It's one of a photographer's worst fears: dropping your DSLR. Especially for the amateur who may not have a backup, knowing that your camera can withstand a beating has led to some interesting videos in the past.
Following the Google+ updates last week at Google I/O that overall improved the photo experience for its users, Mountain View-based Google is now making that very updated experience for users of its Google+ Android application.
The update, which boasts 41 new features total, includes Auto Backup (stores photos as you take them), Auto Highlight (allows for the ability to browse top shots from added sets), Auto Enhance (automatically enhances images), and even something called Auto Awesome (which creates fun new versions of pictures, such as panoramas and animations, based on images already in your library).
Last Friday, we shared a video that compared the burst mode shutter speeds and sounds of various Canon DSLRs, and lest Nikon fanboys think we're biased towards one brand or another, here's a similar video by YouTube user bauercti that does the same thing for several of the camera's in Nikon's lineup.
A few weeks ago, a team of researchers from all over the world boasted that they had created the world's first working compound eye cam at the University of Illinois. Sort of like a balloon with 180 node-like "ommatidia" on it, the camera was quite an achievement.
It didn't take long, however, for another team of researchers to break into the same market and offer the Illinois camera some bug-eyed competition. The Swiss research group Curvace has created a 180-degree field of view camera that looks a little like something Star Trek's Geordi La Forge would wear.
(Note: This is not an article about whom I feel is the better captain (Kirk). I mean, that would be ridiculous, because we all have our favorites (Kirk) and to bring up who I feel is the best (Kirk) really has no bearing on this photography column (Kirk). Just wanted to be clear.)
I grew up with Star Trek. By the time I was old enough to realize what it was, the show was well into syndication, but I watched every episode, sitting on the couch with my brother and eating Doritos. To this day, I can't bite into a Dorito without hearing, "Space, the final frontier..."
While some people still regard Instagram as a hipster gimmick bound to eventually wear out its welcome, most people have come around and found it to be much more than just another spoke in the social media wheel. Instagram is perhaps the most simplistic of the social media applications but much like Twitter, it has used that to its advantage rather than let it become a hindrance.
Even though it’s often used for sharing your current meal or that cute face your cat always makes, sometimes it gets used to its full potential as a device for unconventional humor or revolutionary marketing. And then sometimes it’s taken even beyond that and used to showcase unique visions and exquisite works by some of today’s greatest artists. These are some of those artists.
A bit of clever thinking from San Francisco Instructables member Amanda Ghassei has produced some really creative 3D-printed images from nothing but old photographs.
Printed using an Objet Connex 500, Ghassei's creations are still meant to be viewed in 2D, but are textured to create an interesting silhouette effect.
In order to properly view them, they must be backlit with a diffuse light. Images used for printing were first converted to black and white, and according to Ghassei, "each individual greyscale pixel value of an image to thickness," which effectively allows for the printing of any greyscale image.
Yesterday, Flickr announced new changes that included a free, ad-supported terabyte of storage for all Flickr users. When I heard the news, I believed that Flickr Pro account users would be given an opportunity to stay Pro going forward. I thought this because this, in fact, was my understanding of what was told to me by a Flickr Senior Manager in a briefing earlier in the morning before the announcement.
Unfortunately, I found out the hard way yesterday that this is not the case.
Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.
A devastating tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, May 20, 2013. It was reportedly over 2 miles wide at one point, and covered 20 miles during the 40 minutes it was on the ground. The National Weather Service has classified it as at least an EF-4 tornado with winds of at least 166 miles per hour.
NBC affiliate station WMC-TV had a helicopter camera in the sky capturing the whole thing, and released the time-lapse video above showing the storm traveling across the land before finally disappearing back into the clouds.
Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion today, but that's not the only major move the company announced. Today Flickr users were also treated to a "spectacular" redesign. The service has been upgraded in major ways, and has been given a brand new look and feel.
Wacom -- the same company that brings Photoshop artists and big spenders products like the 24HD Touch -- announced today that it is making an addition to its more whimsical line of Bamboo products. Dubbed Bamboo Loop, the new iOS (and soon Android) app puts photo sharing and SMS together to create a more fun and engaging messaging experience.
Sometimes it's the simplest ideas that end up leaving an impression on people and inspiring them. Case in point: Astana, Kazakhstan-based photographer Timur Zhansultanov has created a project he's called "In My Own Eyes", which features pictures of himself from — well — his own eyes in the past two-or-so years.
Colorful and unusual patterns pictures are what photographer Erno-Erik Raitanen calls self-portraits. The pictures, which Raitanen says are more like photograms, involve no camera, some photographic film, and bacteria.
The series, called Bacteriograms, is a display of Raitanen's own body bacteria cultivated on the gelatin surface of film negatives, much like bacteria is grown in Petri dishes in a laboratory setting.
The announcement of the PhaseOne IQ2 series introduced a clear functionality based stratification of the IQ line up of digital backs. The PhaseOne IQ280 still reigns supreme providing the highest resolution single capture of the bunch. The bigger and more interesting changes however, are within the IQ260 “series” of backs. Now there are two different versions of a 60MP full-frame medium format digital sensor; both of these two versions offer their own vastly different “skill sets” for different types of photography.
Photographer Nick Wesson experienced the power of the Internet first hand this past weekend after he managed to track down the subject of a photo he found in a thrift store camera -- in a matter of hours.
Are you ready for the imagery war -- the war against personal photography and capturing of video? You'd better be.
