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The UK’s largest news agency announces partnership with Sony

23 Aug

The largest national news agency in the United Kingdom and Ireland, PA (formerly known as the Press Association), has announced a deal with Sony to have its photographers shoot with Sony cameras and lenses.

PA was founded 153 years ago, in 1868, and its parent company is PA Media Group Limited. PA Media Group Limited is a private company owned by 26 shareholders that are primarily UK-based newspapers, like the Daily Mail.

PA has over 90 staff photographers and video journalists working in the UK and Ireland, and the process of switching them all over to Sony’s full-frame Alpha mirrorless cameras and Cinema cameras, like the FX3, has begun.

Sony UK writes, ‘With developments in the quality of still and video technology and specifically the introduction of Sony’s full frame silent shutter mode and remote capture it has meant that journalists and photographers have been able to adapt and shoot in situations not possible before – for example silently during broadcast – a key requirement for official engagements, where most recently the Sony Alpha 9 II has been used. Remote shooting is becoming a more common requirement, so being able to control cameras and send images quickly and efficiently to the newswire, is key for success. Along with a close working relationship with the Sony UK Pro team, it is for these reasons that Sony imaging kit was selected as the preferred choice.’

Beyond Sony A9 II and Sony FX3 cameras, additional full-frame cameras will be used. Cameras will be paired with a wide range of Sony E-mount lenses, including several G Master models, like the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM, FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS, FE 135mm f/1.8 GM and FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS.

PA members will be receiving their kit personally from Sony, along with product setup support and regular training. After all, some photographers have likely been working with non-Sony equipment for a long time, and there will probably be an adjustment period.

‘We are extremely honored to announce this collaboration with PA Media, the largest press agency in the UK and Ireland. We are incredibly proud to be working alongside them to deliver best in class photography and videography for news and sports to their clients,’ said Yasuo Baba, Director Pro Business, Sony Europe, ‘The partnership and on-going relationship will not only help us develop our camera system further but allow us to better serve their professional photographers and video journalists in future, giving them the opportunity to capture, transmit and deliver imagery in ways they never could before.’

Martin Keene, Group Picture Editor at PA Media Group, added, ‘Sony’s silent shutter, superb lenses and brilliant sensors, along with the relationship that we have built-up with them over the past few years made the switch an easy choice.’ Keene also discussed the support PA has received from Sony as a reason for the switch. Keene added, ‘It’s a big investment, but the opportunity to have all of our team using the same brand new, state-of-the-art kit is both rare and really worthwhile, and will make a real difference to the quality of the pictures that our customers see.’

This news from the UK and Ireland comes just over a year after The Associated Press announced that it partnered with Sony to exclusively provide its visual journalists with Sony camera gear. The AP’s undertaking was massive, including journalists in more than 250 locations across 100 countries being supplied with Sony cameras, lenses and accessories. Last July, the AP said, ‘A wide variety of Sony’s imaging solutions products will begin delivery immediately, including the full-frame mirrorless Alpha cameras, FS series professional video cameras and an assortment of Sony’s 57 E-mount lenses including G Master models.’

At the time of AP’s big move, we interviewed J. David Ake, Director of Photography at The Associated Press, to discuss the switch to Sony equipment. To learn more about the switch, including what motivated the AP’s partnership with Sony, read the full interview.

It wasn’t long ago that photojournalism was dominated by Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras. How things have changed in a short period.

Press release:

SONY BECOMES KEY CAMERA SUPPLIER FOR PA MEDIA GROUP

Sony Europe announces partnership making Sony supplier of Imaging kit for PA Media Group’s (formerly the Press Association’s)still photographers and video journalists.

With over 90 staff photographers & video journalists working for PA, based in the UK and Ireland, the process for switching has begun and kit lists are made up of Sony’s full-frame mirrorless Alpha™ camera series, includingthe Cinema Line Camera FX3. These will be paired with a broad selection from Sony’s E-mount lenses including several G Master™ modelsFE 24-70mm F2.8GM, FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS, FE 135mm F1.8GM and the FE 400mm F2.8GM OSS. The PA team members have been receiving their kit personally along with a product setup support from the Sony UK Pro team.

