May 2014

Dermatographia: Artist Turns Her Rare Skin Condition Into an Artistic Medium

Brooklyn-based artist Ariana Page Russell takes the saying “being comfortable in your own skin” to an artful and literal degree.

Born with dermatographic urticaria, Russell takes advantage of this condition also known as “skin writing” to turn herself into a living, breathing work of art, photographing her sometimes beautiful, sometimes intricate, and sometimes itchy designs for a series titled Dermatographia.

Photojournalism Minus the ‘Photo’: A Look Back at Newspapers Before Photography

There was a gap in time between the first newspapers and the rise of something called 'photojournalism." Photography was still in its infancy (or not even invented yet, in many cases) when many of the major newspapers came to be, and so the front page that would greet the informed citizen contained only words.

They're eerie, crowded and overwhelming... and they're a good reminder of why the words "photo" and "journalism," when combined, create something pretty incredible.

Riding the Rails: A Chat with Documentary Photographer Michelle Frankfurter

Born in Jerusalem, Israel, Michelle Frankfurter is a documentary photographer from Takoma Park, MD. Before settling in the Washington, DC area, Frankfurter spent three years living in Nicaragua where she worked as a stringer for the British news agency, Reuters and with the human rights organization Witness For Peace documenting the effects of the contra war on civilians.

Since 2000, Frankfurter has concentrated on the border region between the United States and Mexico, and on themes of migration.

Artist Creates Incredible ‘Melting’ Sculpture Illusion Using Strobes and Still Images

What you see in the video above is a real sculpture that does, in fact, look as if it is perpetually melting right before your eyes. But while creating the exact sculpture took months of design and engineering work, the photographic technique behind it was invented as long ago as 100 BC.

What you're looking at is a three-dimensional "zoetrope," an animation device that created the illusion of motion using lighting effects or a sequence of still images (in this case, it's a mix of clever sculpting and well-timed strobes).

Model Turned Iconic Pin-Up Photographer Bunny Yeager Passes Away at 85

Leaving behind a pioneering legacy, pin-up model turned pin-up photographer, Bunny Yeager, has sadly passed away yesterday at the age of 85. Born March 13, 1929 Yeager started her career as a pin-up model herself, eventually switching sides of the camera and becoming one of the most commercially successful female photographers of our time.

Creative 3-Generation Photos Explore How Emotions & Time Transform Memories

Photographer Nina Röder's photo series Mutter Schuhe (Translated: Mother’s Shoes) is a visual exploration of how time, emotions and perspective affect memories. Three generation -- Röder, her mother and her grandmother -- all dressed the same, posed slightly differently, reliving Röder's mother's childhood memories from their own perspectives.

Ricoh Images Japan Reveals Ship Date for Pentax 645Z

When the medium-format Pentax 645Z was announced, we were given a price point of $8,500 and a release date of "June 2014." Of course, there are 30 days in June, so if you've pre-ordered yours and you'd like a more specific date to anticipate, you'll be happy to note that Ricoh Imaging Japan has provided one.

Learn to Be Lucky: On the Merits of Instinct and Serendipity in Photography

The video above, featuring renowned Dancers Among Us photographer Jordan Matter, is only a minute and a half long, but he shares a very interesting perspective in it. Many photographers are all about planning every shot, and to be sure, this approach can yield spectacular results. As they say, luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation.

But Matter seems to take a different approach. He prefers to "make his own luck," ala Titanic antagonist Cal Hockley... minus the big diamond and evil tendencies.

4 Mirrorless Cameras Battle the Nikon D4s in an AutoFocus Shootout

TheCameraStoreTV released this very timely video yesterday in which they putting the autofocus systems of four separate mirrorless cameras -- the Fuji X-T1, Sony a6000, Olympus OMD E-M1 and Panasonic GH4 -- to the test against the mighty Nikon D4S.

Each of these cameras have claimed at some point or another in their marketing that they indeed have the fastest autofocus, so The Camera Store's goal was to see which one could rise above the pack.

Video: Fly Over Manhattan at 118mph with the Red Bull Air Force Wingsuit Flyers

Some experiences just aren't going to happen twice, and (legally) flying over Manhattan with four of your friends in a wingsuit is one of them.

Thankfully, it was a Red Bull team that did this, and just like they did with Felix Baumgartner and his epic skydive from the edge of space, Red Bull made sure to pack some GoPros on the jumpers so that we could experience what it was like as well.

