Culture

Solargraphy involves using a pinhole camera to shoot extremely long exposures of scenes. Photographers who engage in it often leave their cameras fixed to outdoor locations for months or years in order to capture the path of the sun across the sky.

Waiting until the whole exposure is complete before seeing if an image turned out is painful enough, but there's another major difficulty that can cause practitioners pain: the cameras are sometimes mistaken for bombs.

A recent article in the New York Times tells the story of one Addison Beecher Colvin Whipple -- better known as Cal -- to whom photojournalists in particular owe a great debt of gratitude. Mr. Whipple passed away last month at the age of 94, but his quest to get one particular photo published in 1943 has left a legacy that will last for many years to come.

Did you know North Korea had an official Flickr page? The country's account on the popular photo sharing service made headlines today after it was hacked and defaced by Anonymous.

Creativity and humor score big points with consumers. That's why photographers, camera companies and camera stores alike often employ one or both to get their customers' attention. Some of what we've seen in the past includes James Hodgins' Crappy Vs Snappy, Olympus' ziplock bags of walnuts, and Schick's razor photo fad.

The above video by Canada's The Camera Store is another prime example. Instead of making a bland announcement, they decide to film this fun and funny 'love story' to let their customers know the store will once again be carrying Olympus brand cameras.

When photojournalists capture images of human suffering around the world, they're often accused of being coldhearted and of exploiting those in need. The media organizations and charities that send them out draw similar criticism, but they argue that these negative stories help bring attention to issues that would otherwise be ignored and that they help encourage charitable giving.

Due to the sensitive nature of these types of stories, organizations generally tread very carefully when putting out requests for photos and footage. However, that's not always the case.

April Fools' Day: the beautiful (or painful) day of the year on which the Internet is teeming with fabricated stories designed to fool and humor. We used to participate in the jokes and cover the silliness, but last year we started doing a single roundup post instead to keep you up to speed on April Fools' Day humor in the world of photography.

Here's a bit of silly humor as we're winding down the workweek: if you're a photography enthusiast who has fond memories of playing Pokemon Snap during the days of the Nintendo 64, then you might enjoy this humorous fake trailer by Gritty Reboots, which takes popular movies, TV shows, video games and turns them into cinematic trailers.

This one imagines what a live-action Pokemon Snap movie would be like.

There's a humorous new photography meme emerging from Japan. Students in the country are shooting photos that look like they're 'Kamehameha' scenes from the popular manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball.

In each shot, one participant poses as a character exploding with energy, while one or more other subjects pretends to be blown away by the force of the blast. As with all of the popular memes that have emerged in recent years, participants are jumping onboard by shooting their own photos and then sharing them on the web.

In recent years, photographers -- and particularly photojournalists -- have had to compete more and more aggressively with the everyday Joe and his smartphone who happens to be at the right place at the right time. And with technologies like CrowdOptic in the works that will help sift through the plethora of photographs taken every second, news agencies may soon be able to find that Joe in record time.

But according to an article by Jenna Wortham of The New York Times, one branch of photography is already taking a significant hit: the paparazzi are being replaced by Instagrammers. Using a recent photo of Beyoncé and her daughter as an example, Wortham shows how the paparazzi are already losing their battler with those same amateurs.

100 million users are uploading 40 million photographs on a daily basis to Instagram. Of these images, 43% of them dont have any retro filters applied to them. That leaves 22.8 million filtered photos hitting the social network every 24 hours.

Marketing firm Marketo recently poked around with some of Instagram's statistics, and then decided to assign personality profiles to some of the service's most popular filters. It's like Instagram meets Chinese Zodiac.

Back in 2010, we shared how artist Luke Jerram had created a wedding ring that can project tiny slide photographs when placed in front of a light source. After seeing that idea, Cambridge-based engineer John Ding decided that he wanted to make something similar for his sweetheart, Becky.

