Very rarely does a photographer only have one type of battery these days. From your camera’s battery, to rechargeable AAs, to drone batteries, it can be cumbersome to try and carry a charger for each when traveling. Bronine wants to change that with the Volkit.
The Volkit is a free voltage charging device with modular charging bricks that work with an assortment of brands and batteries. Bronine calls the Volkit an “AI charger” because it is able to analyze the battery that is attached to it and automatically adjust the correct voltage to charge it between 1 and 20 volts. Depending on the model, the Volkit can charge four of any combination of supported batteries at the same time while managing the voltage output to each individually. Bronine says that it has been working on the technology that allows the device to accurately determine the correct voltage automatically since 2017 and it is only now at the point where it is ready for consumers.
Calling it AI might be a bit of a stretch, but the technology does sound complicated.
The company supports a huge list of camera batteries from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, and Fujifilm, to DJI drone batteries, GoPro batteries as far back as the Hero 5, and cylindrical lithium-ion batteries in various sizes (like rechargeable AAs). You can see the full list of supported camera batteries here.
The Volkit does require power, but Bronine says it can work using either a power bank, a wall outlet, or the cigarette lighter plug found in vehicles.
Bronine recognized that not all chargers are going to fit neatly against one another beside the central brick at the same time, and created extension cables that will allow you to connect different battery chargers without running into physical space issues.
The Volkit connects to what Bronine calls “Camera Kits” using a four-pin connection and is held in place with a battery. Once a battery is connected, it takes the Volkit a few seconds to analyze the correct voltage and begin charging. The top of the main unit has a screen that displays the current voltage output, the mAh of the connected device, and indicates the level of charge.
There are several different configurations that Bronine is offering, ranging from a two-port Volkit to a four-port and starting as low as $70.
The Bronine Volkit is currently slated to begin shipping from South Korea by March of 2021 and is fully backed on Kickstarter. Bear in mind that this is Bronine’s first project, and just like with any Kickstarter campaign, please remember that crowdfunding is not pre-ordering. Do your research and back accordingly.
Photographers might be struggling with coming up with interesting photography ideas when cooped up at home to stay safe from COVID-19 or because the weather is bad. In this 7.5-minute video, Photographer Spencer Cox shows that great photos can still be made despite these challenges.
Cox came up with five macro ideas that you can try at home that do not require any special equipment and use common household items. He says that in order to try any of these shots, all you’ll need is a tripod, an off-camera flash, and a backdrop – a shirt can work for the latter if you don’t have a dedicated backdrop.
“One of the biggest strengths of macro and close-up photography is that you can do it anywhere, including in your home, and get amazing results,” Spencer says. “Even kit lenses tend to have pretty decent maximum magnifications around 1:4 or so, which is enough to take great pictures of most of these subjects.”
The first idea that Cox demonstrates involves using a CD and a spray bottle. By playing with the angle light hits the CD and the water droplets, you can get some really interesting results.
The next photo involves creating clear ice – conventional ice from your freezer might not be particularly photogenic – which Cox shows how to make in the video above. Once you have done so, Cox suggests shooting the ice by lighting it from below. You can get different results depending on the shards of ice you use, but this is what he was able to create by focusing on the ice crystals:
Cox’s next idea involves capturing a water dropplet falling into a pool the moment before they disappear. While there are tools that exist specifically to do this perfectly every time, you can still get great shots if you time them properly. For his example, Cox shows what he was able to capture using food coloring droplets.
The fourth idea Cox suggests is photographing oil on the surface of water. Cox says that the results can look like you’re shooting something on another planet, and while the setup is a bit more complicated than what he has shown thus far, it still doesn’t’ require any special equipment other than what you can likely find in your home:
Cox’s last idea goes back to something more straightforward and involves dropping fruit into water. It’s a classic advertising shot that you will still see employed today to advertise fruit-flavored liquids. It involves the same general process as the water droplets example, but this time you have to try and time the fruit as it falls.
“I also recommend searching around and coming up with your own ideas for this type of photography,” Cox says. “With some creativity, there’s really no limit to what you can photograph.”
What do you think of Cox’s ideas? Have you tried anything like them? Let us know in the comments. For more from Cox, you can subscribe to his YouTube Channel or follow him on Instagram.
