Here's a pretty cool idea: StudioShare.org is a website through which individuals can rent studio gear or space from each other. Members can either simply sign up to rent, or if they're a studio owner, they can sign up to both rent and to rent out their studio space. All members can rent out their gear if they wish, though it's probably a good idea to get equipment insurance first.
French company Oloneo has just released a free beta for their product, PhotoEngine. The software is a straightforward HDR creator and non-destructive editor that allows you to quickly merge HDR photos. Additionally, it has features that can adjust specific light sources in the photo, to change the white balance or the exposure. This could come in handy when shooting HDR frames that have a variety of different light sources with different temperatures.
If you've got boxes of old prints and family photos you'd like to salvage from those awful sticky photo album pages, SnapHaven will scan them for free. For a limited time, the photo storage and backup service is offering free unlimited scans for customers with an active membership -- though you'll have to pay to ship your own prints.
Project Einstein is a photo training group that started in Bangladesh and is now working with international youth in South Africa, Thailand, Haiti, and Guatemala. The group chose its namesake when one of its participants pointed out, “Einstein was a refugee but could still do great things.” …
Nikon President Makoto Kimura says that in order to keep its "top position" in Japan's DSLR market, it needs to create an "entirely new domain" that may go well beyond its plans for a mirrorless, EVIL camera.
Fine art photographer Jane Fulton Alt has made a series of images commenting on the effect of the Gulf oil spill on Americans. The photos, in her collection "Crude Awakening," are eerie and still portraits of swimmers and beach-goers drenched in oil. Some of her past work includes a chilling and intimate look at the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina in her book Look and Leave.
When Hurricane Alex flooded Diego Huerta's hometown of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the Texas-based photographer sprang into action to document the aftermath and recovery efforts. The Category 2 Hurricane Alex pummeled northern Mexico with heavy rain, torrential floods and high wind, destroying infrastructure and taking out phones and electricity.
The Sydney Morning Herald has an amazing collection of interviews with their photojournalists, sharing how they approach photography and the stories they wish to convey through their images. Each photographer has a different focus and style, but all of their images and narrations are very inspiring. It's powerful to see so much emotion conveyed and art created through photojournalism.
Always wanted a manual Leica but couldn't afford it? This Likea pinhole camera may not reproduce Leica-quality photos, or necessarily feel like a Leica (it's made from card stock), but it looks like one! Though it may be more manual than you can handle: for $20, you just get the Likea MPH kit that you'll still need to assemble. And you'll have to make your own pinhole part out of a soda can. But after all, it's not the camera that makes the photographer.
Nikon and NASA are showcasing some amazing photos taken aboard the International Space Station with Nikon equipment. According to Nikon, NASA took over 700,000 photos with the Nikon gear kept on board, which includes one Nikon D3S DSLR, eight Nikon D2XS cameras, 36 NIKKOR lenses including three teleconverters, seven SB-800 Speedlights, and other gear. Nikon notes that the D3S is unmodified, and is the same quality as available on the consumer market.
It looks like Nikon Corp. might just beat Canon to the EVIL punch after all. In an interview with Bloomberg, Nikon President Makoto Kimura said Nikon has plans to improve video and may adopt the mirrorless structure of electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens (EVIL) cameras.
If you want to dabble in 3D on your SLR without having to use separate frames or "gluing" your cameras together, this 3D lens accessory by Loreo might be a happy solution. The Loreo 3D Lens-in-a-Cap is a standalone lens that mounts onto the camera body like a normal lens. The resulting image is duplicated side-by-side, and can be enjoyed in 3D with a special monitor viewer.
Whether you're keen on it or not, Sony is adding an extra dimension to the next line of Cyber-shots. Just last week, Sony released a firmware update for NEX-3 and NEX-5 EVIL cameras to include 3D panoramic sweep. The Cyber-shot DSC-TX9 and DSC-WX5 will have the same 3D panoramic sweep mode, but the TX9 model will also have a special LCD display by which 3D still images can be viewed on the camera by tilting the screen back and forth. The 3D images from both cameras can be viewed on 3D …
There's no app for this: Etsy seller Erin Paysse designed this pinhole camera out of an iPhone box. It's been done before with an iPod box, but Paysse added a clean, retro touch to the camera. She's selling the camera for $80, as well as some prints produced by the camera for $25.
