This is a great day! Google broke my heart when they killed my favorite photo software. Now they have released their death grip, and will now allow U-Point technology to live on, developed by brilliant Germans.
My prayers have been answered!!!
It’s been a long wait.
Happy!
– –
From: PetaPixel
Nikon just announced the winners of the 2017 Small World Photomicrography Competition, and they’ve shared some of the winning and honored images with us here. …
HINTS: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.
Interesting. I remember the motorcycles driving between the cars, trying not to hit the car mirrors, especially the bigger bikes with wider handlebars.
– –
It’s great to see myths busted! The world makes more sense the more clearly we understand.
Brilliant illustration of a somewhat sad trend.
Many used to start their day reading the paper, delivered to the door…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnyRyHkosiM
Gordon Laing at Camera Labs writes:
Canon EF 24-105mm STM review so far
The unique selling point of the EF 24-105mm STM is its focusing system: it becomes (and so far remains) the first full-frame EF zoom with Canon’s lead screw-type stepping motor, allowing it to focus quietly and smoothly in movies and live view. It’s also the only full-frame STM lens with image stabilisation and that’s wider than 40mm. These all make it the ideal walk-around companion for full-frame bodies with Dual Pixel CMOS AF, and in my tests it punches above its weight in terms of image quality. I miss the weather-sealing of the L models, but the optical quality for the relatively low price makes it a bargain in the Canon catalogue, and if you want an STM zoom for a full-frame body, it’s the only game in town at the time of writing.
First superzoom 1-inch sensor camera with phase detection autofocus, which locks onto moving subjects with precision. [Smaller sensor cameras have noisy, mediocre image quality, and previous 1-inch superzooms couldn’t track moving subjects well.]
24-600mm (35mm equivalent focal length) and f/2.4-4.0 lens. 24 fps. 2.4 pounds, weather-sealed.
Gordon discusses video during the midsection, and resumes discussing still photography features at 37:00.
– –
You can’t avoid crop factor these days. Whether your camera sports an APS-C, Micro Four Thirds, 1-inch, or some other size sensor, there will come a time when you’ll have to calculate a “full-frame equivalent” and that’s when the mmCalc Crop Factor Calculator will come in very handy.
mmCalc is a simple online tool that uses your sensor size to instantly convert any focal length and aperture f-stop into its 35mm equivalent.
Whether you’re using a Canon APS-C camera (crop factor 1.6) a Nikon APS-C camera (crop factor 1.5), an old Nikon 1 with a 1-inch sensor (2.7x crop factor), or something completely wacky, chances are the mmCalc calculator has you covered. You can even convert down from medium and large format, although the auto-fill bit under “Education” falls apart once the sensor gets bigger than full-frame.
Great to see! Hopefully, greater color accuracy and lower base ISO will someday trickle down into other 35mm and other formats too, which have mostly compromised color accuracy to get better low light performance through higher ISOs, which consumers demand more than accurate color, largely because color accuracy isn’t even mentioned by reviewers, and rarely in the forums. Color accuracy is harder to understand.
Canon’s 6D became well known as a high ISO champ, but is also their poorest color performing full frame 35mm camera, based on its color metamerism score of only 69.
Now, the Canon 5D Mark IV has only a mediocre color metamerism score of 85, whereas 95 would be a good score, which some earlier 35mm digital cameras achieved.
It’s sad to see galleries change direction, but Dennis still has Jitters, “where coffee is art” — and where locals’ artwork is still boldly displayed.
– –
From: Frontiersman
Eagle River’s Picture This gets new ownership, but changes little
Picture This gift shop in Eagle River is changing ownership, but you’d never know it. Its manager of seventeen years, Michelle Haynes, is taking full reins come this January from longtime friend and owner, Dennis Johnson, who also owns Jitters coffee shop next door. …
Dennis and partner, Jim Starry, started Picture This in a sixteen-foot wide space, when he took to framing up his wildlife photography as a sideline to teaching. Over the years, when most galleries failed to survive, his morphed and expanded into a thriving gift shop, a lot in part to Michelle’s managerial expertise. …
Dennis will keep Jitters, now run in partnership by his daughters Briana and Shanda. He likes the idea of being able to focus on just one business and, of course, to have more time to expand his already lofty fly-fishing goals. …
Dennis Johnson said the ownership transition is smooth but doesn’t come without mixed feelings. Building this “little baby into a monstrosity of sorts with the two businesses” over these past 33 years comes with gratitude to the community for their support. He’s made friends, attended weddings and funerals, and became like family to so many.