Being the largest press agency in the UK and Ireland, the PA team providesimages from key events throughout the year including major annual sporting events through to the biggest news stories and momentous official events and engagement.

With developments in the quality of still and video technology and specifically the introduction of Sony’s full frame silent shutter mode and remote capture it has meant that journalists and photographers have been able to adapt and shoot in situations not possible before – for examplesilently during broadcast – a key requirement for official engagements, where most recently the Sony Alpha 9 II has been used. Remote shooting is becoming a more common requirement, so being able to control cameras and send images quickly and efficiently to the newswire, is key for success. Along with a close working relationship with the Sony UK Pro team, it is for these reasons that Sony imaging kit was selected as the preferred choice.

Regular training and support will also be available for the PA team to ensure that this continues, and to keep them at the forefront of what Sony imaging technology can deliver

“We are extremely honoured to announce this collaboration with PA Media, the largest press agency in the UK and Ireland. We are incredibly proud to be working alongside them to deliver best in class photography and videography for news and sports to their clients,” said Yasuo Baba, Director Pro Business, Sony Europe, The partnership and on-going relationship will not only help us develop our camera system further but allow us to better serve their professional photographers and video journalists in future, giving them the opportunity to capture, transmit and deliver imagery in ways they never could before”

Martin Keene, Group Picture Editor at PA Media Group, said: “Sony’s silent shutter, superb lenses and brilliant sensors, along with the relationship that we have built-up with them over the past few years made the switch an easy choice.

In addition, we have had first-class support from the Sony team in the UK to make the swap and ensure that our photographers can go out and use the kit the next day. Having both stills and video cameras from the same manufacturer simplifies the workflow and colour balance across both genres.

It’s a big investment, but the opportunity to have all of our team using the same brand new, state-of-the-art kit is both rare and really worthwhile, and will make a real difference to the quality of the pictures that our customerssee.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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iPhone 12 Pro Max review round-up: a meta review of Apple’s largest iPhone 12 model

10 Nov

The embargo has lifted on iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max reviews ahead of their availability this coming Friday. So, just as we did with the iPhone 12 reviews, we’re rounding up and summarizing a number of reviews from across the web as we were unable to get ahold of review units.

For the most part we’ll be focusing on the iPhone 12 Pro Max in this meta-review collection, but some videos and text reviews cover both the iPhone 12 Mini and 12 Pro Max, so you’ll get a little mix of both.

MKBHD

In this video review, Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, shares his thoughts on the new iPhone 12 Pro Max. As you may remember from his iPhone 12 Pro review, he had expected the iPhone 12 Pro Max would perform even better thanks to the camera improvements inside, but much to his surprise, he noticed hardly any difference in image quality, even between the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The Verge

To accompany its comprehensive video review, The Verge has also shared its longform text review titled ’The best smartphone camera you can get.’ In it, The Verge Editor-in-Chief, Nilay Patel, focuses almost entirely on the camera capabilities, praising improvements of the larger sensor, saying the iPhone 12 Pro Max ‘took better, more detailed, and less noisy photos than the Pixel 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.’

Engadget

In addition to its video review embedded above, Engadget also posted a text review of the iPhone 12 Pro Max titled ‘Better, not just bigger.’ In it, Engadget Senior Editor Chris Velazco praises the larger screen, best-in-class performance and the improved camera system. However, similar to Brownlee’s assessment, Velazco says the better cameras in the iPhone 12 Pro Max ‘aren’t exactly game-changers.’

CNET

Similar to Engadget and The Verge, CNET also published both a video review and text review of the new iPhone 12 Pro Max titled ‘Big phone energy.’ Echoing the sentiments of the other reviews, CNET Senior Associate Editor Patrick Holland says ‘when [comparing the 12 Pro Max’s photos] to photos from the regular 12 Pro, the differences don’t jump out at you right away.’ However, he notes ‘that’s less of a strike against the 12 Pro Max, and more of an indication of how good the cameras are on the iPhone 12 Pro.’

