares available here:

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Doh!

I had a Doh! moment when I sent out my occasional mailing earlier. I mentioned that you, my great followers, with all your interaction, have helped me to become a Gooogle-recommended example site -- yay! \o/

And I forgot to give a link to it! So without further ado, here it is, Google's page of example sites that are using Friend Connect effectively.

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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My first Zazzle award!

As you know, I've just opened a zazzle shop (I think US folks have to use the US version of my shop to see the prices in dollars—let me know if otherwise, please.)

Lucky day for some...

Well on Friday 13th I happened to notice I was getting postings on my zazzle wall from peeps congratulating me on my "TBA". As I'm a complete zazzle newbie, I had no idea what this was. Some digging around later and I see it's quite an accolade—a Todays Best Award.

The product was a greetings / note card featuring my barbican steps image.

How exciting!

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Curve Of The Neck published by the BBC

Part of my ongoing publicity push...

Getting published by the BBC

I regularly submit to the BBC News, In Pictures site—Your Pictures section.

This time I submitted a selection of my shots to the "minimal" category and they published Curve Of The Neck, one of the favourites amongst the followers here.

Curve Of The Neck

I guess it's limited to UK folks, but anyway, you can see the upcoming set themes and details of how to submit on their Viewfinder Blog. The themes over the next four weeks are:

• Autumn
• Seven
• Sparkle
• Grey
  

If you enter, good luck!

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Another shortlisted for Photographer of the Year 2009

Haystack And Tracks

I posted earlier about Walking The Dogs being shortlisted for possible selection by the Editors in this year's Photographer of the Year competition. Well they've now chosen Haystack And Tracks too! Which is nice :)

Let's hope that the editors like them enough to shortlist them into the final :)

Haystack And Tracks

Here is the entry on the competition web site.


comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Gallery and Google news

another eventful couple of days...

Gallery news

I'm really pleased with myself today....

Exhibition confirmed

I went to a coffee morning in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Support charity at the Gallery Guest House and while I was there,  Karen confirmed they'll be hanging work from me in November (map).

And a new Gallery!

Also, after visiting a couple of places, I dropped into the Art And Soul Gallery, Stoke Village, Plymouth (map) with my just-framed Pony Triptych and Bev was pleased to agree to hang it there and then.

Google Friend Connect want my site as an example

I got an email out of the blue yesterday from the Google product manager for Friend Connect. He'd seen my main site and was impressed both by the way I've integrated their social gadgets and the level of visitor interaction with them. He asked me for permission to use my site as an example, to use my profile photo and also for a quote about Friend Connect.

So a big Thank You to all my followers / members of my site for helping make this happen!

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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BBC Devon lead story - Highton Ridley photo essay

Yaaay!

Moved up to lead story today!

My photo essay "Plymouth - Intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character" is featured as the lead story on the BBC Devon web site.

As a result (or just coincidence?) I've had enquiries from two galleries already! And I've still got to send an email to a whole bunch of them in Devon, so maybe should get some more interest.

Wish me luck!

Update: The link I gave was to the front page of the Devon site where it was the lead story but only for one day. Anyone visiting the link after that would see whatever was the next lead story

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Highton Ridley photo essay used in relaunch of BBC Devon website

Here's the unveiling of the photo essay :)

Secret squirrel project...

Regular followers will know that I've had a secret squirrel project on the go for a while. I was approached by the BBC and commissioned for the relaunch of their Devon website to produce a series of images of Plymouth that would embody its character in some way.

The resulting photo essay, Plymouth—intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character, is the lead story in their Arts and Culture section.

I'm sure you'll share with me my delight at this great publicity coup! You can help me get this story out—use the tweet or stumble-it buttons below. Your loyalty and help is greatly appreciated as always :)

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Another published by BBC

I'm really pleased with myself again... the BBC news channel has published another of my b&w photos via their In Pictures blog for the theme "Dancing". It's the sixth in the series - the only black and white.

Blowing your own trumpet

This sort of publicity is good for any artist trying to break into mainstream recognition. It's the third time I've had work published by the BBC and am wondering how else I can use the fact to do more self-publicity.

If you've had any experience or have any thoughts I would certainly like to hear them and I'm sure so would the other artists who follow this blog.


comments always welcome :)

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Yaay—got published by the BBC! (again)

I was really pleased that one of my photos has been published by the BBC on their In Pictures site.

I submitted it for their Time theme—mine's the graceful old ladies of the sea shot.

If you've been following me for a while, you'll also know that the BBC featured me and my Urban Decay, Lost Spaces and Urban Ugliness photo essay on their website.

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Accepted into the Saatchi online gallery today!

I feel so honoured, I've just had 20 pieces of my work accepted into the Saatchi online gallery today. See my accepted bw work here

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