April 2013

Photographer and Lab Owner Discusses the Art of Film Photography and Printing

Over the years, Billy Mork has been a photographer, an art director and even a practicing architect, but he ultimately ended up back where his passion lies: in black and white film photography. This inspirational short film -- put together by broadcast media student Duong Thai Anh for a class at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore -- tries to capture a bit of that passion and pass it along to you.

Photographers Upset Over eBay Account Selling Copyrighted Photographs

While browsing the internet recently, SportsShooter user Greg Bartram stumbled on an eBay store that was selling prints of several of his images. Upon taking a closer look, he realized that it wasn't just him, ukgobigblueuk is selling 8x10s of just about any sports, celebrity or political photo he can get his hands on -- and according to his description, he can "more than likely" get his hands on any photo you want.

Take a Time-Lapse Journey Into the Karoo Region of South Africa

For his latest time-lapse project, South African fine-art landscape photographer Joe Louw and his wife Jonelle took a week-long trip into the Karoo region of South Africa. Armed with two cameras, a Shukuma DOLLY and a Shukuma MINI, Louw emerged with some truly beautiful footage.

Miniseries Uses Photography to Introduce The World to 21st Century Africa

"A new generation is using photography to celebrate, to question and represent a continent on the rise." That is the final sentence of the intro to Episode 1 of the six episode Al Jazeera miniseries 'The New African Photography.' It's a miniseries that, over the next several weeks, will look to the continent's photographers to paint a new, more accurate picture of Africa for the world.

Do Hashtags Transform a Photo Into More Than Just a Photo?

Mike Rugnetta over on PBS's Idea Channel asked an interesting question in last Wednesday's episode: Is a tagged Instagram photo more than just a photo? Or, if you will, do hashtags add something (context, meaning, the ability to connect to a community) to photographs, thereby transforming the photo as we know it into a "different entity?"

Leica M: The Standard for Silent Shutters in United States Courtrooms

If you've ever shot with a Leica M rangefinder camera, you probably know how effective the camera can be for stealthy shooting. After all, there's no mirror that needs to swing out of the way like there is in a DSLR, so the main sound you'll hear is the soft click of the shutter curtain flapping open to expose the film or sensor.

It's not just Leica aficionados that appreciate the silent shutter: did you know that the Leica M is held as the standard for silent photography in courtrooms across the United States?

How I Created a Series of Matching ‘Sexy’ Engagement Photos that Went Viral

I bought a used Mamiya RZ67 Pro II a month ago, a huge medium format studio SLR with a negative area a full five times larger than the sensor on a Nikon D800 or 5DMKIII "full frame" camera.

A decade ago, the kit I bought would have sold for 5 figures, but thanks to film's loss in popularity, I was able to get it for less than a tenth of what it cost new.

Photographing Undercover in the World’s Most Secretive Nation, North Korea

Tensions are running high again on the Korean peninsula. As international observers watch closely for what move the North will play next, I thought it might be a good time to revisit some of my work from photographing in North Korea, undercover on-assignment, for the Globe & Mail in 2009.

This post is an extract from an article I contributed to the Digital Journalist the same year, recounting some of my experiences whilst photographing in this reclusive state. It was an experience I shall never forget…

News Helicopter Camera Snaps Photo of Saturn While in the Air

If you've ever watched the evening news on television, you've probably seen photos and video captured by the powerful cameras on the station's helicopter. Here's something interesting: on a clear night, the long reach of the helicopter's camera can actually snap a clear photograph of the planet Saturn!

The photograph above was captured by Chopper 6, the news helicopter operated by Philadelphia's 6ABC Action News.

Minimalist Landscape Photographs with Exposure Times of Up to Eight Hours

Samuel Burns is a photographer based in Sydney, Australia who specializes in shooting minimalist landscape photographs using a large format camera. While the scenes chosen for his photographs are already simple and bare, Burns captures them with extremely long exposure times in order to give the locations a blurry and dreamy look.

Some Thoughts on Having Photographs Go Viral on the Internet

Over the last week or so, my series 'Amazon Unpacked' has gone viral. The photographs were made to accompany an article researched and written for the Financial Times Weekend Magazine by Sarah O’Connor. The magazine came out at the start of February, and I put the gallery up on my website a week later.

