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.
Filmmaker Jeff Desom took Alfred Hitchcock's famous 1954 film "Rear Window" and turned it into a single panoramic time-lapse video showing the courtyard through photographer Jeff Jeffries' rear window: …
It's been a long time coming, but today the popular photo snapping and sharing app Instagram finally launched for Android phones. While it offers the same filters as its iOS counterpart, the new app has a look and feel that's geared towards Android's interface. Some features are absent from the initial release (e.g. tilt shift, blur, live preview), but upcoming updates will bridge the gaps. The app is available as a free download from Google Play.
Here's your completely random photography fact of the day: Nutella lids can double as lens caps. Belgian photography enthusiast Frans Leys lost the 72mm cap to his 18-200mm Nikon lens, but found that the cap from his 220g jar of Nutella was a perfect fit. 220g isn't the standard size sold in the US, but can be found in some shops.
How would you go about photographing a $380,000 Lamborghini Aventador? Here's an interesting behind the scenes video in which photographer Blair Bunting presents a step-by-step walkthrough of how went about doing it.
Japan-based art collective NAM shot this series of advertisements showing gravity-defying chocolate confections. What's interesting about the concept is that they decided to do everything without digital trickery, opting instead to hang the various foods from thin strings.
Los Angeles-based photographer Ian Ruhter creates amazing photographs using a van that he turned into a gigantic camera. He uses the collodion process (AKA wet plate photography) to turn large sheets of metal into photographs, and spends upwards of $500 making each giant one-of-a-kind print.
Canon has announced the new 60Da, a DSLR geared towards astrophotographers and the successor to the 20Da. So what's different about this camera?
Even if you have a good command of using f-stop numbers and properly exposing photographs, you might not understand the math behind why f-stop numbers are what they are. Here's a simple (albeit math-filled) explanation by Dylan Bennett of what f-stop is, including a simple trick you can use to memorize the f-stop scale.
Leica charges thousands of dollars extra for its limited edition white cameras, but a Boston-based photo enthusiast named Andrew successfully customized his camera for only a few dollars by going the DIY route. After spending two hours strategically placing green painters tape onto his Canon Rebel T2i DSLR using a razor, he hung the camera by the strap mount and applied six coats of white spray paint and three coats of matte clear.
Leica recently put out this short portrait of renowned street photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who talks about his beginnings as a photographer and also his role in creating an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero. Starting from a few days after the 9/11 attacks, Meyerowitz shot over 8,000 in and around the site with the help of a special workers pass that gave him privileged access.
April Fools' Day 2012 has come and gone. Even though we didn't publish any bogus stories this year, here's a quick roundup of other photo-related sites that did. The screenshot above shows Kodak's homepage yesterday, which advertised a new kitten printing machine. Interestingly enough, there was a serious news ticker just below it that discussed the company's bankruptcy status.
Want to see how high end camera lenses are tested for durability? Here's a video in which Carl Zeiss researcher Norbert Wittekindt shows off the various tests lenses are subjected to, ranging from temperature tests to mechanical vibrations.
With the recent camera releases (or maybe Spring fever) I’ve been rather amazed watching various photography forums have major melt downs during the last few weeks. I said something about cameras and lenses just being tools, not life and death, and got immediately annihilated. They aren’t just tools, I was told, they are the means to make a living for some people, and the passionate hobby of others. That got me thinking, though: I have friends who make their living as carpenters, and others …
Artists Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs create homemade cameras out of bizarre objects such as turtle shells and large stones. The large format camera above was crafted out of a stack of photography books. Their experiments are documented in a book titled As Long As It Photographs It Must Be a Camera. You can find a recent interview with the artists over at American Photo.
The Impossible Project has partnered up with Japanese music producer and designer Nigo for a limited edition version of its PX 70 Color Shade Film. Instead of its traditional white frames or the newer black frames, the film comes in 10 different colors: yellow, orange, red, pink, lilac, dark blue, light blue, green, black and white. Each pack comes with eight frames with randomly selected colors and costs $25 over at The Impossible Project shop.
Here's a tutorial by skateboarding photographer Michael Burnett in which he discusses various composition tips and techniques. His area of expertise is in shooting skateboarders, but the tips are very applicable for other types of photography as well.
Dinner Etiquette is a project by Melbourne-based art director Sonia Rentsch and photographer Scott Newett that consists of clever still life photos of tableware that's arranged to look like fine dining attire.
Cincinnati native Amy Hildebrand was born completely blind due to albinism, a disorder in which the body is unable to produce melanin (the pigment that gives color to hair, skin, and eyes).
