April 2015

Selfie Assault! A Simple Game of Taking Snapshots with Green Blocks

For the Ludum Dare 32 game jam event, game developers from around the world came together for a weekend to create the best games they could based on the theme "An Unconventional Weapon." The game developer known as mint created a game called "Selfie Assault!" that involves walking around in a room of blocks, finding green blocks, and taking selfies with them.

Watch This Bizarre ‘Everything is Awesome’ Parody by Gannett Executives

America's largest newspaper publisher has laid off a large number of employees in recent days, but things appear to be quite rosy at the top. An internal team-building video has surfaced that's raising quite a few eyebrows: it's a parody of the LEGO Movie song "Everything is Awesome," featuring company CEO Gracia Martore as the band leader.

Jim Romenesko got his hands on the clip, which you can watch above.

I Captured California’s Drought Problem in Aerial Shots of Lake Tahoe

I woke up the morning of my 28th birthday last month with one thing on my mind: "What am I going to do today?"

I have always wanted to get an aerial view of my hometown of Lake Tahoe in the summer time, and I was visiting from Arizona. I had also just bought myself a nice new birthday gift: the Nikon D810... so I called up Reno Tahoe Helicopters and made an appointment for a noon flight.

12 Reasons Photographers Still Choose to Shoot Film over Digital

This year will mark forty years since the invention of the first functioning digital camera, and despite it being a measly 0.01 megapixels, it heralded a new age of digital photography and with it came a death cry for film.

Prompted by this incredibly dull article published recently by the BBC, I decided to ask some fellow photographers what reasons they had for still shooting the so-called "outdated" technology. Here’s the list of what they told me...

One Camera, One Lens, and 20 Presidential Candidates

After 27 years of shooting daily photo assignments I had found myself at a crossroads in my photojournalism career. At that point I had spent 20 years as a staff photographer at The Boston Herald and 7 years as the Photo Editor of the Lowell Sun. But creatively I felt as if I was in a rut or shooting on autopilot.

Tourist Captures the Exact Moment Chile’s Calbuco Volcano Erupts

When the Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted earlier this week, a number of photographers in the region pulled out their cameras and shot photos and videos of what was going on for the world to see. One particular tourist, on the other hand, managed to snag something quite special: footage of the exact moment the eruption occurred.

A Homemade TTL Light Meter for an Old Rangefinder

Photographer and camera hacker Kevin Kadooka recently built a custom through-the-lens (TTL) light meter add-on for his Canon P rangefinder. Instead of carrying around a light meter with the camera, Kadooka can now get accurate readings straight from his modified camera with his impressively designed system.

Photographer Snaps Meteor Leaving a ‘Z’ in the Sky

A couple of nights ago, Hawick, UK-based photographer Sam Cornwell spent some time in the great outdoors taking pictures of the April Lyrids meteor shower that happens from April 16 to April 26 of each year. Just as he was about to call it quits and return home without a keeper, Cornwell captured the above photo of a huge "fireball" streaking across the night sky.

Recovered Footage Reveals What Transpired Before Officer Smashed Woman’s Phone

Footage that was recorded moments before a US marshal destroyed a woman's cell phone has now emerged. It turns out the phone was shattered and no longer usable, but the footage was intact in the internal storage, giving us a second point of view into what happened.

In the video above, NBC Los Angeles shares and discusses what transpired in the moments leading up to the police encounter that everyone is talking about now.

Beware: Building Your Own DIY Photo Gear Could Be Patent Infringement

Going a do-it-yourself (DIY) route is popular among photographers who want the benefits of a certain product without having to shell out money in order to buy the actual thing. Here's something you might not have considered though: building a DIY version of something that's patented can actually constitute patent infringement, and sharing those designs with others can land you in even deeper trouble.

Woman Photoshops Her Body in Real Time in This Powerful Statement on Beauty

Personal trainer Cassey Ho is a YouTube star with an exercise channel boasting more than 2.1 million subscribers. In recent days, however, she has seen an increase in the number of negative comments by people criticizing her appearance. In order to express what she felt in reading those messages, Ho came up with the idea of creating a video in which she Photoshops herself to create "the perfect body" based on what commenters want her to look like.

The Only Way to Do Great Work is to Love What You Do

Cinematographer Tucker MacDonald created this inspiring video titled "Find What You Love." It features snippets of commencement speeches given by two men who were titans in their respective fields: tech entrepreneur Steve Jobs and film director Martin Scorsese.