A Complete Guide to Star Trailing

Ever see those pictures where the stars streak across the sky in a big arc? Or maybe the whole sky looked like it was spinning? What you saw was star trails. The streaks were light left behind on the sensor or film from the star as it traveled across the sky in front of an open camera shutter. In fact, what are being recorded are stationary stars and the rotation of the earth as it spins past them. For me, the images seem to have a certain magic or mystery about them.

You must have heard a photographer talking about capturing that perfect moment in time. Well for capturing star trails you will need to capture the perfect hour or two in time. For such amazing looking images, the technique used to capture them is really quite simple. Keep reading for a complete set of instructions from start to finish.

Self-Portraits as Different People Wearing Different Clothing in Different Places

When photographer Caleb Cole sees strangers in public, he wonders about them -- the lives they lead, how they experience the world, how they make meaning of things, etc. This interest led him to start a self-portrait project titled "Other People's Clothes. It's a series of photos in which Cole steps "into the shoes of the types of people" he sees on a daily basis.

Photographer Gives His Nikon Gear a DIY “Desert Mirage Lizard” Paint Job

Lebanese photographer Alexy Joffre Frangieh is a professional time-lapse creator, and often puts his camera gear in extremely hot environments to create his shots. In order to help dissipate heat, he decided to give one of his kits a custom paint job. The resulting kit looks like something a military might officially assign its combat photographers.

Rechip Old Sigma Lens So That It Plays Nicely with Your New Canon DSLR

Older Sigma lenses that were designed for Canon EOS film cameras often don't work correctly when mounted onto a new EOS digital SLR, even though the newer bodies still use Canon's EF mount. If you're an owner of such a lens, you might have heard that you can send it in to Sigma's service center for them to rechip it in order to make it compatible again.

Did you know that those of you who are handy with electronics can actually do the rechipping yourself at home? Photographer Martin Melchior recently did this with his Sigma 70-210 f/2.8 APO lens, and says that anyone with basic soldering skills can do the same.

Make Better Photos Linger in Time-Lapse Trip Recaps Using Lightroom Starring

A neat way to present a recap of a trip is to take all the photographs taken over many days -- both keepers and unwanted shots -- and string them together into a fast-paced time-lapse video. A problem with this type of video, however, is that the photos often fly by so quickly that it's difficult for your brain to distinguish between them and to pick out "highlights."

Australian photographer Marcus Round of Brisbane, Queensland tells us that an easy way to make these videos a little easier to consume is to help surface the best shots by allowing them to linger.

Simultaneous Photographs of and from a Mountain, Shot During a Sunrise

There is no shortage of landscape photographs of mountains at sunrise on the Internet, but how often do you get to see photographs captured at the same time from the mountain's perspective? Photographer Todd Caudle ('Cloudman' on 500px) was able to capture these two viewpoints simultaneously yesterday morning by shooting with both his personal camera and a live webcam located at the mountain's summit.

What Modern Cameras Might Look Like if Dug Out of the Ground in 100 Years

What will future generations think of the cameras we're using these days? What will the cameras look like to them? Japanese artist Maico Akiba has a project titled "100 Years Later" that imagines what various modern commonplace objects might look like if rediscovered by people a century later. Among the objects are a number of cameras.

Rare 1941 Class Photo of Marilyn Monroe to be Auctioned Off Next Month

An old class photo taken in 1941 at Ralph Waldo Emerson Junior High School is about to be auctioned off, and it's set to fetch quite a price. Why, you ask? Well, because a girl by the name of Norma Jeane Baker -- who later became famous as Marilyn Monroe -- both signed and was in the picture.

About the Aerial Camera That Spotted the Second Boston Bombing Suspect

When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of the two Boston bombing suspects, was discovered hiding in a man's boat just outside the perimeter police had set up to search for him, the cops took no chances. Rather than sending officers right in and risking injury, they enlisted the help of an impressive aerial camera to confirm his location and then keep watch as police tried to coax him out.

The camera, developed by the FLIR corporation, is called the Star SAFIRE III, and it's the one behind all of the infrared shots of Tsarnaev in the boat that spread like wildfire all over the Internet this weekend.

