2012 Year in Pictures: Part II

The second collection of images from 2012 once again brought us nature at its full force and beauty along with news and daily life coming from countries like Russia, Syria, Egypt, England, India and Italy. The following is a compilation – not meant to be comprehensive in any way – of images from the second 4 months of 2012. Please see part 1 from Monday and watch for part 3 Friday. — Lloyd Young ( 47 photos total)

Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walks the high wire from the United States side to the Canadian side over the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on June 15. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

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Capturing the Second Largest Tree in the World in a Single Image

For a recent National Geographic story on giant sequoia trees, photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols was tasked with capturing a photograph showing the sheer size of one of the largest trees in the world. The video above offers a short but interesting glimpse into how Nichols and his team went about doing so.
The giant sequoia that was photographed is named “The President” and is located in Giant Forest of California’s Sequoia National Park.

Scientists estimate that the 247-foot-tall tree is at least 3,200 years old (imagine how much has happened here on Earth since this tree started growing!) and that it’s the second largest tree in the world in terms of volume (it’s neither the tallest nor the widest).

Nichols went about photographing it by hosting a camera rig up into the air from a good distance away, snapping individual photos of smaller sections of the tree. Afterward, he took 126 of the photographs and combined them into this beautiful composite photograph showing the tree in its entirety and showing exactly how large it is in relation to humans (click it to see a higher-res version):

You can read the National Geographic piece here, and find more of Nichols’ photos of the tree here. If you want to watch a more in-depth video of this particular photo shoot, pick up a December digital edition of National Geographic magazine.

(via National Geographic via NPR)

Image credits: Video and photographs by Michael Nichols/National Geographic

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David and Goliath: A Photo and Video of an Underwater Tornado of Fish

For the past three years, San Diego-based photographer Octavio Aburto has had a specific photo idea brewing in his mind. He wanted to photograph the incredible underwater tornado that forms when massive groups of fish congregate to reproduce. This past November, he finally got his photo opportunity while diving with his friend David at Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico. The beautiful 24-second video above shows what Aburto witnessed.
Here’s the photograph that resulted, titled “David and Goliath” (Aburto’s friend is the diver in the photograph):

Aburto has submitted the photograph to National Geographic Photo Contest 2012. The photograph has also drummed up a good deal of attention after he shared it through Facebook.

Mission Blue has published a great interview with photographer. In response to a question regarding how the image came about, Aburto states,

The conditions were right — the water was very calm and the visibility was great. David and I actually had to stay in the water for almost an hour before we started photographing. We ended up swimming all over the place following the fish and waiting for them to start performing the courtship behavior. When the fish formed the tornado, David happened to be in this position filming this spectacular event.

What’s funny is that many viewers are having a hard time believing that the photograph is real. Aburto has been receiving emails from skeptics who wonder how he managed to get so many fish to form such a dense ball.

David and Goliath [National Geographic via ISO 1200]

Image credits: Photograph by Octavio Aburto and video by David Castro

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Kodak selling patents for 25 million

Kodak will get approximately 25 million for its patents portfolio. This was a necessary step in order to get the previously reported 93 million in financing in order to exit from bankruptcy and continue as a commercial printing company.

Full press release:

Consortium organized by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation to pay approximately 25 million for purchase and licenses of patents; Builds on Kodak’s momentum toward a successful emergence in the first half of 2013

ROCHESTER, N.Y., December 19 –

Eastman Kodak Company has completed a series of agreements that successfully monetizes its digital imaging patents.

The proposed transaction, which achieves one of Kodak’s key restructuring objectives, follows other recent major accomplishments that include an agreement for interim and exit financing for the company’s emergence from its Chapter 11 restructuring, and resolution of U.S. retiree non-pension benefits liabilities. Kodak’s monetization of IP assets further builds on its momentum toward a successful emergence in the first half of 2013.

