Curious about where people like to take pictures in your part of the world? Sightsmap is a simple Google Map app that takes geo data from the photos uploaded to Panoramio (now a Google service) and uses it to generate a heatmap.
The Girl With 7 Horses is a creative project by photographer Ulrika Kestere that shows a girl traveling to various landscapes in search of her "invisible horses".
Chilean artist Diego Castillo Roa used a giant wall decal to turn this circular window into a camera lens looking out into the world. It's a submission in Lipton's inspirARTE contest.
Photographer Lee Jeffries worked as a sports photographer before having a chance encounter one day with a young homeless girl on a London street. After stealthily photographing the girl huddled in her sleeping bag, Jeffries decided to approach and talk with her rather than disappear with the photograph. That day changed his perception about the homeless, and he then decided to make them the subject of his photography. Jeffries makes portraits of homeless people he meets in Europe and in the US, …
Bloomberg writes that Kodak's bankruptcy announcement yesterday was simply another step in CEO Antonio Perez's grand plan to sell off the company's photography divisions and patents in order to focus on selling digital printers and ink. At the same time, the company has been quick to reaffirm its dedication to producing film. Kodak marketing director Audrey Jonckheer was quoted by BJP today as saying, …
Here's the first photo showing a portion of the upcoming Olympus OM-D (it appears to be the shutter release, two dials, and buttons on the upper right hand corner of the camera). The high-end enthusiast camera will reportedly cost around $1,100 when it starts shipping in March. What are your observations based on this glimpse?
Star Wars Uncut is a remake of the original Star Wars movie created with the power of crowdsourcing. The project started back in 2009 after creator Casey Pugh sliced the original movie into 15 second segments and asked volunteers to use their creativity to recreate the scenes at home. The best clips were combined into a feature length film, which went on to win an Emmy Award in 2010 for "Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media". Above is the recently-released director's cut of the …
San Diego-based photographer Tim Mantoani has an awesome project and book titled "Behind Photographs" that consists of 20x24-inch Polaroid portraits of famous photographers posing with their most iconic photographs. The film costs $200 per shot, and Mantoani has created over 150 of the portraits already since starting the project five years ago.
A UK photographer who goes by the moniker Hamstify was documenting his town Scunthorpe late last year when he was confronted by security personel outside a Golden Wonder plant and ordered to stop photographing. He was shooting from a public location, so he decided to stand up for his rights and film the argument that transpired. On VisitScunthorpe.com, he writes, …
Etsy shop soaprepublic sells flexible silicone molds for making homemade soap that's shaped like a DSLR camera body (with a pancake lens attached?).
Red Peak Branding conducted an experiment last year in which they chained a fully loaded bicycle (bells, basket, lights, and the whole shebang) to a post on a busy New York City sidewalk. They then visited and photographed the bicycle every single day, resulting in the 365-photo time-lapse video seen above. What's interesting is that the bicycle remains untouched for roughly 230 days, but once small parts start getting stolen the rest of the bicycle soon follows. This might have something to do …
IKEA scored a viral advertising hit in 2010 when it released a cookbook with photographs by Carl Kleiner showing the ingredients of each recipe neatly arranged on a table. Now, the Swedish furniture company has teamed up with the photographer and stylist Evelina Kleiner again for a series of photographs showing kitchen items in beautiful arrangements.
Here's a video that's fascinating in light of Kodak's bankruptcy announcement today. It was created back in 2006 for the company by partners+napier, and was shown at the All Things Digital Conference in California before Kodak CEO Antonio Perez took the stage to talk about the company's digital transformation. The predictions made in the video are seemingly prophetic, accurately describing the current landscape of digital and mobile photography. It's too bad that Kodak couldn't right its ship, …
Photographer Lilly McElroy has a unique series of photos titled I Throw Myself At Men that consists of self-portraits showing her launching herself into the arms of strangers.
Want to know what it's like to cover a football game as the chief photographer of a school's athletic department? Photographer Joel Hawksley created this day-in-the-life time-lapse video after being assigned to cover a football game between Ohio University and Temple University. It starts early in the morning when he pulls out of his driveway, and ends at night when he pulls in. In between we see everything from setting up, shooting, post-processing, and uploading/emailing photographs. Hawksley …
We're about three weeks away from the rumored February 8th unveiling of the Olympus OM-D -- a new Micro Four Thirds camera designed in the style of old school Olympus OM SLRs. The mockup above shows what the camera might look like based on the latest spec rumors. The 16MP camera will reportedly offer ISO 200-25600, a grip and a leather-covered surface, built-in flash, in-body image stabilization, a 610000-dot swiveling LCD screen, and speedy autofocus.
