Archive for May, 2006

Buying the right camera

In a completely unrelated post, I received a rather lengthy comment today. I suspect the main purpose of the post was to get a link to his site, but of course, Photocritic uses REL=NOFOLLOW (read why) on all the user-contributed links, so the spamming activity went without any particular merit. What was insteresting, however, was that this person actually raised an interesting issue and an fascinating question. He says that 75% of people buy the wrong camera for his photography courses...

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Minolta 35mm to digital conversion

I think this write-up by GPS aware is most likely to be a joke (the quality of the pictures doesn't inspire much faith, anyway), but it seems to be a funny project anyway. It re-opens the ages-old discussion of "So, I have a great 35mm camera, why can't I convert it into a digital camera?".

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Annual portrait tracking

On June 17th, 1976, Diego Golberg had a fabulous idea: What if I could take a portrait photo of all my family members every year? It would be an interesting way to see how people change over time. And so he did. The result is inspired, and would easily become a highly cherished family memory.

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Published in Make Magazine!

Most hardcore DIY fans out there will have heard of Make magazine - it's O'Reilley's first steps into the magazine publishing world, after many a year of publishing high-quality books. And now, it's our turn. One of the project editors over at Make contacted us a while ago about publishing our Macro-lens-built-from-pringles-box article in the magazine. I re-wrote it for magazine publishing, and the result? Well, the mag's on newsstands May 22nd (the day after my birthday, incidentally!), so pick up a copy, or order an on-line subscription today! Apart from our article, It's got tons of other great DIY-based stuff in it, too, of course, with dozens of funky projects.

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Basement Car Parks

Sometimes, it takes something extremely simple to remind you why you started to take photos. Recently, I've been really busy with work, and I don't have a lot of time to pick up a camera (except, of course, for work, which somehow doesn't quite count). So it is when I find galleries like this one on Hemmy.net that my interest is re-sparked, and I feel the old familiar itch (no, not my allergy to ammonia... the trigger finger!). Have you ever come across a photo, or a set of photos that suddenly made you want to dive at your camera and get going again? Post a comment and tell us about it!

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The coolest lenses on the block

Ice can bend light, as every late-night part-time alcoholic no doubt will have noticed. So why has nobody ever thought of making a photographic lens out of ice?

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PhotoJoJo takes the reins!

They've only been going for about a month, but PhotoJoJo is definitely one of the cool kids on the block. So far, they only have just over a thousand subscribers to the newsletter, and another thousand who read the RSS feed, which is bloody ridiculous, considering the amount of very good newsletters the guys have produced so far. They should be more popular than the Pope and strawberry jam by now!

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Take 3D photos!

Remember when you were young, wearing blue-and-red 3D glasses to make the world go all funny-coloured but vaguely 3D? As it turns out, it is actually possible to this yourself as well! All you need is a photo camera, some DIY skills, and a small stack of materials costing around £20.

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Try food photography!

If you thought portraiture was difficult, think about how perishable hot foods are. When you photograph it, you'll want it looking fresh, happy, steaming, and appetising. A normal photo shoot - where you photographs something to perfection - takes a few hours, but the food will only remain good-looking for about 10 minutes at the most. So what do you do? God knows, I've never tried. But my new friend L over at Still Life With laid down the gauntlet...

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Make your own Camera Straps!

When a professional pap photographer buys a new camera, the first thing they do is to replace the strap. Why? Because they carry their cameras around so much that the regular strap is a pain. More padding and wider strap means that it becomes at least a little more comfortable to lug around. Although, of course, you don't have to be a professional to want to replace your camera strap. In fact, it's quite easy to make your own!

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