When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?
There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.
Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition.
Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...
For January, we were looking for bright, airy, and positive high-key images to kick off the new year. This was the entry that made both Haje and me go 'Yes!' It's calm, delicate, and gorgeous.
Congratulations, Hooker771 (he doesn't give his real name on Flickr), for your charming First Year of Ballet. You've just won yourself a 12" Fracture.
Details of our February competition will be going up very soon!
Yahoo! undertook a mass cull of staff late in 2010, of which a significant percentage were Flickr staff. A little over a year on and it would seem as if that were insufficient; another bundle of Flickr staff have just lost their jobs. This time it's the entire senior tier of customer support that's been asked to pack up their desks.
This is a group of gifted and committed people, according to previous Flickr-employee Nolan Caudill. They had fairly thankless jobs, but always had Flickr's and its users' best interests at heart. Consequently, he's convinced that laying them off was a huge mistake on Yahoo!'s part. If that's the case, what sort of justification can the management at Yahoo! be offering?
It's easy to think that they reached tipping point with the number of gut-wrenching screw-ups that some of the customer support team at Flickr accomplished, for example deleting entire accounts of long-standing users, and claiming that there were no back-ups and couldn't be re-instated, or not double-checking DMCA take-down notices before removing legitimate content. But if this group of people is as talented and dedicated as Caudill says that they are, then they're the guys who are trying to make Flickr better for its users, help prevent these sorts of screw-ups, and rectify them when they do happen. Had it been these guys who were responsible for these sorts of epic blunders, then really, action should have been taken against them well before now.
From Caudill's perspective, the people who were laid off were Flickr users' biggest advocates. They helped to fix the bugs inadvertently whipped up by developers and presented the user-eye-view of Flickr at product and development meetings. They knew more about the site, its operation, and its foibles than anyone else. So with them, an encyclopaedia of Flickr-knowledge has just walked out the door and Flickr won't be getting it back. That's a huge loss.
Now this could just be a case of naivety, if I'm being kind - mis-management, if I'm blunt - on Yahoo!'s part. But I've a feeling in my gut that it's possibly a bit more sinister than that. What if Yahoo! were attempting to precipitate Flickr's own demise? There have already been concerns raised for Flickr's future - its failure to capitalise on the social media revolution and a general sense of Flickr feeling old and tired; the loss of other valuable staff members; and the sense that Yahoo! doesn't have its best interests at heart. By showing the door to a group of people who understood the site and understood its users, management has lost one its most valuable assets. Without their knowledge and support, the erosion of everything that made Flickr great for its users will be all too easy. If that were to happen, and users were to lose confidence in Flickr, then it's an easy step to close it.
If Yahoo! really doesn't have the enthusiasm to support Flickr or the guts to compete with 500px, Google+, and Facebook, then this is a gloriously Machiavellian and distinctly long-term plan to bring about its end. But it's probably a whole lot easier to steadily vex the owners of five billion photos to the point where they have no confidence or interest in Flickr any longer, than to infuriate all of them in one go by pulling the plug without any obvious catalyst. A steady stream of disappointed emails, or better yet the constant drift of apathetic users, is far easier to deal with than a vehement deluge of complaints, especially when you don't have an experienced customer support team to handle it.
I'd love for this speculation to be the product of my over-active imagination, but I've seen something similar happen to other organisations and institutions, so I'll sit and watch, and make sure that I've a Flickr alternative lined up. Just in case.
Imagine the situation: you're the editor of a newspaper or news website covering the conviction of a mother for the murder of her child through neglect. The story is grim and gruesome, but you think that including some compare-and-contrast photos, showing the child in years gone by, happy and healthy, as well as in the hideous conditions in which he was left to die miserably, is in the public interest. But, the only images of him happy and healthy are the copyright of the mother. And the child's grandmother is protesting that seeing these images will cause her distress. What to do?
Well, according to Lord Woolman, sitting at the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, publishing the images is entirely legitimate. In this instance, freedom of expression, and with it the public interest, trumps both copyright and the right to privacy.
