I love my Nikon D2x. I love my Canon G10 pocket camera. I even love my old Miranda 35mm film camera that my dad passed on to me when I was a kid. But this might be the coolest photo-making machine I've ever seen: the Pet's Eye View Digital Camera.
Want to see what your dog (or cat) sees all day? Clip this camera to its collar, set the interval timer, and a photo will be taken every one, five or 15 minutes.
The Pet's Eye View Digital Camera sells for $50 though the website linked above, but retails for less elsewhere around the web.
Doing photo work at night (shooting moonlit landscapes, star trails, etc.) presents a number of obstacles, including the difficulty of setting up and setting cameras in the dark. Flashlights are of little use because you need both hands to work with a full kit of photo gear.
Photographers faced with this nocturnal challenge generally use a headlamp to see their way around. Yeah, that solves the problem, but it's also a little overkill.
For a solution that's a little less — well, dorky — I used to like LED caps, such as those sold by LL Bean. But those look a little odd, too, in that these tiny globes poke out from the front of the brim.
Then a few weeks ago I discovered a great new solution: LED clip lights.
These lights, made to clip onto a baseball-style cap, provide 14 lumens of light in a small package that pivots, resists water and stows away easily when not in use. And because they fit on any cap, you can use it no matter what hat you have with you, rather than needing to carry a specific one.
Energizer makes the model I've tried, and they make them in white, green and UV light.
A friend of mine passed along a link to a great online store for anyone interested in fun photo-related items: Photojojo.com.
Just a few of the many products the site offers:
Eyeglasses with a discreet built-in video camera
Frames that make prints look like Polaroid pictures
Tiny creative filters designed for camera phones
SD memory cards that provide wireless dumping of your image files
A camera case that looks like a bowling-bowl bag
The store has plenty more, as well.
Many of the site's items make great tools, toys or gifts for photographers of any level. And even if you're not in the mood for buying, the selection is pretty fun just to browse.
According to the BBC, a camera lost at sea for 16 months has been found and returned to its owners.
South Africa's Barbara and Dennis Gregory accidentally dropped the camera over the edge of the cruise ship Queen Mary in 2008, and assumed they'd never see it again.
Enter Benito Estevez, a commercial fisherman from Spain, who found the camera in his nets while trawling the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Europe. Estevez examined the memory card, found five photos intact and posted them online in an effort to discover the camera's owner.
It's been about eight months since I've publicly marveled at the images produced by the Hubble Space Telescope, so it's high time I get my head out of the clouds and back into space.
FoxNews.com this morning published a photo essay of the Hubble's best space photographs from its nearly 20 years of scanning the stars. The collection features stunning imagery of galaxies, gamma-ray bursts, nebulae, quasars, supernovas and more. Well worth checking out.
I spent much of the past two days photographing Canaveral National Seashore and the neighboring Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s east coast.
I produced about 1,800 frames of work, a majority of which covered the dozens of species of birds that live in or migrate to Florida during winter: blue and tricolored herons, white ibis, great and snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills and more. My other work covered the myriad marshes, saltwater estuaries, coastal dunes, alligators and sunsets.
This was my first visit to either of the preserves, and I hope it won’t be my last. The area has become one of my favorite Florida photo subjects, right up there with Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
I'm about to fly to Florida, where I hope to photograph Canaveral National Seashore at length, and possibly the Everglades as well. I'll also likely succumb to the temptation of photographing from the window of my JetBlue.
As I go, let me leave you with this note of historical interest: The year 1909 marked the first time an airplane was photographed from the sky. The photo was made from a hot-air balloon at Italy's Centocelle Field.
Just a quick note to mention that I'll be posting a whole bunch of new photos to NicholsonPrints.com within the next couple of days. I'm not sure exactly when the photos will be online, but it will be before the deadline for ordering prints for Christmas (Dec. 14).
The new photos (some of which can be seen on my "Photographs of Chris Nicholson" Facebook page) are mostly from 2009 shoots in New England.
Here's a fun photo-related listing on eBay: A used camera lens more expensive than most people's new cars.
The item up for auction is a very rare Canon 5200mm f/14 lens. That's 17 times more powerful than the 300mm lens I use for doing pro tennis photography.
It weighs over 200 pounds, is over six feet long and rests at two feet high. Just to move this lens requires at least two people.
The current asking price? $45,000.
To see (or bid on) this piece of relatively monstrous machinery, view its auction page on eBay. But look quickly; the sale ends tomorrow.
A man bought a print of "Bryce Canyon In Morning Sun" because he and his wife had just returned from a great hiking vacation in that national park.
