2021 pitched plenty of curveballs and kept us on our toes. But it was another great year here at KTE. Let’s look back at what went on!
Member Spotlight: Faten Smith
For years, Faten Smith assumed that studio-flash photography was strictly for professionals only. But since joining Karl Taylor Education, Faten’s confidence and expertise has blossomed. “I love the excitement of learning new techniques,” she says.
‘Blue’ Competition Winners
Find out who won an amazing Broncolor Siros Lighting Kit in our latest members’ photography contest.
Member Spotlight: Aidan Hughes
Aidan has always enjoyed the creative arts, but it was only a couple of years ago that he began to get serious about photography. Thanks to his commitment to acquiring new skills, he’s already taking commissions from commercial clients impressed by his growing portfolio.
KTE Wins Best Training Provider in 2021 Photography News Awards
This is the third year in a row that we’ve received this prestigious prize.
‘Two’ Competition Winners
Discover who won the big prizes in our latest members’ photography contest.
Photography Brief #5 – Coca-Cola Product Shoot
For our fifth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment members have been tasked with creating a product image of the well-known soft drink Coca-Cola.
Flat-Lay Pie Ingredients brief
For our sixth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl is tasking you with creating a food-and-lifestyle flat-lay shot of fruit-pie ingredients.
Milk-Splash Photography Brief
For our seventh ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl wants you to produce a milk-splash image.
Members’ Gallery: Flat-Lay Pie Ingredients
We received an amazing response to our sixth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment. Thanks to everyone who sent in their shots!
Honey Jar Composite Photography Brief (WTB 8)
For our eighth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl would like you to produce a composite honey-jar shot.
Members’ Picture Critique – Corporate and Business Headshots
Learn how to improve your business portraits, corporate headshots, and environmental portraits with this live critique show, where Karl will be reviewing professional portrait images submitted by members.
Members’ Gallery: Milk-Splash Photography (WTB 7)
Our seventh Working to a Brief assignment inspired some magnificent milk-splash shots. Thank you ‘dairy’ much to all who submitted!
March 2021 ‘Three’ Photography Competition Results
From product shots to landscape photographs, we received a great variety of images for our first competition of 2021. Here are the winning images…
Working to a Brief 9: The Cutting Saw
For our ninth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl would like you to produce a shot of a saw cutting through wood. Find all the details and submit your shot here.
Behind the Scenes: Three Days of Fashion Shoots
We’ve been busy creating a series of exciting new beauty and fashion images. It was a whirlwind week, as we managed to shoot a total of 14 different setups, including both beauty and fashion images. Here’s a behind the scenes look at what went on…
Working to a Brief 8 Members’ Gallery: Honey-Jar Composite
Check out the sweet honey-jar composite images submitted by our amazing members for Working to a Brief 8.
Hasselblad Interview 2021
In a recent live webinar I chatted to Hasselblad about my life, my work as a commercial photographer and educator, and also how my knowledge and that of other top professionals is presented to members of our education platform.
Working to a Brief 10: The Dewdrop Flower
For our tenth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl would like you to produce two shots of dew-jewelled grass. Find all the details and submit your images here.
‘Yellow’ Competition Winners
From products to portraits and landscapes to reportage, we recieved a huge variety of entries for our ‘Yellow’ themed competition! Here is a look at the winning images…
Working to a Brief 9: Members’ Gallery
Here are all the images we received in response to Working to a Brief 9: The Cutting Saw.
‘Patterns’ Photography Competition Winners
Announcing the ‘Patterns’ winners, plus three honourable mentions. Once again, we were blown away by the high standard of entries. Take a look for yourself.
Member Spotlight: Andrew Ford
Andrew has loved photography for 50 years. But lately he’s taken his hobby to new heights, winning the Guild of Photographers 2021 Photographer of the Year Award. “If you stop learning, you lose interest,” he says.
Photography Brief #4 – Earphones Product Shoot
For our fourth ‘Working to a brief’ assignment, members have been tasked with creating a product shot of a pair of earphones*. All the details you need to complete the brief can be found here, as well as in the accompanying live show.
A Year in Review: What We Got Up to in 2020
This year certainly didn’t go how we expected it to, but instead of focusing on the negatives, we thought we’d share everything that we’ve been up to here at Karl Taylor Education this year.
December 2020 ‘Interior Spaces’ Competition Winners
After working through all of the entries for our final competition of the year, we have finally decided the winner of the Loupedeck CT! The theme for this month’s competition ‘Interior Spaces’ was quite fitting, considering the year we’ve had, and there were a handful of images that clearly stood out. However, there can only be one winner…
A Life On Our Planet: What We Can Do to Help
When you think about it, as photographers, many of us rely on the natural beauty of the world through landscapes, nature, wildlife and macro photography. But right now our planet is under attack, it has been and continues to be decimated by us – humans. But what can we do about this
September 2020 ‘Balance’ Competition Winners
The theme for our September 2020 competition – ‘Balance’ – meant it was fairly open to interpretation, which resulted in a wide variety of images being submitted, from portraits to landscapes, still life images to product shots. The winning images displayed a combination of…
Hasselblad Webinar – Interview With Karl Taylor
Karl will be interviewed by Hasselblad in live webinar on Wednesday 16th September. He will be talking about his career and inspirations and sharing some of his favourite images. The event is free to join and you can sign up on Hasselblad’s website.
