With a long time reputation for producing some of the best tomes in photography, including the brilliant magazine, Aperture has produced another volume of photographic importance.
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PHOTOart compiles a collection of brief introductions to 120 of the most important up and coming artists.
OK, here are the layout highlights: by giving each photographer their images cleanly laid out on a page (nothing in the gutter!) you can get a sense of their work
with bios that are insightful, and straightforward giving you a full background to each artist.
And when there is a larger representational body of work, they give additional pages to the photographs. Each person gets 4 pages. Nice.

The bios are written by the best in the business. The top curators and theorists have contributed to this massive volume. Continue Reading »

…at least do a good job of it.

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In the four-missile version of the image released Wednesday by Sepah News, the media arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, two major sections (encircled in red) appear to closely replicate other sections (encircled in orange). (Illustration by The New York Times; photo via Agence France-Presse)
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the actual deal

Seem that Sepah News, the media arm of the Iran Revolutionary Guards distributed a photo of 4 missiles being launched to every major news service in the world. Unfortunately only 3 of the 4 missiles had actually fired.

The Photoshop police were on the case and discovered the rather obvious manipulation and busted this ruse wide open.

2 points here: If you are going to lie, do it much, much better. The world is more tech savvy than you think. Plus we have been to this exact place before when a photojournalist was busted peddling altered images with more smoke and fire than had been present at a bombing site.
And the bigger question ( point 2): what is the point of the manipulation? Is it a scarier proposition to see the 4 missiles instead of 3? Is it embarrassing if one didn’t fire?
Or perhaps the aesthetic of 4 majestic missiles launching into the blue sky was a composition that was ruined when one failed to fire?

So yet another lesson here folks: Use Photoshop for good, not evil. And be aware that, although you may only need to remove some blemishes, or darken a background, historical truths can just as easily be altered.

Whatever the reason, it’s still a very scary proposition when missiles that can launch nuclear weapons with deadly accuracy are propagandized.

But you knew all that.

THIS JUST IN-
MAJOR iPHONE SNAFU’S.
Apple has a huge PR nightmare on their hands as the upgrades to existing iPhones have temporarily ” bricked” the phones. And people with the new iPhones have been sent home without being turned on. The phone that is.
No service, no nothing.
There is currently a 2 hour wait for Apple Tech Support and ATT has been told to refer everyone to Apple.
Ouch!
“Notice: The server problems extend to users who are trying to upgrade their iPhones and iPod Touches to the latest firmware update. In fact, readers should avoid upgrading to iPhone 2.0 until these issues are resolved. Until you are able to connect to the iTunes servers, your iPhone will be left in an unusable state after the 2.0 upgrade”.

Tomorrow will see the second coming of the iPhone. Year 2 of this historic phone.
We’ll see how it all goes, as some people feel it’ll be life changing. Every other competitor is looking to be
the “iPhone killer”.
One of the big things that is the Apps store with new applications to add to your phone.
From remote controls for your Apple TV, to games galore.
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But for all of us, there are also 22 photography applications.
Wow.
However Flickr will now charge, as will Photobucket in their iPhone iteration.

Not SmugMug, though. Free, gratis, no charge.Hmmmmm…

So if you have iTunes, go to the store and see what is available.
We can download the apps now but they don’t go live til tomorrow with the release of the new software update.
Let’s see what good and whats not and report back to each other. Cool?

Sure, we’re getting some more crazy stuff in today.
But it’s not just to fill the page.
This stuff is funny. And photographic.
As the summer progresses and we all hit the social events, ( re : parties, gatherings, BBQ’s, beach days, etc.) everyone has a digital camera and has no problem recording the events and everyone there. Heck, they may even be on Flickr, sold to Getty and licensed to an ad campaign.
But what if the photos are NOT what you want published. You know what we’re saying.
Nobody wants to be that guy online or in print.
So this company has come up with a simple way to protect the identities of the innocent. Or mostly innocent.

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OK, the company that sells these is called Stupidiotic. It may conjure up images of chattering teeth, fake dog poo, and other plastic novelties relegated to the joke shops in the tourist ares of the city. Truth be told, we first heard about this on PopPhoto.com.

C’mon now. Lighten up.
It’s funny, right?

And here is a very cool video from director Keith Schofield of Caviar Films LA, called Toe Jam for Fat Boy Slim. It’s all about this black bar censorship.
But you’ll have to get there yourself. Maybe a bit risque to embed in this site, so be forewarned.

So…does my blog still look fat? Maybe I should post less sweets.

Diet starts tomorrow morning. Really.

A few weeks ago we let you know about PhotoShelter’s new push in the stock photo world with Shoot The Day! They have done their homework and found out what the people who buy the photographs really need. And we’re talking about the subject matter.

Then The big boys come in like Corbis with SnapVillage, where you can sell your images for reuse for $1-$50. You have to hope you sell them a lot of times. Seriously though, check ’em out for the details.

Today, Getty Images announced a partnership with Flickr.
Yeah, that’s what we said. You know the place where everyone uploads their pix with subjects from party time, semi pro work; artistic (or fartistic), and even Nikon has its own site within Flickr.
What Getty will do is seek out the work that they feel their clients want to buy and broker the deal. Click the link above to get some initial FAQ’s hopefully answered.

Here’s the real truth (redundant?) photographers: Continue Reading »