Photographs of Astronauts Using DSLRs on Spacewalks

This photograph of Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide taking a self-portrait was published to NASA’s amazing 2Explore Flickr account on Wednesday. It was snapped during a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The EXIF data embedded in the photo reveals that he was using a Nikon D2Xs with a 10.5mm fisheye lens at f/11, 1/500, and ISO 200. Here’s a closer crop of the photo, which gives a more detailed look of the DSLR. Notice the padded insulation, and the lens cap that’s attached with what appears to be a metal carabiner: Looking through the...

Simone Donati

From the project “Valley of Angels”, Sicily 2010 Simone Donati (b.1977, Italy) completed a three-year course in photography at the Fondazione Studio Marangoni in Florence. After an internship at Magnum Photo in New York he started working in the field of documentary photography. His work focuses on the political and social situation of Italy.
 In 2011 he was shortlisted at Fotografia Festival Roma, Voices Off in Arles and at the OjodePez Award for Human Values with his project “Valley of Angels”. In 2010 he received the Ponchielli prize (3rd place) for “Welcome to...

Creating a Daguerreotype Plate Using the Becquerel Method, From Start to Finish

In daguerreotype photography, the first commercially successful photographic process, a positive image is recorded directly onto a silvered copper plate. Although mercury is traditionally used to develop the plate, there’s a way of creating daguerreotypes called the Becquerel method that eschews mercury in favor of non-lethal ingredients. According to Contemporary Daguerreotypes, A polished silver plate is sensitized with iodine vapor. After the sensitized plate is exposed to light in a camera, the image will develop if the plate is further exposed to bright light through a red or...

Day 2 at Photoshop World: Monster Madness!

Day 2 at Photoshop World 2012 in Las Vegas was all about the customers. Adobe digital imaging product managers went one-on-one with customers to learn about their thoughts, needs and experiences with Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Touch, while monsters took over the show floor for some haunting shooting opportunities. Here’s what we’ve been up to on Day 2! Prior to the opening of the show floor, artist Rayce Bird preps a model for a photo shoot at the Westcott booth. Russell Brown gets his own makeup treatment to prep for a day on the floor. Photographers shoot Rayce’s monstrous...

Photos Showing the Lines and Symmetry of Subway Stations

German student Hans Findling has some interesting architectural photos captured deep underground in subway stations around Europe. The images, snapped in Germany, Austria, and Spain, are generally devoid of the hustle and bustle you usually find inside a metro system. Findling chooses to focus on capturing the eye-catching patterns, lines, and symmetry built into many parts of these stations. If you’d like to take your own “post-apocalyptic” photos inside a subway station, you can try either using a neutral density filter and super-long exposure (which effectively...

Photographer Finds Identity of Couple in ‘Last Kiss’ Photo After Internet Hunt

Photographer Mo Gelber was standing outside the Manhattan Criminal Court on August 16th when he noticed a couple being led in handcuffs toward the courthouse by two officers. Just as they were about to enter the building to be booked, the young man leaned in to his significant other for one last kiss. Gelber instinctively snapped a photograph, resulting in the picture-perfect image seen above. Pleased with how his picture turned out, Gelber decided to enter it in the Project Imaginat10n contest put on by director Ron Howard and Canon. Out of the thousands of photo entries, only 10 will be...

How Marilyn Monroe’s NY Residency is Saving Photo Owners a Lot of Money

Did you know that in California, “rights of publicity” are transfered to a celebrity’s heirs after the celebrity dies? This means that photos of the famous individual may continue to be subject to the heir’s licensing fees when the photo owners want to license them out for use in commercial products. A court ruling issued last week provides an interesting case study into how this California law can affect photography rights. PDN writes, Owners of Marilyn Monroe photographs have won a decisive legal victory [...] which has affirmed that Marilyn Monroe heirs have...

How It Was Photographed: Emerald Isles

Last week, a seascape photo I made showed up on link-sharing powerhouse Reddit. It caused a bit of a stir since it is a copyrighted image and was rehosted and posted without my permission. A lot of the photographers in r/photography and r/pics (where it was originally posted by a user) made it known that it was I who had created the work. I’m very grateful for both the exposure that posting gave me, and even more grateful for the support I received from my fellow photographers and Redditors. After the image was posted, I noticed a lot of people claiming that there was no chance this was...

The Tutu Project: An Inspiring and Refreshing Project That Aims To Fight Breast Cancer

Photographer Bob Carey has taken the fight against cancer into his own hands with the most unusual of tools: a man-sized pink tutu. By creating a combination of whimsical and emotionally charged self-portraits, Bob’s project tugs at the heartstrings and spreads awareness in a humorous, yet touching, way. Check out the amazing photos and story in this video, which was produced by PocketWizard. You can get more information about the project and see more photos at thetutuproject.com. Via...

Fujifilm Unveils New Firmware for the X-Pro1 That Makes Autofocus Snappier

In addition to the new X-E1 announced this morning, Fujifilm has also unveiled version 2.0 of its X-Pro1 firmware. Autofocus has been a much-griped-about feature of the X-Pro1 (and the X100, for that matter), and the new firmware addresses that issue by improving the AF capabilities of the camera in different ways. The three main improvements introduced by the new firmware all have to do with speed: autofocus speed, manual focus speed, and data transfer speed. Autofocus speed has been improved for low-light situations — situations in which the camera would previously need to spend...