July 2012

For Windows users who frequently need access to Creative Commons photography, Abelssoft’s free desktop app …

Today's dose of inspiration comes in the form of two videos for the price of one. Both videos feature well-known and well-respected photographer and photojournalist Steve McCurry -- the man behind the unforgettable Afghan Girl photo that graced the cover of NatGeo -- but each offer a different sort of insight into his world.

Photographer Gloria Baker Feinstein recently moved due to some health issues her husband was dealing with. As part of the transition, the couple was forced to sell off some of their possessions in an estate sale. To cope with the emotional difficulty of parting with precious memories, Feinstein decided to shoot iPhone portraits of buyers as they left with her things -- creating new memories as old ones left the door.

Indiana university historian Patrick Feaster recently discovered a record featuring the voice of Emile Berliner -- inventor of the phonograph. Created in 1889, the record is likely the oldest in the world. What's interesting, however, is how Feaster managed to obtain it: through a photograph. That's right, Feaster discovered an image of the disc preserved in an old 1890 German magazine from the same year and then was able to recreate it by scanning and analyzing the photo.

Here's a cool DIY project, courtesy of creator Derte84 and the folks over at Instructables, for those of you who have a bunch of slides sitting around but no slide projector in sight. Putting the whole thing together will require a little bit of hardware (e.g. you'll either need the tools to cut the wood yourself or an account with a laser cutting service) but the final product is pretty cool.

Boat racing photographer Rob Thorn had a close call at …

Back in April of this year, Canon officially announced its EOS 1D C: a 4K cinema DSLR. And even though consumers (with significant amounts of spare cash) won't be getting their hands on it until sometime late this year, the first 4K video sample from the camera surfaced a few days ago.

Here’s a short and sweet video in which photographer/entrepreneur Gary Fong shares his …

Nikon D4 owners looking to speed up their transfer rates may take well to the news that Sony has just announced its new S-Series XQD cards -- although their wallets probably won't react in kind. The new cards, which will be available in Japan on July 11th, can hit transfer speeds of up to 168MB/s, and will come in both 32 and 64 gigabyte sizes.

We’ve shared photos of photobooth marriage proposals before, but how about a video? After …

You may think that shooting 4K video is reserved for people with deep pockets and cinematographic aspirations, but a new camera from Point Grey begs to differ. The company's new Flea3 webcam seeks to offer that same super-high resolution in a tiny package and for a significantly smaller (though still not small) price tag than, say, a RED Epic.

The point-and-shoot may be on its way out, but it certainly isn't going out without a fight. A few weeks ago we saw Sony release the RX100, which has been called "the best pocket camera of all time," and now Sigma is following that up with its own high-end compact to hit shelves on July 12th: the DP2 Merrill.

If you're at all familiar with Lytro cameras and their light field technology, you'll have heard of founder and CEO Ren Ng. However, he won't be holding the title of CEO much longer. Two days ago Ng announced via blog post that he would be stepping aside as the CEO of Lytro and moving into the Executive Chairman position previously occupied by Charles Chi (who, incidentally, is now the interim CEO).

Ever wondered how one of those exploded view photos comes together? Well, the above video by photographer Adam Voorhes should shed some light on the matter. When he was asked to photograph an exploded view of a Kawasaki motorcross bike for ESPN, he decided to put together this video that crunches 2 days worth of dismantling and hanging at Kawasaki headquarters in California into just under a minute.

Photographer Joe Klamar has been receiving some criticism over his portraits of the US Olympic Team that many believe could have been done better. Most of the criticism, as you would imagine, comes from photographers who believe they could have done a better job representing the athletes. And with access to these athletes for photographic purposes being so restricted, it's understandable that photogs would get upset over sub-par portraits.