Atlanta-based photographer Theron Humphrey is currently on a year-long trip through each of America's 50 states, and is using a unique photo project idea to document it: he has his coonhound named Maddie -- his travelling companion -- balance on various things in the different places they visit.
For Valentine's Day this year, Samsung created this short film that features custom bokeh shapes shot with Samsung NX gear. They come up with some pretty creative ideas for various shapes: pop a balloon filled with glitter to create a firework look, or shoot out of a car window at night to capture spaceships flying through space! If you're interested in learning how to customize your own bokeh, check out this video tutorial or the tutorial Samsung published alongside this video.
So I've been shooting some shows for some of the choral groups on campus at my school, and I've started to notice a trend: people make some stupid faces when they are singing. They can range from an approaching sneeze to a full-on O-face.
Kai Wong over at DigitalRev recently conducted this interesting experiment in which they spent a week training a newbie photographer -- an IT guy without any background -- to go up head-to-head in a studio environment against an actual photographer. The goal was to see whether they could fake it well enough so that one of Hong Kong's top photographers wouldn't be able to tell the difference in quality.
Here's some good news for all you iPhoneographers out there: Apple's upcoming iOS 5.1 update -- the rumored release date is March 9th -- will feature a new unlock screen that's designed to make accessing your iPhone (or iPod) camera as easy as unlocking your phone. They've decided to include a new fixed camera slider button next to the unlock slider -- simply slide this icon up to reveal the camera! Currently, the fastest way to access the camera is to double-tap the home button and then click …
San Francisco-based indie band Wildlife Control made this creative music video for their song "Analog or Digital" using both time-lapes and stop-motion techniques. They spent a day on at Ocean Beach in SF, shooting the entire video in one take as a series of 3,060 individual photographs. The fast playback makes the world around them pass in time-lapse, while their synchronized movements cause them to move around like stop-motion claymation figures. It's definitely not an easy feat -- they had …
In mid-January, Nikon sent an letter out to independent camera repair technicians across the US, informing them that "it will no longer make repair parts available for purchase by repair facilities that have not been authorized by Nikon Inc. to perform camera repairs." After July 13th, 2012, unauthorized repair shops will no longer be able to repair Nikon cameras -- a huge part of their business -- with official manufacturer-approved parts. iFixit writes, …
Do you feel like the quality of your photography falls short of where you want it to be? Don't worry: every creative goes through a period in their growth in which there's a disappointing gap between their "taste" and their work. Here's an inspiring video in which Ira Glass encourages people going through this to push through and to not give up.
A week ago we published a tongue-in-cheek post on how to improve the quality of your Canon kit lens by painting a red ring around it. While that wasn't intended to be taken seriously, we were pointed to a Korean workshop named Park in Style that actually takes custom lens body work quite seriously. What you see above is a Canon 18-55mm kit lens that they disassembled, painted, and then reassembled to look like a Canon L lens!
Samsung has released a new line of SD and microSD memory cards that focus not only on speed and durability but appearance as well. They come with a brushed metal look in silver or black, and are able pretty dang tough as well: …
Fashion photographer and filmmaker Jacob Sutton recently had the idea of capturing "a lone character made of light surfing through darkness". He had designer John Spatcher create an LED enveloped suit, and then had pro snowboarder William Hughes wear it while zipping down the slopes of the Rhône-Alpes region in south-east France.
Here's an excellent video tutorial by photographer Peter Hurley on how to improve your portrait photographs by focusing on the jawline of your subject. It's a simple technique that can drastically improve the quality of your images.
Designer Jean-michel Bonnemoy thinks that traditional camera designs are wrong, and that form factors were driven more by technical necessity (e.g. the need to hold film) than by ergonomics and ease of use. Instead, he proposes that modern digital cameras should be cylindrical and resembling a handheld telescope. A lens cap is built into the front, a viewfinder and LCD screen are built into the back, and the controls are in easy-to-access locations on the side of the camera.
Here's a clip from the bodybuilding documentary "Bigger Faster Stronger” in which photographer Rich Schaff spills the beans on some industry secrets for how those unbelievable before-and-after photos promoting bodybuilding products are made. He shows how both shots can be of the same model on the same day, with various tricks and image manipulations used to achieve the drastic differences you see.
Home decor idea: if you're looking for a creative way to display your photographs, you can turn some medium-sized stones and florist wire sticks into photo holders. Use rocks of different sizes and sticks of varying lengths to create your own photo garden in the house! …
Everything is a Remix is a fascinating four-part video series by filmmaker Kirby Ferguson that explores the concept of creativity, and how everything created has some degree of copying, transforming, or combining of old ideas. While the series isn't specifically directed towards photographers, the ideas are quite relevant to the discussion of "original" work.
