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LEGO Rooms Photographed to Look like Full-Sized Spaces

Remember those beautiful macro photos that showed the inside of musical instruments as giant rooms? Sao Paolo, Brazil-based photographer Valentino Fialdini did something similar, except instead of musical instruments he used small chambers created out of LEGO blocks. With some clever lighting and camera trickery, Fialdini captured the tiny rooms and corridors as to look like giant architectural spaces.

Nikon Refutes Greenish Tint Issues, Says LCD on D4/D800 is More Accurate

Over the past week there have been several complaints lodged against Nikon claiming that the LCD screen on the D4 and D800 has a green cast when compared to the older models. Nikon, however, has responded by claiming that the D3s and D700 models were in fact the less accurate pair. According to Nikon Rumors, Nikon tech support is blaming the LCD on the D3s and D700, asserting that its higher display color temperatures leads to blue tinted images.

iPhone Telescope Adapter Lets You Instagram Stars and Microbes Alike

If you've ever found yourself wishing you could take an iPhone picture of the night sky -- or a cool slide under the microscope for that matter -- than your wish could soon become a reality. The startup Arcturus Labs are in the process of funding a new product called Magnifi, an iPhone case/adapter that allows you to attach your phone to a microscope, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical instrument.

Nikon D3200 Sample Images Show Noisy Low-Light Performance

The first sample images of the Nikon D3200 have just come out of Nikon France; and although they look great for the most part, the one low-light image confirms suspicions that Nikon may have gone too far putting 24.2-megapixels in the camera. More noticeable on the full-resolution photographs, you can tell that once the ISO is cranked up to about 1600, noise begins to play a significant role.

ADay.org Aims to Inspire Generations to Come by Capturing One Day in Our World

On July 24th, 2010 tens of thousands of people captured a video snipped of their life that day and uploaded it to YouTube where director Kevin Macdonald and executive producer Ridley Scott edited the lot of them together into a 95min feature film -- which you can now watch for free. On May 15th, it's the photographer's turn.

A Fateful Hike: The Story Behind Craig Walker’s Pulitzer Prize

How does a Pulitzer Prize worthy photograph come into existence? For most of us the photos that are considered the best of the best each year seem somewhat untouchable; as if one has to be in the right place at the right time, and when they look down find that they also happen to have their camera on them. The truth,  however, is rarely so unanticipated. In the case of Craig F. Walker's 2012 Pulitzer Prize winning series, it all began with a hike.

Zuckerberg Flew Solo – Lowered Instagram Asking Price by $1 Billion

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook took everybody by surprise when they acquired Instagram; the massively popular -- though not yet profitable -- photo-sharing application. A few days ago we learned that they may have only just beat Twitter to the punch. Now rumors are flying about that Mark Zuckerberg not only acted on his own -- without the Facebook board's knowledge -- but managed to lower Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom's asking price from $2 billion to the reported $1 billion that Facebook shelled out.

Photographs of Michael Jackson Tribute Artists and Impersonators

The Michael Jacksons, by photographer and social scientist Lorena Turner, is a study of people who make a living or perform as the late great Michael Jackson. In her own words:
It is an index of the refraction of Michael Jackson's public persona within the culture by exploring issues of fantasy, reality and representation as influenced by and filtered through cultural experience.

Google Adding User-Created Balloon and Kite Imagery to Google Earth

Innovation is why we love companies like Google. Several times a week, it seems, the company comes out with another program or product idea that makes us all smile (and secretly wonder how long we have until they've achieved world domination). Their best ideas, however, involve their user base -- and their latest expansion idea for Google Earth does just that.

Ten Magnum Photographers Working on Portrait of Rochester

Some might say that the city of Rochester, New York is struggling; others might say that it's evolving. One thing's for sure though: Rochester -- nicknamed The World's Image Centre -- is changing. Because of this, and because of the city's rich photographical history (think Kodak), ten of Magnum Photos' photographers have chosen Rochester as one of three locations currently being documented across the United States.

The World’s Most Downloaded Man

This is probably the strangest and most awkward thing you'll see today. It's a short 5-minute video titled "The World's Most Downloaded Man" that chronicles photographer Fernado Martins' journey to meet Jesper Bruun, the world's best-selling stock photography model.

Fake People Suck: Citizen Stock Invites Real People Back Into Stock Photos

"Fake People Suck" -- now that's a tagline. In 2009 David Katzenstein and Sherrie Nickol began a fine arts project that involved asking people off the street to come to their studio and photographing them against a white background. The idea was to capture the striking diversity that's commonplace in New York. But after photographing about 50 people -- and due also to a steady drop in commissions from commercial and corporate projects -- they realized the potential the project had as a commercial venture. Thus was born Citizen Stock.

Behind the Scenes with Camera and Lens Testing Service DxO Labs

Stephen Shankland over at CNET has written an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how DxO Labs -- one of the world's premier camera testing services -- evaluates equipment. DxO Labs is based near Paris, France and was the result of a 2003 spinoff from a company called Vision IQ, which specialized in swimming pool safety. Since then, the group has published over 185 in-depth camera reviews on its website DxOMark.

