We may soon live in a world where the photographs in newspapers and magazines move like they do in Harry Potter — that is, if newspapers and magazines are still around in a few years.

(via Reddit)

Photographer Jamie Beck has done quite a bit lately to popularize the “cinemagraph“: Harry Potter-esque photos that are given an extra dimension by adding a dash of animation. If you want to learn how to make your own, Photojojo recently published a great tutorial on how to make them using Photoshop. Photographers Fernando Baez and Christopher Mathew Burt have also published tutorials and some helpful tips.

Image credit: Photograph by Jamie Beck

Here’s a really neat video about the making of a Speedo ad campaign that is running all across Europe right now. The video traces the production from its conceptualization to its final post-processing and illustration. The actual shoot and filming took place at the Pinewood Studios Underwater Stage in the UK, where several major films were also shot, including many 007 and Harry Potter movies. It’s pretty remarkable to see so much equipment underwater.

(via f stoppers)

In the Harry Potter series, a Pensieve is a magical stone that allows people to store and replay memories. While photography helps us store moments, there’s obviously quite a bit of life that slips through the cracks. The Revue by Vicon is a wearable camera that passively takes photographs through the day to document your life.

Based on Microsoft’s SenseCam project, the device snaps photos based on either an internal sensor or using a 30-second interval. While it’s currently a research tool to help people who suffer from memory impairment, if the device were made unobtrusive enough, it may become popular with people who’d like to keep a photo log of their day to day life.

Here’s an example of a day captured using the Revue:

As disk storage becomes cheaper and cheaper, future versions of this kind of device might record HD video and sound. A neat project might be to create a photoblog and publish a 24-hour timelapse every day of the year.

The Revue is available for purchase, but its current price of £500 (~$700) will surely deter most potential buyers.

Famed for his role as Harry Potter’s best pal Ron Weasley, actor Rupert Grint says he’s a bit of a tech geek and jumped at the opportunity to review the Fujifilm W1 3D.

Grint says he was fairly impressed with the camera:

…[S]witching over to the 3D mode opens up a whole new world. Shooting 3D video was the most impressive aspect of it; this really showed off what the camera is capable of. You are free to move with the camera and try more ambitious shots. I experimented, trying to capture objects moving towards you, and seemingly coming at you out of the screen when played back. I was impressed; it worked surprisingly well.

However, Grint concludes that the 3D camera is not without “a few other downsides”.

You can read the rest of Grint’s review at the UK’s Daily Mail site.