• Adobe TV went live last week.  It features a profile of Adobe’s Angela Drury, an accomplished photographer who moonlights as a product manager.  Look for the Photographer channel on Adobe TV for tons more.
• I’m shocked, shocked to report on The Stunning Camera.  Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Photoshop PM and camera store veteran, reports "experimenting" with this kind of thing in his past life: "We even rigged one up to the door knob of the men’s room.  Then someone had the bright idea of running the capacitors in parallel and well, it worked but it ‘snake-bit’ him….essentially the current arced right through his thumb leaving two seared holes.  Seriously." [Via Joe Ault]
• That chintzy look: “When I looked at the wallpaper and the wallpaper looked at me, we instantly fell in love."
• On an occasionally related note, Thierry Bouët chronicles people in their beds (click "au lit" in the top nav bar). [Via]
• Jan Sochor is a Czech-born freelance photographer who splits his time between Europe and South America.[Via]
• You might not guess it from the title, but this NYT photo essay on how manhole covers are made in India is really interesting.

• Adobe TV went live last week.  It features a profile of Adobe’s Angela Drury, an accomplished photographer who moonlights as a product manager.  Look for the Photographer channel on Adobe TV for tons more.
• I’m shocked, shocked to report on The Stunning Camera.  Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Photoshop PM and camera store veteran, reports "experimenting" with this kind of thing in his past life: "We even rigged one up to the door knob of the men’s room.  Then someone had the bright idea of running the capacitors in parallel and well, it worked but it ‘snake-bit’ him….essentially the current arced right through his thumb leaving two seared holes.  Seriously." [Via Joe Ault]
• That chintzy look: “When I looked at the wallpaper and the wallpaper looked at me, we instantly fell in love."
• On an occasionally related note, Thierry Bouët chronicles people in their beds (click "au lit" in the top nav bar). [Via]
• Jan Sochor is a Czech-born freelance photographer who splits his time between Europe and South America.[Via]
• You might not guess it from the title, but this NYT photo essay on how manhole covers are made in India is really interesting.

Photojournalist and humanitarian Dith Pran, survivor of and witness to Cambodia’s “Killing Fields” period, passed away last week.  The NY Times, for which Mr. Dith reported with his friend and colleague Sid Schanberg, features a remembrance of his life, along with a selection of his photos.  Perhaps most interesting, though, is the “Last Word” video feature in which Dith speaks about his life and the need to remain vigilant lest the horrors he witnessed be repeated.  I found the feature to be six minutes very well spent.

[Update: On a related note, see the NPPA’s story Four Photojournalists Killed During Vietnam War Come Home For Burial.  [Via]]

• New camera technology can detect the amount of blood and water in a vehicle, enabling the fuzz to bust carpool lane violators. [Via]
• Scott Kelby shows how to get a cool, gritty look in Camera Raw/Lightroom + Photoshop.
• The world of the small:
  • Lori Nix builds incredibly detailed tabletop worlds and photographs them.  Love this little Zeppelin.  She gives a behind-the-scenes tour on Cool Hunting. [Via]
  • Martin Amm’s captured an amazing shot of a dew-covered bug. [Via]
  • Kodak says they’ve shrunk CMOS sensors, squeezing 5 megapixels onto a 1.4 micron device.  Meanwhile Sony’s new DSC-W300 brings 13.6 megapixels to point-and-shoots.
• Digital SLRs seem to have an inferiority complex, adding features found on compact cameras.  First they got going with live preview (e.g. Sony’s autofocus-friendly version), and now they’re considering movie mode.
• "My pencil is very big and hard."  Ahem.  Photojojo has a cool idea for making your own photo pencils.
• Robert Rezabek’s Blackr JavaScript bookmarklet hides everything on a Flickr photo page except for the pictures. [Via]
• Leica has launched a rich, immersive Flash experience on their site.
• Can the iPhone be a pro photo accessory?  Yep; Ben Long shows how, using iLevel software.

