April 2013

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Copyright Infringement and the Culture of Suing Artists Into Submission

Andy Baio has some experience with copyright infringement, especially where iconic photographs are concerned. In case you didn't read our previous coverage on the matter, his story goes something like this: in 2009, he put together an 8-bit version of Miles Davis' album "Kind of Blue" called "Kind of Bloop," and for the cover art he had a friend create a pixel-art version of Jay Maisel's famous cover photo.

Sony Debuts New Action Cam Mount… For Your Dog

Sony clearly felt there was a gap in the action cam mount market that needed filling. And so, in addition to providing mounts for everything from surfers to scuba divers, Sony Japan had just debuted an action cam mount for man's best friend.

Photographer Travels the World Taking Pictures of Abandoned Airplane Wrecks

For his project "Happy End," German photographer Dietmar Eckell has travelled all over the world to find and photograph abandoned airplane wreckages with positive endings. That last part may seem like a paradox, but all of the 15 wreckages Eckell has shot actually do have happy endings: no one on board died, and they were all rescued from the remote locations where they crash landed.

‘Kiss in Times Square’ Photo and Camera Both Up for Auction at WestLicht

At the end of May, a signed copy of one of the most iconic photos ever taken, and the camera that took it, will both go on sale at the WestLicht Photographica Auction. The photo is a signed print of the iconic V-J Day "Kiss in Times Square" photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, and the camera is the Leica IIIa rangefinder that he used right up until the day he died.

Take a Trip to Beautiful San Diego, Time-Lapse Style

Most time-lapses involve long pans over vast landscapes with gorgeous star-filled skies in the background. And while we love those -- if you haven't seen the New Zealand time-lapse we shared recently you're missing out -- we don't see equally stunning urban time-lapses nearly as often. This is one of the exceptions to that rule.

Photog Countersued by Football Player in ‘Trophy Pose’ Infringement Case

In 1991, photographer Brian Masck took one of the most iconic photographs in all of sports. Known forevermore as the "Trophy Pose," it captured then Michigan Wolverine Desmond Howard striking a Heisman pose IRL. Since it was taken, the photo has been used by everyone from EA to Nissan to Sports Illustrated, and several of them are now being sued by Masck for using the photo without his permission -- including Desmond Howard himself.

SNL Photographer Mary Ellen Matthews Talks Taking Pics of Celebrity Hosts

You know those sometimes stylish, sometimes dramatic, and often funny pictures of the celebrity hosts that come up every time Saturday Night Live takes or comes back from a commercial break? Well, ever since 1999, it's photographer Mary Ellen Matthews who has been in charge of putting those together each week. And in this short video, Plum TV catches up with Matthews to ask her about her daily life at SNL.

Paramotoring and Light Painting, Where Sport Meets Art

About a week ago, Red Bull Illume and Snap! Orlando revealed a collaboration they were working on called "Motion to Light," in which they paired the fluid motion of certain sports with light painting. Part one used photographer Patrick Rochon and a team of wakeboarders to capture some stunning pics. Now a week later, we have part two. And the sport of choice? Paramotoring.

The iFlashDrive is a Thumb Drive for Your iOS Devices

As a photographer, it would be nice if you could always have your portfolio in your pocket so that you can show prospective customers your work right away. And even though there are portfolio websites that will allow you to display your work on your phone, you're not always around a solid data connection; and keeping your work on your phone isn't a good idea either, since high-res photos fill up a 16GB iPhone hard drive before you know it.

Creating Camelot: Restoring the Kennedy Archive of Photographer Jacques Lowe

The story of photographer Jacques Lowe and his iconic work chronicling the Kennedys and the era in US history known as Camelot is a tragic one. As President John F. Kennedy's official photographer for three years -- 2 before and 1 after he became president -- Lowe captured over 40,000 photos of the Kennedy family at work and play.

Mesmerizing Time-Lapse of the Northern Lights Dancing Over Norway

Photographer Ole C. Salomonsen loves shooting the northern lights or, as he calls them, the polar spirits. And for his most recent film he went all out by putting together time-lapse photography of the aurora above cities, in front of starry backgrounds and above gorgeous fjords with a couple of mind-blowing video captures thrown in for good measure.

Glitché App Intentionally Distorts Photos Into ‘Works of Digital Art’

Aberrations, distortions, corrupt images; all of these are things we typically try to avoid in the world of digital photography. But the Glitché app does the exact opposite. Instead of trying to remove digital imperfections from your photos, the app piles specific distortions on, and in the process turns your pristine pics into "works of digital art" ... at least that's what they're calling them.

A Beginners Guide to UV Reflectance in Photography

Typical photography exists around the visible spectrum (think of the rainbow), but cameras are also able to pick up other wavelengths of radiation. Ultraviolet radiation, as the name suggests, comes after the violet section of the visible spectrum so is not visible to our eyes. However, some animals (birds, for example) are able to see UV.

Photographer Shoots Eye-Popping Macro Photos of the Portugese Man O’ War

Fine art photographer Aaron Ansarov's project Zooids contains beautiful, colorful, and abstract images that might look to you like something biological seen through a microscope. They're actually macro portraits of the Portuguese Man O' War, a jellyfish-like creature that is responsible for 10,000 documented painful stings worldwide.

