Wrong Way Photos

Sunset on Mars

admin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:05:35 +0000

Scott Beale says: “As part of their Image of the Day series, NASA posted a beautiful image of a sunset on Mars sent by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on May 19, 2005.” Link

Compare cell phone to pro camera

admin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:09:41 +0000

Compare cell phone to pro camera:

You can’t compare a $3,000 digital SLR to a $500 cell phone from Nokia, can you? Well, look at these two photos. Which one was made with the Canon 5D with a 50mm F1.4 lens and which one was made with a Nokia N82 cell phone?

You can visit my Flickr account to see which camera made which images and you’ll see some other comparison photos and other images that I’ve made with the Nokia N82. Make sure you click on the “All Sizes” option to see the full resolution images to really compare.

Yes, if you look closely the images made with the pro SLR are nicer, but that isn’t the point. The point is that photos made with cell phones are getting to be darn good. The worst photo you’ll ever take is the one you don’t take because you didn’t have your camera with you. I don’t know about you, but only photo geeks like Thomas Hawk take their pro cameras everywhere (he shoots with a Canon 5D). I know I carry my cell phone everywhere, but only have my 5D a small percentage of the time, so I’m far more likely to get a shot of something interesting with my cell phone. Speaking of Thomas, he wrote two great posts yesterday. First is on the 10 things he learned from Ansel Adams. The second is about 12 ways to never miss a photo opportunity.

How does the N82 compare to the older N95? The camera is better and I like the phone overall better with one glaring problem: it doesn’t work with AT&T’s 3G network, so doing video on Qik on the N82 isn’t nearly as nice.

Kodak Moment: Following Ansel Adams footsteps

admin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:08:43 +0000

Kodak Moment: Following Ansel Adams footsteps:

It’s weird to read the New York Times to find this article on Ansel Adams on the front page. What did we just do? We spent two days in Yosemite with Michael Adams, Ansel’s son, who spent the better part of two days showing us around.

I shot a TON of Qik/cell phone video with Michael. We also did a bunch of “pro” video with our expensive HD camcorders, those will be up soon as part of a new show for DSLR photographers that’ll be on FastCompany.tv. Titled “PhotoCycle.” We haven’t set a start date for that, yet, more on that later. A special thanks to Marc Silber (he’s the professional photographer who’ll host PhotoCycle) because he’s the one who did the work to arrange this trip.

Ansel Adams Gallery now has a blog, too. One reason I was there was to film Ansel Adams Gallery, which is one of America’s most beloved family businesses and has been operating in Yosemite Park for 102 years.

Thomas Hawk, my favorite photographer that I watch on Flickr, put up a single photo from the two days and it already has gotten 50 votes on Flickr as “favorite.” Getting a “favorite” on Flickr is really hard, and to get 50 for one photo of something as photographed as Half Dome is demonstrates Thomas’ skill and popularity as a photographer, it was a real treat to get to follow him as he made images in Yosemite.

One really big thrill for all of us? They opened the Glacier Point Road just for us. There wasn’t another soul in place for 13 miles of road. Totally amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience of Glacier Point. We also made our own history: we did the first cell phone live video from Glacier Point thanks to Qik. It’s amazing that we had a live audience around the world while filming these videos.

The New York Times had a separate article about Flickr. Here’s Thomas Hawk’s feedback about that (he was one of the photographers quoted in it).

So, why a Kodak moment? Well, Michael Adams told me that Ansel Adams did a lot of work for Kodak. He shot a few of the Colorama ads for Grand Central Station in New York. Did you know Kodak has a blog now? I like the Kodak blog a lot, it gives me some great ideas for photos.

Little known Scoble trivia: I used to help run a camera store, LZ Premiums (now long gone) in the 1980s and was responsible for buying all the Kodak film and darkroom supplies. I saw someone walking out of the Ansel Adams Gallery with a yellow box of Kodak printing paper and it took me back to the hours I spent in a darkroom and all the friends, photos, memories I made back then.

This was — by far — the most special two days I’ve had outside of getting married or watching my two sons being born. I told someone I would have traded my Davos trip (which was freaking awesome) for hanging out with Michael Adams for 24 hours. It was that good and I can’t wait to show you the videos and more of our photos. Thomas Hawk told me he’ll have his photos up soon, along with a writeup of the two days.