In an interview with Mynavi News, Canon’s Kengo Iezuka says that not only were the 800mm and 600mm f/11 lenses possible because of mirrorless design, but the success of these two lenses may lead to additional similarly-designed primes.
Kengo Iezuka is one of the executives involved in the planning of Canon lenses – specifically in the ICB Business Management Department of the Image Communication Business. Iezuka explained that both compact super-zoom primes like the 800mm and 600mm were not possible on DSLRs. The closest that they could come was something like the 500mm f/8 mirror lens, but even then it was difficult to focus because of the closed f/8 aperture.
“This lens has a darker F11 opening value, but it can be said that it was born because of the EOS R,” he tells Mynavi News. “Which can use high-speed and high-precision AF even at such an opening value.”
The Canon Reflex 500mm f/8 S.S.C. introduced in 1978
Iezuka also says that the mirror lens design wasn’t his favorite because it made the barrel of the lenses too thick. When given the option to offer uninhibited autofocus capability even at more closed apertures on the EOS R line of cameras, Iezuka said they jumped at the opportunity to make what are traditionally huge and expensive lenses small, compact, and more approachable.
“Actually, even with the EF mount, there was a concept for such a lens. However, in the case of a single-lens reflex camera, there is a limit to the open F value required for AF, that is, the brightness of the lens, and depending on the camera, if it is a little dark, AF will only work near the center,” he says. “With the mirrorless EOS R, the dual pixel CMOS AF II is extremely strong in dark places, and AF works even when the F value is dark, so it is finally possible to make a small and affordable super telephoto lens.”
Mynavi News asked Iezuka point-blank if a 400mm version of this lens design was coming, and as expected Iezuka was somewhat coy in responding directly. However, he did reveal that the 600mm and 800mm lenses were more of a proof of concept and that making them was a “gamble” that the company was willing to try. However, since the lenses have been well-received, completing the super zoom prime lens set wasn’t out of the question.
“It would be nice to have it completed,” he says, speaking to the set of prime lenses from 400mm to 800mm.
Mynavi News asked specifically about a 400mm f/8, not an f/11, as there is a belief that since it has less zoom, a less closed-down aperture would be required to keep the compact design profile.
Through the full interview, Iezuka’s responses are for the most part rather typical of Japanese businessmen in the camera sector, but he was surprisingly more frank in responding to the direct question about a possible future product. Normally a “maybe” would be as far as they would go in speculation, but saying it would please him to complete the set is a step further. It’s a far cry from confirmation a lens is in the works, but it is certainly a good indication that they’re at least considering it.
Yongnuo has already released a mirrorless camera system designed to be used in tandem with a smartphone, but the company seems to be interested in iterating on that design further. According to a new patent, the latest design looks more seamless and user-friendly.
Yongnuo’s YN43 micro four-thirds sensor with a Canon EF mount was interesting, but the design looked cumbersome. The physical connection point, for example, was a simple clamp and the entire system did not feel like it was meant to stay together outside of the exact moment you wanted to take a photo.
Yongnuo seems to have noticed this flaw, as the new patent states that the “existing external lens assembly is mostly mounted on the mobile terminal by clamping,” and that “the external lens assembly is easy to fall off from the mobile terminal, resulting in low practicability of the external lens assembly.”
Wanting to increase the practicality of its device, Yongnuo’s patent seems to embrace a phone-case-like design. The company’s patent says that the purpose of this new design is explicitly “to provide an external lens assembly, a mobile terminal and a photographing device that are convenient to use.”
The design points to that “mobile terminal” as a separate part from the sensor and lens array and slides into place using some form of locking mechanism. That mobile terminal features a touchscreen and doesn’t appear to be just any modern smartphone; the designs look to show a specific Yongnuo smartphone with an exposed sensor that slides into place on the rest of the module that holds the grip and the lens mount.
While building a device specific to one smartphone may make the whole operation more usable and seamless, it also means that anyone interested in the device would have to purchase not only the lens mount and grip portion but also a new smartphone. This clearly would limit who would be interested in the product.
With that exposed sensor, it’s likely Yongnuo would also need to produce some kind of body cap to protect it when it wasn’t attached to the lens mount part.