Lord Woolman was ruling on whether or not the BBC was justified in publishing six images of Declan Hainey, who was murdered by his mother Kimberley, that had been referred to by witnesses in court and showed Declan in happier times. Now, Section 45 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) allows for the media to reproduce copyrighted works if reporting on parliamentary or judicial proceedings, but whilst the images of the child had been used as evidence in court, they weren't placed on the court's document imager and neither were they displayed to the public in court. So it wasn't necessarily that clear-cut. In Lord Woolman's opinion, however, because the images had been used as evidence, they had effectively been published in open court. Furthermore:
The BBC only intends to use the photographs for the purpose of reporting the trial. In my view, were it necessary to do so, the public interest in the proper and full reporting of this case is sufficient to 'trump' any right of the copyright owner.
Round 1, then, goes to the public interest. So what about privacy? Lord Woolman's opinion was that privacy also took a backseat to the public interest, but only in so far as images of the boy alone were concerned. When it came to images of Declan with his grandmother, they weren't deemed in the public interest and the BBC had no justification in reproducing them. That would have been a step too far.
I wonder what Leveson would have to say about all of this?
(Headsup to The Register, and if you want to read the full ruling, it's here.)
Flickr is a wonderful resource for up and coming photographers and also has a solid group of advanced photographers on their site. It's easy to use, a great way to show off your photos, yadda-yadda-yadda. To me, the most exciting thing is that there's so many fabulous and unusual photographers on there to keep your creativity challenged. So, every year, I spend a bit of time exploring photographers I've missed so far... So, to follow up from my 50 amazing Flickr streams from 2009, my 100 awesome Flickr streams from 2011, here's my 25 of my new-found treasure-troves on Flickr, to do 2011 proud...
Photo: That Sinking Feeling by Rosie Hardy
1. Rosie Hardy: Rosie is a London-based photographer that has been a constant on Flickr for a few years now. She is a professional photographer that has mastered the art of photo manipulations. Her stream is always awe-inspiring. Check out their Flickr stream
2. Kelly Webster: Kelly is a self-portrait photographer that got her start with a 365 Day Project. She quickly went from beginner photographer to advanced in a matter of months. Her photos have strong concepts, and are technically gorgeous. Check out their Flickr stream
3. Meagan Jaskela: Meagan is an up and coming photographer that has used her photographs to tell the story of her teenage years. Her photos are incredibly honest. Check out their Flickr stream
4. James Fitzgerald: James is one of two brothers that appear on this list. He is a portrait photographer that has the ability to capture the true essence of his subjects. Check out their Flickr stream
Photo: L Nyman by Parker Fitzgerald
5. Parker Fitzgerald: Parker is James's brother, and he produces beautiful work as well. He works with both digital and film and all of his photos have a vintage feel to them that is simply magnificent. Check out their Flickr stream
6. Alexis Mire: Alexis coined the term 'self portrait therapy' and it is an event that she takes part in often. Her self portraits are full of emotion and make her audience feel just what she is feeling. Check out their Flickr stream
7. Brooke Shaden: Brooke Shaden is a force to be reckoned with. Her photos have appeared in major publications and recently were even a part of Project Imagination. She is a photo manipulation artist and has some of the most original concepts on Flickr today. Check out their Flickr stream
8. Allison Scarpulla: Allison's photographs come straight from a dream. Her photos are so fantastical and dreamy that often times her audience wonders how she creates such beauty. Check out their Flickr stream
9. Tessa Mayer: Tessa has made it her job to photograph her sister Ava. The little girl appears in the majority of Tessa's photos and together the sister pair create gorgeous memories that will be cherished for a lifetime. Check out their Flickr stream
10. Taya I: Taya has only been on Flickr for a small amount of time, and doesn't have many uploads yet, but so far, her stream is full of incredible self portraits. Check out their Flickr stream
11. Alex Stoddard: Alex is a wonderful photographer that is not afraid to take risks. His photos take him all over his state just so that he can find the perfect setting for his perfect, dreamy photographs. Check out their Flickr stream
