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Solarcan Puck is a Limited-Time Palm-Sized Pinhole Solargraph Camera

Solarcan has announced Puck, a smaller limited-time version of its soda-can-shaped Sun-catching camera. The new model comes shaped like a circle and produces round instead of more traditional rectangle images.

Solarcan, created by photographer Sam Cornwell, specializes in producing solargraphy cameras that don’t require any DIY skills. Anyone can use them without knowing a single thing about pinhole cameras, development, or even solargraphs.

The original Solarcan announced in 2017.

The company released its first model in 2017 on Kickstarter. Since then, it has also added a set of tinted Solarcans that produce vibrant and colorful results, and now — the small and round Puck.

Once an exposure is started, the Solarcan Puck will capture the Sun’s path and produce a photo that can be retrieved inside afterward. The resulting image is inverted and can be scanned or photographed to get a digital copy.

To produce an image, photographers have to firmly fix the camera to a chosen outdoor location. The exposure begins when the tab inside is removed to allow light to pass through the pinhole.

The photographic paper inside the camera only reacts to sunshine, so photographers don’t have to worry about light pollution from street lights, the Moon, or other sources.

The camera has f/132 and the exposure can last months or even years. For example, Solarcan customer Robert Miller set the camera to record Sun’s path as seen from Antarctica and produced a 6-months long exposure. Cornwell went a step further and attempted a timelapse shot with 27 Solarcans, thought to be the first of its kind.

The new Puck works the same way as its predecessor model, except it catches a circle image. The new camera also comes with three exposures. Each next exposure is revealed after removing the cover sheet and gives photographers three goes to experiment with.

As the camera has no viewfinder, it can be tough to figure out the best camera placement for a good composition. The company recommends turning to community results to get ideas for this.

Below, the company has shared a few mock-up images of what the results shot by Solarcan Puck could look like.

Solarcan has no plans to sell the Puck as a standalone product — it will instead be bundled with orders of over £30 ($40) for Black Friday weekend through November 28th.

“I’m not planning on making it a future product or selling it,” Cornwell tells PetaPixel. “It’s intended as a bit of fun for the community, hence I’m not putting a price tag on it. I’m just excited to see what people produce with it!”

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‘Afghan Girl’ Escapes Taliban, Evacuated to Italy

Sharbat Gulla, the Afghan woman made famous by photographer Steve McCurry’s iconic Afghan Girl photo, has escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan and has been evacuated to Italy.

The 49-year-old Gulla, also known as Sharbat Bibi, received international attention as a young girl after photojournalist Steve McCurry photographed her at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan while Afghanistan was occupied by the Soviet Union. The striking portrait was featured as the cover of National Geographic in June 1985 and quickly became one of the most widely recognized portraits ever captured.

In 2016, Gulla found herself in legal trouble after she was found using fake documents to obtain a Pakistani identification card under the name “Sharbat Bibi.” As a result, Gulla was deported from Pakistan back to Afghanistan.

During this time, McCurry expressed his willingness to do everything possible to help her as Afghanistan’s then-president Ashraf Ghani welcomed her back to her birthplace and promised to provide her with a place to live, reports National Geographic. Ghani also promised that her children would have access to health care and schooling.

“I’ve said repeatedly, and I like to repeat it again, that our country is incomplete until we absorb all of our refugees,” Ghani said during a small greeting ceremony.

Upon her arrival back to her home country, Gulla lived with security precautions due to her identification as the subject on the cover of National Geographic. Gulla has reportedly faced risk from conservative Afghans who don’t believe women should appear in the media.

After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Gulla has now been displaced once more. The Italian government confirmed her arrival in Rome this week after the office of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi organized the evacuation.

The rescue operation was part of a program to support Afghan citizens, and Italy is one of several Western countries that have airlifted hundreds of Afghans out of the country. The Italian government also confirmed it will help Gulla integrate into life in Italy.

In regards to the famed portrait, Draghi says the photograph had come to “symbolize the vicissitudes and conflict of the chapter in history that Afghanistan and its people were going through at the time.”

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Topaz Labs Image Quality Bundle: A Photographer’s Lifeline

The most fun I have with photography is capturing something I’ve never seen before. Of course, that sets up a lot of pressure to come away with tack-sharp perfect photos. Topaz Labs is how I ensure my success.

Topaz Labs’ most popular Image Quality Bundle includes Sharpen AI, DeNoise AI, and Gigapixel AI normally costs $259.97. But now through Monday, November 29, the company has an even bigger Black Friday discount on the software: the Image Quality bundle can be picked up for $99.99, which is a 60% savings off its regular retail price. If you’re into video work, you can get their “Everything Bundle,” which includes these three photo apps and Video Enhance AI for just $199.98 (normally $559.96). If bundles aren’t for you, you can still get 25% off individual licenses of DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI. Additionally, Video Enhance AI is available for $99.99, a 67% savings from the regular price of $299.99.

In this article sponsored by Topaz Labs, I want to showcase how I used all three of these applications to enhance one of my wildlife photos. For me, the image of the bobcat I’ll be editing below is exciting as not only was it the first I’d photographed, but the first one I’ve seen in the wild. It’s these kinds of special, personal one-of-a-kind photos that make Topaz Labs products worth every penny because no matter what I walked away with in the field I can fix many issues that may pop up under closer examination.

Bobcat straight out of camera photographed with the Sony a7R III and Sony 200-600mm.

After editing in Capture One and now ready for enhancement with the Topaz Labs Image Quality Bundle.

The first step was to take care of all the basic adjustments needed inside Capture One. This included a good-sized crop, some work with exposure and creating gradient masks to control the light, plus some color alterations to taste. The “after” shown above is what I came up with, and from Capture One I sent the image file out to Photoshop where I work on finishing and using Topaz Labs Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI as plugins.

Topaz Labs Sharpen AI

The first issue I want to tackle with the image is the soft focus on the animal. This was a completely unexpected sighting taken from a car on the road, and the cat had been already walking down this path by the time I saw it. Between heat haze and some slight motion blur, I know there’s some more detail that can be squeezed out in Sharpen AI.

Sharpen AI settings.

Inside Sharpen AI, the interface is very straightforward. Looking at the side panel, I just go in order of the settings as shown and refine them to taste. First is selecting which Sharpen Model to use. Since this has a little bit of motion blur, “Motion Blur – Normal” seemed to work best on the bobcat’s face which is the most important part of the image.