Video: Useful Tips for Buying Second-Hand Lenses

When it comes to buying glass, deciding what you want and how much you're willing to spend can be difficult even in the best of conditions. So, naturally, when buying second-hand glass, an added layer of caution is needed to make sure you're getting what you're looking and paying for.

AP Photo Editor Accidentally Shares Part of Cover Letter to BuzzFeed in Caption

Copy/Paste is a wonderful tool. It saves time, effort, and while we tend to take it for granted now, it’s truly a brilliant utility boiled down to its most simple form. However, as with everything, there can be downsides to it if not used properly.

What's that? You need some anecdotal evidence, you say? Just ask Karly Domb Sadof, an Associated Press photo editor who, apparently, recently applied for a position at BuzzFeed.

Simple Photoshop Script Imports Multiple Images as Layers in a Single Document

No matter how many hours you spend in Photoshop each day, it’s inevitable there’s a feature or utility within the app you’re yet to use or are completely unaware of. Such was the case for this neat little tip by Digitalchemy that we just stumbled upon, which shows you how to import a collection of photographs into Photoshop, each as a new layer in the same file.

Tyler Shields Feeds Genuine $100K Hermes Bag to a Gator… Because… Art

It's a safe bet the majority of people consider $100,000 a bit steep for a handbag, and if they were ever given one as a gift, they would probably go to extreme lengths to make sure it was never damaged (or... you know... sell it). But that's not how photographer Tyler Shields treats his $100K gifts... he feeds them to an alligator in order to capture some unique photography.

Quick Tutorial Shows You How to Create a Tilt-Shift Effect in Photoshop

Tilt-shift images can be made one of two ways: one is to capture them in-camera using a tilt-shift lens, and the other is to create the effect in post-production by using a clever blurring technique.

One isn't necessarily better than the other -- each has its own time and place -- but more often than not, creating the effect in post-production is the most convenient (read: cheapest) method.

Not All Bokeh is Created Equal, DigitalRev Explains Why

Defined by Google as, “the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens,” Bokeh is a term that has become much more prominent in the past ten years or so than ever before, thanks to the photography community.

Rumor: Trusted Source Says Fuji’s X-Pro2 Will Use an APS-C Sensor, Not Full-Frame

One of Fuji Rumors' "trusted" Japanese sources is correcting previous speculation that Fuji is planning to go full-frame with the X-Pro2, which is great news for people who have invested in Fuji lenses, but bad news for anybody who has been holding out hope that the company would give larger sensors a try (well, there's still the medium format rumors...).

NASA Releases 3.2 Gigapixel #GlobalSelfie

A month ago yesterday, NASA invited everyone on Earth to step outside, snap a “selfie” and share it via social media using #GlobalSelfie as the hashtag. The goal was to create a giant mosaic of the historical “Blue Marble” photograph, using said selfies -- and yesterday, NASA released the final product.

State Park Using Hashtags & Social Media to Create a Time-Lapse of Wildfire Recovery

Cool use of social media in the US to crowdsource imagery and monitor recovery from fire #morganfire02 pic.twitter.com/Zy952bzz9k

— Shiny Red (@Shiny_Red) May 20, 2014

Hashtags are nothing more than a novelty byproduct of the 21st century, right? Wrong. At least that's the case in the minds of the scientists behind a new project that takes advantage of photography, hashtags and social media to help crowdsource a time-lapse documentation of fire damage recovery.

Leica Teams Up with Watch Maker Valbray, Creates a Beautiful Timepiece

Leica recently decided to bring its photography heritage to the world of timekeeping by making an extremely limited edition watch.

Of course, Leica doesn't know anything about the sublime art of watch making, and so the company reached out to independent Swiss watch maker Valbray, and commissioned the making of 100 pieces of the special edition “EL1 Chronograph” in celebration of Leica’s 100th anniversary.

Incredibly Moving Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa

Editor's Note: None of the images in this post are graphic, but the content and captions might be upsetting to some.

The realities revealed by photography are not always of the pleasant variety, because for all of the sunsets and kittens and weddings in the world -- all wonderful and worth capturing -- there is suffering and horror and pain that is just as worthy of our photographic attention.

Photographer Mariella Furrer has spent over a decade of her photographic career focusing on the latter, documenting the stories of the survivors and families of child sexual abuse in South Africa.