12. Brian Oldham: Brian is Alex's boyfriend, and he too, takes photos with breathtaking settings. His concepts are strong and well thought out, and he executes his photos perfectly. Check out their Flickr stream
13. Masha Sardari: Masha doesn't upload to Flickr that often, but when she does, people flock to her photos extraordinarily quickly. Her photos tip toe on the edge of the surreal, but still manage to have a real factor about them that draws people into her photographs. Check out their Flickr stream
14. Rockie Nolan: Rockie Nolan is an up and coming fashion photographer. Set to graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design within a year, she has a promising career ahead of her that all started on Flickr. Check out their Flickr stream
Photo: Untitled by Jessie Roth
15. Jessie Roth: Jessie is a 365 Day Project finisher and she still uploads photos to Flickr on a regular basis. Her photos are mostly self portraits, and they are all incredibly raw and beautifully honest. Check out their Flickr stream
16. Sandy Honig: Sandy Honig is studying photography in NYC and has a future career in photography. Her photos range from self portraits to powerful street photography. Check out their Flickr stream
17. Karrah Kobus: Karrah is a portrait photographer that will blow your mind. Her photos have such a professional feel to them, that it is hard to believe she is a young photographer. Check out their Flickr stream
18. Sarah Ann Loreth: Sarah is also a photo manipulator. Her photos are set in dream-like settings with highly original concepts. Check out their Flickr stream
19. Anna Szczekutowicz: Anna is a Polish photographer that lives in America, but travels often. Her photos are mostly self portraits, but they are so intriguing to look at due to her frequent travels and her pure honesty in front of her camera. Check out their Flickr stream
Photo: A Technicolor Ghost II by Lauren Withrow.
20. Lauren Withrow: Lauren started her career on Flickr a few years ago, and since, has began shooting signed models and gaining exposure in the fashion photography world. Check out their Flickr stream
21. Theo Gosselin: Theo is a true artist that can work with light. All of his photos have the most amazing lighting. He has definitely mastered the art of capturing the sun. Check out their Flickr stream
22. Elizabeth Brooke: Elizabeth is another photographer that uses her sister as her main model. Together, the pair create beautiful masterpieces that will leave you breathless. Check out their Flickr stream
23. Maryclaire Roman: Maryclaire has learned how to make simple portraits amazing by combining good lighting with beautiful models. Check out their Flickr stream
24. Elizabeth Gadd: Elizabeth might live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. She takes gorgeous self portraits with colorful mountains and streams in the background that make every photographer envious of her homeland. Check out their Flickr stream
25. Lissy Elle: Lissy is also one of the younger photographers on this list, and she has such a bright future ahead of her. Her photos are the true incarnations of colorful dreams and nightmares. Check out their Flickr stream
Flickr is home to some pretty fantastic photographers. It is a wonderful place to begin learning about photography and gaining exposure. These twenty-five photographers are a great example of Flickr's thriving community that can help photographers gain a large following.
Oh, and if you want to take a look at my Flickr stream, you're more than welcome to!
A note on copyright: The photos-of-photos in this post are used under the 'criticism and review' provision of UK copyright laws.
Late last summer I was sipping a beer with a friend when we began to muse over the question 'Where next for Apple?' Apple isn't exactly a company that's easy to second-guess, if it were, it wouldn't be where it is now. But hey, a touch of speculation is a fun way to spend a sunny afternoon. My friend laid his friendly pound on deeper app development, whilst I wagered, really quite unoriginally, that it was likely to be something photographic. If Apple were to hook up its tech know-how with the photographic know-how of another company, it could well be onto something. I think that the necessity to fetch more beer interfered with the discussion of the 'something' and which company it might be happy to get into bed with, but now it seems as if it weren't all that an outlandish conjecture.
Yesterday, Ars Technica reported how a new book by Adam Lashinsky, Inside Apple, reveals that Steve Jobs saw that Lytro's light field technology could be just the thing to push photography, and the iPhone, in the direction that he'd envisaged. In June last year, Ren Ng, Lytro's CEO, met with Jobs and discussed what collaboration could mean for them both.
