Liverpool 2 Man United 1

ALEX FERGUSON described Manchester United’s last-gasp FA Cup defeat to Liverpool as a “sickening blow”.

United were left stunned by Dirk Kuyt’s 88th minute winner after Ji-Sung Park had cancelled out Daniel Agger’s opener.

And Fergie could not hide his disappointment at the result which leaves his side with just the Premier League and Europa League to play for. 

The United boss said: “To lose the game is hard to believe.

“We dominated the game and we were comfortable.

“Our movement off the ball was good and I thought we were in the driving seat.

“Just one breakaway, one bad break against you, and you can lose the game.

“It’s a sudden-death situation and we’ve experienced it many times over the years.

“But I’m pleased with my players, they performed very well, dominated the game, didn’t deserve to be beaten at all in fact.

“We were the better team, but that’s FA Cup football I’m afraid.

“To lose it is a real sickening blow.”

Ferguson was also quick to defend returning goalkeeper David de Gea, who was at fault for Liverpool’s opening goal and had a torrid afternoon.

He said: “Our own players created a problem for the first goal.

“They didn’t give him enough room to deal with it.”

United’s next game is a Premier League encounter at home to Stoke on Tuesday, with Ferguson desperately hoping Rio Ferdinand will recover from a back spasm — one of nine players who was absent today.

Ferguson added: “Rio only had one training session yesterday and we couldn’t gamble with that.

“He will train tomorrow and Monday. He could be right for Tuesday.”

1. Content Will Still Reign as King in 2012

Image Credit: Lars Kehrel

In 2011, there were major changes made to Google’s algorithm that has paved the way for a new emphasis on ‘original’ content.  Regardless of the year, content will always reign as king in the SEO world.

In 2012, you should have a balance of human friendly content and search engine friendly content.  After all, your potential customers (or contacts) will be the one’s purchasing your products or services.

Gone are the days when website owners used to squeak by with poorly written content from basement content writers.  If you want to get noticed in the search engines, having quality content will be the key to your online success in 2012.

2. Web Content Should be Scannable for Mobile Users

Remember, a percentage of your web users will be searching the Web from their iPad and mobile device. If you post content that takes too long to get to the point, people will get bored and move on to your competitor’s website.

Make sure you include a clear Call to Action on each page of your website. Consider hiring a good SEO copywriter to create fresh content for your website, blog and social media sites.  You’ll be one step ahead of the game with a professional SEO copywriter.  SEO copywriters are specialists who are trained to write marketable content that helps in converting readers into paying customers.

3. Is your SEO Consultant Wasting your Time and Money?

If the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘not sure’, that’s a sign it may be the perfect time to ditch your SEO consultant.  In 2012, savvy entrepreneurs and business owners are nickel and diming every aspect of their business.  People are investing their money more wisely than ever before. They are less likely to choose an SEO consultant based on price and they are focusing on SEO experts that have proven track records.

If you’re in the market for a new SEO consultant, make sure you ask him or her to provide you with proof.  In other words, ask to see proven results from ‘current’ customers that they have been with for more than just a couple of months. Internet marketing experts suggest that people choose SEO consultants that have a solid client base of at least 1-2 years (or more) old.

4. Add Original Photos & Videos

Image Credit: windmillnetworking

If you want to make your website more interactive, consider adding original photos and interesting videos to your website.  When Google crawls web pages, they look for content that’s diverse.  Don’t forget to optimize your videos and photos for SEO purposes. Check out our previous article: Using Google Image Search as Fuel for SEO

5. Share Web Content via Facebook, Twitter & Google+

If you want to generate more traffic in 2012, share your content with your social media networks.  Make sure you optimize your web pages for social sharing to help attract more traffic. For example, Facebook allows you to make your pages more social media friendly by optimizing your titles and Meta tags by using Facebook Open Graph. When one of your friends shares one of your web pages, this automatically improves the conversion rate of your website.Lastly, when sharing content through social media, don’t forget to include a back link to your website. Social media provides an excellent opportunity to engage with people who ‘like’ or ‘follow’ you online. Although SEO rules are constantly evolving, the tips above will give you a good head start on the race to online success in 2012.

