goldengod

Three great photographers, three great articles. Simplicity itself:

• William Hundley’s Photography - I totally don’t know the name of this, but William likes to hide people. He takes photos of people jumping behind sheets, coats, and other obstructions. He freezes the action, making the person disappear but leaving behind a mysterious sheet. I can’t explain why I like these so much, but I do. They make me giggle. Added bonus, I found his Flickr account!
• Justin Quinnell’s In-Mouth Pinhole Photography - Justin takes extraordinarily surreal pinhole photographs using a tiny camera mounted inside his mouth. You really need to see these; talk about getting a unique angle for your photos.
• Uncredited Photos of One Man’s Struggle - One man and his family deal with the pain of a man’s heroin addiction and ongoing fight with aids. If you know the name of the photographer who took these, please tell me. They are powerful photos and I haven’t been able to find out the name of the person behind the camera yet.
  
• Convert an old Mouse Into a Shutter Release Cable - The inventiveness of the DIY crowd will never cease to amaze me. Simple instructions for making your own cable release; you do need to know a little bit about electronics before you get started though.
• Using Your Scanner as a Camera - Haje Jan Kamps takes a brief break from the hectic life of a magazine editor to give his readers an article on a new way of taking photos. Use a scanner! Makes me wish I hadn’t sold my old one.
• Why Bubble Levels Are a Waste of Money - I always have problems getting my horizons, or anything else, in my photos straight. After reading this article, I’m with the author. I don’t think a bubble level is going to help me that much, I’m better off using the three techniques he outlines.

I’m totally impressed with the response you guys gave on yesterday’s post. I’m looking forward to digging through those photos tonight this weekend.

Don’t get too excited folks, I haven’t degenerated into passing out Playboy and Maxim spreads (yet). I just came across a couple links that I think are worth seeing, but may offend some of the more innocent members of my readership.

For those of you new to the internet, NSFW is shorthand for Not Safe for Work. This means that the link leads to something your boss might fire you for. It’s usually nudity, but it can be other things that the puritans consider vulgar.

Enough of that bollocks, on with the links:

• “The Park” by Kohei Yoshiyuki (NSFW #1)- Japanese photographer Yoshiyuki explores the weird phenomenon of sex in pulic parks, and the peeping toms who spy on them in this series of photos from 1970’s Tokyo.
• Shocking Anorexia Photo at Milan Fashion Week (NSFW #2) -I don’t know how ’shocking’ it is, but it takes a lot to scandalize me. However, it does a good job of getting the message out there about eating disorders. Much like this commercial, which has been doing the rounds.
• How to Gracefully Accept Criticism (SFW #1) - ZenHabits hits the nail on the head with this article. This is must-read material for any photographer expecting to show another human their work. These rules are totally optional if you’re dealing with the Delete Me crowd on Flickr; I like to be snarky right back to them.
• Twelve Essential Photographic Rules (SFW #1) - You can’t break ‘em if you don’t know ‘em, so head over to PopPhoto and take some notes.

Now I can start digging through the 150-odd photography articles that piled up in my RSS reader on my hiatus. Link roundups might be a bit heftier in the coming weeks.

Ahoy mates! Today be International Talk Like a Pirate day, but surely you already know that. What you don’t know is how interesting these five links are:

• Malacca Strait Pirates - A National Geographic photo gallery about the pirates of the Malacca Strait in Southeast Asia. Particularly appropriate for today!
• New York Rises by Eugene de Salignac - A Smithsonian article on the works of Eugene de Salignac, the previously anonymous photographer responsible for thousands of beautiful New York photos dating back to 1906. The photo of the Brooklyn Bridge painters is my favourite; the lines are gorgeous.
• The Daily Lives of SS Officers at Auschwitz - A photo album was recently discovered, showing the daily lives of officers who worked at Auschwitz. None of the photos in this audio slideshow are graphic in any way, but that’s what makes them so powerful. It reminds us that, as the narrator says, this was an atrocity perpetrated by human beings with families and pets, not some amorphous group of boogeymen.
• Canon Firmware Hack to Unlock DIGIC-II Cameras - A fancy firmware upgrade for some of the Canon A and S series’ of digital compacts that unlocks a whole host of features. Most of these features, like being able to shoot in RAW, are normally only found in their digital SLRs.
• Photoshop Question: Save as vs. Save for Web? - A pretty good comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of using ‘Save As’ and ‘Save for Web’ in Photoshop. Personally, I *always* use ‘Save As’ but that’s mainly because I’m addicted to EXIF data.

You should also be headin’ into me gallery to see Talk Like a Pirate Day photos from the 2006 Vancouver flashmob.