Andy To

For a more real-world example, commercial videographer and YouTuber Andy To used the new iPhone 12 Pro Max to capture his trip back home to Oakland in a cinematic fashion using only video recorded with the device. The five-minute video lacks any narration, simply showcasing what’s possible with the camera array. The whole video was shot on HDR video mode without any external lenses. All footage was shot at 4K/60p or 4K/24p and the footage was edited in Final Cut Pro X.

We’ll post more video and text reviews of the new iPhone 12 Pro Max as they go live. If you know of any we’ve missed, link them in the comments below.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Report: Kodak Alaris has sold off its paper and chemical division to its largest Chinese distributor

13 Jul

According to Australian photo industry publication Inside Imaging, Kodak has sold its ‘Paper, Photochemicals, Display and Software’ business unit to its largest Chinese distributor, Sino Promise Group (Sino also distributes Canon, Epson and Noritsu photo printers and scanners) and transferred its film business to its Kodak Moments business unit.

The confirmation from Inside Imaging comes on the heels of a report that an announcement of the proposed sale was distributed internally within the company.

Sino has been manufacturing Kodak photochemicals as well as silver halide photo paper and dye-sub paper destined for the Asia Pacific market in its Xiamen factory since 2015 and has been manufacturing Kodak medical X-ray film, industrial film, photographic film, photographic paper and photochemicals at its Wuxi factory since 2016.

A screenshot from the ‘About’ section on Sino Promise Group’s website.

We reported back in February 2019 Kodak Alaris was looking to offload its paper and film division, estimated to be worth roughly $ 34 million at the time. Kodak Alaris went so far as to say in its 2019 financial report (page 16) that it expected ‘the successful completion of the sale of [its] PPF business in the next year.’

According to Inside Imaging’s report, there were multiple entities interested in the division, including Sino, Eastman Kodak (separate entity from Kodak Alaris) and even Chinese film company Lucky Film. In the end, it was Sino Promise Group that sealed the deal. Sino Promise Group was originally planning to purchase more of Kodak Alaris than just the paper and chemistry business, says Inside Imaging, but ‘withdrew at the last minute […] due to concerns with the accounts of the document scanning business unit.’ There’s no information on exactly how much the final deal was worth.

We have contacted Kodak Alaris ourselves to independently confirm this information and will update accordingly if we receive a response.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The world’s largest optical lens has been delivered for a $168M, 3.2-gigapixel telescope camera

01 Oct
Farrin Abbott/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, the lab overseeing the design and fabrication of a 3.2-gigapixel digital camera for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), has successfully received the shipment of what may be the world’s largest high-performance optical lens. The announcement was made earlier this month by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where researchers designed the optical assemblies for the LSST.

At this point in time, the 3.2-gigapixel digital camera intended for the LSST is 90% complete, according to LLNL. SLAC has been tapped to manage the subcomponent integration and final assembly of the $ 168 million camera, which is currently estimated for completion in early 2021.

Image credit: Farrin Abbott/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Ball Aerospace in Colorado and Arizona Optical Systems built the lens assembly for the telescope, including the massive 1.57m (5.1ft) diameter L-1 optical lens and the smaller 1.2 (3.9ft) L-2 lens. According to LLNL, the L-1 is likely the largest high-performance optical lens ever created. It took around 17 hours to deliver the two lenses by truck to the SLAC in Menlo Park. Below are a few images of the delivery from the full Flickr album posted by SLAC:

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Livermore physicist Scot Olivier largely credited LLNL optical scientists Lynn Seppala and Brian Bauman, as well as LLNL engineers Vincent Riot, Scott Winters, and Justin Wolfe, for making the massive optical lens a reality. Once fully completed, the LSST will be used to capture digital images of the entire visible portion of the southern sky, according to Livermore, offering what experts anticipate will be ‘unprecedented details of the universe.’