Think about it: a fixed focus lens with a sensor that can manipulate focus and depth of field after the fact, which would allow for snapping photos even more on the move than the iPhone already manages.
But that little insight isn't all. In an interview with PC World, Lytro's Executive Chariman, Charles Chi, was candid about Lytro's capability to get involved with camera phone manufacture. It's something that holds a lot of possibilities for them, but isn't somewhere Lytro could go alone. It would have to be in partnership with a company that knew its camera phone onions. No, Chi didn't name any names.
If any of the big camera names are going to want to develop light field technology, my immediate response is that they'd much prefer to do it under their own steam rather than in conjunction with another company. But what better way would there be for Lytro to really make an impact than by combining with Apple? And somehow it just feels right that light field technology should make its way into camera phones. There's something about the spontaneity of iPhoneography that means it would benefit enormously from the ability to make light-field-type adjustments after the event.
And it would seem that there's the desire on both sides for this, too.
(Headsup to both Ars Technica and Engadget)
It's all rumour and speculation right now, but the word on the Intergoogles is that Sony is negotiating a captial-and-business alliance with Olympus, which should help Olympus out of its current cash-flow crisis brought on by a financial scandal of epic proportions.
The deal has been reported by Japanese business journal Diamond Weekly and suggests that Sony, which already has a 0.03% stake in Olympus, could lay out for upto 30% more, with particular interest in its medical imaging division.
Some kind of alliance had been mooted by the senior execs at Olympus last year, when its cash-flow problems and financial mis-management almost saw it de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There's now no immediate threat of that happening, as the Tokyo Stock Exchange placed Olympus on probabtion for three years, but it still needs to find some cash from somewhere. It seems as if Sony might've made the Olympus board the best offer.
If the deal were to go ahead, we'd likely hear about it from a press conference some time next week. But I suppose that there's always time for Fujifilm get in on the act.
(Headsup to TechCrunch)
When people asked me to recommend a free and easy editing suite to them, I'd answer 'Picnik' just about every time. It's helped me out of the occasional pinch before now, too. But from 19 April this year, no more. The sandwiches are gone, the hamper needs to be rescued, and the blanket folded away: Picnik, which was bought out by Google in 2010, is being washed away in an April shower. (If you use Google Message Continuity, Sky Map, Needlebase, Social Graph API, or Urchin, they're all on their way out, too.)
According to the Picnik team, they are going to be working on things that are 'even awesomer' at Google. Quite a few of Picnik's capabilities are already available in the Creative Kit attached to Google+, so I'm thinking that this is going to ramped up even more. If that's the case, it's another indication of Google's attempt to corral us into using its social media platforms and not to play away anywhere else.
As for the millions (at least that's what I'm estimating) of photos that are stored in Picnik, their creators can zip them into a file and deposit them on their desktop using Picnik Takeout. It'll work right up to 19 April, and can used as many times as they want. Or of course, they can move them straight to Google+. (Knock me down with a feather, I never saw that one coming.)
For anyone who'd shelled out the $24.95 premium fee, which added a slew of filters, textures, and the ability to touch up photos, as well as a few other toys to the standard editing package, a full refund awaits. It doesn't matter when your renewal is due, you get back every cent.
And between now and D-Day, the premium features are free for everyone to use.
The Picnik blog will keep people updated on what's happening, but I've until 19 April to run for cover and find new free-to-use and won't-drive-you-entirely-crazy online photo editing software that I'm happy to recommend to people.
Team Picnik - good luck, and I hope that your next ventures are indeed even awesomer.
You can't escape it; it's on the BBC, the New York Times, on Reuters, on CNN; the tech websites are awash with it; and its headline news on just about every photography site imaginable, now including this one: Eastman Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. (Its subsidiaries in other countries aren't affected.)
The idea is that the company - which has reportedly $6.8 billion in debt but only $5.1 billion in assets - has time to restructure itself, hopefully sell off some of its patents (which it has already been trying to do, without much success), without having to face its creditors. Creditors that include Sony, Nokia, and Disney, amongst many others.
