When it comes to figuring out our car's life expectancy, we've come to expect a little bit of community involvement. Sure, the car company will tell you that your truck is supposed to last X-number of miles, but if the majority of real owners online disagree, we tend to side with them. But why stop at your car? Why not see what users are reporting about your camera's life expectancy?
Check out this portrait photograph of Swedish artist Fredrik Saker. It's actually a self-portrait that Saker painted by hand. While we've seen and shared photo-realistic drawings before, Saker's came up with a clever way of validating his photo's realism: he managed to have it approved as his drivers license photo.
Street photography is a genre that every photographer will try at least once in his or her career. Its broad appeal stems from the fact that you can do it anywhere; there’s a human element to the images that captivate the viewer, and if done well, can make for some extremely arresting images.
After the Instagram Terms of Service controversy erupted this past week, Randall Munroe of XKCD published the comic above that offers his take on what's going on (pardon the language). Here's the explain xkcd explanation: …
If you're a Flickr user, you can currently snag and open a Christmas present from the service a few days early. The photo sharing service -- which has been undergoing a renaissance as of late -- is currently handing out three free months of Pro membership. Simply log in to find a link to the present on your home page, or visit the Holiday Gift page directly.
The mirrorless camera market has been bustling with activity as of late. Rumors have already begun circulating that Canon will be releasing a viewfinder-equipped EOS-M sometime in 2013, Polaroid is working on a Nikon J2 lookalike, and CES is just around the corner, which means many camera makers will be taking the wraps off upgrades to their mirrorless lines.
Last week we ran a story about temporary photo and video sharing app Snapchat's recent explosion onto the market and how, sexting jokes aside, venture capitalists the world over are clawing to get a piece of the action. A few days later we found out that Facebook was about to rain all over Snapchat's parade by using Snapchat's idea to create its own app.
Seattle-based photographer Annie Marie Musselman has a series of photographs that are sure to tug at your heartstrings -- especially if you're an animal lover. Titled "Finding Trust", the photographs show injured wild animals being cared for at a wildlife rehab center.
Sony is taking full frame sensors very seriously. A few months ago the company launched the RX1, bringing full frame sensors to fixed-lens compact cameras. Around the same time, a rumor emerged that Sony is working on bringing the same sensor size to its NEX mirrorless cameras. It now looks like a full frame NEX is indeed on the way, to be announced in roughly one year.
Well, if you thought the drawn-out drama of the notorious Olympus accounting scandal was over -- we definitely did -- you were wrong. It seems that white collar criminals not included in the original seven people arrested in the case shouldn't take the yacht out of the marina just yet (or maybe they should), because, as former bank executive Chan Ming Fon learned yesterday, the FBI is still looking for you.
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how I recently created two band photos that feature motion and blur. The premise for this shoot actually started as far back as a couple years ago. I was on the search for a fun and energetic band with which to create a couple of promo images that featured motion. It took 2.5 years to find the right band for the shoots, but when 604 Records recording artists Fighting for Ithaca came calling, the perfect fit had been found!
'Tis the season of mergers, acquisitions, and investments. At around the same time Adobe announced its acquisition of Behance yesterday, Taiwanese gadget manufacturer Foxconn (officially known as Hon Hai Precision) announced that it has snatched up 8.88% of GoPro for $200 million. The deal values the California-based action-camera maker at a whopping $2.25 billion.
American photographer Ray K. Metzker has had a long and distinguished career in photography, and is well known for his cityscape and landscape images. Many of his street photographs exhibit what Henri Cartier-Bresson refers to as the "Decisive Moment" -- that moment in which all the subjects and details in a scene come together just perfectly in your viewfinder.
Instagram has had its share of ups and downs during its 2 short years of life, but we think we can safely say that this past week has been the lowest of lows for the popular-but-beleaguered photo sharing service. After hastily pushing out major edits to its terms of service in preparation for money-making plans, users complained, the media pounced, and Instagram backtracked, saying it would revise the terms to appease its users.