The 12-inch figurine from In Icons -– which will sell for $99, before shipping — will go on sale in the U.S. in February. The site said it is selling the action figure “to honor the American icon and great visionary Steve Jobs.”

The figurine is extremely detailed and more realistic than other models we’ve seen of the former Apple CEO in the past — he’s even wearing a wedding ring.

It also comes with a pair of black socks, a chair, a backdrop that says “One More Thing” and two apples — one with a bite. iPhone not included.

Will you buy a Steve Jobs action figure? Is it too soon for companies to monetize items based on Jobs?

(text/image: mashable.com)

Striker understood to have been offered two-month loan deal

Thierry Henry has been offered the chance to rejoin Arsenal and is poised to agree a two-month loan deal in the next 48 hours.

Speculation about the possibility of Henry re-signing for the Gunners has been building since he linked up with Arsene Wenger’s squad for training at the end of the Major League Soccer season.

Wenger initially insisted that he had no plans to bring in Henry on loan, with his French compatriot merely keeping fit during the winter before returning to New York Red Bulls.

However, the Arsenal manager has softened that stance in recent days and admitted before Christmas that he was thinking about trying to reach an agreement with the striker.

It is now understood that a deal is on the table and Henry could accept by Saturday, allowing him to start the New Year back at the Emirates Stadium.

Henry is the all-time leading goalscorer for the Gunners following a hugely successful eight-year stint in North London earlier in his career.

Mouth-watering

He left for Barcelona in 2007 before heading across the Atlantic last year, but he has maintained his form and is now set to return to the Premier League.

A number of Arsenal’s players have stated their desire to see Henry link up with the club once again, and if a deal is finalised he may be asked to play a key role.

Wenger’s attacking options will be depleted when Marouane Chamakh and Gervinho leave for the African Cup of Nations.

The new MLS season does not kick off until March and Henry could feature in a number of mouth-watering fixtures, including the clash with Premier League champions Manchester United on 22nd January, the North London derby at home to Tottenham on 26th February and both legs of the UEFA Champions League tie against AC Milan.

ALEX FERGUSON is aiming for a 70th birthday to remember with Manchester United on top of the Prem.

Ferguson’s men drew level with leaders Manchester City yesterday after they trounced Wigan.

United host Blackburn on Fergie’s birthday — New Year’s Eve — while City play 24 hours later. He said: “It’s a long season. If we’re top of the league or joint top with City on New Year’s Day I’ll be happy.”

Yesterday premiere league Score card

Chelsea 1-1 Fulham

Boltan 0-2 Newcastle united

Sunderland 1-1 Everton

Liverpool 1-1 Blackburn

West brom 0-0 Manchester City

Stock City 0-0 Aston Villa

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS will be handed a £150million transfer war chest in the New Year.

Chelsea and owner Roman Abramovich are hell-bent on closing the gap on the runaway Manchester clubs.

Top targets include £50m-rated striker Edinson Cavani and his Napoli midfield team-mate Marek Hamsik, who is valued at £30m.

Ironically, Chelsea face the Italian side in the Champions League last 16, with Hamsik, 24, insisting: “They are a great club — we are up against a very strong team.”

The Blues have come up short so far in AVB’s first season in charge.

But Abramovich is determined to stand by his man and give him the ammunition to make them title contenders again.

Chelsea are also reportedly interested in Juventus winger and Manchester United target Milos Krasic — rated at £20m.

However, the Blues’ first signing of 2012 will be far cheaper in the shape of Gary Cahill, who is set to leave Bolton for £7m.

Struggling Wanderers have indicated they are ready to sell the centre-half, 26, and he is expected to link up alongside England partner John Terry.

