Sony is serious about this whole "catching up to Canon and Nikon" thing -- the company has announced four new large sensor cameras, and each one is a doozy. The cameras, which hit store shelves in a couple of months, include the NEX-7 and NEX-5N mirrorless cameras and the A77 and A65 SLT (AKA translucent mirror) cameras.
Nikon did launch a new Coolpix camera today -- eight of them, in fact -- but the rumored "Coolpix Pro" mirrorless camera was nowhere to be found. The bevy of compact cameras hits store shelves next month, and includes the P7100 -- a more polished successor to the P7000 announced around this time last year, and Nikon's answer to Canon's G-series line of prosumer compact cameras. The 10.1MP camera features a tilting 3-inch LCD screen on the back, manual controls, 720p video, and RAW capabilities.
Eran Amir created this "stop-motion within a stop-motion" using 1,500 separate photographs and 500 volunteers. The massive amounts of work, creativity, and planning that this project must have required is mind-boggling.
Emotional Breakdown is a cool new web app that attempts to gauge the mood of the world every day by analyzing the photographs found on The Guardian's 24 hours in pictures. Using facial recognition technology to find happy, sad, angry, surprised or neutral faces in the images, the app creates a colorful pie chart breaking down the emotions. From the chart above, we see that the world was mostly neutral, surprised, and happy today.
CineSkates are new patent-pending wheels that attach to JOBY's GorillaPod Focus tripod, allowing you to capture fluid, stabilized video with your DSLR without bulky or expensive equipment.
Ever wonder how and why copyright law came about? This interesting video will bring you up to speed. It's pretty biased against certain aspects of copyright law, but is interesting nonetheless.
Twitter, Google+, and Facebook are one step closer to becoming clones of each other (at least when it comes to photo sharing) -- Twitter has rolled out photo galleries that display the 100 most recent images Tweeted by users in chronological order.
The Long Beach Police Department's hunt for photos with "no apparent esthetic value" quickly became national news last week. Here's a news segment in which Alyona Minkovski of RT speaks out against the erosion of photographers' rights in the United States.
This comment posted (and deleted) by Reddit user WonkoTheLucid shows why photographers need to make sure their websites are secured properly: …
There hasn't been much activity in the PetaPixel Store since we launched the Leica Look-Alike skins in September 2010, but today that changes -- we're pleased to announce the new Polaroid Picture Frame and Mirror! It's an awesome picture frame for your desk that looks just like Polaroid 600 instant film, and when there isn't a photo inside it doubles as a mirror.
Here's an interesting video in which Jack White -- singer and guitarist of The White Stripes -- shares some thoughts on work ethic and restriction, and how they relate to creativity: …
University of Oregon student and photography-enthusiast Jeremy Blanchard shot this creative engagement photo for two of his long-time friends.
You've probably seen (and taken) forced perspective photos before, but South Korean artist June Bum Park goes one step further, using footage from cameras in high places to control cars, pedestrians, and other things in the scene as if playing with a miniature world.
Fujifilm's retro-tastic X100 has been selling like hotcakes since hitting shelves earlier this year, and the company is reportedly primed for another big announcement: the X50. According to rumors swirling around the web, the X50 will be a smaller and cheaper relative of the X100 that uses the same sleek design.
When the sunlight is right, you can shoot a photograph of a couple holding hands while they form a heart with their shadows! Bonus points if you can catch the sunlight with an engagement ring and make it sparkle.
Most cameras designed for young children have kid-friendly designs, but eye-numbingly bad image quality. On the other hand, a cheaper point-and-shoot camera shoots better photos but probably won't last very long in the hands of a child. A way to make a cheap digital camera more kid-friendly and durable is to use Sugru, a special kind of silicone that resembles modeling clay. Strategically cover the camera with pieces of it, and you'll have a camera that even the most reckless child will have a …
Here's what a Leica M4 rangefinder camera looks like when taken apart. It's crazy how so many small parts can work together so seamlessly and reliably.
Developer Boris Smus came up with this super minimalist way of sharing his email address, Twitter username, and website URL. He writes, …
A Pennsylvania photographer named Jennifer McKendrick has caused quite a stir by canceling senior portrait sessions with a group of high school girls after discovering evidence of bullying by the teens on Facebook.
Hayashi Natsumi's levitation photos have received a lot of publicity as of late (check out her blog here), prompting Kai over at DigitalRev to create this short video tutorial teaching the technique. Could be a fun weekend project if you're looking for something to shoot.
Have a bunch of film canisters lying around and not sure what to do with them? You could use them to geekify your Christmas lights by punching a hole in the caps and sticking the lights in.
Update on 12/18/21: This video has been removed by its creator.
You've probably photographed your own reflection in sunglasses before, but have you ever captured a reflection of yourself shooting the photograph in the same shot? Reddit user Jon Little shot this trippy Inception-esque photo at the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago.
A neat way to reuse film canisters is to poke holes in the lids and turn them into salt shakers, but some people argue that this may expose you to the harmful chemicals that leak out of film and into the plastic of the canister. It's actually a question that Kodak has received a lot over the years, and they say it shouldn't be a problem as long as you wash it out first: …
Photographer Mike Rosinski created this amazing image showing light trails from both fireflies and stars by stacking over 370 photos shot over 2 hours from his backyard in Hartland, Michigan. He used a Canon T1i and 15-85mm lens at 15mm with 20 second exposures. The stacking was done with StarStaX, a free program geared towards star trail photography. You can find more about Mike Rosinski's work (prints, licensing fees, etc) by contacting him here.
Update: This giveaway is now over. The winner was randomly selected and announced below.
Here's a creative self-portrait by Dutch photographer Joeri Bosma. It's neat how the waterline on his shirt makes him look like he's transparent.
