catch the moment!

Postcards from Google Earth

Irina Werning

Came across this project today called ‘Back to the Future’ by photographer Irina Werning and just had to share. I think its quite genius.

I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.

Hengki Koentjoro, Jakarta, Indonesia

Hengki Koentjoro was born in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia, in 1963. He is a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California where he majored in film. He now lives in Jakarta where he specializes in fine art photography both underwater and on land.

Posted from .

Uh Oh, Instagram: PicPlz Launches API, Creative Commons & Brand Dashboards

The battle of the mobile social photo apps has been taken to the next level today, high-profile but trailing startup PicPlz just made three big announcements that pose a big challenge to crowd-pleaser Instagram and the slew of other startups in this market. Not to mention Flickr.

PicPlz, which is lead by former Imeem music community head Dalton Caldwell and funded by leading VCs Andreessen Horowitz (who bailed from Instagram to invest in PicPlz instead), just announced the following: public availability of its Application Programming Interface for other apps to use its filters and widgets, support for users to publish photos under Creative Commons licenses and new analytics dashboards for brand advertisers using the service. The simplicity of Instagram just got challenged in a big way.

(from readwriteweb)

iPhoto duplicates

Since I have my iPhone 4 I have noticed that iPhoto sometimes imports things twice from my iPhone, so I end up with some duplicates.

I don’t know if this is due to the fact that I have tons of photos in the iPhone and in the iPhoto, or that this is the 4th iPhone synchronizing with iPhoto or that we are synchronizing 2 iPhones…

What I know is that I have duplicates and I could not find an easy way to get rid of them…

I use iPhoto on my macbook to sync my iPhones photos. The iPhone camera has become my main camera.

My nikon d300 I sync with a PC (multimedia) running windows 7 and picasa (more than 250Gb of photos).

iPhoto duplicates: Solution

I found and bought this program: Duplicate Annihilator.

Basically what it does is to identify the duplicate photos and add a comment saying that it is a duplicate. They you can search them and bin them. Pretty straight forward. It has many options but the default worked fine for me.

The problem is that the thumbnails can be duplicated too, and even if they have another program for that, if you start iPhoto holding Command Key+Option, then you have the option of rebuilding thumbnails.

The features of the Duplicate Annihilator are:

• Easily find and annihilate duplicates created internally by iPhoto or during import.
• Compare images using different algorithms to detect and understand differences.
• Detect duplicates using effective algorithms using electronic checksums like MD5 and CRC32.
• Detect duplicates by using file specific meta data such as filename, dimensions, filesize, Exif creation date or date of creation.
• Delete duplicates upon detection or mark them with a keyword to make them easily found using iPhoto features like search or smart folders.
• Makes your iPhoto slimmer and faster.
• Only uses standard Apple features and API’s. No hacking nor tampering with iPhoto system files.
• Free updates.

10 Essential Websites for iPhone Photographers

iPhone photography is a growing medium, akin to Lomography in its cult status and the way it champions light-hearted, lo-fi, everyday shooting and off-beat effects.

Like any good burgeoning artistic movement there are already a bunch of brilliant online resources aimed at iPhone photographers offering great galleries, talent showcases, app reviews, exhibition news and more.

Read on for 10 great sites from around the web that we�ve bookmarked for iPhone Photographers and photo-lovers alike. Your favorite not on this list? Please share any other great iPhotography sites you like in the comments below.

1. Pixels at an Exhibition

This site describes itself as a �gallery of the most beautiful and ground-breaking iPhone art on the web and home to an ever-increasing number of visionary pioneers in the exploration and development of this nascent and vibrant new medium.� With a daily pic to inspire you, easy browsing by category or a tag word cloud, featured artists and exhibition news, iPhotographers will find lots to like on this site.

2. iPhoneogenic

Run by Edgar Cuevas, an iPhotographer in his own right, iPhoneogenic is a lovely site to visit. Described as �a place for highlighting the iPhoneographer,� it offers enlightening interviews with iPhotographers from all over the world that sometimes include interesting how-tos on certain techniques. It�s always a fascinating read.

