Halloween’s not over yet – NASA has released a 4K treat. The 18 minute UHD video features a fly-through of the International Space Station. Get out your headphones, flip into full-screen mode and pretend your dreams of becoming an astronaut have finally come true.
Related: NASA astronaut Jeff Williams showcases ISS photography equipment
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
A nightmarishly oversized spider emerges from a gaping hole in a wall in this anamorphic optical illusion mural by French street artist Denys Pasco, better known as Densoner. Known for his highly detailed graffiti style as well as oversized murals frequently featuring creatures of the wild, Densoner created a creepy effect with the massive arachnid’s legs stretching out toward the viewer.
The process of creating ‘Eat Me’ is captured on video and sped up so you can watch the spider come alive in the hands of the artist. Denoner starts off by painting a photorealistic black hole on a tattered urban wall, with the edges painted in shadow to make it appear 3D.
Then, with a few strokes of white, the spider begins to appear, becoming more and more threatening as the artist works. Watch the video all the way to the end for a fun surprise.
[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
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[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
Unlike most of New York City’s standout architecture, this sculptural, almost alien-looking structure set to rise above the new Hudson Yards development will be open for the public to explore. Architect Thomas Heatherwick envisions this centerpiece as a way to take all of the visitors to the square and “sort of sprinkle them into the air,” encouraging them to interact with each other and with their surroundings in a new way.
Influenced by images of Indian stepwells, which use hundreds of flights of stairs to descend beneath ground level, this observation deck uses flights of stairs almost like building blocks to reach into the sky.
The ‘Vessel’ design is made up of 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, with nearly 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings, and if you want to walk the whole thing, you’ll travel an entire mile while remaining in the air above Hudson Yards. It’s 50 feet in diameter at the feet, blooming into 150 feet at the top, and gleams appealingly in polished copper.
The square at Hudson Yards is a collaboration between Heatherwick Studio and landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz, set to feature 5 acres of trees, perennial gardens, pathways, seating and a 200-foot-long fountain mimicking a flowing river.
The square will be surrounded by a whopping 16 brand new skyscrapers containing nearly 13 millions square feet of office, residential and retail space. The largest development in New York City since Rockefeller center was built in 1939, it’s currently under construction, and estimated to be fully completed by 2023.
“We put ourselves under this vast pressure because we felt, intuitively, that it should be something that you haven’t experience already before,” says Heatherwick. “It has no commercial job to do. It’s not based on electronics. It’s not based on advertising. it’s extremely interactive but it’s properly using your physicality. There’s something that is timeless about humans and our physicality. The project, in a way, is a big invitation. It’s just there to hopefully mean things to different people, to not tell you how you’re supposed to think. It’s like a platform for life.”
[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
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3D modeler Amos Dudley has created a 35mm film camera using only 3D-printed parts, including a hand-and-machine polished resin lens. Called SLO, the finished camera is functional and can take photographs, albeit somewhat low in quality, demonstrating the successful construction of a fairly complex device using only 3D-printing technologies.
Dudley has detailed the creation process on his blog, explaining that SLO is made with some basic elements like a shutter, film cartridge, spool gears and an aperture plane among other pieces. In order to support future designs, Dudley made the lens and shutter as removable modules that can be swapped out for different ones. The camera supports 35mm film and uses a two-button shutter system that provides manual speed control based on how faster the user presses the button.
Once completed, the camera was used with Fujicolor Superia 400 film to take the photos above (click for the full set).
As expected, the lens was one of the harder elements to create, at first involving between 5 and 6 hours of hand polishing followed by polishing with a DIY motorized machine. Neither proved entirely sufficient, so Dudley dipped the resin lens in epoxy instead and cured it using UV lights.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]
Unlike The Maze and other classic puzzle books, the Codex Silenda brooks no cheating, forcing readers to solve elaborate puzzles on each page before proceeding to the next.
Somewhere between a choose-your-own-adventure novel, a Chinese puzzle box and a blacksmith puzzle, this five-page volume features dizzyingly complex mechanical puzzles that can only be completed in sequence. In each pair of facing pages, a short story unfolds on one side while a related new puzzle is revealed on the other.
Designed by Brady Whitney, the wooden book is laser-cut and ornately detailed, full of hidden mechanisms worthy of Leonardo Da Vinci – indeed, the story itself is about an apprentice stumbling into the master’s workshop and becoming trapped inside the tome. The laser-burnt edges give the work a hand-crafted but careworn look, like something you might find in a mysterious antique shop, covered in dust.
From the makers: “Codex Silenda is a five page book that features five intricate puzzles. Each page features a unique puzzle that requires the user/reader to unlock the corresponding bolts in order to progress to the next page.” More about its maker: “Brady Whitney is the designer of the operation, the mastermind of the Codex. He originally came up with the idea for his senior thesis research project during his final semester at Iowa State University. Having grown up with a childhood filled with imagination, his passion for design has always been focused on the realm of toys and games, creating the products and ideas he always wished he had as a kid.”
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]
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One of the great innovations of digital photography is time-lapse photography. By now we’ve all seen enough time-lapse sequences that they may not be as novel as they once were, but every now and then an artist comes along with one that still makes us go ‘Wow!’