Newer weatherproof compact and high-end cameras often feature "freeze-proofing" as one of their attributes, but unless you live in an extremely cold environment (or enjoy sticking your camera inside a freezer), you probably haven't experienced temperatures low enough for even an ordinary camera to break down.
For his project titled Motion, Brooklyn, New York-based photographer Bill Wadman shot portraits of dancers with a slow shutter speed in order to capture their movements through motion blur. The resulting photographs look like a strange fusion of photography and painting.
A major event occurred today in the creative industry landscape: Adobe has acquired Behance, a juggernaut portfolio-sharing service used by many photographers to showcase their work.
Scoopshot is trying to transform the way companies purchase photos and the way freelance photographers find work. In August, we reported that the startup had launched an app that allows smartphone users to easily sell their photos from their phone. Since then, the company has paid out more than $300,000 to participating photographers, and reports that over 60 of its users have earned more than $1,000 by selling their phone photos (one user has earned more than $23,000) …
After the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L Mark II was announced at the beginning of this year, many photographers were disappointed that it didn't include Image Stabilization. When October rolled around, there were new rumors that Canon had an IS version of the 24-70mm up its sleeve. The company did, but it wasn't what people were expecting. When the new IS lens was unveiled in November, it was an f/4 lens rather than an f/2.8.
With Christmas just around the corner, here's a clever DIY craft idea for adding some photographic cheer to your gift giving this year: adorn your presents with gift bows made out of 35mm film strips.
Remote cameras can give photographers perspectives they ordinarily wouldn't be able to capture, and these photographs by photographer Anup Shah show just that. For his project titled Serengeti Spy, Shah traveled to the African savannah in the Serengeti and the Massai Mara and photographed the wild animals using a remote camera.
Wireless adapters for digital cameras can be very pricey accessories, especially when you're dealing with high-end DSLRs. Manufacturers can squeeze more money out of those who pay thousands for a camera by charging hundreds for an adapter, even though a cheaper one could work just fine. What's more, the adapters are often designed specifically for certain cameras, making them useless if you change models or makes.
Freelance filmmaker Colin Mika scored a viral hit last year with his time-lapse video of Los Angeles shot through a snow globe. This past November, Mika created a followup video as a holiday Christmas card on behalf of Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault. He visited six cities across Canada and England: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Québec City, Montréal and London.
The rise of smartphone photography in recent year has been transforming how people think cameras should look and work. Instead of pulling out a single-purpose device that has dedicated controls for picture-making, legions of consumers are now content with pushing a single button (whether physical or digital) in order to preserve a moment in time.
In the world of cloud data storage, Dropbox is one of the 800lb gorillas fighting for your files. In recent days, it has been making big moves to become more of a player in photo storage and sharing. After all, everyone needs a safe place to keep their digital images, right? …
Back in March, a client for whom I’ve done some light consulting work asked me if it was possible to capture a 360-degree-image that can be rotated afterwards. I said of course, but didn’t think that much about the consequences -- it's a project that would wake me up at nights for the next few months.
The words "grandma's cooking" often elicits warm feelings and pangs of nostalgia in people, as they're reminded of delicious meals prepared by their grandmother's loving and experienced hands. Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti wanted to learn what these memories are for people in different cultures and contexts, so he set out to document grandmas and their dishes in countries all across the globe. The result is a project titled "Delicatessen with love."
For a recent National Geographic story on giant sequoia trees, photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols was tasked with capturing a photograph showing the sheer size of one of the largest trees in the world. The video above offers a short but interesting glimpse into how Nichols and his team went about doing so.
For the past three years, San Diego-based photographer Octavio Aburto has had a specific photo idea brewing in his mind. He wanted to photograph the incredible underwater tornado that forms when massive groups of fish congregate to reproduce. This past November, he finally got his photo opportunity while diving with his friend David at Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico. The beautiful 24-second video above shows what Aburto witnessed.
One chapter in the saga of Kodak's escape from bankruptcy has come to an end. The company announced today that it has completed the sale of its valuable imaging patents for $525 million to a group of Silicon Valley companies. The deal involves more than 1,100 patents related to the capturing, manipulating, and sharing of digital photographs.
