Tamron and Sigma have both announced updates for their lenses to provide full compatibility with Canon’s EOS 5DS and 5DS R models. Both firmware updates refer to behavior in live view shooting, something that has also caused problems in the Rebel T6s and T6i. This suggests that Canon’s latest models feature a change in the way they drive lenses. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Manfrotto has launched the XPRO Ball Head in the UK, joining existing fluid and geared heads in the XPRO lineup. It is offered with Arca-Swiss compatible Top Lock and 200PL camera plates and features a spherical locking mechanism alongside a Triple Locking System, the latter of which stabilizes the camera’s position and keeps it from drifting via a trio of wedges. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Sunset on Long Beach Island (NJ)
I watched the future football Hall of Fame quarterbacks practicing on the sidelines just before the Super Bowl. Although they had thrown the football perhaps millions of times before, they were practicing their throwing before the big game. They believe in the old (but true) saying, “Practice makes perfect.”
It’s important for us as photographers to continually practice our skills as well. Although we may have pressed the shutter button a million times, we need to be sure that we are always “ready for the big game”. Like the Super Bowl quarterbacks, it is important that we keep practicing our skills; whether we are professionals, aspiring professionals, or enthusiasts.
Old Barney lighthouse in Barnegat Light, NJ
Although practice does not make perfect (we can practice doing things the wrong way), it does make our techniques more natural, and more permanent. For example, using back-button focus on my camera the first time seemed strange to me, but after practicing it over and over, it become an automatic technique that I use without even thinking about it. It’s a challenge to try turning off your brightly lit LED display on your camera once the theatre is darkened, but with practice it’s an automatic, and easy process.
Practice not only gives us a chance to make our shooting techniques more automatic, it gives us a chance to try new techniques. Practice gives us an opportunity to learn new poses, try a new lenses, or try a new post-processing technique to enhance our photographs before we use them in a client shoot. As a photographer, learning never stops; practice is a good way to try out things with no pressure or fear of failure.
Unless we are full time photographers or we have the luxury of having the time to shoot whenever we want, finding time to practice can be a challenge. Life is busy; there are so many things that need to be done that we are sometimes tempted to say, “Maybe I’ll practice tomorrow.” Sometime we need motivation to force us to make the effort, despite other things that may get in the way, to practice our photography techniques.
If someone asked me what the biggest thing was that has helped me to improve my photography skills, I would have to say that it was my commitment to what I call the Picture of the Day. A little more than a year ago I started trading photographs that I took with my sister who is a photography enthusiast. Very quickly that practice spread to other family members and friends. Today, I send a new photograph to more than a hundred people every morning. The list continues to grow. But it’s not the number of people that receive the Picture of the Day that is the motivator, it’s the commitment to taking, and sending the picture, that benefits me as a photographer.
Even though my photography business focuses mainly on people (weddings, portraits and events); my Picture of the Day photos may include people, animals, architecture and landscapes. People that receive my Picture of the Day have commented that opening my morning email is like opening a box of chocolates because “you never know what you’re going to get”. Sometimes my pictures are not meant to be works of art, but rather just funny, like the shot of my dog Clyde (above), sitting by the dinner table with his sunglasses on, waiting for dinner. The zoo is always a great place to take pictures, so I make that part of my list of places to shoot.
Jaguar at the Elmwood Park Zoo (Norristown, PA)
Admittedly, I shoot most days, but not every day. I make time during the week to practice shooting; I am committed to take that time despite everything else. I have my camera with me most of the time, and many of my shots are unplanned. I stockpile the shots so that I always have a reserve of pictures to use for my morning emails.
My commitment to the Picture of the Day has helped me to grow as a photographer more than anything, including the following:
Four month old lion cubs with mom (Philadelphia Zoo)
Nina and Pinta replicas at visit to Viking Village (Barnegat Light, NJ)
If you are not just a picture snapper, but rather, serious about photography – make the commitment to start your own Picture of the Day project today. Like mine, it can start small and grow over time (I had only one person on my list initially.) I sometimes post my Picture of the Day on my personal Facebook page which adds more visibility to my work. This visibility also adds to my list of people that subscribe to my Picture of the Day.
How do you practice your photography?
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The post Take this Picture of the Day Project to Practice and Help You Grow as a Photographer by Frank Slezak appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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So, come take a peek at our sneak preview and grab up a li’l present while you’re at it.
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Oh good gracious, we’re so excited we could burst!
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
With two weeks left to go in its crowdfunding campaign, the Lowline has already raised over $ 100,000 from over 1,000 backers, promising to turn an old trolley station in Manhattan into the Earth’s first underground park. Inspired in part by the High Line, an NYC park reusing old elevated rail infrastructure, this project aims to add space to one of the most crowded cities on the planet.
The design by Raad Studio is supported by a custom lighting technology being developed specifically for this project, specifically: a “remote skylight” combinating solar harvesting and fiber optics to pipe daylight directly down into the subterranean spaces and paths of the park below.
This system will pipe sunlight from the surface via mirrors and tubes, building on existing designs to route natural light to subsurface labs. As shown below, some tech prototypes have already been tested in an above-ground warehouse but there is still a good deal of research, testing and other work to be done.
Built over a century ago but abandoned for over 50 years, this 40,000-square-foot Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal is in remarkably good shape despite years of neglect. Located in the Lower East Side, the project aims to bring a green retreat to a part of New York City sorely lacking in public landscapes.