• New camera technology can detect the amount of blood and water in a vehicle, enabling the fuzz to bust carpool lane violators. [Via]
• Scott Kelby shows how to get a cool, gritty look in Camera Raw/Lightroom + Photoshop.
• The world of the small:
  • Lori Nix builds incredibly detailed tabletop worlds and photographs them.  Love this little Zeppelin.  She gives a behind-the-scenes tour on Cool Hunting. [Via]
  • Martin Amm’s captured an amazing shot of a dew-covered bug. [Via]
  • Kodak says they’ve shrunk CMOS sensors, squeezing 5 megapixels onto a 1.4 micron device.  Meanwhile Sony’s new DSC-W300 brings 13.6 megapixels to point-and-shoots.
• Digital SLRs seem to have an inferiority complex, adding features found on compact cameras.  First they got going with live preview (e.g. Sony’s autofocus-friendly version), and now they’re considering movie mode.
• "My pencil is very big and hard."  Ahem.  Photojojo has a cool idea for making your own photo pencils.
• Robert Rezabek’s Blackr JavaScript bookmarklet hides everything on a Flickr photo page except for the pictures. [Via]
• Leica has launched a rich, immersive Flash experience on their site.
• Can the iPhone be a pro photo accessory?  Yep; Ben Long shows how, using iLevel software.

• Colin Smith of PhotoshopCafe.com has posted a tutorial on creating high dynamic range images using Photoshop, then tone mapping them using Photoshop’s built-in tools as well as HDRSoft’s Photomatix plug-in for Photoshop.  Scroll all the way down for a cool theater shot Colin created using these techniques.
• Over on LightroomNews, Sean McCormack covers LR/Enfuse, Timothy Armes’ project to integrate the open-source Enfuse blending program right into Lightroom.  LR/Enfuse is available from Timothy’s site & is supported by user donations.

On a slightly related note, if the topic of digital dynamic range is up your alley, you might want to check out Stu Maschwitz’s detailed experiments with video gear.

• Colin Smith of PhotoshopCafe.com has posted a tutorial on creating high dynamic range images using Photoshop, then tone mapping them using Photoshop’s built-in tools as well as HDRSoft’s Photomatix plug-in for Photoshop.  Scroll all the way down for a cool theater shot Colin created using these techniques.
• Over on LightroomNews, Sean McCormack covers LR/Enfuse, Timothy Armes’ project to integrate the open-source Enfuse blending program right into Lightroom.  LR/Enfuse is available from Timothy’s site & is supported by user donations.

On a slightly related note, if the topic of digital dynamic range is up your alley, you might want to check out Stu Maschwitz’s detailed experiments with video gear.

Apparently Canon is developing an Iris Registration Mode that will enable photographers to use their eyeballs to form a kind of digital fingerprint for their images.  Hmm… the tech sounds cool (well, provided it works better than the fingerprint scanner on my ThinkPad), but I’m not sure how it helps secure photographers’ rights.

What people want–and can’t have, as I’ve noted previously–is the ability to embed copyright data in images that are both easily readable and secure.  Iris scanning doesn’t address the fact that if you can edit the pixels of an image, you can get around copyright data in the image (through copy and paste to a new file, if nothing else).  And for all the talk of wanting secure metadata, I don’t see much use of the Digimarc technology that’s been bundled in Photoshop for ~10 years (allowing copyright to be subtly encoded into the pixels themselves), nor do I hear of many photographers passing around their images as secure PDFs (which offer 128-bit encryption, among other things).  So, unless I’m missing something (and please shout out some enlightenment if so), iris scanning doesn’t seem to change the game too much, at least as regards downstream image protection.  [Via Steve Weiss]

On a lighter eye-related note, check out Scot Hampton’s iHole–the camera made from an iPhone box.

Apparently Canon is developing an Iris Registration Mode that will enable photographers to use their eyeballs to form a kind of digital fingerprint for their images.  Hmm… the tech sounds cool (well, provided it works better than the fingerprint scanner on my ThinkPad), but I’m not sure how it helps secure photographers’ rights.