LG‘s upcoming OLED TV panel measures 55 inches and comes with a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, the company has announced.

The panel is also just 5 mm thin and has a color gamut that is “wider” than that produced by LCD panels. All of these characteristics make it a candidate for bringing OLED TV technology to the masses in a market that’s still dominated by LCDs.

“Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display’s 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers,” said Sang Beom Han, CEO and Executive Vice President of LG Display.

Of course, we’ll hear more of this panel at the next CES, along with those WiDi-supporting CINEMA 3D Smart TVs LG has announced earlier this month.

[via mashable]

Even the British occasionally have to change with the times. Following a study stating that 80 percent of all web video is now compatible with HTML5, the BBC has formally adopted the standard for videos on the desktop and mobile versions of its website. The full roll-out across BBC.com follows a pilot program in which the broadcaster tested HTML5 on the the Health section of the site. According to Electronista, the BBC has been working with HTML5 delivery systems throughout 2011 to build its iPlayer apps for the iOS. In other news, the BBC has just texted Flash and said it’s totally open to staying friends and meeting up for coffee sometime.

(via: geekgossips.com)

Michael Shaw, the publisher and founder of BagNews Notes, is a clinical psychologist — appropriate, considering the deep, insightful analysis his blog gives to the day’s top news photographs and videos. Examining the tiniest, seemingly mundane details of an image to extract its power, its meaning, and its message, the Notes blog (part of a larger site featuring original photography and live interactive discussions) fulfills its mission of “reading the pictures” by starting provocative conversations about how the media illustrate the biggest stories of the day. Why is the American flag so often featured in visual coverage of natural disasters like the tornado in Joplin, Missouri? How does a wire-service photo of President Obama having a beer in Ireland differ from one captured by the White House photographer? BagNews Notes may not have all the answers, but in raising the questions, it offers a compelling new lens through which to view our politics, culture and, of course, pictures.

WINNER: NPR’s The Picture Show

Sometimes serious (portraits taken in Italy’s triangle of death), sometimes playful (fire ants that float!), NPR’s The Picture Show is like a curious friend with big-time resources. You never know what you’re going to find on The Picture Show — and that’s meant as the highest compliment. The curators look around and ask questions: Why did that Cindy Sherman picture sell for almost $4 million? Who’s behind those photos of exploding potatoes? What does the inside of Antartica’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory look like? (For the record, eerie and amazing.) The generous allotment of photos and text often comes with video and links to NPR stories. If you’re stuck eating lunch at your desk, you will have no better companion than The Picture Show.

WINNER: The New York Times’ Lens

Since it launched in May 2009, Lens has consistently been one of the few indispensable photography blogs. A reliable source of water-cooler fodder for news junkies around the world, the New York Times‘ showcase for visual and multimedia reporting is zealously current and busting at the seams with first-rate content. When a photograph makes news (bin Laden’s Photoshopped “death portrait,” for example), Lens editors and its citizen commentators routinely engage in the sort of informed, occasionally heated conversation and debate that photography fans crave. Then there are times when Lens itself generates headlines: In two posts written in March 2011, for example, Times photographer Lynsey Addario provided a searing first-person account of her own capture and brutal treatment while covering the revolt in Libya. Hard-hitting when it needs to be, Lens can also be poignant — as in Béatrice de Géa’s phenomenal series on how New Yorkers who lack an essential sense (vision, hearing, etc.) perceive the city, or the entries in the feature called “Turning Point,” highlighting the work of emerging photographers who pay tribute to one picture that was utterly crucial to their development as photojournalists and artists. For perspective from the global level to the street level, this is as good as it gets.

