There was once a time when you could more easily spot a professional photographer simply by glancing at the camera equipment in a person’s hands. Was it a beast of a camera with a gigantic lens attached to it? You’re looking at a serious shooter. Is it a dinky pea shooter that is used with arms outstretched? The person is a tourist, newbie, or both.
Nowadays, as serious hardware and specs are increasingly found in smaller cameras and new types of cameras, the distinction is rapidly blurring and fading away. Unfortunately, there are people who still haven’t caught on to this fact. That’s what Gordon Laing, the founder of Cameralabs, found out the hard way earlier this month.
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Anne Geddes is known internationally for her trademark-style of baby photos showing infants dressed up like tiny animals, flowers, and various fantasy creatures. VICE magazine recently decided to parody her work, and enlisted the help of photographer Lee Goldup to photograph adults instead of babies in Geddes’ iconic style.
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Forget rings on your fingers or grills on your teeth: Japanese designer Jay Tsujimura thinks your camera is where bling should go. Presumably geared towards people who use pricey cameras as a fashion accessory and status symbol, Tsujimura’s premium line of camera jewelry is designed to adorn hotshoes and shutter releases.
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Two years ago, we reported that an extremely rare Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 fisheye lens had been put up for sale on eBay for a cool $34,020. If you balked at that price, get this: another copy of the lens has turned up in London, and this time the price tag is a staggering £100,000, or roughly $160,000. The lens became the world’s most extreme wide angle 35mm lens when it was released in 1970, and boasts a field of view of 220º — it can literally see behind itself! If Grays of Westminster does manage to sell off the lens at that price, you can bet collectors will be kicking themselves for passing up on the eBay deal two years ago.
(via Grays of Westminster via Amateur Photographer)
This looks like a screenshot of a satirical article by The Onion, but it’s actually an actual story over on the Salt Lake Tribune. Turns out Utah is the latest state to introduce Florida-esque legislation that would make it a crime to photograph or videotape agricultural operations without permission from owners. Like in Florida, the bill’s intent is to stop activist groups such as PETA from capturing covert imagery that allegedly show animal abuse.
Groups assail bill making it a crime to film farm animals (via The Click)
Tech companies often like to create mini-documentaries featuring creatives who use their products — last year both Intel and Brother made videos about fashion photographer Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist). Well, it appears that some creatives are trying to troll Dell by spreading this ridiculous short video that explores the work of “renowned photographer Clayton Sotos“. It’s supposedly part of a new “Visual Innovators” series by Dell, and has amassed tens of thousands of views already since being uploaded yesterday. The most common comment left on the video is, “…”. Be warned: Soto’s subject matter may be disturbing to some of you and probably isn’t work safe for most of you.
Thanks for sending in the tip, Tom
If you’re a photographer in the UK, you might want to think twice about shooting and selling a photograph that has a similar composition to an existing photo. Souvenir company Temple Island Collection has won a copyright infringement case against tea company New English Teas after a photo of a red London bus was used on tea packaging. Photo copyright expert and lawyer Charles Swan states,
His honour Judge Birss QC decided that a photograph of a red London bus against a black and white background of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, with a blank sky, was similar enough to another photograph of the same subject matter to infringe copyright.
The decision is perhaps surprising, given the commonplace subject matter of the photographs. The judge himself admitted that he found it a difficult question, but in the end he decided that a substantial part of photograph one [Temple Island's image, top] had been reproduced in photograph two [New English Teas', bottom].
Although the photo itself wasn’t copied, the judge ruled that the similarity of the ‘visual contrast’ of the red bus and B&W background infringed on the original photographer’s ‘intellectual creation’. The case is reminiscent of photographer David LaChapelle’s lawsuit against Rihanna for infringing upon his style in one of her music videos. Rihanna ended up paying an undisclosed sum of money to LaChapelle to settle the case.
Photographers Face Copyright Threat after Shock Ruling [Amateur Photographer]
Philanthroper founder Mark Wilson was at a photography exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago when he came across this sign. His response?
Are things so bad we’ve banned sketching? [#]
I wonder what the world will look like when we get to the point where you can capture high-res imagery using your eyes (or even download them from your memory).
(via @ctrlzee via Boing Boing)
Image credit: Photograph by Mark Wilson
Sony’s NEX-7 mirrorless camera has been extremely difficult to find due to manufacturing being disrupted by the flooding in Thailand earlier this year. As a result of the shortage, the camera is selling for absurd prices on eBay — people are buying the camera for over $3,700 new. If you managed to snag one of the cameras while they were available, you might want to auction it off now before supply is restored. You’ll be able to buy three of them then for the current price of one!
(via sonyalpharumors)
Photographer Tim Allen spotted this sign outside the Aldwych tube station, an abandoned London Underground station that recently opened up for tours. While photography bans are pretty common, the station has decided to only ban DSLRs due to “their combination of high quality sensor and high resolution”. Other cameras are allowed in, as long as they don’t look “big” enough to shoot amazing photos.
(via Amateur Photographer via Megapixel)
Update: Apparently the ban was because DSLR users take longer to shoot photos, and they didn’t want the tours to be delayed. That makes sense. Wait…
Image credit: Photograph by Tim Allen and used with permission
