Complaining about the iPhone’s camera?

Posted on by

Kyle Cassidy’s take on the iPhone’s camera, from his iPhonetography site:

THE CAMERA THAT COMES WITH THE iPHONE IS TERRIBLE

Many people decry it’s smallish megapixel count (3), but really, as any serious digital photographer will tell you, size doesn’t matter. The most frustrating thing about the image that comes from the iPhone is the noise. Not audible noise, but digital grain. That, and it’s slow response time, and of course, the lack of control: apart from aiming the camera and depressing shutter button, the user doesn’t have any control over aperture (fixed at 2.8) focal length, shutter speed, or even ISO, which swings from ~70 into the 1000+ range as it wants. The 3Gs has a “press here to focus” option that does adjust the exposure, but seems to refocus as it sees fit afterwards, more taunt than feature.

 

Read More →

The Day My Grandmother Exploded, by Kyle Cassidy

Posted on by

[via Kyle Cassidy’s Livejournal ]

Two weeks ago I got this crazy idea in my head to find a ten year old 1.3 megapixel Leica Digilux and make a series of images with it based on lines people sent me from novels. Well, it’s done. It’s a 24 page booklet called The Day My Grandmother Exploded, a quote from Iain Banks “The Crow Road” suggested by Craig Zeni.

Three hundred people emailed quotes, I picked the first twenty. (Ed: Note – Me! Me! Me! I was one of the 20!)

Read More →

Camerabag, More iPhone Camera Fun

Posted on by

I had a lot of fun with Hipstamatic, the iPhone camera application that’s taking my Facebook friends list by storm. It does feel odd to buy a $1.99 app to turn my $199 cameraphone into a $2 plastic camera, but there <<are>> benefits to going digital – for less than the cost of a roll of 120 film, I can shoot endless square format pictures.

I tried CameraBag, another fun photo manipulation app. This app doesn’t have the mind-mangling number of unintuitive film/lens combos that Hipstamatic has. I think I like it better.

The Camerabag filter names make more sense, at least – helga, lomo, 1974, fisheye.

Buy it at the iTunes store, or follow them on Twitter

Eames SX-70 instructional video

Posted on by

A precursor to today’s digital era, Polaroid’s iconic 1972 SX-70 Land Camera is notable not only for its achievements as the first folding and first SLR instant camera but also for its perfection in form, function, and beauty. The revolutionary camera ignited and defined the instant era, allowing a photographer to focus solely on capturing the the moment at hand.

The Office of Charles and Ray Eames produced a 10-minute-long video advertisement, beautifully capturing the camera in all of its glory.

Meters, Hanapepe HI

Posted on by

I was in Kaua’i last week, spent most of my time lounging at the pool and the beach, but took some day trips (short trips, given the size of the island!)

Hanapepe is a funky little artists community on the southwest side of the island with old buildings, artists galleries, a laid-back bohemian feel, and some of the best coffee and sweets on the island, at Blue Planet Cafe.

I brought my LOMO LC-A+ and shot 3 rolls of film. I’m thinking about switching back to my old 1990 LC-A, though. I like having framelines and focus indicators in the viewfinder, and I wanted to shoot with my color flash. The LC-A doesn’t have a setting to force the aperture/shutter speed, so I wasn’t sure how the pictures would turn out. I would have liked to get some shots of “colorsplashed” palm trees at night.

I took most of my shots with my Blackberry Tour 9630 – with a resolution of 3 megapixels, image stabilization, and an adequate flash, I barely took my digital point-and-shoot out of the case!

 

I want to be a photographer someday. Any advice?

Posted on by

Originally posted by kylecassidy:

A Reader Writes: I want to be a photographer someday. Any advice?

Yes, lots.
Photography is a mixture of Artistic Ability and Technical Skill — the magic of the mix isn’t written in stone. The world is filled with technically proficient but artistically uninspired photographers, there seem to be a smaller number of artistically gifted but technically unsavvy artists, but they’re out there as well. But the most successful people have a mixture of both — they have an artistic vision, and they posses the technical skills to know how to make that a reality. The technical skills are the easy part, you can learn them from a book — f-stops and shutter speeds and light modifiers, etc. The difficult thing to come up with is an idea.
0) Possibly the most important thing of all: Find creative people and make them part of your world. They don’t have to be photographers. They can be writers, or musicians, or actors or puppet makers. Have a peer group of people who are doing things. They’ll be your inspiration, your facilitators, your idea makers, your artistic partners. Do this for the rest of your life. Artists rarely survive in a vacuum.

Read More →

Lost advertising of the sealed-off London Underground

Posted on by

c1959 posters as found in disused area of Notting Hill Gate tube station, London, 2010

Work at the station has recently uncovered these amazing advertising posters in non-public areas and that date from c1956 – 1959 when the station’s lifts were removed and replaced by escalators. These are in an old lift passageway.

This shows several of the posters – and the original Central London Railway tiled walls from 1900.

We will be leaving these intact – and please do not pester the station staff as the posters are wholly inaccessible – which is why they’ve probably survived 50 odd years!

The photos were taken officially – please do credit London Underground in any links.

Uploaded by mikeyashworth on 13 Jun 10, 12.55AM PDT.