However, because of the heat haze I mentioned, the out-of-focus areas in the image have some unpleasantly hard-edged bokeh mixed around there. It’s confusing the program as to whether to not it should be enhancing those edges, and in this case, I do not. Simple enough, I can click into the “Select” panel where it automatically masked the bobcat for me almost perfectly. Using a low-opacity brush, I made a couple of tweaks to the mask to control how much sharpening was being applied to different spots around the cat; all sharpening focused on the head with less at the rear end. Now I press Apply which saves the changes to my active layer in Photoshop.

Automatic subject detection masking in Sharpen AI.

Final masking tweaks and ready to save out to Photoshop.

Before Sharpen AI.

After Sharpen AI.

Topaz Labs DeNoise AI

Next, I want to work inside DeNoise AI to deal with the problematic heat distortion. Earlier this week, I detailed in an article how well DeNoise AI combats noise while retaining details. Today, I want to share another way I use it. I’ve found that not only does DeNoise AI do wonders to bring out detail amongst the noise, but it can also help to naturally wash away the areas you don’t want to be detailed — of course, while providing noise reduction at the same time.

DeNoise AI settings.

To do this, inside DeNoise AI I’m looking at either Low Light or Severe Noise in the AI Model panel since these two allow for zero sharpening to be applied. Remember, we want to reduce the heat distortion artifacts, not enhance them. With Severe Noise selected, I slide Enhance Sharpness and Recover Original Detail to zero. From here I adjust Remove Noise to taste finding a balance between losing the strange hard edging but not allowing it to get overly smeary.

Surprisingly, doing this did not affect the bobcat as much as I thought it would, but I still went ahead and made a mask on the bobcat and then inverted it so everything in the photo was targeted with noise reduction except the animal.

Masking inside DeNoise AI.

Before DeNoise AI.

After DeNoise AI, softening the unusual hard edges in the out of focus areas without looking obvious.

Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI

After completing my edits with Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI, along with anything else I wanted to clone or fix inside Photoshop, it’s time to finish this in Gigapixel AI. As we saw at the beginning, the photo was heavily cropped from 42 megapixels down to now 6 megapixels. I really like this image, so I want to put it big on my wall. Enlarging it nearly 6 times so that it’s 60 inches wide and 40 inches tall at 300 dots per inch ought to do it.

Gigapixel AI settings.

Inside Gigapixel AI, I set the Resize Mode to Width and input 60 inches. With the AI Model kept on Standard, it’s that easy to greatly enlarge a photo for printing. Comparing the result from Gigapixel AI to Photoshop, I see much finer details present Gigapixel AI. The application leverages its machine learning to interpret what is being enlarged and can finesse these small details and keep them from aliasing or becoming smudgy. In comparison, the Photoshop result looks blocky and has obviously run up against its limitations.

Enlarged 5.88x to 60×40 inches using Photoshop.

Enlarged 5.88x to 60×40 inches using Gigapixel AI.

An Essential Set of Tools for All Photographers

The Topaz Labs Image Quality Bundle features three photo editing applications that I would never want to go without. They have all changed the way I approach both photography in the field and editing at the computer. Disguised by a straightforward interface and simple slider controls, the power and capability within them are well-worth checking out for yourself.

Welcome to a PetaPixel Showcase, in which our staff gives you a hands-on with unique and interesting products from across the photography landscape. The Showcase format affords manufacturers the opportunity to sponsor hands-on time with their products and our staff and lets them highlight what features they think are worth noting, but the opinions expressed from PetaPixel staff are genuine. Showcases should not be considered an endorsement by PetaPixel.

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Landscape Photography in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland

Torridon, Glencoe, and the Isle of Skye have drawn landscape photographers and artists over the centuries. The highlands of Scotland are extensive and uninterruptedly breathtaking – a Big Country indeed. This is the internationally perceived face of Scotland – a meticulously sculpted land of peaks, glens, lakes, and shorelines. And rain or mist to make or break the scene dependent on your disposition.

But distant from the western shore, an extensive string of pearls awaits the more intrepid traveler. The Outer Hebrides stretch for 140 miles – a sliver of land 40 miles away resting on the horizon. They are comprised of the joint isles of Harris and Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, and Barra.

Here is a different Scottish landscape. Pure and wild, beaches to melt a heart, rolling hills and lakes, abandoned homesteads left furnished some 70 years ago – a unique landscape tied to culture. Time slows down out here. The clock ticks to a different beat. There is a softness to the landscape that sways with this rhythm.

Tarbert is a port town, a docking place for the ferry from Skye but a taste of other times hangs in the air. Terraced cottages line the side of the hill. We rented a cottage for four nights and set off to dip our toes into the landscapes of Harris and Lewis. Not an hour and a half after stepping off the ferry we walked the length of Seilebost beach.

A little travel weary – but the landscape just soaked us up and soothed us in. I took some initial photographs on the beach into blue hour – just to let the camera out of the bag as the light was dull and dimming. We drove back to Tarbert in the dark. We had indeed arrived.

At dawn the following morning we sat in the sandy car park at Rosamol as the skies provided a free car wash. There were two other cars and a camper van – each seemingly daring the other to take to the beach first. The rain eased and we walked the wet sandy track to the wide beach. The hills of Harris dipped in and out of clouds. The light was a dirty grey and the photographs taken that morning were a reflection of the weather. But the hills and islands encroaching the beach were akin to an amphitheater and made an instant impression that would draw us back to this beach.

The eastern shore of Harris is pockmarked with tiny lochs that meet the sound of the Minch, the strait that divides the isles from the highlands. The western shore could not be more different – the lauded beaches that deservedly act as a magnet for landscape photographers and artists. The beaches lend themselves to the creation of dreamlike impressions that longer exposures serve best. I fully expected my wide-angled lens would live on my camera body for the trip but found that longer focal lengths better served my purposes.

All of the beaches along the western shore deserve a dedicated visit. Horgabost beach is compact and suffers from occasional drifts of dead seaweed as was the case when an unexpected burst of evening light necessitated an impromptu visit. The beach was not an option so I hurriedly ran atop the dunes and shot to exclude it – a 6-second exposure to soften the marram grass as it merged with the Atlantic.

Horgabost beach

The following day we took the spectacular single-track road to Huisinis beach and witnessed golden eagles and a large migration of redwings on the route.

Huisinis beach

This is another compact beach good enough to shoot independently but the jewel of the area is Tragh Mheallan. The beach requires a good 45-minute walk with an incline along a well-marked cliff path.

