January 2013

Photographer Captures Strange Flying Object in Death Valley Time-Lapse

In mid-December, photographer Gavin Heffernan and his team braved freezing temps at the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley to capture the beautiful time-lapse footage seen above. They expected to (and did) get some gorgeous shots of dunes and star trails; what they didn't expect was footage of a strange flying object (we're purposely avoiding the term UFO because of its affiliation with oblong green men with large eyes) circling the night sky.

The Experience of Being the Only Photog to Shoot the Manti Te’o Interview

One of the biggest stories in the sports world over the past couple of weeks has been the hoax involving star football player Manti Te’o and a girlfriend that never existed. After the news spiraled into the national spotlight, Te'o agreed to an exclusive off-camera interview with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap to explain his side of the story.

Although no footage was to be recorded at the interview, ESPN was allowed to capture the interview with a single still photographer. That photographer turned out to be University of Florida photojournalism student Ryan Jones.

Feature Film Shot Inside Disney Theme Parks Without Permission

There are some places where you're just not allowed to stage a professional photo or video shoot, and topping that list would be places like Disney World, Disneyland, and probably Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. The thing is, some photographers and videographers have no problem ignoring the rules to get a great shot (think: rooftopping).

Photographer Forcefully Arrested After Shooting on Metrorail Platform

Photographer, blogger, and photographers rights' activist Carlos Miller has made headlines quite a few times over the past few years with his legal rumbles with authorities over photography in public places. Miller, who often instigates the disputes for the purpose of bringing photographers' rights into the spotlight, recently had another big confrontation with authorities in Miami (it's not the first time it has happened).

The video above is Miller's documentation of the incident. He says he was "attacked, choked, suffocated and handcuffed by 50 State security guards" for shooting photos and video on the Miami-Dade Metro rail this past Sunday night.

My Picturetown Now ‘Nikon Image Space,’ Adds Perks for Nikon Owners

Nikon's free online image service my Picturetown never really caught on; given the stiff competition from big names like Flickr and 500px and, let's face it, that unfortunate name, it's not surprising. But Nikon is calling a do-over and starting fresh with a new look, new features and a new name. Staring January 28th, my Picturetown becomes 'Nikon Image Space.'

Use First, Ask Later: Don’t Want to “Play Hardball”? Don’t Publish Online

The issue of publishing social media photos of breaking news without their owners' permission is in the news again. After a helicopter crashed in central London last Wednesday, the London Evening Standard found a photo snapped by a witness named Craig Jenner and shared on Twitter. Unable to obtain permission from Jenner prior to its paper going to the press, the Evening Standard went ahead and published the image on its front page.

A Graph of New Camera Gear’s Perceived Worth Over Time

For several years now, my occupation has been to basically read everything written about new equipment. In order to help everyone save time, and to save the Internet millions of electrons, I have developed a concise method to summarize all such discussions for all newly introduced imaging equipment.

I modestly call this Roger’s Law of New Product Introduction and have summarized it in the graph above. You will notice there are two possible paths a new product may follow. To date, these two paths accurately describe every introduced product.

A Teardown of the Popular Fujifilm X100

Goodbye old young friend. Let me give you all a piece of wisdom that I recently learned the hard way. If you go on a fishing trip called 'Hit em' Hard' and the captain tells you that you should take your bag off and put it in the 'dry container', what he really means by 'dry container' is a place that will fill up with seawater after he accidently clogs the drainage pipe, soaking you and your friends cameras, bags, wallets and cellphones for over an hour in salty seawater.

Better yet, just never go on a fishing charter with a name like 'Hit em' Hard.'

On Traveling to Iran as an American Street Photographer

Photographer Brandon Stanton has generated quite a bit of attention in the photo world through his project Humans of New York, which features thousands of portraits that form a visual census of the city. His goal is to capture 10,000 portraits of New Yorkers that are associated with points on a map.

Stanton recently visited the country of Iran to shoot similar portraits of its inhabitants. He tells us that by visiting the country as a tourist rather than a press member, he was able to get a "remarkable amount of access" in order to create a beautiful collection of intimate street portraits.

Caveat Emptor: Receiving a Used “New” Camera From Amazon

This is a cautionary tale about a recent experience with Amazon. For Christmas I was the lucky recipient of a Pentax K-5 -- a gift from a family member who bought it from my Amazon wish list (Yeah me!). Unfortunately, unwrapping was the last happy moment in this tale.

Ricoh GR Digital V to Feature an APS-C Sensor

It may not be the most popular series of compact cameras, but the Ricoh GR Digital line has attracted a sizable cult following of photographers around the world -- particularly street shooters. From the time the original GRD was announced at Photokina 2004 until the most recent GRD IV, the cameras have offered smaller 1/1.77-inch CCD sensors. That will soon change: a trusted source tells us that the Ricoh GR Digital V will feature a larger APS-C sensor.