Facial recognition service Face.com has announced a new feature in its API: age detection. After analyzing a photograph of a person's face, the software returns three values: minimum age, maximum age, and estimated age, along with the confidence level of the guesses. Applications for the new technology include enhanced parental controls and targeted advertising.
Here's a great 6-minute video in which PBS Off Book examines the impact three Internet phenomena -- Kickstarter, Creative Commons, and The Creators Project -- are impacting the world of art.
One of the biggest stories in the news over the past month has been the controversy surrounding the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Poynter has published an article that examines how the media has used photography to portray Trayvon Martin, the victim, and George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who shot and killed him.
Vimeo has partnered up with Nikon for a new educational video series titled Do More With Your DSLR. The first video is about "working with available light", and is geared towards beginners who are just starting to figure out how to use their DSLR camera. You can find a more in-depth discussion of the concepts in the video (e.g. exposure, white balance, ISO) in this article.
Choices is a Warhol-esque (or Gursky-esque) project by photographer Richard Stultz, who visited various stores to document the mind-numbingly large number of choices consumers are faced while shopping.
Posing App is a new app that offers a pocket reference for poses -- helpful for both photographers and models. The 140 hand-drawn poses come in a variety of flavors -- children, couples, weddings, and women, to name a few -- and are accompanied by short descriptions that provide additional pointers. The is available from the iTunes App Store for $2, and will be released for Android soon.
The Guardian published an article yesterday that features a number of prominent photographers (e.g. Jane Bown, Martin Parr, Terry O'Neil, Platon) sharing about missed photo opportunities and their "worst shots". Platon has an interesting story regarding photographing Iranian president Ahmadinejad back in 2009 while snapping portraits of world leaders: …
Editor's note: This is a piece by photographers Bryan Formhals and Blake Andrews on how famous photographers' styles are copied over and over again. Please do not read or comment if you take things too seriously.
Maho Beach outside of Princess Juliana International Airport in Sint Maarten is famous for the fact that landing airplanes fly overhead at minimal altitude. It's one of the only places in the world where airplanes can be viewed in their flightpath just outside the end of the runway, and therefore is very popular with tourists and plane spotters. Austrian photographer Josef Hoflehner has a project titled "Jet Airliner" that consists of photos of massive jet airliners hovering over the heads of …
There may soon be a new member of the Canon Extender EF lens family. A recently published patent filed by Canon describes a new 2.8x teleconverter. A 400 f/2.8L IS II would become a 1120mm f/8 lens with the teleconverter attached, though Canon will have to restore f/8 autofocus to its top-of-the-line cameras before that combo would become useful.
After reading about the Wakhan Corridor in the New York Times, French photographers Fabrice Nadjari and Cedric Houin decided to visit the remote region in Afghanistan in the summer of 2011, walking for 24 days through a 140 mile stretch. Their project, titled "Traces of Time", involved capturing instant photos of the villagers they met: …
Apollon is a concept camera designed by product designer Gordon Tiemstra for his industrial design university project. The big concept is that the camera can be physically combined with your friends' cameras, allowing them to snap photographs together to create things like panoramas and 3D photographs. The images captured by any camera in the cluster is wirelessly transferred to all of the others, giving everyone the complete set of images that were snapped.
VU35 is a new brand by Lucas Desimone and Matias Resich that offers products created from wood and reused 35mm film -- a plastic material that's difficult to dispose of. Their first product is a minimalistic collapsible bookshelf called Filmantes, which uses strips of film to connect three wooden shelves.
Here's a tutorial by photographer Joe Edelman that teaches how you can build a studio lighting setup with fluorescent lights for under $200. You can find a detailed parts list over in the description of the video on YouTube.
Etsy seller Roberto Altieri creates unique iPhone/iPod charging docks out of old -- and hopefully defunct -- Pentax and Minolta SLR cameras from the 1960s and 1970s.
Last week camera testing service DxOMark announced that the Nikon D800 had earned the highest sensor quality score ever awarded. Roger Cicala of LensRentals wanted to see for himself how much of an advantage the D800's 36.3MP sensor had over its competition, so he did some sensor resolution tests on the camera, comparing it to the Canon 5D Mark III, 5D Mark II, and Nikon D700. His conclusion? …
Last November we featured a concept camera called Air that is worn on your fingers and snaps photographs when you frame scenes with your fingers. That concept may soon become a reality. Researchers at IAMAS in Japan have developed a tiny camera called Ubi-Camera that captures photos as you position your fingers in the shape of a frame. The shutter button is triggered with your opposite hand's thumb, and the "zoom" level is determined by how far the camera is from the photographer's face. Expect …
