July 2012

The 2012 London Olympics is pretty strict about how the Games' branding is used, prohibiting the unauthorized use of everything from the Olympic symbol to the word "Olympic". Enforcing the rules is another story, as businesses both near and far use Olympic branding extensively to promote their own interests. Photographer Craig Atkinson recently decided to start a project documenting illegal uses in London through a photo project titled Illegal Olympics.

Some fashion photographers are known for hyper-conceited attitudes and nasty personalities -- traits that aren't usually shared by infant photographers. What if they were? This humorous sketch by Paulilu Mixtape is titled "Anne Geddes: Beneath the Diaper", and offers a behind-the-scenes look at famous baby photographer Anne Geddes in action.

Here's a beautiful behind-the-scenes video that takes us on an adventure with Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen as he shoots extreme skiing at the foot of Mont Blanc. Bendiksen was testing the Leica S2 medium-format DSLR -- typically thought of as a studio camera -- to see how it stands up in harsh outdoor environments.

We've featured large format LEGO cameras before, but what about wide format? Photographer Giacomo Citti created this panoramic LEGO pinhole camera that features a sliding shutter and film winders on the sides.

Digital view cameras can be quite pricey, but if you have an old analog view camera and a DSLR sitting around, you can combine the two cameras to make a DIY frankencam. Northlight Images has a tutorial for doing this with Canon DSLRs, and Nikon Rumors has a tutorial for Nikon shooters (either tutorial should work for you regardless of which brand you use). The resulting rig allows you to take advantage of the tilt and shift features of view cameras.

The Olympic games in London this year makes London the first city to have hosted the modern Olympic Games three times. The previous times were in 1908 and 1948. Here are some photographs captured at the 1908 Olympics 104 years ago, during a time when megaphones were used to announce events, top hats were all the rage, and dresses were worn by female competitors (this was the third games in which women were allowed to compete).

Photographer Casey McCallister reverse engineered Instagram's filters, turning them into actions and presets for Photoshop, Aperture, and Lightroom that allow you to retro-fy your photos with one click. The download packs include all 17 Instagram filters and are "latte-priced" at $5.

Welcome to camera gear heaven: here's a glimpse inside the Canon Professional Services office at the London 2012 Olympics. It's a room that's absolutely stuffed with cameras, lenses, and accessories from floor to ceiling. The Canon 1D X hasn't been released to the general public yet, but this room has hundreds of them!

If you need to do a quick shoot in the rain but don't have a proper rain cover handy, you can quickly put together a makeshift one using a large Ziploc freezer bag. Photographer Kariann Goodkey over at Purple Summit Photography has a step-by-step tutorial on the conversion, which basically involves cutting out a whole and using gaffer tape to secure your lens hood to the "cover". Goodkey writes, …

Los Angeles Times Jay L. Clendenin spent four weeks leading up to the Olympics traveling around Souther California, making portraits of athletes on the US Olympic Team. While he certainly wasn't the only one shooting the athletes, Clendenin chose an interesting way of capturing them: in addition to using Canon 5D Mark IIs for digital photos, he also used a 4x5-inch field camera and a 100+-year-old Petzval lens. When displayed side-by-side, the photos show an interesting contrast between "old" …

Nokia's 808 PureView phone packs a hefty 41-megapixel sensor, but how do its megapixels compare to a "real" 40+ megapixel camera photo? Spanish website Quesabesde decided to find out by putting the phone head-to-head with the 40MP Pentax 645D medium format DSLR. They shot the same scenes with both cameras, and blew them up to examine the quality. The article is in Spanish, but a little Google Translate magic does the trick.

Ian Ruhter is a Los Angeles-based photographer that creates massive wet plate photographs using a giant camera van. We featured a popular short film about his work back in April, and now here's another short behind-the-scenes look by Laura Austin. Austin followed Ruhter around for a day to see how he creates the images in his project, titled "Silver & Light". One interesting thing we find out is that some police officers aren't too friendly towards giant mobile cameras.

Ever since Google+ was launched in June 2011, users have gushed over the beautiful mosaic view for photos uploaded to the service. Earlier this year Flickr redesigned its photo pages with a similar design, and today Facebook has followed suit. Photo pages on Facebook are being upgraded with larger photos and the same mosaic view that's becoming so popular around the web. Users can also click specific photos to "highlight" them, or give them a larger piece of real estate on the page. The …

Diving is one of the most popular Olympic sports among spectators, and arguably one of the most graceful. The faces of the divers as they perform their acrobatics? Not so graceful.