What people want–and can’t have, as I’ve noted previously–is the ability to embed copyright data in images that are both easily readable and secure.  Iris scanning doesn’t address the fact that if you can edit the pixels of an image, you can get around copyright data in the image (through copy and paste to a new file, if nothing else).  And for all the talk of wanting secure metadata, I don’t see much use of the Digimarc technology that’s been bundled in Photoshop for ~10 years (allowing copyright to be subtly encoded into the pixels themselves), nor do I hear of many photographers passing around their images as secure PDFs (which offer 128-bit encryption, among other things).  So, unless I’m missing something (and please shout out some enlightenment if so), iris scanning doesn’t seem to change the game too much, at least as regards downstream image protection.  [Via Steve Weiss]

On a lighter eye-related note, check out Scot Hampton’s iHole–the camera made from an iPhone box.

News about the demise of Polaroid film production has pulled a number of interesting items out of the woodwork:

• Eames + Cramps + Cams: Check out this demo film of the Polaroid SX-70 made by famous furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames, but inexplicably set the music of The Cramps.  Weirder still, it all kind of works. [Via]
• "The late cinematographer Jamie Livingston, who died at age 41 in 1997," writes Mike Johnston, "left an archive of almost 6,000 Polaroid SX-70 shots, taken one per day (with only minor lapses) for 18 years."  You can browse the archive here.
• David Friedman would like to see a Polaroid-style digital picture frame, complete with dry-erase area for jotting notes.  [Via]
• "Polaroid made me the photographer I am today": Photographer Ctein reminisces about the format’s importance in his artistic development.
• We recently met with some photogs doing a great project using large-format Polaroids.  Once they post images publicly I’ll pass along the news.

One more photo-nostagia tip–this time for Kodak–this clip from Mad Men shows a pitch for the original slide carousel.

• Mike Johnston shares a number of interesting thoughts on recent photographic news.  Talking about those huge zoom lenses, he says, “[W]hat people are really interested in is who can buy the biggest, baddest, most expensive status symbol in the form of massive glass. Plus, the narrowed field of view of the smaller sensor has now come into direct conflict with the preferred status symbol in sensors, so-called “full-frame” (i.e., 35mm size). We’re back to the best of both worlds in terms of one-upsmanship: the people with the biggest sensors also need the biggest lenses. Perfect.”
• James Danziger has posted a short, funny, and salty interview with the late Helmut Newton:
  • Q: Your about to be published autobiography stops in 1982. What have the readers missed?
  • A: Nothing! People who reach their goals are very uninteresting. What could I have written about the last 20 years? I met a lot of awfully boring Hollywood bimbos. I earned a lot of money. I fly only first class. [Via]
• You’ve probably heard that Polaroid film production is reaching its end.  One can, however, convert a Polaroid cam to digital [Via], and while the film stocks last they lend themselves to painterly manipulation. [Via
  Ashish Mukharji]
• I’m sure my folks in Illinois can relate to this beautiful ice.  Certain things I’m happy to observe from afar. [Via]
• Storm chaser Jim Reed risks life, limb, and gear to get some amazing shots, cataloged in his book. [Via]
• Image database Covering Photography is billed as “a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design.” [Via]
• I’m late in posting it, but I enjoyed this unusual photo of Sen. John Edwards on the campaign trail. [Via]
• Dan Heller’s blog covers the business of photography.

Playing with our sense of time:

• Improv Everywhere recently staged some captivating performance art in NYC’s Grand Central Station, in which 207 people froze in place for five minutes.  I’d love to see a time lapse view of the happening.  [Via]
• IKEA makes superb use of slow-mo video in this new interactive catalog.  The Flash UI lets you drag the image to change angles or change rooms.  Motionographer offers some comments.
• oobject features time lapses of people playing with Wiis. [Via]
• Flickr use Apres makes intimate use of long exposure (more).

Playing with our sense of time:

• Improv Everywhere recently staged some captivating performance art in NYC’s Grand Central Station, in which 207 people froze in place for five minutes.  I’d love to see a time lapse view of the happening.  [Via]
• IKEA makes superb use of slow-mo video in this new interactive catalog.  The Flash UI lets you drag the image to change angles or change rooms.  Motionographer offers some comments.
• oobject features time lapses of people playing with Wiis. [Via]
• Flickr use Apres makes intimate use of long exposure (more).