Canon may have revealed its plans for the Wonder Camera yesterday, but Olympus also quietly released something of its own to marvel at.
Fine art photographer Susan Burnstine came up with the idea of making her own cameras from a hodgepodge of common household and hardware store objects. She picked up an old magnifying glass, plastic, rubber, garbage bags, cinema foil, metal, vintage toy camera parts, and cardboard, among other items, to create lenses and cameras. Above is a picture of one of her cameras.
There's an increasingly overwhelming sense of frustration coming from the Gulf region, but this time, it's coming from photographers and journalists. Media access has been tough since the beginning of the oil spill, whether on land, on beaches, or in the air.
Canon debuted this concept camera at the Shanghai World Expo, revealing their plans for the future of photography. The concept camera, dubbed the Wonder Camera, has many functions that already exist in many cameras, but takes them a step further.
Brothers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas, the same UK-based duo who created a remote-control BeetleCam to photograph wildlife in Africa, decided to get up-close and personal with some of nature's less desirable creatures. The two originally noticed mosquito larvae in stagnant water sitting in the backyard of their home, and decided they'd found their next photo subjects. They patiently set up the photo shoot, waiting for key moment when the adult mosquitoes emerged from their larval state. It's …
The Economist is in hot water after running an extremely edited photograph of President Obama on a Louisiana beach. The cover photo shows Obama alone on the beach. But the original photo, taken by Reuters photographer Larry Downing, shows that Obama was, in fact, not alone at all.
Street artist BLU released a breathtaking new stop-motion graffiti video called "Big Bang Big Boom." It's a fascinating artistic piece on the beginning, and potential end to life on Earth. Blu also created MUTO, another wall animation in the same way, using public walls and street objects as an enormous canvas.
It's pretty amazing how much work goes in to commercial food photography, even if it's a delivery pizza. Domino's Pizza has a short video showing the behind-the-scenes action during a pizza photo shoot, complete with food stylists, a pizza screwed to the table, and a hand model. But Domino's new ad movement is all about ditching the food embellishments and promising "natural" photos from now on -- photos of pizzas made by employees and untouched by food artists during the photo shoot. (Though …
Most camera rain covers can be a bit cumbersome, but this Japanese rain cover concept might take the hassle to a whole new level. In fact, a freezer bag seems more practical.
A few guys in Los Angeles recently convinced their friend to let them borrow his new iPhone 4 (that he waited 4.5 in line for), and got onto a rooftop with the help of another friend. Using some large helium balloons, they attached the iPhone and started recording 720p video of downtown LA as it rose up to 1000 feet into the air on the end of a kite string. They also made a fun behind-the-scenes video of their project.
Holga D is a concept camera by India-based industrial designer Saikat Biswas that brings the plastic, medium-format Holga camera into the digital age.
We wrote about Snapsort at the beginning of this year, when it was still a newly-launched, bare-bones website for comparing digital cameras. Though it was spartan, the service was useful for comparing the specs of cameras and seeing how they stack up against each other.
Here's a photograph titled, "The Inexplicable Occurrence" by Toronto-based photographer Scott McClellan.
Looks like Facebook's recent acquisition of Divvyshot was not for naught.
It seems like every week there's a new story of some photographer being hassled by law enforcement. Photojournalist Stretch Ledford and Carlos Miller of Photography is Not a Crime recently visited the the Miami-Dade Metrorail to ride through a few stations and see if anyone would stop them from doing non-commercial photography. They didn't even make it to the first station.
Here's an interesting video by Take Zero Productions that compares the footage of the same scene recorded by both an iPhone 4 and a Canon 7D. You can also head on over to the Vimeo page to compare the footage in HD, since HD is disabled in this embedding.
Sony has released a new firmware update for the NEX-3 and NEX-5 EVIL cameras that adds 3D Sweep Panorama technology. This is the technology shown in the super-annoying Taylor Swift commercial that invaded YouTube videos, except it's enhanced to offer 3D viewing.