WINNER: Pictory Blog

Laura Brunow Miner’s Pictory Blog is an evocative companion site to her equally wonderful Pictorymag.com site, which describes itself as “a showcase of life through true photo stories.” The main site succeeds because of its 13-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird approach to storytelling: Photographers from all over the world submit pictures that address a single theme (lost love, Texas, danger, and on and on). The blog — a collection of posts featuring a single, stunning image married to an provocative sentence (with a link back to the site for the full story) — succeeds because it really, really knows how to tease. See for yourself: “Before she’d gone five feet, a young guy — couldn’t have been older than 18 — and his friend walked in from the alley behind her. He grabbed at her bag, and that’s when Phil and I saw the gun …” Utterly addictive.

WINNER: La Lettre de la Photographie

Monday: Visit a Herb Ritts exhibit in New York. Tuesday: Fly to Moscow to check out portraits of 1960s rock stars. Wednesday: Zip around the Mediterranean coast for a multi-city photo festival. Logistically, that globe-jumping agenda would be pretty impossible to pull off, but the constantly updated La Lettre de la Photographie brings those of us without a private jet one step closer to the fantasy scenario. In the “Agenda” section, organized by day of the week, the blog (available in both French and English) puts a spotlight on must-see happenings in the world of photography, allowing users to peruse highlights from international exhibitions, artist portfolios, or just-published books. Yes, La Lettre’s galleries may be virtual, but editors still treat the work with the requisite white-glove care, running each photo at an impressive size and in stunning, eye-popping resolution.

WINNER: The Sartorialist

“I started The Sartorialist simply to share the photos of people that I saw on the streets of New York that I thought looked great.” And, on one level, that’s what Scott Schuman does and does brilliantly. But his daily, anthropological photographs of people on the street — looking dandyish on a Harlem park bench, sexy in those tight jeans in the crosswalk, casually stylish while window-shopping in SoHo — convey amazing insight into how people seek to express themselves. If street photography shows us the small dramas of everyday life, then the Sartorialist gives us the drama andthe costuming. The Sartorialist’s eye for personality is wonderful and well-trained, and his blog shows us that there is beauty all around us if only we stop and look.

WINNER: Time’s LightBox

Elegant and commanding, intimate and worldly, Time magazine’s beautifully designed LightBox blog is an essential destination for those who appreciate contemporary photography. Much more than photojournalism, Lightbox (which, like LIFE.com, is owned by Time Inc.) explores today’s new documentary and fine art photography from the perspective of the photo editors at Time – arguably the strongest editors working in their field today. LightBox offers fascinating dispatches from every corner of the world — last week, the photo stories came from Cuba, Thailand, Yemen, and Ukraine. One of the most compelling features of the blog is The Backstory, in which photographers describe what went into the making of a particular picture, either their own part in it or that of the people being photographed. To have a renowned photojournalist like James Nachtwey turn his image into a three-dimensional moment, rich with the thoughts and emotions of his subject, is truly enlightening. And leaves you wanting more.

WINNER: What’s the Jackanory?

What’s the Jackanory? (a phrase taken from British slang and a 1960s’ BBC kids’ TV show, meaning “What’s the story?”) is the creation of Dublin-born, NYC-based photographer Andrew Hetherington, and boasts a following of professional shooters and earnest, knowing amateurs alike. Engaging, utterly up to date, and often very funny; filled with discerning takes on industry trends and controversies; and (almost uniquely in the photography world) enthusiastic about other, lesser-known photographic talents, Jackanory is like a never-ending series of personal, thrillingly random postcards from a well-traveled friend. That the friend is a contributor to GQ, Esquire, Wired, Details, and other titles — a guy who seems just as comfortable critiquing a colleague’s gallery show as posting about “star” photographer sightings — provides Jackanory with genuine cred and an insider-y immediacy. Blogging, at its heart, is often about passion — and it’s impossible to visit What’s the Jackanaory? and not feel that this is the brainchild of a man who positively lives and breathes photography.

