July 2012

Michael Zhang

Photos Documenting the Illegal Use of Olympic Branding

The 2012 London Olympics is pretty strict about how the Games' branding is used, prohibiting the unauthorized use of everything from the Olympic symbol to the word "Olympic". Enforcing the rules is another story, as businesses both near and far use Olympic branding extensively to promote their own interests. Photographer Craig Atkinson recently decided to start a project documenting illegal uses in London through a photo project titled Illegal Olympics.

Michael Zhang

Photographing Extreme Skiing in the Alps

Here's a beautiful behind-the-scenes video that takes us on an adventure with Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen as he shoots extreme skiing at the foot of Mont Blanc. Bendiksen was testing the Leica S2 medium-format DSLR -- typically thought of as a studio camera -- to see how it stands up in harsh outdoor environments.

Michael Zhang

London Olympic Photographs from Over 100 Years Ago

The Olympic games in London this year makes London the first city to have hosted the modern Olympic Games three times. The previous times were in 1908 and 1948. Here are some photographs captured at the 1908 Olympics 104 years ago, during a time when megaphones were used to announce events, top hats were all the rage, and dresses were worn by female competitors (this was the third games in which women were allowed to compete).

Michael Zhang

Canon’s Drool-Worthy Gear Room at the London Olympics

Welcome to camera gear heaven: here's a glimpse inside the Canon Professional Services office at the London 2012 Olympics. It's a room that's absolutely stuffed with cameras, lenses, and accessories from floor to ceiling. The Canon 1D X hasn't been released to the general public yet, but this room has hundreds of them!

Michael Zhang

Olympic Athletes Photographed Using a Field Camera and 100-Year-Old Lens

Los Angeles Times Jay L. Clendenin spent four weeks leading up to the Olympics traveling around Souther California, making portraits of athletes on the US Olympic Team. While he certainly wasn't the only one shooting the athletes, Clendenin chose an interesting way of capturing them: in addition to using Canon 5D Mark IIs for digital photos, he also used a 4x5-inch field camera and a 100+-year-old Petzval lens. When displayed side-by-side, the photos show an interesting contrast between "old" and "new".

Michael Zhang

The Hilariously Contorted Faces of Divers in Mid-Air

Diving is one of the most popular Olympic sports among spectators, and arguably one of the most graceful. The faces of the divers as they perform their acrobatics? Not so graceful.

ShortList Magazine took Getty photographs of divers and then cropped out their distorted faces. G-forces have quite a negative effect on beauty...

Michael Zhang

New Lunar Photos Give Proof That Our Flags Are Still There

New photographs of the moon by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera reveal that flags planted by Apollo astronauts are still "flying" after more than four decades. Each of the six manned Apollo missions planted flags at their landing sites, and it now appears that all but one -- the flag planted by Neil Armstrong was blown over upon their departure -- are still standing. The photographs were taken at different times of the day, and show small shadows rotating around the locations where the flags were planted.

Michael Zhang

Clever Photos of Tiny People Living in a World of Giant Food

Big Appetites is a project by photographer Christopher Boffoli that features miniature people living in a world of giant food. The subjects are seen mining for strawberry seeds, chopping up giant blocks of chocolate, and lobster wrangling. Each of the figures (meant for miniature train models) are hand-painted with meticulous detail.

DL Cade

Sigma Has a Change of Heart, Won’t Ever Produce Its Own Mirrorless ILC

A couple of years ago, Sigma expressed a desire to create a mirrorless ILC of its own. And even though everybody and their mother in the camera industry seems to be jumping on the mirrorless bandwagon, Sigma instead is renegeing on that 2010 statement. In an interview with Chinese website Xitek, a Sigma manager stated that the company would never launch a mirrorless system.

DL Cade

New Website Offers Unique “Pimped Out” Versions of the Nikon 1

Here's a cool idea for those of you who feel that the colors you have to choose from when buying a Nikon 1 mirrorless camera are a teensy bit lacking. A new German website called Pimp Your Cam (Note: some images on the site are NSFW) will soon start selling unique, airbrushed Nikon 1 cameras and customization options through the site and at select retailers.

The site and idea is the brain child of photographer Jens Brüggemann and Berlin airbrush artist Torsten Rachu, and each design they come up with is 100% unique. In fact, if you order a design -- which, according to their press release, you'll soon be able to do from their website -- that design will be removed from the site as soon as the order goes through. Check out some of their impressive work after the break.

DL Cade

Fuji Discontinues X100, Possibly Bringing X200 Follow Up to Photokina

Now that July is just about over with, only one month and a few weeks separate us from the start of Photokina on September 18th. And as the wait becomes progressively shorter, speculation about who may be announcing what is gradually ramping up. The most recent batch of speculation has to do with Fuji and the fact that the X100 is now showing up as discontinued on Crutchfield, as well as $200 off at both Amazon and B&H.