Sony Unveils the Tiny HX50V, the World’s Smallest and Lightest 30x Superzoom

Somewhere in-between the point-and-shoot and ILC categories falls the superzoom, and it doesn't get much love. Often nearly as bulky as an entry-level DSLR, superzooms present a mix of features that only endear them to certain consumers. Sony's newly announced Cyber-shot aims to expand that market by shrinking down the traditional superzoom to tiny proportions.

Pictures of Beautiful Old Film Rolls Show Classic Movies in a Whole New Light

'The Unseen Seen' is a project by Austrian photographer Reiner Riedler that captures the beauty of classic cinema in an unconventional way.

By way of his friend Volkmar Ernst, Riedler was able to get access to the old film roll archive of the The Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. He then photographed a few hundred rolls -- ranging from those of classic movies to ones with interesting titles -- to produce a series of beautiful film roll images that speak volumes about the films themselves.

Go Behind the Scenes at the Largest Pro Photo Lab in the United States

Miller's Professional Imaging is the largest professional photo lab in the United States, with facilities in Pittsburg, Kansas and Columbia, Missouri that offer a slew of printing services for hobbyists, semi-pro and professional photographers alike. In the above video, Chris Marquardt of Photography Tips from the Top Floor treats us to a behind the scenes look at the company's 40,000 square-foot facility in Columbia, MO.

Attach Binoculars to your Smartphone for Telephoto Shots with the Snapzoom

Earlier today, brothers-in-law Daniel Fujikake and Mac Nguyen of HI Resolution Enterprises announced a new product for the photography enthusiast community that they're trying to get some help funding. Launched via Kickstarter campaign, the Snapzoom is a universal adapter that can attach a slew of optical scopes (i.e. binoculars, telescopes, etc.) to your smartphone in lieu of a telephoto lens.

Portraits of People Encountered Through an Online Classifieds Website

There's often a degree of anonymity in online classifieds, as you often don't learn what a person looks like until you respond to their ad and meet them in person. Perth, Australia-based photographer Phil Hill has been working on a portrait project featuring the people who post listings to Gumtree, a free online classifieds website that competes with Craigslist.

The portrait subject above had originally posted an ad that said: "Rock hobbyist looking to expand small rock collection, willing to pay for good specimins."

Like Farmers Profiting By Hosting Stolen Photos on Facebook

I’d love to say I coined the term "Like farm", but it’s entirely possible I read it somewhere before, as a brief search on that term turned up other articles on the growing phenomenon of content farms on Facebook. For a while now, I’ve been watching my own news feed fill up with unattributed photos and artwork. And I think we've all seen the equally unattributed and ubiquitous quote art (either graphic design or simply pasted over photos). Although the amount of this content seems to rise and fall, it has seemed like it is growing of late. Or perhaps I've just become more sensitive to it?

Photographer and Photojournalist Rank at the Bottom of Best and Worst Jobs List

Back in 2010, we shared some statistics from CareerCast's annual list of the best and worst jobs, and things weren't looking good for the photography profession. At the time, "Photographer" ranked 126th of 200 on that list, with "Photojournalist" coming in near the very bottom at 189th. Sadly, in the intervening years since we last shared the info, things haven't exactly gotten better.

Animated Documentary Explains The UK Terrorism Act and How it Affects Photogs

In response to September 11th and London Bombings, the UK drafted a series of Terrorism Acts, giving their officers certain rights they thought would help fight terrorism. This included a section (58a) added in 2008 that made it illegal to photograph or film a police officer if the footage was likely to be useful to a terrorist. The police's interpretation of that section has since changed, but not before that "if" caused some newsworthy controversy.

This short animated documentary covers that controversy from the point of view of one of the act's victims, Gemma Atkinson, who was assaulted by police in 2009 because she was filming them searching her boyfriend. It tells the story of the subsequent legal battle she went through trying to get the act changed and hold the police officers who were unnecessarily rough with her accountable.

Behind the Scenes with One of Canada’s Most Renowned Portrait Photographers

Call it the an energy, call it an artist's personality, call it whatever you want, Canadian portrait photographer Christopher Wahl has it. One of the best and best-known portrait photographers from the Great White North, his pictures have been published in every major magazine in his own country, and many beyond its borders.

And in this short segment, television program 16x9 goes behind the scenes at his studio and gives us a peek at one of the most energetic and passionate masters in the business.