July 2012

Portraits of Olympic Athletes with Their Daily Meal Intakes

World class athletes eat huge meals to provide their bodies with fuel during training (you might have heard that swimmer Michael Phelps gobbles down 12,000 calories every day while training). Reuters photographer Umit Bektas recently decided to do a photo project exploring this fact by shooting studio portraits of Turkish Olympic athletes posing next to tables laden with their daily meal intakes.

Tourist Snaps Stealthy Engagement Photos, Internet Searching for Couple

Update: According to an article published an hour ago by the Huffington Post, the couple has been found and given their images. Now they're asking that their privacy be respected so they can plan their nuptials in peace.

While sightseeing in Washington DC, Angila Golik saw a man in military uniform and a woman in a white and black dress standing in the center of the rotunda of the War Memoria. At that moment she somehow just knew that he was about to propose. So when he pulled out a ring and slid it onto her finger she started snapping photos, capturing an intimate engagement that might otherwise exist only in the memory of those present.

Google Street View Can Now Take You On Tours of Historical Sites in the Antarctic

Google Street View is interesting from a photographical perspective because it is, essentially, the largest compilation of 360-degree images in existence. Photographer Michael Wolf even used it to get a different perspective on over-photographed Paris. The best photos on Street View, however, weren't actually taken in the street. They come from endeavors like Google's World Wonders project, which takes you on 360-degree tours of famous and often inaccessible locations.

Shooting Kodachrome Film in 2012

Like everyone else who heard that Kodak was discontinuing Kodachrome in 2009 -- and that Dwayne’s Photo would not develop the slide film after 2010 -- I shot as much Kodachrome film as I could acquire, before that "last developing day" deadline.

Dizzying Animations that Show What San Francisco Looks Like to Superman

Director Kevin Parry recently finished creating a music video for the song "Water Falls" by Kalle Mattson. Filmed by Andrea Nesbitt, the video features some crazy time-lapse shots over great distances in San Francisco. Parry has also turned the shots into these animated GIFs that show you what various locations would look like if you were Superman whizzing around.

Panasonic G5, FZ200 and LX7 Picture and Info Leak One Day Before Announcement

One short day away from making all of these camera announcements officially, Panasonic has sprung a massive picture and info leak through several channels, including a Telegraph UK article which has since been taken down. According to the British paper, three cameras will be unveiled tomorrow, with the main event being the announcement of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5 mirrorless camera (the followup to the DMC-G3).

Actor Matthew Fox’s Photography From the Set of ‘Lost’

During the filming of ABC's television show "Lost," lead actor Matthew Fox, who played Jack Shephard on the show, decided to create a photo book with some behind-the-scenes images of the show's set in Oahu.

Fox's collection is a lo-fi mix of black and white photographs and color medium format photos taken with a Holga toy camera. He features lesser-seen images taken during the making of the pilot: actress Evangeline Lilly listening to music, Josh Holloway joking around with fellow cast members and J.J. Abrams rapt in concentration on set.

Fujifilm Primed to Announce Low and High-End X Models at Photokina

Photokina is only a couple of months away, and it looks like Canon and Nikon won't be the only ones making major announcements and shaking up the camera market. According to Fuji Rumors, Fujifilm -- initially reported to have a cheaper X-Model camera in the works -- will actually be announcing two new models, one low-end and one high-end.

Sensor Size: A Relative Size Comparison Tool for Camera Sensors

Idan Shechter, the guy behind Camera Size, has launched a new website for photographers who understand sizes better through visual comparisons than through specs and figures. Sensor Size is a website that offers quick visual comparisons of sensors found in popular digital cameras. Select the cameras you want to check out from a couple of drop-down menus, and the sensors are displayed in relative sizes next to each other. You can also stack the images or display them in a 3D overlay for a better view.

Landscapes Illuminated by a Floating and Glowing Square

Montreal-based photographer Benoit Paillé's Alternative Landscapes project features photos of various outdoor locations lit with a glowing square. The images aren't Photoshopped: Paillé actually suspends a 1x1 meter cube for the beautiful illumination seen in his images.

Researchers Develop Camera That Uses Natural Light to See Around Corners

Researchers Ori Katz, Eran Small, and Yaron Silberberg of the Weizmann Institute in Israel have made a giant leap forward where camera technology is concerned: they have developed a camera system that can both see through things and around corners without using x-rays or complex lasers. Using natural light, a CCD camera and what's referred to as an SLM or spatial light modulator, they're able to take scattered light and pull out a relatively clear image.