3. EYE�EM

EYE�EM is about more than just iPhotography � it�s a hub dedicated to mobile photography as a whole, where �creative minds from all over the world unite to share their images and create a unique stream of mutual inspiration and creative expression.� You can browse through pics, follow photographers you like, search by location and tag words, comment on photos, and share images. You can also jump into the fray by creating your own stream.

4. iPhoneography

Glyn Evans� great iPhoneography blog covers iPhone photography and videography with app news and reviews (including great info on app updates), photographer showcases, news from the iPhotography community around the world and more. There�s also a user forum for discussions on the topic where you can post questions and help others with answers.

5. The Best Camera

Chase �the-best-camera-is-the-one-that�s-with-you� Jarvis� worldwide hub for mobile photography is the sister site to the app of the same name, with photos from iPhotographers globally uploaded via the app. Viewing a real-time stream of these images is great fun but you�ll get the most out of this site if you post your own content thanks to the great management and sharing options that are available.

6. Life in LoFi

Life in Lo-Fi is the iPhoneography blog of Marty Yawnick, a freelance graphic designer and iPhotographer. Yawnick offers his readers app news and reviews, links to relevant articles of interest he spots around the web, curated Flickr showcases, some of his personal photography and regular promo code giveaways.

7. iPhoneArt

A relative newcomer, iPhoneArt�s aim is �to build a grassroots mobile art community where professionals, beginners, and developers alike can share and discuss all forms of mobile art.� Despite being in its early days, user-generated content has helped create a huge gallery of more than 6,000 photos. The site includes a �Studio Talk� forum, a robust app review section and the option to sign up to create you own online gallery with a unique username-based URL.

8. The Big Hipstamatic Show

Fans of the titular app should definitely look up its sister-site: The Big Hipstamatic Show. The guys behind Hipstamatic run regular contests for best photos under certain titles. The current contest, for example, is �Fields.� You can view the leaderboard to see the hot contenders or view past entries for a wonderful showcase of iPhotography.

9. iPhone Photo

�Gently� curated by Caleb Kimbrough, iPhone Photo is a very simple site offering an online showcase of what Caleb considers �the best user submitted iPhone photography.� Dating back to July 2009, it�s an eclectic collection with some strong photography.

10. Flickr

No, we haven�t gone mad. We know everyone (and their dog) is well aware of the world�s largest photography site, but besides being a place to upload your own pics, it�s a really good resource for iPhotography inspiration, artist discovery and app research.

Many iPhotographers will name the apps they�ve used for specific photos, giving you an idea of what the different photographic options can produce. Did you know there are more than 30 million iPhone photographs on Flickr? You can browse pics by camera model or head for one of the iPhoto groups � there are tons of them and some amazing photography to enjoy.

(from mashable)

Photo Essay: 18 Places to Feel Dwarfed by Nature

Some places — and activities — have a way of making you feel really, really small.

***Copyrighted Material: The images below are copyrighted against unauthorized use. We were granted special permission to feature them in this Matador photo essay. Please visit the photographer links for licensing conditions for each photo.***

1. Uluru, Australia
The massive rock — a.k.a. Ayers Rock — is climbed by 250 every day, despite pleas from local indigenous groups to refrain from doing so.
Photo: Chris Harrison

2. Diving with whale sharks
The whale shark is the world’s largest fish species and can grow to be longer than 40 feet. This shot was taken off Christmas Island, Australia, in January 2005.
Photo: Rob Hughes

3. Cotopaxi, Ecuador
This volcano just south of Quito reaches an elevation of 5,897m (19,347ft) — often higher than the clouds.
Photo: david_rombaut

4. Redwood country, California
Taken in Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, this picture shows me (in red) straining my neck next to the Stout Tree.
Photo: Aya Padron

5. Sea Kayaking, solo
Big water, small boat. Shot taken walking the Southwest Coast Path from Land’s End to Plymouth, England.
Photo: nixwilliams

6. Great Ocean Road, Australia
The coast along one of the world’s most spectacular roads is also good for a walk.
Photo: Andrew Ferrier

