Wooden camera portraits by Afghan Photographers

Reminding us that early cameras were photochemical and shutterless, Kabul is home to two lone holdouts who still practice the 75-year-old art of wooden camera photography. Due to a ban on picture-taking by the Taliban, and then an influx of cheap digital cameras, the number of practitioners of kamra-e-faoree has steadily dwindled. But thanks to the Afghan Box Camera Project, the legacy left by these artisans is being preserved -- not least in the video above. Discover how it all works and then leave the faux-vintage to the hipsters. Check out this interesting video.

Source: Engadget

How to do Levitation Photography

Not sure if you are crazy enough to try this. Well, I am. Some thing interesting and just for fun. Check out this funny video and you too can try this. The website below “yowayowa” is a Japanese term meaning "weak" or "feeble." Natsumi Hayashi shares some of her photos on her website. Her work involves "Levitation Photography", which is basically shots that make the subject look like they are floating in mid air.

More pic on http://yowayowacamera.com/

Source: DigitalRev TV, yowayowa

Google+ Photographer’s Conference

Designed to help you further develop your Google+ networking abilities and refine your photography talents, this this history-making conference will be powered by Google's Hangout (web conferencing) technology and the G+ platform to offer a collaborative mix of photography, social media, branding and networking sessions that will teach you how take full advantage of what's happening now and what’s to come on Google+. The informative sessions will be taught by the best Google+ photographers, top photography instructors and some of the geniuses of social media. This is the first ever Google+ Photographer’s Conference on May 22-23, 2012 at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Volcano Tungurahua in Ecuador

The Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador has some of the most amazing, terrifying eruptions in the world. This one, from 2006, shows molten lava streaming down the sides of the mountain while ash spews into the night sky. Volcano Tungurahua sometimes erupts spectacularly. Pictured above, molten rock so hot it glows visibly pours down the sides of the 5,000-meter high Tungurahua, while a cloud of dark ash is seen being ejected toward the left. Wispy white clouds flow around the lava-lit peak, while a star-lit sky shines in the distance. Located in Ecuador, Tungurahua has become active roughly every 90 years for the last 1,300 years

Source: NASA

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography

The National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography spells out the basics of fine photography—whether you are using a digital SLR or a film camera—as well as more advanced techniques for the amateur photographer. From the top twelve color moves to creative gift ideas to quality camera phone photography, this guide will not only inspire you but also arm you with the practical know-how to get great images. It is the indispensable reference for photographers everywhere. Straightforward and entertaining, this is the ultimate source for people seeking real how-to advice from the editors and photographers of National Geographic. It is carefully designed to lead the amateur photographer to better pictures and is comprehensive in scope, explaining the entire process from choosing a camera to taking the pictures to printing, scanning, and archiving the images.

You can view and purchase it here:

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography from Flipkart.com

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography from Amazon

Robert Doisneau – Street Photographer

Robert Doisneau was known for his modest, playful, and ironic images of amusing juxtapositions, mingling social classes, and eccentrics in contemporary Paris streets and cafes. Doisneau's work gives unusual prominence and dignity to children's street culture; returning again and again to the theme of children at play in the city, unfettered by parents. His work treats their play with seriousness and respect. Doisneau worked at Rapho until the outbreak of World War II, whereupon he was drafted into the French army as both a soldier and photographer. Some of Doisneau's most memorable photographs were taken after the war. He returned to freelance photography and sold photographs to Life and other international magazines. He briefly joined the Alliance Photo Agency but rejoined the Rapho agency in 1946 and remained with them throughout his working life, despite receiving an invitation from Henri Cartier-Bresson to join Magnum Photos. His photographs never ridiculed the subjects; thus he refused to photograph women whose heads had been shaved as punishment for sleeping with Germans. In 1950 he created his most recognizable work for Life – Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville), a photo of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris, which became an internationally recognized symbol of young love in Paris.

deviantART– Community of Artists and Art Lovers

If you are an artist, photographer or a designer then here is the online community where you can share your work to gather ideas and get yourself inspired, you can even make money out of your work. There are millions of visitors and this is one place where you can share all your work, all of them for free. Below are some of the features of deviantART.