What Do You Do For A Living? I’m A Commercial Photographer

New York City is unlike any other city in the United States. Most young professionals who move here do so to be the very best at whatever it is they want to do for a living. If I were an accountant, I would want to work for the very best accounting firms. If I were an art director, I would want to work for the global office of the best creative agencies. As a photographer I want to work for the top magazines and shoot the biggest national advertising campaigns for the biggest brands. It is a very career-centered city and what someone does for a living really defines who they are in the eyes of others.

Reuters Photog Gets Into a Fight With a Bull, Somehow Saves His Camera

When firefighter Joseba Etxaburu isn't putting out flames, he works as a photo stringer for Reuters, and for the past 12-years he's been attending the San Fermin festival in Spain, more commonly known as the "running of the bulls". This year, however, while covering the release of wild cows into the bullring, he got a little bit more personal with one of his subjects than even he was comfortable with.

Photo Shows Elusive “Red Sprite” Above Lightning Storm

Photographing lighting from the ground is cool enough, but if you happen to be taking pictures of a thunderstorm from, say, space (we know, unlikely, but never say never) on rare occasions you may capture something like what you see above. This is a picture of a "red sprite," a phenomenon that takes place when lightning doesn't shoot down but instead explodes 50-miles high in the clouds and fires red tendrils even higher.

First Rumored Specs for Canon’s Entry-Level Full-Frame

It's been pretty well established for some time now that both Canon and Nikon have been working on entry-level full-frame offerings that they will most likely debut at Photokina in September. Unfortunately for Canon fans, while we've gotten plenty of info on the Nikon D600 (including a photo leak), Canon has been significantly more tight lipped. But as with any highly-anticipated camera, as the announcement date draws nearer and more prototypes make their way into people's hands, a spec list inevitably begins to form.

Sigma Slaps a Price Tag and Release Date on Its 1:1 180mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Back in January of this year Sigma announced that it was working on the world's first 1:1 180mm f/2.8 macro lens, which was to play the role of successor to the company's popular 180mm f/3.5 EX DG lens. Sadly, at the time Sigma gave us no indication of when we might be seeing the lens IRL, or how much we might have to pony up to get our hands on it. But a couple of days ago on Friday the 13th (let's hope that's not a bad omen) Sigma answered both of those questions.

Pentax Pulling Out of the Compact Game, Will Focus on DSLRs and Mirrorless

Last October Ricoh sealed the deal with Pentax, buying out the company for a sizeable $124-million. Since then we haven't seen any major changes as Pentax has gone about its business as usual. That, however, isn't going to be the case for much longer. According to the President of Pentax Imaging Ricoh, Noboru Akabane, there is a major change on the way: Pentax will be dropping compact, fixed lens camera development all-together, leaving all of that to Ricoh.

Olympic Security Firm Under Fire Again for Refusing to Clarify Photography Rules

Photographically speaking, the London Olympics have caused quite a bit of confusion for ticket holders. Initially, the ticket holder agreement seemed to imply that you wouldn't be allowed to upload any of the photos taken at the games to social networks; then once the rules were clarified, a size limit was set in place, but only in certain venues, outdoor venues were promised to be "more lenient;" and now it seems that Wembley Stadium (pictured above), where all of the Olympic soccer matches will be held, will not be allowing any "professional-style cameras [any camera with interchangeable lenses] or recording/transmitting devices."

Olympus Updates OM-D E-M5 Firmware, Leaves Mac Users Out in the Cold

Firmware updates come pretty often, so they don't typically make news unless they bring with them a particularly impressive set of improvements, like v2.0 for Canon's 7D a few weeks back. And although Olympus' firmware version 1.2 for the OM-D E-M5 does help improve the functionality of your camera, it's also being talked about for another reason entirely.

Behind The Scenes With One of Light Painting’s Pioneers

German photographer Jan Leonardo Wöllert doesn't just do "light painting," for him light painting probably denotes nothing more than a photographical hobby that many people enjoy trying out on occasion. No, Wöllert specializes in "light art performance photography," and this feature on Deutsche Welle TV illustrates the difference quite well.