The patent is particularly robust, which makes it seem like Yongnyo is entertaining the idea of building an entire line of lenses and developing a new standard based on the modular design. Theoretically, the company could release multiple iterations of the sensor and smartphone part that would work with existing grip and lens mount offerings and vice versa. If Yongnuo manages to make a product like this, it would be the first of its kind: a smartphone line made with the express purpose of combining a portable smartphone that features a large, mirrorless sensor and an external interchangeable lens and grip.
The key question after that would be if such a system would be popular enough to support in the long run.
October sales ranking from the six leading dealers in Japan has been released by Phileweb showing the Sony a7S III outsold both the Canon EOS R5 and R6 last month, but Canon still beat out Nikon in the DSLR category.
The Sony a7S III sold better in Japan than either Canon mirrorless, though Phileweb notes this might not just be due to the popularity of the a7s III but just as likely that Canon is having trouble meeting demands for its two new cameras. In July, Canon published an apology for the shortage of its new cameras stating that demand had greatly exceeded the manufacturers’ expectations. Three months later, supply issues still persisted enough to give Sony the edge in sales numbers.
The Sony a7C took both fourth and fifth place on the sales list (both the body-only and kit lens variants), showing strong sales for Sony’s latest compact full-frame camera despite reports that the imaging performance is unchanged from the a7 III.
In the DSLR category, figures remained unchanged: Canon’s EOS 90D took the top sales spot, with the Nikon D5600, D6, and D780 coming in second, third, and fourth. The Canon EOS Kiss X10, known as the SL3 in the United States, came in fifth. It is somewhat curious to see the Nikon D6 coming in third, but no mention of Canon 1DX Mark III. It is possible that Nikon’s professional sports camera is more appealing to the Japanese audience than Canon’s professional DSLR offerings.
Ricoh took the top spot in the “luxury compact” category with the GR III, which is also unchanged from the previous month. Sony’s RX100 Mark III and RX100 Mark VII came in second and third, with Canon’s PowerShot G9X Mark II and the Sony ZV-1 taking fourth and fifth in that category.
The big takeaways here are that Sony and Canon continue to vie for top sales spots in most categories, namely in the larger-sensor segments. Nikon fans should not be discouraged, however, as the Z6 II and Z7 II are not yet calculated into sales figures as they weren’t available. The Z6 II should show itself starting with this next month as the camera becomes available to purchase.
Just the other day, a tall metal “monolith” was discovered in the Utah desert. From what I have learned, this tower of shiny metal was placed in a very out-of-the-way location sometime in 2016 (based on its sudden appearance in Google Earth images in that time frame.) In the ensuing week, this object has created quite a public stir and generated even more theories about its origin.
The first speculation is about its obvious similarity with the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Other than this object being stainless steel, triangular, and a completely different size color and texture, yeah, it’s exactly the same. As an allusion or an homage, you can make an argument, but as a copy of the famous sentinel, no.
And then there are those who expound on the 2001 theory and call it an alien artifact. That may draw viewers and clicks, but again, no. It is obviously of terrestrial origin and made well within the means of current Earth science and metallurgy techniques. Close examination reveals the panels are held in place by rivets- hardly extraterrestrial technology! There is nothing mysterious about the making (or even the installation) of this object.
The third- and I feel most reasonable- explanation of this is as a publicity stunt by either an artist or a marketer. If so, this person or group is rather far-sighted and patient. Waiting years for the joke to unfold shows a great deal of restraint…. in this case, it fits well with the concept. This — either joke, art installation, or marketing ploy — is well executed and did its job: it created a ton of public interest. Kudos for a job well done.
Their placement does not look accidental either. It is perfectly placed in an alcove of rock. When the sun hits it right, it is just beautiful.
There’s only one problem….
This was BLM land.
Bordering a National Park.
Having just returned from the site, I can tell you the area is some of the most beautiful I have seen in Utah. The most amazing thing about the Utah Monolith is NOT the monolith, it is the drive in. Just simply spectacular landscapes. And before now, largely unvisited.
So why is this a problem? Because the perpetrators — and I do believe that is the correct term! — used cement saws to drill the base of the monolith into the rock at the installation. They used cement or glue to secure the base into the rock. In effect — no, not in effect, in actuality — they have torn up, vandalized, and defaced our national lands.