An otter greeted me along the cliff walk. A white-tailed eagle flew overhead. The beach was enormous and empty. The marram grass held no human footprint but was indented by the tracks of deer. My composition was rushed as the light faded on an overcast afternoon. An enthralling location.

Luskentyre is the most popular beach in Harris – it is effectively a bay – Rosamol and Seilebost beaches at either side. I visited for two sunrises during our stay once on each side.

Luskentyre beach

Rosamol should be your first choice as it was mine. The light on my dawn visit was dull. The dunes and distant mountains though impressive deserved better light. A beach tends to fare better in duller light and so my preferred images were abstract in nature and the compositions drew substantially on the sands. At Seilebost, the light was a slight improvement and I played with a layered composition of rocks, sea, sand, mountains, and sky.

And so we had spent 3 days exploring parts of Harris and had not yet ventured into Lewis – the largest part of the island. A trip to this island would not be complete without a visit to Callanais Standing Stones and that is where our final day took us. Out of the bag came the infrared camera for a noon shot of this archaeological wonder.

Callanais Standing Stones

The afternoon was drawing in but we pressed on further from home to the Mangarsta Sea Stacks.

The Mangarsta Sea Stacks

The light was never going to be interesting but to view the scene and take an image for the sake of it was worth the effort. And so our short sojourn to the Outer Hebrides ended.

Here are two videos of my 2021 trip to Scotland showing my landscape photography outings in a vlog style:

About the author: Jimmy Mc Donnell is a landscape and wildlife photographer from Co Wicklow, Ireland with an enduring passion for capturing images that reflect the beauty of the natural world. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Mc Donnell’s work on his website and YouTube. This article was also published here.

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Colorized Photos of Wartime Animals Reveal Their Sacrifice

A talented photo colorizer has paid a tribute to wartime animals by breathing a new and colorful life into historical photographs that depict them and their sacrifices.

Tom Marshall is a professional photo colorizer based in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. He has worked with some of the world’s leading museums, photo archives, publishers, as well as numerous private clients.

Marshall lives close to the base of the Defence Animal Training Regiment that still to this day trains military working dogs and horses. He has a personal interest in wartime stories about heroic animals that have helped people in service and those used as mascots and companions. Each year for Remembrance Sunday, the Royal Army Veterinary Association will take part in a parade through the town, making sure the animal sacrifices of wars past and present are not forgotten.

With his personal tribute to the impact these animals have made, Marshall has colorized a collection of images, some of which are over 100 years old. Marshall points out that some of the animals photographed were later officially recognized by means of the Dickin medal. This award was instituted to honor the work of animals in the Second World War and continues to this day.

The photograph above depicts an unnamed British Royal Artillery soldier with his kitten, taken around 1917. Animals were often brought into the trenches, sometimes as a mascot for the regiment. In this case, the kitten might have been picked up from a local farm or a destroyed village.

“I colorized the photos as a tribute to the animals pictured, because I believe that color adds another dimension to historic images, and helps modern eyes to connect with the subjects, more than with a black and white photo,” Marshall tells PetaPixel. “I have found that black and white images are too often sadly ignored, especially by younger generations, and by colorizing the photos, I hope that more people will stop to learn more about the subjects and what the animals went through 100 years ago and throughout the past century.”

Each photograph tells a story of the relationship and bond shared between people and animals. Although animals share unconditional love and dedication to people, this collection also reminds us that they too are victims of human war. They didn’t choose to be there, even though circumstances led to it.

The group photo is a picture postcard, dated December 1909. Marshall was commissioned to colorize the photo by descendants of William Field, third from the left.

An unknown British Tommy from the ‘A’ Squadron, the North Irish Horse Regiment. It is estimated that eight million horses, mules and donkeys died during the First World War.

The ship’s cat has been common feature on many trading, exploration and naval ships dating to ancient times. They were used to attack and kill rodents which would cause damage to ropes, woodwork, food, and stores, and would spread disease. These two kittens lived aboard HMS Hawkins, a heavy cruiser built by the Royal Navy during the First World War, though not completed until 1919. The kittens are pictured inside the barrel of a 7.5-inch gun. The Royal Navy banned cats and other pet animals from all ships on the ocean in 1975 on hygiene grounds, however cats are still common on many private ships.

Simon was a ship’s cat who served on the Royal Navy sloop-of-war HMS Amethyst. He was adept at catching and killing rats on the lower decks. Simon rapidly gained a reputation for cheekiness, leaving presents of dead rats in sailors’ beds, and sleeping in the captain’s cap. In 1949, during the Yangtze Incident, he received the PDSA’s Dickin Medal after surviving injuries from a cannon shell that tore through the captain’s cabin seriously wounding Simon and killing the captain. The badly wounded cat crawled onto deck, and was rushed to the medical bay, where the ship’s surviving medical staff cleaned his burns, and removed four pieces of shrapnel, but he was not expected to last the night. He managed to survive, however, and after a period of recovery, returned to his former duties catching rats. He is still the only cat to have been awarded the Dickin Medal as of 2021.

A sergeant of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps bandages the wounded ear of ‘Jasper’, a mine-detecting dog at Bayeux in Normandy, 5th July 1944.

Rip was a mixed breed terrier awarded the Dickin Medal for bravery in 1945. He was found as a stray in Poplar, London, in 1940 by an Air Raid Warden Mr. E King, and became the service’s first search and rescue dog. He is credited with saving the lives of over 100 people. Rip was not trained for search and rescue work, but took to it instinctively and his success has been held partially responsible for prompting the authorities to train search and rescue dogs towards the end of the Second World War.

Venus the bulldog mascot of the destroyer HMS Vansittart, 1941.

HMS Stork’s mascot, on board ship, Liverpool, 18th May 1941.

Aircrew was a young cat adopted by the Royal Australian Air Force Flying Training School, Cressy, Victoria, Australia.

Horses pull makeshift sleds through the mud of the First World War.

A Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps Captain and horse c.1916.

A horse and soldier transporting boots. The path is inches deep in wet mud discernible by the deep imprint round the soldier’s boot and the fact that the horse’s hooves are no longer visible. Rather than cloth puttees though he is wearing long lace-up boots. The horse is absolutely laden with rubber trench waders. Horses, due to their reliability and ability to travel over most terrains were crucial to transportation during the First World War.