More and more superstar athletes are using instant photo sharing services like Instagram, giving the general public a fascinating look into what their daily lives are like. Basketball player Kevin Love is one such player, and for the past few weeks he has been broadcasting behind-the-scenes images of the US mens national basketball team's journey to the London Olympics. The New York Times writes, …

New photographs of the moon by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera reveal that flags planted by Apollo astronauts are still "flying" after more than four decades. Each of the six manned Apollo missions planted flags at their landing sites, and it now appears that all but one -- the flag planted by Neil Armstrong was blown over upon their departure -- are still standing. The photographs were taken at different times of the day, and show small shadows rotating around the locations where …

If you're interested in the subject of lighting, check out Guess The Lighting. It's a website by professional portrait photographer Ted Sabarese through which he shares photos he finds -- including iconic images, advertisements, magazine covers -- along with his guesses and sketches regarding how the images were lit.

Big Appetites is a project by photographer Christopher Boffoli that features miniature people living in a world of giant food. The subjects are seen mining for strawberry seeds, chopping up giant blocks of chocolate, and lobster wrangling. Each of the figures (meant for miniature train models) are hand-painted with meticulous detail.

Update: The video is no longer available. Apparently the Olympic Committee is cracking down on unauthorized videos.

One of the big conveniences of shooting digital is that your pictures pop out with useful details baked into the EXIF data. Exif4Film is a tool that makes recording EXIF information easier for film photographers. It comes as a pair of programs: an Android app helps shooters store specific details as soon as photos are captured, and a desktop application takes the Android app data and automatically adds it to your film scans. The apps are completely free, and developer Kostas Rutkauskas tells us …

Next month a project called Red Bull Stratos will attempt to set a new world record for highest free-fall skydive in history. Skydiver Felix Baumgartner will leap from 120,000 ft (36,600m or 22.7 miles), breaking Joseph Kittinger's record of 102,800 ft set in 1960.

If you want to live out your fantasies of being a cowboy in the wild west -- and don't mind attracting strange looks -- take a look at this slick gun holster camera case by Japanese leather design shop Roberu. Made of leather, the case keeps your mirrorless camera (e.g. Sony NEX, Olympus PEN, Nikon V) in an easy-to-access location around your waist that's perfect for whenever you need to fast-draw and photograph a fleeting scene. It isn't cheap though: a single black, dark brown, or …

A couple of years ago, Sigma expressed a desire to create a mirrorless ILC of its own. And even though everybody and their mother in the camera industry seems to be jumping on the mirrorless bandwagon, Sigma instead is renegeing on that 2010 statement. In an interview with Chinese website Xitek, a Sigma manager stated that the company would never launch a mirrorless system.

Here's a cool idea for those of you who feel that the colors you have to choose from when buying a Nikon 1 mirrorless camera are a teensy bit lacking. A new German website called Pimp Your Cam (Note: some images on the site are NSFW) will soon start selling unique, airbrushed Nikon 1 cameras and customization options through the site and at select retailers.

Now that July is just about over with, only one month and a few weeks separate us from the start of Photokina on September 18th. And as the wait becomes progressively shorter, speculation about who may be announcing what is gradually ramping up. The most recent batch of speculation has to do with Fuji and the fact that the X100 is now showing up as discontinued on Crutchfield, as well as $200 off at both Amazon and B&H.

Over the years we've featured many incredible time lapse videos shot in locations ranging from Disney Land to Paris, but seeing an awesome time lapse and making one from start to finish yourself are worlds apart. This tutorial series, put together by videographer Preston Kanak and introduced in the video above, offers amateurs and professionals alike the opportunity to learn how to shoot amazing RAW time lapse footage absolutely free.

Still shoot film? Use filters when you shoot? FilterCalc is a new Android app that's designed to help non-TTL photographers figure out proper exposure when using filters.

The Wizard of Oz Experiment is a creative video installation by Dennis Neuschaefer-Rube featuring the famous 1939 film. He writes, …

Photographer Robert Buelteman takes pictures of shocking things -- literally. The California-based photographer uses Kirlian photography techniques to capture amazing images of 80,000 volts of electricity coursing through flowers. The technique is so dangerous and tedious that very few people in the world even attempt this kind of photography.

It's unlikely you'll ever need to protect your digital photos from extreme elements (and if you have a 7D you know your camera will make it) but as the saying goes, it's better to be safe than sorry -- and apparently hard drives don't get much safer than the Slilicon Power A80. In a video that's equal parts fun and demonstration, photographer Benjamin Von Wong put the hard drive through a series of unrealistically harsh tests, making sure it still worked after each one.

The deadline to put up initial bids for Kodak's 1,100 patent sale is Monday, and The Wall Street Journal reports that the two biggest contenders, Apple and Google, are forming "coalitions" with other companies in preparation for the all out patent brawl. The last time this happened, an Apple/Microsoft alliance ended up winning the battle against Google, that time over a patent sale by Nortel Networks.