Before you start calling me a Karen, hear me out. My overriding concern here is that BLM lands belong to ALL of us (in the United States at least), and are there for all of us to use and to enjoy. That means unmolested. But there are oil drilling platforms on BLM land you may say. And yes, this is true, and many of us feel those also blight the landscape. But those are also permitted. The people who use BLM land for whatever purpose have gone through a permitting process, hearings, and their uses have been found to be legal, and within the scope dictated by law.
That is not the case here. I would have no problem if this were on private land, or this “artist” took out permits, went through the process, and was approved. But that does not seem to be the case.
This person (or more likely group) decided on their own to deface our public lands. And no matter what you think of the installation, cutting into rock with a cement saw is defacing our lands. Period, full stop. They are stealing from ALL of us for their personal publicity stunt. And this I find highly offensive.
But this is just a few minor cuts in a rock in a place no one goes to you might think. Fine. Or maybe you say, “Dave, think of how much joy this monolith has given; surely that is worth a couple of minor cuts in the rock no one cares about.”
If you are of the opinion that the ends justify the means here, tell me exactly where that line is. Can you cut into rock in an area that only sees 10 or fewer visitors a month? Or is it now permissible to use cement to fix a foreign object into public lands if it will generate 100,000 clicks on The Verge’s website? Or can you change public lands just simply because your intent is artistic? Or because you want to?
Simply: no. The line is you do not deface public property. Ever. Period. This placement of a monolith into the rock is no different than lighting a fire underneath Delicate Arch (as Michael Fatali did in 2000), or toppling a hoodoo in Goblin Valley (like the “good” Boy Scouts Glenn Tuck Taylor and David Benjamin Hall did in 2013). That the result is “art” is no acceptable excuse for vandalism of public lands. Certainly not one I am willing to consider or tolerate. Just as we don’t tolerate what Fatali, Taylor, and Hall did, we should put our foot down here. Vandalization in any manner or form of our public lands is an offense to every American and should be something none of us ever excuse or sanction.
This “monolith” does not belong here on public lands. Whether you think it is an artistic expression or an eyesore, it was placed on public land without permission or consent and involved cutting into a national resource in much the same as graffiti or the aforementioned vandalisms. It should be treated as such. Without a permit, and without any official sanction, it should be removed immediately. If and when the perps are found, they should face court action. Otherwise, what message are we sending?
If there is any good in this, I would say it is that it got me out exploring this part of Utah I have to date not seen. And it is INCREDIBLE. As breathtaking as many other parts of Canyonlands National Park (if not more so). But this does not excuse disfiguring public lands. Am I a Karen? Maybe. You can call me that, and you can disagree with me. But I just cannot see how you can have any line except NONE when it comes to discussing how much we allow visitors to vandalize our public lands.
Editor’s note: The monolith was removed by an unknown party on the evening of November 27th and subsequently replaced with a pyramid.
“While the monolith has better craftsmanship than graffiti, this is still vandalism,” the Utah Department of Heritage & Arts tells KSL. “It irreversibly altered the natural environment on public lands. While the monolith is interesting, we cannot condone vandalism of any type.”
About the author: Dave Koch is a commercial and landscape photographer who has been named Utah’s Best of State Nature Photographer the last four years running. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Mr. Koch avidly seeks to protect our wilderness and is a Community Advocate for the Southwest region of Nature First. You can find more of his work on his website.
Canon has published a notice that confirms a ransomware attack on its servers that took place between July 20 and August 6, 2020. The company notes that the attack targeted a server containing a significant amount of its employees’ personal information.
The ransom note that’s part of the Maze ransomware. Source: BleepingComputer.
As part of the notice, Canon stated that the server that was targeted housed a significant amount of its employees’ personal information, including Social Security number, driver’s license number or government-issued identification number, financial account number provided to Canon for direct deposit, electronic signature, and date of birth.
Employees affected encompassed anyone who works or has worked for Canon from 2005 through 2020.
Notice acquired from a leaked internal email from the time of the attack.
Canon says that it has implemented additional security measure to further enhance the security of its network and also, “as a precaution,” arranged for all those who could have been affected by the breach to receive membership to Experian’s IdentityWorks credit monitoring service to help detect possible misuse of any of that stolen information.
While the breach does not appear to have resulted in any customer information being compromised, that is likely of little consolation to the thousands of Canon employees who have worked at the company since 2005.
Canon’s full statement on the attack can be read here.