A B-type bus converted into a pigeon loft enabling messages to be sent from the front line back to headquarters. Over 100,000 carrier pigeons were used as messengers throughout WW1 and records show they delivered 95% of their messages correctly.

You can find more of Marshall’s work on his website and Instagram page.

Image credits: All images courtesy of Tom Marshall and used with permission.

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Deal Alert: Save Big on Datacolor Color Workflow Tools

Datacolor is famous for helping creatives bring out the best colors in their work. And right now, they’re giving you the opportunity to save up to $80 on the Datacolor Spyder and ColorReader range. But don’t wait around! This special is only on offer until December 3rd or while stocks last.

Full disclosure: This sponsored article was brought to you by Datacolor.

To the professional creatives out there, here’s a deal you do not want to miss! Datacolor is taking $80 off the SpyderX Elite monitor calibration tool – their fastest and most accurate Spyder ever. This handy device gives photographers, designers, and filmmakers total control of the color workflow with unlimited calibration setting choices, and advanced tools for display mapping and analysis. Normally valued at $279.99, this week Datacolor is selling the SpyderX Elite for just $199.99.

If you’re serious about your photography, the SpyderX Pro is also on special this week. Aimed at photographers and designers looking for a super fast and accurate calibration tool that doesn’t require a science degree to figure out, the SpyderX Pro is selling for $129.99 right now. That’s $40 off the normal price.

If design or product photography is your thing, you might have been eyeing the ColorReader EZ as the next new tool in your kit. Guess what… It’s $10 off at the moment! And while you’re at it, pick up the Spyder Checkr 24 color card and software combo for another $10 saving.

Don’t wait around! Add some extra jingle to your pocket this holiday season and save big on Datacolor Spyder and Datacolor ColorReader products today! Check these four special deals out below or head over to the Datacolor Black Friday sale now.

SpyderX Pro

For serious photographers and designers who want a fast, precise and easy-to-use monitor calibrator that helps achieve their creative vision.

The Fastest Spyder Ever: Calibrating your monitor now takes just a minute or two.

The Most Accurate Spyder Ever: Groundbreaking lens-based color engine provides a higher level of color accuracy for multiple monitors.

See The Difference Instantly: SpyderProof functionality provides before-and-after evaluation of your images.

Sale Price: $129.99 $169.99

SpyderX Elite

For Expert and professional photographers and motion image makers looking for the most comprehensive monitor calibration tool for maximum control of their color workflow.

The Fastest Spyder Ever: Calibrating your monitor now takes just a minute or two.

The Most Accurate Spyder Ever: Groundbreaking lens-based color engine provides a higher level of color accuracy for multiple monitors and projectors.

See The Difference Instantly: SpyderProof functionality provides full-screen before-and-after evaluation of your images.

Sale Price: $199.99 $279.99

Spyder Checkr 24

Boost efficiency and color precision by color correcting your image file for one or multiple camera combinations.

Incudes 24 standard color patches.

Consistent, accurate color within a post-production workflow in Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop and Hasselblad Phocus.

Generate HSL-presets with the Spyder Checkr software.

Can be integrated with DaVinci Resolve for auto-color Correction.

Sale Price: $39 $49

ColorReader EZ

Color-coordinate your photo shoot seamlessly. Scan a color to instantly find its Savage Universal background color match, paint color match, plus precise color values for easy conversion to Pantone.

Match to the closest Savage Universal Seamless Background paper color.

Get the 3 closest paint matches across all major paint brands.

“Try on” paint color with Samplize peel-&-stick paint samples.

Get CIE Lab, RGB and Hex color values for your measured color.

Sale Price: $49 $59

Head over to the Datacolor Black Friday sale now, and get yours today.

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Using a Flash for Insect Photography

I’ve shot thousands of pics of insects without flash and tens of thousands with flash. When the lighting is bright and sunny, the results can be good without flash. But when I venture out in pursuit of photo ops, I often encounter poorly lighted situations which are better with flash. If you study the work of experienced insect photographers, you’ll find that most of them use flash.

A very important advantage of flash is it captures motion. I use f/11 for depth of field and ISO 100 or less for quality. Without flash, that calls for approximately 1/100s. But flying insects are very fast and that shutter speed is too slow. So I use the fastest shutter speed possible with flash (1/250 on my Sony a7R IV and 1/400 with my Sony a1). At these settings, the ambient light contributes a fraction of what’s needed for exposure, so the remainder comes from the flash. And with a flash duration of about 1/10,000s, even the speediest flying insects are frozen sharply. It also eliminates camera shake.

When I began photographing bees, I thought the pop-up flash on my Sony a6400 would be perfect. The distance was short and low power was adequate. But there were two problems:

1. Longer lenses cast a shadow blocking the low flash head from illuminating the subject.

2. The recycle time was 4 seconds, causing me to miss opportunities while waiting for recycling (which is the charging of the capacitor in the flash).

So I tried an external flash.

My first external flash was the small Sony HVL-F32M. The light head is high enough to eliminate the lens shadow and it recycled in 2 seconds when shooting closeups. But I was still missing opportunities while waiting those 2 seconds so I sought even faster recycle time. I soon learned that flashes powered by lithium batteries recycled fastest. That reduced the number of options.

My first lithium-powered flash was a Godox 860 IIs. It offered a lot of performance for the money. But after only five months it began making a loud snapping sound each time it fired. I was advised to stop using it because that was the precursor to an exploding capacitor.

Godox had just brought out the V1s, which was about the same power. With a round head, it looks like a $1,100 Profoto. I bought it but sadly within a month the plastic foot broke. If you read user reviews on flashes, you see many complaints of broken plastic feet on many brands. Why manufacturers continue to use plastic feet is a mystery. For less than $1 they could cure the problem with a metal foot.

I ordered a warranty replacement for the V1s, and also ordered the only flash for Sony I could find with a metal foot, the $1,100 Profoto. It arrived and didn’t work at all. I emailed Profoto but they were of no help so I returned it.

Meanwhile, the replacement Godox V1s arrived and worked well for about two months until its plastic foot also broke. Argh!

Further research led me to discover the Nissin MG80 Pro, with a metal foot – YAY! The Nissin distributor sent me one to review.

Here are some comparisons of the MG80 with the Godox flashes I’ve owned.

Foot. MG80 Pro has metal foot. Having lost two Godox flashes to broken feet, I like this a lot.