An Alabama basketball fan named Jack Blankenship has been attracting quite a bit of media attention for his creative method of distracting opposing players when they shoot free throws: Blankenship printed out a giant photograph of himself making a strange face and waves it around while making the same face. His antics quickly caught the attention of sports writers, television cameras, and the Internet -- one screen grab from a recent game has been viewed over half a million times already online.
An update to the financial scandal over at Olympus, which has quieted down quite a bit in recent days: former Chairman and President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa has been arrested with six other people (including three former executives) for "suspected violation of Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act". As you might remember, Kikukawa replaced ex-CEO Michael Woodford after Woodford's abrupt dismissal and stated that the move was because Woodford -- who's from the UK -- didn't fit into the …
Mark Rober -- the guy behind the gaping-hole-in-torso costume -- recently came up with a creative way of getting up close and personal with gorillas at his local zoo. It turns out that apes can't resist looking at themselves in mirrors, so Rober drilled a hole in a mirror and pointed his iPhone's camera through it. He was then able to snag some awesome footage that most visitors would never be able to capture. This trick may also work for other animals that are known to pass the mirror test of …
A security van transporting roughly £100,000 (~$156,000) in Nikon camera gear was targeted by robbers this past Saturday after the Dublin NPS Roadshow. The thieves made off with the entire truckload of equipment, including demo versions of the Nikon D4 and Nikon D800 -- cameras that aren't available yet to the general public. You can find an list of what was stolen (and their individual serial numbers) here. Camera gear thieves have been pretty active so far in 2012 -- just last month someone …
For his project titled 141 Boxers, photographer Nicolai Howalt shot portraits of boxers before and after boxing matches. The images side-by-side tell the stories of what happened in between when they were captured.
It wasn't too long ago that Kodak filed multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Apple in a scramble for life-giving cash, but now the tables have turned. Less than a month after Kodak filed for bankruptcy and announced the end of its camera business, Apple is reportedly in the process of asking the court for permission to sue bankrupt Kodak for infringing on Apple's patents in its printers, digital cameras, and digital picture frames. This back and forth IP fight is one that Kodak might …
Most photographers would be happy to capture a photo showing just the northern lights or lava leaping out of a volcano crater. Photographer James Appleton managed to capture a series of beautiful photographs that show both in the same frame. The images were made at Fimmvörðuháls in Iceland.
Last week we reported on a dispute between photographer Jonathan Kent and The Telegraph over the newspaper's "use first and ask/pay later" policy. After contacting the paper over an image of his that was used without permission, Kent received a response from picture editor Matthew Fearn, who informed him stating that their policy is standard and due to the "ever-shifting nature of news". In response, Kent wrote up a tongue-in-cheek letter likening the paper's actions to borrowing a car for a …
Photography enthusiast Maciej Pietuszynski jumped into tilt-shift photography recently by building a do-it-yourself tilt-shift lens out of an old 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, a shower head, and a rubber glove. The process isn't for the faint of heart -- it involves disassembling the lens. You can see some of the resulting photographs in this Flickr set.
Here's an awesome TED lecture in which digital artist Erik Johansson discusses creating realistic "photographs" of impossible scenes.
For her project titled Learning to Love the State I Am In, photographer Sam Schubert takes planking to a new level by putting her body in bizarre positions and locations in order to "integrate" herself into the materials and environments found in Baltimore.
Adorama had a Valentine's Day discount on Adobe Lightroom 3 yesterday, pricing it at just $80. It's back to $135 now, but if you missed out, you now have another chance: B&H has decided to one-up Adorama by selling the program for just $70. The sale will last until the end of today, so you might want to act fast this time if you've been on the fence.
Photographer Martin Klimas, whose porcelain figurine photos we shared yesterday, has a series of photographs that look like 3D Jackson Pollock paintings. He spent six months photographing portraits of sound by playing music through a speaker that's crowned with paint. Klimas dials up the volume and then photographs the paint coming alive from vibrations caused by the sound waves.
Street photographer Eric Kim created this video showing what it's like to photograph passers-by on the sidewalks of Beverly Hills, CA. He attached a GoPro camera to his Leica M6 (loaded with Kodak Portra 400 film) to record his adventure, and then edited in the final photographs after getting the film developed. Kim ruffled a lot of feathers with some of his old behind-the-scenes videos due to his in-your-face style, but has since toned it down quite a bit -- not using a large handheld flash …
Last year imaging company Scalado showed off an app called Rewind that lets you create perfect group shots by picking out the best faces from a burst of shots and then combining them into a single image. Now the company is back with another futuristic photo app: it's called Remove, and lets you create images of scenes without the clutter of things passing through (e.g. people, cars, bikes). It works like this: simply snap a photograph, and the app will outline everything that's moving in the …
For his project titled Time, photographer John Clang shoots various locations multiple times from the same perspective, and then rips and weaves the photographs together to show multiple points in time in each image.
