April 2012

Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film is an upcoming documentary about the death of Polaroid and the subsequent rise of "The Impossible Project".

Nikon's new flagship D4 DSLR and its cousin the D800 were both designed by famed Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and his studio Italdesign Giugiaro. The studio's website has put up portfolio entries for both cameras. The partnership was rumored prior to the launch and wasn't much of a surprise: Giugiaro has been involved in the design of nearly all the high end pro Nikon cameras that have been released since 1980.

Digital Trends has published an interesting "inside look at what's behind the little (but growing) lens-maker that could", Lensbaby. You might be surprised at the relatively small size of the operation: …

Street photographer Markus Hartel recently did some shooting on the sidewalks of New York City on a rainy day with a Kodak Playtouch rigged to his Leica M9 and 28mm Elmarit. The above video shows a point-of-view documentation of his walk along with the "keeper" shots that resulted.

Unhappy with Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and want to flee the photo sharing service? Instaport is a super-simple web app that lets you download all the images on your Instagram account onto your computer as a single Zip file.

The Web Platform Team over at Adobe is currently working on bringing Photoshop-style blending modes to HTML, which would allow fancier websites and easier transitions from the company's design tools to the web. If they succeed in publishing the spec through W3C and having it implemented in WebKit, web designers will soon be able to make use of a new CSS property called "blend-mode" that can take the same values as the blending mode drop down menu in Photoshop (e.g. normal, multiply, screen, …

PDN has published an interview with art collector Jonathan Sobel, who's suing photographer William Eggleston for creating and selling new prints of iconic photos that were once sold as "limited edition" prints. The new prints that recently fetched $5.9 million at auction were digital prints that were larger than the original ones.

Google recently brought its Street View camera inside the White House for the Google Art Project's documentation of the artwork found within. In addition to displaying the art itself, the website also features a Street View-style museum view of the White House, allowing you to walk around inside virtually. Earlier this year Google did the same thing for photography mecca B&H Photo Video in NYC.

Here's a short video tutorial on how you can make a cozy for lens protection using some fleece and some velcro. It's a simple wrap that allows you to keep your lens safe when transporting it in something other than a camera bag. Simply measure out a piece of fleece that's the appropriate size and sew some velcro onto the ends. The project takes about 30 minutes and costs a buck or two for each cozy.

Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style is a spontaneous portrait project that photographer Nina Katchadourian started while traveling by plane in 2010.

Photographer Clemens Wirth wanted to dive into microscopy, so he attached his Canon 5D Mark II to a monocular microscope using an adapter and pointed it at one small drop of water. He was amazed to find out how much activity goes on inside ordinary water, and how detailed that tiny world is. This short film, titled "Micro Empire", is a beautiful combination of Wirth's footage and audio by Radium Audio.

French photographers organization Union des Photographes Professionnels (UPP) launched a controversial new advertising campaign this week, speaking out against the use of photographs without proper permission and/or payment. The ad reads: "Each day, a photographer's work is used without his consent". A spokesperson for UPP states, …

Snapping a self-portrait of oneself in a mirror is something every photographer has probably done before, but have you ever created one in which there isn't a camera in the shot? The images look impossible, but they're not too difficult to create using some careful planning and clever Photoshop trickery. Basically, all you need to do is photograph each arm and your head separately and then stitch the photographs together. Joshua Dunlop over at ExpertPhotography has published a tutorial on the …

"The Collective Snapshot" is a series by Spanish photographer Pep Ventosa (previously featured here) that consists of abstract images of famous landmarks created by blending together dozens of ordinary snapshots. His goal is to "create an abstraction of the places we've been an the things we've seen", and to create images that are both familiar and foreign at the same time.

In 9th grade, photographer Joe Edelman was given the assignment of creating 5 separate photos of an egg without moving it. That task became a defining moment in his journey as a photographer, teaching him the importance of learning to "see" light over learning "how" to light.

When the grip on his Canon Rebel T2i finally peeled and warped beyond repair, NYU computer science and mechanical engineering student Rob Huebner decided to go the DIY route. He found a beat up leather shoe, cut the proper shape out of it, and attached the leather graft onto his DSLR using rubber cement.

Kodak is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to pay $13.5 million in bonuses to roughly 300 executives and employees in order to convince them to stay with the company as it struggles to reinvent itself. Though the beleaguered company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, it believes that the money would help to retain employees that have knowledge and skills that would be difficult to replace if they were to leave. The current headcount at the company stands at around 7,600.

Here's a short sizzle reel created by Vashi Nedomansky that shows various shots captured by Shane Hurlbut by using Canon 5D Mark II DSLRs as crash cams.

