January 2013

Exhibition Explores Racism in Early Color Photography

One would hope that the medium of photography was immune to racial prejudice, but an exhibit by London-based artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin shows that this was not always the case. The artists' exhibit, on display at Johannesburg's Goodman Gallery, explores the marks that racism left on early color photography.

Using film designed to capture white faces and a camera that became infamous for helping further apartheid in South Africa, Broomberg and Chanarin took photos of beautiful South African flora -- putting the once-racial implements to better use.

Clyde Butcher Talks About His Journey to Massive Black-and-White Photography

Photographer Clyde Butcher shoots big photos, and we mean big. He develops large format black-and-white prints that range in size from your standard 8"x10" all the way up to 5x8... feet! This phenomenal photographer's journey and the type of photography he's become famous for are an inspiration to the people out there who want to see the extent to which the medium can be pushed.

The Times is Offering Photographers a Chance at a Serious Portfolio Review

It's safe to say that most amateur photographers have wondered at one time or another if they have what it takes to make it in the big leagues. Well, here's their chance to find out, because The New York Times is hosting a professional portfolio review for 150 of the best amateurs courageous enough to send their work in.

Magnum Photographer Elliott Erwitt on Photographing on the Set of The Misfits

Update: Apparently the uploader has now disabled embedding. You can watch the video over on Vimeo.

Film Director John Huston was a good friend of Magnum co-founder Robert Capa, and as a result Magnum photographers often wound up working on his films. One such photographer is Elliott Erwitt, and in this video he talks about his well-known photo of some well-known folks: the people behind the 1961 movie The Misfits.

An Underwater Fashion Shoot Featuring a Whale Shark

The photograph above may look like some kind of imaginary scene conjured up by a Photoshop wizard, but it's an actual photograph showing a real model swimming with a real whale shark.

Photographers Shawn Heinrichs and Kristian Schmidt carried out the "revolutionary fashion shoot" recently off the coast of the Philippines, creating a set of fashion photos that are unlike any we've seen before.

A Composite Time-Lapse of 90 Airplanes Taking Off in 30 Seconds

Photographer and film professor Cy Kuckenbaker scored a viral hit in December 2012 with a clever video showing five hours of airplane landings condensed into a 30-second composite time-lapse. That video has been viewed more than a million times over the past couple of months.

Kuckenbaker tells us that he just released a second companion piece -- one that shows 90 airplanes in 30 seconds rather than 60.

Instagram Locking Out Users, Asking for Government ID to Reinstate Access

Over the last few days, many Instagram and Facebook users received a nasty shock when they were unceremoniously locked out of their accounts. The lock-out was accompanied by a message asking for government-issued proof of ID before being let back in.

If these were famous people or celebrities, that would be understandable. But all manner of users have been locked out of their accounts over the last week pending identification; some are even being asked to provide birth certificates if their IDs are deemed unacceptable.

Nothing Says ‘I Love You’ to Photo Geeks Like This Chocolate DSLR

You've probably seen chocolate-colored DSLR cameras before, but have you ever seen DSLR-shaped chocolate? The camera above was created by San Francisco-based Etsy seller Hans Chung as a gift for his friends and family. It's a highly detailed solid chocolate replica of a Canon 60D that has a battery grip attached.

Federal Court Rules No Infringement in Case of Two Very Similar Photographs

Copyright law is in place to protect artistic expression, not individual ideas. That was the crux of the reasoning behind a recent federal appeals court ruling that saw no infringement on the part of Sony. In the court's opinion, Sony's photo (right) was not nearly similar enough to Donald Harney's (left) and "no reasonable jury could find 'substantial similarity' between Sony's recreated photo and Harney's original."

Why Founding Photog William Henry Fox Talbot Would Have Grokked Photoshop

The origin of photography was artistic incompetence. On his honeymoon in 1833, William Henry Fox Talbot struggled to sketch the Italian countryside. He was assisted by a camera lucida, a device that projected the landscape onto a sheet of paper, but his untutored hand couldn’t follow the contours. So he conjured a means to record scenery chemically. He dubbed it “the art of photogenic drawing”, and in the 1840s popularized his invention with a book called The Pencil of Nature.