Ding spent the next two years designing a silver pendant that can project a photograph. He ended up creating what he calls the "Projecting Pendant."

"Skywalking" is a photo fad that gained quite a bit of publicity last year, and many of the crazy images were created by thrill-seekers in and around Russia.

A Ukranian daredevil who goes by Mustang Wanted is taking the concept one step further: rather than simply climbing to high locations and photographing his feet on the edge, the 26-year-old man poses for portraits while hanging off edges by his arms and by his legs. The concept could be described as, "skyhanging."

Here's something that might give you a chuckle: it's the invisible friend prank. The video above shows magician Rahat Hussein and prankster Jack Vale teaming up to pull this prank on unsuspecting passersby in Hollywood.

If you're set to get married soon and are in the process of planning for the big day, here's a tip that might save you from some sadness further down the road: don't go cheap on the photography if you can help it. It turns out that spending too little on photography is one of the biggest regrets brides have after their wedding, while spending too much rarely causes remorse.

For a wedding issue that will soon be hitting newsstands, New York Magazine created an infographic titled "What They Would Have Done Differently." The magazine asked one hundred recent brides about what they'd do differently if they could go back in time.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence may be fine with excessive Photoshopping, but advertising regulatory authorities in the United States aren't of the same opinion. We reported back in 2011 that the UK had banned certain advertisements for excessive Photoshop work, and that the US was moving in the same direction.

Photographer Noah Kalina's Everyday project features one photo of his face every day, and has been running since January 11, 2000. Kalina uploaded time-lapse videos created using the photos in 2006 and 2012, and both videos quickly went viral online. Not only did they amass millions of views, but they sparked a new phenomenon as well, as people around the world started snapping daily photos of their own faces and uploading similar videos to the web.

The video above is one that uses the same idea popularized by Kalina, except it's very different from the rest (warning: it's a bit disturbing).

This strange looking vintage camera was created by Guangzhou Art Academy student Hu Shaoming, who spent four months disassembling two cameras from the 1930s and 1940s and rebuilding them with a zipper that reveals the inner mechanical components.

Urban exploration photography has gotten quite a bit of publicity in recent years, with more and more photographers taking their cameras to off-limits and/or abandoned parts of their city in order to see and capture what most people never get a chance to. While it may be a fun pastime of practitioners and one that leads to beautiful images, not everyone is a fan.

The National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) warns that photographs shot by urban explorers could pose a national security risk by aiding terrorists in their surveillance and planning.

Here's a lighthearted dose of humor to get you through the workday: Thumbs & Ammo is a humorous new photo blog with a tagline that says, "Real tough guys don't need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude." Each image in the ongoing blog is a movie still or poster from a famous flick, with the action heroes' guns replaced with thumbs-ups.

The rise of a plethora of fashion blogs has led, almost inevitably, to the rise of a style of fashion photography known as "street style." The all-access blogging medium gave photography enthusiasts who admired what legends like Bill Cunningham do a way to break into the industry and share both their opinions and pictures.

Over the past several years, however, the practice has exploded -- much to the chagrin of big fashion editors and journalists who now have to deal with massive crowds of photogs outside of major fashion shows. GARAGE Magazine's Take My Picture is a short documentary that explores this explosion, and tries to offer both sides of the story.

Here's a startling side-by-side comparison of news photos that has begun floating around on the social web. Both photographs show a large crowd gathered to witness the unveiling of a new pope. The top one was what AP photographer Luca Bruno saw in 2005 when Pope Benedict XVI was introduced, while the bottom one is what AP photographer Michael Sohn witnessed yesterday at the election of Pope Francis.

Leica's Hermes edition M9-P is a beautiful camera that comes with a steep price of $50,000. If you don't have a spare 50 Gs lying around waiting to be burned, check out this replica created by Halifax, Nova Scotia-based photographer Chris McVeigh using 114 LEGO pieces. Sure, it may not be functional as a camera, but it's a great conversation piece, and one that you can build yourself at home!