Two years after Elizabeth wrote this, Samsung has now launched Frame TV, which allows photographs to be displayed as still prints when the TV is not in use, in 55 and 65-inch 4K clarity.
In this article, Elizabeth mentions how impressed she is with the deep blacks that OLED TVs have. Samsung’s Frame TVs use a different type of LEDs, and currently can’t get the deep blacks yet, but OLED TVs that can display stills will likely come as the burn-in problem is solved.
See my article: Samsung’s ‘Frame TV’ Displays Large, Fine Art, Still Images – A Photography Presentation Alternative?
– –
From: OutdoorPhotographer.com
New opportunities on the horizon for photographers
By Elizabeth Carmel | June 16, 2015
I believe we’re on the cusp of another fundamental shift in how we’ll experience and display our photographs. …
The new 4K TVs are simply stunning, and actually can look better in some instances than a printed and framed photograph. …
Of particular interest to me at CES were the 4K OLED TVs. … This display technology creates incredibly deep blacks and vibrant colors that haven’t been previously possible on consumer displays. …
Viewing high-quality photographs on a large-screen 4K OLED TV may soon rival viewing a high-quality inkjet print. External lighting isn’t an issue with TVs as it is for inkjet or LightJet prints. Furthermore, we now can add high-resolution 4K HDR video to the mix to create a full multimedia experience. …
I think there still will be a demand for the signed, limited-edition photographic print in the future. It will be interesting to see if this new display technology reduces the demand…. I think it’s certain that visual artists will be able to reach a wider audience as people recognize their TVs can also be used as art displays. …
Similar to the challenges facing the music industry, photographers will have a new concern about the ease of copying their high-resolution digital content. I don’t spend too much time worrying about duplication of my low-resolution, 900-pixel website images on the Internet, but I do have greater concern when a 4000-pixel-wide image becomes easy to duplicate and share. The same concerns arise for 4K time-lapse and video content. The question is, will we be able to realize an income from our work when it can be so easily duplicated and shared? Hopefully, future 4K distribution technology will allow for some form of DRM (digital rights management). …
Elizabeth Carmel is a professional landscape and travel photographer. She and her husband Olof Carmel own and operate two art galleries in California, the Carmel Gallery in Calistoga and the Carmel Gallery in Truckee. You can get more information about her prints, galleries, workshops and books at ElizabethCarmel.com and TheCarmelGallery.com. For more information about her videos, go to VistaChannel.tv.
My favorite scene is at 2:00.
Here are some of the pieces of equipment that we got back, destroyed by the Solar Eclipse of 2017.
A Mesmerizing Look at Hummingbirds in Flight
MASTERS OF FLIGHT
When it comes to aerodynamics, hummingbirds are fine‑tuned machines.
VIDEOS BY ANAND VARMA
Using a high-speed, high-resolution camera, photographer Anand Varma captures what the naked eye can’t see—the breathtaking maneuvers of a hummingbird in flight. Varma teamed up with scientists studying the biology of hummingbirds to reveal the secrets behind these captivating creatures.
An Anna’s hummingbird drinks artificial nectar from a glass vessel. The bird’s forked tongue makes a sipping motion up to 15 times a second.
Letting hummingbirds loose in wind tunnels allows researchers to probe the mechanics of flight at airspeeds of up to 35 miles an hour. A fog of water vapor makes the wind movement visible.
100 FLAPS/SEC
The wings of some species flap up to a hundred times per second.
A hummingbird shakes off rain the same way a wet dog does, with an oscillation of its head and body.
GRAMS
The smallest hummingbird weighs in at only 1.8 grams, which is less than the weight of a penny. The largest hummingbird tips the scales at around 20 grams.
SECONDS
Hummingbirds are the only birds that can hover in still air for 30 seconds or more.
Eclipse 2017: Through the Eyes of NASA
During the eclipse, 14 states across the U.S. were in the path of totality and experienced more than two minutes of darkness in the middle of the day – with a partial eclipse viewable all across North America. The broadcast – Eclipse Across America: Through the Eyes of NASA – covered locations along the path of totality, from Oregon to South Carolina including public reactions from all ages. The eclipse’s long path over land provided a unique opportunity to study the Sun, Earth, Moon and their interaction.
This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library:
“Total Eclipse Preview Show”, Total Solar Eclipse: “Through The Eyes of NASA,” Part 1
https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-NHQ…
Total Solar Eclipse: “Through The Eyes of NASA,” Part 2
https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-NHQ…
Total Solar Eclipse: “Through The Eyes of NASA,” Part 3
https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-NHQ…
Total Solar Eclipse: “Through The Eyes of NASA,” Part 4
https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-NHQ…
As a fine art landscape and cityscape photographer who loves big prints, I find this new mode of being able to display prints fascinating. This may be the start of a new trend that other manufactures will also jump onto.
