In our curated column, Friday Five, we spotlight weekly photography news, features and event updates from other photo industry media outlets that you may have missed the first time around. Here’s what caught our attention in our photo news roundup this week (March 6-10).

PHOTO NEWS ROUNDUP, WEEK OF MARCH 6-10

Photography Inspiration: Five Female Photographers to Follow (photofocus)
International Women’s Day was this past Wednesday (March 8) and to celebrate, film photographer, writer, and visual storyteller Joy Celine Asto put the spotlight on, she writes, “some of the most remarkable female photographers that have inspired me through the years. I have been fortunate to discover the works of such talented and creative artists, and be able to write about them here on Photofocus.” Her list includes true visionaries that we would love to start featuring as well—Maria Svarbova (fashion), “infused with clever concepts and punctuated with eye-catching splashes of color,” writes Asto), Karen Jerzyk (conceptual),  Liza Roberts (fantasy), Ziqian Liu (self portraits), and Alex Cearns (pets). Read her full writeup here.

Thought-Provoking Images Win Fourth Leica Women Foto Project Award (Digital Camera World)

Continuing with the International Women’s Day theme, Leica unveiled the winners of its newly-expanded Leica Women Foto Project, this year selecting four awardees from the U.S., UK, Mexico and Canada—Mary F. Calvert (U.S.), Anna Filipova (UK), Greta Rico (Mexico), and Eli Farinango (Canada). The expansion, says Leica, “strives to diversify representation in the photography industry, allowing Leica to elevate more marginalized voices and give them a platform to share their work and empower the female point of view.” The Leica Women Foto Project, writes Digital Camera World on its website, remains “an example of Leica’s ongoing commitment to elevating marginalized voices and empowering the female point of view through photography.” Read the full article here.

The Most Rented Point-and-Shoot Cameras from the Past Year (Lensrentals)
It’s no secret that point-and-shoot cameras have continued to garner attention, and are only becoming more popular with younger and younger generations. This fact became most evident when a TikTok trend put a few-year-old Fuji X100V on the top of the list for most desirable cameras just a few months ago. So what are the top models that have been rented over the last year? Lensrentals gives us the ten most popular point-and-shoot cameras from the past year here. Is your favorite on the list? Check it out here.

Adobe Video and 3D Technologies Take Center Stage at the 2023 Oscars (Broadcast Beat)
Many photographers we know get their inspiration from the cinema, so we thought this piece might stir some interest (especially since many of thy use many of the applications being talked about here). Earlier this morning, Adobe announced that 10 Oscar-nominated films used Adobe creative applications to bring their stories to life—including three Oscar-nominated documentaries, and box-office hits ranging from Everything Everywhere All at Once to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Top Gun: Maverick.

According to Broadcast Beat, filmmakers used Adobe Creative Cloud applications including Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, and Frame.io to edit, create, and collaborate from anywhere—along with Adobe Substance 3D to produce photo- and hyper-realistic 3D objects and effects.

Additionally, the Adobe Foundation recently made a  $250,000 grant to the USC School of Dramatic Arts’ (SDA) MFA Acting Program, directly supporting the production of short films by underrepresented students. “This investment builds on Adobe’s commitment to enable inclusivity, access, opportunity, and creativity for all and the Adobe Foundation’s support of ‘The Inclusion List’—a new research-led effort with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which measures inclusion in the industry from 1929 to present day, charting nominations for women and people of color across 19 categories.”

Read more here.

Acrobatic Squirrels Captured in a Series of Amazing Photos (PetaPixel)
We live in New York City and yes, we see squirrels everywhere, but we’ve never seen them do this! As featured by Petapixel, Niki Colemont’s squirrel series is captivating and super fun to scroll through. The Belgian photographer told Petapixel he wanted to show the squirrels’ “extreme flexibility.” How did he do that? “I have gained the trust of the squirrels by photographing them for six years,” he said.

As he told Petapixel, “I have learned how to approach them. I can anticipate exactly their next move making it easier for me to frame my shot.” That said, he added that it’s still a challenge to capture a good jumping shot so he made a special wood jumping platform for the squirrels to land on. “It keeps them busy and they love to do it,” he explained. “I made 7,500 shots and came home with 25 good pictures.” Read the full article and see more of the extraordinary images here.

Have any news or photo features have caught your attention? Let us know and we can include them in our photo news roundup! Send links to: jacqueline.tobin@emeraldx.com

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