Under its new owner OPC Optics, the Meyer Optik Görlitz brand today announced the rebirth of another “legendary lens”, the Primoplan 75mm f/1.9 II. Following launches of lenses in the Trioplan and Lydith lines, this new lens marks the start of the new Primoplan series.
“Primoplan 75 has always been one of the most sought-after and at the same time rarest lenses from Meyer Optik Görlitz”, says OPC Optics Managing Director Timo Heinze. “After it was discontinued in the middle/end of the 1950s, probably for political reasons and/or in favor of a market companion from Jena, Primoplan lenses that can be found today are traded at horrendous prices.
“With our new edition, we now offer the option to get a new, technically perfect, Primoplan 75 at a reasonable pricing.”
Primoplan lenses will be distinctive for their bokeh, sharpness, and speed.
“Particularly the smooth transitions from sharpness to fuzziness are outstanding,” Meyer Optik Görlitz says. “Since focused areas are very harmoniously set off from the out of focus areas, Primoplan photographs are given a plastic appearance and motifs appear slightly exposed.”
Photos captured with the lens can exhibit the brand’s famous “soap bubble” and swirly bokeh.
Here are some official sample photos captured with the lens:
The all-metal Primoplan 75mm f/1.9 II is assembled by hand and individually calibrated and tested. The lens features a silent stepless damped aperture, a filter diameter of 52mm, and a minimum object distance of 0.75m (~2.46ft).
The lens will be entering serial production in about a month and will be shipping in the coming days for Canon EF, Nikon F, Fuji X, Leica M, M42, MFT, Pentax K, and Sony E mounts. It can be ordered now from the Meyer Optik Gorlitz website for €973.82 (~$1165).
Correction: This article originally stated that the lens would begin shipping in January 2021, but it is actually available now and will ship within days.
Earlier this month, Olympus announced its latest Pro lens: the 150-400mm f/4.5 TC1.25x IS Pro. With its high price and wavering public sentiment around Olympus’ future, it was easy to question if the lens would be popular. However, Olympus looks to have oversold its initial production run.
In a notice published to Olympus’ website in Japan, the company has stated that it does not currently have enough stock of the lens to meet demand in time for the January 22, 20201 release date.
“Most of the reservations for the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x IS PRO scheduled to be released on January 22, 2021 have been made by a large number of customers,” the notice reads, translated from Japanese. “It is not expected to be delivered on the release date. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the large number of orders we received, and we deeply apologize for the time it takes to deliver the products.”
Olympus does not make it clear if all pre-orders for the lens will be delayed, or just those which were ordered beyond the initial production run numbers.
“We apologize for the inconvenience to many customers who have already made reservations, but it is expected that we will not be able to deliver it on the release date,” the notice continues. “In addition, since the delivery date varies depending on the build-to-order manufacturing situation, it may take some time for customers who make reservations in the future to deliver the product. We are working diligently to deliver the product as soon as possible, and we appreciate your understanding.”
Olympus recently concluded its camera division sale to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), with the majority of company shares completing the transfer to the new owner on January 1, 2021. At this point, it has not been made clear what, if any, changes JIP will be making to Olympus’ camera business. From what has been publicly released, camera and lens production will remain unchanged, at least for now. That said, it’s unlikely that JIP’s impending ownership of the company has anything to do with the production run size for the 150-400mm f/4.5 lens. Rather, Olympus seems to simply have underestimated the interest in the $7,500 lens.
The notice of order delays was only published to Olympus Japan, so it’s possible that those interested in the optic in the West will not see a delay. No indication, either way, is notable via Olympus U.S. or through a pre-order.
Seeing Olympus underestimate interest in its optics may come as a surprise to many, as Olympus and the Micro Four Thirds mount are both often disregarded by vocal camera enthusiasts. The situation goes to show that despite what is conventionally popular online, there is still clearly a market for both, lending credence to JIP’s decision to not only purchase but also continue producing Olympus camera products.
Phoenix, Arizona nature photographer Zach Cooley recently captured a stunning photo of the full moon passing through North Windows Arch in Arches National Park in Utah that resembles a giant eye.
Cooley planned an entire vacation mostly around the fact that the moonrise would align with this arch, and that he could get something resembling a spooky eye on the week of Halloween on October 28th, 2020.