DL Cade

How to Shoot RAW Time Lapse, A Tutorial Series by Preston Kanak

Over the years we've featured many incredible time lapse videos shot in locations ranging from Disney Land to Paris, but seeing an awesome time lapse and making one from start to finish yourself are worlds apart. This tutorial series, put together by videographer Preston Kanak and introduced in the video above, offers amateurs and professionals alike the opportunity to learn how to shoot amazing RAW time lapse footage absolutely free.

Michael Zhang

Electrifying Photos of Flowers Being Zapped by 80,000 Volts

Photographer Robert Buelteman takes pictures of shocking things -- literally. The California-based photographer uses Kirlian photography techniques to capture amazing images of 80,000 volts of electricity coursing through flowers. The technique is so dangerous and tedious that very few people in the world even attempt this kind of photography.

DL Cade

Indestructible Hard Drive Keeps Your Pics Safe from Car Washes, Fire and Football

It's unlikely you'll ever need to protect your digital photos from extreme elements (and if you have a 7D you know your camera will make it) but as the saying goes, it's better to be safe than sorry -- and apparently hard drives don't get much safer than the Slilicon Power A80. In a video that's equal parts fun and demonstration, photographer Benjamin Von Wong put the hard drive through a series of unrealistically harsh tests, making sure it still worked after each one.

DL Cade

Apple and Google Each Form Alliances in Preparation for Kodak Patent Battle

The deadline to put up initial bids for Kodak's 1,100 patent sale is Monday, and The Wall Street Journal reports that the two biggest contenders, Apple and Google, are forming "coalitions" with other companies in preparation for the all out patent brawl. The last time this happened, an Apple/Microsoft alliance ended up winning the battle against Google, that time over a patent sale by Nortel Networks.

DL Cade

Photogs Chime in on Snapping Photos of Tragedy When They Could Have Helped

The Guardian featured a gripping article yesterday that asked photographers to look back at some of their most powerful photos, and how they could have helped instead of standing by and taking pictures. On the one hand we've all felt that surge of indignation as we wonder "why didn't they help!?" On the other, only a photographer that has been there could understand what it's like to be under that kind of pressure:

Allen Mowery

DIY Photography Wall Art from Baby Crib Springs

Are you looking for creative ways to decorate your walls and display numerous photos without making it look like your crazy great-aunt’s hallway? Now you can with this ingenious DIY project!

While I would love to take credit for this idea, it is really my wife’s brainchild. Apparently a desire to decorate the walls, the concept of saving money while using up junk in one’s basement to make the house look pretty, combined with time spent surfing the web will generate exceptionally creative ideas like this. (Yes, there are others who have done similar. However, that was only discovered after the original brainchild was birthed.) So, let’s get started, shall we?

Michael Zhang

Portraits of Superheroes Living Ordinary Lives in Hong Kong

Superheroes usually do their world-saving work in big cities, but what if they lived lives that were as mundane as the civilians they're sworn to protect? Photographer Chow Kar Hoo has a creative series of photographs that show well known superheroes living rather ordinary lives in Hong Kong. Batman is seen strolling a night market, Wolverine is found making a living slicing up meat at a butcher shop, and Hellboy is spotted enjoying some late night hot pot.

Michael Zhang

Five Friends Take the Same Group Photo for 30 Years

Back in 1982, 19-year-old five buddies -- John Wardlaw, Mark Rumer, Dallas Burney, John Molony, and John Dickson -- went on vacation to Copco Lake in California and snapped a group photo (seen above). Since then, they've embarked on the same vacation every 5 years, staying at the same cabin, sitting on the same bench, and snapping the same photo (with identical poses and all). They're 48-years-old now, and the tradition is still going strong.

Michael Zhang

DC Police Snatch Camera One Day After Being Commanded to Stop

Well, that didn't take long. Just one day after Washington DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued a directive ordering officers to leave photographers alone (PDF here), a police officer reportedly snatched a man's camera at a crime scene and later returned it without the memory card.

DL Cade

Magic Lantern Releases v2.3, Says It’s No Longer a “Hack”

For those of you who have never heard of Magic Lantern (or know it only as a 17th century image projector) as far as Canon HDSLRs are concerned, Magic Lantern is a firmware add-on that first appeared in 2009 for the 5D Mark II. Since then it has been ported to most Canon HDSLRS and, for years, it has been known as a hack that brave and/or curious Canon owners have added to their cameras in order to squeeze out more functionality -- in some cases a lot more. The risk, of course, was always stability.