The National Portrait Gallery will showcase the winners of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 from 4 March – 2 May 2010 in Canberra. The annual event promotes contemporary photographic portraiture and the Gallery offers $25,000 for the most outstanding entry.

The exhibition will tour to Victoria and New South Wales to the following galleries:
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery      12 May – 27 June
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery                         27 August – 10 October
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery                               5 November – 16 January 2011
Mosman Art Gallery                                          5 February 2011 – 20 March 2011

Some of the photographs currently in the National Portrait Gallery include these icons of Australian television and cinema.

Image of Bert Newton by Robin Sellick, one of the 43 photographers to be featured in the pending exhibition.

Image of Baz Luhrmann by Ingvar Kenne

Getting into photography can be quite intimidating, especially for those who’re just starting out. Sure, there are plenty of books that can help, but most of these books aren’t, well, newbie-friendly. Some are too technical to be understood easily, and the bigger problem is that most of these books deal with just that—the technical.

Thank goodness there’s Kevin Meredith.

Kevin is the author of a photography book called Hot Shots, a small, flick-through style photography book that tackled one thing that most photography books did not: making a photo stand out. No jargons. No complicated explanations. Kevin explained in a simple, easily-understood way how to take truly eye-catching shots.

The book discussed how simple techniques can be used to “make every photo your best,” like exposure, composition, and perspective. It also covered various photographic styles, including portraits, cityscapes, landscapes, black and white, and others. It shows the reader how to work around uncontrollable factors in a shoot, like…