September 2011

Your Rights as a Photographer in the US

In response to the "widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs or video in public places", the American Civil Liberties Union has published a helpful article that clearly details what your rights are as a photographer in the United States.

Samsung May be Working on a Retro X100 Competitor Called the R1

With the success of the Fujifilm X100, camera companies are starting to realize that consumers love both the design of old school cameras and the ease of shooting digital. Samsung may be looking to join the retro party -- the latest rumor to hit the Internet is that Samsung is planning a X100-style camera called the R1... with interchangeable lenses!

Taking Versus Making a Photograph

Here's an uber-inspiring video in which National Geographic photographer Sam Abell discusses the difference between "taking" and "making" photographs through his experience of shooting one particular photograph for a story on painter Charles M. Russell. He explains that taking an image is shooting a photo as a reaction, without any preparation, while making a photograph is a process.

This Photo May Have Been Taken with the Upcoming iPhone 5

What you see here may be the first leaked photograph shot with the upcoming iPhone 5. The EXIF data claims it was shot with the iPhone 4, but other EXIF details indicate otherwise. Although the leaked image was cropped, the original size of the image was 3264x2448 (roughly 8MP), the rumored resolution found on the next iPhone. The lens info was recorded as "4.3mm f/2.4", more similar to a point-and-shoot than then 3.85mm f/2.8 lens found on the iPhone 4. Finally, the geotag info in the photo shows it was taken at 37.33216667,-122.03033333 -- the location of Apple's headquarters. Check out the full-res file with EXIF intact here.

Cameras Sculpted Using Found Paper

Artist Jennifer Collier uses found and recycled paper as if it were fabric to recreate common household objects, including cameras! Here are a few that were made using maps, postcards, and letters.

Famous Photos Seen Through Instagram Filters

What would famous photographs look like if the photographers who created them had been using Instagram? That's a question that's answered by Mastergram, a site that takes the work of renowned photographers and passes them through Instagram filters.

Give Your Room a Beautiful Skyline View Using an Ordinary Printer

After moving into their new dorm room, Caleb Ungewitter and his roommate Kyle decided that their walls looked too empty, so they decided to decorate it with a photo. Not just any photo, mind you, but a gigantic do-it-yourself print of a beautiful city skyline. Using a free program called The Rasterbator, they converted the photograph into 152 separate frames, which they printed out themselves and attached to the wall in a grid.

Swedish Wildlife Photographer of the Year Admits to Faking Photos

A huge photo scandal erupted over in Sweden this past weekend after a well-known and award-winning wildlife photographer admitted to faking some of his photographs. Terje Helleso -- a nature photographer who was named Nature Photographer of the Year by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 -- was discovered to have published multiple images in which stock photographs of hard-to-find animals were Photoshopped into nature scenes.

Human Light Suit: A One-Man Band-style Mobile Photo Studio

Photographer Eric Schwabel was trying to think of a creative way to photograph the people at Burning Man, and ended up making a portable photo studio called the "Human Light Suit" for lighting portraits in the desert. It's like the photography version of a one-man band!

Truth, Lies and Deception in Photography

The debate regarding what makes a photograph "truthful" or not is probably as old as the art of photography itself. By sheer coincidence, there were a couple interesting articles published today on this issue, and written from two different points-of-view.

US Gov Sues The Art Institutes for $11 Billion Fraud

The Art Institutes, one of the nation's largest for-profit school systems where people can receive an education in photography, has come under fire. Last month, the US Department of Justice filed a massive lawsuit against the company behind the schools, Education Management Corporation, accusing it of fraudulently collecting $11 billion in government aid by recruiting low-income students for the purpose of collecting student aid money. Whistleblowers claim that students graduate loaded with debt and without the means to pay off the loans, which are then paid for with taxpayer dollars.

People in Fake Squares Photographed from Fake Heights

The photographs in Adam Magyar's Square series appear to show crowds of people bustling about in open town squares, seen from a height that makes them look almost like ants. In reality, each photograph is actually a composite of hundreds of individual photos, and none of the squares actually exist. Magyar photographed strangers walking on sidewalks from only 3-4 meters off the ground, and then blended the photographs together to make them seem like they were captured from a fake height!

Forget DualView, Samsung MV800 Has a Back that Flips 180-Degrees

Samsung's DualView feature adds a small LCD screen to the front of compact cameras for self-portraits, but why use a small screen when you can use the screen on the back? Announced today, the company's new MultiView MV800 camera has a large 3-inch touchscreen on the back that can flip up 180-degrees, letting narcissists users view it from the front (or above, or below). No word on when it will be released, but the 16MP camera will be priced at $280 when it is.

Camera Comics: Awesome Comic Books from the 1940s

Between July 1944 and 1946, the U.S. Camera Publishing Company published a comic book titled "Camera Comics" in an attempt to get kids interested in the growing hobby of photography. Covers showed pilots pointing huge cameras out of planes and baddies getting whacked with cameras.

Introducing PetaPixel Camera Stickers!

Today, we're excited to introduce our new Camera Stickers: cute little stickers based on the awesome pixel illustrations of designer Billy Brown. The stickers are printed on durable and tear-proof PVC plastic. 91 stickers per sheet, and 3 sheets -- 273 stickers total -- cost just $5 with free shipping within the US! You can buy them over in our store.