Satellite Photographs Showing the Rapid Spread of Humans Across the Earth

2008 marked the first time in history that more of Earth's population lived in cities rather than in the countryside, and by 2050 nearly 70% of the world's population will reside in large cities. A new series of satellite photographs captured decades apart by NASA's Landsat department and the U.S. Geological Survey offers a striking look at how human cities have spread across the face of the Earth in just a few short years. The image above shows Las Vegas in 1984 and in 2011.

OpenPhoto Brings Open Source Photo Sharing to the Mobile World

Photo sharing apps for smartphones are a dime-a-dozen. Ever since Instagram achieved worldwide success -- and was rewarded with a $1 billion dollar buyout by Facebook -- many developers have tried to follow in their footsteps. That being said, finding a photo sharing app that stands out is rare, which is why the OpenPhoto app release this week struck a chord with us.

645 PRO iPhone Camera App Offers New Level of Control and “RAW”

About a week ago rumors of an iPhone app that could shoot in RAW format raged across the Internet. The app in question, the 645 PRO by developer Jag.gr, was to be the first camera app for the iPhone to achieve this feat. And although by all accounts the app is a very impressive and useful app, it turns out that shooting in true RAW isn't among its features.

The Daily Mail Stole My Photos and I Got Paid

I’ve got a little story for you today, and a valuable lesson for photographers everywhere. On the Monday before last, a post that I wrote the week before started to go viral. I was receiving more traffic than I had ever experienced before, and from sites that I had never heard of. Fantastic. Only, along with the good news, we have some bad news.

Sharp Unveils a New Point-and-Shoot Sensor Stuffed with 20 Megapixels

A few months ago we mentioned that compact camera manufacturers were approaching smartphone competition the wrong way. We posited that instead of adding creepy unique features like sleeping face recognition and make-up mode, they should instead be focusing on improving ease-of-use and image quality.

Nikon WU-1a Turns Your Android Phone Into a Fancy DSLR Remote

In today's post about Nikon's D3200 announcement we also mentioned in passing that the WU-1a Wireless Adapter was announced at the same time. But after taking a closer look, we think the adapter merits a little more detail and a lot more excitement.

The Timelapse+: An Intervalometer and So Much More

Even though Kickstarter projects are anything but few and far between, you still don't have to look far to find something great. Case in point: the Timelapse+ -- a Kickstarter project that reached full funding on February 19th -- is a feature-rich intervalometer that would make a valuable addition to any photographer's camera bag.

Samsung Unveils Three New Cameras: The NX20, NX210 and NX1000

It's a big day for camera releases; hot on the heels of Nikon's D3200 release, Samsung have officially announced three new highly-anticipated compact system cameras: the NX20, NX210 and NX1000 -- all featuring built-in wifi connectivity, a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, 8fps continuous shooting and full 1080pHD video recording.

The Idea is That People Should Look A Certain Way in the Face of Tragedy

During the 9/11 attacks in NYC, Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker shot what is perhaps the most controversial image created that day: a photo that appears to show a group of young people casually enjoying themselves while the World Trade Center burns in the background. Hoepker kept the image under wraps for four years and then caused quite a stir after publishing it in a 2006 book. Columnist Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times that "The young people in Mr. Hoepker’s photo aren’t necessarily callous. They’re just American."

Nikon Announces the D3200 HDSLR and 28mm f/1.8 Lens

Nikon officially unveiled the D3200 today. The new HDSLR -- which is the successor to the D3100 -- was announced last night alongside the WU-1a wireless transmitter and the Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G full-frame lens; and talk about bang for your buck. The D3200 offers a 24.2 megapixel DX-Format CMOS sensor, 4fps continuous shooting, 100-6400 ISO range expandable to 12,800, 11-point autofocus and the ability to shoot full 1080p video at up to 30fps.

Beauty in the Broken: Photographs of Destroyed Apple Projects

Now here's a divisive photo series that will draw both anger and cheers: graphic designer (and former Apple employee) Michael Tompert teamed up with photographer Paul Fairchild for a project titled 12LVE that consists of photographs showing annihilated Apple products. Here's the description:

12LVE [...] provides society a mirror, forcing us to question our infatuation with mere objects. By annihilating the adored, pulverizing the precious, and obliterating the beloved, 12LVE reminds us that although these objects have become quasi-religious icons, we will soon discard and replace them with the new crop—sleeker, faster, shinier.

Crumpled Faces of Random Strangers

For his project titled "Good Morning!", photographer Levi Mandel shot stealthy photos of unsuspecting strangers, printed out the faces, crumpled them up, and then re-photographed them.

German Garbage Men Turn Dumpsters Into Giant Pinhole Cameras

A group of garbage men in Hamburg have figured out a way to combine their love of photography with their work of hauling trash, turning large dumpsters into giant pinhole cameras to photograph their city. The dumpsters are converted by drilling tiny holes into the fronts and then hanging large sheets of photo paper inside. Although framing a shot with the giant rolling cameras takes only a minute, exposing it can take up to an hour of waiting. They've dubbed the experiment the "Trashcam Project".