Photography Roundup - 6/13

Summary of photo news, the latest contests, and more

By K David in Columns on Jun 13, 2015

Night in Seattle Edit | Glenn5995

It's June and vacation season is upon us! Grab your Baja shorts, Hawaiian shirt, thong sandals, and some sun block: it's time to get out in the sun and take some photos. But before you get out there, check out this week's deals, gear news, and photography resources.

Featured Deals

June is a great month to buy camera gear. The sellers know that you're about to take a summer vacation and they want to help you try out a new lens on your trip. Check out some of the deals we've seen so far this month.

• June 2015 US Pentax Lens Deals
• UK and EU Pentax Camera Cash Back
• QS-1 Rebate on Top of Discount
• Pentax K-50 just $295.00
• Stay tuned Tuesday for another exciting deal!

Pentax Forums Roundup

Converging Lines Theme Image | K David

Official Monthly Contest #105 Serenity: Nominating

Nominations are being accepted for the May 2015 official monthly photo contest. Take a few minutes to comment on your favorites. Any comment counts as a nomination!  Nominations will close on the 15th and at that time, you'll be able to view and vote on the 15 finalists.

Official Monthly Contest #106 Accepting Entries

Be sure to enter this month's "Converging Lines" contest for a shot at prizes! Submit entries here.

Photo Critique Sub-forum

Ever wondered how your photos stack up? In the Pentax Forums Photo Critique Sub-forum, you can find out. Other members will give you honest but friendly pointers on your images.

Post Processing Challenge #151: Night in Seattle

Night in Seattle | Arizona Dave

If you enjoy learning new tricks to help edit your photos, check out or weekly post processing challenge. Here's a link to the 151st installment: Night in Seattle by Arizona Dave.

Gear News

PrioLite MBX500 Monolight

• Ilford Direct Positive Paper is back! More details here. It's already on backorder at B&H.
• PhaseOne introduces their full-frame 645 medium-format digital, the PhaseOne XF.
• Pentax demos a potential 4X5 duplicator for the 645 system.
• Pizza Hut is now in the camera business (actually the projector business.)
• Pentax Forums official announcement about the PrioLite system.

We also posted our in-depth review of the HD Pentax-DA 21mm F3.2 Limited lens this week.

Good Reads

Apropos of our second installment of the year-long astronomical photography article series, here are two interesting articles with astronomical photography articles as well as other interesting photography reads.

• Hubble's 50 Most Beautiful Photos
• Michael Benson's Interstellar Imagery
• 22 Of the Most Powerful Photos, Week of June 5
• The Most Important Single Tip for Selling Your Photography
• The Afghan Camera Project (an effort to save a nearly dead form of photography)

Featured Online Photography Resource 

The Pleasure of the Pinhole Camera. This is a fun article about pinhole cameras, yes, but it also has a lot of very useful information about how basic photography principles affect imagery. This is a good read that will give you a lot of really interesting information about photography as an art, craft, and science.