• Explore over 100 million original works of art.
  
• Exhibit your artwork to an audience of over 12 million members.
  
• Set up a profile, create galleries, and build a fan base.
  
• Communicate, collaborate and learn from artists from over 190 countries.
  
• Make money selling your art in the deviantART Shop.

Visit my deviantART  account http://ravindrajoisa.deviantart.com/
Check out the video below:

Canon EOS 60Da - DSLR for astronomy

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today introduced the EOS 60Da Digital SLR Camera, a long-awaited successor to the EOS 20Da that is optimized for astrophotography. This DSLR caters to astronomers and hobbyists who enjoy capturing the beauty of the night sky by offering a modified infrared filter and a low-noise sensor with heightened hydrogen-alpha sensitivity.

The Canon EOS 60Da camera packs a powerful 18-megapixel CMOS sensor (APS-C) that produces sharp and high-contrast images of astronomical objects, a major enhancement over the EOS 20Da model's 8.2-megapixel sensor. The improved infrared-blocking filter is a modification suited specifically toward astronomy enthusiasts to achieve a hydrogen-alpha light sensitivity that is approximately three times higher than that of a normal Canon DSLR camera. This produces a 20-percent higher transmittance of Hydrogen Alpha line, or Hα wavelength, allowing astronomers to capture crisp, clear images of reddish, diffuse nebulae.

The estimated retail price is $1,499.00 and it is expected to be available this month.

Source: Canon

Christian Ziegler - National Geographic Photographer

Christian Ziegler, a tropical biologist turned photojournalist, specializing in tropical ecosystems has worked extensively in rain forests around the world  for  the last 15 years. Several research projects and his fascination for nature photography brought him to the tropical forests of Asia, Africa and Central America during his studies. Christian lived in Thailand where he worked as a free lance photographer for the WWF (World Wide Found for Nature). The year after Christian spent four months in the Ivory Cost of West Africa visiting both the Savannah and the rain forest. Since 1998, Christian has been working primarily in Panama, on Barro Colorado Island, a field station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). After finishing his graduate work in 2000, his focus changed solely to the field of nature photography and journalism. He spent 15 month of fieldwork doing the photography for his picture book on the ecology of tropical rain forest “A magic Web”, which was published by Oxford University Press in November 2002.
In April 2002 Christian was appointed ‘associate for communication’ by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Over the years Christian won several international recognized awards, such as the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year (category 'behavior of all other animals' in 2005). He has completed dozens of magazine assignments, 8 of them for National Geographic Magazine covering topics ranging from ocelots ,tree frogs and monkeys to bats, deception in animals, visitors to a flowering rain forest tree, and orchids. Christian is interested in showing species in their ecosystem context, and sharing interesting behaviors. Christians work is published internationally in magazines such as the National Geographic Magazine, GEO, Smithsonian Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine and Natural History. Next to his magazine work, he thinks it important to work with conservation groups, such as WWF and others. Christian is a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers .

Checkout this Photos here: [Link]

Source: National Geographic

Lightbox Photo Sharing

Lightbox is a community of people from around the world sharing their unique experiences through photography. Lightbox is available on Google Chrome Store which can be installed in your Chrome browser or you can downloaded it for free on your Android device.

Following are some of the features:
Create a Timeline of your Photos:
All the photos you upload are automatically turned into a timeline of postcards on Lightbox.com. You can keep these photos private or selectively share them with friends, family, or the entire Lightbox community.

Publish your own Tumblr-Like Photo Blog:
Photos you share publicly will also get posted to your very own Lightbox website that other people can follow. You just focus on taking photos, and we'll automatically create an attractive website for you.

Example: http://ravindrajoisa.lightbox.com/

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta

The world’s best digital image editing software is about to get even better. Photoshop CS6 beta is now available as a free download from Adobe Labs in English and Japanese.