• Norman Jean Roy, Mark Seliger, and other photographers reinterpret famous Hitchcock scenes using current actors in this month’s Vanity Fair. (Here, at least, Renée Zellweger is on her way to looking like Henry Gibson.) [Via]
• Speaking of Hollywood, Alison Jackson creates fake paparazzi shots (not 100% work-safe, FYI). [Via]
• CNET’s Stephen Shankland hosts an interesting interview with Canon’s Chuck Westfall, talking about various camera tech developments–sensor dimensions, OLED displays, geotagging, and more.
• YouTube hosts a video demonstrating how camera lenses are made.  Not shown: my wallet imploding. [Via]
• On the big-glass front, Sigma has trotted out this $25,000 badboy, and yet that’s got nothing on this Canon 1200mm cannon–selling for a cool $99,000, used.  Not satisfied yet?  How about a 5200mm Canon, good for photographing stuff 32 miles away? Even more examples are here.
• At the other end of the spectrum, 20 bucks gets you a 6x iPhone camera zoom. [Via]
• Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk illustrates the issue of global warming in a video created entirely by using still images.  The Thoreau quotation is chilling and well chosen. [Via]
• If M.C. Escher had a camera, you might see something like this cool effect.

• Norman Jean Roy, Mark Seliger, and other photographers reinterpret famous Hitchcock scenes using current actors in this month’s Vanity Fair. (Here, at least, Renée Zellweger is on her way to looking like Henry Gibson.) [Via]
• Speaking of Hollywood, Alison Jackson creates fake paparazzi shots (not 100% work-safe, FYI). [Via]
• CNET’s Stephen Shankland hosts an interesting interview with Canon’s Chuck Westfall, talking about various camera tech developments–sensor dimensions, OLED displays, geotagging, and more.
• YouTube hosts a video demonstrating how camera lenses are made.  Not shown: my wallet imploding. [Via]
• On the big-glass front, Sigma has trotted out this $25,000 badboy, and yet that’s got nothing on this Canon 1200mm cannon–selling for a cool $99,000, used.  Not satisfied yet?  How about a 5200mm Canon, good for photographing stuff 32 miles away? Even more examples are here.
• At the other end of the spectrum, 20 bucks gets you a 6x iPhone camera zoom. [Via]
• Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk illustrates the issue of global warming in a video created entirely by using still images.  The Thoreau quotation is chilling and well chosen. [Via]
• If M.C. Escher had a camera, you might see something like this cool effect.

Adobe has announced Adobe Stock Photos, the service integrated into Adobe Bridge, will be discontinued as of April 1, 2008.  An FAQ is posted to address common questions (especially if you’re an ASP user), and there are uninstallers for Mac and Windows that let you remove ASP from Bridge if you’d like.

The FAQ is very light on the rationale for the decision, but in an interview with StockAsylum’s Ron Rovtar (subscription required for part of it), Adobe director James Alexander says, "We thought we went to market with a set of features and functionality that were going to improve workflow.  It was just not as compelling as we thought it was going to be."

I don’t have a lot of additional context to offer, other than to say that we’re working hard to make Photoshop, Bridge, and the other Creative Suite apps much more easily extensible so that they can support whatever services customers find useful–whether from Adobe or from third parties.

As I sit in the airport waiting for a flight to PMA in Las Vegas, I’m reminded of a word coined by Adobe market research (I believe) to describe enthusiast photographers in Japan: "Fotomaniaku."  Sure, it just means "photo maniacs," but doesn’t it have kind of a fun mouth-feel?  Now I’m picturing a camera-wielding guy with Mr. Sparkle eyes ("I am disrespectful to shutter lag!!").  T-shirts to follow. 🙂