7. Ponoras Cave, Romania
Things can get large underground too. Here, spelunkers from CSA explore “Mammoth Hall” in Romania’s Transylvania region. The light trail was produced by a fast-moving caver with a headlamp.
Photo: Bela Nagy

8. Snowfields, Rocky Mountains
This is no photoshop. It’s Matador senior editor David Miller getting in some late-season turns in Rocky Mountain National Park. Read about it in The Dharma Shack Chronicles.
Photo: David Miller

9. Desert, southern Peru
Sand accumulates into massive dunes in one of the driest deserts on Earth. Notice the city of Ica, Peru, in the distance — also dwarfed.
Photo: guilherme cecílio

10. Camping under the stars
So many stars. And camping the best way to let them overwhelm you. This shot was taken near Maupin, Oregon.
Photo: Ben Canales

11. Mount Bromo, Indonesia
This very active Javanese volcano attracts lots of tiny visitors up to its steaming rim.
Photo: Jiang

12. Yosemite National Park, California
That’s me again, this time feeling very small (and a little dizzy) at the top of Half Dome. Notice the gloves — not a fashion statement, but what you use to pull yourself up the cables on the final ascent.
Photo: Aya Padron

13. Antarctica
Travelers to Antarctica report losing all sense of distance — the geographic scale is so immense and the ice fields so flat and white. This is Lake Fryxell.
Photo: Nicolas Arthur Salava

14. Preikestolen, Norway
This rock has a great view of Lysefjorden and is a good place to get close to the edge.
Photo: Sonya Kanelstrand

15. Mont Blanc, France
Europe’s tallest mountain tops out at 4,810m (15,782ft) and sits in one of The 6 Best Starter Ranges for Mountaineering.
Photo: Sarah Brigden

16. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
This salt plain is the world’s largest and traps rainwater during wet winter months, creating a tripped-out sky mirror. Find out how to get there.
Photo: Carlos Díaz

17. On a cliff ascent
This one happens to be the curved limestone face of Malham Cove, North Yorkshire, England.
Photo: Dubris

18. Iguazu Falls, Brazil
The majority of the falls lies in Argentina, but according to the photographer, “the great thing about the Brazilian side of Iguazu is that there are no limits on taking pictures at any time of day….(unlike the Argentinian side).”
Photo: SF Brit

MatadorU Travel Photography Program

MatadorU’s Travel Photography Program gives you direct feedback on your work, and lifetime access to the most supportive, dynamic, and fun community of Travel Writers, Travel Photographers, and New Media Professionals on the web.

(from matador network)

Photography with the iPhone 3Gs

One of my passions if photography, and even if I have a good camera (nikon d300) with lenses to cover from 10 to 200mm, most of the times I don’t have it with me.

What I do have with me is my iPhone 3GS (waiting for the iPhone 4).

I am pretty happy with the quality of photos and videos the iPhone 3gs does, and I am looking forward to the iPhone 4 which is much better.

For the photos I would like to recommend 3 apps that will make you a better iPhone photographer:

Autostich

Autostich is an app that will allow you to make panoramas, so you don’t need wide angle lens ;-)
The beauty of this app is that you take photos that overlap a 20 to 30% side by side and they the app puts them together on a single panoramic photo.

In addition to this you can even take a second row of photos and add it too!

Here you have a couple of photos using this app:

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic transforms your iphone into an old camera. You can change the lense from the typical John S, to a Jimmy, Kaimal Mark II, Helga Viking, Lucifer VI, etc…

Also you choose the film: Blanko, Ina’s 1969, Ina’s 1935, Kodot Verichrome, Blackeys B+W, etc…

And the flash (simulated), from a dreampop to redeye gel or berry pop…

The results are amazing. Take a look at the photos I just took:

Pro HDR

Pro HDR is a great app for when you are facing a contrast, like a photo at home with the window. Either the inside is OK and the outside is burned, or the outside is OK but the inside is black.

HDR has been introduced to the iPhone 4. The technique is simple, you take an overexposed photo and an underexposed and you mix them. The result is not natural but it is great. I use this technique with my nikon too. I read that this app is far better than the one coming with the iPhone 4.