Guide number The MG80 and Godox 860 have equal guide numbers (max brightness). The Godox V1s is not rated with a guide number but is probably slightly lower. At my close range, the guide number is not very important, but a high guide number suggests that I’ll be using it at a small fraction of its power and will enjoy a short recycle time.

Battery. The MG80 Pro battery capacity of 360 full power flashes is about half of the Godoxes. This is not an issue for me. My close-up flashes consume a fraction of full power. So I get over 1,000 closeup flashes on a charge. The MG80 can use four conventional AA batteries or four 14500 lithium cells. Users might appreciate this if they run out of juice while away from their home base. They could buy some AAs and keep going until they could charge their depleted lithium cells.

Flexibility. A unique feature of the MG80 is that the concentrating Fresnel lens head can be slid off, revealing the quartz flash tube. This looks like it would allow flash with extremely wide-angle lenses.

I’m buying the MG80. I want that metal foot and the price is less than half of the only other metal-footed Sony flash I know of, the Profoto.

Continuous Shooting With Flash

I thought this was impossible. But I’ve found that with flash-fill in daylight at close range, most flashes can repeat five or more frames for a medium rate burst.

About Flash Diffusers

Many skilled insect photographers construct their own diffusers that they carry out to the field. They primarily shoot at 2x to 3x magnification and are so close to the insect that their diffuser hangs over it, surrounding it with diffuse light and blocking the Sun. They achieve beautiful results under these close conditions.

A custom-made AK Diffuser

I’ve opted for a much greater distance because the bees are so fast. They stop off a few seconds, drink, and move on. There’s rarely enough time to get close, so I shoot from several feet away at about 0.3x magnification. I’ve not found a diffuser that is beneficial at that distance. So I currently shoot with undiffused flash to minimize the size of the reflection on the bee’s eyes. (Diffusers enlarge the diameter of the flash light source and thus the diameter of the reflection on the insect’s eyes).

The bright spot on the eye is a reflection of my flash. If I shoot in sunlight there will be two spots, one from my flash and one from the Sun.

I’m also experimenting with a mask over the flash head to reduce the diameter of the reflection.

The masked flash head results in smaller spot on the eye.

Mask on flash head

Good luck with using a flash with your own insect photos!

About the author: Alan Adler lives in Los Altos, California. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. He has been an avid photographer for 60 years. He is also a well-known inventor with about 40 patents. His best-known inventions are the Aerobie flying ring and the AeroPress coffee maker.

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Back Where We Started: The Camera Industry Is Again a Bit-Part Player

Remember those heady days of 2010? The release of the iPhone 4 and iPad, the New Orleans Saints won Superbowl XLIV, Iron Man 2 hit the cinemas, Eminem released Recovery, and Biden was Vice-President. It was also the year when camera shipments peaked at over 120 million units. How did the industry become the bit-part player it now is, shifting 9 million units just ten short years later?

In terms of shipments and sales, 2020 really was a year to forget for the camera industry – annus horribilis – where it hit new depths that no one thought possible during those highs of 2010. Going from CIPA data of manufacturer shipments, we can see that 2010 just pushed out 2008 as the year to celebrate the fortunes of the camera with an inexorable rise from its base in 1999.

It must have seemed that anything was possible as factories popped up to produce ever more – cheaper – cameras to a mass market that was all too happy to buy them. Of course, the reality was perhaps a little more nuanced and cracks had already started to appear in the facade of an industry predicated on the mass market.  If we factor in the value of those shipments, along with lens shipments then we can see what was really happening.

In fact, by 2008 the industry had already peaked in value; two short years later that amount had dropped by 25%. The writing was on the wall and while fable will point to the release of the iPhone in 2007 as the defining moment, that wasn’t actually the case. Sharp’s J-SH04 incorporated the first digital camera into a phone back in 2000 and by 2003 feature phones were outselling compact cameras.

It’s a salutary reminder that a product’s unique selling point (USP) has to remain, well, unique! In the case of the compact camera, that was an “adequate digital image” and phones subsequently plundered their sales.

This is what we might consider the classic boom and bust history of the digital camera going from nothing and potentially ending in nothing: the rise and fall of the camera industry. What’s interesting, however, is that flat trajectory for lens shipments, which hints at something else going on in the market.

Crucially then, if we split shipments by camera type (DSLR, MILC, and Integrated) we see a different picture. Sure, it is still trending down but that boom and bust scenario is restricted to the Integrated camera and they are now only just shipping more than DSLRs and MILCs.

In fact, what shipment value shows is where the bulk of the money lies. In 2010, the sheer volume of Integrated cameras meant that that was where value lay, along with the profit. That is not true today where the value of DSLRs and MILCs now exceeds that of Integrated models. This has been the case for DSLRs since 2013, but their shipment numbers are genuinely in freefall and MILCs eventually exceeded them in value in 2019 and then unit volume in 2020.

The Rise of the MILC

The mirrorless camera – at least in its current guise – can be traced back to the Micro Four Thirds format and the release of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 in 2010 although that was really a reboot of the 2003 Olympus Four Thirds E1 (minus the mirror box). After that, every manufacturer rushed up to the plate to present their variation of the mirrorless camera.

Quite why Panasonic, Olympus, and Sony came to market at that point with entirely new systems remains less clear. Sony had relatively recently acquired Minolta and was developing its camera business, while Olympus had singularly failed to transition effectively to manufacturing DSLRs. Fuji had had a similarly poor digital transition and was undergoing major restructuring as it came to terms with the death of film. Pentax had made a DSLR transition but lagged behind Nikon and Canon, who had very successfully moved into the digital era.

What is undeniable is that they were all making significant sums of money from selling Integrated cameras. The MILC was born out of an abundance of profit, combined with a number of manufacturers who were unsure what to do next.

The reason for the success of the MILC was more simple: Sony, Olympus, Fuji, and Panasonic achieved significant sales success. Meanwhile, Nikon and Canon had a vested interest in maintaining the DSLR market that was essentially sown up, but that gentle trickle of MILC sales turned into bubbling brook.

The writing was on the wall when Nikon and Canon pivoted to mirrorless in 2018, sounding the not-so-quiet death knell for the DSLR. This left Pentax swinging in the wind and – yes – releasing a new DSLR model in the form of the K-3 Mark III!

That said, the imploding shipments of DSLRs are a result of both customers choosing to buy MILCs and manufacturers reducing their shipments. There is no better sign that the market is finished as sales implode and substantial R&D ends; sure, we are likely to have old models sold for the foreseeable future in the same way the Nikon F6 persisted through to 2020, but new models are all but finished (although Pentax may still try to beat that drum).