A woman bought a print of "Australian Hay Bales" because her brother likes ... well, hay bales.
And there are plenty of other great reasons to buy prints as gifts, limited only by thought and imagination. Choose a print that reminds someone of a special place — their favorite vacation spot, the beach where they were married, the state their family hails from.
Which brings me to my next point: the deadline for holiday print orders is two weeks away.
For prints to be received by Christmas, orders need to be in by December 14 (though I can entertain rush orders for a few days afterward). Gift Certificates, of course, I can usually deliver same-day.
Remember, prints are issued in certified limited editions (most are editions of 25), and are made on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, one of the highest-quality photo papers in existence. For more information about quality and so on, see About the Prints.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
A local friend of mine, artist Mike Falcigno, has been featured in the Connecticut Post newspaper.
Mike creates models, paintings and other art in the fantasy/horror genre, largely in the mold of old monster movies. And he often creates them for new monster movies. I've often been impressed with Mike's work; he is meticulously successful at maintaining and realizing a clear and impeccable artistic vision.
With the holidays upon us, several people in my life have joined the annual tradition of asking me about cameras that would make good gifts. In the past I rarely had much advice to offer, as the gap between pro and consumer cameras was so great that the former had little resemblance to the latter; in other words, I knew very little about point-and-shoots.
Alas, technology has changed. Today the market bears a (very) few cameras with price tags low enough for consumers, but image quality good enough for pros. That's not to say pro photographers use these on paid shoots. But they do use them as emergency back-ups and to have something they can carry around casually.
So here's sort of a little buyer's guide for the best pocket cameras around. I won't get into specifics of features and such, because that can be found ad nauseam around the web; this is just a quick guide to what I would consider buying. The price range for all of these is about $500.
Canon G10. This is a great camera, but Canon just ceased production. You can probably still find it in some stores, but not for long. This is a camera well-regarded by pros, and will be a hot eBay item for the next year or two.
Canon G11. Canon's new model to replace the G10, but it's not entirely an upgrade. The only real positive advantage over its predecessor is that it handles low-light situations slightly better, and the "improvements" haven't been perfected. If you're shooting mostly in daylight outdoor scenes, try to stick with the G10. If you can't find a G10, the G11 is a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Nikon P6000. Its reputation almost parallels the G10. It's smaller, thus slightly more portable and certainly more storeable, but also the lens doesn't zoom quite as far.
Canon S90. Smaller than the others mentioned. Not quite as good either. But if pocket portability is important, this model allows for that. Thought it's the camera I'd least recommend among these four, it's still good enough to mention.
Great news last week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: The brown pelican has been removed from the list of threatened and endangered species.
In 1998 I had a chance to photograph brown pelicans while on a shoot in Florida. They're a beautiful species of a type of bird that helps to define the aesthetics of the state's coastal regions.
Brown pelicans first gained federal protection in 1970, after their population was dramatically diminished by hunting, pesticides and loss of habitat. They now number over 650,000, mostly in Florida and the Gulf and California coasts.
Tonight my brother Colin and I are heading off to the pleasantly rural regions of northwest Connecticut to photograph the peak of the annual Leonid meteor shower. (We might also visit Massachusetts' Berkshire Mountains.)
This year's show is forecast to be moderate in terms of the number of shooting stars, but what does fall will coincide with a meteor-photographer's best friend: a new moon. Weather forecasters are also promising clear skies and temperatures a little warmer than the seasonal norm. We'll still need a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate, but overall we should be in for a nice overnight of astrophotography.
If you, too, would like to get out to shoot some shooting stars, you can check a few resources to assist with planning: a program at NASA's Leonid page will allow you to determine the peak shower activity in your area; the International Dark Sky Association will help you find nearby locations with the least light pollution; and the Clear Sky Chart will tell you how pristine your upward view will be.
Today CNN.com published a travel article detailing the final U.S. destinations for the best of this year's autumn color.
Peak fall color is now on display in the American south, from The Carolinas and Georgia west through the Appalachian Mountains and on into Texas.
The article also reports the efforts of Arkansas to relay news of foliage hot spots. The state has created a smartphone application that gives mobile users live updates about fall color. This is a great tool for a leaf-peeping photographer traveling through that area. With luck, the program will be copied by other states in the future.
Also accompanying the article is a photo gallery of recent fall-foliage work from across the U.S.
Today I attended Day 1 of this year's Photo Plus Expo in New York City, one of the major photography trade shows on the calendar.
The show is still smaller than it was just a few years ago, after there seemed to be a sudden mass exitus of exhibitors. But the bright side is that the expo hasn't noticeably diminished since.
