Pummelvision is a neat little website that aims to help you see your life flash before your eyes by taking your Flickr, Facebook, and Tumblr photos, combining them into a rapid-fire slideshow set to music. Once the video is done the service uploads it to Vimeo or YouTube for you. The above is an example Pummelvision video created with the photos of Justin Ouellette of chromogenic (we interviewed him a while back).
If you're planning to give any gifts to photography-enthusiasts this Christmas, you can try adding a little awesomeness to the presentation by creating your own ribbon bows out of film. All you need to do is cut the film strip into narrower pieces, and arrange the loops in the shape you'd like.
The concept of hyperfocal distance is used in landscape photography to achieve the greatest depth of field and acceptable sharpness for both near and far objects. In the two minute tutorial above, wildlife photographer Chris Weston walks through some hyperfocal distance focusing techniques. You can also find a couple informative tutorials at DOFMaster and Cambridge in Colour.
Wanna give a unique present this Christmas? If you have two portraits of a particular friend (head-on and profile), Sculpteo can turn them into a miniature figure that resemble the "big head mode" from GoldenEye on the N64. Only the head is created from photos -- you'll need to describe the clothing and accessories you want to see on the figure (might we suggest a DSLR as an accessory?). A 7cm figure will cost you $75, while a 10cm one sets you back $130.
This strange looking device is the Leica S1, the first digital camera created by the company back in 1996. At at time when film was still the medium of choice in the photo industry, the S1 packed a whopping 26-megapixels, shooting 5140x5140px medium format images. The strange looking handles on either side help the user frame the shot, but aren't designed for handheld stabilization -- each shot took three minutes to expose. Only about 160 of these cameras were built, and were mostly sold to …