Upon first glance, the photograph Double by photographer Katsuhiro Saiki might look like some sort of abstract modern painting of a blue canvas divided by a thin white line. Look a little closer, and you'll find that it's actually a photograph of the sky divided neatly in half by an airplane vapor trail.
Well, the rumors were true: today the iconic photography company Kodak announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What this means is that the company is given permission to continue its normal operations as it struggles to restructure and transform into a sustainable business.
Fujifilm and Olympus have been hard at work lately bringing the beauty of film cameras to the world of digital. Perhaps sensing a new trend, Samsung wants in: the company is planning to release a "retro" mirrorless camera of its own. Sadly, it's effort pales in comparison to what the other manufacturers are doing. Rather than imitate rangefinder cameras (e.g. Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the Leica M9) or resurrect old film SLR designs (e.g. the Olympus OM-D), Samsung has seemingly decided that retro …
The Washington Post raised some eyebrows last Friday after running an uber-saturated front page photo with the caption stating that it was "a composite created by taking several photos and combining them with computer software to transcend the visual limitations of standard photography." After emailing the photo editor, Poynter learned that the image was simply an HDR photograph. While it's a pretty common technique these days, some believe that it has no place in photojournalism, …
For his project Vanishing Cultures, photographer Dennis Manarchy is traveling around the country documenting various cultures with a one-of-a-kind, 35-foot-long camera called "Eye of America". Styled like an old fashioned large format camera, it's so large that a person can work comfortably inside it. The negatives measure 6x4.5 feet, and are so large that windows must be used as lightboxes to examine them. The detail in a portrait subjects' eyeball alone is a thousand times greater than what …
Back in May 2011, Canadian camera shop The Camera Store released a humorous advertisement that quickly went viral, amassing millions of views. Here's the sequel to that video, showing another violent engagement between two groups of well trained photographers.
There are plenty of presets out there that attempt to make your digital images look like they were shot with film, but VSCO Film by Visual Supply Co is different: it's a Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW add-on that uses film profiles to change how the RAW files are interpreted rather than simply perform standard adjustments on the images. The video introduction above shows some examples of what the various options can do. This patent-pending method of film emulation doesn't come cheap -- it costs …
B&H is one of the most popular retailers in the photo world, but most customers haven't set foot inside the physical superstore in New York City, one of the largest photo stores in the world. If you've been wondering what it looks like on the inside, you can take a virtual tour through Google Street View (click the arrow pointing into the building). Starting late last year, Street View started including imagery of the inside of some buildings in addition to its street-level views.
For his project Lightscapes by photographer James Reeve photographed cities at night, and then stripped away everything but the lights and windows. The technique turns both buildings and cityscapes into "anonymous patterns of light".
Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway recently started a business in which she restores and colorizes old black and white photographs. To show off her skills, she decided to colorize some famous B&W photographs captured throughout history.
YouTube member MJRecession came up with the idea of placing a digital camera onto the conveyor belt a sushi restaurant in Japan to record candid portraits of the other patrons in the restaurant. It'd be interesting to see this same thing done at sushi bars around the world to see how different cultures would react.
Some spec rumors for the Olympus OM-D camera that we wrote about yesterday are starting to emerge. The retro-styled, weather-sealed magnesium body will reportedly resemble classic OM series film SLR cameras, and will be available in both black and silver. Rather than have a pentaprism like an actual SLR, the 16MP camera will feature a 1.44M dot electronic viewfinder. It'll be 121mm wide, and will weigh 425g. The release date is rumored to be sometime in late March 2012.
A young woman living in Los Angeles named Madeline did a 365 day project that's a bit different than most: instead of taking a picture a day, she decided to document each day with roughly one second of footage. At the conclusion of 2011, she combined all 365 video clips into this beautiful 7-minute-long video that offers a glimpse into what her year was like.
Candidtag is a new service designed to make it easy to earn a little cash by photographing strangers you meet out in public. The idea is that there are people (e.g. tourists) out there who are too busy enjoying their lives to carry a camera around, but at the same time would like memories of their experiences. If you always carry your camera around, you can offer to take pictures for strangers and then give them a card pointing them to your Candidtag "collection". The client can later visit the …
City Silhouettes is a beautiful project by Beijing-based photographer Jasper James that consists of portraits of city dwellers blended with the cityscapes in the background. There's no Photoshop trickery involved -- James uses reflections seen in glass and the images are composed entirely in-camera.
Apparently there's a camera shop in Houston, Texas called Houston Camera Exchange that's taking preorders for the upcoming -- but yet unannounced -- Nikon D800 for $2,699.99. While photos and specs of the 36MP camera have been leaking for some time now, there hasn't been much information about the camera's price.