Citigroup has provided it with $950 million in credit that should see it through the bankruptcy process, which should complete sometime in 2013.
We all know the story of its downfall: it failed to capitalise on the development of digital photography - a technology that it pretty much invented - in ways that Canon and Fujifilm did. I suppose that you could say it was hoist by its own petard. At least, it was unwilling to let go of the film business that had made it so great and join the digital march.
For the past few years, under Chief Exec. Antonio Perez, Kodak has shifted its focus towards consumer and commercial printing. What the restructure will mean for that, and for its film production, we can only wait to see as the bankruptcy process unfolds. Whatever the new look Kodak, the plan is to operate as normal and 'to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.' Let's hope that you make it, Kodak.
Oh, and take a look at the BBC's slideshow, showing Kodak's history in pictures.
When I get an email asking me to take a look at yet another photo-sharing website, it usually elicits a small groan, a roll of the eyes, and I wonder just how SuperPixShare is going to do a better job than ShareSuperPix, which I looked at last week. If I end up writing about ShareSuperPix, then it has to be either fantastically unusual or breathtakingly terrible; which means that CanvasDropr, a collaborative content-sharing website out of Denmark, has to be one or the other.
The idea behind it is that groups of people can collaborate around images or videos, creating giant digital collages in real-time that they can comment on, resize, and rotate at will. There's a video introducing it, if you fancy.
But you know, I really like CanvasDropr.
It's well laid-out and easy to use. You can drag and drop images and videos onto your canvas from your computer, or import them from other sites such as Flickr and YouTube. I love that this enables you to create an album of photos and videos from a trip or event that's all in one place and is easy to share with family and friends.
Even better, of course, is that other people can collaborate with you to create a giant canvas of shared images and videos from a holiday, party, festival, or celebration. You can see all the media simultaneously, and everyone contributing to the canvas can add, resize, rotate, and comment on content in real-time.
You can even integrate your canvas into your own site.
The team behind CanvasDropr don't just see it as a way of sharing media amongst friends, but as a useful tool for designers, media types, and photographers. As they put it, it's like Google Docs for images and videos.
I'm intrigued to see how CanvasDropr develops. It is certainly something that my family could make use of to consolidate the thirteen million images that we manage to take at one party. I might even be tempted to use it to create a collage or two from my current trip.
CanvasDropr: you should check it out.
You've just snapped the most adorably perfect photo of your three year old niece curled up asleep against your dog, using your iPhone. The lighting is just right, the dog is actually still for once, and your niece is looking uncharacteristically angelic. Now what?
Well you could email it to your sister, your Mum, your best friend, and your girlfriend's mother's cousin (who was the woman who gave you the dog), but it's far too good to leave it languishing in a digital format in someone's inbox. If only there were some easy way to turn it into something tangible, like a print, or a postcard, or a t-shirt, so that everyone can go 'Ooh!' and 'Ahh!' and a few others can ask what camera you used because of course, it's all about the camera. Guess what? There's an app for that.
It's called MoPho. (How much did the developers, Penguin Digital, enjoy coming up with that name?) It allows you to take a photo or select one straight from your camera roll and then see what it looks like on a bag, as a re-stick-able poster, or as a mousemat, keyring, or iPhone case - amongst many other things - and adjust it as necessary. Then you decide which you like best, enter your billing and shipping details, and leave them to deliver it.
To give you an idea of prices: mugs come in at $13.99, t-shirts are $22, and aluminium art starts at $12.99. So it seems pretty reasonable as well as convenient.
It doesn't end quite there, however. MoPho is based on Penguin Digital's Penguin SDK, which is something that they're opening up to other developers. If you've your own photo-based app, you can integrate Penguin SDK, and allow your users to turn their photos into products direct from your app. Interested? Sign-up is here.
Right now, MoPho only ships to the US and Canada. So there are no re-stick-able posters to be made on the fly for us Brits quite yet, but they are working on it. Just as they're working on an Android app too. And if the SDK takes off, who knows where it might go.
Olympus has announced that it's considering embarking on legal proceedings against current and former executives for landing it in one of the juiciest accounting scandals in the history of Japanese business.