The title of this piece actually isn't entirely accurate. In some ways, this war isn't just coming, it's already begun. Forces are lining up on both sides, under the radar for most of us so far, but preparing for action. And right now, if I had to place a bet (cash, not bitcoins, please), I'd reluctantly have to predict the anti-imagery folks have the better chance of winning.
"Saddam is Here" is a portrait project by Iraqi Kurdish photographer Jamal Penjweny. It features Iraqis in everyday locations, covering their faces with a portrait of the country's former dictator. The photographs are meant to show the lasting impact the Hussein regime had on Iraqi society.
This video recently uploaded to the web is making its rounds showing a mall security officer fiercely shouting at a group of curious citizens for taking pictures and videos. (Warning: It contains some violence and strong language)
The fiasco erupted after a semi truck plummeted into a ravine nearby the Ohio Valley Mall when a mall cop identifying herself as "Officer Adams" began demanding the onlookers discontinue taking pictures and erase the images.
Moscow-based photographer Nikolay Tikhomirov describes the photographs he's taken as "art inside me" -- and that's just what they are, art.
One of his collections, dubbed 'Zero Gravity' is series of images featuring women in Earthly environments floating as if they've escaped the confines of our planet's gravity. Some appear to be well aware of their surroundings, whilst others are seemingly in the midst of a slumber, oblivious to their dream-like condition.
Here's a tool you may not have heard about but may useful at some time in the future. It's called Clipping Magic, and it's designed to remove backgrounds from user-uploaded pictures.
The concept is rather simple, you upload an image, mark the areas in the background you don't want in red, and mark the areas in the foreground you do want in green. The website's algorithm takes over and (hopefully) produces a background-free picture. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But how does it fare when used for an image with a background you actually want to remove?
This is a “first look” preview of a pre-production unit of the Ricoh GR, which I have been fortunate enough to get my hands on -- for a day. My time with it is limited to the half-day of shooting I had, and I am only sharing my initial impressions of it.
The images are selected to demonstrate the fast response of the Ricoh GR, and not the noise performance because it will not be fair to make any judgment based on a pre-production unit. Most of the images are in monochrome because I prefer black-and-white in street photography. None of the images have been cropped, to demonstrate the focal length effect of the Ricoh GR.
There's a slew of super-large panorama pictures available on the web, but when was the last time you heard about a picture that spans well over half the diameter of Earth?
It goes without saying; a time-lapse can be difficult to shoot. A transitional time-lapse from day to night can be even more of a challenge and hassle. That is, unless you're prepared with the right tools for the job.
That's why photographer and timelapse connoisseur Joel Schat has come around with an extremely informative video walkthrough of creating a remarkable time-lapse with the assistance of a Promote Control.
The idea of being a sports photographer to many enthusiasts seems glamorous and exciting. Free and seemingly unfettered access to major league games with a view just meters away from live action. Akin to a soldier on a battleground armed with the latest gear, carefully and methodically (yet rapidly) shooting his subjects with the aim to make a publish-worthy photograph in the midst of chaos.
But what is it really like out there in the trenches? Is it all it's cracked up to be? More importantly: in a society where the almighty dollar is king, is it a viable source of income for a professional photographer?
This incredible photo of a lightning strike at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was shot by photo and videographer Travis Roe in July of 2012. A spectacular capture by a photog who has been shooting lightning since he was a teenager, the most surprising thing about this photo is that it went viral only after it somehow didn't even place in the National Parks Service 2012 photo contest.
When Brad Josephs took his GoPro camera out in beautiful Alaska, he was probably trying to get majestic footage of Grizzly bears for the BBC's Great Bear Stakeout. Instead, what he got was a hungry mother Grizzly and her cub trying to eat his camera. We get some, shall we say, interesting views of what a Grizzly bear's mouth looks like (not that that's something we're all interested in seeing, is it?).
Lately I’ve been looking for ways to photograph people besides just my friends and family. I was super inspired after reading photographer Peter Waterman's account of photographing 80 people in 1 day. I’m a hobbyist just looking to improve my skills and have fun. I like to get the best bang for the buck with my equipment purchases and keep my gear budget contained.
I checked my town’s local event website and noticed there was a 10K run scheduled for the upcoming weekend. I had never shot a sporting event before; I usually just shoot portraits and travel. The race map showed the course went right by my house so I had a perfect opportunity to take some pictures.
Canipre -- short for Canadian Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement -- is a Canadian anti-piracy company that has joined hand-in-hand with film studios and record companies to track down those who steal and share stolen content over the internet. On the surface there's nothing wrong with this, what is wrong is when an intellectual property advocate is found using photos without permission, which is exactly what happened to Canipre a couple of days ago.
A few weeks ago, we reported that Sony may be in the process of dropping its unique pellicle mirror SLT technology. The rumor claimed that the company would be saying goodbye to the translucent mirror in favor a fully mirrorless A-Mount line. Well, if patents are to be trusted, that rumor has been confirmed just as another exciting Sony rumor hits the mill.
Back in March, we shared a time-lapse that showed photographer Liu Bolin -- also known as the "invisible man" -- disappearing into the stage at TED 2013. The time-lapse showed what he goes through for every project: days of preparation followed by hours of standing still while artists paint him "into" the background.
His talk during that conference, however, went into much more detail. He talks about the process of creating some of his best shots, about his start, and about the motivation behind his most impressive work. Fair warning: the talk is given with an interpreter but you'll find you need to activate and lean mostly on the closed captions as the interpreter only gets the occasional word in.