• “We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can’t scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me.“  In that spirit, enjoy this retro-horrific Olan Mills photo collection.  ¡Viva los mullets siempre!  [Via Reen Bodo (and of course Jack Handey)]
• Long before he masterminded the Lightroom iceland adventure, photog Mikkel Aaland (podcast) appeared on Letterman, discussing his County Fair Portraits project.  (Mucho más mullets.) [Via Frederick Johnson]
• Let there be more light:
  • Robert Benson shares his striking strobe photography on Flickr. [Via]
  • On the other end of the exposure spectrum, here’s some really precise light painting. [Via]
• Retouching:
  • RetouchShoppe will retouch your images for a flat fee of $100/image. [Via]
  • Charging just slightly higher rates, “Photo Retoucher to Kidman and Stefani Turns Eye on $5.8 M. Village Townhouse” [Via Gary Cosimini]
• HWMS: How Would MacGyver Shoot?  Quite possibly with the aid of a ghetto–but cool and effective–string-based image stabilizer.
• Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk illustrates the issue of global warming in a video created entirely by using still images.  The Thoreau quotation is chilling and well chosen. [Via]
• The NYT talks about the rediscovery of a collection of Robert Capa’s negatives, presumed lost in World War II. The article is accompanied by a slideshow and a Zoomify-powered high-res view. [Via Katrin Eismann]
• Popular Photography mourns the passing of Herbert Keppler (who apparently got his own action figure). [Via]

Dang–and I thought 1,200fps was pretty impressive, but that’s so last week.

The camera fiends at Vision Research have trotted out the Phantom V12, a crowd pleaser said to be capable of grabbing 1MM images per second (if you can live with 256×8 resolution; resolution goes up as frame rate goes down).  Their gear is “targeted at industrial applications ranging from biometric research to automotive crash testing,” they say. “Essentially,” opines Engadget, “this little bundle of joy is meant to be strapped into daredevil-type situations in order to grab as many photos as possible within a split second.”  Check out the company Web site for videos of a popcorn kernel popping and more. [Via Jerry Harris]

The proliferation of these high-speed capture devices makes me remember a talk given last year at Adobe by Microsoft researcher Michael Cohen.  He described the idea of “thick photos”–essentially taking little movies instead of single frames, making it possible to select the perfect moment in a series.  This development will probably further irritate photo purists, but I’d like to see a camera maker take a run at the idea.

[Update: Michael points out that his ideas are covered in some detail in this paper.  His own page offers more technical bits.]

"Over the last couple of decades," writes photographer and author Peter Krogh, "the term non-destructive has been applied to many different
kinds of imaging technologies. While the term is useful as a broad classification, it covers so much ground that it can often add more confusion than clarity…"

With an eye towards helping identify which type of non-destructive imaging offers the best tools for given tasks, Peter has written an interesting and thorough overview (PDF) of what, exactly, entails "non-destructive imaging."  In it he proposes some terminology–e.g. Parametric Image Editing, or "PIE"–to help distinguish one kind of approach from another.  Thanks to Peter for all the hard work in parsing the issues & proposing clearer ways to talk about them.

The paper joins others in Adobe’s collection of Adobe digital photography white papers and primers.  The paper have been very well received, and you might find them worth browsing.

Holiday break = catching up on photography online:

• The Nikon D80: Great camera/delicious shark meal (i.e. lousy shark-be-good stick). [Via]
• The NYT features a great perspective on a slide, showing ballplayer Luis Aparicio coming into third in 1962.
• Photojojo has a solid round up of resources on shooting holiday lights (with a camera, thankfully).
• Gear:
  • PopPhoto talks up The New Infrared Revolution, made possible by digital cameras.  Too bad that for most cameras the process of removing the IR filter is somewhat expensive & renders the cams unable to shoot regular photos.  The accompanying gallery of IR shots includes some good (and some sorta marginal) stuff.
  • The Zigview S2 Digital Viewfinder “clips onto the optical viewfinder of your DSLR, adding a swiveling live 2.5-inch LCD display that can not only be extended on a cable as a remote, but can also automatically trigger the camera when it detects motion.” [Via]
  • "Your popup flash doesn’t have to suck," reports Adobe’s Terry White in reviewing the $30 Lightscoop.  My wife tried to score one of these for me for Christmas, but thanks to publicity from David Pogue & others, they’ve been sold out.
• Artistry:
  • Patrick Winfield achieves a kind of fragmented impressionism in his Polaroid composites (not entirely safe for work). [Via]
  • The Nocturna installation uses stereoscopic imagery to unusual effect (ditto on the warning).
  • For whatever reason, gigantic “people pictures” were all the rage in the early 20th century.  [Via]
  • Speaking of large images, Nils Nova’s Opposition of Memory uses very large inkjet prints to create an interesting optical illusion. [Via]
• Matt Kloskowski shares an omnibus list of 28 Lightroom Resources. [Via]  On a related note, Carlo from South Africa writes in to note that he’s uploaded a set of B&W presets.
• I get a kick out of Sony’s new ad campaign, illustrating the importance of timing by showing famous photos ruined by some intruding object.  Unfortunately I can link to just this one example, though others appear in banners, etc.