Creating 3D Portraits Using an Array of Digital Cameras

Chilean visual artist Felipe Baeza is doing some pretty interesting work with Matrix-style camera rigs. Instead of bullet time videos, Baeza uses his rig to create 3D portraits of subjects that can then be displayed in augmented reality or through a 3D model viewer.

Use Your Phone as a Rugged Action Cam with the G90 Case

In most ways the smartphone is the height of convenience. Phone, check; computer, check; camera, check. But one market the smartphone seems well suited for, but hasn't yet broken into with any reasonable force, is the action cam market.

One of the reasons for this (lack of serious image stabilization and durability aside) seems to simply be camera placement. Given where the lens is, mounting your phone as an action cam anywhere but your chest seems unrealistic or, at the very least, aerodynamically unwise. The new G90 Action Sports Camera case from G-Form addresses this exact problem.

Amazing Surreal Photomontages Created Without the Use of Photoshop

Upon first glance, artist Thomas Barbèy's surreal photomontages may seem rather amateur when compared with all the highly-polished photomanipulations that are floating around on the Internet. However, one simple fact will make you see the pieces in an entirely different light: Barbèy shoots film and uses in-camera and darkroom techniques to create the works!

That's right: he eschews Photoshop and digital trickery in favor of analog processes.

A Time-Lapse of President Obama with Photos from the Past Four Years

For his project Presidial.org, Chicago-based artist Jeremy Tubbs collected random news photographs of Barack Obama captured between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2012, aligned them, and then turned them into the above time-lapse video. The 2,500+ photographs were scraped from various online sources and are arranged in chronological order.

Facebook Calls for the Creation of Cheap Flash Memory for Mass Photo Storage

Facebook has over 240 billion photos on its servers -- that's billion... with a "b" -- and every day about 350 million more are added. Naturally, Facebook needs to store all of those photos somewhere, and that somewhere needs to be accessible at all times because who knows when Jack will need to show Jill some pics of the hill from 3 years ago.

Humorous Portraits of People with Faces Pressed Against Glass

"The Ugly Truth" is a bizarre series of portraits by photographer Rut Mackel. Each photo features a not-very-pleasing photo of a face that looks flatted and disfigured. No, the subjects don't actually look like that, and no, Mackel didn't use any kind of digital manipulation for the photos. She simply asked her subjects to hold a pane of glass and then press their faces against it.

Special Edition Point-and-Shoot Made for Taking Pictures With Anime Characters

We've seen a lot of gimmicks when it comes to selling cameras. Especially where point-and-shoots are concerned, gimmicky features have become standard over the past few years as part of the war on smartphones. But this has to be one of most interesting: a special edition camera with the sole purpose of inserting Japanese anime characters into your pictures.

The camera is a modified Casio Exilim, and the second in a series of cameras by electronics magazine Digimono Station made especially for fans of the show "Puella Magi Madoka Magica."

Analog SLRs as Cheap Full-Frame DSLR Alternatives

It's been a while since we've shared some DigitalRev tomfoolery, but the most recent question posed by Kai and his buddies is an interesting one: given how expensive "entry-level" full-frame DSLRs are, would a dirt cheap 35mm SLR be a realistic alternative?

EyeEm App Sees Popularity Surge, Pulls Ahead of Instagram on Free App Charts

When you think "Instagram competitor," the first app that comes to mind is Flickr's new offering. Having released just in time for Instagram to royally annoy its users with the proposed ToS changes, disgruntled Instagrammers flocked to Flickr in droves.

But there's a new kid gaining popularity on the lo-fi block that does exactly what Instagram does, only more... German. It's the EyeEm app, and it's been climbing the charts so fiercely that it has established itself as a legitimate Instagram competitor in little more than a week.

PictureDefense Blog Gives Step-by-Step Instructions on Dealing With Photo Theft

Getting your photography removed from an offending website or Facebook page can be a hassle, and if you've never done it before, learning the proper process for any given situation can be a downright pain. Fortunately, there are awesome people out there who don't mind helping out their fellow photogs.

That's where James Beltz from PhotoTips and his new blog PictureDefense come in. What he's done is set up a free website where you can go and get step-by-step instructions on how to get your copyrighted photos removed from almost any type of website.

Giotto’s New Tripod Design Makes It 30% Smaller When Collapsed

We don't feature a lot of tripods on PetaPixel because, frankly, once you've seen one you've just about seen them all. That's not to say that tripods don't vary hugely in both build quality and functionality, just that it doesn't really make headlines when Manfrotto comes out with their newest model.

Giotto's newest creation, however, has made headlines. Not because it's made out of any new super-strength material. Not even because it sports some crazy design that makes it much sturdier or steadier. No, the Silk Road YTL tripod has gotten attention because of one small design alteration that makes it 30% smaller when it's broken down.

Why We Did, In Fact, Land on the Moon: A Photography-Based Proof

One of the most vehemently argued conspiracy theories of all time is that, in 1969, NASA did not actually land on the moon. Many different breakdowns of the photo and video footage have been used to make this point (think: flag waving, missing stars, etc), leading most conspiracy theorists to argue that the great Stanley Kubrick actually filmed the moon landing in a television studio.