An external investigation has pointed fingers at ten individuals, one of whom is Shuichi Takayama, the current President of Olympus, who should bear responsibility for the ¥100 billion cover-up. If it were to sue them on the advice of the investigating panel - details of which will be released tomorrow - it could be for damages amounting to ¥90 billion.
As if law suits against directors past and present weren't sufficient, and not forgetting the on-going legal investigations, there's also talk that Michael Woodford will sue the company for unfair dismissal. Well, woudn't you, when you were sacked under the pretence of your manangement style not meshing with the company where you'd worked for 30 years, but most likely it was for uncovering a multi-million yen scandal? Thought so.
(Headsup to the BBC and Financial Times)
The lovely people over at IdeasTap, a not-for-profit organisation that's in the business of giving young creative people a leg-up in their chosen field, has just announced two new projects that might be right up some young photographers' streets.
First up is a Bauhaus-inspired project. The Barbican in London will be hosting the Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition from May this year, and they're looking for Bauhaus-inspired images to be turned into paper-based products, such as greetings cards and posters, for sale in the gift shop.
If you're UK-based and aged between 16 and 30 you can submit six images - all Bauhaus-inspired - to be considered for production by the panel of judges. The deadline is 17:00 on 16 February. More details are available on the IdeasTap website.
Next up is the opportunity to curate your very own anthology - a collection of whatever words and pictures that you feel deserve to see the light of day in a creative and inspiring way. Of course, they judges will be looking for something that's original and unusual. So this is a chance to let yourselves shine.
The deadline for this is much tighter - it's Wednesday 11 January - and you need to put together a brief for your idea with an editorial team of three people by then. If you're successful, you'll be given three months, professional mentoring, and £2,000 to make your idea into a pdf production.
Does this float your boat? Super! You and your editorial team need to be aged between 16 and 25. All the information is available here.
Seeing as it's a new year, which is traditionally a time for optimism, hope, and positivity (despite the current economic climate), we thought that we'd go for a theme that reflects this. So how about some light, bright, and airy high-key photographs for the month of January?
The lovely people at Fracture are continuing to provide the prize, entitling the winner to have a photograph of her or his choice made into a gorgeous 12" Fracture.
Entries can be submitted from today (Thursday 5 January) until Thursday 26 January. They need to go in the Small Aperture Flickr pool, and please remember - it's one entry per person.
So that's about that. The Rules are below for your reference, but otherwise, good luck!
The Rules
If you've any questions, please just ask!
The prospects for Kodak have not been looking good for some time, but today things became decidedly grim. If the rumours are to be believed, the company is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That is, unless it can sell off its valuable cache of 1,100 patents within the next few days.
Given that it was Kodak that practically developed digital photography, there must be plenty of juicy morsels lurking amongst its archives that any other camera manufacturers would be willing to gobble up. But the question is, would these companies be willing to pay enough upfront to help keep Kodak afloat? If the patents are auctioned off under court supervision, according to Chapter 11 rules, they could be picked up at knock-down prices. Or two (or more) rival companies might engage in a bidding war and the prices could rocket. That would be good for Kodak, but to what end? It'd be solvent, yes, but that'd be just about it. How much would this be just deferring the inevitable?
Kodak's shares have closed at under $1 for thirty consecutive days, and it's possible that it'll be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange as a consequence. This afternoon, its shares were trading at 54 cents.
This would seem to be a rattling death throe in a protracted, painful, and very public demise. I can't help but think that it would be kinder all round if someone would issue a swift coup de grace.
(Headsup to both Engadget and the Wall Street Journal)
Congratulations tvsshenoy!
We asked for foodie photos throughout December and wow did you give us some treats. There were lots of photos of fruit, quite a few of fish, and fair bit of cake, too. Some even had Haje and me salivating. But the winner stood out from the crowd, with its colourful sparkle and lovely composition.
Congratulations to tvsshenoy for a beautiful bowl of pomegranates. You've just won yourself a 12" Fracture.
Details of our January competition will be going up later today.