Holiday break = catching up on photography online:

• The Nikon D80: Great camera/delicious shark meal (i.e. lousy shark-be-good stick). [Via]
• The NYT features a great perspective on a slide, showing ballplayer Luis Aparicio coming into third in 1962.
• Photojojo has a solid round up of resources on shooting holiday lights (with a camera, thankfully).
• Gear:
  • PopPhoto talks up The New Infrared Revolution, made possible by digital cameras.  Too bad that for most cameras the process of removing the IR filter is somewhat expensive & renders the cams unable to shoot regular photos.  The accompanying gallery of IR shots includes some good (and some sorta marginal) stuff.
  • The Zigview S2 Digital Viewfinder “clips onto the optical viewfinder of your DSLR, adding a swiveling live 2.5-inch LCD display that can not only be extended on a cable as a remote, but can also automatically trigger the camera when it detects motion.” [Via]
  • "Your popup flash doesn’t have to suck," reports Adobe’s Terry White in reviewing the $30 Lightscoop.  My wife tried to score one of these for me for Christmas, but thanks to publicity from David Pogue & others, they’ve been sold out.
• Artistry:
  • Patrick Winfield achieves a kind of fragmented impressionism in his Polaroid composites (not entirely safe for work). [Via]
  • The Nocturna installation uses stereoscopic imagery to unusual effect (ditto on the warning).
  • For whatever reason, gigantic “people pictures” were all the rage in the early 20th century.  [Via]
  • Speaking of large images, Nils Nova’s Opposition of Memory uses very large inkjet prints to create an interesting optical illusion. [Via]
• Matt Kloskowski shares an omnibus list of 28 Lightroom Resources. [Via]  On a related note, Carlo from South Africa writes in to note that he’s uploaded a set of B&W presets.
• I get a kick out of Sony’s new ad campaign, illustrating the importance of timing by showing famous photos ruined by some intruding object.  Unfortunately I can link to just this one example, though others appear in banners, etc.

• Art collective Henry VIII’s Wives uses elderly Glaswegians to re-enact iconic photos of the 20th century.  Triiippy…  My wife says she’d really like to hear the conversations between the photographer & the pensioners.  ("Yeah, so there was this little girl who got burned by napalm, and we want you to play her!") [Via]
• Also in the vein of photo reinactment, check out these classic photos done via Lego.  (Presumably the conversation with the Legos is shorter.)  [Via]
• I’m loving the portfolio of Diane Varner; I especially like this leaf bagel.  Her site talks about some of her Camera Raw & Photoshop post-processing techniques, and on PhotoshopSupport.com she discusses her work & ideas.
• I can’t tell you much about it, but I like this neat panoramic timelapse image. [Via]
• Henrik Kam captures urban decay in images from Hunter’s Point .  His work appears in Photolucida’s list of Top 50 list of photographers for 2006.
• "Sleepycity is photographically deconstructing your city."  I like this nifty bit of light painting in what looks like some sci-fi set.
• If that’s up your alley, see also these ’70s light paintings. [Via]
• My friend Khoi just returned from Vietnam, where he captured this pig riding a moped (so to speak).

• Art collective Henry VIII’s Wives uses elderly Glaswegians to re-enact iconic photos of the 20th century.  Triiippy…  My wife says she’d really like to hear the conversations between the photographer & the pensioners.  ("Yeah, so there was this little girl who got burned by napalm, and we want you to play her!") [Via]
• Also in the vein of photo reinactment, check out these classic photos done via Lego.  (Presumably the conversation with the Legos is shorter.)  [Via]
• I’m loving the portfolio of Diane Varner; I especially like this leaf bagel.  Her site talks about some of her Camera Raw & Photoshop post-processing techniques, and on PhotoshopSupport.com she discusses her work & ideas.
• I can’t tell you much about it, but I like this neat panoramic timelapse image. [Via]
• Henrik Kam captures urban decay in images from Hunter’s Point .  His work appears in Photolucida’s list of Top 50 list of photographers for 2006.
• "Sleepycity is photographically deconstructing your city."  I like this nifty bit of light painting in what looks like some sci-fi set.
• If that’s up your alley, see also these ’70s light paintings. [Via]
• My friend Khoi just returned from Vietnam, where he captured this pig riding a moped (so to speak).