WINNER: 500 Photographers

On April 5, 2010, Pieter Wisse began a blog, 500 Photographers, with a singular and simple mission: Highlight the work of five great photographers every week until he reached 500. Wisse, a gallerist and photographer in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with an eclectic and wandering eye, brings us work by well-known photographers (Elinor Carucci, Dan Winters, Taryn Simon) that no modern list should be without, but includes photographers you likely wouldn’t find on your own — the touching war photography of Kosuke Okahara, Mike Brodie’s haunting train hoppers, and on and on. 500 Photographers doesn’t chase news or trends, and it is refreshingly catholic in its tastes: black-and-white, Polaroid, straight-up journalism, modernist portraiture, landscape, fashion, clouds, car accidents. It’s like a virtual trip through a mega-gallery museum exhibit of the most influential photographers working today. Wisse will continue adding a photographer a day, until he hits 500 photographers. At that point — in May 2012 — the blog will, in Wisse’s words, “be finished and done. It will then only be here with the function of being an archive of amazing photographers of the 21st century.”

WINNER: Photojojo’s Tumblr

A lot of very, very good blogs are deadly serious in tone and intent. Photojojo is not one of them. And that is precisely its appeal. Photojojo, the quirkiest of LIFE.com’s winners, offers quick news you can use, DIY-crafts, and wonderfully non-essential photography-based tidbits. Want to know how to make a Leica replica out of paper? Photojojo can help. Missed the boat on those weirdly riveting pictures of “yin yang Oreo cookies” everyone’s been talking about? Photojojo has the link. Wondering why the pictures from the latest space shuttle mission are so much more awesome than all the space shuttle pictures that have come before? Photojojo is wondering the same thing — and linking to a great gallery to explain why. Like Archie McPhee with a photography obsession, Photojojo is clever, helpful, and funky without trying too hard to be hip.

WINNER: American Suburb X

A “fiercely edited look at photography’s … past, dramatically shifting present and always unfolding future. . . . Our mission is to provide and provoke, to educate and titillate those who are obsessed with photography and all of its beautiful moving parts.” That’s how American Suburb X describes itself. Big talk? Yes. Ambitious? Yes. But ASX backs it up, again and again. The interviews section alone is a treasure trove, offering conversations with many of most dynamic talents photography’s ever known — Weegee in 1958, Dorthea Lange in 1964, Jacob Holdt in 1993 — all meticulously culled from publications like Art in America, Graphis, and the Smithsonian. That founder and editor-in-chief Doug Rickard also posts words and pictures by some of contemporary photography’s brightest lights (Leigh Ledare, Todd Hido, and countless others) adds yet another layer of gritty immediacy to a site that already feels so full of raw energy and ideas that it’s about to pop off the page.

WINNER: PDN

Photo District News, a mainstay monthly magazine geared to professional shooters, is being honored here for two blogs. PDN breathes life into the Photo of the Day conceit with its global reach and and sky-high standards, not to mention its wide-ranging content: one day, the most beautiful sea grass you’ve ever seen; the next, a 1952 Robert Frank photo; after that, Singapore’s political rallies depicted as landscapes. On top of all that, in a world of aggregators PDN’s Pulseoffers something rare: its own reporting. PDN’s seasoned editors craft smart, on-point stories that are steeped in knowledge of the photo industry. It’s the place to read stories you won’t see on most other blogs, like a post on a former Times-Picayune photog accused of “journalistic betrayal,” and early word of Hasselblad’s new medium-format digital camera. A must-visit daily site for working pros. . . and for those who want to know what the pros know.

WINNER: Prison Photography

Prison Photography doesn’t have a standard “about” section; it has a “manifesto.” But editor Pete Brook’s unexpectedly riveting blog is far more than a mere anti-incarceration screed. While most of the content does mine what Brook calls his “nerdcore niche” — in his words, the “analysis of visual narratives created in prison and jail systems” — he brings such a fluid intelligence to the narrow theme that the blog ends up being about prisons in much the same way that Moby Dick is about fishing: shining a light on one topic, Prison Photography illuminates worlds. At his most insightful, Brook — also the lead blogger for Wired.com’s excellent photo blog, Raw File — transforms vintage and modern photographs made in and of prisons into emblems of larger, eternal themes: social justice; crime and punishment; the limits of liberty; even the nature of beauty. In one superb post, Brook considers Sye Williams photos from a California women’s prison, humanizing both the prisoners’ and their handlers’ plight (” … as a viewer to Williams’ work, I find myself adopting the same caution as the staff and administration”). This is heavy, thoughtful stuff — it’s impossible to spend time here without feeling your assumptions about all sorts of issues beginning to wobble — and Prison Photography presents it all with grace, power, and a wry, welcome humor.