Image credits: Farrin Abbott/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, used with permission

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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World’s largest wet collodion plate created in abandoned house converted into a camera

29 Nov

While the rest of the world has been concentrating on making cameras smaller and lighter photographer Ian Ruhter was making one literally the size of a house in order to make the world’s largest wet collodion plate. Ian and his team sealed up an abandoned house in California and mounted a lens in the wall to create a massive camera. The camera was used to produce a portrait of a 100-year-old local resident on a sheet of glass measuring 66×90 inches.

The scale of the camera is one thing, and the size of the finished image is another, but what is most remarkable is that the team used a process that requires the glass plate to be coated with a solution of collodion poured from a jug right before the picture was taken.

The house selected was an abandoned ruin in an area called Bombay Beach, and the living room was used to form the camera. A giant hole for the lens was cut into the side of the house projected the image of the outside world into the room, and onto the massive sheet of glass for a ten second exposure.

The team made a fascinating documentary about the process that shows the project from start to finish and the thinking behind it. More of the team’s old-process adventures can be seen on the Silver and Light Vimeo channel.

Video description:

“While working with wet plate collodion Ruhter came up with an idea to show the world the beauty of these objects in a size that was deemed impossible. This led him and the Silver & Light Team to a forgotten town on the edge of the Salton Sea called Bombay Beach, located in California’s Imperial Valley. The idea was to create a camera out of an abandoned house. The structure would serve as the framework for the camera. Instead of focusing on the decay from the outside, this house camera allowed a view from the inside into someone’s dream.

Once the giant lens was placed on the front of the house, images of Ted, a 100 year old resident who recently found himself homeless, were projected in, breathing new life into this abandoned structure and once again making it a home. During this brief moment in time when Ted’s photograph was captured, he was present in both places. In reality, he was homeless in the outside world. However, the projected image simultaneously allowed him to be sitting in the living room where he was once again home. because the surface of the plate is highly reflective the life sized plate serves as a mirror, allowing one to reflect upon where they will be in the twilight of their life.

Ten seconds of this dream were recorded on a 200 pound sheet of glass coated with collodion. The result was a 66”x 90” Ambrotype, which is recognized as the world’s largest wet plate collodion image.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lexar announces ‘the world’s largest’ A2 microSD card

01 Nov

Longsys has announced the world’s largest A2 microSD card under the Lexar brand name.

The impending 512GB Lexar High-Performance 633x microSDXC UHS-I card meets the Application Performance Class 2 (A2) requirements, meaning it has a minimum write speed of 2000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and a minimum read speed of 4000 IOPS. In the case of this particular Class 10 card with a V30 rating, that means it can read up to 100MB per second and write up to 70MB per second.

This particular card is designed more for smartphones and tablets, but can also be used in various action cameras and drones that use microSD cards for storage. Based on the speed, this particular card should handle 4K/30 video and 1080p/120 video without any hassle.

Lexar says the card has been tested in the “Lexar Quality Labs with more than 1,100 digital devices, to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability.” It claims an operating temperature range of 0°C/32°F to 70°C/158°F, storage temperature range of -25°C/-13°F to 85°C/185°F, and a humidity range of 5-95 percent.

Lexar said the card is expected to hit shelves by the end of October for an MSRP of $ 299.99, and has the card up on its website, but the 512GB version isn’t yet available from any retailers.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samsung unveils massive 30TB solid state drive, the world’s largest SSD

20 Feb
Photo: Samsung

Samsung has reached another solid state storage milestone with its newly-announced Serial Attached SCSI PM1643 30TB SSD. The drive, which was developed for enterprise use, has double the capacity of the 15.36TB SSD Samsung introduced in early 2016. The company packed 512Gb V-NAND chips alongside 1TB NAND flash packages into the new drive, the combination enabling it to offer a 30TB capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor.

“With our launch of the 30.72TB SSD,” Samsung’s Jaesoo Han explained, “we are once again shattering the enterprise storage capacity barrier, and in the process, opening up new horizons for ultra-high capacity storage systems worldwide.”