The past few years has also seen a notable change in the type of exhibitors. The once conspicuous PrintFile, the company that makes archival storage pages for film, now has a tiny booth with an almost ancillary presence. Fujifilm has no booth at all. Darkroom supplies are hard to come by on the show floor, while cutting edge computer photo printers took up mass amounts of exhibit space.
The trip was fruitful, though I didn't hear or see any terribly exciting product news to report. The camera companies are releasing new bodies and lenses, the printer companies are launching new models and papers. Ho-hum. I'm mostly interested in supporting products (such as calibration tools and image-management software), but didn't see anything new that was all that ground-breaking.
With fall foliage season descending upon the northern U.S., photographers are getting busy making images of trees and bushes bursting with autumn color.
To that end, I'd like to pass along a link shared with me by Amy Martin, a science education major researching plant colors and chlorophyll.
The Fall Foliage Photos and Information page offers exactly what its title claims — a portal to information about autumn color. It includes links to sites that explain why leaves change color and how to predict the changes; updated guides to color levels in different regions; photo galleries of fall foliage in Maine, the Great Smoky Mountains and other places; and much more.
Have fun this fall. Happy shooting. And thank you, Amy, for the tip.
Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith of New Jersey's Bell Laboratories are sharing the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for their work in developing the technology that made digital photography possible.
Forty years ago Boyle and Smith were trying to improve computer memory when they began experimenting with what's called a "photoelectric effect" of silicon. Their work eventually led them to develop the charge-coupled device, which is essentially an electronic eye used for digital cameras.
Time magazine is running an article this week about a proposed law in France that would require publishers and exhibitors to indicate any photograph that has been altered.
Time reports: "The drive against airbrushed photos is being headed by conservative parliamentarian Valérie Boyer, who says the widespread use of digital technology to alter images is feeding the public a steady visual diet of falsified people, places and products. This artificial reality leads people to expect perfection from themselves and the world in an impossible way, she says."
The law would apply not just to photojournalism, but to art prints, publicity photos and political posters as well. Violations could lead to fines upward of $55,000.
It will be interesting a) if this bill becomes law, b) if the French government's pursuit of this mandate influences other nations to follow, and c) how any government could possibly enforce this on a comprehensive level.
Why the latter point? Because every photograph goes through some form of manipulation, even if just in the process of becoming a photograph. The photographer makes choices of contrast and color balance, of brightness and saturation; and in the digital world, the camera applies a sharpening mask to counter degradation introduced by the anti-aliasing filter. These are just a few of the many, many examples of how alterations are not just a luxury of lazy photographers, but are necessary steps in image production. Telling a photographer not to use tools of alteration is like telling a carpenter not to use nails.
I do agree that removing a spot of sensor dust is different than carving 20 pounds off a model. An ethical line does exist, but the line moves with the intended use of the photo. Lawmakers may draw a line in the sand, but that sand shifts. Hence, this would be a nearly impossible law to enforce. It would be photography's Prohibition.
Early this week an Australian rock stack that was popular with tourists, sight-seers and photographers collapsed into the Southern Ocean.
The stack was one of what's known as the Three Sisters, a trio of rock formations in Port Campbell National Park and one of the prime stops on South Australia's Great Ocean Road.
The news comes just a few months after the Island Archway (another of Australia's iconic coastal scenes, pictured below) also collapsed. And both of these incidents come just four years after one of the stacks in the world-famous Twelve Apostles formation also fell into the ocean. (Of the latter, only eight actually still stand.)
Nothing out of the ordinary is at work. All three collapses were due to the normal and expected erosion of coastline cliffs, the same erosion that created the highly photogenic sights to begin with.
Mary Schilpp, a photographer and friend of mine based in Florida, had an exhibit of her work open at the Sunrise Civic Center this month. And today, the region's Sun Sentinel newspaper published an article about the show.
Just this morning I wrapped up 16 days of shooting tennis' US Open in Queens, N.Y., where I produced over 5,000 photos of 138 players.
On the heels of that work, this week I launched a new website dedicated solely to my tennis photography.
In its premiere form, the site features just my catalog of material from this year's US Open. But in the coming weeks and months it will morph into a fully searchable catalogue of all my tennis photos from 1995 to the present.
O.K., here's possibly the best photo gallery I've ever recommended checking out. Seriously.
TheDailyBeast.com has run an article about British photographer Mike Stimpson, who recreates famous photographs using Legos. He's modeled his work on that of classic photographers Alfred Eisenstadt, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Eddie Adams and more. And he really nails his concept — his work is brilliant.