The Guardian featured a gripping article yesterday that asked photographers to look back at some of their most powerful photos, and how they could have helped instead of standing by and taking pictures. On the one hand we've all felt that surge of indignation as we wonder "why didn't they help!?" On the other, only a photographer that has been there could understand what it's like to be under that kind of pressure:

A full month late -- and right on the heels of Canon's EOS M announcement -- Samsung officially began shipping its entry-level NX1000 mirrorless camera yesterday. The camera, which was supposed to ship sometime in June, comes sporting a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, 3-inch LCD, full 1080p video capability, 8fps continuous shooting, a $700 price tag, and the title of "first compact system camera (CSC) with built-in Wi-Fi" -- a title it shares with its more expensive NX brethren.

Nothing like starting off the weekend with some gorgeous footage of the City of Lights. This video comes courtesy of motion time lapse and stop motion photographer Mayeul Akpovi and is an awesome example of exactly those two things. Combining three thousand night shots and day shots with different landmarks and locations and a slew of different time lapse techniques really brings out a new side of the beautiful French capital.

Here's a quick update by Gary Fong on the wedding photographer who's being threatened with a $300,000 lawsuit by a client who says that he didn't like the images. The photographer's name is Nelson Tang, and we learn that Tang has received a followup letter that appeared at first glance to be a lawsuit, but lacked a necessary court stamp at the bottom. This messy case has going viral online and has everyone shouting "extortion".

In 2011, photographer Michael Wolf was awarded Honorable Mention in the World Press Photo 2011 contest for screenshots taken from Google Street View. It immediately sparked a debate regarding whether or not the work should even be considered "original photography". The Independent has an interesting article about a different Street View "photographer": Jon Rafman, whose work we've featured here before.

Swedish YouTube user AnteboyanRox received an interesting surprise after purchasing a brand new HP laptop recently. After finding the operating system already configured, he/she discovered the above video sitting inside the "My Documents" folder.

Are you looking for creative ways to decorate your walls and display numerous photos without making it look like your crazy great-aunt’s hallway? Now you can with this ingenious DIY project! …

Two weeks ago Nikon officially announced that it's working on a new Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 VR lens. Earlier today N-Photo Magazine posted the first photo showing the lens in the real world (in a display behind bulletproof glass). The Nikon DSLR attached at the end gives you an idea of the lens' size -- it's gigantic.

New York City was battered by heavy storms yesterday, and photographer Ryan Brenizer managed to snap this ridiculously epic photograph (larger version here) of the ominous clouds hanging over the city (which looks more like Gotham city... or Mordor).

Here's a brief video in which Reuters shows off the special underwater camera it created to shoot swimming competitions at the London Olympics. The design was derived from the cameras used during the BP oil spill back in 2010.

Superheroes usually do their world-saving work in big cities, but what if they lived lives that were as mundane as the civilians they're sworn to protect? Photographer Chow Kar Hoo has a creative series of photographs that show well known superheroes living rather ordinary lives in Hong Kong. Batman is seen strolling a night market, Wolverine is found making a living slicing up meat at a butcher shop, and Hellboy is spotted enjoying some late night hot pot.

LCD viewfinders are popular tool among DSLR filmmakers for shooting in sunlight and ensuring tack-sharp focusing, but have you considered using one for still photography? …

Mobile photo sharing powerhouse Instagram announced today that it has passed the 80 million mark for registered members. The service has grown by a whopping 30M since being acquired for $1 billion by Facebook in early April.

The New York Times has an interesting article examining how retouching has spread beyond fashion and advertising photos into editorial photography, conditioning the public to accept images that are "heightened versions of the truth". One reason is pressure from celebrity subjects: …

Back in 1982, 19-year-old five buddies -- John Wardlaw, Mark Rumer, Dallas Burney, John Molony, and John Dickson -- went on vacation to Copco Lake in California and snapped a group photo (seen above). Since then, they've embarked on the same vacation every 5 years, staying at the same cabin, sitting on the same bench, and snapping the same photo (with identical poses and all). They're 48-years-old now, and the tradition is still going strong.

Well, that didn't take long. Just one day after Washington DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued a directive ordering officers to leave photographers alone (PDF here), a police officer reportedly snatched a man's camera at a crime scene and later returned it without the memory card.

What would you pack in your camera bag to shoot the biggest sporting event in the world? PopPhoto has a great interview with Getty photographer Streeter Lecka in which he talks about preparing for (and shooting) the Olympics in London.

For those of you who have never heard of Magic Lantern (or know it only as a 17th century image projector) as far as Canon HDSLRs are concerned, Magic Lantern is a firmware add-on that first appeared in 2009 for the 5D Mark II. Since then it has been ported to most Canon HDSLRS and, for years, it has been known as a hack that brave and/or curious Canon owners have added to their cameras in order to squeeze out more functionality -- in some cases a lot more. The risk, of course, was always …

Some rumblings over in camp Hasselblad: 1001 Noisy Cameras reports that Hasselblad is sending out the following invite for a big product unveiling on September 19th at Photokina: …