Take a look at the photos:

22 Incredible Photos of Faraway Places

Thailand

Chances are you already know Steve McCurry as the man who took one of the most iconic photos of our time. It was of a 12-year-oldAfghan refugee girl who’s piercing green eyes told us her harrowing story. The image itself was named as “the most recognized photograph” in the history of the National Geographic magazine and her face became famous as the cover photograph on their June 1985 issue.

Beyond just that one photo, McCurry has shot over a million images spanning 35 years. More than anything, he is one of a few that has that amazing ability to capture stories of our shared human experience. As he says “Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape that you could call the human condition.”

Looking through his large body of work, we get to experience fantastic faraway places we can only dream about visiting. It’s in his incredible photos that we feel connected to the world at large, appreciating our similarities and our differences, our cultures and our histories, and our past and our present in a truly unique and everlasting way.

Afghanistan

Yemen

Tibet

Cambodia

India

Burma

Eastman Kodak let McCurry shoot the last ever produced roll of Kodachrome transparency film. The film, known for its rich saturation and archival durability of its slides, was discontinued last year. The roll will be the subject of an upcoming documentary by National Geographic. Can’t wait to see it.

Steve McCurry

(from mymodernmet)

Monster Waves… Tricky Lighting… Astounding risk… Timeless Photographs

“The Shorebreak Art of Clark Little” is nothing short of epic. Getting inside, over and under 30-40 foot waves is no small feat, especially with bulky camera equipment, and a goal of finding that perfect angle and lighting condition that makes a perfect shot.

(all images copyright Clark Little, used with permission)

Clark Little is pretty well known today as the foremost shorebreak art photographer (his art has been seen on “Good Morning America”, and featured in a number of glossy magazines all over the world). But as much as we like the fantastic shots of various wave’ innards, we are even more impressed to see him pitched against dangerous, massive amounts of water – violent waves, where you only have a moment to make that shot and to get out of the harm’s way.

With exclusive permission of Clark Little Photography we publish today the rarely-seen photographs of Clark Little heading with his camera into…

Into the Vortex!

(Clark with his camera “inside” and “under” the waves)

Encounter with a Wave (almost alien-like in intensity, if you ask me):

The Result: Out of This World

A glorious, almost Mandelbrot-like complexity is simply striking in this “Glitter” photograph (our favorite):

Unusual, over-saturated colors show up inside crystal clear waves, reflecting kaleidoscopic world around them:

There is also a place for pure abstraction, even psychedelic touches:

This image is titled “The Twelve Disciples” – see if you can spot some faces inside that wave, too:

Here is perhaps his most famous image: the wave’s “mohawk”, an amazingly colorful splash, featured recently inside National Geographicmagazine:

Another singular splash:

Inside the belly of the beast: “The Twister” photograph shows what a violent wave is made of -

Even in the absence of killer monster waves, the shorebreak art can look slightly alien… Here is the little “Frosty” guy:

(all images copyright Clark Little)

The Book! The Ultimate Spectacular Photo Book!

Can’t get the computer screen wide enough and HD TV capable enough to give justice to Clark Little’s slices of glorious wave eye-candy? Well, now you can order his book, a coffee table-sized huge book, in fact arguably a “mother of all coffee table books”: 182 pages, over 100 photographs, 12×12 size, weighing close to 7 pounds.

Make sure you own a coffee table big enough to do this book justice (you might have to move your coffee cup closer to the edge, but then you might be already seating at the edge of your seat – with excitement over Clark Little’s fantastic images).

(Clark Little with Jack Johnson (musician) and Kelly Slater (9-time Surfing World Champion) at book signing)

Some of Clark’s newest images can be seen here… don’t forget to look for his book in your bookstore, or order it online.

(from dark roasted blend)

Microsoft Rolls Out Impressive Enhancements To Windows Live Essentials Suite

How the next DSLR should be

As you know I love photography and I have a nikon d300 with a nikkor 18-200 and a sigma 10-20.