I’m really failing at this ‘coherent theme’ thing, eh? Oh well. I’m spending more and more time out with my camera as the summer light dwindles; perhaps I’m attempting to make up for lost time. If you aren’t outside doing the same, check out this week’s collection of links:

• My Worst Photographic Habits - A solid post from Jim Goldstein on his failures as a photographer; failures that we’re all guilty of once in a while. I highly recommend you read this.
• How To Build a Remote Camera Trigger (PDF) - A 44 page pamphlet on making your own remote trigger. This is a great read for those of you out there into DIY photography.
• Clayton Cubitt’s Katrina Photos -I hadn’t seen photographs of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina that had an impact on me until this series. Clayton’s recent portrait of Xeni Jardin can server as a ‘unicorn chaser’ to cheer you up afterwards.
• Endangered Machinery - Photographer Haiko Hebig’s exploration of industrial machinery and abandoned control rooms. Some of his work reminds me of Manufactured Landscapes in a way that I quite like.
• Drains of Canada: An Interview With Michael Cook - BLDGBLOG interview Michael Cook, a photographer and urban explorer out of Toronto, Canada. It’s a lengthy interview and might not be interesting if you’re not into wandering through sewers, but the photos included are stellar. Well worth a skim.

I’m now going to bury myself in writing some posts that I’ve let sit in my drafts pile for far too long. Stay tuned!

The more I see of Iceland, the more I want to go there. I think I’m developing an addiction, but it can’t be that bad. It seems that a lot of us in the photographic profession have an unnatural obsession with the small, rocky island. here are this weeks links, a couple of which are (shock) Icelandic:

• Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir’s Tips For Flickr Success - Three solid tips from Flickr’s most popular photographer on how to get more recognition for your photos. Worth reading if you share your photos online anywhere
• Heima - How’s this for a lovely bit of video inspiration? The HD trailer for the new concert documentary from Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Every time I see the landscape of Iceland, I want to stand up from my desk and get on the next flight out.
• Balloon in Space - A group of (possibly insane) Albertan photographers strapped a Nikon set to one photo a minute and a GPS tracker to a balloon. The balloon had enough helium to take it to the edge of earth’s atmosphere. And you thought camera tossing was reckless…
• Overcoming Shyness in Photographing People -This is one of the hardest things for me to do, as a photographer. I get really nervous and clam up when I want to ask people if I can take their photos, so I was happy to find this article.
• The Shoe Project - Photographer Ellen Ugelstad take unique portraits of peoples faces… and their shoes. It’s interesting to see how much you can tell about someone based on their choice of footwear.

I also want to extend a warm welcome to my new readers via StumbleUpon and points beyond! You guys made quite the bump in my site stats yesterday.

I’ve technically been back in town since late Sunday, but I’ve had my parents in town since then. Today marks the last day of my week-long summer vacation. I feel refreshed, awake and quite happy with how my first foray into landscape photography turned out.

To celebrate my triumphant return, I have decided to… do nothing. Instead, enjoy some links:

• The F Stop Mag - There’s not much here yet, but the content that’s up is top notch. Two issues have been released so far, each focusing on four photographs and four photographers. I highly recommend you read the whole archives.
• Panoramic Digital Camera Concept - This clever concept camera spins like a top to give you a full 360 degree panorama view. I can see children playing with a low-res version of this in a few years and real estate agents using a high-end one to map homes.
• Fergus Burnett Lighting Tutorial - I’m addicted to these lighting tutorials over at SitBonzo. Fergus Burnett is the photographer up to the plate this time and if you’re learning light, you should take ten minutes out of your day to watch this.
• “Into the Woods” by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott - Fashion gets fuzzy in the August issue of W magazine. While I found this linked in a story mocking mainstream magazines and furries, I like some of the photography. I’m a sucker for strange fashion photography, though.
• Spellbinder Image Matching Software - I’m really at a loss of how to explain this in two sentences, but it sounds cool. Perhaps you should click-thru to the BBC and see for yourself.

Now, to roll up my sleeves and get to work on a couple projects for the site that I shelved while I was on vacation. I’ve got some great articles slated to hit the site in the coming weeks; Subscribe to my RSS Feed and stay on top of things!

Of course, the aforementioned chicken is me. BarCamp was a resounding success and I had a great time, but I’m still ridiculously busy. Swamped or not, nothing comes between me and my precious links:

• POV Photography - Chase Jarvis shows how to take stunning point of view photos using some reasonably priced equipment and a little ingenuity. The video is well worth watching.
• Reverse Lens Macro Photography - Brian Larter gives us the lowdown on how to take macro photos by turning your lens around and attaching it to your camera body backwards.
• Is Digital Printing Ready for the Mainstream? -Aaron Bieber over at Single Serving Photo gives a quick overview of the current state of digital printing and how it relates to the quality of a good ol-fashioned silver gelatin print.
• Lost America: Aircraft Boneyard - I love seeing photos of thrown-aside objects that we don’t consider ‘disposable’. Using creatively gelled strobes and long exposures, Troy Paiva takes night-time photos of old and gutted airplanes as part of his ‘Lost America‘ project.
• NYT on Photographer Permit Protest - It looks like I wasn’t the only incensed photographer when I wrote about the draconian new photography permit rules in New York. The article talks about a protest by a number of photographers and local filmmakers that took place last month.

