UC Berkeley's library system is the fourth largest library in the United States, so it's no wonder that treasures are often forgotten and buried inside the rare collections. Case in point: a massive collection of signed prints by Ansel Adams have been discovered in one of the 32 libraries, just sitting around in a box.
Symmetrical Portraits is a well-known and oft-imitated series of photos by photographer Julian Wolkenstein, shot back in 2010. After picking a number of subjects based on their facial features, he photographed them staring blankly straight-on into the camera. He then split the faces down the middle in order to obtain two separate "portraits" showing what the subject would look like if they had a perfectly symmetrical face.
Remember this photograph tweeted last week by @weaksauce12? It shows the strange purple flaring reported by many iPhone 5 users, which is being called everything from "purple haze", to "the Hendrix effect", to "Purplegate". Fingers were pointed at everything from the phone's new sapphire lens to the infrared filter -- or supposed lack of -- inside.
If you were patently waiting for a fix, you'll be disappointed to know that there doesn't appear to be one on the horizon: Apple is saying that the excessive purple flaring behavior is "normal".
Official presidential photographers lead exciting lives. President Obama's photographer Pete Souza attends secret meetings and captures iconic photos. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's personal photographer was arrested last year after being accused of being a spy for Russia. Now Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's photographer is the latest to do something noteworthy: he defected to the United States.
In addition to being used for art and documentation, photographs have long been a medium of communication. This is even more true in this social networking age in which photographs can easily be used to tear people down or build people up. This heartwarming video published over at Facebook Stories is a great example of the power of socially shared photos.
You might recognize the photograph above. Titled Valley Of The Shadow Of Death and snapped by British photographer Roger Fenton in 1855, it's considered to be one of the oldest known photographs of warfare. Problem is, it might also be one of the oldest known examples of a staged photograph.
If you’ve spent any amount of time in mom and pop Chinese restaurants — especially around college campuses — …
Proto-photo-blogger Ken Rockwell has interesting things to say about what he calls “Nikon’s …
Last week we shared a project by photographer Daniel Kukla, who photographed mirrors on easels in the desert in a way that makes them look like landscape paintings. Photographer Brendan Wixted did a similar project earlier this year for a photography class at his university, except he used off-camera lighting to illuminate the reflected landscapes.
Here's something that's a bit strange: Leica filed a trademark application for "M11" this past May, just a few months before announcing the Leica M -- a camera that did away with the company's number-based naming strategy used since 1954.
IKEA found itself in some hot water today after it came to light that a number of women seen in its catalog photographs had been Photoshopped out of the frame for the Saudi Arabian edition. Swedish newspaper Metro broke the story today with a scathing piece titled, "Women Cannot be Retouched Away," writing that IKEA's new catalog reflects the country's oppression of women by editing out every single human with two X chromosomes.
Want a personalized pencil holder for your workspace that features your photography? Check out this neat “photo-roll holder” idea …
Sonia Soberats' journey in photography didn't start until she couldn't see the photographs she was producing. Around two decades ago, she lost her eyesight to glaucoma between losing her son to Hodgkin's disease and her daughter to ovarian cancer. At the turn of the century, Soberats began taking photography lessons in New York City as a form of therapy and self-expression. Her technique of choice? Light painting.
We've seen ring flash units that redirect light from a DSLR's pop-up camera and a hot shoe-mounted flash, but never from a compact camera's built-in flash. Based on a patent filing published earlier this month and uncovered by Egami, that's what Nikon appears to be in the process of building.
Die-hard Dodgers fan Bobby Crosby is the only person to ever film himself catching a home run at a Major League Baseball game. That's not all though: over the past few years, he has also filmed himself catching tens of home runs during the batting practice prior to games, holding his baseball glove in one hand and his camera in the other. The video above, which is currently going viral online, shows Crosby's amazing first person view of all but a few of those catches.
It is commonly said that a picture is worth a thousand words. It seems that US smartphone users agree, for Instagram has now passed Twitter in active user count. The legions of Instagrammers aren't just checking their beloved social network more than their Tweeting counterparts -- their eyeballs are glued on it longer as well.
Point-and-shoot cameras aren't doing so hot these days as consumers are replacing their multiple electronic devices with a single gadget: the smartphone. The compact cameras that have a chance of surviving are the ones that are special in some way, whether it's having a gigantic sensor or being hardened with serious weatherproofing.
