May 2012

DL Cade

NASA Spacesuit Testing Leads To Accidentally Artsy Photos

More than most government agencies, NASA is actually pretty enthusiastic about photography (by comparison, we probably won't be seeing CIA photography archives come to light any time soon). When NASA had a problem that needed solving they liked to look towards their cameras, and that's exactly what they did when they needed to test and record the abilities of their space suits.

DL Cade

Did You Know: Kodak Used Collectible Stuffed Animals to Sell Cameras

We've heard of camera manufacturers dipping into unrelated fields before, and we've also seen some pretty interesting marketing stunts, but in the early 90's Kodak had already done both... in a colorful, cuddly sort of way. Back then, as an either desperate or creative ploy to get kids into photography, Kodak came out with the Kolorkins: a set of colorful, collectible stuffed animals.

DL Cade

Participatory Project Asks for Half-Minute Videos of Seriousness

The world is a serious place, and it seems that even comedians like Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen think that this is a side worth seeing. So, by way of a fun video project, he's asking viewers to do one simple thing: Be Serious for 30 Seconds... and record it.

Michael Zhang

50 Quick Photography Tips in Less Than 15 Minutes

Kai over at DigitalRev put together this video that offers photography advice in burst mode: 50 (or 49) short and sweet tips in less than 15 minutes. If you take yourself too seriously, be warned: the tips are presented in Kai's trademark "infotainment" style.

DL Cade

New Software Suite to Detect Stealthy Image Manipulation

Former Photoshop product manager Kevin Connor and Dartmouth professor (and digital forensic expert) Hany Farid are working together to help put a stop to image manipulation where it doesn't belong. Putting their two brains together they formed a company called Fourandsix, which is primed to release a full suite of software tools that will help law enforcement officers, photo editors and other interested parties detect secret digital photo manipulation.

Michael Zhang

Magical Scenes Created by Light Painting with Stencils

Flickr user TigTab creates beautiful scenes by light painting with hand-cut stencils. For each shot, the camera's shutter is left open while she moves about the location, firing her flash through the stencils in various locations to add the individual items to the scene. Some photographs take up to four hours to create from start to finish.

DL Cade

Fujifilm Considered Acquiring Leica and Olympus

In a recent interview with Fujifilm CEO Shigetaka Komori, German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine dived into some pretty intense financial conversation. Much of what was said didn't pertain directly to photography -- discussions about Fuji's involvement in the medical field and cosmetics for instance -- but certain parts of the interview were very interesting indeed.

DL Cade

New Nikon Patent Points to Possibility of a Future f/0.7 Mirrorless Lens

Apertures can get pretty big, but a new patent from Nikon seems to imply that a future Nikon 1 mirrorless lens could weigh in at f/0.7. The patent, which gives an example of a 32mm f/1.2 (pictured above), clearly states that the new technology could successfully yield smaller numbers due to optimization of the aperture diameter, flange back length and image circle.

DL Cade

Hasselblad vs Red Epic: Will Video Kill the Still Photography Star?

Video technology is advancing at an alarming rate, and the question that seems to be on many a photographer's mind is: "will video ever render still photography obsolete?" In the future, will shooting a sunset simply involve going out and recording 30 minutes to an hour of video and then pulling your favorite frames into Photoshop or Lightroom? Well, that's the question that this video from Fstoppers is trying to answer.

Michael Zhang

Incredible Flowers Created with Splashes and High Speed Photography

Photographer Jack Long has an absolutely amazing series of photographs titled Vessels and Blooms that features liquid flowers captured by shooting high speed photographs of splashes. The images are not faked with Photoshop, but are instead single exposures that result from months of planning and testing.

DL Cade

A Giant Viewfinder For Your Phone

Here's an interesting idea by Oregon-based engineering consultant Paul Anderson called The Daylight Viewfinder. The patent pending invention, which is in the process of raising $44,000 on Kickstarter, is a suction mountable, sun blocking viewfinder/app combo that allows you to take great pictures with your phone (currently iOS only) even in bright daylight.

DL Cade

New App Uses Photo Sharing to Shame “Parking Douches”

Have you ever walked out to your car and seen someone abysmally parked next to you, or up on the sidewalk? Even if they aren't blocking you in specifically, didn't you wish there was a way -- other than leaving a less than professional note -- to let people know that the owner of this car is a jerk? Well, the people over at the Moscow Newspaper The Village decided to takle this problem (which is apparently much worse in Russia) head on by designing and releasing Parking Douche, an Android app that publicly shames bad parkers.

DL Cade

PhotoBeamer Makes Sharing Photos With Any Web Connected Display a Breeze

Last weekend we mentioned that the Bump app had just added browser integration, allowing you to transfer photos from your mobile device to your computer by simply "bumping" the space bar. And now another sharing app called PhotoBeamer has crossed our virtual desk that does something a little bit different, but does it just as well.

DL Cade

Photo Series on Missing Persons Posters

There's something profoundly sad about a missing persons poster. That rectangular piece of paper often signifies a last ditch effort, a one in a million chance, and it's that desperation and sadness that Graham MacIndoe captures with his "Missing Persons" photo series. Started way back in 1989, the series takes an up close and personal look at the posters many of us pass daily but never notice.