What is the Future of Camera Sales and Shipments?

The key question for manufacturers going forward is what size is the market for selling cameras? Canon is a little pessimistic on this point believing it will naturally fall be below 10 million units, COVID excepting. To better understand the digital future, we need to understand the analog past.

Again using CIPA data, we can see that focal plane shutter models (ILCs) peaked in 1982 at 7.5 million units, but what’s remarkable is the ¥230 billion (~$2B) in value this represents (not adjusted for inflation). With the rise of the compact camera (“Shutter” models) and mass-market consumption, we can see that total shipments eventually reached 36 million, but their value was on a long-term downward path as the mantra of “pile it high, sell it cheap” took hold.

What’s more instructive is understanding the underlying professional and amateur market and looking specifically at interchangeable lens models; the graph below combines together the film and digital figures (again not adjusted for inflation).

And this tells the remarkable story of the digital boom which took the historic baseline of around 4 million annual shipments of film cameras and pushed it up to 20 million by 2013. That volume has been in freefall since, but Canon’s expectation that this value sits somewhere between 5 and 10 million is probably about right.

Value is more difficult to gauge because of the effect of inflation, but since 1980, goods in general have increased in price by about x2.5 which probably means that the total value of the market – about ¥230 billion – is more or less the same as today.

So where does that leave us? Probably back where we started in the 1980s! Cameras have always been an emergent, expensive and, as a result, high-end tech sector. The first (analog) consumer boom came in the 1980s because film cameras could be manufactured very cheaply, with the mass-market scale used to minimize the cost of film, development, and printing. The second (digital) boom of the 2000s took advantage of microelectronics, miniaturization, supply chain sourcing, and just-in-time manufacturing.

Both booms came during periods of relative consumer wealth. Film’s mantle was stolen by digital which was subsequently lost to the smartphone, but the underlying system camera sales have remained surprisingly stable.

The camera sector remains a bit-part player in the global market place and manufacturers need to work out how they are going to make it pay for itself. Sony, Canon, and Fuji have largely been successful in achieving this, all in different ways but with their camera divisions subsumed into much larger organizations.

Significant question marks remain as to whether Olympus can survive and only time will tell. The fortunes of Pentax and Panasonic within their respective conglomerates remain to be seen.

Nikon is an anomaly here because it is relatively small as a business yet still reliant upon its camera business. It is unlikely to fail commercially, but what it looks like as a business in 10 years’ time will be fascinating.

Image credits: Header illustrations licensed from Depositphotos

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The Kodak Reelz Digitizer Converts 8mm Film Strips into MP4 Files

C+A Global, a brand licensee of Eastman Kodak, has announced the Kodak Reelz Film Digitizer, a new 8mm and Super 8 film digital converter that turns old film strips into modern MP4 files.

Just like was the case with the giant inflatable backyard projector screen that was launched by C&A Marketing earlier this fall, this film digitizer isn’t actually made by Eastman Kodak. Instead, it’s one of many licensed products that are completely unaffiliated with the storied film brand other than in name.

The Kodak brand is a lot more segmented than most average consumers likely know. The Eastman Kodak company, which is still based in Rochester, New York, still produces film, film chemistry, and some software processing on its own, but has another entirely separate revenue stream: licensing its brand name, which still commands considerable clout. Through licensing, the company has dramatically expanded the reach of its name into everything from mobile phones and flashlights to inkjet printers, digital cameras, instant print cameras, and camera accessories.

C+A Global is one such buyer of that license and has used it to market this film digitizer (along with several other Kodak-branded products), which is a lot more on-brand as a product than a backyard inflatable screen. The Kodak Reelz is equipped with a few different capabilities that the company says “enhance” the user experience.

The device has a five-inch viewing screen with an LCD interface controlled by nine buttons on the top of the converter. The device allows for recording, converting, and playing back of live films as well as several other scanning and editing options. The buttons allow for users to align the frame, zoom, and edit sharpness and tint among other features.

The Kodak Reelz is designed to be super-easy to use. It accepts three, five, and seven-inch films into its universal supply reel and provides on-screen prompts that allow users to send or save footage. It accepts a USB cable to transfer scans to a computer, laptop, or even a television where footage can be viewed instantly.

The scanner is fully automated and uses an 8.08-megapixel sensor that the company says captures images with “exceptional” clarity, contrast, detail, and color accuracy and outputs a 1080p Full HD digital video file. As a note, and perhaps obviously, there will not be any sound included with the recordings.

C+A Global touts the Kodak Reelz as ultra-compact as well at 12.4 by 8.4-inches, making it easy to store and travel with.

The Kodak Reelz Film digitizer is available from Amazon for $400.

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These Gloves Keep Photographers’ Hands Warm Yet Nimble

The Heat Company has developed a line of warm and functional gloves for photographers who travel and shoot in extreme temperatures and for those who simply want to keep their hands warm during the colder seasons.

With headquarters in Austria, the Heat Company originally developed its gloves for special forces and has continued to design products for outdoor enthusiasts since 1994.

In recent years, photographers have also discovered the benefits of using the company’s gloves that have been built to allow sensitive handling of equipment yet remain extremely warm at the same time. This makes it a good combination for adventurous photographers who shoot in freezing temperatures.

The company hasn’t let this go unnoticed and has created a page designed specifically for photographers. The page describes the company’s Heat Layer System that allows photographers to find the right combination of gloves based on their individual needs.

The first layer is the Liner. These are thin under-gloves that allow photographers to comfortably handle the camera without having to take them off. All Liners also have touch-sensitive fingertips for touchscreen displays and shooters can use them alone or wear them under the second layer, the Shell.

The Shell is an extra warm mitten designed to be worn over Liner gloves. The mittens can be opened with a zipper and folded back if required. This way, photographers can continue shooting with the thinner Liner gloves without taking off the mitten.

The final layer, the Hood, is used in extreme conditions. It is a thin and light mitten cover that doesn’t take up much space and can be rolled up to store in a bag. It adds extra protection against wind and moisture and can be combined with all other glove models.

The company offers several combinations of these gloves depending on what kind of equipment photographers use and what weather conditions they are likely to endure during their photo trips. Some of the options include gloves that are already permanently sewn together.

A small but handy detail is the silicone print on the palm of the gloves which helps keep a tight grip on the lens when changing it and a pocket on the back of the hand to store small accessories like memory cards or lens wipes.