Madeleine Corcoran over at Duckrabbit has published a sharp criticism of photojournalist Samuel Aranda's decision to license his most famous conflict photo to Canadian electronic band Crystal Castles for use on their album cover and merchandise.

Template and Photoshop action maker The Shoppe Designs has been making a humorous series of posters called Shoppe Satire. Each graphic pokes fun at some aspect of the photography business, with inside jokes that certain types of photographers will be able to relate quite well with.

Some broadcasters around the world are starting to experiment with a new camera angle: the referee cam. By having refs on the field wear special high-definition cameras on the side of their head, the broadcasters are able to capture intense in-game footage that bring fans into the middle of the action.

We've seen a number camera-shaped pendant necklaces before, but here's one that's a bit different from the rest. It's a camera pendant that doubles as a small clock that hangs around your neck.

If you're ever in Malaysia and notice a large group of children walking around with fancy DSLR cameras, you might be looking at a special new 'Big Brother/Big Sister' program called The World Through Our Eyes. The program is designed to bring joy and healthy relationships to the lives of orphans and underprivileged children by opening their eyes to the joys of photography.

Skin care company Dove is speaking out on the issue of "fake beauty" being promoted in photographs through Photoshopping. Rather than address the issue directly at first, the company decided to speak out directly to those responsible for "fake" images by doing some clever guerrilla marketing. It essentially pranked retouchers through the Web by releasing a fake Photoshop beauty Action that undoes manipulation rather than creates it.

The Harlem Shake meme has taken over the Internet over the past few weeks, and even the world of photography has been invaded. Here's a small roundup of Harlem Shake videos put out by photography and camera enthusiasts.

Artist, swimmer and former Olympian Casey Legler is in the process of adding another line to her resume: male model. As a model for Ford Models, Legler is making headlines over the fact that she models only men's clothing for the agency. In fact, to her knowledge, she is the first woman to ever sign an exclusively-male modeling contract.

Apparently robbers in Northern California are starting to learn that photojournalists typically shoot with pretty expensive gear. The …

Oakland Raiders football player Desmond Bryant was arrested this past weekend and charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief (apparently the 27-year-old show up at a neighbor's house drunk). While it's not uncommon for a famous athlete to find themselves in jail, Bryant's case is attracting quite a bit of attention due to the ridiculous way he posed for his mugshot (seen above) when he was booked at around 9:30 in the morning on Sunday.

In a red carpet interview with Access Hollywood's Billy Bush, Jennifer Lawrence shocked viewers by actually saying that she loves Photoshop "more than anything in the world." The conversation began on the red carpet when Bush showed Lawrence the results of a photo shoot she did for Christian Dior.

The Miss Dior ads she did recently turned out unrealistically stunning. In them she has perfect skin, a long slender neck and incredibly thin arms. Seeing them for the first time on the red carpet, her reaction was a delighted "That doesn't look like me at all!" Followed by the above "I love Photoshop more than anything in the world."

Benedict XVI officially resigned yesterday after eight years as the Pope of the Catholic Church. The Vatican decided to commemorate his papacy by publishing a digital photo album to its website. It's a serious set of photos that marks a serious occasion, but it's attracting attention for the wrong reason: most sites that are reporting on it seem to be focusing on the font selections rather than the images themselves.

The text in the album is Comic Sans and the watermarks on the photos are Papyrus.

It's an unfortunate truth in the world of concert photography that some bands refuse to issue press passes to "small time" local music photographers. The Killers are one such band.

International fashion magazine Numero is raising some eyebrows with its choice of photography for an editorial titled, "African Queen." The piece features 16-year-old Ondria Hardin -- a caucasian model -- with heavily darkened skin.

A couple were visiting a vista point near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco this past Valentine's Day when they came across a black camera bag that had apparently been misplaced. After the owner didn't turn up to recover it, they looked inside and found a wallet with Chinese currency, credit cards, an "expensive-looking" camera and lens... and $11,000 in cash.