I share some of my ideas of what this could mean for photographers at the end of this compilation of articles, in which I highlight many key points. I’ll start with a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umsrZL_ox6c
How would you go about photographing a $2.5 million car? That’s the challenge photographer Richard Thompson faced last year when he was tasked with shooting the Pagani Huayra BC on the streets of New York. For this car, of which only 100 were produced, Thompson decided to use a Phase One XF 100MP medium format camera kit that costs over $50,000. …
For a straight-on photo, Thompson used a Schneider Kreuznach 240mm LS f/4.5 IF lens with a 2x converter, giving him a focal length of 480mm.
“It really appeals to me to shoot it through a longer lens,” Thompson says in the video. “The focal compression makes the car look a lot more serious, even bigger than it is.”
The shoot was mostly done with available light, but Thompson did use a set of Profoto B1 strobes, often in setups that mimicked the natural sunlight hitting the car.
Hasselblad shoots a sport’s car from a drone. Also, long exposure light trails!
Above and Beyond | a collaboration with Koenigsegg
Passion, attention to detail and a strong drive to push boundaries are all characteristics that Hasselblad and Koenigsegg have in common. We visited Koenigsegg factory in Southern Sweden to explore that synergy and collaborated with their team to create a visual representation of the journey and hard work that goes into producing a finished car from concept, design and development to production.
Sample Image Download at http://www.hasselblad.com/inspiration…
From: glaringhypocrisy.com
(GLARING Hypocrisy) Weather modification has drastically changed skies and weather systems across the globe, especially in the last ten or twenty years. Go anywhere in the world and it’s quickly apparent that the same heinous crimes are being committed, and no matter which terms are used — chemtrails, geoengineering, solar radiation management (SRM), stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), and so on — the results are Frankenstein-inspired skies, weird weather and lacklustre light. The skies are streaked, smeared, filled with bizarre cloud formations, white, grey or, at best, a chalky blue. Sunshine is greatly diminished and when it shines it’s extremely rare for the earth to be bathed in warm, yellow light. The [unimpeded] golden hour, a gift for photographers, has all but disappeared. …
WoW!
– –
From: PetaPixel
If you point your camera at the sky and film, the stars will arc overhead. That’s because your camera is attached to a giant spinning orb called Earth. This interesting 24 hour time-lapse from YouTuber AlphaPhoenix stabilises the stars by spinning the footage in the opposite direction to Earth’s rotation.
AlphaPhoenix shot the time-lapse over 24 hours with a Sony A6000 and Samyang 12mm f/2.0. Each second of the video is an hour of real-time, as the 30fps time-lapse was created from one photo every 2 minutes.
By focusing on the North Star and rotating the image at the same speed as the Earth’s movement, AlphaPhoenix was able to freeze the stars in place as day turned to night, with beautiful results.
He also posted this behind-the-scenes video, showing how he managed to capture 24-hour footage from his window, using a shroud composed of two towels, a t-shirt, and a wizard hat (well, the leftovers of a wizard hat).
My favorite photo software program buried by Google! Nothing else is like it, or can be:
Google’s “Don’t be EVIL” slogan is like Fox News’ “Fair & Balanced.” Saying they are not something may fool some, but EVIL IS: buying Nik’s patented U-Point technology, developed by almost 100 brilliant Germans, and then burying it, so NO ONE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO USE CONTROL POINTS AGAIN!
– –
MAY 30, 2017
Google has quietly announced that it will be abandoning the Nik Collection from here on out. The announcement was made through a simple banner message found on the Nik Collection homepage.
“The Nik Collection is free and compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 through 10.10; Windows Vista, 7, 8; and Adobe Photoshop through CC 2015,” Google writes. “We have no plans to update the Collection or add new features over time.”
Published May 30, 2017
Google will stop providing updates for its Nik Collection suite of plug-in photo editing tools. The ‘announcement’ comes by way of a banner at the top of the Nik Collection site, stating that there are no plans to update or add features to the Collection.
Google acquired Nik in 2012, taking ownership of its desktop apps as well as its popular Snapseed mobile editing app. The company began offering the Collection free of charge last year.
I LOVE large, brightly lit ‘statement pieces;’ although, shoppers here won’t get the full, straight scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oME8o0gytCY
KHON2 News Living808 Visit LIK Fine Art Waikiki Gallery
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
