September 2011

Nikon Announces J1 and V1 Mirrorless Cameras and New Lens System

Nikon's long-awaited mirrorless camera system has arrived. Today Nikon announced the new J1 and V1 mirrorless cameras and four new Nikon "1 System" lenses. The two cameras have nearly identical specs: a 10.1 megapixel CX-format (13.2mmx8.8mm) CMOS sensor with 2.7x crop factor, a 3-inch LCD screen, 10fps shooting, 1080/30p HD video recording, 1200fps slow-motion recording at 320x120, simultaneous video/still capture, 73-point hybrid autofocus, and 12-bit RAW files.

Famous Places Photographed in Bubbles

While on vacation in Ireland five years ago and browsing a street fair, photographer Tom Storm captured a few shots of bubbles floating past. After reviewing the photos and discovering that a whole world was captured in the bubbles, he began to intentionally photograph bubbles while visiting landmarks around the world.

More People Have Walked on the Moon Than Have Captured the Analemma

Want a challenging photography project? Try capturing an analemma in a single shot. "Analemma" is the name given to the figure-eight shape traced by the sun if photographed at the same time of day over the course of a year. To capture it, you'll need to leave your camera in a fixed position and shoot photos at exactly the same time of day for all of the shots.

Photographer Helps Save Homeless Dogs Through Better Photography

Real estate agents make it a point to have homes look attractive in photographs, knowing that good photography can make a huge difference, but the people at animal rescue shelters often settle for second-rate photographs of the dogs they're trying to find homes for. Professional pet photographer Teresa Berg of Dallas, Texas realized that countless dogs are likely euthanized each year simply due to bad photography, and decided to make a difference. Several years ago she started doing shoots for a pet shelter free of charge, and helped increase the adoption rates there by 100%

Giant Words Added to Photos Without Photoshop

The giant "GRIT" seen in this photograph wasn't added in post-processing. The secret? Blue painters tape.

Artist Stephen Doyle created the installation for a series of photographs that appeared in a recent New York Times Magazine article titled What if the Secret to Success is Failure?

Matrix-style Bullet Time Photos Using 20 Polaroid Cameras

Line up an array of digital cameras and you'll have yourself a setup that can take Matrix-style bullet-time shots. Artist Sam Blanchard created a similar rig, but went with Polaroid cameras instead of digital ones. The project, titled Polaroid Matrix, consists of 20 Polaroid cameras arranged in a circle and modified to be triggered remotely. After the cameras are triggered to simultaneously capture photos of the subject in the center, the Polaroid pictures are arranged and turned into a Flipbook.

Celebrating Film Photography: “Camera Style” Websites Worldwide

tokyo camera style by John Sypal (see our interview with him) is a popular website documenting the analog camera culture in Tokyo, Japan by sharing photographs of cameras being used on the streets -- it's like The Sartorialist except for cameras instead of fashion. If you're a fan of the site and love browsing photos of old school cameras people use, you'll be happy to know that there's a number of similar websites for other cities and places around the world.

State of the Art: Is Photography Over?

Here are the recordings of all the "Is Photography Over?" panel sessions hosted by SFMOMA that we referred to earlier today:

Photography has almost always been in crisis. In the beginning, the terms of this crisis were cast as dichotomies: is photography science or art? Nature or technology? Representation or truth? This questioning has intensified and become more complicated over the intervening years. At times, the issues have required a profound rethinking of what photography is, does, and means. This is one of those times. Given the nature of contemporary art practice, the condition of visual culture, the advent of new technologies, and many other factors, what is at stake today in seeing something as a photograph? What is the value of continuing to speak of photography as a specific practice or discipline? Is photography over? [#]

The videos run a total of 5 hours altogether, so you'll need to set aside a good amount of time to chew through the talks. You can also find transcripts of the sessions and more information about the experts here.

Canon 24-105mm Lens Falls From Sky and Tears Gaping Hole in Roof

On September 2nd, a woman in Northern California named Debbie Payne heard a loud crash and, upon investigating, found a smashed Canon 24-105mm lens on the ground and a gaping 9-inch hole in her roof. Now the police department in Petaluma is trying to figure out how the lens apparently fell from the sky.