As the title suggests, James Maher took apart his Fuji X100 after it got soaked by seawater. An incredible, if sad, story. But he made the most of it. The photos of the dead camera are cool.
If you've been reading my site for a while, you'll know I've been lusting for a Leica for years. Who isn't, I guess?
I haven't taken the plunge yet because I just can't rationalise the expense. Spending over $4,000 on a film camera (for the M7) or over $7,000 for a digital (the M9) just seems wrong. Believe me, I've tried to convince myself that somehow it's ok and that it's a valid investment, but I've failed miserably. So no Leica for me yet.
Recently, the guys at Leica Camera threw a curve ball by releasing the Leica M Monochrom, a new digital M Series Leica that shoots exclusively in black and white. It's basically an M9 but built specifically for black and white (it's been called the M9-M). This is how they describe it:
[The Leica M Monochrom] is the first full-frame, 35 mm format digital camera to be designed exclusively and without any compromises for black-and-white photography. It delivers ‘true' black-and-white images in unrivalled sharpness and dynamic range. This makes the M Monochrom the perfect camera for anyone with a passion for black-and-white photography.
I have to admit, I love the concept.
Of course, I immediately went to the Leica site to read all about it. It sounds amazing and I'd love to get my hands on one. Not only is the concept of the The Leica M Monochrom really cool, but I like that the histogram shows actual data from the RAW file (as opposed to a jpg). This must be great to know what data has actually been captured in the highlights.
Undeniably, I was excited… until I saw the price.
The The Leica M Monochrom has a list price of US$7,950. Ouch. I guess I'll keep lusting over a Leica for a while longer.
The Leica Monochrome has been announced! 1st shots! | STEVE HUFF PHOTOS
Andy Ihnatko wrote a great piece on iPhoto for iPad at the Chicago Sun Times. If you're interested in it, this is definitely an article to read before you buy.
Via: [DF](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/05/09/andy-ihnatko-iphone-ipad)
While working on the textured Nude Series I'm currently doing, I started to get inspiration from the music I was listening to while editing. This is the first one from "Something I can never have" by Nine Inch Nails. The original song is from the Pretty Hate Machine album, but I was listening to the Natural Born Killers Soundtrack at the time, which also features this song.
Exploring motion and textures at the same time. I like the juxtaposition of the movement suggested by the blur and the stillness of the paper-like textures.
Interesting article about the pros and cons of the Nikon D800E by Kent Weakley.
The purpose of an app like Instagram is to celebrate the increasingly mobile culture. There’s no right way or wrong way to use the service but sharing dSLR photos on Instagram seems almost like violating the spirit of the app.
He's responding to an article by Nate Benson on the same topic. I absolutely agree with them. Every time I see a photograph in Instagram that was obviously not taken and edited with Instagram, I feel like I'm been deceived.
It's like a kid getting their parents to build their project for school and presenting it as their own.
I'm not sure why, but a while ago I stopped using Instagram. I never was a big user, but I did post now and then, and I enjoyed seeing friends photos. But for some reason I've lost interest. The Facebook acquisition just makes me want to use it even more because I don't like the idea of companies tracking me and knowing everything about me. I'm paranoid.
If you are too, you can use Instarchive to get your photos off Instagram for free.
A few weeks ago I wrote about an Aperture 4 book that was available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble. It's still there and it still says it'll be available on July 4, 2012. I'm trying not to get too excited about a possible update in 2 months, but I do feel it's time.
To feed the rumours even more, a few readers emailed me additional links to the same book in different online stores. The full title of the book seems to be "Apple Aperture 4, Unleashing Your Photo Workflow" and it has a valid ISBN number (9781133788904). Although in some stores it's called "Apple Aperture 4" and in others it's "Apple Aperture X".
It's pure speculation, but it's still fun. Here are the links:
This video by Sølve Sundsbø is amazing. Be sure to watch it in full screen. Click here to watch on Vimeo if you can't see it below.
From the description in the Vimeo page):
Created by Norwegian photographer Sølve Sundsbø and creative consultant Jerry Stafford, the video work was inspired by the form of Surrealist art experiment known as "exquisite corpse" (from the original French term cadavre exquis) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled.
Absolutely beautiful.
The new iPad (3) Retina display is beautiful. Text looks so crisp it's a joy to read on it and photographs just look stunning. The previous iPad models were great for photographers and other artists to showcase their work, but the new iPad is just amazing.
The Retina display on the new iPad has a 2048-by-1536 resolution. That's equivalent to a 3.1 megapixel image. Think about that for a second. That is enough megapixels to print a photo quality 7" x 5" (17cm x 13cm) print and get a fairly decent one at 13" x 10" (35cm x 26cm). No wonder photos look beautiful on the new iPad with all those pixels compacted into a tiny 9.7 screen.
And if you want the photographs in your website to look their best at full screen on the new iPad, you'll need to put them up there at full Retina resolution.
Which means you're now publishing fairly hi-res photos on the web.
This is something most photographers have avoided for fear of unscrupulous people stealing their work and using it without their consent. It's a fair concern. It happens. It's annoying at best and financially damaging at worst.
It begs the question, will the new iPad increase photo piracy?
Personally, I'm not yet sure how I stand on this. I've considered uploading higher resolution photos to my photography gallery, but I have to admit I am concerned with piracy. And I definitely don't want to put ugly watermarks on my photos.
Downloading photographs off the web is so easy that this could be a real problem. With the resolution needed for the new iPad, we'll be publishing images that are not only big enough to use online, but big enough to print.
I'm curious how others feel about this. Send me a message via the contact form, Twitter, or publish your thoughts on your blog and let me know.
The Getty Center in Los Angeles has a major exhibition of photographer Herb Ritts from now until 26 August 2012. If you're in LA while it's on, don't miss it.
Rob Boyer on his suggestions for the next version of Apple Aperture:
Forget a bunch of social media, happy, smiley-face, cute little cloud icon crap. Forget it. Here is what a lot of people would die for in Aperture 4, even if they don’t know it yet.
And he goes on to describe 10 things he wants. I agree with all of them. And I especially agree with the statement above. Leave those in iPhoto please!
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