WINNER: Joe McNally’s Blog

“The thoughts, notions, and ideas here come from thirty years in the field as a shooter,” reads the text in the upper-right hand corner of this blog, underneath a smiling stick figure and the casual, handwritten words “Meet Joe.” It’s that juxtaposition of the serious and the playful that make Joe McNally’s Blog such a treat. With bona fides from Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and LIFE (for which he was a staff photographer), McNally tells stories and gives advice from behind the lens, pulling from his travels and his vibrant, extensive portfolio to riff on newsmakers (like the Navy SEALs, whom he once followed in training), share deeply personal memories of favorite shoots, and totally geek out on lighting technique and gear (explaining, as only he can, the best clamps, lenses, strobes, etc.). With eloquence, humor, and passion, McNally makes every post a love letter to his craft.

WINNER: A Photo Editor

A hugely popular blog for and about the photography business, A Photo Editor raises (and often thoroughly answers) the sort of questions that keep working photographers up at night. Example: A post titled “What to Do When Your Image Is Stolen Online” is a masterfully succinct how-to about an industry certainty that professionals and amateurs alike might want to print out and stick in their pockets. Edited by Rob Haggart, the former director of photography at Men’s Journal and Outside magazines, the blog’s look and feel is, in fact, a bit magazine-y — in the best way — with artful use of white space and an awful lot of text. Thankfully, all of that text (by Haggart, other professional editors and photographers, as well as the blog’s loyal, smart, and vocal community) is scarily well-informed and immensely helpful to anyone interested in photography and photojournalism in the digital age. This is not a blog to visit if you’re looking to “ooh” and “ahh” over big, beautiful photo galleries. But for insight into the most nettlesome, enduring issues around copyrights, freelance options, professional ethics debates, and — not least of all — how to make a viable living by your camera, A Photo Editor is simply unsurpassed.

WINNER: The Atlantic’s In Focus

If the 154-year-old Atlantic’s online incarnation often feels as vigorous and relevant as a Silicon Valley start-up, it’s due in part to its photo blog, In Focus. Alan Taylor, the man who created — and for two years ran – The Boston Globe‘s hugely popular and highly regarded Big Picture blog, serves as curator for In Focus. Here, Taylor replicates the Big Picture design and navigation but has upgraded the experience so it’s now, as the kids say, “on steroids.” Taylor covers the biggest news stories of the day with huge, colorful, high-impact photos that often take your breath away, setting up each gallery with concise, conversational introductions. In Focus is the perfect addition to The Atlantic‘s long tradition of journalism and newer tradition of Web excellence.

WINNER: burn

Describing itself as “an evolving journal for emerging photographers,” burn manages the neat (and rare) trick of feeling at once rambunctious and utterly rigorous. Curated by noted Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey, burn publishes amazingly diverse essays — street kids in Odessa, Ukraine; Morocco’s vanishing Jews; portraits by William Eckersley and Alexander Shields shot along US 80, America’s first coast-to-coast highway — in a vivid big-slideshow format. The community that has evolved around the blog, meanwhile, is both loyal and vocal; it’s not uncommon for posts to generate hundreds of comments. While burn’s focus rests with the photographs — those seeking nothing but a satisfying visual experience won’t be disappointed — the insights that Harvey and the contributors provide about the various photo stories reward those looking for a glimpse behind the camera of an up-and-comer.

