Brooklyn Aerials shot “Nostalgia” using a RED Epic Dragon Monochrome with the Freefly ALTA drone. The results are lovely:

And here’s a glimpse behind the scenes:

[Vimeo 1 & 2] [Via]

Got a case of vemödalen (“the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist”)? Or perhaps you’ve just wanted a camera that sounds like a Geiger counter while blurting “NEIN” at you in big red letters?

Philipp Schmitt’s Camera Restricta concept wants to help. PetaPixel explains,

“Camera Restricta introduces new limitations to prevent an overflow of digital imagery,” he says. “As a byproduct, these limitations also bring about new sensations like the thrill of being the first or last person to photograph a certain place.”

[Vimeo]

Adios, bothersome fences, reflections, etc. That’s presuming that normal users would be sufficiently motivated to move their devices during capture. Time will hopefully tell.

The video accompanying our SIGGRAPH 2015 paper ” A Computational Approach for Obstruction-Free Photography”. We present a unified computational approach for taking photos through reflecting or occluding elements such as windows and fences. Rather than capturing a single image, we instruct the user to take a short image sequence while slightly moving the camera. Differences that often exist in the relative position of the background and the obstructing elements from the camera allow us to separate them based on their motions, and to recover the desired background scene as if the visual obstructions were not there. We show results on controlled experiments and many real and practical scenarios, including shooting through reflections, fences, and raindrop-covered windows.

[YouTube]

I had a ball sitting down with my ex-Photoshop/current Google Photos friend Aravind Krishnaswamy to chat with Andy Ihnatko, Russell Ivanovic, and Yasmine Evjen for this week’s Material Podcast. We talked about computer vision, the future of memory keeping, my wife hypothetically getting bum-rushed by a lady from the Clinique counter, and much more. (Oh, and the jury’s still out on whether there were snakes in the wall. You’ll see.)

Grab the MP3 here.

Did I just see… this?

DC presents Robbie “Maddo” Maddison’s “Pipe Dream,” giving the world a chance to witness history being made as Maddo rides his dirt bike on the powerful and iconic waves of Tahiti. From his helmet to motocross boots, Maddo was dressed for FMX when he took his dirt bike into the unchartered saltwater terrain of the Pacific Ocean in French Polynesia.

So how was it done? See the making-of:

[YouTube 1 & 2]

Henry Jun Wah Lee has captured some amazing lenticular cloud formations, brilliant colors, and volcano-spawned plumes.

Now I’m all pumped to watch The Mountain throw enormous crap through the air tomorrow.

[YouTube] [Via]

Back in 2003 we blew a lot of minds by showing Photoshop’s Match Color feature sucking up the color palette of one photo or painting, then depositing it onto another. This kind of thing kept getting love as it evolved (see 2010 demo), eventually matching lighting among images. As far as I know no one has ended up using such functionality in practice (and yes, Match Color is still sitting in Photoshop on your hard drive right now), but it’s still cool.

Now the tech has taken another leap forward. Per PetaPixel,

In a newly published research paper titled “A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style,” scientists at the University of Tubingen in Germany describe how their deep neural network can create new artistic images when provided with a random photo and a painting to learn style from.

“Here we introduce an artificial system based on a Deep Neural Network that creates artistic images of high perceptual quality,” the paper says. “The system uses neural representations to separate and recombine content and style of arbitrary images, providing a neural algorithm for the creation of artistic images.”

Check out many more examples via the article.

Props to Bjorn Jonsson for assembling NASA photos into this animation:

The time covered is 09:35 to 13:35 (closest approach occurred near 11:50). Pluto’s atmosphere is included and should be fairly realistic from about 10 seconds into the animation and to the end. Earlier it is largely just guesswork that can be improved in the future once all data has been downlinked from the spacecraft. Light from Pluto’s satellite Charon illuminates Pluto’s night side but is exaggerated here, in reality it would be only barely visible or not visible at all.

[Vimeo] [Via]

Russell Brown, get on this!

[Vimeo]

Hmm: To show the Micronaxx, or not to show the Micronaxx—that is the question. 🙂

[YouTube]

I’m absolutely charmed by this loving four-minute peek inside “24 Hours of Lemons,” a sort of Burning Man for gearheads.