Turns out retro photo filters and mobile photo sharing are big business. Just how big? Get this: Facebook has agreed to acquire 17-month-old Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. Instagram amassed 27 million users through iOS alone, but Facebook was likely motivated by the photo sharing app's recent Android launch, which signed up 1 million new members in the first 24 hours alone. Just last week it was reported that Instagram had raised $50 million based on a $500 million valuation. Those …

Japanese photographer kiyoshimachine has a quirky set of photographs titled Monster67 that features people wearing the "67 Head", a giant Pentax SLR.

Here's a humorous clip from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End that some photographers may be able to relate to a little too well.

Here's a video in which photographer Ryan Schude walks through how he went about shooting a photograph titled "The Diner". The image involved 24 lights, 20 subjects, and 12 hours of shooting. Check out his crazy lighting diagram and the finished photo.

To promote its new One X phone (and the camera on it), HTC came up with the bizarre idea of doing a skydiving fashion shoot with photography student Nick Jojola and model (and professional skydiver) Roberta Mancino. During the photoshoot above the Arizona desert, Jojola plummeted to Earth at 126MPH while Mancino whizzed by at 181MPH, giving the photographer a tiny window of 0.8 seconds to squeeze off the shot.

Want to capture some wind-blown hair in a portrait photograph but don't have access to an electric fan or wind machine? Photographer Benjamin Von Wong has a quick tip just for you: use your collapsible light reflector to create the needed wind. Simply have someone off camera fan the reflector at your subject in the direction and intensity that you want, and voila! instant wind machine!

Looking for a weekend project? Try you hand at creating an anthotype, or an image created using photosensitive material from plants. Grind up some plant matter to harvest the juices, paint the juices onto some paper, place a negative over the paper, and then leave the image out under the sun. When it's done exposing, scan the image to preserve it and place the print in a dark place, since light will slowly cause the image to disappear. Photojojo has a step-by-step tutorial on the process here.

This past Wednesday, customs officers in China announced the bust of a gigantic camera smuggling operation and the arrest of 14 suspects connected with the illegal transportation of $63.5 million worth of camera equipment. The smuggling ring has allegedly smuggled 60,204 cameras, 13,623 lenses, 483 flashes, 1,025 video cameras, and 348 projectors. Since camera equipment is much cheaper to buy in Hong Kong -- 20% to 30% less -- smugglers profit by sneaking the gear into mainland China (avoiding …

"The People I've Met" is a project by photographer Krista Langley that involves one Polaroid camera and one question. Langley shoots portraits of her friends and family and asks them to write down the answer to the question "what would you do if you knew you could not fail?".

So, from time to time, I receive requests to use my images for various purposes — like on a blog or a pamphlet or a calendar or the side of a zeppelin or for a urinal cake. Typically, if they are nice and they’re not going to be making a load of cash off where they’d like to use my image then I’ll let them use it as long as they give me credit. I’m especially generous with environmental interests and non-profits and ice cream manufacturers offering vouchers for all-you-can-eat tours.

Instagram is set to raise a massive Series B round of venture financing and, according to AllThingsD, the round will be led by preeminent VC firm Sequoia Capital -- the same firm that funded the likes of Apple, Google, YouTube, PayPal, Oracle, and Yahoo!. The company will reportedly be raising $50 million on a $500 million valuation, which is a hefty price point for a 17-month-old company with a headcount of 13. The service boasted 30 million iPhone users prior to its Android launch earlier …

After being introduced to long, pointy Mexican boots through a Facebook video, Brookyln-based photographers Alex Troesch and Aline Paley decided to travel to the northern city of Matehuala, Mexico to see and document the shoes themselves. TIME writes, …

Luminaris is an amazing stop-motion short film by Argentinean director Juan Pablo Zaramella. It's about a lightbulb factory worker who dreams of changing his world.

Last month we reported that 36 digital pigment prints of photos by William Eggleston had been auctioned off for a whopping $5.9 million. At least one man wasn't too happy about the news: a New York-based art collector named Jonathan Sobel has filed a lawsuit against Eggleston, claiming that the photographer's decisions to sell new, oversized prints of his iconic images has diluted the resale value of the originals. Sobel owns one of the largest private collections of Eggleston's photographs -- …

Italian photographer Alberto Seveso has a wonderful series of surfing photographs titled "Ink Riders" shot using blue ink, water, and a LEGO figurine. It's an incredibly creative twist on the popular "ink in water" project.