The company ships its gloves worldwide and the prices start at $28 for the Liner gloves, with the full collection available on the Heat Company’s website.

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1957 Leica MP Camera Sells for a Staggering $1.34 Million at Auction

The 39th Leitz Photographica Auction recently concluded and a rare 1957 Leica MP Black Paint edition camera went for the highest value by far, commanding a final price of 1,200,000 Euros (about $1,344,366).

The Leica MP is one of only 412 ever produced, making it one of the rarest Leica models of all time. The Leitz Photographic auction says that this version was acquired mainly by professional photographers and that many of the most famous Magnum photographers of the time used Leica MP cameras.

“Today it is among the most sought-after Leicas of all,” the auction writes. “The idea which led to the production of the MP model came from several well-known American press photographers, who wanted to make use of the advantages of the Leicavit (available at that time for IIIf only) on their Leica M cameras as well. It was mainly the suggestion of Alfred Eisenstaedt and David Douglas Duncan which aroused the interest of Dr. Ludwig Leitz, who was the director of the development and construction department in 1955.”

The specific Leica MP that was offered at auction this past week was listed as in “beautiful” condition, with only a few minimal signs of use. Leitz Photographica specifically notes that it is one of the best examples of this particular camera model its experts had ever seen and was originally delivered for sale to Leitz London on July 24, 1957.

“The Leica MP is one of the most important Leica cameras made and probably the one that started the trend of black paint M cameras being used by professionals and loved by collectors nowadays,” Leitz Photographica says.

The Leitz MP was estimated to be valued at between 300,000 and 3500,000 Euros (about $336,091 and $392,106) before the auction, started bidding at 150,000 Euros (about $168,045), but after what must have been a serious and spirited bidding session, the final hammer price saw the value balloon to an enormous 1,200,000 Euros (about $1,344,366).

This final value greatly eclipses the other highest selling items, including a Contax Rifle camera that sold for 120,000 Euros (about $134,436), a Prototype Summarit lens that sold for 264,000 Euros (about $295,760), and a Leica M3 that sold for 264,000 Euros (about $295,760).

The top seven items from the auction are listed on the Leitz Photographica Auction’s website and a full list of all items and their final sale values can be found in a detailed PDF document.

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DJI Ronin 4D Review: A Cinema Camera System With No Equal

What does it take to make a camera stand out? Some companies go for specs, some go for looks, some go for versatility. DJI went for all three with the Ronin 4D.

Build Quality and Design

The Ronin 4D combines a camera and a gimbal into one package. In doing so, DJI is able to make the rig more lightweight, better balanced, and offer improved stabilization and control. It’s constructed of carbon fiber and aluminum-magnesium alloy and overall with the DJI 35mm f/2.8 lens mounted, I found it to be an appropriate amount of weight to balance out stability with comfort.

Buttons and controls are laid out on the left side of the camera as well as on the monitor with the implied reason being the operator’s right hand will be holding the top handle. The Ronin also comes with left and right handgrips that feature controls on each. There is nothing cheap feeling about these buttons and scrub wheels, and DJI nailed the tactile experience throughout the camera. There are small, purposeful details found everywhere and it’s shocking that this is the company’s first go at anything of this style.

Monitor

The monitor is a 5.5-inch, 1,920 by 1,080-pixel touchscreen display with 1,000 nits of brightness. It’s a perfect size for a gimbal where a big, rotatable screen is always helpful for monitoring but there needs to be a balance with how much weight it adds and just how much room it takes up. The picture quality looked good from my experience and it had the clarity to be able to discern subject sharpness by eyeballing it.

The touchscreen responsiveness was on point, even with gloves. I did some shooting with the Ronin 4D when the temperature was in the 20-degree Fahrenheit range and didn’t see any ghosting issues or sluggish behavior.

Video Quality

Capable of shooting in 6K ProRes RAW and ProRes 422HQ up to 60 frames per second and up to 120 frames per second in 4K, the Ronin 4D is no slouch in its video performance. At specific high frame rate thresholds, the camera will force a 2.39:1 aspect ratio.

There are a couple of options available to deal with this, and considering this is a 6K-capable camera it’s actually not so bad. First, just use the “cinematic” 2.39:1 aspect if it suits the project. This is the simplest, most obvious option since no matter what is shot it will fit into any finished resolution. The other option is to shoot 6K for a 4K project, or 6K and 4K for a 2K project. The 2.39:1 aspect in 6K will fit into a more standard 16:9 aspect in 4K and still have some wiggle room for frame adjustment or cropping.

The Zenmuse X9-6K sports a full-frame sensor the company claims to have 14-plus stops of dynamic range with dual native ISOs of 800 and 5,000. Pushing the D-log color profiled files in editing reveals its strengths, and I can confirm natural gradations and the ability to save considerable information in the highlights and shadows.

As a gimbal-infused camera setup meant to be handheld more often than not, sensor readout speed and its rolling shutter effects can come into play as the sensor whips about. While I do see some bending of straight vertical lines, I need to be aggressive in order to make them appear and I found the results to be about on par with any other cinema-style camera I’ve used without a global shutter.

Stabilization

While there are many interesting components to the Ronin 4D, it’s the “4D” in the name that obviously DJI feels is a highlight. Most gimbals compensate for pitch, roll, and yaw, but it’s the Ronin 4D that can compensate for up and down movement (Z-axis) as well. This doesn’t have to be active all the time, and there’s a dedicated “4D” button on the side of the camera for easy toggling.

In my testing, the 4D compensation is remarkable. I’m not much of a gimbal operator myself and even I could make relatively smooth shots without really bringing my attention to stability. The video below was taken when I was simply walking around different terrain and specifically not trying to focus on getting super clean, stable shots. Behind the camera, I’m moving about casually with mostly one hand on the handle. I wanted to see if feasibly anyone could pick this camera up and go.

To my eye, plus knowing just how much I was hopping around the forest floor and rocks and whatnot, the stabilization was the real deal. I think to really clean up these shots, I’d fine-tune my panning settings in the camera’s menu, but otherwise, the actual 4D Z-axis movements were nullified.

With that in mind, I went a little more crazy and started running around with the camera. Now, I’m probably the goofiest looking runner you’ll find and still the footage looked smooth as can be. At the end of the sequence shown below, I took it to the final step and just started shaking the camera like a true maniac. There were three stages of low, medium, and high intensity shaking. Yes, you can finally see some shake in the clip, but on any other camera and gimbal system, the picture would be an absolute blur with nothing discernible in the frame.