• “In college, take a year off and drive across the country, and camp along the way,” “Old Geezer” advises young photographers. “Do it with good friends that are smart; not dumbasses that just want to get high. Bring some books. Bring some audio books if you can’t read.”  Also: “Always order good catering. That’s all the client really cares about.” [Via]
• “This is a picture I did not take…”  On Unphotographable, Michael David Murphy describes the ones that got away. [Via]
• Befuddlr creates interactive puzzles from the contents of Flickr.  To get one of your images into the game, you can–according to the folks at Photojojo–“Upload your photo to the Photojojo Flickr group, go to Befuddlr and click “photojojo”, select your photo, and scramble it into an online puzzle game! The site will even time your unscrambling attempts, making for a perfect mid-day office-wide showdown.” [Via]
• Speaking of Flickr, Jason Kottke test-drives the Eye-Fi wireless memory card, which enables direct upload from your camera to Flickr–no cables required.  (This strikes me as cool tech, but I’d much rather have the perhaps impossible GPS-on-a-card.)  Elsewhere, Photopreneur.com offers up 36 Reasons Flickr is a Photographer’s Ultimate Tool.
• DIYPhotography shows a cool way to make heart-shaped bokeh (lens blur). [Via]  Hmm–maybe we should add hearts as a shape option for Photoshop’s bokeh-making Lens Blur filter (see related tutorial).  If doing stuff like this is up your alley, check out their other tutorials–e.g. “Cheapest ring light ever” [Via] and high-speed photography at home (champagne glasses, BB gun, and subsequent eye patches sold separately).
• Speaking of high speed photos, check out this beautiful collection of liquid art & droplet photography. [Via Dave Story]
• Ecocentric offers a foxy camera bag made from old belts. [Via]

• “In college, take a year off and drive across the country, and camp along the way,” “Old Geezer” advises young photographers. “Do it with good friends that are smart; not dumbasses that just want to get high. Bring some books. Bring some audio books if you can’t read.”  Also: “Always order good catering. That’s all the client really cares about.” [Via]
• “This is a picture I did not take…”  On Unphotographable, Michael David Murphy describes the ones that got away. [Via]
• Befuddlr creates interactive puzzles from the contents of Flickr.  To get one of your images into the game, you can–according to the folks at Photojojo–“Upload your photo to the Photojojo Flickr group, go to Befuddlr and click “photojojo”, select your photo, and scramble it into an online puzzle game! The site will even time your unscrambling attempts, making for a perfect mid-day office-wide showdown.” [Via]
• Speaking of Flickr, Jason Kottke test-drives the Eye-Fi wireless memory card, which enables direct upload from your camera to Flickr–no cables required.  (This strikes me as cool tech, but I’d much rather have the perhaps impossible GPS-on-a-card.)  Elsewhere, Photopreneur.com offers up 36 Reasons Flickr is a Photographer’s Ultimate Tool.
• DIYPhotography shows a cool way to make heart-shaped bokeh (lens blur). [Via]  Hmm–maybe we should add hearts as a shape option for Photoshop’s bokeh-making Lens Blur filter (see related tutorial).  If doing stuff like this is up your alley, check out their other tutorials–e.g. “Cheapest ring light ever” [Via] and high-speed photography at home (champagne glasses, BB gun, and subsequent eye patches sold separately).
• Speaking of high speed photos, check out this beautiful collection of liquid art & droplet photography. [Via Dave Story]
• Ecocentric offers a foxy camera bag made from old belts. [Via]

• MangoFalls is a rather fascinating collection of photos from film found in thrift store cameras (kind of a photo-specific version of Found Magazine).  [Via]
• Clayton James Cubitt’s Lagos Calling is “an anthropological study of African skinhead fashion from the early seventies.” [Via]
• The Morning News features Aaron Hobson’s Cinemascapes plus a short interview with the photographer. [Via Thorsten Wulff]
• Magnum Magnum celebrates the 60th anniversary of the famed photo agency.  I love the first two shots in this gallery.  [Via Marc Pawliger]
• People & their breakfasts surveys–well, just that. [Via]  I think this kind of navel-(orange) gazing may be part of Why They Hate Us.

