June 2013

In April of this year, I travelled to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for the first time. I was excited to visit this new city and start to photograph in one of the world’s most underreported emerging economies. I had read stories about the city’s challenges with water and flooding, which is why I wanted to photograph there and continue my work on environmental issues in developing nations. I wasn’t prepared for the shocking scenes that I was to witness in my time in the city.

"I wonder which one of us dies first?"

It was 2003, and a stray, morbid thought crossed my mind one night in a hotel in Iraq. I was in a room full of twenty and thirty-something photographers and journalists, in the Al-Hamra hotel in Baghdad. A few miles away, the grown-ups from major label news organizations had filled the Sheraton-Palestine hotel---the Al-Hamra was the low-rent downtown spill-over tent.

Canon will soon be announcing a 70D to replace the 60D in its mid-level lineup, and we have a pretty darn good idea of what that camera will be like. An advertisement for the camera has leaked onto the web, revealing just a couple of photos but a whole list of specs and features.

A new client walked into my studio with her three little children, the eldest of which had a session. The little girl was all dressed-up, but very traditionally, so after conferring with mom, we began the session. And it was one of those sessions where everything went right. Happy child, great expressions, and yet, mom was hovering, straightening an already straight bow, smoothing invisible wrinkles in her daughter's tights, "fixing" tiny details, some of which weren't even in the frame.

Have you ever noticed that the watches and clocks found in product photographs and advertisements usually show the time 10:10? If you haven't, pay attention the next time you're flipping through a publication and come across a watch ad---the rule is almost always true.

If you have noticed this, do you know why 10:10 is the default time for watch photographers?

I have sat staring at the computer monitor for the last hour and words refused to appear on the screen. Even in times of stress I can write out a quick blog, but the current situation with Aaron Hernandez has proved tough.

It is important to me to be respectful of the man that was killed and the ongoing investigation, as well as tell about the photoshoot and the side of Aaron that I met on set. With that said, please read this as a story about a shoot and not the lobbying of an opinion over the current investigation.

Back in March 2011, British adventure photographer Dan Milner went on a 9-day photo shoot in the Scottish Highlands for Transworld Snowboarding magazine. While there, he endured blizzards, 100MPH winds, -20° temperatures, and being headbutted in the lens by a wild stag.

It's true: the video above proves it.

After the Chicago Sun-Times laid off its entire staff of photographers at the end of last month, the newspaper's editor sent out a memo stating that employees would be trained in using their smartphones to contribute photography ("iPhone photography basics," it was called).

We may be starting to see the negative effects of having an army of staff iPhoneographers rather than photojournalists. The side-by-side comparison above shows what the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times newspaper covers looked like on June 26th, 2013, two days after the Stanley Cup finals.

It’s fun to print big, but when a client recently asked me to create an image more than four stories tall I have to admit it was really outside of my usual perspective.

The "best pocket camera of all time" now has a successor. Sony today announced the RX100 Mark II, the followup to its highly-acclaimed RX100 premium compact camera.

Sony now has two full frame compact cameras in its lineup---kinda. The company today announced the RX1R, a souped up (or perhaps stripped down?) version of the RX1 that shoots sharper photographs by ditching the anti-aliasing filter in front of the sensor. Aside from the lack of an AA filter, the RX1R and its sibling are virtually identical cameras.

The original title for this article was going to be “Group Buying Deal Review: Why WagJag Can Suck It”. After receiving an “offer” to participate in a group buying deal (also known as social buying or deal-a-day. Examples include Groupon and LivingSocial) from one of the larger local group buying companies in my area, it took me a few days, and some good advice from my wife to cool down and write this (mostly) rational analysis of the group buying deal economics.

Photographer John William Keedy has had to deal with an anxiety disorder for some nine years now. Never feeling like he quite fit in, and at times so nervous around crowds that he would only go to the grocery store when he was certain it was empty, he's intimately familiar with the type of neurotic behavior a condition like his can encourage.

His photo series It's Hardly Noticeable is an exploration of these neurotic, obsessive and strange behaviors that manifest as part of anxiety-based mental disorders.

It's not often an ad gets recognized as a phenomenal piece of cinematography, but that's what has happened for the short film 'Alma' (translated: "soul") produced by Sentimental Filme for the release of the Leica M-Monochrome at the Leica Store in São Paulo.

You've seen timelapse videos, and maybe even hyperlapse videos, but what about a juggle-lapse one? That Juggler Guy recently took his juggling balls and a GoPro camera on a trip around Iceland. What resulted is the mesmerizing video above in which the juggled balls are used for cuts between clips.