With the advent of Internet-connectivity and apps in cameraphones and digital cameras, images can now be shared with others in ways never before seen in the history of photography. Unfortunately, not all of the ways are positive. Some are downright creepy.
Take PlaceRaider, for example. It's a malicious Android app that hijacks your smartphone's camera, secretly takes photos of your life, and uses those images to reconstruct 3D virtual spaces of private locations.
Last month we wrote about how the small focusing lens inside a laser pointer can be repurposed as a cheap macro lens for your smartphone. After seeing this project online, photo enthusiast John Coleman decided to give it a shot. To keep the lens secure against your phone, you'll need something to hold it (e.g. a hair pin) and some tape to attach the holder to the phone. The photo above shows the super simple attachment Coleman created.
Lens caps are often cast aside in favor of lens hoods, but what if you could have both in one accessory? That's what the Hoocap does. It's not as fancy as the blooming lens hood concept we featured a year ago, but it seems pretty well thought out. Extend the cap/hood out from your camera, and the two "curtains" open up, allowing the camera to "see" and blocking errant light from causing flares. Close it, twist it, and push it into your lens, and it locks into its closed position for protecting your glass.
Photographer Noah Kalina has taken a self-portrait a day for the past 12.5 years, but his already-impressive project has now been bested by one that's nearly twice as long. When Leeds Met University student Cory McLeod was born 21 years ago, his parents began faithfully documenting his life by taking a single photograph of his face every single day. This past week, the project was published as a one-of-a-kind video titled "21 Years" that shows McLeod's entire life in roughly six minutes.
One major trend in the camera industry this year is the introduction of mobile operating systems such as Android into digital cameras. By opening the door to things like Wi-Fi, data plans, and apps, camera makers are going in the same direction that phone makers went some years ago, turning their devices into what can best be described as portable computers with specialized functions (e.g. voice-calling, photography).
While covering the trend, we've been at a loss for what to call the new cameras. After calling the Samsung Galaxy Camera a "voiceless phonecamera" in our hands-on first-look yesterday, commenters suggested that we call the device a "smartcamera". Bingo... that's the term we were looking for.
Want a better understanding of how the metering and AE-lock features in your DSLR camera work? YouTube photography tutorial …
Two interesting Canon rumors are currently floating around. The first has to do with the 46MP DSLR that Canon is reportedly field testing and may be planning to unveil in late October. Northlight Images received a tip saying the camera's body will be 1D-X-esque:
In an update to the high MP info, we're told that a camera will eventually appear in a 1D X derived body, in the same way as the 1D C. The information said that the actual designation was not known, but it would essentially be a '1 series'. There was also a warning that there would be a long wait between any 'preview' and any cameras being annouced and subsequently shipping.
If true, this means Canon is going for the larger pro-style body rather than following after Nikon's 36.3MP D800.
If you’re a fan of Instagram, then you’ll probably appreciate this neat DIY project by Elsie and Emma of …
Ever wonder what it looks like when you fire a gun underwater? Firearm enthusiast Andrew Tuohy of VuurwapenBlog recently decided to find out. Taking his .40 Glock 22 into his swimming pool, he captured some high speed videos of himself firing a round using an ordinary Pentax Optio WG-2 waterproof compact camera (which has a 120fps movie recording mode). The photograph above is a still taken from one of the videos.
Played around with the new Samsung Galaxy Camera very briefly at Photokina last week. It's basically a camera-fied smartphone that doesn't do voice calling. It does have 3G/4G/Wi-Fi connectivity though, so it's one of the first -- if not the first -- compact camera you can add a data plan to.
Last year there was a minor controversy when the Portland Police Department began posting photos of arrested Occupy protestors to Facebook. It may or may not have been inspired by the PPD, but Pottstown, Pennsylvania newspaper The Pottstown Mercury has begun sharing photographs of wanted individuals through the popular photo sharing service Pinterest.
Daniel Kukla is a photographer who had formal training in biological and anthropological sciences. His educational background plays a major part of his artistic practice, and this can be seen in his clever project titled, The Edge Effect.
Kodak divisions are falling left and right as the company struggles to claw its way out of bankruptcy protection. After killing off its camera business and selling off its film business earlier this year, Kodak announced today that it will shortly be pulling out of the consumer printing business in order to focus on commercial printing.