In addition to hitting a record capacity, Samsung explains that its PM1643 is the first SSD to feature Through Silicon Via (TSV)-applied DRAM, which totals 40GB in this model. The company also managed to include an endurance level that supports writing 30.72TB of data to the drive every day for five years (the warranty period) without failure, an error correction code (ECC) algorithm for reliability, software offering sudden power failure and metadata protection, and sequential read/write speeds up to 2,100MB/s and 1,700MB/s.

Photo: Samsung

Samsung plans to offer other versions of this drive with capacities ranging from 800GB to 15.36TB. As for the 30.72TB model, the South Korean company explains that it started producing “initial quantities” of the drive last month, with lineup expansion planned for later in 2018.

The drive price isn’t listed, but we’re less excited about this specific drive (since it’s an enterprise drive) and more excited about the tech trickling down into consumer-focused higher capacity SSDs that photographers and videographers can use for backups.

Read the full press release below for more details about these drives.

Samsung Electronics Begins Mass Production of Industry’s Largest Capacity SSD – 30.72TB – for Next-Generation Enterprise Systems

New ‘PM1643’ is built on latest 512Gb V-NAND to offer the most advanced storage, featuring industry-first 1TB NAND flash package, 40GB of DRAM, new controller and custom software

Korea on February 20, 2018 – Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s largest capacity Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solid state drive (SSD) – the PM1643 – for use in next-generation enterprise storage systems. Leveraging Samsung’s latest V-NAND technology with 64-layer, 3-bit 512-gigabit (Gb) chips, the 30.72 terabyte (TB) drive delivers twice the capacity and performance of the previous 15.36TB high-capacity lineup introduced in March 2016.

This breakthrough was made possible by combining 32 of the new 1TB NAND flash packages, each comprised of 16 stacked layers of 512Gb V-NAND chips. These super-dense 1TB packages allow for approximately 5,700 5-gigabyte (GB), full HD movie files to be stored within a mere 2.5-inch storage device.

In addition to the doubled capacity, performance levels have risen significantly and are nearly twice that of Samsung’s previous generation high-capacity SAS SSD. Based on a 12Gb/s SAS interface, the new PM1643 drive features random read and write speeds of up to 400,000 IOPS and 50,000 IOPS, and sequential read and write speeds of up to 2,100MB/s and 1,700 MB/s, respectively. These represent approximately four times the random read performance and three times the sequential read performance of a typical 2.5-inch SATA SSD*.

“With our launch of the 30.72TB SSD, we are once again shattering the enterprise storage capacity barrier, and in the process, opening up new horizons for ultra-high capacity storage systems worldwide,” said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president, Memory Sales & Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to move aggressively in meeting the shifting demand toward SSDs over 10TB and at the same time, accelerating adoption of our trail-blazing storage solutions in a new age of enterprise systems.”

Samsung reached the new capacity and performance enhancements through several technology progressions in the design of its controller, DRAM packaging and associated software. Included in these advancements is a highly efficient controller architecture that integrates nine controllers from the previous high-capacity SSD lineup into a single package, enabling a greater amount of space within the SSD to be used for storage. The PM1643 drive also applies Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology to interconnect 8Gb DDR4 chips, creating 10 4GB TSV DRAM packages, totaling 40GB of DRAM. This marks the first time that TSV-applied DRAM has been used in an SSD.

Complementing the SSD’s hardware ingenuity is enhanced software that supports metadata protection as well as data retention and recovery from sudden power failures, and an error correction code (ECC) algorithm to ensure high reliability and minimal storage maintenance. Furthermore, the SSD provides a robust endurance level of one full drive write per day (DWPD), which translates into writing 30.72TB of data every day over the five-year warranty period without failure. The PM1643 also offers a mean time between failures (MTBF) of two million hours.

