Color — the much-hyped but largely ignored photo sharing app — is back, and this time it’s built entirely around Facebook. One of the main reasons for the app’s failure the first time around was the fact that the photo sharing relied on proximity, a huge problem for new users when no one around is using it. Now, founder Bill Nguyen is trying to avoid the “ghost town” problem by harnessing the power of Facebook’s social graph. Read more…
Here’s an educational time-lapse tutorial by Los Angeles-based architectural photographer Mike Kelley in which he walks through how he goes about photographing buildings. His technique might be described “manual HDR” — after shooting the building over a longish period of time to capture different lightings, he then enters the scene and lights different areas of the building using two Canon 430EX Speedlites. Afterward, he loads the stills into Photoshop and selects different portions of the scene from different photos depending on the lighting he wants. The finished composite photo ends up looking as if it were lit by a large number of Speedlites.
Remember the tiny Chobi Cam One “DSLR” that was introduced in Japan at the beginning of the year? Well the camera has found a distributor in the US and is generating some media buzz again after being marketed as “the world’s smallest camera”. While it certainly isn’t the world’s smallest camera, you probably won’t find an interchangeable lens digital camera that’s smaller. You can buy the video-capable 2-megapixel camera over at Hammacher Schlemmer for $100, though it doesn’t appear to come with any additional lenses besides the kit lens.
Want a DSLR viewfinder but don’t want to pay big bucks for a professional one? Photojojo has a tutorial on how you can build your own DIY version using a lens from a pair of magnifying reading glasses and some plastic/foam board. It’ll definitely draw some weird looks but hey, it works!
Allen Murabayashi is the co-founder and CEO of PhotoShelter.
PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Allen Murabayashi: I was born and raised in Honolulu, and had a pretty early love affair with photography. One of my childhood friends, Jon Emura, had a neighbor who had us over one weekend afternoon to show us how to use an SLR and light meter. After that, my dad let me borrow his Olympus OM-10 to take pictures.
When I was in 7th grade, my parents took a trip to Hong Kong and got me an Olympus OM-4, and I was in Heaven. I wasn’t a great photographer, but I was always taking pictures from junior high onwards. Read more…
If Apple ever got into the photo printer business, this SWYP (“See What You Print”) printer might be similar to what they’d come up with. It’s a brilliant concept photo printer design by Artefact, the same design group that dreamed up the WVIL concept camera. Instead of having to send photos to the printer from a computer, users use a giant touchscreen interface that shows you exactly what’s going to pop out of the bottom. Come on SWYP, hurry up and exist!
What has the world come to? Apparently the prestigious Magnum Photos has partnered with Nintendo to promote the Nintendo 3DS as a camera. Photographers Martin Parr, Thomas Dworzak and Gueorgui Pinkhassov used the handheld gaming device to shoot a series of 3D photos that were then put on display in an exhibition held at the Magnum Gallery in Paris. Here’s what Vingt Paris Magazine had to say about the show:
The exhibition has transformed the white walls of the Magnum Gallery into an upmarket video games console store. Several portable games consoles sit on flashy plastic Nintendo-branded pedestals. Peer closely at each console and you’ll see a slideshow of a few eerie 3D images of each photographer’s ‘perception’ of everyday life. (‘Perception’ because it could be too strong a word to use to describe the result.) The lack of a guiding artistic thread puts the spotlight on the tool rather than the work. The images are nothing to write home about and disappointingly so, especially from Magnum Photos’ best.
The video above shows Parr shooting with the 3DS and referring to it as a “camera in disguise.” Hmmm… That’s nice, but please go back to shooting with Leicas now.
Cut Out + Keep member Myam made this awesome Leica-style messenger bag for a photography-lovin’ friend. Sadly there’s no tutorial for this bag, but she says that the process is identical to what’s seen in this guitar bag tutorial she wrote. A padded insert can also be added to make the bag more suitable for holding cameras. This bag could definitely make for a fun weekend project and photography gift.
Warco — short for War Correspondent — is an upcoming video game in which the player takes on the role of a journalist named Jesse DeMarco. Despite being classified as a first person shooter, the objective is to shoot people with a camera rather than a gun. After venturing into dangerous conflicts and risking your life to snag some footage, you’re given the task of editing the video into a compelling news story. It almost seems like a Pokemon Snap game for adults. If they went a step further and made an online multiplayer mode, that’d certainly be… interesting.
Is it your dream to become a professional photographer? Magnum photographer Christopher Anderson says you should focus more on the word “photographer” than the word “professional”:
Forget about the profession of being a photographer. First be a photographer and maybe the profession will come after. Don’t be in a rush to pay your rent with your camera. Jimi Hendrix didn’t decide on the career of professional musician before he learned to play guitar. No, he loved music and created something beautiful and that THEN became a profession. Larry Towell, for instance, was not a “professional” photographer until he was already a “famous” photographer. Make the pictures you feel compelled to make and perhaps that will lead to a career. But if you try to make the career first, you will just make sh*tty pictures that you don’t care about.
IdeasTap has a great two-part series in which Magnum members offer advice for young photographers looking to get into the game. Definitely worth a read.