“I planned this shot using multiple apps: PlanIt!,The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE), and PhotoPills,” Cooley tells PetaPixel. “They all allow for figuring out the position of the moon, but each one has different advantages, and I also like to cross-reference for shots like this.”
“It was shortly before sunset, giving the rock landscape a good glow to complement the moon,” explains Cooley. “The moon moves approximately 1 diameter in 2 minutes, so it was about 5 minutes for it to pass through the arch; however, it was only well-centered for about 20 seconds. I shot continuously nearly the entire time, so I have over 250 exposures for its trip through the arch.
“I plan on improving upon the shot but have yet to find a proper alignment and timing within the next two years, but I’m still working on it, so we’ll see!”
Even if you check the moon’s position in different applications, there is no guarantee that you will be in the right place and at the right time. Even a few steps away may make a big difference.
“I started taking an interest in moon photography about eight years ago,” recollects Cooley of the various moon images in his portfolio. “This is definitely the most popular moon photograph I’ve captured, though my personal favorite is one of a couple of my friends on a mountaintop. I like these types of big moon photos because it’s not something people see every day since most of us don’t walk around with binoculars or a telescope.”
Cooley is already planning his next great moon shot.
“I’ve always got various moon photos in the works, but my next major one will be with some red rock formations in Sedona, Arizona,” he forecasts.
About the author: Phil Mistry is a photographer and teacher based in Atlanta, GA. He started one of the first digital camera classes in New York City at The International Center of Photography in the 90s. He was the director and teacher for Sony/Popular Photography magazine’s Digital Days Workshops. You can reach him via email here.
Image credit: Photograph by Zach Cooley and used with permission
Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!
A photo of a celestial body surrounded by four moons was posted this year on social media. It was further claimed to be Jupiter’s four largest moons in order, left to right: Earth, Callisto, Ganymede, Jupiter, Io, Europa. This captured the imagination of many sky-watchers and the question on everybody’s lips: Is it real?
Yes, it is real. Bill Dunford, a writer and social media specialist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, captured it on a Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6, 2 seconds, 4:22 am, south-ish, in Brighton, Utah on July 7, 2020.
“I was glad to have Snopes verify the photo, not just for the vindication, but because I want people to know this sight is available to anyone with a pair of binoculars and some curiosity,” Dunford tells PetaPixel. He took a similar photograph in 2019, near Salt Lake City, which has been posted to NASA’s website.
Quiz: When was the first photo of earth taken from space*?
1946. Long before Sputnik opened the space age, photos were taken from an altitude of 65 miles by a 35mm motion picture camera riding on a V-2 missile launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. When the movie frames were stitched together, Clyde Holliday, the engineer who developed the camera, wrote in National Geographic in 1950, the V-2 photos showed for the first time “how our Earth would look to visitors from another planet coming in on a space ship.”
* Anything above 100 kilometers (62.5 miles) is generally considered space.
In the world of action sports, GoPro has been integral to capturing amazing video clips of crazy action since 2004. But Jason Halayko, a pro-photographer based in Tokyo, Japan, has found the GoPro Hero9 Black to be useful for stills as well, especially action sports photography, in which he specializes. Jason has seen a slight delay between the instant of clicking and when the photo was actually captured in single-shot mode. He, therefore, shoots in bursts of 10 frames per second in RAW to be able to capture the exact moment he needs. When he’s dealing with high-speed action, he changes to JPEG and 25 frames per second to capture that micro-adjustment of the perfect position. The Hero9 is so light that “it is no pain to lift the camera with one hand and frame the image” while looking at the LCD screen.
“The stills this camera produces are great for the price and size of the GoPro Hero9,” Halayko tells PetaPixel. “Of course, they are not as good as my Nikon D5, but that is a pretty unfair comparison. With nice light, a good idea, and good timing, these Go Pro Hero9 Blacks can produce great images that beginner photographers would be more than happy with.”
Notable:WIRED review says: The 20-MP still images are perhaps an even more noticeable step up from previous Hero sensors. RAW images are considerably sharper, and there’s less smearing of fine details. The physical limitations of small lenses aren’t gone—purple fringing is quite common but easy to remove with software.