Samsung started manufacturing initial quantities of the 30.72TB SSDs in January and plans to expand the lineup later this year – with 15.36TB, 7.68TB, 3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB and 800GB versions – to further drive the growth of all-flash-arrays and accelerate the transition from hard disk drives (HDDs) to SSDs in the enterprise market. The wide range of models and much improved performance will be pivotal in meeting the growing storage needs in a host of market segments, including the government, financial services, healthcare, education, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, social media, business services, retail and communications sectors.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographing in Daulatdia: The world’s largest brothel town

31 Jan

The location

Daulatdia is a brothel town Bangladesh and is considered the biggest in the world. The number of prostitutes there is estimate at 1,600 and the average age of new arrivals is 14. Most women and girls that end up in this shanty town brothel are trafficked from remote parts of Bangladesh and are slaves to the brothel owners that buy them from the traffickers.

Daulatdia is located on the side of the Padma river, the Bangladeshi part of the Ganges, where ferries carrying trucks, buses and people across the river. Lines of trucks queue to cross the river toward Dhaka and the drivers are the target clientele of the brothel.

There is no luxury for the prostitutes. Simple food is cooked on clay stoves fueled by wood in a common area between shacks.

How did I come to be there

After 15 years of photographing in South & South East Asia, I decided that it was time to give back by donating my time and skills and offering two weeks of free photography a year to an aid organization working in a deprived area. I thought it would be fitting, as some of my income is generated from photographing in these “third world” environments.

I am based in New Zealand, so I got in touch with an umbrella organization there (The Council of International Development) and gave member organizations a couple of months deadline to submit proposals for my work. Fast-forward several months, and I found myself in Daulatdia on behalf of Save the Children, to cover the school that they support and the environment it is situated in.

The school is for the children born in the brothel. In the past they had no school to go to because of their association to the brothel. The school offers a way out for many of the children, especially the girls, who are pressured to join the “work force.” An education gives them options to escape that life.

The door way is used to frame the girl (15 years old). I had no choice in the matter, as the shack was so small that the door would not open any farther. Better looking prostitutes make more money, hence their madam will give them a bit more money to decorate their shack and make it a more pleasant place to live. This image was taken with the camera against my hip with eye focus and silent shutter. The horizon is slightly off due to this technique.

Photographing in Daulatdia

I prepared myself as well as I could for this experience, but the reality on the ground is far sadder then I imagined. I wanted to capture as much as possible but the freedom to photograph, as per a usual documentary assignment, is limited when you work for a child-focused NGO.

A big part of my documentary images are taken while people are not aware that they are being photographed. The reason is that I want to document them without affecting the scene and behavior by waving a big camera in their faces (for technic tips please refer to my previous article).

Babies and toddlers will be put under the bed while the mother is working, while older kids will be sent out of the room. From a technical point of view, I made sure that I had the lit window shutter in the frame to balance the scene.

But on this assignment, all the images of women and girls inside the brothel had to have consent, for two good reasons:

  1. Save the Children staff have an on going relation within the brothel, and I did not want to jeopardize that.
  2. These women and girls have had every thing taken from them, and I did not want to add to this by taking away their power to say no to being photographed. I had to be invited into the small shacks that the women and girls live and work in, and had very limited time to shoot.

I was escorted by Save the Children staff almost like body guards in side the complex but never really felt under threat.

So, whenever possible, I used the Sony a7R II’s eye autofocus and silent shutter while holding the the camera off my eye at about chest hight or to the side of my hip. This way, even with the subject well aware of my presence, they did not know when I was shooting. This allowed me to get less guarded moments. Other wise I used very simple portraiture composition. I did not position or direct people. I just captured what in-front of me.

Daulatdia is a hard place, and displays of emotion are not easy to come by. I wanted to ask if I can take a photo, but the moment of tenderness came before I could, so I took the old school “shoot-first-ask-later” approach. The average age of new arrivals at Daulatdia is 14 years old.

Technically, this is a very simple image. It was shot with my camera against my hip and eye focus, hence the severe angle, which is the price of not looking through the viewfinder or at the camera at all.