Here are some of the Photoshop CS6 Highlights:

Content-Aware Patch — Patch images with greater control using the newest member of the Content-Aware family of technologies. Choose the sample area you want to use to create your patch, and then watch Content-Aware Patch magically blend pixels for a stunning result.
Blazingly fast performance and a modern UI — Experience unprecedented performance with the Mercury Graphics Engine, which gives you near-instant results when you edit with key tools such as Liquify, Puppet Warp, and Crop. Plus, a refined, fresh, and elegant Photoshop interface features dark background options that make your images pop.
New and re-engineered design tools — Create superior designs fast. Get consistent formatting with type styles, create and apply custom strokes and dashed lines to shapes, quickly search layers, and much more.

Download Link: Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta

Canon announces EOS 5D Mark III

Canon EOS 5D Mark III 22.3 MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body)
The Canon EOS 5D Mark III rumors about which I had updated a few days back [More new Canon DSLRs soon] is now official. Positioned between the extremely popular EOS 5D Mark II and Canon's top-of-the-line professional EOS-1D X model, the EOS 5D Mark III delivers superb image quality, thanks to a new 22.3-megapixel full-frame Canon CMOS sensor, a high-performance DIGIC 5+ Imaging Processor, a 61-point High Density Reticular Autofocus (AF) System and six frames-per-second (fps) continuous shooting speed.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III key specifications

• 22MP full frame CMOS sensor
• ISO 100-25600 standard, 50-102,800 expanded
• 6 fps continuous shooting
• Shutter rated to 150,000 frames
• 1080p30 video recording, stereo sound via external mic
• 61 point AF system
• 63 zone iFCL metering system
• 100% viewfinder coverage
• 1040k dot 3:2 LCD
• Dual card slots for CF and SD

[Read More]

More new Canon DSLRs soon

Canon EOS 5D Mark III 22.3 MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body)

You can expect new Canon cameras end of this month and early next month.

Expected and Rumors:

5D Mark III/X – Expected on Feb 27th
Below are the specs for the coming 5D replacement, the full name of the camera is currently unknown.

Specs

• 22 MP
• 61pt AF
• 100% VF
• 3.2″ LCD
• Dual CF/SD Card Slots
• Price: Around $3500 USD

Canon Rebel T4i

No real specs are available, except that it will come with a new EF-S 18-135 lens with a silent autofocus motor.

Will keep you all updated..  subscribe/follow to this blog to get the latest updates.

3 more Nikon DSLR cameras in 2012

XS6Q9PQDRUGN Nikon had announced D4 and D800 recently. In addition to the D4 and D800, Nikon will announce three more DSLR cameras in 2012. Pre orders for Nikon D800 are available on Amazon and will be shipped sometime end of March. The new cameras might be all DX models - Nikon D3100, D7000 and D300s replacements. If you are planning to buy one then I would say wait for a while as cameras with higher MPs and many more better features are expected.

Sam Abell - National Geographic Photographer

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Sam Abell has worked with the National Geographic Society since 1970 as a photographer and has photographed more than 20 articles on various cultural and wilderness subjects. He has also lectured on photography and exhibited his images to audiences throughout the world. In 1990, Eastman Kodak published a retrospective monograph of his photographs titled Stay This Moment: The Photographs of Sam Abell. A companion exhibit of his work was shown at New York City's International Center of Photography in November of that year. 

Abell's book credits include Contemplative Gardens, The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning, Australia: Journey Through a Timeless Land, and Seeing Gardens. In 1998 he collaborated with author Stephen Ambrose on Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery and again in 2002 on The Mississippi: River of History. That same year, he worked with author Leah Bendavid-Val to produce a retrospective of his life and work titled Sam Abell: The Photographic Life. Two additional book projects, Four Stories and The Life of a Photographer, are scheduled for publication in October 2007 and October 2008, respectively.

Check out National Geographic photographer Sam Abell talk about his career, what inspires and influences his work, and his most memorable adventures.

Magnum Photos

Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo. Magnum Photos is a photographic cooperative of great diversity and distinction owned by its photographer members. With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues and personalities. The Magnum Photos library is a living archive updated daily with new work from across the globe. You may search or browse our 500,000+ images which are available online for licensing in a variety of formats.

Check out: Magnum Photos