Under the agreements, Kodak will receive approximately 25 million, a portion of which will be paid by 12 intellectual property licensees organized by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation, with each licensee receiving rights with respect to the digital imaging patent portfolio and certain other Kodak patents. Another portion will be paid by Intellectual Ventures, which is acquiring the digital imaging patent portfolio subject to these new licenses, as well as previously existing licenses.

“This monetization of patents is another major milestone toward successful emergence,” Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said. “Our progress has accelerated over the past several weeks as we prepare to emerge as a strong, sustainable company. This proposed transaction enables Kodak to repay a substantial amount of our initial DIP loan, satisfy a key condition for our new financing facility, and position our Commercial Imaging business for further growth and success.”

The transaction enables the company to continue innovating in its core Commercial Imaging technologies that are fundamental to its future. Commercial Imaging is a business in which Kodak has significant competitive advantages and strong growth prospects.

“Kodak remains a major center of invention and innovation,” Perez said.

The transaction also includes an agreement to settle current patent-related litigation between the participants and Kodak, which avoids additional litigation costs and helps to ensure that management and the company’s resources focus on enhancing the operations of its core future businesses.

The proposed transaction is subject to the approval of the Bankruptcy Court and the satisfaction of certain customary conditions.

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Related posts:

Kodak may exit bankruptcy and continue as a commercial printing company

This week Kodak is suing Samsung

Kodak files for bankruptcy

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Kodak Patents Acquired by Group That Includes Apple, Google, and Facebook

One chapter in the saga of Kodak’s escape from bankruptcy has come to an end. The company announced today that it has completed the sale of its valuable imaging patents for 25 to a group of Silicon Valley companies. The deal involves more than 1,100 patents on the capturing, manipulating, and sharing of digital photographs.
We reported on the bids earlier this month and pointed out that rivals Apple and Google were teaming up in order to acquire the portfolio.

Turns out that was only the tip of the iceberg. The list of companies participating in the purchase reads like a who’s who of tech giants: Apple, Google, Facebook, Samsung, RIM, Adobe, HTC, Fujifilm, Huawei, Amazon, Shutterfly, and Microsoft.

What’s more, those 12 licensees are being organized by IP-handling firms Intellectual Ventures and RPX. Recognize that first name? Yup: it’s the “patent troll” that has been going after camera companies recently, milking them for big bucks through patent infringement lawsuits.

Apple is an Intellectual Ventures client, while Google is under RPX. As part of this deal, Kodak is agreeing to give up its patent infringement cases against the buyers. You might remember that last year Kodak was trying to win billion in a patent case against Apple, a case that was mostly dismissed by a judge just a couple of months later.

Although this sale leaves Kodak empty-handed in terms of digital imaging patents, the company is still loaded with patents related to other areas of its business. The company says it still holds roughly 9,600 patents after this monster sale.

Kodak recently secured a massive 30 million loan to help in its climb out of bankruptcy. One of the main prerequisites for that financing was that Kodak would have to sell its patents for at least half a billion dollars. Now that the sale has been completed, Kodak is free to move forward with its plans of conquering the world of commercial printing.

Image credit: SCA CEO Jan Johansson and CFO Lennart Persson shaking hands by SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget

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This Bookmarklet Overlays Rule of Thirds Gridlines to Photos in Your Browser

Want to see whether or not your favorite photographers are following the rule of thirds when composing their shots? Programmer and photography enthusiast Alex Dergachev has created a simple browser bookmarklet that overlays RoT gridlines over any (or almost any) web photograph.
To get started, visit the bookmarklet’s website and drag the button to your browsers bookmark bar:

That’s it. Now, anytime you want to see what the gridlines look like on a photo that catches you eye, simply click that bookmark. All the photographs on the page will instantly turn monochrome, and the black-and-white dashed gridlines will appear over them.

The screenshot above shows what resulted when we tested the bookmarklet on the current frontpage of Time’s Lightbox, which features a photo of President Obama shot by chief White House photographer Pete Souza.

The code used for the tool is open source over on GitHub, so you can fork the project and tweak it to suit your own needs (e.g. remove the desaturation step, change how the gridlines look).

