Consumer affairs blog The Consumerist caused a stir earlier this week by offering the following advice to people looking to earn some extra cash for the holidays:
Become a photographer. Most photographers will tell you that persistence is at least as important as skill in creating great work. If you know people who are looking to take portraits or holding a social function, offer to shoot it for free and sell them the pictures if they like them.
Needless to say, the suggestion caused quite an angry response from actual photographers, who equated the tip with telling people to buying a hammer in order to become an independent contractor. Stan Horaczek over at PopPhoto has also written up a lengthy response. It looks like people are taking Missy’s advice quite seriously.
Eve Johnson of Evalicious wanted to turn some old digital photographs into Instax-style prints for a travel journal, so she decided to make some fake ones. She arranged two photos on each template, saved them as 4×6 prints, had them made at a local print shop, and then cut them out in Instax dimensions. You can find the low down over on her blog.
Cam Crate is a new DSLR camera case that’s designed for photographers who shoot in places that aren’t friendly toward cameras. While many solutions already exist for keeping your camera safe, most of them are designed for transporting your gear rather than protecting it on the go. The Cam Crate is different: it’s waterproof (and floats), mudproof, crushproof, and shockproof, but at the same time a quick action door lets you quickly take out your camera whenever its needed. Read more…
Upon first glance, photographer Frank Kunert‘s photographs may look like they show pretty ordinary places. Look a little closer, however, and you’ll start to notice that each one has something wrong about it, and that none of the scenes would actually exist in the real world. They’re actually miniature scenes that are meticulously built by hand! Read more…
A woman who calls herself “Missy” has launched a new channel on YouTube dedicated to tongue-in-cheek videos on how easy being a professional photographer is. It’s pretty funny how much bad advice she can give while staying in character and keeping a straight face. The informative first video above is on using the professional mode (“P”) on your camera to take advantage of your professional DSLR. Read more…
Photographer Jim Sanborn has a project titled Topographic Projections and Implied Geometries Series in which he casts complex patterns over vast landscapes using a projector, and uses long exposure times to capture the scenes. The projector and camera are, on average, half a mile away from his landscapes, and on moonless nights he uses a searchlight to illuminate the scene. Read more…
The New York Times has sent an angry letter to the New York Police Department after video emerged showing photojournalist Robert Stolarik being pushed around and then blocked while trying to photograph officers arresting Occupy Wall Street protestors. The memo itself hasn’t be published, but NYT VP and assistant general counsel George Freeman is quoted as saying,
It seemed pretty clear from the video that the Times freelance photographer was being intentionally blocked by the police officer who was kind of bobbing and weaving to keep him from taking photographs
The department has acknowledged receiving the note from the NYT, but has not issued a formal response yet. This incident comes just weeks after Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered officers to avoid unreasonably interfering with media access during news coverage. Read more…
Freeway Interchange is a series by Canadian photographer Peter Andrew consisting of birds-eye-view photographs of freeways around the world. Read more…
Check out these gigantic backlit Polaroid-style photographs, called Polaboys, by Jirko Bannas and Oliver Seltmann. During the day they look like “ordinary” giant photos, but when the sun sets light brings them to life. Details on the website are sparse, but apparently they’re for sale and available from a shop in Paris.
Here’s something to add to your bucket list of things to photograph: daytime fireworks. Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang created the amazing display seen in the video above using timed detonations and clusters of smoke clouds. The demonstration was held at a museum in Qatar, but hopefully the concept will start spreading soon — maybe to a place near you!
