June 10, 2011

Turns out turning photographs into stencils isn't transformative enough to be defended as "fair use". In a case that has many similarities to the Shepard Fairey vs. AP legal battle, a judge ruled earlier this week against graffiti artist Thierry Guetta after Guetta (AKA Mr. Brainwash) had used a "stencil-ized" photo of Run DMC by Glen E. Friedman to promote an exhibition, concluding that Guetta's piece didn't differ enough from the original image to be considered fair use.

Amateur astronomy enthusiasts may be content with shooting the stars with a DSLR through a telescope, but what would a consortium of astronomy institutes use for photographing the night sky? The answer is the OmegaCam, a giant 1,700-lb camera found at the heart of the largest telescope designed for visible light surveying: the VST. It uses 32 separate CCD sensors that work together to form a giant 268-megapixel sensor, capturing 30 terabytes worth of photographs every year. The photograph seen …

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a new law last week that makes it a crime to post images to the Internet that "frighten, intimidate, or cause emotional distress." Violators found guilty of doing so now face up to one year in jail and $2,500 in fines.

It's not every where you get to watch and hear someone picking the brain of a National Geographic photographer. The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library recorded this video interview with photographer Jim Richardson and asked him to share about his experiences and words of advice. Richardson also has an interesting FAQ page on his website that answers a lot of questions about shooting for the famous yellow-bordered magazine.

The USPS has unveiled a new set of stamps called "Pioneers of American Industrial Design" that honors 12 of the most influential American industrial designers of the 20th century, and one of them is Walter Dorwin Teague.

Observant Micro-Four Thirds fans recently spotted a strange looking camera in a promo video on YouTube (which was quickly taken down). The camera is most likely Panasonic's new Lumix GF3, a camera that's expected to be officially unveiled on June 13th. Its rumored to pack the same 16 megapixel sensor as the G3, not have a hot shoe, and to have a touchscreen-based interface. The company also seems to be taking the "large sensor in a small body" thing quite seriously -- this camera is tiny!