Who owns public art illegally placed onto private buildings? That's a question that came up recently after a famous Banksy work in London was ripped out of the side of a building, shipped across the Atlantic, and put up for auction with an estimated final price of over half a million dollars.

If you're a fan of photography and of Bill Watterson's popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, you'll probably love what Oregon-based freelance photographer Michael S. Den Beste has been working on recently. He's using his Photoshoppin' skills to blend Calvin and Hobbes characters into photographs of real world locations that match the settings seen in the comics. The results are magical, beautiful, and oh-so-very-fun.

Want to buy all the camera equipment you need to start a photography business for just $15.35? All you'll need is... a time machine! Reddit user sneeden found this Sears Roebuck and Co. consumer guide for the fall of 1900. Two of the pages inside the catalog are for view camera kits that can help anyone "start in a pleasant and good paying business."

On April 8, 2011, Senator Jon Kyl was quoted on the Senate floor as saying, "If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."

This is not a post about abortion or Planned Parenthood. This is a discussion about veracity and why it matters in photojournalism. In fact, about 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortion-related. When Sen. Kyl was confronted with the facts, his office responded with “his remark was not intended to be a factual statement.”

In the middle of last year, The Economist released rankings for the world's most livable cities, and Hong Kong was found at the top. What many people don't know, however, is that there is a percentage of Hong Kong residents living in rather horrid conditions.

In an attempt to draw attention to the issue, human rights organization Society for Community Organization recently commissioned a series of photographs showing what a number of unacceptable living spaces look like when viewed from directly overhead. (Here's a larger version of the photo above.)

Back in 2010, we humorously reported that chickens have image stabilized heads. Some people took the idea further, turning chickens into organic Steadicams and doing further research into the subject.

NYC-based creative agency OKFocus has created a brilliant interactive music video for the song "Not The Same" by Tanlines. The experimental video is styled after Photoshop's workspace.

Online dating websites are a multi-billion dollar business nowadays, and more and more single-and-looking people turn to the Interwebs to find their soul mates. Photographers Patrick Eggert and Sophie Ellis met through the Web as well, but not through a matchmaking site: their relationship started through a Flickr comment.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of a survey this week that sheds light on social media use among Americans. One of the networks they asked participants about was Instagram.

After surveying 1,802 Internet users in late 2012, the study found that 13% of Internet users use the mobile photo sharing service. It also found that the service is "especially appealing" to "Adults ages 18-29, African-Americans, Latinos, women, [and] urban residents."

One of the major international news stories today is the fact that a meteorite streak across the sky in central Russian today, causing an explosion and shock wave that injured over 1,000 people. It was the largest meteor reported since 1908. The event was well documented, as many Russian drivers had dashcams rolling as the event unfolded.

Award-winning photographer Michael Wolf is raising some eyebrows with a new photo project titled "Window Watching." The series features photographs of high-rise apartment windows in Hong Kong, offering glimpses into the lives of people living inside the private residences. Basically, Wolf pointed a telephoto lens at open windows to photograph people going about their day-to-day-lives, without their knowledge and consent.

Los Angeles-based musician Paz Dylan recently pulled a pretty funny prank on the Grammy Museum in LA. He made a series of informational wall display pieces featuring strange descriptions and photographs of himself eating tacos, and then hung them up on the walls of the museum next to the real pieces. That's pretty clever, but get this: no one noticed, and the pieces stayed up for a month.

The photograph above is a piece he made for the "Wall of Fame."

In December of 2008, as I was getting ready for a vacation trip to Brussels, I posted the above self-portrait of myself sporting my new winter coat to my Flickr account. I didn’t think much of it after posting it and I’d pretty much forgotten about it over the years.

Today, as I was reading some discussions about people having their photos used to create fake online identities I decided to use Google Image Search to see if any of my self portraits could be found anywhere on the vast Internet.