I hop on a plane tomorrow morning and go incommunicado for 5 days. Posts have been pre-written for your enjoyment, including a guest post or two and I’ll see if I can badger my lovely girlfriend into approving comments.

I’ll be back in the saddle next week; try not to miss me too much!

We may mostly be focused on digital SLR cameras, but there are hundreds of different types to learn about. So many, in fact, that I’ve accumulated a backlog of interesting camera links:

• The Legacy Photo Project - The world’s largest camera takes the world’s largest photo. I wish the exhibit was coming closer to where I am, but I am out of luck.
• Earl’s Ceramic Camera - A beautiful stoneware pinhole camera. Can you imagine owning and using something like this? It’s unreal.
• Rollei Rolleiflex MiniDigi - Digital camera guts in a classic dual-lens Rolleiflex housing. Sadly, the second lens is just for show. It’s still a hell of a unique digital camera, though.
• Nicolas Guerin’s Celebrity Portraits - That’s it for cameras. Simple, beautiful black and white portraits of celebrities taken by noted photography Nicolas Guerin.
• Evolutionary Artwork - Software created art done by analyzing the colour compositions of the most popular photos on Flickr. Lots of interesting and abstract patterns to be seen. Found by my lovely girlfriend and secret editor, Sara.
• PIKA PIKA 2007 - The masterminds behind animated lightpainting and the recently popular Sprint commercial release a new video!

I’m way more nervous about this upcoming trip than I should be. I’ll have to get some posts together to keep you guys busy while I’m gone…

I’m starting to get a buildup of stories relating to camera technology and rights management in my queue. This means at CRRAAAAAAZY ANDREW’S we’re having a LINKS BLOWOUT and passing the saving on to YOU:

• Kameraflage: Images Only Visible with Digital Cameras - This is a neat twist on the age-old concept of invisible ink. Ink that displays in a spectrum only visible to camera sensors, not the naked eye. I predict a rash of free shirt giveaways and subsequent pranks.
• Kodak Releases Compact Camera with CMOS Sensor - Kodak crams a DSLR-quality CMOS sensor into a compact camera for $99USD. While extremely limited in features, this camera is still the forerunner of the next wave of compact camera innovation. Now that everyone’s realized that megapixels are meaningless, sensor quality and ISO rating are the next big things.
• Chinese Nursing Billboard - A major health campaign in China lifts an image of a Japanese nurse for it’s campaign and the original photo is later discovered to be pornographic. The whole campaign was scrapped. The link is mildly NSFW, click at your own risk.
• PopPhoto Flash on Defending Your Copyright - We’ve all heard the ways to prevent your photos from being stolen, but a lot less on what to do after they’ve been used. PopPhoto Flash heads once more into the breach and gives us advice on how to defend our photographic copyright claims.
• How to Protect Your Photos on the Internet - ‘Of Zen and Computing’ weighs in on the impossibility of protecting your photos online. None of the currently available methods are foolproof and probably never will be. It’s the same as the DRM arms race; the technologically literate will always find a way around whatever you devise.

Man, I don’t know how the dudes who do that style of car commercial can sleep at night. I was only kidding and I already feel kind of dirty.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had a busy week. On top of everything else, this is the best time of the summer for night photography in Vancouver. Between the Celebration of Light and Illuminares, you can’t go wrong. For those of you who live elsewhere, here are some bursts of brilliance to feast your eyes on:

• There Are Only 12 Kinds of Ads - I’ve neglected my advertising section since switching to a photography focus, but I still read lots of great stuff about it. Everyone should read this, it really gets you thinking about the underlying structure of commercials and how they affect us.
• “Killers Kill, Dead Men Die” by Annie Leibovitz - Hollywood’s darling photographer puts out a celeb-stacked homage to film noir. The prose is a bit overwrought, but the photos are top-notch.
• Carl Fox Photographic Lighting Video Tutorial - I linked to another, similar tutorial previously and honestly, I’ll probably link to the next one as well. These are solid lighting breakdowns, explained and diagrammed in a short video. Great for quick lighting studies.
• Alien Skin’s “Exposure” Photoshop Plug-in - Spend thirty seconds browsing their samples gallery and tell me you don’t desperately want this. I’ve downloaded the demo and I’m going to give it a shot this week. I love the film effects this is capable of.
• Twelve Ways to Improve Your Landscapes - I found this via one of Brian Auer’s link roundups and thought it was good enough to share in mine as well. Solid advice for landscape photography that I’m going to be reading and re-reading this month.

I’ve got to admit, ‘Exposure’ is getting me interested in Photoshop plug-ins again. I haven’t installed any other than Noise Ninja, though. What plug-ins are you fond of for photo editing?