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An Open Letter to Performers, Published on Behalf of Thousands of Photographers

Restrictive concert photography contracts have been a big story in the photo world over the past several months. Taylor Swift, the Foo Fighters, Dweezil Zappa, and Janet Jackson have all made headlines for their extremely strict -- and often rights-grabbing -- contracts that photographers and reporters must sign before covering a concert.

Now a number of the media industry's biggest associations and organizations have published an open letter to performers on behalf of thousands of photographers and journalists in the United States.

Photos of the Strange ‘Crooked Forest’ in Poland

German photographer Kilian Schönberger recently shot a series of photos showing one of the most unusual forests in the world. Located near the city of Gryfino in West Poland, the so-called "Crooked Forest" has a grove of pine trees that are curved at the base.

Use ‘InstaAgent’ for Instagram? It Stole Your Account Password

If you have the app "InstaAgent" on your phone to track the people who visit your Instagram account, you might want to delete it now. The app has been banned by Apple and Google from their app stores after it was discovered that the app steals account passwords and posts ads without permission to people's photo feeds.

Eyefi Acquires OKDOTHIS and Leaps Into the World of Photo Sharing Apps

Eyefi is best known for its Wi-Fi-capable memory cards that allow photos to be beamed to computers and mobile devices directly from cameras. Wi-Fi is appearing as a built-in feature in more and more cameras, though, and Eyefi has been pivoting its business in recent days.

Today the company jumped into the world of mobile apps by announcing that it has acquired OKDOTHIS, the photography inspiration app and community that was created in 2012 by photographer Jeremy Cowart and the Nashville-based app startup Aloompa.

A Dazzling Flow Motion Time-Lapse Tour of Istanbul

Back in February, time-lapse photographer Rob Whitworth captured the world's imagination with his insane "Dubai Flow Motion" project, which took the concept of the hyperlapse to a whole new level.

Now he's back again with the video above, titled "Istanbul: Flow Through the City of Tales." Whitworth used his same ambitious hyperlapse techniques to create a dazzling tour of Istanbul, Turkey.

A Funny Teardown of a Chinon Genesis II 35mm ‘ZLR’ from 1989

Want to see what "bridge" cameras were like before the days of digital? EEVBlog got its hands on a Chinon Genesis II 35mm from 1989 and recorded the 18-minute teardown above to show us the guts. The Genesis II was marketed as a "Zoom Lens Reflex" (ZLR) bridge camera because it was more advanced than a point-and-shoot and easier-to-use than an single-lens reflex.

We're introduced to the "zero latency" viewfinder that doesn't require power, the 24- and 36-shot "memory card" compartment, and the strangely-shaped 4-blade aperture.

These Are the 116 Images NASA Picked to Share with Aliens (or Future Humans)

In 2012, 35 years after its launch in 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 space probe left the Solar System and became the first human-man object to enter interstellar space. On board is a Golden Record with sounds and images that show life on Earth. 116 images were selected for inclusion by a committee led by Carl Sagan.

Vox just published the 5-minute video above to share a rapid-fire slideshow of the photos we humans chose to send toward the farthest reaches of space (note: one photo shows nudity).

Watch as a Vintage Fujica ST 705 is Disassembled and Neatly Framed

"How do you give a second life to an old film camera?," asks the French ad agency Maison Carnot. They had an old and non-functional Fujica ST 705 camera on their hands, so they decided to create a stop-motion video and a piece of art with it. It took the team a day to disassemble the camera into its basic pieces, select some choice components, and then arrange them neatly in a frame for display. The 2-minute video above is titled "DISASSEMBLY."

Is Samsung Shuttering its Camera Business?

Rumors have been swirling around in the photo industry the past couple of months about Samsung pulling out of the camera industry. Samsung hasn't announced anything new in recent times, and its camera division has reportedly been bleeding money every year since the NX system was announced in 2010.

These Are the First Virtual Reality Cinemagraphs

Back in 2011, photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck helped coin and popularize the "cinemagraph," an animated GIF showing a mostly static photo with certain elements moving and looping.

Now, as the world of virtual reality is starting to take off in a big way, photographer Eran Amir is taking the cinemagraph to a new dimension: 3D. He has created a series of virtual reality cinemagraphs, which you can watch in the 2.5-minute video above.

This is the Largest Stunt Explosion Caught on Camera

Want to set a new Guinness world record with a stunt explosion in your next photo or video shoot? You're going to have to beat the explosion in the video above.

The new James Bond movie Spectre has been awarded the Guinness World Record for "Largest Film Stunt Explosion." Rather than use CGI for the scene, the team opted for 8,418 liters of fuel and 33 kilograms of explosives.

We Shall Remember

My name is Louis Amore, and I'm a 42-year-old photographer based in London, England. I have been a professional photographer for the past 6 years, but I have studied photography since a young age... since the days of film and developing in my bedroom.

This PSD Reveals What Every Photoshop Adjustment Layer Does via Curves

Want to see what Photoshop's adjustment layers are actually doing to your photos in terms of curves? There's an easy new way to do so.

Los Angeles-based photographer and retoucher Edmon Amiraghyan has created a special PSD file called Live Curves. It's simply a Document window that contains a Curves view of the document that updates in real time.

How Facebook is Stealing Billions of Video Views

In a Nutshell created this 5-minute video that offers a simple explanation of the problem of "freebooting" on Facebook, when copyrighted videos are ripped from other sources (mostly YouTube) and uploaded to the service without permission. The videos then go viral, gaining attention for the uploader and ad views for Facebook, but leaving the original content creator out in the cold.

Mizzou Media Professor Melissa Click is Under Fire for Confronting Photojournalists

Earlier today, we shared a viral video of student photojournalist Tim Tai being confronted by activists while photographing the ongoing University of Missouri protests. One of the main people under fire for their actions in the video is Melissa Click, an assistant professor of mass media.

Cameraman Mark Schierbecker has just posted a longer version of his video (embedded above) that shows Click's role in the human media blockade more clearly.

Student Photojournalist Has Face-Off with Activists at Mizzou Protests

Ongoing student protests at the University of Missouri over campus race relations have dominated the media over the the past several days. Now a new video showing the group blocking a student photographer is sparking controversy and discussion about press freedom.

The 6.5-minute video above shows student photographer Tim Tai being blocked from a public area of campus on Monday while on assignment for ESPN.

How I Handled Aunt Harriet’s Cake Shot as a Wedding Photographer

It was a wedding like many others. The bride and groom were all smiles the entire day and excited for the ceremony. That semi-chaotic buzz of electricity was in the air as tasked bridesmaids went from place to place working on a variety of details before the ceremony. And after a brief portrait session, the bride was ready to take her father’s arm in their walk down the aisle.

And then it happened. In an all too familiar scenario, Aunt Harriet emerged in the back of the church with camera in hand. While not ideal, the resolution to this was to move over to the other side of the aisle as well as using the bridal party walking down to cover her up. With no signs of anyone with an iPad getting ready to lean into the aisle we were ready to rock and roll!

This Interactive Exposure Tool Helps You Understand the Exposure Triangle

Understanding the exposure triangle of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO is one of the first steps in learning photography. To help people wrap their heads around the concept, photographer Tony Catalano has created the Interactive Exposure Tool, an online tool for experimenting with how changing camera settings affects the resulting photo of a scene.