The story, however, is in the details. This new arrival is in a bare room with a simple bed. The buckets under her bed are the toilet, bath and food preparation gear. This is the face of a girl looking at a life with no choices or hope. When she has finished paying off “her buying price” one day in the far future, she will have nowhere to go.

The Gear

About a week before I left for Bangladesh, I switched to the Sony a7R II. Not the wisest decision at one level, and a very wise decision on another. The not-wise part is that the camera was completely new to me, which is not the best when going into a technically and mentally challenging assignment.

The wise part? Keep on reading.

I had a bunch of Sony native lenses but mostly used the 16-35mm F4 and the GM 24-70mm F2.8. I really enjoyed using both but would prefer the 24-70mm F4 for its compact size. It makes photographing in this type of environment easier. The reason I chose to stick to zoom lenses, rather then switching primes constantly, is that the time frame I had for each shoot was extremely tight and changing lenses would ‘eat’ into the time given.

The two a7R II’s I used were just the right stuff for this type of work. Setting all the custom buttons to do what I needed saved me from getting into the overwhelming menu, the auto focus capabilities were very impressive, and the Eye Autofocus made shooting with a camera away from my eye easy and accurate.

One thing that I am almost too embarrassed to admit is my love for the EVF. Setting the EVF effects on let me focus on composition and timing, and removed the need to look at the bottom or side of the frame for exposure information.

Does it make me a lazy photographer? Maybe, but I will take any technological advantage I can if it’ll help me get the job done.

The shacks that the women and girls work in is also their ‘home’. The Pokemon pattern-covered bed will be used later that day for work.

This image was taken with the camera against my chest, using eye focus and silent shutter. This way, I could capture a somewhat unguarded moment while standing in front of them.

Final Thoughts

Daulatdia represents both sides of humanity. It is a place where people are commodities and are traded for money with no self-determination; on the other hand, it has drawn to it very dedicated people that help with free health-care and education, trying to make the best of a place of very little hope.


Giora Dan is an internationally published documentary and commercial photographer based in Christchurch New Zealand. His images have been widely published in geographical magazines in North America, Europe, Africa and the Asia/ Pacific region, including NZ Geographic, the Smithsonian Magazine and British Geographical. You can see more of his work at his website, www.gioradan.com

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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These are the winners of the 2017 EyeEm Awards, the world’s largest photo competition

17 Sep
Photo © Sasha Dudkina, EyeEm 2017 Photographer of the Year

A month and a half after revealing the finalists of the 2017 EyeEm Awards, the photo sharing community and licensing marketplace has finally revealed the winners.

The 2017 EyeEm Awards have a few distinguishing factors. First, if you go by number of submissions, they are the world’s largest photo competition—over 590,000 photos were submitted by over 88,000 photographers. Second, for the first time in the awards’ short history, all of the winning images come from a full series. And finally, this year EyeEm added a Community Vote category.

Scroll down to see all of the winning series, along with a short description of the photographer and what they were trying to capture.

2017 EyeEm Photographer of the Year

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Sasha Dudkina is a 19-year-old photographer from Moscow, Russia. She shoots with a Canon 650D and occasionally her iPhone.

Sasha’s photographic style is characterized by glances and holding on to fleeting moments. She considers herself an observer, always taking in the people and events around her, often times snapping candid photos of her friends and strangers. Her photography is inspired by her home country of Russia, its literature, music, diversity of nature and especially the people.

“Sasha has been a super engaged community member since joining EyeEm in 2014,” said Brada Vivi Barassi, Head of Photography at EyeEm. “She regularly participates in Missions and shares life through her lens in a really consistent, intimate way. Sasha is brimming with potential. We’re so excited to work with her, help unleash her creativity to the full and provide support throughout her photography journey.”

The Great Outdoors Category Winner

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Guiga Pira was asked to join the crew of an anti-poaching ship as the drone pilot for a campaign to protect the most endangered marine mammal in the world from illegal fisherman. Drones were used to locate, identify and document illegal fishing activities in a protected area.