Rather than being built from scratch with new designs, new camera lenses are designed by taking existing lens designs that work well and then improving on them. As a result, virtually every lens design can be traced back to one of six basic lens designs developed in the early 1900s (shown above). Roger Cicala of LensRentals writes, …
Dimitri Medvedev, the president of Russia, is a big photography enthusiast and a fan of Leica cameras, though from the video above -- in which Medvedev uses a $20,000+ Leica S2 medium format DSLR -- it seems someone needs to give him a few pointers on holding and using the camera.
The record for world's largest camera is currently held by an aircraft hangar camera, but back in 1900, a photographer by the name of George R. Lawrence built the massive camera seen above. He was commissioned by the Chicago & Alton Railway to shoot the world's largest photo of one of its trains -- a photo measuring 8 feet by 4.5 feet. The camera weighed 900 pounds, required 15 men to move and operate, and cost a whopping $5,000 -- enough money back then to buy a large house.
Confused about what Google's new Photovine photo sharing app is all about? Here's a short video published yesterday that explains the service without blinding us with hairy-chested dudes. "Instead of just posting a photo, you plant it and watch it grow." …
Norwegian design studio Skrekkøgle -- the one that printed a photo with a cremated dog -- has a creative project called "Big Money" in which they made a giant 20:1 replica of a 50 cent Euro coin. They then placed the coin next to large objects and photographed them together, making the objects look like tiny toy replicas.
I love what the Internet has done for the sharing of photography. Social websites such as Flickr make it so easy to get our work in front of the faces of people on the other side of the Earth so easily that it boggles my mind sometimes. This incredible ability of technology has one horrible side effect however. I'm talking about title fields.
The 684th triple play in the history of baseball happened yesterday in a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays, and Boston Globe staff photographer Jim Davis managed to capture photos of the rare occurrence (they happen a few times per year) through anticipation and preparedness. Here's a short video in which Davis explains how he did it.
Ever wonder why certain people always seem to engage in meaningless Canon vs Nikon vs et al. camera brand debates at every opportunity? A recent study conducted at the University of Illinois has found that the more knowledge and experience you have with a particular brand, the stronger your self-esteem is tied to it.
Google's new Photovine mobile photo sharing app for iOS is now out of private beta and open to public signups. Here's how the iTunes download page describes it: …
There's all kinds of things people do to remember their beloved pets after they pass away, but here's a pretty creepy one: a dog owner in Norway had a photo of their Gordon Setter named Susie printed with her ashes. Norwegian design studio Skrekkøgle figured out a way to rebuild a printer to accept dog ashes as "ink", allowing them to print a vintage-looking black-and-white photograph of Susie.
Here's a mind-bending video in which someone created the famous checker shadow illusion in real life. The optical illusion takes advantage of the way our brains process lighting and shadows.
Talk about a Kodak acquisition seems to be heating up as giant tech companies -- including Google, Microsoft, and Apple -- continue to engage in a patent-hoarding war. Just two days ago, Google agreed to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion in order to snatch up the roughly 25,000 patents owned by the handset maker. Bloomberg writes that the patents held by Kodak may be worth five times more than the company itself, making it a prime acquisition target: …
The Daily Mail is no stranger to copyright infringement accusations, but this time they've taken it even further -- publishing a photo after the owner denied them permission to do so.
"Genetic Portraits" is a series by Canadian photographer Ulric Collette in which he blends the portraits of two members of the same family into a single face. It's interesting to see the similarities and differences among people who share DNA -- especially when there's identical twins.
National Geographic recently gave expedition photographer Jimmy Chin the assignment of shooting a feature story on the Yosemite climbing culture. This jaw-dropping behind-the-scenes video shows the lengths to which Chin goes to capture shots that few photographers would dare attempt. It's both beautiful and inspiring.
Last week it came to light to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had filed a patent for having airbags built into cell phones to protect them if they're ever accidentally dropped. Rather than having a NASA-style airbag that completely envelops the phone, micro air jets orient the device so that it lands on a tiny airbag that pops out of the bottom. Wouldn't it be interesting if this kind of thing became common on digital cameras in the future? The idea is pretty farfetched, but some people I know would …
Freelance videographer Dave Wallace made this creative stop-motion video for ClickPixx using 2335 printed photos. By patiently swapping the photos in and out of 10 picture frames arranged on a wall, Wallace managed to create a stop-motion video within a stop-motion video. You can also find a behind-the-scenes video here to see how it was made.
Inkodye sells a line of light sensitive textile dyes that you can use to print photos onto fabrics. An example is this photo-printed hair ribbon, created using some white silk ribbon and Inkodye Violet. Check out the tutorial over at Upcraft.it to learn how to make your own.
Ryan McGinnis is a photographer and storm chaser. You can visit his website here.
Reddit user rocketchef strapped a GoPro video camera to a bike helmet and had their two-year-old daughter wear it during a trip to the playground. The resulting footage is a fun look at what the world looks like to a two-year-old.
You probably know that, like computers, digital cameras depreciate pretty rapidly -- especially when a replacement model is announced every 2 or 3 years. A sad truth about digital cameras is that the digital sensor inside DSLRs cause them to be more expensive than comparable film SLRs when purchased new, yet less valuable further down the road when purchased used. Ken Rockwell calls this "digital rot", and writes, …
Check out this fictional Nikon DSLR spotted in the British science fiction TV show Torchwood. It looks strangely familiar.
Wanna know how to capture a wide-eyed and wide-mouthed photo of your dog? It's easy! First, set up your camera on a tripod and point it at your dog. Then, simply throw it some tasty treats with one hand while snapping photographs with the other. There are all kind of expressions you might capture using this technique, but this one by Andrea Sillem is pretty priceless.