Rule-of-thirds Bookmarklet [Blocks]

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Removing a Stuck Lens Filter Using a Method That’s Both Effective And Terrifying

Ready your hacksaw, pliers, and hammer â�� we’ve got a filter to free

Many photographers keep some sort of filter on their lenses at all times — even if it’s just a UV filter to stop the glass from getting scratched. But what do you do when a filter gets hopelessly stuck? Photographer Craig Pulsifer was faced with exactly that problem, and the method he says was advised by a Canon Professional Service technician is more than a little scary.

In order to protect the delicate inner threads of the lens, he had to carefully destroy the filter so that he could unmount it. Here’s the steps:

Use hacksaw to cut rim of the filter down to the glass on 4 ‘sides’.

Use Ballpein hammer to strike filter glass in progressively harder taps until filter glass breaks.

Pick out shattered glass of filter

Blow off glass/metal bits, then using pliers, bend/peel edges of filter rim into the centre of the filter to pull pressure off of inner threads of lens

Again, blow off glass/metal bits, and replace with new filter

This is very definitely a last resort maneuver, only to be attempted when nothing else works. I’d be terrified of even getting vaguely near a nice piece of L glass like that with a hacksaw and ball-pein hammer, for fear of destroying thousands of dollars worth of gear. Could you bring yourself to do it?

[via Foto Actualidad]

Photo by: Popular Photography Magazine Editor

broken filter

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Can Fake Photos Change Our Memories?

In the age of widely spread false photos � can these fakes change the way we thing about things?

Thanks to the ubiquity of image sharing (and the inability of people to check Snopes) falsified images of major events are almost more widespread than the real thing. Hurricane Sandy in particular saw dozens of fakes promised as real. But can these images prove to be directly harmful, or are they just in fun?

The BBC recently put together an intriguing round up of research that showed that fake images could influence real memories and behavior. People presented with falsified images are more likely to create false memories to confirm with these images, even if they never happened. Apparently part of it ties to our basic difficulty with identifying fake photos to begin with, and the malleability of memory — especially from our childhoods.

This is hardly a new phenomenon. In Soviet Russia, undesirable individuals were often scrubbed from photographs, removing them from the historical record. And there seems to be some evidence that we’re particularly good at being convinced by edited photos that confirm to our political views.

The fact that our brains are much less good at remembering than we believe them to be is also part of a current shift to require a greater burden of proof in eyewitness testimony. If a simple photoshop of an image can cause us to misremember how something actually happened, how heavily can we rely on old eyewitness accounts for criminal investigations?

Photo by: Popular Photography Magazine Editor

fake sandy shark

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Facebook Camera Renamed Camera•

After Facebook launched its own iOS camera app last month, many people were surprised that the app was simply named “Camera” on the home screen. To clear up confusion — and likely to prevent any trouble from Apple — Facebook has updated the app with a new name: Camera•. No word on how it’s supposed to be pronounced (“camera dot”?) but the change comes along with the latest update that includes more reliable uploads.

(via TNW via Engadget)

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How to Calculate the F-stop of the Human Eye

Your eye has more in common with your DSLR than you might think

Every photographer has had a moment when they wished their eye was a camera. It seems that no matter how hard we try, there are always some images and experiences that just look better through our own eyes, than through our camera. There are a lot of factors that go into how the eye takes in and processes information, but the F-number for your eye can easily be calculated using the human eye’s focal length (~22mm) and physical aperture size.

The eye’s pupil can be as large as 6–7 mm wide open, which translates into the maximum physical aperture, meaning the f-number of the human eye varies from about f/8.3 in a very brightly lit place to about f/2.1 in the dark. According to the incoming rays of light (what we actually see), the focal length of the eye is a bit longer, resulting in minimum f-number of f/3.2, but again, that’s different that f/3.2 on your DSLR, because the eye cannot be considered an ordinary air-filled camera since it’s filled with light refracting liquid.

Still interesting to think about the next time your images fall short of what you saw with your eyes.

Via. Petapixel

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