When a huge meteor exploded over Russia back in February, the incident was captured by a large number of drivers who drive around with dashcams pointed out the front of their windshield. The story put a spotlight on the fact that dashcams are widely used in Russia due to the prevalence of insurance fraud.
Footage from Russian dashcams found online is often quite dark (figuratively, not literally), showing horrible accidents and tragedies. Not so with the video above — it’s a compilation of random acts of kindness captured by ordinary drivers. Read more…
Rooftopping photography is a dangerous new fad in which daredevils climb to extremely high (and often off-limits) urban locations in order to shoot vertigo-inducing photographs. Two of the most famous practitioners in the world right now are Vadim Mahorov and Vitaliy Yakhnenko, two young Russian daredevils who have attracted a great deal of attention for their images (they’re the same guys who recently snuck to the top of Egypt’s Great Pyramid).
If you want to see how the duo works, check out the short 6-minute documentary film above (warning: there’s a bit of strong language). It’s titled “Roofer’s Point of View,” and was created by HUB Footwear. Read more…
One of the major international news stories today is the fact that a meteorite streak across the sky in central Russian today, causing an explosion and shock wave that injured over 1,000 people. It was the largest meteor reported since 1908. The event was well documented, as many Russian drivers had dashcams rolling as the event unfolded. Read more…
Earlier this year, we wrote about a dangerous new Russian photo fad called “skywalking,” in which thrill-seeking climber-photographers seek out the highest man-made structures they can find, climb to the apexes without proper safety equipment, and then shoot photographs of themselves and the view once they’re there.
Soviet photo equipment collector Vladislav Kern recently purchased this crazy camera contraption. Upon first glance, it might look like a 8mm motion picture camera that an ordinary tourist might use, but take a closer look (or open it up) and you’ll see that the design is simply a façade. The device is actually a still camera that exposes 35mm film using a smaller lens on the right side of the body! Read more…
In Russian art museums, older ladies are hired as guards for the pieces in the collections. Photographer Andy Freeberg noticed that these women were a constant part of the visitors’ viewing experience, silently hovering near the artworks as they’re being enjoyed. Finding these women “as intriguing to observe as the pieces they watch over”, he decided to photograph them alongside the works they’re tasked with guarding. The project is titled “Guardians of Russian Art Museums“. Read more…
Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, while the world was still shooting black and white photographs, Russian photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky was busy inventing techniques for creating color images. Credited with capturing the only known color photo of Leo Tolstoy, Prokudin-Gorsky’s technique involved capturing three separate monochrome photographs of the same scene, each captured through a red, green, or blue filter. He would then project the three slides using colored lights, which reconstructed the original color scene. Since the images were captured at different times, any changes in the scene caused my movement show up as ghosted images (similar to what happens in HDR photography). Read more…
Here’s a neat idea for photographic experimentation: create a pinhole camera out of photographic paper by folding it into an origami box with the light-sensitive side on the inside. The hole that is used to blow the box into its shape is also used to expose the inside to the outside world. After exposing it, simply unfold it and process it using standard developer and fix.
Did you know that Russian President Dimitri Medvedev is an avid photo enthusiast? In this video he shares some thoughts on photography, and talks about his own involvement in the art. If you’re wondering what he shoots with, the answer is a Leica M9, as well as Canon and Nikon cameras.
This camera rig might not be the best to bring to a public photo shoot.
Hailing from Russia, the Zenit Fotosnaiper, or Photosniper is a manual film camera with a rather odd design. It has a shoulderstock and a gunstock outfitted with a 300mm f/4.5 lens. It’s certainly a creative alternative to a monopod or other stabilization; the camera is held and shot just like a rifle.