Add a Simple Lens Cap Mount to a Tripod Using LEGO Squares

Last week, we wrote on how you can use LEGO pieces to keep your lens caps on your camera strap when they're not protecting your lenses. A reader named Fearn quickly pointed us to a similar tip published over at Sugru at the end of last year. Instead of using camera straps, however, they suggest tripods as a sturdy way of keeping track of the caps.

Abstract Art Created by Exposing Photo Paper with a Dripping Candle

Photographer Caleb Charland is an artist who perpetually thinks outside the box for his photo concepts. In the past we've featured experiments that include a 14-hour exposure of a lightbulb powered by an orange and using scientific principles for creative images.

Charland's latest project continues this outside-the-box trend. The yet-to-be-named series features abstract images created without a camera -- the artist simply used photo paper and a candle.

Grandson of Famed Zeiss Designer Owns ‘Holy Grail’ Collection of Glass

When your grandfather was Dr. Erhard Glatzel, one of the great lens designers of the twentieth century, it won't come as too much of a shock to find out that you've inherited two lenses that, by all accounts, don't officially exist. Other people? Well, they might be a little bit surprised... and a lot bit jealous.

International Stock Agency Alamy Opens Door to Smartphone Photos

Over the last couple of years, smartphone photography has gained a lot of credibility. Many stock photography agencies, however, have managed to keep their "no smartphones allowed" signs proudly on display even as all of this was happening.

Due to the required megapixel counts and the high quality standards most stock photo agencies try to maintain, smartphones have, for the most part, been kept out of that particular business. Companies are starting to cave though, and the most recent of these is international stock agency Alamy.

Photos of a Chicago Warehouse Turned Into an Ice Cube After Major Fire

This past Tuesday, a major fire gutted an abandoned warehouse in Chicago. More than 50 fire companies and nearly 200 firefighters were summoned to the scene to battle the blaze. What's interesting is that temperatures in the area were so low that the water used to put out the fire quickly froze, turning the building into a giant block of ice.

Leaked Photos of Olympus’ Next High-End Compact, the XZ-10

Here's a sneak peek at Olympus' upcoming high-end compact camera, the XZ-10. It will likely succeed or be sold alongside the Olympus XZ-2, which features a 1/1.7-inch sensor and competes directly against the semi-large-sensor compacts of other manufacturers (e.g. Nikon P7700, Canon G15).

Honey: A Free Plugin That Can Save You Money on Photography Purchases

When shopping online, you've probably seen options for entering promo and discount codes during the checkout stage. Most of the time, however, you probably don't have a suitable code to use for knocking some dollars off the purchase price. Scouring the web can sometimes do the trick, but it's difficult to sift through the noise and find working codes.

If the experience we just described is all too familiar to you, then you should check out Honey. It's a new browser extension that's designed to save you money by finding and applying promo codes for you.

Portraits of People Photographed by Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist

Since its inception in 2005, street fashion photography blog The Sartorialist has become something of a bellwether in the fashion industry, turning photographer Scott Schuman into a kingmaker that can give ordinary fashionable folk 15 minutes of intense Internet fame by spotting them, shooting their photo, and publishing it to his blog.

Schuman recently hosted a party attended by many of the subjects seen in his posed street portraits. He took the opportunity to produce this beautiful short video that captures a followup-up portrait of a number of them.

Google Unleashes a Faster and Sleeker Image Search Experience

Google's Images search engine is a useful tool for photographers in a number of ways. Search for a particular type of assignment or a theme, and you can browse through an ocean of inspiring photographs. Do a reverse search on your own photo, and you can look up whether it has been used without your permission online.

To make your image searching experience even more powerful and friendly, Google has been working on a significant redesign that aims to improve speed and usability.

Sony Unveils Two New NEX Lenses, Full Frame Glass and Camera Coming Soon?

There's some new activity in the world of Sony NEX mirrorless cameras and E-mount lenses -- both new product launches and rumors of soon-to-arrive gear.

