World Class Runners Up

Well, it would appear the warmer weather is with us and thoughts naturally turn to some of the big sporting events happening here in the next few months.

In June we have Royal Ascot, the British Grand Prix and Wimbledon starts. July brings Henley Royal Regatta, The Ashes begin and The Open Championship Golf. August brings Cowes Week, Rugby League Challenge Cup and The Community Shield, which heralds the start of the football season and the onset of autumn.

What will underpin much of the sporting endeavour throughout the summer, will be the sheer weight of hyperbole and eulogising from the press focused on individuals with even the most passing links to this fair isle. Maybe their great-grandfather once used the facilities at Heathrow on a stop-over from Paris to Moscow, or they are the third cousin twice removed of Princess Anne. Whichever it is, they will be built up in the early summer as the future, only to be the overnight sandwich left on the radiator by September.

The British will not let slip easily the mantle of World Class Runners Up. The Aussies will probably tonk the English at cricket, we will struggle to have a representative in the second week of the tennis at Wimbledon, and the Open will probably be won by a Papua New Guinean who had first picked up a club three weeks before.

Whatever the outcomes this summer, hope springs eternal and maybe, just maybe 2009 will be different..

To clock some great British Summer Sports imagery, go here.

Loop launches a new blog

Today, Loop Images launch their new blog site with a desire to keep it fresh, informative and above all, fun. We aim to provide updates on new work, editorial on industry news and to shine a light on all that is good (and perhaps, not so good) about contemporary British photography and the stock world.

The world of modern photography, both amateur and commercial, is converging with the advent of micro-sites, self-publishing and the technological strides pro-sumer cameras are making in closing the gap on professional kit. The line has blurred between how an image was originated, and to many, it doesn't matter.

What Loop see as the challenge going forward is to represent what may be termed the 'second wave' of creativity born through the accessibility of new technologies, and augment this with old world (read pre-digital!) craft and disciplines associated with the analogue age. If we can represent the best possible Britain imagery originating from both new and established creatives and maintain the rights-managed framework, we can, in our own way, create a marque of excellence for the image professional that will continue to withstand the vagaries of a crowded marketplace.

In the meantime, Loop applaud the crazy, sensational, dynamic, inspired, free-wheelin' and tripod-carrying lot of you. And to you, the prospective client reading this, well, you have the most original images of Britain a mere click of your mouse away, so go and feast on the best of British!