This are my thoughs on how I would like this sort of cameras to evolve in the next years:

1. Pixel-wise they are OK already. Around 12 to 20 Mpx is more than OK.
2. I would rather improve the sensor to be able to shoot at nights. I hate flash and noise. Nikon D3s in in these lines. My future camera should be great shooting with low light and have nearly zero grain (noise).
3. They should geotag photos. These cameras should come by default with a GPS. Now you can buy an external one (see my latest post), but ideally it should be integrated.
4. I shouldn’t bother to connect the camera to a PC. I should be able to get home, and via my home wifi (or you could configure this) the camera should be able to upload the photos to your media centre, to your flickr, smugmug, picasa or whatever service you use for online backup. Now you have eyefi doing something similar, but it should be out of the box with the camera, being able to configure it: local pc, HD, online service… or if you are traveling and find a hotspot, then be able from the camera menu to upload them somewhere.
5. HD video, sure.

Most of this things can already be done with your phone. Phones are getting beter and better on photos and video, with 8Mpx and HD video… so DSLRs should not be less. They will always be beter optic-wise and sensor-wise.

PhotoTrackr Plus brings geotagging to Nikon DSLRs, leaves your hotshoe open

Oh sure, Nikon’s got its own solution for adding native geotagging to your existing DSLR, but the GP-1 dongle definitely has its drawbacks. Aside from sucking down around 4x more power than Gisteq’s new PhotoTrackr Plus, it also eliminates the ability to use a dedicated flash in the hotshoe while capturing GPS data. Moreover, it has to warm up every time you turn the camera on / off, and there’s just 18 tracking channels compared to the Gisteq’s 44. Regardless of the back and forth, we do appreciate the PhotoTrackr Plus’ ability to plug directly into the 10-pin terminal that few amateurs even think to recognize, though we do fear that the reliance on Bluetooth could cause issues if you stray too far from the transceiver. Still, this newfangled dongle is far superior to its past iterations, both of which simply logged data as you went and then added metadata after you synced the information with your images via PC; this dongle, however, embeds the data right away into every image. Better still, there’s even a price advantage to going third party — Nikon’s aging GP-1 is pushing $200 on many webstores, while the Gisteq apparatus can be procured right now for $179. Take your pic, as they say.

PhotoTrackr Plus Exclusively for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

New geotagging solution sure to save time and make shooting much more enjoyable for Nikon DSLR owners.

Brea, CA (PRWEB) May 28, 2010 — The world of photography has changed drastically since it began, and now that anyone who has a digital camera can attempt to go professional, there is more and more cause for serious photographers to look at tools like the PhotoTrackr Plus, found online at: http://www.gisteq.com/plus

PhotoTrackr Plus for Nikon
When you talk to professional photographers, or even serious amateurs, about camera companies you’re basically talking about either Nikon or Canon. These are the top two digital SLR camera manufacturers out there today. The GiSTEQ company has now created a unique geotagging solution specifically for one of the top brands of cameras, the Nikon. This geotagging device is designed to make tagging photos that are taken on a Nikon DSLR easier, and much more enjoyable, for any camera lover.

Digital SLR cameras are much more affordable now than they have ever been before, and some professionals in the photography business estimate that within the next ten years a vast majority of camera owners will have their own DSLR, if they don’t already. That is one reason why some believe that more GPS trackers and other gadgets are flooding the market now. But while some gadgets are simply silly, others, such as the PhotoTrackr Plus for Nikon, can actually help photographers to become better.

“It’s great that anyone who wants to experience the wonder of photography can do so, but even a consummate professional can forget where they took a specific picture, and no one wants to waste time marking where they took every photo. This device makes it quick and simple for anyone who has the right DSLR cameras to be able to geotag their photos,” said Eric Liu, the President of GiSTEQ Corp.

The PhotoTrackr Plus has a number of features attached to it that both professionals and amateurs will love, and one of the most important is that it can geocode pictures taken in RAW format. Many photographers opt to shoot in RAW so that they can easily fix any exposure mistakes that are made. The PhotoTrackr Plus allows you to geotag photos in both RAW and JPEG format. The GPS data is imported directly into your photo as you take it, so no extra steps are necessary, which speeds up the processing workflow, and there is no extra software needed to run the program, simply plug and play.

