Archive for the ‘Photography’ category

Edgar Martins Posts Long Essay Addressing “Confusion” Around His Photographs

August 7th, 2009

Edgar Martins replies to the whole controversy stirred up by his photographs in the NYT Magazine. Read his own words, where he quotes Nietzsche, Roland Barthes, and Susan Sontag.

None of his post sounds even vaguely like an apology in the modern sense of the word, but an apology in the classical sense — a proof of his beliefs. I should have known I was in trouble when he starts with a quotation from Nietzsche.

[via PDNPulse: Edgar Martins Regrets "Confusion" Over NYT Magazine Photos.]

See also my other posts regarding Mr. Martins.

Does the Roomba really cover the whole room? Question answered…

August 7th, 2009

Ever wonder if the Roomba really covers the whole room? Wonder no more. Thanks to signaltheorist.com, you can see for yourself at Roomba, Economics and Long-Exposure Photography | signaltheorist.com.

[Thanks to coolinfographics.blogspot.com for the link, via http://roboticvacparts.com/]

Essay: Icons as Fact, Fiction and Metaphor – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com

July 27th, 2009

Is photography always honest? Where is the line to be drawn between truth and fiction?

Essay: Icons as Fact, Fiction and Metaphor – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com. [See my post on Edgar Martins, too, here.]

Makes me think of Susan Sontag’s On Photography [page 86]:

A fake photograph (one which has been retouched or tampered with, or whose caption is false) falsifies reality. The history of photography could be recapitulated as the struggle between two different imperatives: beautification, which comes from the fine arts, and truth-telling, which is measured not only by a notion of value-free truth, a legacy from the sciences, but by a moralized ideal of truth-telling, adapted from nineteenth-century literary models and from the (then) new profession of independent journalism. Like the post-romantic novelist and the reporter, the photographer was supposed to unmask hypocrisy and combat ignorance.

Canon’s New Anti-Blur Lenses Will Be Available This Year | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

July 25th, 2009

One of the problems I’ve seen and experienced taking photographs is unintended blur. Taking a picture of a moving car or a picture of a waterfall, for example, you’ll probably want to have some blur to show motion (otherwise, it doesn’t look like the car is moving at all — though reading the labels of a tire on a car going 140 mph is pretty nifty :) . But usually blur isn’t a good thing. So, Canon will be releasing new anti-blur lenses later this year (according to Wired). Pretty neat, if it works. For details, check out Wired’s article. (Thanks to the Click for the link.)

Focus Testing – photo.net

July 15th, 2009

Screenshot of photo.net web page

Is auto-focus a real problem? I’m not sure, but I have an XSi which seems to work pretty well. A friend has a D90 and some of the shots taken with his camera (on auto-focus) look blurry. Maybe it’s time to try the steps laid out in Photo.Net’s Focus Testing article. Or even try AutoFocuX???