Earlier this week, the company announced two new E-mount lenses: a 20mm f/2.8 pancake lens and a 18-200mm f/3.5-f/6.3 "Power Zoom" lens that has features designed for video recording.

The Humorous Photobombs Dropped at Obama’s Inauguration

Here's a bit of lighthearted humor as we heat up the bloggin' machine today: at the second inauguration of Barack Obama this past Monday, a number of humorous photobombs were spotted in the live television coverage and in the press photos that emerged afterward. A few of them have the web talking (and laughing).

In the photograph above by Jim Bourg of Reuters, we see New York Senator Chuck Schumer photobombing during the oath of office.

Focus Stacking Macro Photographs with a Hacked Flatbed Scanner

Focus stacking is when you combine multiple photographs of different focus distances in order to obtain a single photo with a much greater depth of field than any of the individual shots. This can be done by turning the zoom ring on your lens, but this can be difficult to control (especially for highly magnified photos). It can also be done using special rigs designed for the purpose, but those are generally quite pricey.

Photographer and software engineer David Hunt recently came up with the brilliant idea of turning an old flatbed scanner into a macro rail for shooting focus-stacking photos.

Kodak Brand License Holder JK Imaging Shrouded in Mystery

When Kodak announced that it had reached a brand licensing deal with JK Imaging, hardly anybody questioned the move. It meant that Kodak-branded cameras were not a thing of the past -- there's even an upcoming Micro Four Thirds offering -- and after all, Kodak probably has standards when making deals like this.

Interestingly, that's exactly what Kodak said. The company's corporate affairs spokesperson Krista Gleason was clear that the company has "guidelines and standards in place to protect the brand that each of [its] licensees must follow." But nevertheless, there is surprisingly little information out there about JK Imaging Ltd itself.

Artist: Criticized Photo-Based Painting of Kate “Doesn’t Photograph Well”

The painting above is the first official portrait of Kate Duchess of Cambridge (formerly known as Kate Middleton). When it was unveiled to the public earlier this month, art critics around the world bashed it for making Kate look ghostly and much older than she actually is. On the receiving end of all the criticism has been British artist Paul Emsley, the man who photographed Kate Middleton and then turned one of the photos into the painting seen above.

Upscale Restaurants Are Starting to Ban Food Photography

A new piece over at The New York Times is bringing to light an issue that, to be honest, we hadn't realized had gotten so bad. Apparently, amateur food photography is out of control, forcing many restaurants to begin implementing bans or other photo related policies.

Initial Metabones Speed Booster Adapter Reviews Are Positive

When we first shared the news that Metabones had announced a "speed booster" adapter that makes your lenses faster, wider and sharper, not a lot of people had gotten their hands on it yet. But now that the most exciting accessory on the block has been accepted as definitely NOT an elaborate April Fools joke, a few websites have taken turns with it, and initial reviews all seem to be positive.

McCullin: A Documentary Film About the Iconic War Photographer

Don McCullin is known the world over for his incredible work as a photojournalist. His powerful and moving photography of devastation and suffering in Cyprus, The Congo, Vietnam and many others have won him worldwide acclaim as one of the greatest ever.

And now, for those who don't know about his life's work, or really anybody who wants to see what being one of the most prolific (and perhaps most haunted) photojournalists of our time means, the documentary 'McCullin' is here to fill you in.

Four of the Top Five 2012 Patent Holders Make Cameras

The folks over at Chipworks have come out with an interesting infographic that shows the top U.S. patent holders in 2012, and compares them to the same list from 2000. Beyond just gawking at the increase in the sheer number of patents held by each company, we were pleased to see camera manufacturers making a strong showing.

Six Month Long Pinhole Exposures Made Using Beer Cans and Tape

After taking a pinhole workshop taught by renowned pinhole photographer Justin Quinnell, UK photog Matt Bigwood was inspired to start an interesting pinhole project of his own. Thus was born the six-month long exposure you see above, taken using a pinhole camera made from a beer can, some gaffer tape, and a sheet of 5”x7” black and white photographic paper.