If you’re serious about your amateur photography you’ll be interested to know that the British Journal of Photography are holding their 4th International Photography Awards right now. Also, the prizes are worth a combined total of £13,000, so it’s definitely worth entering if you think you have what it takes.

With this 4th annual awards, the contest has been changed slightly from previous years. In the past if you wanted to enter you’d have to submit an entire portfolio of work, whereas this year you can submit a single photograph.

Prizes for the contest include a Canon EOS 5D camera, worth £3,520. As well as the rather impressive prize, the winners will also have their pictures shown at a London photography gallery, plus they’ll be featured in the British Journal of Photography.

If you’re interested in entering, the last date for submissions is September 20th.

Paul McCartney isn’t the only famous Macca in his household, his younger brother Mike is an accomplished and skilled photographer who this week unveiled his latest exhibition, Liverpool Life, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Mike McCartney stated about the exhibition:

It’s the story behind the story of that magical era.

The exhibit is already receiving excellent reviews. Combining his unique photography style with his gift for being in the right place at the right time, Mike McCartney’s work is a celebration of artists who played in Liverpool over the years. He also was on hand to take some stunning shots of his brother’s band ‘The Beatles’ as they were first starting out on the road to success in Liverpool.

Included in the exhibition are shots of such legends as Jerry Lee Lewis and the Hollies. Sadly the images of the Beatles are not included in this exhibition.

The exhibition will be running until September 21st and is part of the city’s ‘Liverpool City of Culture’ theme that is running for 2008.

Just to show that not all exhibited photographers are professionals, an exhibition at the end of the month has been scheduled to celebrate two amateur photographers from Southampton. ‘Through the Lens’ is an exhibition of the amateur photographers Phil Green and Helen Plant. Both photographers are members of the Camera Club in their hometown of Southampton.

Usually to become a professional photographer you’ll need to complete a degree in a course such as documentary photographer or photo art, and will be required to possess at least a 2.1 or 1st, holding a Bachelor of Arts. However neither Helen nor Phil have any such qualifications, as they are both self-taught photographers. They have both been awarded the Distinction from the Photographic Alliance of Britain though.

Helen Plant talks about her passion for photography.

I am fascinated by the shapes, colours and textures of nature in close-up as well as on occasions a more abstract approach to the wider landscape.

My preference is for subtle colours and lighting and relatively simple compositions.

Phil Green’s love of taking pictures came about through his use of a traditional SLR film camera, though both Phil and Helen now use digital cameras.

Most of my photographs are of nature subjects taken within twenty miles of home. I cover my local patch with an emphasis on the welfare of my subject. This is a major factor and one of which I am fiercely proud.

Photography has always been considered a visual medium. It’s a process by which light interacts with chemicals upon film, creating an image that can be seen when printed out onto photographic paper. It uses light to create imagery using tone and colour.

However a process of photography has just been invented that allows the blind to enjoy the beauty of photography as well. Using a new piece of software the photographic image can be traced, and then outputted with an embossed finish allowing the viewer to feel the lines of the picture in a form of Braille.

This allows the blind to enjoy photography in much the same way as everyone else, allowing them to feel the imagery with their fingers.

An exhibition for the new form of photography has just been launched in the Ukraine, and pictures from the exhibition can be seen on the BBC website here.