The new sensor also brings the ability to grab a 14.7-MP still image from videos. That’s a high enough resolution to be perfectly usable not just on the web but in print. The great thing about this is that you can leave the camera in 5K video mode and then pull out high-quality still images later, so there’s never a chance you’ll miss the action.
Quiz: How do you sleep late and still get the sunrise time-lapse? Scheduled capture lets you set your GoPro Hero9 to automatically turn itself on and capture a shot up to 24 hours in advance. It’s available for all presets.
Rihanna reclining in a shark’s open mouth, George Clooney waltzing in a garden, Carla Bruni posing beneath the Eiffel Tower, yes those are some of the images that Canadian-born photographer Norman Jean Roy created for 30 years. He had a place in fashion photography history alongside Slim Aarons and Herb Ritts in the pantheon of artists who defined their respective eras of glamour. But Roy, 51, lost interest in his celebrity routine and missed spending time with his family. In 2014 he said goodbye to the glamour and glitz and moved into a barn in the Hudson Valley, NY. Last year he attended a bread making boot camp and a 7,000 sq. ft., 50 seat bakery was born.
“I’m making a living two, three dollars at a time,” Roy tells The New York Times. “There’s nothing more humbling than that after spending years in five-star hotels and private jets.”
A great portrait needs to first grab you and then let you sit in there and continue to draw you in. [Whereas] with a lot of fashion photography, it really hits you hard, and then it slowly fades away. – Norman Jean Roy
Steve McCurry has been used to traveling since he was 20 years old, but the pandemic forced him to stay at home for the first time. He spent the time at his Philadelphia studio sifting through his archive spanning from 1981 to 2019, re-discovering many unpublished images from his past works: the photos from the journeys in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in Burma and Cambodia, in Germany, as well as in India and Africa.
A new book, In Search of Elsewhere, now reveals 100 previously unseen photographs, with many of those images showing off his portraiture, a skill McCurry says he has learned a lot from throughout his career. “You can only really work with people who want to be photographed, and there could be a million great reasons why they just don’t want to participate,” he says. “You have to respect that.”
McCurry presents the photos without captions in a minimalistic presentation so that the reader can possibly take in just the image without the distraction of words. The captions are provided at the back of the book, but since they are not cross-referenced with the page numbers, it becomes a bit of a back and forth to locate them.
Note: Steve McCurry’s portrait on the top was captured by Bruno Barbey of Magnum, who recently passed away.
Just because people use Instagram and take cellphone pictures, it doesn’t mean the pictures are meaningful, any more than a text someone sends a friend is great literature. – Steve McCurry In a 2015 conversation with Brennavan Sritharan at British Journal of Photography
Tim Russell, a street/travel photographer from the UK and now based in Bangkok, recently joined a street portraits group on Facebook and found a good 90% of the images posted extremely boring and unimaginative. Many of the photos were shot with telephotos without any engagement with the subject, normal-looking people doing normal looking things without any point of interest, stalker-style where the photographer is afraid to approach, and boring photos converted to B&W in the hope of making them exciting.
Russell has another whole website dedicated to street photography – and “while I’m no expert or professional,” I like to think I’m half-decent at it at least. So here are his tips to avoid boring street portraits:
Get closer. The most famous piece of photography advice ever given is Robert Capa’s “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Look for interesting people. Quirky, eccentric-looking people make for more interesting street portraits.
Look at the eyes. If there’s a face in a picture, that’s what we go to first, and it’s the eyes that draw us in the most.
Use context to tell stories. When we show a person in their surroundings, the full story emerges.
Look for contradictions. People doing things they wouldn’t normally do, or in places they wouldn’t normally be, naturally stand out
Use light. Photography is, of course, all about light, and few things give us more satisfaction than a beautifully lit image, or the light can sometimes become a subject in itself.
Shoot a series or project. You’re also more likely to get noticed and published if you can put your images together into a project – editors are more likely to work with you if you can create interesting and cohesive photo essays
Relax and engage. If your subjects are stiff and posing, take a couple of shots and show them. They’ll instantly relax and probably laugh, at which point you can fire off a few more spontaneous shots, and these are more likely to be winners.
Remembering camera model numbers is becoming a challenge for salespeople, journalists, and anybody else who has to deal with them. In the film days, a camera’s shelf life was long, and therefore the name lasted many, many years. The Pentax K1000 was produced for 21 years from 1976 –1997, and 3 million units were made. With digital cameras, many are not even lasting 2.1 years. Sony has really exhausted all possible permutations, even “… replacing each model before the previous generation had arrived in the shops,” notes DPReview, technical editor and scientist, Richard Butler.