Photographing the Blood Moon in Yosemite

I was in the middle of Yosemite during the "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse on April 4th, 2015. Here's the story of the cool experience I had shooting it.

An Incredibly Rare Photo of a Quadruple Rainbow

New Yorker Amanda Curtis was waiting for a train in Long Island, New York, this past Tuesday when she spotted something incredibly rare: a quadruple rainbow in the sky. She quickly snapped and shared a photo of it online, where it became one of the most talked about images over the past couple of days.

The Way I See It: A Day in the Life of 13 Photographers

It’s reported that over 208,000 photos are uploaded to Facebook EVERY MINUTE. “That’s so Tumblr” is an actual phrase used to identify images that would get noticed and go viral.

Feds Investigating Incident of US Marshal Smashing Cell Phone Camera

Yesterday we shared a startling video in which a woman who was pointing her smartphone camera at a group of law enforcement officers had the device snatched from her hand, smashed against the ground, and then kicked back at her. It turns out the man who did it is a deputy U.S. marshal, and the U.S. Marshals Service says it's now investigating the incident.

Portraits of Afghan Girls Who Are Empowered by Skateboarding

Skateistan is a non-profit organization that seeks to connect youth to education by first introducing them to skateboarding. After hearing that a large percentage of the participants in Kabul, Afghanistan, are girls, photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson decided to shoot portraits that show how the sport is empowering young Afghan girls in a country where girls are generally forbidden from even riding bikes.

Her project, titled "Skate Girls of Kabul," is now receiving a great deal of attention around the world.

Life Lessons Shared with Double Exposure Photos

Florida-based photographer Brandon Kidwell has been working on a lifelong project called "Wisdom for My Children." It's a series of beautiful double exposure photos that resulted from real experiences Kidwell went through while raising his kids. Each of the images "is symbolic of some piece of advice that I gave them," he writes.

The photograph above is for the message: "Being free means having the courage to let go."

This is What a 343x Camera Zoom Would Be Like

In addition to the megapixel war, major camera companies are also engaging in a new superzoom war with their latest compact cameras. We recently shared the incredible reach of the 64x zoom on the Canon SX60 and the 83x zoom on the Nikon P900. If we ever somehow get to the point of 343x zooms appearing in cameras, the video above shows what that would be like.

6 Features That Should Have Been In Lightroom 6 (But Aren’t)

Lightroom 6 (AKA Lightroom CC) was just announced. I’ve been eagerly waiting for this release, pretty much from the moment Lightroom 5 was announced. And I have to be honest: I’m sad.

Yes, software updates make me disappointed. Here’s what’s up.

Nikon Reaches Settlement with Sigma in VR Patent Infringement Lawsuit

Back in May 2011, Nikon filed a lawsuit against Sigma, accusing the company of using patented Vibration Reduction (VR) technology in Sigma lenses. In March 2014, a court in Japan recommended that Sigma pay Nikon roughly $14.5 million in damages.

Today, Nikon announced that it has reached a settlement with Sigma that will close this case for good.

Photographers Arrested and Kicked Out of Indonesia for Illegal Photo Shoots

If you're planning on doing an elaborate photo shoot in a foreign country, make sure you obtain the necessary permits and visas. Otherwise, you may risk arrest and deportation.

That's what happened to a couple of American photographers earlier this month. They, along with 13 others involved in the work, were kicked out of Indonesia for doing illegal photo shoots.

Photographer Catches Drone at Last Moment Before It Falls Into the Sea

Photographer Ryan Chatfield was recently flying his camera drone over a beach when it unexpectedly ran out of battery power and began an automatic and uncontrolled descent. Seeing his drone falling slowly into the ocean, Chatfield sprinted across the beach, over some rocks, and managed to catch the drone at the last moment before it hit the surface of the water.

Apple Developed a Super Resolution Mode for iPhone Cameras Using Image Shifting

One of the technologies that's emerging in the camera world is using sensor-shifting to capture high-resolution photos. It involves shooting a sequence of shots with the sensor slightly shifted for each one, and then combining the photos into a high-res image. The new Olympus OM-D E-M5 II uses it to create 40MP photos using its 16MP sensor.

It turns out Apple has also been dabbling in the technology as well for its cameras, except with optical shifting instead of sensor shifting.

Lightroom CC Will Be Announced Tomorrow

After months of prematurely posted product pages, leaked details, and announcement dates that turned out to be wrong, Adobe will finally be unveiling the next version of Lightroom tomorrow.