This striking photo, taken by Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin, has been making the award rounds recently, sweeping up first and second place trophies for the photog’s mantle. According to the description, the photo portrays a “former Marine Corps sniper,” and is part of a series of photos taken in a rough part of Rochester, NY called “The Crescent.”
Pellegrin’s ethics, however, are now being called into question by a BagNewsNotes article, which points out that the man in the photo, Shane Keller, was neither a sniper nor does he live in The Crescent — he was headed to a shooting range at Pellegrin’s request, as part of a portrait shoot. Read more…
Who owns public art illegally placed onto private buildings? That’s a question that came up recently after a famous Banksy work in London was ripped out of the side of a building, shipped across the Atlantic, and put up for auction with an estimated final price of over half a million dollars. Read more…
If you’re a fan of cinemagraphs, you should take a look at the nature cinemagraphs being created by 28-year-old Netherlands-based visual artist Marinus. He has been using frames from popular wildlife documentaries (BBC’s Winterwatch, Wonders of Life, and Natural World), turning them into beautiful animated loops that offer glimpses into the great outdoors. Read more…
While we’re on the subject of Android-powered cameras: Samsung announced a new camera model for its Galaxy lineup this past Tuesday. It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Camera (Wi-Fi). As you can probably guess from the name, it’s simply the original Samsung Galaxy Camera without the 3G/4G capabilities (and with a smaller price tag). In other words, you’ll have to rely on Wi-Fi for connecting to the Internet rather than subscribing to a data plan for your camera. Read more…
Microsoft announced yesterday that it has entered into a patent licensing agreement with Nikon for Nikon’s Android-powered digital cameras. While the details of the agreement were not revealed, Microsoft did say that it will begin collecting royalties from Nikon for certain camera models. Read more…
Bureaucratics is a project by photographer Jan Banning that consists of 50 portraits captured in 8 countries on 5 continents around the world. The goal: to offer a comparative look at the culture, rituals, and symbols of state civil administrations. Basically, Banning wanted to document the face of bureaucracy by capturing portraits of government workers at their posts.
The photo above shows Dede McEachern, the director of licensing at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations. She made $5,833 a month back when the photo was captured in 2007. Read more…
The new Nikon D7100 DSLR wasn’t the only interesting product announced by the company yesterday. Appearing alongside the camera was a new WR-1 Wireless Remote Control Transceiver. It’s a remote control that can be used in multiple ways depending on your needs. Read more…
What do popping soap bubbles look like up close and slowed down? That’s what Gav and Dan of The Slow Mo Guys recently decided to find out. They used a pricey and powerful high-speed camera: the Phantom v1610, which costs upwards of $100,000 and can shoot up to 1,000,000 frames per second.
They didn’t up the FPS that high, though (the resulting videos would take an eternity to watch). Instead, they chose to record at a much-more-reasonable 18,000fps (at 720p), and used a macro lens in order to capture the beautiful details of the bubbles as they disintegrate. This is the slowest footage the Slow Mo Guys have ever captured, and the results are quite beautiful.
Back in March 2011, we featured an iPhone app that lets you use your iPhone as a makeshift light meter. The app apparently works pretty well, but if you’ve been looking for a fancier solution involving your iPhone, one has finally arrived.
It’s called the Luxi, and is a small clip on accessory that turns your iPhone into a proper light meter. Read more…
