Seattle editorial-portrait photographer John Keatley's portrait of PopCap Games co-founder John Vechey was selected this year in PDN Faces and the Prix de la Photographie Paris (Px3) photography contests. Keatley also was chosen to take the portrait used in Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's new best-selling book, "Onward." Keatley helped...

John Keatley's website was recently selected as one of the top photography websites in the Photo District News American Photography Competition for the second year in a row.

In addition, Keatley's portrait of Annie Leibovitz was published as the opener for the current "PDN Faces" issue. His images of Steve Sarich, one of the leaders in the medical marijuana movement, were recently featured in the Seattle Weekly newspaper.

Amid layoffs, reorganizations and market imbalance, a number of photo stock agencies have decided to trim the royalty rates they pay for rights-managed images.

The changes began in September 2008, when Alamy announced that it would reduce its royalty rates from 65 percent to 60 percent. A few weeks later, during the 2008 PhotoPlus Expo, Corbis senior vice president Don Wieshlow said Corbis would lower its rates from a range of 45 to 50 percent to 40 percent as contracts come up for renewal...

Seattle photographer Doug Landreth was one of six winners in the Photo District News PIX Digital Imaging Contest's Personal category for his series of three floral portraits. A few months previously, Landreth's work placed sixth in the Adobe Digital Imaging Competition, exploring the theme Presentation of Entertainment.

Like so many things in life, photography runs in cycles based on reaction and a desire for change, even if that means reinventing the wheel at times. Sometimes these changes lack the proper historical perspective of all that has gone before. Other times, the changes sought harken back to seemingly safer, more predictable times.

In the post-Civil War years, American photographers began turning their attention from the war to the West. They brought home images of the incredible, endless landscapes of the new frontier to an East hungry for expansion. They built an enthusiasm for these places that would help lead to the founding of the national park system, starting with Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

Today, more than a century later, nature photographers are still bringing home images...