In this phase, the funding will further support technological development as well as public exhibitions to raise further interest for the project: “Partnering with the solar device maker SunPortal, we are shipping cutting edge equipment via ocean freighter from South Korea to New York City, and will begin installation over the summer. These devices will track the sun throughout the sky every minute of every day, optimizing the amount of natural sunlight we can capture. These will be connected to a tube-based distribution system and 40-foot-wide canopy inside the warehouse, to help reflect natural sunlight into the Lowline Lab. Once this natural sunlight is filtered into the space, we can test for the quality of the light, taking specific note of spectrum, distribution and intensity.”
This campaign will also provide funds for exploring types of plant life possible in underground spaces: “Our design inspiration is Mannahatta– a verdant vision of the city before modern civilization– and we expect to feature edible plants, and a science fiction palette of greenery forming stalactites, stalagmites, and whimsical passageways. Again, because we are testing in the fall and winter– the two toughest times to grow plants– we will gain valuable insight into which species will perform best throughout the year.”
A long-abandoned underground space may soon be turned into a subterranean version of the High Line park, complete with high-tech sunlight harvesting.
Click Here to Read More »»
Using fiber optics as “remote skylights” to pipe illumination down from the surface, this bold plan aims to transform a century-old trolley station …
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The infamous Old Vic Tunnels under London’s Waterloo Station are now home to the city’s first subterranean skate park with the opening of House of …
Click Here to Read More »»
[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
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Das Bild des Tages von: le_vide
Im Ausblick: Kolorierungen, Panoramafreiheit in Gefahr und Taylor Swifts Doppelmoral.
kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin | Fotocommunity
Travel photography is certainly one of the most rewarding experiences you, as an image-maker, can have. You get to combine visiting amazing places, learning about other cultures, and, of course, your passion for taking photos, all at once.
Piazza San Marco and Doge’s Palace with San Giorgio Maggiore behind – Venice, Italy
However, certain famous locations, or populated cities can be frustrating. You arrive there to find out they are always crowded with visitors and tourists, making it almost impossible to shoot clean photos without intrusions. Granted, locations like these have been photographed millions of times by somebody else before, but I know you can’t consider it your very own until you’ve pressed that shutter button. Here are some suggestions to avoid becoming disgruntled and frustrated in crowded locations, so you can return home from your next trip with memorable images.
A good way to avoid the masses is to photograph above their heads. Pointing your camera up makes an interesting and different angle. There are plenty of subjects, and architectural elements, that can be easily recognized when shooting this way. Landmarks such as national buildings, memorials, or iconic temples, just to name a few, are ideally suited for this as they can be effortlessly recognized by your viewer without showing them in their entirety.
Detail view of Wat Arun, a popular Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand
Get closer and make details stand out. One the best themes to try this one on is food. Epicurean photos are often used in travel publications to illustrate local customs and traditions. This is easy, as you can just aim your camera straight and click. You can photograph your own food during meals, or walk into a market and search for interesting colors and textures. You can also try close-ups on reflective surfaces, like windows, or water reflections in the streets. The idea is to concentrate on small details that can also help to tell your story.
Vegetables in Hanoi
Beat the crowds by getting there right at dawn. This is not for everybody – but no pain, no gain. The quality of the morning light, and beautiful sunrises, are the main reasons why most landscape and nature photographers love to work at this time of the day. But you’ll also find that in popular destinations, most of the tourists are sleeping, so this is your opportunity to find empty streets. Go out and take photos early, while nobody is there, then get back to your hotel and catch up with breakfast.
If you are not a morning person, you still have chances to take great photos. Surely this works the opposite of going early, but in most cases, you’ll find empty quarters as well late in the day. You can take advantage of strolling around well past dinnertime and shoot the sought-after spaces with nobody in sight. Better yet, do like the pros and photograph both instances for better results, and more options for better pictures.
Riga Freedom Monument, Latvia
If nothing else works out, you can just photograph the people. After all, what better way to show sense of place than documenting the locals, or even the flocks of tourist enjoying their thing? You see, it’s okay to try to avoid conglomeration, but in some instances it just can’t happen, or simply won’t reflect the true spirit of the destination.
Corner Street in Hanoi
Needless to say, there are several other ways to address the matter. You are more than welcome to share in the comments below your photos and experiences in similar situations, and what you find works best for you.
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The post Photographing in Crowded Locations – 5 Tips to Avoid the Masses by Daniel Korzeniewski appeared first on Digital Photography School.
At Photokina 2012, it felt as though Hasselblad was having a very public identity crisis. The company’s foray into new product categories, via a relationship with Sony and an Italian design house, was not universally well received. We spoke with Hasselblad’s new CEO, Perry Oosting, who assures us that the company will concentrate on re-connecting with the core values of the brand. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
We’ve updated our Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R First Impressions to include studio test samples from final production versions of the cameras. The 5DS and 5DS R share a 50MP full-frame CMOS sensor and are identical in every way except for one: the 5DS contains an anti-aliasing filter, while the 5DS R has a self-canceling filter. While we’ve previously tested a beta version of the 5DS R, we’ve finally been able to put final production versions of the two cameras through our studio. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Instagram has launched a major update to its mobile app that offers a redesigned Explore page and search function. The former will offer trending tags and places, the latter makes it easier to find people, places, and tags. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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