Birthday Celebrations

Separated by 380 years, this week marks the birthdays of the original bad boy artist, Caravaggio, who among other things is credited with using an early form of photography in his groundbreaking work into Chiaroscuro, and the venerable Adobe® Photoshop® application, also capable of a little chiaroscuro, turns 20 years young. Lifehacker is celebrating with a list of favorite Photoshop tricks and tips.

Magnum Photos Sold to Michael Dell

Magnum Photos announced the sale of its seminal photojournalism archives to Michael Dell (of Dell Computers) for $100 Million US (as reported on the NPR Pictureshow Blog and the NY Times)

Irene Pena featured on Production Paradise

Fashion photographer Irene Pena was featured this month in the Production Paradise Lifestyle Spotlight. Golf, yoga, and other lifestyle images here, and her signature fashion images here.

Production Paradise also launched a mobile version of their site, where you can search photographers, reps, and production facilities from around the world. Point your mobile browser to: iphone.productionparadise.com

New Gallery at The monOrchid Building

Wayne Rainey is at it again.

The owner of Holgas and MonOrchid can easily be credited as a major mover in the downtown arts scene.

And tonight he's debuting his latest art space, Bokeh Gallery, in the MonOrchid building.... Read more.

Be sure to check out the Bob Carey Opening on Friday, February 19th.

Pro Photography use of iPhone

UPDATE June 20, 2009:

CreativePro.com put together a great list of iPhone Apps for Photographers. Includes tools for geotagging, exposure settings, and more.



Like you're just starving for another excuse to get a new iPhone, right? So here's an article listing 10 Ways Professional Photographers Can Use the iPhone. Gotta say it would make a good pocket portfolio.

The Photographer: Graphic Memoir about Docs in Afghanistan

Boing Boing has a review of "The Photographer: Into war-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders", a collaboration between photographer Didier Lefevre, graphic novelist Emmanuel Guibert, and designer Frederic Lemercier.

Face Swapping Software

Coming soon to royalty free stock photography near you?! New technology makes it possible to morph two faces into one, for privacy protection.

Article via BoingBoing.

Shoot the Day: July 20th

Stock photography agency PhotoShelter, along with Apple, Nikon, and others are sponsoring the first ever "Shoot the Day" worldwide event and contest:

"Wherever you are on July 20th, PhotoShelter wants you to Shoot! The Day. The mission is to revitalize stock photography. Thousands of photographers worldwide will connect, take pictures, and learn. Together we'll make the stock photo supply fresh again... In doing so, we'll also create success for photographers who want to sell their work as stock."

Details and categories here.

The Dangers of Stock Photography

I'd be smiling too if I had that many laptops. Remember to scope out your competition before buying stock photography.

Business Software for Photographers

ASMP put together this handy list of pricing guides and back-office software for photographers.

Photoshop Express

After a few months of teasing, Adobe has released Photoshop Express to the masses. Gadget blog Gizmodo has a write up, alongside Adobe's press release. This new online version of photoshop will sync with myspace, facebook, and eventually - flickr. The idea of free Photoshop for every myspace user is a little scary, but I guess when it's estimated that 60% of your product is being pirated, you have to make some changes to the business model.

A Photo History Find

The New York Times Art and Design section writes of a recent photo find, featuring the 100 year old work of Edward Steichen, famous for his early color photographs, winning an Academy Award for best documentary, and serving as Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art. More recently, he made news when one of his early 1900's platinum prints, "The Pond - Moonlight" broke the record for photography auction at Sotheby's with a price of $US 2.9 Million.

Record Setting Nude Photo

Artist Spencer Tunick staged a record setting group nude photo in Mexico City's Zocalo Square. 18,000 people posed for the photograph, as police and no-fly zones kept the onlookers at bay. Tunick is famous for similar shoots in Germany and Spain.

And while we're delving into NSFW territory with a little nudity, here's an interesting blog submitted to me by an artist simply titled, "Sex in Art". 18 and over only, please! The site does contain some graphic imagery, and as a precaution, I'm linking to their disclaimer page.

Copyright Tools

Copyright Navigator: A Digital Annotated Concept Map of the Fundamentals of U.S. Copyright Law by Professor Lionel S. Sobel is a pretty awesome interactive flowchart that lays out the fundamentals of copyright law, and how it pertains to things like enforcement and fair use.

Ready to register those works of art? The United States Copyright Office has the step by step instructions and required forms for copyright registration of various flavors, including visual arts, literary works, performance art etc..