One truly unique aspect of the PhotoTrackr Plus is that it is capable of geotagging photos with the last known location, so that if you’re unable to access a satellite signal, the device will save the information until you are in sight of a satellite. Compatible cameras include the Nikon D200, D300, D300s, D700, D2X, D2Xs, D2Hs, D3, D3X, and Fujifilm S5Pro.

For more information, visit the GiSTEQ site at: http://www.gisteq.com/plus

(from engadget)

Back up your photos in the cloud: Flickr or Picasaweb?

Photography is one of my passions. I have http://norai.net with some nice photos that I don’t actually update very often just because it requires and effort of, opening Lightroom in my mac, connect to the photo folder in my media centre, edit those that I think can go to the web, export them to 800px upload them… bla bla…

It is a petty because I have tons of photos. It is a petty also that those that I have in norai I have not a full size copy of them as I just did it for the web…

I have a very peculiar workflow for photos. My media server with 2x2Tb HDs has about 150Gb of Jpegs and 150Gb of Raws.

When I take a photo with my nikon d300 I take it in Raw (only for the past couple of years), then I save it in a Photos Raw folder with the date-event folder. Then I process them with DxO which generates a Jpeg with the corrected noise, lens distortion and so. I move the jpgs to a folder named the same in a Photos folder.

Picasa is the program I use in the media centre to  see the photos.

On the other hand, the photos I take with my iPhone are in my Mac using iPhoto. I don’t know why… but I take a lot of photos with the iPhone.

Up to now I used to upload the Jpgs to my servers downstairs where I have Gallery2 from menalto. It is good, but videos are not great and again it is here and I am trying to move away from depending on my server.

Now I was considering to have an offsite copy of all my photos. I could go for something like backblaze (or mozy, though I prefere the first), pay $5 per month and forget, or go for an online cloud gallery. This backup solutions are good. Backblaze lets you back up usb drives connected to a machine, even if they are not always connected. I have the Media server with 2Tb and then it has 1Tb USB drive and a 500Mb one… so it would be a good option… but the stuff I really need is in my mac (320Gb) which backs up to a TimeMachine in the Linux Server….

The two major players are Flickr and Picasaweb. Sure you have Smugmug which is the one that looks the best and others such as expono, snapixel.

For me the ideal would be picasaweb basically because I don’t care about the community (where flickr is strong) and it is just a switch in picasa to have everything sync with the web. If I work on the face tags or locations, everything is happily synchronised. In addition to this I like the fact that I can keep my folder structure in the media server and picasa will just be a layer to display it and synchronise it with the web.

So what is wrong?

Google sells space. Basically 20Gb for $5 per year or 200Gb for $50. I have 150Gb of Jpgs. Unfortunately there is NO SERVICE that would allow me to upload my NEF (raw files) and they will create the Jpgs or something.

This is expensive. I would have to go for 200Gb so $50 per year.

Another problem is that there is no good iphone app to upload from the iPhone your photos and videos to picasaweb (hello!!).

Then we have Flickr. Flickr is cheap. $25 per year for unlimited space. If I just want a backup then why not go for flickr?

I don’t like it. I know the community is the best one, so if you want to promote your photos then it is far better. If you want to make profit by selling them then smugmug pro is the winner ($150 year).

Flickr has not desktop app. They don’t respect my folder structure. If I choose flickr and I have 150Gb to upload, I would love to keep my folder structure in sets (this is what flickr considers folders) but the flickr uploadr doesn’t allow that. So I would end up with 50.000 photos in a bucket and then do the job online to classify them on sets, collections do the map thing (which sucks compared to google map) and faces… (again!!).

So here I am. On one side the winner is google, but I think they are expensive and I don’t know how fast my storage demands will grow, but for me today is twice the price of flickr.

On the other side, everybody use flickr. I guess you get use to it, but the sycn and the process of uploading the photos… for that I continue with gallery2 in my servers, I copy everything to an external HD, I plug it in my mums and I rsync it once in a while. But then what do I do with the videos I take with the phone? Put them all in youtube?

Maybe…

Anybody went to this hard choice?