August 29, 2011

In 1505, Leonardo da Vinci painted a vast mural in Florence's town hall titled "The Battle of Anghiari" -- believed to be one of his greatest works. After being on display for more than 40 years, the unfinished painting was lost when the hall underwent renovations and new murals by Giorgio Vasari were added. There are no known records explaining what happened to the piece, but many people believe that it is currently hidden behind one particular mural called "Battle of Marciano in Val di …

Boston lawyer Simon Glik was arrested on October 1, 2007 when he used his cell phone to record officers making a drug arrest, and later sued the city and the officers for violating his rights. After the officers tried to having the lawsuit dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity, a Federal Appeals Court denied the motion last week and ruled that filming and photographing police is in fact protected by the First Amendment.

PillowMob is a new service that transforms photos of heads into puffy pillow heads. In addition to human faces, you can also use the face of your beloved pet. They cost $25 each with free shipping -- it's currently available to US residents only, but the company may begin shipping internationally soon.

Apparently Nikon has decide to save some trees (and shipping weight) by no longer including user manuals in some of its digital cameras. Since most people likely never touch the manuals anyway, it's not really a problem, but the company's draconian stance towards downloadable instruction manuals has some customers grumbling.

We've seen DSLR photo booth projects before, but usually they're just simple ways for guests at an event to take self-portraits of themselves. Kevin over at I Dream In Code actually made a fancy photo booth for his brother's wedding that prints out a nice keepsake for guests.

You've probably read plenty of articles touting the benefits of Sony's translucent mirror technology (e.g. high fps, AF for video, quietness, etc...), but what about the cons? One of the main downsides to having a translucent mirror is that the light hitting the sensor passes through an additional layer (the translucent mirror), which reduces the amount of light and the image quality.

Here's a pretty inspiring video that poses a simple question: "how bad do you want it"? It's from motivational speaker Eric Thomas' "Secrets to Success" talk, meant to help people accomplish their goals, whether it's "academically, financially, relationally", etc... Definitely applicable to those passionate about improving their photography as well.

Marc Levoy, the Stanford professor behind the "Frankencamera" project, teaches a course on digital photography called CS 178. The class website is a treasure trove for anyone looking for some great free education in photography: …

Here's a behind-the-scenes video showing Chinese photographer ERIC getting up close and personal with strangers on the streets of Hong Kong and Mainland China. He uses a Mamiya 7II and a large Metz flash, chewing through medium format film as though he was shooting digital. It's interesting to see how people in China seem less defensive about this kind of photography compared to people in New York, Derby, or Hollywood.