Want to see whether or not your favorite photographers are following the rule of thirds when composing their shots? Programmer and photography enthusiast Alex Dergachev has created a simple browser bookmarklet that overlays RoT gridlines over any (or almost any) web photograph.
Yesterday marked the 109th anniversary of the first aviation photograph ever snapped. Back on December 17th, 1903, an amateur photographer named John Thomas Daniels Jr. captured the now-iconic photograph above showing the Wright brothers' first flight.
For the past couple of months, Albuquerque, New Mexico-based photographer Wes Naman has been working on a lighthearted personal project called "Scotch Tape," a series that features bizarre portraits of subjects who have their faces wrapped tightly with strips of Scotch tape.
If you had any doubts regarding how much of a part of our culture Instagram has become, just take a peek at the public outcry that erupted after Instagram announced changes to its policies yesterday. The controversial edits were reported in media outlets around the world, and legions of die-hard Instagram fans took to social media channels to protest them.
Wet plate photographer Ian Ruhter has received a good deal of attention over the past year for using a custom camera van to create giant collodion process metal photos. When he's not turning large sheets of metal into photographs, he's sometimes working on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Brooklyn-based photographer Joey L has spent years working on an amazing set of portraits titled "Holy Men," which features religious ascetics from around the world.
High dynamic range (HDR) mode is becoming a standard feature in newer digital cameras and smartphones. By snapping multiple photographs at different exposure levels, the camera can automatically generate an image that captures a greater range of light and dark areas than a standard photograph. However, the technique does have its weaknesses. Artifacts appear if any changes occur in the scene between the different shots, which limits the scenarios in which the technique can be used.
Lens-shaped coffee mugs and vacuum flasks (the proper name for the Thermos) have become a hot novelty item in the world of photography over the past couple of years, and Leica wants a piece of the action. Two weeks ago, a Leica-branded coffee mug was spotted on eBay, and now it appears that the strange product will be hitting store shelves at brick-and-mortar Leica retail locations.
Back in July, we shared a series of creative animated GIFs and a music video that show space-lapses over great distances in San Francisco. The creators Kevin Parry and Andrea Nesbitt have just published the video above that teaches how you can do the same thing with your camera.
Hong Kong-based photographer Alexander Safonov shoots incredible underwater photographs showing scenes teeming with marine life.
Here's a strange leak that has people scratching their heads: photos and specs have emerged that show a soon-to-be-announced interchangeable-lens mirrorless camera by Polaroid. Called the IM1836, the camera will be a Polaroid-branded camera manufactured by Sakar International and will be powered by Android OS.
For a recent assignment for Men’s Health magazine, photographer Adam Voorhes was tasked with creating photos of chili peppers exploding.
Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) charts are a very commonly used tool in the photo industry for measuring and describing how sharp a particular lens is. However, it's a system that is largely enigmatic to those outside the realm of optic experts and camera gearheads.
Whoa... Big news on the camera patent scouting front today: Nikon appears to be tinkering with the idea with creating a special 35mm SLR replacement back that would turn a film camera into a digital camera!
Earlier this month, Facebook stated that it's working on strategies for monetizing Instagram. Now we're starting to see the gears in the money-making machine warming up.
Earlier this year, we wrote about a dangerous new Russian photo fad called "skywalking," in which thrill-seeking climber-photographers seek out the highest man-made structures they can find, climb to the apexes without proper safety equipment, and then shoot photographs of themselves and the view once they're there.
For their project 24x360, Patrick Rochon, Timecode Lab, and Eric Paré combined a 360-degree "bullet time" rig with light painting and produced some pretty sweet results. The short teaser above shows some of the pieces they created.
Now that filtered smartphone photos have taken over the photo sharing world, many people -- especially investors -- are wondering: what's next? One possible answer may be temporary photo sharing.
Russian wildlife photographer Igor Shpilenok captured this perfect Kodak moment of another shooter at a reserve in Kabardino-Balkaria. It humorously illustrates the dangers of chimping too much -- stare too much at the back of your camera and you might miss a great photo opportunity! …