 [Vimeo]

“Hmm, what would French intellectuals devise to comment on ‘self-design and the production of sincerity?’” you might just have been asking yourself (or, let’s hope, not). If so, rejoice in knowing that Gregory Chatonsky is on the case:

[He’s] developed a program that pulls tagged Instagram photos of Kim K in real time, and filters them through a software program he made using Unity3d.

The software automatically navigates a generative 3D skin model, created from more than 51,000 pictures of the star. The project looks at the same subject, Kim Kardashian, but is constantly using a different image, creating what the artist describes as a “fascinating difference in the repetition.” […]

 “It is simply an extended skin, everything is on the surface. There is nothing to look behind.”

“Discuss.”


 [Vimeo]

Filmmaker Ian Wood roved all over LA with his remotely piloted craft, capturing lovely, tranquil angles on the grit & grime that I associate with that metropolis.

If that spins your rotor, check out his installment from last year (focusing just on downtown):


[Vimeo 1 & 2] [Via Richard Gingras]

“Actually just boarding a flight to Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi is on my flight!”

So wrote Josh (then PM for editing in Google+ Photos) back in November 2013, when I’d just started thinking about possible adventures outside of Adobe & proposed that we grab a beer. I’d known Josh for many years in his capacity as the PM for the highly regarded Nik Collection of Photoshop plug-ins (Silver Efex Pro, etc.) prior to their acquisition by Google. When I reached out he was just starting a year+ of travel, photography, and epic beard growth (note to self: sell company to Google!). Once he returned, I encouraged him & my Lightroom friends to chat about ways they could make the world more interesting for visual artists.

Well, now they’re doing just that, with Josh joining the Adobe Digital Imaging PM team. I’m really excited to see what they can do together. Have fun, guys!

Want to remove annoying reflections & other impediments? Check out this demo. As PetaPixel summarizes, “Basically, instead of shooting a single static photo, the photographer captures a short sequence of images while slightly moving the camera around between frames.”



Per the team’s description:

The video accompanying our SIGGRAPH 2015 paper “A Computational Approach for Obstruction-Free Photography”. We present a unified computational approach for taking photos through reflecting or occluding elements such as windows and fences. Rather than capturing a single image, we instruct the user to take a short image sequence while slightly moving the camera. Differences that often exist in the relative position of the background and the obstructing elements from the camera allow us to separate them based on their motions, and to recover the desired background scene as if the visual obstructions were not there. We show results on controlled experiments and many real and practical scenarios, including shooting through reflections, fences, and raindrop-covered windows.

[YouTube]

Alicia MacDonald’s short film hits closer to home than many of us would like to admit:



[Vimeo] [Via]

This new Mac app promises to make you a “dope-ass montage in seconds.” I love the ultra simplicity (drop in footage, drop in music, press big red button), though my initial test (using admittedly rough sledding footage) didn’t yield great results. If you take it for a spin (the download is free; you pay to save output), I’d be curious to hear how you like it.



[Vimeo]

1. Insert memory card into Mac.
2. Grab beer, wish that Google Fiber were already available in San Jose.
3. There is no step 3.

Visit photos.google.com/apps to grab the uploader for Mac or Windows. Once you turn it on, it’ll take things from there.

I’m captivated by Yesterday’s Tomorrow from Uncage the Soul Productions:

We knew this piece needed a soul, some heart, but not via the traditional history timeline narrative. But what is the story, the words? For inspiration, guidance and insight- we interviewed multiple 90+ Portlanders and spent an evening with each asking all the questions we could about their lives and opinions on a big list of life issues. Our favorite of these amazing people is Katherine Livingston. Her eyes are bright, her wits are sharp, she was born in Portland, her grandfather was involved in commissioning the Skidmore Fountain, she recently held the world record for fastest 2000 meters on a stationary rowing machine for the 95-100 yr old bracket, and this weekend she turns 100 years old. The length of that last sentence should be an indicator of how impactful she was to us. We were honored to sit down and listen to her share her story and insights of living for 100 years. These sentiments became the words that guide the piece.