Researchers at Osaka University in Japan have created a new camera that makes shooting "from the hip" easier by projecting a white border onto the real world -- similar to what laser sights do for firearms. The frame line shows exactly the area that will be in the photograph, and allows users to quickly shoot without looking through or at the camera itself. Before you get too excited about the possibility of using it for street photography, here's the bad news: it's more suited for things like …

Panasonic has officially announced the Lumix GF5, conveniently skipping over the GF4 from the GF3. The tiny Micro Four Thirds camera is geared towards beginners and offers some subtle changes from its predecessor. While the 12.1-megapixel sensor hasn't changed, the new camera offers a new max ISO of 12,800, faster autofocus, a new 1080/30p HD view mode, a stereo microphone, a higher-res 3-inch touchscreen, a refined user interface, and an increase to 4fps (up from 3.8).

Here's a clever parody of the drug commercials you see on TV. It's marketing "Fauxtographor", prescription pills geared towards helping photographers become more creative and successful in their work.

Design Lovefest has a tutorial on how you can make a custom-designed camera strap using 1 1/2-inch natural cotton webbing and acrylic craft paint.

Glance through the winners list of this year's prestigious Photography of the Year International awards, and one newspaper may jump out at you: the Dubois County Herald.

If you ever turn to eBay to purchase film, you should purchase from sellers that have both a high feedback rating and a country of origin that you trust. Reader Dallas Houghton recently purchased what he thought was 10 rolls of Fujicolor Superia 200 for $28 from a seller based in ShenZhen, China. After the film arrived, he noticed a tiny bit of yellow on the roll. When he gave it a closer look, he discovered that the "Superia" branding on the outside was actually a sticker. Once the sticker was …

JR (the TED-winning photographer who uses giant photos as street art) and Liu Bolin (the Chinese artist who photographs himself blending into scenes) recently got together to collaborate on a photograph taken by Liu Bolin in which JR blends into one of his large scale installations. The giant photograph that Liu Bolin helped blend JR into is a photo of Liu Bolin's eye, created by JR. Can you say "photo inception"?

Yesterday Canon announced a new DSLR geared specifically towards taking pictures of stars, the 60Da. For $400 more than the original retail price of the standard 60D, avid astrophotographers can purchase a camera that offers a "modified infrared filter and a low-noise sensor with heightened hydrogen-alpha sensitivity" for shooting "‘red hydrogen emission’ nebulae and other cosmic phenomena". If you have no idea what that means, Canon has helpfully published a number of sample photographs …

Here's a lawsuit you might want to keep an eye on: in late 2010, photographer Richard Reinsdorf sued shoe company Skechers for violating the licensing agreement for a number of images he made for the company between 2006 and 2009. While the lawsuit itself isn't anything unusual, the price demanded by Reinsdorf is: he wants $250 million.

New York-based photography student Vicki Thai has a project titled Family Photographs that consists of images created by splicing (by tearing and reassembling) family photographs shot during two different times.

Flickr user Nick Cool was shooting in Machu Picchu, Perú on a sunny day when he made a helpful discovery: his coffee cup's sleeve doubled nicely as a makeshift lens hood. While it's probably not the best thing to use on a regular basis, it's a clever MacGyver-ish idea that got the job done. For less-ghetto sun shielding that's just as portable, you can look into printing/making your own lens hood or a nifty new product called the Flex Lens Shade.

Here's a camera shop promo that features the Nikon D4 filmed with a Phantom Gold high speed camera. It shows what the camera's 11fps shutter and iris mechanisms look like when captured at 1000 frames per second.

If Google's vision of the future pans out, we may soon be snapping and sharing photographs using augmented reality "glasses". The company is working on a product that's currently going by the code name "Project Glass". As the concept video above shows, the aim is to have a wearable "computer" that can project useful information about the world directly into the user's eye, allowing people to constantly interact with the Internet throughout their everyday lives. The glasses would even be able to …

A fascinating story from the art world: back in 2010, British businessman Andy Fields purchased a collection of 5 paintings from a Las Vegas garage sale for $5. When he decided to have one of the paintings reframed, he discovered an early Andy Warhol sketch hidden behind it. The signed drawing is believed to be of 1930s singer Rudy Vallee and created when Warhol was just 10 years old. Warhol paintings fetch absurd prices on the auction block -- the artist is considered to be the bellwether of …

UK-based photographer Sharon Johnstone has a stunning collection of macro photographs showing tiny drops of dew on dandelions.

This Holga camera is named the "Holga-Cam of the Apocalypse" and is worth $24,000. Photographer Mike Martens created it using a Holga 120N camera body worth $25 and a Phase One P25 digital back worth $24,000. The two components are fused together using a horseman lens board (hence the camera's name) and a foot of black gaffer's tape. The camera shoots low-fi photographs at 22 megapixels. You can find more images of the camera here and sample photographs shot with it here.

Celebrity Camera Club is a collection of photos taken of famous people taking photos.