WINNER: Conscientious

Perhaps it’s the earnest — and rather cryptic — name. Maybe it’s the formal, intense headshot of the blog’s creator, Joerg Colberg, that suggests a seriously intellectual undertaking. And indeed, Conscientious is seriously intellectual; luckily, though, Colberg’s is a refreshing, bracing intellect, one fueled by a genuine curiosity about — and love of — photography. This is one of the longest-running photo blogs out there, and since its founding in 2002 has offered countless profiles of photographers and their work: Aaron Ruell’s marvelous environmental portraits and Alex te Napel’s moving and unsettling “Faces of Alzheimer’s” portraits, to name just two. And the blog is packed: Readers will also find in-depth interviews, news and commentary on exhibitions, and book reviews, as well as Colberg’s rigorous and wide-ranging musings on matters large (one post: “What makes great photography?”) and small. There’s not an ounce of fluff here, which is why Conscientious is rightly seen and lauded as one of the very few essential photography destinations on the Web.

WINNER: aCurator

This is a blog in love with photographers. Scroll down aCurator‘s page and you’ll see one photographer’s name after another in bold, black letters with sharp, seductive images in between. These posts often link to glorious, full-screen features — free of surrounding navigation bars and text — on the main aCurator.com site. (“Frustration with a lack of full-screen images led me to publish aCurator,” explains founder and editor, Julie Grahame.) But the signature strength of the aCurator blog is, in fact, suggested by its name. Grahame is a curator with a flawless eye and, in her assessment of the work she presents, an immediately trustworthy, no-frills tone. (“Miriam O’Connor is my latest crush,” she writes, introducing one young photographer’s pictures. “Her [series] ‘Attention Seekers’ filled me with joy; it’s refreshing, smart and humorous.”) aCurator’s triumph is a clarity of purpose wedded to a keen intelligence, and a willingness to let its stunning photographs largely speak for themselves.

WINNER: Feature Shoot

Nearly every day, Feature Shoot showcases a different photographer (both established and emerging) by posting selections of his/her work and a short bio. The concept is straightforward enough, but it’s beautifully executed by publisher and managing editor Alison Zavos. A photographer and photo editor with an eye for diverse international work, Zavos’ Feature Shoot has taken its users to the dramatic precipices of Iceland, wild dance parties in Atlanta, and an abandoned theme park in Berlin. Since launching in 2008, the blog has featured more than 500 commercial and fine-art photographers — exposing their talents not only to casual perusers but also to serious publishers and buyers. Occasional Q&As with photographers about their methods, as well as helpful posts providing information about exhibits and grants, give Feature Shoot a warm, community feel, a trait shared by the best blogs.

(via: life.com)

To promote the launch of his new website and blog, London-based photographer David Sykes decided to create a QR code out of objects such as boots, calculators, briefcases, boomboxes and champagne bottles. The QR code was then photographed and sent out as limited edition prints so that lucky recipients can scan the code with their iPhone or iPad to launch Sykes’ new website. Sykes writes:

‘I wanted to promote the relaunch of my website and my blog with a bespoke shot and a mail-out. The QR code is the perfect example of something physical that links to the digital world. Just the QR photograph; no name, no other links or information, just that.

‘I wanted to play with the juxtaposition of a physical object linking directly to the digital, so I decided to build a 3D model of the code and create the image in one shot. This is in line with the way I like to work, I try to shoot as many things ‘in camera’ as I can. This meant scaling up and then building the 8 foot square model of the code. To create another link to my previous work I used objects from around the studio to build up the shot. Over three days, I worked with the stylist, Carrie Louise, to source the props, plan out and construct the QR city.

‘To further demonstrate the ‘in camera’ feel of the code I shot on film. To give the mail-out the sense of being a sheet of 10 x 8 film I retained the full frame of the shot, including studio in the background and rebates. I even presented it in the same bags you would get the film back from the lab in.’

(Text & Image source: featureshoot.com)