Such is the case with Vimeo user Jansoli, who recently published a video called “8K Colors of NewYork 2016.” It’s a beautiful short that captures the beating pulse of New York City, built around technicolor imagery, and which should prove inspirational and aspirational to time-lapse and hyper-lapse photographers everywhere.
Have a favorite time-lapse or hyper-lapse sequence you’ve shot? Share it in the comments below!
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By SA Rogers in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]
You don’t necessarily need skills to be a food artist these days, now that smartphone apps make it possible to do things like print custom designs on your breakfast. A gadget called the Toasteroid (a toaster on steroids?) caters to those who demand more than just the browning of bread from the typically simple kitchen appliance, boasting that it also functions as a personal weather forecaster, private messenger and doodle pad. If Kickstarter is any gauge, there’s been a long-simmering demand for just such a device.
The Toasteroid comes with a companion mobile app, and you connect your smart phone to the toaster via Bluetooth. Choose from a collection of templates available within the app or draw your own design, which will have to be fairly simple and pixelated by virtue of the way the toaster works. You can also request that the toaster prints today’s weather right onto your breakfast. There’s a fairly sensitive brownness control, and if you don’t feel like fussing with it, an ordinary lever on the side lets you use it like a normal toaster.
If you know somebody else who has a Toasteroid, you can send them a private message via toast. Presumably, the app will prompt them to stick a piece of bread into their own toaster so they can receive it. The makers also note that you can leave yourself or a loved one a reminder that’s hard to ignore – at least, until you stuff it into your mouth. Probably the most useful function is pleasing picky kids who demand that their favorite cartoon characters be visible on every conceivable surface.
If you’re still asking why, Toasteroid is ready with an answer: “Because why not.” Sure, not everything in our homes should be a needlessly complicated smart gadget, but the Toasteroid does have all the same functions as any high-end toaster and costs less than a lot of them if you get in on the pre-sale.
[ By SA Rogers in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]
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Getty Images has been sued again, this time by independent press agency Zuma Press over the alleged copyright infringement of 47,048 of its sports images. According to the lawsuit, Getty Images copied the aforementioned photos in April 2016 and made them available on its own website for both selling and licensing purposes without permission. The legal claim further states that Getty ‘altered/removed Zuma’s credit and replaced it with its own credit.’
The lawsuit, which was filed August 1 in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, claims that, ‘Getty has been carelessly and recklessly acquiring content, not doing due diligence and not taking adequate measures to prevent infringement as well as falsifying/removing proper copyright management information… Getty has shown that it cannot and will not reform on its own accord.’
The lawsuit is seeking damages plus profits or, alternatively, statutory damages that can range from $ 2,500 to $ 25,000 per infringed photograph.
This is the second copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Getty Images in recent days. On July 25, photographer Carol M. Highsmith filed a suit against Getty for $ 1 billion over its alleged infringement of her photographers. In response, Getty said the lawsuit was based on ‘misconceptions.’
Via: Ars Technica
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Michael Heiman, Getty’s Director of Global Event Operations, has his work cut out for him in Rio. He’s been posting photos to his Instagram account showing the work going on behind the scenes as his team prepares to cover the Summer Olympics. From the not-so-glamorous task of installing cables, to the confusion caused when he wore a green shirt to a local hardware store, his posts have offered a fascinating look at what it takes to cover a colossal event like the Olympics.
And of course, there’s the gear. Observe:
It takes a lot gear to cover the Olympics. This is just some of our lens…. #mygettyriooffice #rio2016 #cps #thankscanon #lotsofglass
But what about the camera bodies? Glad you asked.
You obviously need some camera bodies to go with all that glass. #rio2016 #mygettyriooffice #gearporn #lotsofcameras #eos1dxmarkii #cps #canon #thankscanon #gettysport
Not surprisingly, the table is loaded with Canon EOS-1D X Mark I and II bodies, with a couple of 5DSR bodies for good measure, and L-series glass as far as the eye can see. Just another day at the office, right?
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Just a quick heads-up for any of you who may live within striking distance of Columbus, Ohio. (And if that’s not you, no need to keep reading. It’d just piss you off.)
So MidWest Photo, the folks that brought us the LumoPro LP180 and a bunch of other cool things, are moving to new digs in Columbus. And they are having two days of festivities on August 6th and 7th.
There is lots of stuff going on: speakers, classes, vendors, giveaways, etc. And it’s all free.
I’ll be speaking on both days. Saturday the 6th will be on my hybrid “dad/photographer” approach to traveling. And Sunday’s presentation will be on learning to completely rethink and reshape your approach to photography. Each is a completely different talk, and both are geared towards the full range of photographers—from enthusiast to pro.
But better yet, Greg Heisler is also speaking on Saturday. In fact, I am following Greg on Saturday. You can imagine how thrilled I am.
If you have never heard Greg in person, I highly recommend it. I guarantee you you will learn some stuff. Especially in a small venue environment like this. As for following him onstage, I highly do not recommend that.
And since it is all free, it’ll only cost you gas money. (And face paint if you are going to see Greg.) Kidding. Mostly. But that would be awesome.
Heads-up: it requires registration, because seating is limited. And this will certainly fill. So if you are up for it, make sure to register ASAP for one or both days, here.
Come out and meet us!
Cheers,
David
Strobist
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