Maybe it all started at Photokina 2008 when the Canon 5D Mk II was unveiled, and it ushered in the era of Full HD video in DSLRs. At that time, it seemed logical that “Mark II” branding appeared to have been developed from the previous model. Later, Canon adopted ‘Mark’ designations for its compacts, giving us three G1 Xs, two iterations of the G5 X, and three of the G7 X.
Sony’s naming system seems to have got completely out of control. There are multiple “Marks” of the different RX0, RX1, RX10, and RX100 models. The RX100 series has apparently been divided into parallel short (Mark 1-5) and long-zoom variants (Marks 6 and 7), necessitating the creation of the RX100 Mark 5A. Where is all this going to end up?
Fujifilm takes the cake or maybe the camera! Do they really have two different models? The Fujifilm X100T and Fujifilm X-T100!! Go figure.
Demas Rusli is based in Sydney, Australia, and gave up a career in architecture to become a full-time photographer. He created the above composite at the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada while on a Southwest U.S. road trip.
Arrived at the location just before sunset and stayed until blue hour.
Climbed up some rock formations to get the vantage point looking down onto this road.
Created final photo by compositing four different shots. All photos were shot on a tripod, with a Sony a7R IV and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master.
#1 Car Trails: His friend drove down the road in a snake-like pattern when it started to get dark, ISO 100, 30-second exposure.
#2 Car Trails Extended: Since he had only exposed for 30 seconds in the first image, the car lights did not go further down the part of the road that was still in the frame. He asked his friend to drive the same way further down so he could stack the images together and join the two light trails.
#3 Empty Valley with Subject Standing on Road Just Before Blue-Hour: Before it got fully dark, he had his friend go stand in the empty valley.
#4 Stars: This image was actually shot at a separate location, Monument Valley, and then added to this composite in post-production.
Post-Production: All four images were imported into Adobe Lightroom for color grading and then composited together using Adobe Photoshop.
See in detail at the link above how Rusli created his fantasy scene. There are also some other examples of zig-zag car trails in the Instagram sequence.
I made this photograph at the Phelisanong Children’s Center in Lesotho, South Africa while working on my book Heroines & Heroes: Hope, HIV and Africa. Kids are often easy subjects, but it was hard for me to keep a low profile among the throngs of children all focused on me, the camera-toting stranger in town.
Impossible to be a fly on the wall, I just started shooting—having fun connecting with the kids who were having fun back. I find my best street photography portraits often start as a posed situation— but if something spontaneous and authentic happens, that’s the moment that can make a good image great.
As I scanned the crowd of light-hearted kids and shot, I noticed this young guy had picked up a discarded piece of plastic and started photographing me back. I moved closer and closer still—as he continued to mimic my moves. Just as I got a little too close for comfort, we were both startled; and I triggered the shutter. If his camera was real, I’m sure he would have captured a similar expression.
I remember him being a sharp, smart, and really nice kid. Lesotho is a developing country with too many orphans, resulting from the scourge of HIV/ Aids there. I loved the picture, but I couldn’t help thinking that I first fell in love with photography around his age, turning my obsession into a wonderful life and career. But for him to become a photographer…well, the odds were not in his favor—so much potential in that group of kids that beautiful afternoon. But the odds were against them too.
Steve Simon is an award-winning documentary photographer and author of five critically acclaimed photography books, including The Passionate Photographer, chosen as one of Amazon’s “Top Ten Art and Photography Books.”
He has photographed on assignment in more than 40 countries, and his work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Colors, Life, Time, Le Monde, Harpers, and many others. Simon Says you can read more of his writing here.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (or a Previous Week):
Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures. – Don McCullin (Sir Donald McCullin CBE, b. 1935, is a British photojournalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife.)
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About the author: Phil Mistry is a photographer and teacher based in Atlanta, GA. He started one of the first digital camera classes in New York City at The International Center of Photography in the 90s. He was the director and teacher for Sony/Popular Photography magazine’s Digital Days Workshops. You can reach him via email here.
Image credits: All photographs as credited and used with permission from the photographers or agencies.