We're unclear on whether this is a permanent price drop or a temporary sale, but Adorama is current selling Lightroom 3 for just $80. That's $59 cheaper than Amazon's price and cheaper than the student and teacher edition.
If you think Content Aware Fill is an amazing Photoshop feature, wait till you play around with the new content aware tools found in Photoshop CS6. In addition to a new Patch Tool for selecting where you want to Content Aware Fill from, the program will also introduce new a Content Aware Move tool that lets you easily move portions of your photographs around and extend them intelligently.
Want to improve the quality of the photos captured using your DSLR's popup flash? Tina (AKA synthetic_meat) discovered that the cardboard box that came with a particular brand of chocolate had a nice silver lining on the inside -- perfect for making a mirrored bounce reflector! After some cutting, scoring, and folding, she came up with a DIY Lightscoop clone that lets you bounce your onboard flash off the ceiling or wall for softer and more appealing images. You can download the free template …
The beautiful light painting photo you see here was created using steel wool (here's a tutorial on the technique). Basically, you fix some steel wool on the end of a rope, set it on fire by rubbing a 9V battery against it, and then swing it around to fling sparks all over the place. While it's becoming a pretty common photo project, it can also be hazardous to your lens' -- and your body's -- health. Jon Beard, the photographer behind this photo, learned the hard way. See that thick yellow line …
National Geographic photographers get to do the coolest things. In this video, photographer Carsten Peter takes us along with him on a journey into Son Doong, the world's largest cave located in Vietnam. The biggest chamber in the cave is over 3 miles long and more than four times taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Photo meme alert: here's a series of humorous images that have been spreading across the Internet like wildfire. They show the differences between what various groups of people think about what photographers do.
For his project titled "Porcelain Figurines", photographer Martin Klimas dropped various porcelain figurines onto the ground from a height of 3 meters and set up a camera to capture photos triggered by the sound of the crash. The result are razor-sharp images of exploding figurines frozen in time -- "temporary sculptures made visible to the human eye by high-speed photography".
Toys are getting fancier and cameras are getting weirder. Mattel is set to launch a new camera barbie called Barbie Photo Fashion that'll upgrade many a dollhouse with a human-shaped 5-megapixel digital camera. Unlike the soon-to-be-outdated Video Girl Barbie and its chest-cam, this new photography doll features a camera built into her back with the LCD screen moved to her frontside. She can store 100 photos, features a mini USB port on her lower back, and comes with 15 built-in photo "filters" …
Here's an interesting 12-minute video that offers one explanation into how the world of art works. Even if you don't agree with the philosophy and worldview described in the video, it's still an eye-opening tour of the different things that influence and power the mysterious world of art.
Pet photographer Seth Casteel of LittleFriendsPhoto captures hilarious underwater portraits of dogs as they jump into a swimming pool to fetch balls and toys.
Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch created this helpful diagram showing the relative sizes of various sensors, including the one found inside the Lytro light field camera (a camera that lets you focus after shots are taken). The FCC published photos of the Lytro camera's guts last week, revealing that the sensor inside is roughly 6.5×4.5mm (smaller than our previous estimate). This means that it's slightly larger than the iPhone sensor and slightly smaller than the one in most point-and-shoot …
This powerful photograph by photographer Samuel Aranda was introduced today as the World Press Photo of the Year 2012. The description reads, …
After discovering his photograph used without permission on The Telegraph's website, photographer Jonathan Kent contacted the newspaper asking to be compensated for the unauthorized use. He then received an email from deputy picture editor Matthew Fearn, who defended the newspaper's actions, stating, …
Captured on April 1, 1995 by the Hubble Telescope, the photograph Pillars of Creation is one of the most famous space images ever made. Here's a crazy fact though: did you know that the "pillars" seen in the photo were already long gone by the time the image was captured? Astronomers have concluded that the pillars -- which measure up to 4 light years in length -- were destroyed about 6,000 years ago by the shock wave from a supernova. Because of how long it takes light to travel across such …
Photography author Ben Long has a thought-provoking article over at CreativePro in which he argues that "all photos are manipulated" and that "there is no such thing as absolute truth in photography": …
Starting in 2001, photographer Mary Mattingly has created an image every year on the winter solstice -- the day of the year when daylight is shortest -- showing the first light of the day and the last light of the day blended into a single photo. The series is called "First Light / Last Light".
For those of you who are interested in the fine art of studio lighting, here's a video in which American celebrity photographer George Holz talks about how he went about photographing Beyonce for the cover of Spin magazine.
It's not uncommon to see photographs printed onto clothing, but Milan-based Marios' new Nowhere summer collection takes it to a whole new level. Many of the pieces in the collection feature landscape photographs printed across the entire garment.