A Visual Journey That Shows the Cookie-Cutter Facades of Homes in London

When photographer Callum Cooper moved from Melbourne, Australia to London, England, one of the things that caught his eye was the uniformity (or "conformity") seen in the city's residential areas. Along a street, multiple buildings would have exactly the same architecture, and if it weren't for the minor differences in the facades, some of them can hardly be distinguished from one another.

How to Save Instagram Photos Without Sharing Them on Instagram

Over 100 million people around the world snap photos with Instagram on their phones now. If you like the look of Instagram filters but would rather not broadcast the photographs to the world every time you snap a picture, there's actually a (semi-old) trick you can use to save the pics without sharing them (for iPhone users, at least): all you have to do is turn on "Airplane Mode."

100 Years in Tokyo: Portraits of People in Japan From Ages 0 Through 100

Between 2009 and 2012, Finnish photographer Petri Artturi Asikainen roamed the streets of Tokyo in search of subjects for his project 100 Years in Tokyo. His goal was to collect portraits of people for all the ages between 0 through 100. The result of the effort is a book that contains 202 beautiful portraits -- the faces of a man and a woman for each age in that range.

NY Post Uses Photo of Innocent Teen as Boston Bombing Cover Photo

Yesterday we reported that the online communities of Reddit and 4chan were attempting to identify the attacks behind the Boston Marathon bombings by crowdsourcing publicly available photographs from the scene. We blurred the faces in the photos we shared, since it was likely the people in them are completely innocent.

Digital Public Library of America Offers a Wealth of Historical Photos

Yesterday at noon, after 20 months of planning and work, the Digital Public Library of America finally made its debut. An initiative of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, the DPLA aims to provide anyone with Internet, access to a massive online archive of content including ebooks, manuscripts, works of art and, of course, photographs.

Tintype Portraits of Military Personnel in Both Uniform and Civilian Attire

Warfare is often reduced to headlines in the news and numbers on a page, but it's important to remember that there's a human side to it. The soldiers fighting are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters of people back at home. This is the truth photographer Melissa Cacciola wants to remind the world though her project "War and Peace." …

Photos of Massive Underground Caverns Being Dug Under NYC

It's obvious that building a subway station would consist of digging a very large artificial cavern under the earth, but actually seeing one in progress is pretty incredibly. And thanks to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Flickr stream, we can.

Nat Geo Photographer Talks About What it Takes to Lead ‘a Photographer’s Life’

Here's a short inspirational video by photographer Joel Sartore in which he talks about shooting for National Geographic and living "a photographer's life." He talks about what it takes to be that kind of photographer, and even though his list includes everything from a palate that can handle strange foods to a Type A personality, it seems that the quality Sartore has in spades is a healthy sense of humor.

This Man is Thankful He Uses His iPad as a Digital Camera

People often give iPad photographers a hard time for trying to use an unwieldy tablet as a casual snapshot camera. Tom, the iPad photog seen in the video above, is one person who is glad he was using his iPad as a camera. You see, his iPad-ography saved him from a good deal of pain.

PechaKucha 20 for 20 Presentation Style Makes Its Foray Into Photography

PechaKucha is a presentation style that gives presenters exactly 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide to get their point across. Designed by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in Tokyo in 2003, what started as a weekly show-and-tell format at their firm has become a world-wide presentation phenomenon that recently broke into the world of photography.

Nike Can Decorate Your Sneakers Based on the Color of Your Instagram Snaps

Instagram has been used in many different ways. We've seen the app inspire an awesome DIY photo booth and even become the tool of choice for certain photography projects. However, we never expected to see the day when you could use your Instagram photos to customize your footwear. And yet, that's exactly what you can do with Nike's PHOTOiD web app.

Photographer Hunts for Vintage Cameras That Contain Undeveloped Film

Two years ago, photographer Chris A. Hughes purchased a 1914 French Richard Verascope camera (shown above) from an elderly man who was clearing out his camera collection in preparation for retirement. When he got into his car after the purchase, Hughes was surprised to find two packages of slides in the camera's leather case.

Yahoo Pairs Weather With Flickr Photos in Gorgeous New Weather App

Yahoo! just released a new weather app that takes advantage of beautiful photos provided by the company's Flickr community to pair in depth weather information with gorgeous photos of your city experiencing similar weather. The idea is that users don't just want to know the weather (numerically speaking), they want to see it.

Reddit and 4chan Working to ID Boston Bomber Using Available Photos

We reported yesterday that the FBI has issued an open call for photographs and videos that may help provide clues in the Boston Marathon bombing case. Since that time, investigators have begun circulating photos of two "possible suspects" spotted in images of the scene, suggesting that analyzing crowdsourced images has indeed been useful in this case.

Insurance Company Cites Photography as Most Common Wedding Vendor Issue

According to a recent analysis of its 2012 wedding insurance claims, Travelers Insurance cites the photographer as the most common cause of wedding day mishaps. In its breakdown of the numbers, 24 percent of all wedding issues (the largest chunk) were vendor-related, and 58 percent of all the claims filed under that category involved photos or video.

Sigma Drops Bombshell, Announces a 18-35mm f/1.8 Lens

Wow. The rumor of a new Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens we shared earlier today has just been confirmed by Sigma. The company has just officially announced the lens, which is the world's first lens that offers a fixed f/1.8 aperture throughout its zoom range. That's a pretty big deal.