Miscellaneous

How to Do HDR Photography… Using Microsoft Excel

There are a number of popular HDR photography programs out there. Microsoft Excel isn't one of them. Photography enthusiast and software engineer Kevin Chen came up with the strange and hilarious idea of using Excel to create an HDR photo, and he presented his results in this 12-minute presentation he gave at !!Con 2017 (pronounced "bang bang con").

Photographer Terry Richardson Under Investigation by NYPD for Sex Crimes

Fashion photographer Terry Richardson is under investigation by the New York Police Department's Special Victims Squad over accusations of sexual assault made by models Richardson has worked with. The news comes two months after a number of leading fashion magazines banned Richardson over the numerous accusations that have been made over the years.

Instagram May Soon Let You Follow Hashtags

Instagram may soon become a lot more interesting for photographers in search of inspiration. The photo sharing service is apparently testing allowing users to follow hashtags in addition to other users.

This Photographer Melted His Drone Shooting Photos of Lava

While shooting for two weeks in Hawaii last month, Israeli photographer Erez Marom's drone had an Icarus experience. Marom flew his $1,500 DJI Phantom 4 camera drone too close to lava flows and accidentally melted part of the camera. He was able to capture some gorgeous photos of lava up-close, though.

Lexar Has Been Acquired by a Chinese Flash Storage Company

Back in June, Micron announced that it would be discontinuing its Lexar retail removable storage business, which makes memory cards used by photographers around the world. But now it looks like the Lexar brand will live on: it has been acquired by the Chinese flash storage company Longsys.

U.S. Probing Nikon Cameras for Patent Infringement after Zeiss Complaint

There have been some legal rumblings in the camera industry over the past couple of months. It's an ongoing patent dispute between Nikon and two other companies involved in camera technologies: Carl Zeiss and ASML. The latest news is that the United States has opened an official patent infringement investigation into Nikon's products.

Cassini Snaps the Closest Views We’ve Ever Had of Saturn

On April 26th, NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its first-ever "Grand Finale" dive through the gap between Saturn and the planet's rings. As it shot around the gas giant, Cassini snapped a lengthy series of closest-ever photos showing the features of the atmosphere. Now NASA has combined those photos into a beautiful fly-by movie.

Fun ‘Film Dating’ Quiz Helps Newbies Find Their Favorite 35mm Film Stock

Vincent Moschetti of One Year with Film Only has developed a fun little "tool" that will help film beginners find their perfect 35mm match. It's called "Film Dating," and it's basically a 5-step questionnaire that tries to narrow down the qualities you like in a film stock and suggest the best option for you.

We’d Like Your Feedback On Our Website Design

We launched a major redesign of the PetaPixel website this week. Thanks for all the feedback you've provided thus far, from the angry complaints to the happy compliments -- we appreciate hearing them all. Now we'd like to hear more of your thoughts on what you'd like to see.

Welcome to the Newly Redesigned PetaPixel

As you can probably tell, last night we launched the biggest site redesign so far in the history of PetaPixel. While change is often hard and controversial, there are some big ones that we've made in response to reader feedback and needs over the years.

Readers Reporting Auto Redirecting Ads on Mobile

PetaPixel is a free-to-read blog, so we rely almost entirely on advertising to stay in business. In the past couple of weeks, however, readers have been reporting intrusive and annoying ads that redirect you to other websites while reading PetaPixel on mobile.

No, these are not intentional. We never allow things like pop-ups, pop-unders, ads that auto-play audio, or ads that redirect elsewhere.