Now, go back and read the New York Times article, and listen to it come alive thanks to Qik videos done on my cell phone.

Michael Adams, Ansel Adams’ son, in front of the family business, the Ansel Adams’ Gallery.
The famous Tunnel View, where Ansel shot his famous Storm Clearing photo. In the video we meet a tourist who took a class from Ansel and he tells us about that experience. I talk with Thomas Hawk about this view, and we find some other things to shoot as well.
Video from a meadow shooting Yosemite Falls.
Half Dome from the Bridge. In a second video Michael Adams tells what a photo from this bridge meant to his mother.
You’ve seen the famous photo, Moon and Half Dome, here you see where to shoot it, and we talk about some of our experiences making new images there, but also hear Michael’s stories about the photo and what it meant to him (it was used on his wedding announcement).
Up at Glacier Point we had the whole place to ourselves, so I made a TON of video.
Glacier Point 1.
Glacier Point 2.
Glacier Point 3.
Glacier Point 4.
Glacier Point 5.
Glacier Point 6.

In the videos you’ll learn that Michael is an interesting innovator in his own right. He was a fighter pilot, then went to medical school and now teaches medicine while also keeping memories of his father’s work alive and well.

I don’t know how I’ll top this in my career. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did (and there’s a LOT more to come from this two-day experience).

I also put up a bunch of photos on my Flickr stream and I’m sure that Thomas Hawk will have a lot more of his own.

Photoblog: And Paradise was Nice

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:00:03 +0000

Photoblog: And Paradise was Nice:
I’m back with the requisite mainlander pink sunburn, 6 days in Hawaii did me good, we stayed in the North shore, which is mainly untouched, unlike the crowded skyrises of Japanese/tourist owned Honolulu.
To unplug was good, but I’m still going to slowly wade back to shore (aka reality). Mentally, I’m still floating in the blue azul sea, I guess the vacation wasn’t long enough.
I’m not the only one that’s distancing themselves from the conversation. But in the meantime I wanted to share some of the photos I took from the vacation, all are untouched raw photos from the Nokia N95 camera phone.

View from Hau’ula, Oahu’s Quiet and Rural North Shore

Gentle sway

Warm sunrises

Every morning, the sand crabs dug ‘fans’…

…and mounds

Seclusion

Clean morning air

Tracks of a giant sea turtle

Where we stayed, our private beach

Kayak

Private Beach

Surfboards in Kawailoa, the Surfing Capital of the World

Matsumoto’s famous shaved ice

Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck

The shrimp is raised in local shrimp farms, very fresh. We brought our own beer

Peacock in Waimea Valley

Lifeguard tower at Bonsai Pipeline

Bonsai Pipeline

Silhouette

Wired.com Photo Contest: Summer

admin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:53:08 +0000

Wired.com Photo Contest: Summer:
Summer is finally here, and we under-sunned desk turds want to see what fun looks like. Remind us what it is to be young and capable of joy again with a skillfully captured frame.

Use the Reddit widget below to submit your best summer photo and vote for your favorite among the other submissions. The 10 highest-ranked photos will appear in a gallery on the Wired.com home page. We want to see itchy bug bites and rickety bunk beds, sparklers and barbecues. Take us on a manic road trip through fireflies and wine vines, and leave us sipping margaritas on umbrellaed beaches. If it doesn’t scream “summer,” we don’t want to see it.

The photo must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your photo, which may include exposure information, equipment used, etc.

We don’t host the photos, so you’ll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you’re using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it’s displayed. If your photo doesn’t show up, it’s because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).

Please bookmark this page and check back periodically over the next two weeks to vote on new submissions!

Also, check out the winner’s galleries from our previous contests: Holga, Red, Self-Portrait, Night, Macro, Transportation, and Black and White.

Vote on summer photos submitted by other readers.

Show entries that are: hot | new | top-rated. Submit your summer photo.

Submit your summer photo.

(No more than one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.)

weird and funny crashes

admin — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:56:45 +0000

Food

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:42:15 +0000

MS150 - How much food can you eat after 100 mile ride?

Dinosaurs

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:37:05 +0000

They still live!

Here she come to save the day

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:25:51 +0000

I think Robin is going to run me down!

let me in

admin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:21:49 +0000

MS150 rest stop porta-poty - get out of the way of these riders!