Photography Brief #3 – Blueberry Muffins
For our third ‘Working to a brief’ challenge, members have been tasked with creating a breakfast scene image of an arrangement of blueberry muffins. All the details you need to complete the brief can be found here, as well as in the accompanying live show.
July 2020 ‘Tasty’ Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Tasty’ photography competition. This competition proved particularly challenging when it came to the judging process, with each member of the team having their own opinions on which images best fitted the topic while still displaying a high quality of photography.
Photography Brief #2 – Wine Bottle
Find out everything you need to know for our second ‘Working to a photography brief’ challenge. For this particular brief, members have been tasked with shooting a bottle of wine with very specific lighting.
Karl Taylor Education Member Wins Sony World Photography Award
When the World Photography Association announced the 10 category winners for the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards Open competition, Karl Taylor Education member Jorge Reynal did not expect his name to be placed alongside those of some of the greatest photographers in the world. But that is exactly what happened. Find out what Jorge had to say about his award.
Photography Brief #1 – Cider Advert
We’ve announced our first ‘Working to a photography brief’ challenge! Karl has provided members with a complete brief, along with mood board images and sketch.
April 2020 ‘Black and White’ Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Black & White’ photography competition. ‘Black and white’ was a versatile theme that we felt would give our members plenty of opportunity to express their own style and creativity, and we weren’t disappointed!
What’s New at Karl Taylor Education
With much of the world currently under lockdown, we understand that many of our members may be looking to practice their photography at home and continue their education. To help with this, we’ve introduced some exciting new content.
December 2019 ‘Architecture’ Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Architecture’ photography competition. We brought the year to a close on a high note with our final competition for 2019. We had a great selection of submissions so it wasn’t an easy decision picking out the very best; in fact we decided to award a joint third place prize because we simply couldn’t separate the winners (and we felt like being generous).
September 2019 ‘Technology’ Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Technology’ photography competition. The winner this month received Karl’s Long Exposure Filter Kit valued at over $500. Second and third place received a Lee Filters Big Stopper and Karl Taylor Color Effects & Technical Lighting Packs respectively. Congratulations to our winners and well done to all our members on their great entries.
June 2019 ‘Beautiful Light’ Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Beautiful Light’ photography competition. With a Broncolor Siros Lighting Kit up for grabs, the competition was fierce and this fantastic prize will allow our winner to create their own beautiful light – whenever and wherever they want.
March 2019 ‘Motion’ Competition Winners
‘Motion’ was the theme for our March 2019 competition and we were excited to once again give away some great prizes to our members. First prize up for grabs was a Manfrotto 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod while second and third place winners received a Lee Filters The Super Stopper and Lee Filters Filter Foundation Kit respectively.
December 2018 ‘Red’ Photography Competition Winners
With the big prize of a Canon 5D Mark IV up for grabs, the competition was fierce for our December competition. As the theme was ‘Red’, it was quite open to interpretation, which meant there really was a wide variety of images to choose from. It was great to see the creativity of our members really coming out.
Ocean Pollution Awareness Campaign
As a keen diver, based on the island of Guernsey, ocean pollution is a subject I feel very strongly about. So when I was approached by a local charity to create eye catching photographs for an awareness campaign, I was eager to help. The Karl Taylor Photography team dedicated a weeks’ worth of time to the project, conceptualising and creating images that were made using thousands of pieces of litter collected from just 2km of the coastline over the past month.
Behind the Scenes: Making the Manfrotto ProLight Reloader Air-55 Commercial
When Manfrotto approached me to film a commercial for their new Pro Light Reloader Air-55 camera bag, although I was excited, I knew it would be a big and challenging project.
October 2018 ‘Macro’ Photography Competition Winners
View the October 2018 ‘Macro’ Photography Competition winners on Karl Taylor Education. For our October competition we were transported into the close up world of Macro photography. Prizes included a Lee Filters Foundation Kit, a Lee Filters Big Stopper and a Lee Filters Long Exposure Kit.
Tim Flach and Karl Taylor Photography Workshop: A Visual Journey
Animal and fine art photographer Tim Flach will be joining Karl Taylor for a unique photography workshop. They’ll be exploring the science behind our visual system and revealing how you can take your photography to a whole new level.
June 2018 ‘Fast’ Photography Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Fast’ photography competition. Our members had the chance to win the first prize of a Siros Lighting kit as well as second prize – a LEE Filters Little Stopper – and third prize – a LEE Filters Filter Foundation Kit.
March 2018 ‘Travel and Culture’ Photography Competition Winners
Here are the winners of our ‘Travel & Culture’ photography competition. Our winners entered some really thought provoking images that we felt fitted the theme of the competition best! The winner receives a Manfrotto 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod.
December 2017 ‘Moments’ Photography Competition Results
Here are the winners of our ‘Moments’ photography competition. The top prize for our March Competition is a Manfrotto 057 Carbon Fiber 3 Section Geared Tripod worth $839.99!
I Gave Away a Canon 5D Mark IV… and More! [Photography Competition]
In this video I round up our December 2017 “Moments” competition winners plus mention and critique a selection of our top entries.
Karl Taylor’s Recreation of ‘Dali Atomicus’ on the BBC
The iconic ‘Dali Atomicus’ has been a favourite of mine for as long as I remember. The team and I set out to create our own reproduction, but to do the image justice I wanted to come as close as possible to the original, although without the flying cats as I’m not sure this would go down to well with the BBC One Show audience!