Pira said as the drone pilot in this campaign “I saw too much of the dark side of humanity in such a beautiful place. I decided to make the best of my time while flying, so every time the drones were launched I tried to capture the beautiful side of the area I was patrolling.”

The Street Photographer Category Winner

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The lead photo was taken as part of Julie Hrudova’s series, ‘LEISURE,’ which is an ongoing series Hrudova says is “core to what my work is about.” It’s a play with photography being a trustworthy and truthful medium by creating some confusion about what is actually happening in the image, or why. Hrudova says her subjects are focused on their leisure activities and often isolated.

The photos from the series are taken in Moscow, Tokyo and Amsterdam.

The Architect Category Winner

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Denise Kwong went to a popular spot in Hong Kong to shoot the markets below, when she looked to the left and saw this block of units. Kwong said: “With its lighting scheme, it was giving off a cinematic vibe and I also love how how each lit balcony made the building facade look like a sheet of negatives – each telling its own story.”

The Portraitist Category Winner

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The winning image was taken as part of Adeolu Osibodu’s series, ‘Losing Amos.’ Osibodu says: “My Grandfather Amos died in 2014. It was then that I realized how casual my idea of him was. I constantly asked myself why I couldn’t see beyond his heavy grins, why I couldn’t define him as more than the man who was never unhappy… these were unsettling thoughts that meddled with my conscience.” Osibodu decided to take a series of self-portraits wearing different clothes his grandfather owned at various times in his life.

“Maybe this is inspired by an urge to find consolation or my intimate affection for a time before, or me just being Adeolu. Regardless, I’m forever glad I happened to find myself in this state.”

The Photojournalist Category Winner

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The winning image is from Ramin Mazur’s series, “The Process,” documenting a production of Hamlet put on in a prison in Moldova.

The Republic of Moldova has one of the highest numbers of inmates per capita in Europe, including the highest rate of the long term convicted. To shed a light on the issues of penitentiary system, art centre “Coliseum” directed a play in the most secure prison in Moldova. For several months inmates were studying the craft of acting to perform on the same level as professionals from the National Theatre. Some of the inmates had already been in prison for more than half their lives. Through this play, directors Mihai Fusu and Luminita Ticu aimed to draw attention to conditions of lifers in Moldova, the penitentiary system as whole and most importantly, stereotypes.

Inmates and their right to be changed is a taboo topic among people and, paired with poor economical conditions and corrupted institutions, leaves little chance for those who want to be changed or forgiven.

The Community Vote Category Winner

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Robert Torrontegui‘s portrait series captured in Manila, Philippines was selected by the EyeEm community from all of the finalists.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lego’s Largest and Most Expensive Kit Ever is an $800 Millennium Falcon

08 Sep

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

You don’t get a sense of just how large and complex Lego’s latest kit really is until you see it someone’s arms, or taking up the entire table surface in front of them. A gift for true enthusiasts of both the toy brick company and Star Wars, the Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon is the single largest and most expensive Lego kit ever sold, presented in a huge box full of 7,541 pieces. In fact, the box is so heavy that Lego teased on Twitter that they’d have to add wheels and a handle so customers can get it out the door.

An update on the last Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon, which was released in July 2007, this new set expands it by over 2,000 pieces, adding a stunning range of details that will delight discerning fans. You can even swap out the deflector dishes to either look as they did in the original Star Wars trilogy or in The Force Awakens.

It comes with 10 minifigures, including Leia, C-3P0, Han and Chewbacca from the trilogy and Finn, Rey, BB-8, ‘Old Han’ and two porgs from The Force Awakens. You can even spin the original Han and Leia’s heads around to reveal optional faces outfitted with air respirators.

Fans who missed out on the 2007 model still pay up to $ 3,000 in the rare occasion that one pops up on eBay, and Lego expects the new set to sell out, so if all of this news has you swiping everything off your dining table in anticipation, you’d better run out and get one as soon as it goes on sale October 1st.

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[ By SA Rogers in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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