Picture from Camera 308 of the Disposable Memory Project
The creators of one my favourite collaborative photo projects, the Disposable Memory Project, have dreamed up and launched a new idea for 2012, and this one seems just as awesome. It's called The 100.
The aim? To capture the a week in the lives of 100 people, aged between one and 100. By the end of the year, these snapshots of so many lives, from people of all different ages, scattered across the globe, will form a giant collage of life.
It's a little bit of social history documentation mixed with a smidge of creativity, which means that I love it. A lot.
Matthew Knight, the creator of the Disposable Memory Project, and his team are at the 'search' stage right now: they're looking for people who're interested in participating in the project. Unsurprisngly, the slots for people in their 30s are over-subscribed, whilst under-five and over-80 are a bit sparse. If you'd like to add your name to the list, or think that you know someone who might, head over to the website and sign up. You can be from anywhere, and definitely of any age!
The team isn't waiting for a full complement of 100 people to sign up before they send out their first cameras; they'll be doing that when they think that they have a fair enough spread to get started.
When participants have documented their lives with their disposable cameras, they'll return the camera to 100 HQ, where the film will be processed and the stories of their weeks, the snapshots of their lives, will be added to the project blog.
If you'd still like to get involved, but not necessarily by sharing a slice of your life with the project, you could always help out by donating a disposable camera to the cause, or by paying for some film processing. You can always spread the word, too, to complete the jigsaw of ages.
Head over to The 100 to join in the fun and help create a canvas of life of all ages.
Ooh, there's nothing like a bit of corporate espionage and cat-fighting amongst camera manufacturers to kick off the new year. Not content with seeing former Arri VP of Market Development for Digital Camera Products, Michael Bravin, done for computer fraud and email hacking, Red is alleging that he was engaged in unfair trade practices and the misappropriation of trade secrets - amongst other charges - too.
In September last year, Michael Bravin pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing the email server of a third camera manufacturer, Band Pro Film & Digital, when he was in Arri's employ. After a bit of negotiation, he was sentenced to two years' probabtion for his misdemeanours.
Red, though, thinks that because at that time it was engaged in secret discussions with Band Pro about a potential joint venture, Bravin was also illicitly privy to sensitive information regarding Red's technology. Not only that, but he then passed on this information to Arri's Chief Technology Officer and its VP of Camera Products. Naturally it follows that Arri used this information to give its Alexa an edge over Red's Epic. If you ask Red, this puts Arri in the wrong.
There's more, too. Red is also claiming that Arri indulged in a bit of false advertising just before it launched the Alexa. It doesn't specify just what was false about Arri's claims, it all reads like standard PR to me, except that it said that the film I Hate You, Dad was filmed on an Alexa when it was really shot on Red.
My favourite claim, though, has to be that Bravin participated in discussion over on RedUser.net using a pseudonym (something's that's against blog policy) to slate the Epic and direct people towards the Alexa.
Red wants a jury trial to seek damages, disgorgement, restitution, and injunctive relief to cover all of these shenanigans.
In keeping with my proclivity to imagine corporate scandals and sagas as films, I was originally inclined to cast this one as a silent melodrama. The more that I think about it, though, it's a highschool drama, complete with cliques and foot-stomping.
Stepping Stone's Lightning Trigger at $380. Just lightning, nothing else.
Right, hands up who's looking to spend their Chrisnukah pennies on a neat and groovy photography toy? Yep, just about everyone. There's a surprise. You know what is a surprise, though, it would seem that the adage that you get what you pay for doesn't necessarily hold true for camera lightning triggers. If you're in the market for a lightning trigger, there's a goodly selection of them out there (and what with 2012 supposedly being apocalyptic or something, you'll get plenty of use out of one, I'm sure), but as this rather convenient comparison table shows, spending more won't necessarily get you more.
The cheapest and the most expensive - the Stepping Stone Lightning Trigger at $380 and the Ubertronix Strike Finder at $110 - both respond to flashes of light and that's pretty much it. There's no sound trigger, no motion trigger, and nothing so exciting as a time-lapse feature.