• SI photographer John Zimmerman captured a crazy image of Dr. J shot using a slit camera to follow the movement of his hand.  Hard to believe it’s from 1972!
• Liquid sculpture: Photographer Martin Waugh (see previous) talks about how he combined high-speed photography with a bit of Photoshop to create the new Smirnoff ad campaign.
• William Hundley makes some eye-popping jumping sheet photographs.  See more of his work on Flickr. [Via]
• Sports Shooter hosts a cool gallery of indoor rodeo shots from Darryl Dyck. [Via]
• Telling a very different story occasioned by cowboy imagery, LA Times photog Luis Sinco talks about how his shot of the "Marlboro Marine" James Blake Miller in Iraq changed both of their lives. [Via]  The story is behind an irritating, albeit free, registration barrier.

Interesting recent photo finds:

• Wee cams:
  • Justin Quinnell uses a pinhole camera to take some slightly nasty photos from inside his mouth. [Via]
  • Is the government spying on you via an airborne ultralight camera platform? Wired’s got some interesting speculation & a video.
• Try and stop us:
  • Strictly No Photography sticks it to the Man with an entire site composed of photos taken exactly where they’re forbidden. [Via]
  • "Photo-bans at pop art shows — irony impairment, or Dadaism?" asks Cory Doctorow.  "I wasn’t even allowed to photograph the ‘No Photographs’ sign. A member of staff explained that the typography and layout of the signs was itself copyrighted."
• Darkness:
  • The NY Times has been covering some grim episodes in the history of humanity, as seen through photography:
    • The personal photos of Nazi death camp guards are a study in chilling banality.  See the accompanying slideshow.
    • Photographer Nhem En was made to photograph prisoners who had arrived to be tortured by the Khmer Rouge. “I had to clean, develop and dry the pictures on my own and take them to Duch by my own hand," he says.  "I couldn’t make a mistake. If one of the pictures was lost I would be killed."  On a related note, Khmer leader Pol Pot’s 1973 Mercedes limo is for sale on eBay.
    • The paper also features a multi-part essay from documentarian Errol Morris, charting his efforts to find the exact location of a famous photo from the Crimean war (the so-called Valley of the Shadow of Death).
  • Flickr hosts a small gallery of images from French nuclear tests. [Via]  In college one of these images adorned the basement wall of our hovel in South Bend, IN.

Renowned photographer Jay Maisel is offering a unique workshop in New York next month.  As a fair bit of this blog’s content concerns photography, I thought the details might be of interest.  From Jay:

This is an opportunity to take a workshop with Jay in his own environment, a historic landmark bank building in Lower Manhattan.

This is a workshop about seeing and expanding your capability.  It is not about performing or getting your ego stroked.  It is definitely not about technical things and absolutely not about Photoshop.  You will shoot, get critiques, look at Jay’s work and talk about photography all day long.

It will take place Mon. Dec. 17 to Fri. Dec. 21, from 9am to 10pm each day.  All meals are included.  The cost is $5000.  It will be filled on a first come, first served basis and will be limited to 9 participants.  Payment in full, in advance must be made in order to secure a spot.

The workshop is sponsored by SanDisk. Please call 212.431.5013 or email jay@jaymaisel.com for more information.

Despite having flown through the deeply punishing winds, doing a touch-and-go landing at Burbank and seeing the flames from the air, somehow until now I failed to grasp the scale of the Southern California fires.  The excellent LA Times photo gallery*, however, brings home the reality.  I’m reminded of the word "terriblisma"–or as we might say it now, “shock and awe.” [Via]

*Opening in a new window to avoid irritating auto-resize of one’s browser.