Remember the old ViewMaster toys? All you had to do was put in one of the special cartridges and you could go "sightseeing" in 3D. A new invention by entrepreneurs Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg harkens back to the old ViewMaster days, only instead of a cartridge, you have your iPhone -- and instead of just viewing 3D content, now you can capture it as well!

Sony is scheduled to announce followups to the RX 1 and RX200 tomorrow, but photos of the cameras have already begun appearing on the web.

When I saw the work of photographer "Fiddle Oak" last month, I was so blown away by the level of maturity, boldness, and confidence exuded from his images. He’s 14, people! And according to the story, he’s been creating shooting and manipulating the work since he was 8.

"Spec" is short for "speculative," and "spec work" is defined by the AIGA (which counts many photographers as members) as, "work done prior to engagement with a client in anticipation of being paid."

This is the classical definition, and it began in the creative industries, where a photographer would shoot images for a desired client and then show them the work in the hopes of being hired. Notice the very important distinction: the work was done BEFORE contact with the potential client. This "free" spec work was not solicited or negotiated.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has become a person of extreme interest in recent days, but thus far he's managed to avoid photojournalists' cameras fairly well. The same cannot be said of the empty airplane seat which was supposedly going to take him from Russia to Cuba this past weekend.

In an airplane full of disappointed photojournalists, the conspicuously vacant Seat 17A became in short order the most photographed empty airplane seat in the world.

When a beta version of Apple's iOS software is released, you can bet developers are sifting through the code like mad to see if any new features have been added to the mobile operating system.

It would appear as if hidden in the code for iOS 7 beta 2 are camera-oriented features for use by developers. One feature apparently detects smiling in photos, the other detects blinking. These detectors may hint at features coming to the iPhone, iPod, and iPad cameras in the future.

You may remember Triggertrap from our coverage of it a little over a year ago. The iOS app, which has since made its way to Android as well, acted as a "jack of all trades" camera trigger that offered more than 12 different triggering options.

Several of those options -- such as the sound and motion triggers -- were geared towards high-speed photography, and a new update and flash adapter from the Triggertrap team are primed to take the app's high-speed photo capabilities to the next level.

For his project "Ordinary Behavior," illustrator and product designer Kevin Lck wanted to explore the relationship between humans and the technology that is devouring our souls has become such a large part of our lives. To do so, he chose five household objects and set about creating special cardboard replicas.

One of those objects (although it doesn't exactly quality as a "household object") was a Leica M3, and his black and white rendition is impressive even before you turn it around.

When Seattle-based photographer Eirik Johnson went to photograph the hunting cabins of the Iñupiat people of Barrow, Alaska, he found something more than he expected. The resulting summer and winter combination series, dubbed Barrow Cabins, turned into "a meditation on the passage of time."

Want a peek into how much freelance photographers get paid by Sun-Times Media? The issue is one that may be on many a photographers mind after the Chicago Sun-Times decided to fire its entire staff of photographers. Thanks to a "leaked" memo, we now have some idea.

Smartphones have been stealing market share from the big camera manufacturers for years now, and it doesn't seem like it'll stop anytime soon. Naturally, that leads to a healthy fear from companies like Canon and Nikon who, unlike Sony or Samsung, don't have players on both sides.

For its part, Canon has decided to start fighting back in the form of a new advertising campaign with the tagline: "don't let a call interrupt your photo."

In case you don't know it, cameras and lenses are prime theft targets. You may never think it's going to happen to you, but almost every day I hear from someone who is missing thousands of dollars worth of gear with no hope of getting it back.

My gear rental company has lots of experience with preventing theft and recovering stolen items. I'm not going to give specifics about all the exact measures we take; that would be like leaving a blueprint for those who want to steal our gear. But we've learned a lot and have at least tried everything I'm going to talk about today.

Back in 1985, TIME magazine was determined to get more subscribers. We know this because of the special TV offer you see above. If you happen to be around when this commercial aired, all you needed to do was call the number to get a TIME magazine subscription for 40% off, and a free 35mm camera!

The Emma Mærsk is one of the largest ships in existence. In fact, when it first launched in 2006, it was the largest. Measuring in at almost a quarter-mile long, it can carry more cargo than a 41-mile-long train, and sports the world's largest diesel engine under the hood.

If you ever take your camera on a safari to photograph animals in the wild, here's one animal you should be careful around: the giraffe.

Sure, it doesn't have a dangerous reputation like lions or other fierce animals at the top of the food chain, but if you're not careful around the world's tallest terrestrial animal---especially the hormonal ones---you may quickly find yourself in a situation that's strangely similar to a famous scene in the movie Jurassic Park.