Two years ago, John had the opportunity to go to Dubai for Gulf Photo Plus, where he joined a host of industry greats (David Alan Harvey, Greg Heisler, David Burnett, David Hobby, Zack Arias, Peter Hurley, and Joe McNally to name a few) to spend a week teaching all things photography and business. He had a fabulous time seeing Dubai, meeting students, becoming friends with the other instructors, and shooting a portrait of Gregory Heisler in a wig. It was awesome!

There are a lot of contests and awards these days, but the the one I get most excited about and the one that means the most to me is American Photography. I let out a little scream today, when I got an email telling me my portrait of Macklemore has been selected into American Photography 30.

Here is a little more from AP about this years book:

“From 9,644 pictures entered by 873 photographers, magazines, agencies, publishers and schools, the jury selected, by a majority vote or better, only 357 images to appear in the book and represent the best pictures from 2013.

American Photography 30 will be printed in full color and distributed worldwide in hardcover immediately after The Party and BIG TALK, November 5-6, 2014 - our two annual launch events in New York City that celebrate the winners. All Selected photographers and entrants will be invited to attend both events with our compliments.”

We just gave away a Vanguard GH-100 Pistol Grip Ball Head, a Think Tank Urban Disguise 40 v2 camera bag, and now we will be wrapping up what I like to call “Second Christmas” by giving away two copies of Visual Supply VSCO Film. For those of you who are not familiar with VSCO Film, it is an incredible film emulator that plugs into Lightroom and ACR to make your digital images look like film. Another benefit of VSCO Film is that it doubles as an incredibly fast workflow for editing your digital images. I wrote about my experience with the emulator a few months back, and you can read my review of VSCO Film here.

All you have to do to enter and win a copy for yourself is ReTweet our contest tweet with #keatley on Twitter, or like AND comment on the contest post on the Keatley Facebook fan page. After that, you are entered to win! One winner from Facebook and Twitter will be randomly selected tomorrow, January 20th at 4pm. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see if you won.

Thanks to everyone for participating this week. It’s been fun hearing from many of you, and even more fun giving some awesome gear away.

Be sure to check out more of the great products from Visual Supply, Think Tank, and Vanguard as well as follow them on Twitter for updates, and new offerings - @VisualSupplyco, @thinkTANKphoto, and @VanguardPhotoUS. Good luck everyone!

I am so proud to be included in the 2013 PDN Faces contest. Both of these portraits were selected and are in the September issue of PDN. I know what you are thinking. That is a whole lot of fur…

I first photographed Macklemore and Ryan Lewis two days before the Heist was released. It’s hard to believe that was a year ago now. A lot has changed since then.

My other furry friend is Colonel Meow. If you are not familiar with him, he is only one of the most famous cats on the Internet. So there you have it. That being said, he was terrible to work with. He showed up late, was rude and inconsiderate, and he reeked of Scotch. I have nothing kind to say about him. But I do like this portrait, and I am glad I won a contest with it.

The 2011 PDN Faces issue is out, and Plants Vs. Zombies is a winner in the Celebrity/Editorial Portraits category. My Liberia series also won, under the Environmental Portraiture category. Last year, my portrait of Annie Leibovitz was the feature image in PDN Faces. It’s a thrill to have my work included in the contest again. Last July through April of this year felt like I was going at 200 mph non stop, and it’s nice to be able to slow down a little bit in the summer and reflect back on the work I have done this past year. It is even more satisfying to have that work recognized by the various contests I have won recently. Now it’s time to get busy again. Lots to do and look forward to. The new Keatley office project, the 2011 Christmas photo, some new video projects, and hopefully more fun work as well. I just finished a short video about my experience in Liberia this past January, and I will post it shortly (tonight). I think you will like it.

Side note: Co-founder of PopCap Games, John Vechey (pictured above) trumped my award just a little when PopCap was acquired by Electronic Arts for $1.3 billion, just days after the PDN award became public. Congrats John. Dolla dolla bills, y’all. I like to think the awards for this picture is what pushed EA to pull the trigger. Not that I am surprised, because just days after I photographed TechCrunch founder and CEO Michael Arrington in his home, TechCrunch was purchased by AOL for $30 million. You seeing a pattern here? I can’t legally promise companies will throw millions of dollars at you after I take your picture, but… Hey, that could make a great promo.

The list of this years Faces winners is on the official contest website. I haven’t had a chance to see the issue in person yet, but I am looking forward to sitting down with it.

And the winner is… Jeffrey Starks who guessed 4,582 on Facebook and was only 40 off from the actual number of pictures I took in Liberia which was 4,622. Bonus points for liking the contest on Facebook so he will also be getting a MiiR Bottle. I was actually really surprised by the number of total shots. My guess was 7,000, and there were many guesses for 20,000 and higher. I’m glad I don’t have to go through that many images though!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a guess on Twitter, Facebook and my blog. It was fun chatting with many of you and I will definitely be doing more contests in the near future so stay tuned.

I give up. Jet lag doesn’t usually get the best of me, but here I am wide awake at 2:30 in the morning. Actually being awake at 2:30 am isn’t that big of a deal for me, but the problem this time is I just woke up after sleeping for the past 8 hours. I have a feeling getting back into a Pacific Time rhythm is going to be difficult.
I just realized, many of you probably have no idea what I am talking about. I suppose if you haven’t been on my Twitter feed or Facebook Page you may be out of the loop. Yesterday, I ended a 10 day trip to Liberia with 32 straight hours of traveling. It’s good to be home to say the least. I had an amazing time, met some wonderful people and saw a part of the world I had never been to before. It was quite a learning experience, and I want to thank MiiR Bottles for working with me on this project. I will have a lot more to say and show in the weeks and months to come, but that is not why I am writing now.

Before I left for Liberia, I started a fun contest on Twitter and I want to extend it to everyone who reads my blog as well. It’s very simple. Guess how many pictures I took in Liberia. The person with the closest guess will receive a free print from my trip. One guess per person, and I will only accept guesses left as a comment on this blog post, on Twitter (@johnkeatley) or on my Facebook Page. I am looking for the total number of shots. I shot for 6 1/2 days, and I used my Canon 5D Mark II and Hasselblad H3DII. I will stop taking guesses on the 21st of January at noon PST. If the winner Likes this post on Facebook and or guesses the EXACT number correctly there will be a bonus prize. Good luck! Start posting your guesses.

The American Photography 26 book comes out today featuring the best photographs of 2009. With that being said, I am pleased to announce my portrait of Sarah Palin has been selected to be in AP26 making this the second year in a row I have had work in the American Photography book. Regarded as the premier showcase for photography, it is a huge honor to be recognized and included with such a talented group of photographers. Last year my portrait of Annie Leibovitz was selected. This image of Sarah Palin is an outtake from my cover shoot for her book Going Rogue.

The PDN Faces issue is out now, and my portrait of Annie Leibovitz is the opener. I am very excited and honored to say the least. This image was also selected in the American Photography 25 Competition last year. Pretty cool!

*UPDATE* 8/17/2010 - The PDN Faces 2010 Winners Gallery is now online with all of the winning images. There are some great portraits in there, and a nice note about my portrait in the intro on the landing page.

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