While 2012 was relatively calm in terms of new tele-lenses (with the significant exceptions of the Pentax 500mm and the progressive availability of the new great whites from Canon), 2013 appears ready to become a year of big tele-lenses at nearly all the manufacturers: Nikon launches an 800mm f/5.6 which is becoming the biggest product…
Category: Pro photo
In front of the lion
If you are a wildlife photographer, your experiences may vary from one place to another. But what would be your own reaction in the situation that Mattias Klum found himself into? He found a lioness who failed to see him at first, then walked so near that he could no longer focus on his long…
Ansel Adams documentary
YouTube link Thanks to PBS for this documentary about Ansel Adams, landscape star photographer.
2012 Pirelli calendar by Mario Sorrenti
Here it is! The 39th edition of the Pirelli calendar is out and this is Mario Sorrenti who is celebrating the automobile pneumatics with mostly naked top-models mostly in black and white. It was christened as Swoon and it was shot in Corsica as we had revealed here. The models Guinevere Van Seenus Malgosia Edita…
Job interview
Source: Tastefully offensive.
Pirelli 2012 calendar – First shots
The Pirelli calendar is certainly the most famous calendar (at least in the automotive world). This comes in a large part from the very high quality of the artistic nudity photographs, as it is maintained from year to year despite a systematic change of photographer. This year, for 2012, the calendar is not yet officially…
Best Sony SLR lenses for wildlife photo
When Sony first entered the SLR market in 2006, not many people were sure it would be a successful move for a company with a no significant reputation outside of the compact point-n-shoot world of cameras. However, they drew a bold ace by buying the assets of Konica-Minolta (essentially all SLR photography assets for Minolta).…
Best Nikon SLR lenses for wildlife photo
Nikon: The biggest digital camera seller in the world (mostly because of its sales of compact photo cameras), an internationally famous reference for the quality of its lens and it SLR cameras. Wildlife photographers (professionals as well as amateurs) must take this offering very seriously. But the fame did not come from nothing, and the…
Best Canon SLR lenses for wildlife photo
Canon is assuredly the brand most commonly found in the hands of the wildlife photographers (professionals as well as amateurs). Of course, this is a direct product of the strong presence of Canon on the market for digital SLR photography, but the diversity of the offer from the red brand allowed to build solutions perfectly…
Photojournalism has never been easy
Living on the edge means bringing back some tremendous photographs with a high power on the minds of those who will be seeing them. But it has never been easy on the photographer. YouTube link
Kuwait: DSLR authorized again
Now, this is good journalism: Kuwait Times has been following on their previous story about a ban imposed onto Digital SLR cameras in Kuwait. Actually, they published a retraction indicating that this was false information. Less surprising, but kudos to them for standing up to good journalism standards: Always check the source information.
Kuwait: DSLR prohibited
Surprising decision in Kuwait: The use of a DSLR photo camera has just been prohibited by a coordinated decision of three ministries (Ministry of Information, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Finance) which determined that the Digital SLR cameras could only be used by professional news people. The prohibition seems not to apply to…
Links between a flash and a studio
A photographic studio is not only a place where there are too many cables on the floor. It could also be an excuse to find a lot of useful web links: High Speed Sync for flash at any shutter speed Almost Free DIY Paper Diffuser (Strobist) High Speed Photography Studio at Home You also have…
German special! Videos for photographers
Of course, you have to understand German, but here is a web site which has a lot of interesting videos for, about and from great photogrpahers: FotoTV.de. Just a couple of examples: Elliott Erwitt Robert Doisneau If only this existed in other languages! I’d like to speak about them too.
Dramatic fire for Philip Plisson
Fortunately, with more destruction than victims, the “Plisson La Trinité” studio-gallery burned to the ground on September 19. Unfortunately, this is a 30-year-long archive which flared up in flames. Those are thousands of pictures, the years of life of a great man who will have to rebuild from nearly nothing, except his eyes, his heart…
Big Picture iPad app
Do you know the excellent The Big Picture web site? It hosts marvelous sets of pro news photographs. I admit freely that I always keep an eye on this excellent source. Today, I learn that Boston.com (which is hosting The Big Picture) launches a new iTunes application for the iPad. And this is a great…
Stages of a photographer
Found at RobertBenson.com, here is probably the best description of how a photographer evolves in time (from larva to beautiful butterfly, one would say). You may be any location on this evolution chart, but it’s good to recognize that you still have the possibility to move forward to the right of the graph. Stages of…
An iPhone for fashion photography
After that, don’t tell me that the iPhone 3GS is not really a camera. Vimeo link Of course, the final photos have been edited in Photoshop afterwards, but isn’t it the case for all studio work?
BBC wildlife photo masterclasses, for free
You could do much worse than learning from the best wildlife photographers. Actually, the BBC Wildlife Magazine is now providing an impressive list of compact training courses for wildlife photography. There are titles like: Wild Places Mammal Portraits Plant Portraits From Dusk to Dawn Underwater Photography Invertebrate Portraits Birds in Flight Animals in their Environment…
Microscopy photography
I had missed it, but you should try and look at this marvelous collection of microscopy pictures found at the Nikon’s annual Small World photomicrography competition in 2009. They honored 20 images of very high-quality. Not something that everyone of us would be able to do, but a very beautiful display: 35 Years of the…
Micro-focus using an iPhone
As a matter of fact, this tool is simply able to control a digital SLR camera. The big button on the side is a knob to set the focus and it is de-multiplied enough to warrant the name of micro-focus. Bu the most surprising or the most noticeable is that if you have an iPhone…
Panoramas like a pro: EPIC Pro
GigaPan announces a new motorized panorama head: Epic Pro. This robot-like tripod-based camera mount automatizes the shooting of pictures that will be assembled into one giant panorama image. This leaves GigaPan with a full range of panorama mounts: The EPIC costs $349, the EPIC 100 $449 and the EPIC Pro $895. All three should start…
158 lenses = 1 photo camera
Associate professor Yojiro Ishino and his students at the Nagoya Institute of Technology obtained an official recognition of their achievement when the Guinness World Records certified them as holding the world record for a camera with largest number of lenses. Usually, a DSLR has 1 lens attached. Some 3D cameras have two. This piece of…
In the Sun light
Sunshine is a Danny Boyle movie from 2007 which scenrizes the crew of a space ship sent to save a dying sun. The American Cinematographer offers us a long interview with Alwin Küchler who designed the shooting and the light of this film. Even (or preferably) for a studio photographer, it will be quite interesting…
3 demonstrations of flash/studio photo
Studio photography is clearly a real specialty and I don’t hide my admiration for those photographers able to master its difficult techniques. I recently found three demonstrations of what may be a beautiful studio lighting, along with dense explanations and welcome details. Anatomy of a photo: Balvenie Scotch Professional Studio Lighting – Playing with Mirrors…