The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington: Paying Tribute to a Great Photojournalist

Less than two months after attending the 2011 Academy Awards with his friend and colleague Sebastian Junger, acclaimed photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington (seen above) died tragically in Misrata, Libya, only minutes away from the hospital.

Over the following year, Junger began a quest to put together Hetherington's final hours by interviewing friends, family, and anybody who could shed light on his life and what had transpired. Being a filmmaker, it seemed only right that he record these interviews.

Operation Photo Rescue Restores Photos Damaged in Natural Disasters for Free

Natural disasters are tragic for many reasons. Assuming, most importantly, that you and your loved ones come through one such disaster healthy, you immediately begin the process of putting your life back together. And even though top priorities are probably your home, cars, critical documents, and so on, those things are replaceable; the photos that may have also been damaged or destroyed are not.

Transcend Planning to Manufacture Copy Protected SD and microSD Cards

Copy protection and data encryption are standard in most storage media, but you don't often hear of copy protection as it pertains to memory cards. Although all SD cards come with a form of DRM copy protection (CPRM), it's rarely used; and something as common as re-formatting the memory card can erase protected sections that are required to make use of the copy protection in the first place.

Other copy-protected memory card options are marketed to/used mainly by companies, and not typical consumers. Seeing this market as an opportunity, Transcend Information recently announced plans to manufacture its own copy-protected SD and microSD cards and a corresponding reader.

An Aurora Borealis Time-Lapse Proposal

A time-lapse of the aurora borealis captured from several different locations throughout Iceland would be a good enough way to start off your Saturday, but MIT neuroscientist Alex Rivest's time-lapse from a few months ago takes it one step further.

In a romantic gesture that will either have you saying "awwww" or being annoyed at how high he set the bar, Rivest's time-lapse ends with a marriage proposal.

Tips for Getting Maximum Performance Out of Adobe Lightroom

Is your Adobe Lightroom running slowly on your computer? Adobe regularly receives questions through social media regarding sluggish photo editing, and recently decided to start compiling the non-traditional solutions that work onto a single helpful page. In the Lightroom Help section of the Adobe website, there's now a page titled "Performance hints".

Rumor: Sony May Introduce Eye-Tracking Autofocus Next Year

Want to focus your camera simply by looking at a particular area of the viewfinder? If you're a Sony shooter, you might be enjoying that feature as early as next year. The company is reportedly working on building Eye Tracking autofocus into its cameras, with the initial version arriving in a flagship camera sometime in 2014.

Parcel Camera Captures Photos of Julian Assange’s Life in Hiding

Since June 19th of last year, political activist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Although Ecuador has granted him political asylum, if he steps foot outside the embassy, he could be arrested, extradited to the United States, and tried for his role in leaking sensitive US diplomatic cables.

For most photographers, shooting a portrait of Assange while he's in hiding isn't the easiest thing to do. However, art collective !Mediengruppe Bitnik recently came up with a clever way of doing so: they sent him an Internet-connected camera that's baked into a cardboard parcel.

Instagram Reveals Usage Stats for First Time: 90M Active Users Per Month

A couple of days ago, there were murmurings on the web that Instagram experienced a sharp drop in usage numbers following its ill-handled Terms of Service change. The story was based on findings by analytics firm AppStats, which claimed that Instagram's Daily Active User count had fallen from over 15 million to around 5 million in the span of about one month.

Now Instagram (and its parent company Facebook) are speaking up and denying that it is seeing a max exodus of disgruntled users. The company has released usage figures for the first time in its young life.

Photos Showing the Beauty and Diversity of Seeds, Created Using a Scanner

In addition to being passionate about image making, photographer Svjetlana Tepavcevic is also an avid collector of seeds. After finding and collecting a new specimen, Tepavcevic creates a highly-detailed high-resolution photo of the seed using an ordinary flatbed scanner. The resulting images form a project titled Means of Reproduction.

Meanings and Origins of the Trademarks Used on Leica Lenses

Unlike many camera lens lines, Leica's lenses are group into categories under well known trademarked names. Mention the word Noctilux, and a Leica shooter will immediately know that you're referring to a f/1 lens that's geared towards shooting in low-light environments.

Photographer Thorsten Overgaard has been working on a definitions page that explains the origins of the various terms -- the explanations go beyond what the terms refer to, and include why they were given those names.

Flickr Tag Maps Reveal the Most Popular Photo Subjects Across Cities

What are the most popular photo subjects in each location of your city? Is there any easy way of finding out? Those are questions UC Berkeley researcher Alexander Dunkel is trying to answer, and he has his sights set on Flickr as a possible solution. By combining the location geotags and context tags attached to many (or most) of the service's photos, Dunkel is able to create tag cloud-style maps of any location that reveals the tags that dominate each location.