Creative Commons has a new "Termination of Transfer" tool based on the US Copyright Act that assists artists in reclaiming copyrights given away long ago. 35 years, to be exact. via boingboing.

Here's an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal about some new tools that can scan the web for violation of copyright. Attributor and Copyscape are the key players right now.

UPDATES 5/2/08

Attributor just raised 12 million and has the support of Condé Nast.

Photographic Forgeries

Awesome article in Science News about detecting photographic forgeries with software and math. You may recall this past year a Reuters Photographer was given the boot for cloning some smoke in an image of the war in Lebanon.

More on the forthcoming suite of photo authentication tools from Adobe via Wired Magazine.

UPDATE: CBS News looks at The Art Of Image Altering.

Kodak Rolling out New Products

Kodak's been busy with a few new product rollouts. Shown above, is the 100 Year ink cartridge for their new line of printers.

And check out this new mini printer with a built in camera - The Zink. Is this the return of the instant Polaroid?

Geotagging Images

AKA Geocoding, AKA GPS Photo Tagging, AKA I'm not sure what we're officially calling this yet, is the method of using GPS (global positioning) to Tag images with location specific meta-information. Software for iPhoto and linking to Google Earth here, and more options including Flickr and Aperture here. via TUAW.

UPDATE: Review of GiSTEQ, a device that syncs to your camera's clock and records you location for three weeks. via engadget.

Insight Argentina and ph15 Documentary

Recently, my friend's volunteer placement organization, Insight Argentina, was the subject of a documentary:

Insight Argentina: Volunteering in Argentina's Social Sector
Directed by Mimi Butler and funded by Jennifer Webster

The second half of the film focuses on ph15, a photography workshop founded by Martin Rosenthal for the children of the "Hidden City" - a slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. You can learn more here and here. The ph15 portion of the documentary begins at the 15:30 mark. You can watch the documentary full-size and choose scenes at Google Video. Visit Insight Argentina if you are looking for a South American adventure in social volunteerism.

New Artist: Irene Peña

Store 44 Reps welcomes photographer Irene Peña! Hailing from Costa Rica and schooled in Los Angeles, Irene is a fashion photographer with an eye for motion. Her work was recently featured in a group show at San Francisco's Geras Tousignant Gallery.

Photoshop CS3 Beta Available

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting on the availability of Photoshop CS3 Beta. Think Secret says that it could be available as early as this week. via TUAW:

UPDATE: It's here! Download Photoshop CS3 Beta

Aperture vs Lightroom

Article comparing Lightroom and Aperture. Pros, cons, and current feature set. Via TUAW:

UPDATE: A 30 Day Test Trial of Aperture is now available from Apple.

Making Daguerreotypes

Here's an article about making Daguerreotype photographs, the first patented photographic process, using iodine and silver. Article includes links to samples and Daguerreotype archives. Article and photo found via Make:

New Beta of Adobe Lightroom Available

There is a new beta available of Adobe Lightroom. It looks like the Mac version is available for download now, and there's a sign-up page for a Win version.

CoinStar-Style Kodak Scanning Machines

Coming soon to a grocery store near you: Batch scanning machines a la CoinStar. Kodak recently unveiled a kiosk that batch scans your old print photos. Read the article at Wired. Found via Engadget.

The MacBookPro and new iMacs, too

Apple Computer has released new PowerBooks (and renamed them). They are impressive, Heaven help our credit cards. TUAW has the specs, and says they run Windows, too. There's a lot more mac news over at Engadget. And what's this? NHL Hockey on the iPod?

Adobe's New Photography Software: Lightroom

Adobe has released a new beta software package for the mac called Lightroom. From the Adobe site:
"Adobe® Lightroom™ Beta is the efficient new way for professional photographers to import, select, develop, and showcase large volumes of digital images. So you can spend less time sorting and refining photographs, and more time actually shooting them. Its clean, elegant interface literally steps out of the way and lets you quickly view and work with the images you shot today, as well as the thousands of images that you will shoot over the course of your career."
Sign up for the beta.

UPDATE: New version available.

Know Your Rights as a Photographer

Interesting article in the USA Today by Andrew Kantor about your rights as a photographer We've previously emailed A link to his blog which includes the downloadable PDF "Legal Rights of Photographers".

Tips and Tricks with Image Capture

It seems like there's a lot of functionality in Apple's Image Capture Utility located in the applications folder. Read the thread comments over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog to learn a new trick or two.

Cost of Doing Business Calculator for Photographers

The National Press Photographers Association has a Cost of Doing Business Calculator for photographers. Enter your details and learn how much your overhead is for a day of shooting. Handy for budgeting in the new year.