A clever little stop-motion video that shows what baking would be like if you could do it in Photoshop. Unlike with photos, it'd probably be wise to steer clear of the Burn Tool.
There might be a giant corporate scandal hovering over its head, but that's not stopping Olympus from planning big things for its digital camera lineup. The company has placed a giant full page advertisement in Amateur Photographer magazine with the headline "OH MY GOODNESS!". 43 Rumors is reporting that the company will be announcing a new Micro Four Thirds camera around February 8th that's part of the 40-year-old OM camera lineup -- in other words, a digital mirrorless camera that's …
Now here's a bizarre fusion of photography, food, and functionality: the Photorito Lens Wrap is a new protective lens wrap that's not just inspired by the burrito -- it looks like one too! The one-size-fits-all wrap can help you safely transport lenses from 24mm to 200mm, and is made from waterproof Tyvek and neoprene. They cost $15 $20 each over at Photojojo.
At the end of last year a new format called XQD was unveiled as the eventual replacement for CompactFlash. About a month later at CES 2012, Sony announced the first XQD cards. If you're not sold on the new format, here's some good news for you: Lexar and SanDisk have both announced that they have no plans to release XQD cards in the near future and that they're both committed to the CompactFlash format (a bit strange though, given that SanDisk was one of the companies that announced XQD in …
French artist Philippe Ramette captures surreal self-portraits in which he appears to be defying gravity. Rather than use digital trickery, Ramette -- who started his career as a sculptor -- builds metal support structures that allow him to stand or sit at impossible angles.
The Economist has a fascinating piece looking at the similarities and differences between Kodak and Fujifilm, two juggernauts of film photography that took different paths when digital photography came around: …
Industrial design student Hunter Frerich came up with a simple and cheap DIY beauty dish that's created using fabric, foil, velcro, and glue. To make your own, simply download and print out the template and follow the step-by-step instructions.
Last year Levi's teamed up with Hong Kong magazine New Monday on an exclusive denim camera strap that was included for free with an issue of the magazine. The strap was produced with the same materials used to manufacture Levi's jeans and came in both red and black. You can find the straps for sale on eBay for around $20-$30.
Reuters is reporting that US-based investment firm TPG Capital has expressed interest in pouring $1 billion into Olympus in a joint deal, and has notified other possible suitors including Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, and Panasonic.
Similar to the centenarian portraits we shared earlier today, here's a beautiful video with moving portraits (both literally and figuratively) of elderly people by photographer Simon Biswas. The piece is titled "The Light of Day".
There's some shady business going on at CES 2012 in Vegas. Sigma has announced that one of the lenses it unveiled at the trade show this year, the 180mm f/2.8 macro lens, disappeared after being unveiled on Tuesday. The lens is believed to be one of only two pre-production models that exist.
Reflections is a series of photographs by New York-based fine art photographer Ira Fox. Shot through the reflections seen in puddles on their ground, they show shadows of passers-by as they cross paths with Fox on a rainy day.
The T-Bike is a concept bicycle by designer Reza Rachmat Sumirat that's inspired by the camera tripod. In addition to having three sliding bars that can help riders easily adjust the bike to their desired size, the bike also doubles as a tripod for active outdoor photographers. The handlebars provide a tripod mount, and the kickstand on the front wheel helps stabilize the shot.
The final nail in the Kodachrome coffin came at the end of 2010 when the last lab that processed the film, Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, ceased its support. In Kodachrome's final years, every roll sent to Kodak for processing from around the world was sent to Dwayne's. This mini-documentary created by Xander Robin offers an interesting glimpse into Kodakchrome processing at Dwayne's Photo before it came to an end.
For his project titled Jahrhundertmensch, German photographer Karsten Thormaehlen shot portraits of elderly men and women who have reached the ripe old age of 100, also known as a "centenarian". In 2009, the UN estimated that there are only about 455,000 centenarians in the world.
Adobe caused a stir last November after changing its upgrade policy to only cover one version back instead of three. This meant that only Photoshop CS5 owners would qualify for the upgrade price on CS6 when it's launched, leaving CS3 and CS4 owners the not-so-nice option of buying the CS5 upgrade before buying the CS6 one. Perhaps in response to the angry customer response, Adobe announced a "special offer" for CS3 and CS4 owners today: …
TIME magazine named "The Protester" as its "Person of the Year" last year. This behind-the-scenes video shows how photographer Peter Hapak traveled around to seven different countries to capture portraits of protestors for the story. The resulting photographs can be viewed here.
Photographer Pep Ventosa made these abstract composite images of carousels in various amusement parks around the world by photographing them from multiple angles and then blending the photographs together.