[Vimeo] [Via Alex Powell]

I’ll be honest—I figured I needed to hear yet more about the “Fearless Genius” of Steve Jobs like I needed a hole in the head. During WWDC, however, I got the very pleasant surprise of hearing photographer Doug Menuez recount stories of documenting a range of Silicon Valley innovators (including the Adobe founders & Russell Brown) 1985-2000. I think you’d enjoy his talk (below) and a selection of images from the book.

[Vimeo]

You can try, as I did, reading a longish essay from John Lasseter on “Technology and The Evolution of Storytelling,” or you can just spend about 10 seconds watching this footage and go, “Bam, I get it.”

In this film, Steven worked with Team O’Neill surfer and professional athlete Malia Manuel to capture a unique perspective on a single day’s surf session in Western Australia. Utilising drones for the majority of the videography, Steven plays with perspective, taking the viewer into, above, and beyond the waves.

[Vimeo] [Via]

Calbuco, as seen by Jonas Dengler and Martin Heck:

They write,

Volcano Calbuco erupted on April 22, 2015, for the first time in four decades. Located close to the cities of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt in southern Chile. We (Jonas Dengler and Martin Heck) spend the prior couple of days on the neighboring volcano Osorno (~20km linear distance) shooting timelapses. After an amazing night under the night sky we took the cable car downwards after a delay caused by repairs. Already late we headed south to catch the ferry on Routa 7 down to Patagonia. After 10min on the ferry we noticed a massive, almost nuclear looking cloud boiling upwards just were we left a few hours ago. Frenetically looking for a good outlook we then rushed to the only non-forested place to get a decent view of the show. We quickly put every bit of camera-equipment we could find on the constantly growing mushroom-cloud. We shot timelapses in 8K and 4K with a Pentax 645Z and Canon 6D. On the A7s we shot 4K video to the Shogun. We filled almost all of our memory cards in the prior night so I had to do backups while shooting all this stuff.

[YouTube]

Now this thing ($599) looks seriously interesting. PetaPixel writes, 

Inside the camera is a 1-inch CMOS BSI sensor — the same size used by Nikon 1 mirrorless cameras — and on the front of the camera is a 32mm-equivalent f/1.8 lens with a 6-blade iris. Those specs are crammed into a 2.65-inch (6.9cm) tall camera that weighs just 3.8oz (108g) and fits comfortably in your palm and pocket.

What do you think?

[Via Torsten Beckmann]

Simply because this would have been the 11-year-old me’s Favorite Thing Ever, I’ll point out the B-Unstoppable flying tank thingamabob. PetaPixel notes,

According to B, a hybrid model can be very useful in certain situations. For example, driving saves up to 60% of energy when compared to flying. In addition, the tank mode is much quieter than flying and can enable pilots to reach previously difficult areas. We also can’t forget that driving a tank-drone hybrid sounds like a ton of fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGdP9hTLDnk 


[YouTube]

“Google has big plans for VR,” writes The Verge, “but it’s starting with something small: a piece of cardboard. We go behind the scenes with the new Google Cardboard and a crazy GoPro camera rig.”

[YouTube]

No need to hold your breath:

Google is committed to exploring and preserving the ocean. Today, in time for World Oceans Day on June 8, and in partnership with XL Catlin Seaview Survey, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the Chagos Conservation Trust, you can explore brand new Street View imagery of more than 40 locations around the world, including the American Samoa and Chagos Islands and underwater dives in Bali, the Bahamas and the Great Barrier Reef. We hope the release of this imagery inspires people to learn more about this precious natural resource.

“Oh man, not the hackneyed ‘Let’s tilt the camera & make steep streets look flat’ thing again,” you could be forgiven for saying. But damn if Karen X. Cheng (of “donut selfie” fame) and filmmaker Ross Ching haven’t made something really fresh & fun:

[Via] [YouTube]

Even if the soundtrack gets a little Inception Horn-y, this is quite an impressive bit of filmmaking from EarthCam. As Khoi Vinh notes, “[I]t seems like a marvel of meticulous, patient shot-planning; because the sheer mass of its subject changes so dramatically, the camera must pan to accommodate the construction’s progress slowly, over the course of years.”

[YouTube]

Wes Anderson meets “The Shining”—brilliant. Steve Ramsden writes, “I noticed how Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick frame their shots in a similar way – this was the result: ‘The Grand Overlook Hotel!’”

[Vimeo]

Very cool:

[YouTube]