Ubertronix offers two higher-specced versions of the Strike Finder, the Pro and the Elite, at $170 and $350 respectively. You'd think that the Elite version might be all-singing and all-dancing, but you'd be mistaken. It might respond to lightning, lasers, sound, and motion, but it can't do time-lapse. Funny, really, when the Pro can manage time-lapse and react to lasers, but sound and motion are out of its comfort zone.
Oddly enough, the most comprehensive trigger out there is at the cheaper end of the spectrum, costing $150. It's the Triggertrap, and not only will it respond to lightning flashes, laser beams, and sound, but you can deploy its time-lapse feature and it comes with an auxiliary port, too.
Dreaming Robots' Camera Axe starts off as a basic box to which you add your own components allowing you to build exactly the trigger that you want. It starts at $185, but by the time that you've added a cable and at least one sensor - one that responds to lightning, for example - you've spent close to $225. Add a motion sensor to that and you're looking at $245.
Of course, for the ultimate in geekularity, you could always build your own, completely, utterly, and totally from scratch. As in, printing the printed circuit board yourself, programming a microprocessor yourself, and buying all of the components that you'll need and getting out your soldering iron to assemble it yourself. Heaven only knows how much it'll cost you in components and time but it'd be yours. If you fancy doing that, head over to diy-doc.net and look for the SmaTrig 2.1.
Sure, if you only want to photograph lightning, why spend more than $110 on the Strike Finder? But are you certain that you're never going to want to try some laser-triggered photography, or something sound-reliant? No, I didn't think so. And I definitely can't justify $380 on just a lightning trigger.
The lovely lightning picture is courtesy of Andy Dopieralski, on Flickr.
It's been a pretty intense month in my world the past month, and I think I've been working harder than I ever have before in my life. A large proportion of my time was gobbled up by Triggertrap (a full update about what's been happening on that front over the past month can be found on the Kickstarter site), and whatever I had left has been nibbled at by several exciting book projects I've been working on. There's three more books about photography in the pipeline, and it looks as if I may have some fiction in me as well, so that's all very exciting.
The fantastic Noah and Michael at NoMi design (the guys who have been absolutely insturmental in building and developing the Triggertrap) created me an awesome Christmas present: A motion sensor for the Triggertrap. You see that tab at the top? That's for hanging it from a Christmas tree, as a Christmas ornament!! How bloody geek-tastic is that...
Anyway; it all means that I haven't had as much time to post to Pixiq as I would have liked, but things look like they may be slowing down a little, so I'm going to take the rest of the year off, and I'll be back in full force in January.
In the meantime, if you're of the Christmas-celebrating type, I wish you a very happy one - and if not, have a fabulous rest of the year anyway.
Catch you on the flipside...
~ Haje
Ever wished that your camera could follow you around when you're making a video of yourself, without having to resort to bribing your loved ones or paying off your friends in their own weight in beer? Then you should check out Swivl.
It's an IndieGoGo-funded automated camera mount that will move to record you whilst you prance around your kitchen or boogie in the living room.
There's a base and there's a marker. You attach your camera to the base and the marker to you. Whilst you perform your all-singing, all-dancing recording activity, the base will swivel horizontally and vertically to follow the marker - and therefore you - ensuring that you're always in the picture.
Swivl will work with iPhone 4S and 4s and fourth generation iPod Touches. However, it can't cope with older iPhones or iPod Touches or iPads. Although it isn't Android-enabled at launch, the basic following capability will still work without any software, so provided that your Android phone isn't any thicker than 11mm, it can still follow you around.
Any kind of tripod-mountable pocket-sized video camera or sub-six ounce (170g) point-and-shoot will also attach to the base and let you record yourself in all your mobile glory. If you want to have a go with your dSLR you're out of luck, though.
Swivl's makers, Satarii, are anticipating that the device will ship early next year. If you're interested, you'll need to sign up now and when they're ready to go, you'll be asked to convert your interest into an order. But the bad news is that at the moment, they're only shipping to North America and there isn't any word on how much it'll cost yet, either.
Still, it's so cool when a crowd-funded project comes together!