Autofocus

Autofocus is another area where DJI took a unique approach. The Ronin 4D is equipped with a LiDAR system in a module that sits up near the lens and calculates the distance from a subject to the camera’s sensor.

In practice, autofocus was hit and miss. The worst part may be the implementation where it will jump very unnaturally to attain new focus. I didn’t find any menu setting available to get it to chill out for slower transitions. For non-human subjects like my dog or just walking around in scenery, the autofocus is unreliable and messy.

That said, the autofocus really shines when it comes to filming people. Whether I’m at the edge of the frame, far away, my back turned, walking all around, it doesn’t seem to matter and the Ronin 4D keeps the autofocus locked on. Something I wasn’t able to test was how it handles more than one person in the frame, and I wonder if it would be problematic with jumping around. I suspect so, or at least it is likely more difficult to get it to choose the right person to follow. You can drag a box around the subject to track on the touchscreen display, but from what I saw that only tells the gimbal what to follow and does not affect the autofocus targeting.

The LiDAR system benefits manual focus as well by reporting the distance information in a graphical display. By matching what the camera reports the focus distance of the lens is to the focus distance that the LiDAR is sensing, I have a very handy assistive feature. At the end of the sequence below, I’m using this depth metering option to try my best at keeping manual focus while watching a DJI High-Bright Remote Monitor.

DJI High-Bright Remote Monitor with Ronin 4D handgrips.

A Stunning Display of Technological Craftsmanship

I know this camera isn’t going to be for everyone and isn’t designed to be, but I think it means something when I say that I wish everyone could try it out at some point because they will enjoy it for what it manages to accomplish.

That leads me to think about perspective. Say you’re looking to get your first camera rig and the Ronin 4D happens to check many of the boxes. I think for someone like that who gets used to this camera, going to any other camera system in the future is going to be annoying. For that situation, they’ll probably be losing more than they would gain in making the switch. On the flip side, the rest of us are probably looking at the Ronin 4D with our heads cocked because it doesn’t follow the rules of being a boxy cinema camera that we restlessly build upon.

Are There Alternatives?

The DJI Ronin 4D takes a completely new approach toward offering a full package of products designed from the start to compliment and work with each other. The alternative to this would be going the traditional route in buying everything independently — the camera, the gimbal, the five-inch monitor, and so on — and having a little more independence on the setup.

Honestly though, there isn’t a package deal that works this well together other than what DJI has here. It is, for now, truly unique. Even though it’s not cheap at $11,499, I have to think that anyone who attempts to build a similar system a la carte is going to find themselves spending at least that much and none of those parts will work together quite as well as what DJI has in the 4D.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. The DJI Ronin 4D is too unique and too well designed to look past. It’s not perfect in all areas all the time, but it’s a package deal and one that has no competitor right now. Even if there were, I have a hard time imagining any other company going as hard as DJI did for this one nor succeed nearly as well.

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Nikon Z9 ‘Dual-Stream’ Tech Records and Displays Images with No Lag

Nikon has published a short video that further explains the “Dual-stream” technology in its upcoming Z9 flagship camera, which it says will always assure an accurate reality-to-viewfinder experience.

The Dual-stream technology is part of Nikon’s technology for what it bills as a “real-live” viewfinder experience in the Z9. The company says that the tech is only made possible thanks to the combination of the newly-developed stacked CMOS sensor and the EXPEED 7 image-processing engine, which allows photos to be displayed on the electronic viewfinder or LCD monitor (whichever is being used to monitor capture) as well as record that still-image data to a memory card at the exact same time.

Nikon says this differs from other “blackout-free” shooting experiences from competitors as other implementations have some kind of a delay between what is seen and what is captured.

“Unlike conventional blackout-free shooting that displays the same frame to prevent interruption of the finder image, this viewfinder continues to display the actual movement of the subject within the scene, so that every single moment can be smoothly and continuously confirmed with no skipped frames or loss of view,” Nikon claims.

“Because this is achieved even when continuous shooting is repeated over a short period of time, it is ideal for scenes in which tracking of quickly moving subjects is required, such as during sports, allowing users to reliably capture the finest moments without missing any shutter opportunities.”

The video above shows that the pixel array captures image data and moves it through to the camera’s circuitry and simultaneously then streams that data to two separate outputs, one to the viewfinder or LCD and one to the memory card.

“Dual-stream technology processes data for live view and recording separately and in parallel, which makes the Real-Live Viewfinder possible,” the company further explains.

The company says this particular implementation delivers a smooth view that reveals every single moment of the capture, including those previously missed by conventional electronic viewfinder systems or those that block the view due to a mirror in DSLRs.

The video also shows a “competitor” camera that skips and repeats some frames side by side with Nikon’s implementation, though the company does not state which camera it is comparing the Z9 experience to.

The Nikon Z9 features a 45.7-megapixel stacked CMOS sensor, 8K video capability, and is the first professional full-frame mirrorless camera to be released without a physical shutter. It is scheduled to become available to purchase by the end of the year for $5,500.

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TIME Has Published its 100 Best Photos of the Year

TIME Magazine has published its annual selection of the 100 best photos of the year. The publication’s selection of images paints a picture of a year of recovery after 2020 that may not quite be what many hoped for.

The TIME photo department’s selection of images is an unranked list that doesn’t name one particular image as best, but rather is just a series of photos that covers the most important and iconic moments of 2021. From George Flloyd’s familly cheering at the jury’s verdict, to the Taliban walking into Kabul, to Olivia Rodrigo in the West Wing, the photos distill a year down to a few select moments.

TIME writes that while 2020 was “uniquely cursed” and “the worst year ever,” 2021 was one fraught with incomplete transitions and half-kept promises. The year got off to a rough start in the United States with the January 6 insurrection and assault on the capitol, and while the world sputtered back to life after coming to a near standstill the previous year, much of the planet has been held back due to limited supply and access to vaccines for the COVID-19 virus.

In a period where news and reality are often questioned, TIME notes that this year marks a concerted effort at addressing the problem and there are those who seek to guard the value of the pixels photographers capture. Multiple organizations are joining together to protect the provenance of photos that are published through the Content Authenticity Initiative and Microsoft’s Project Origin.

“The mottled, checkerboard of a year is one we can all witness in the 100 images TIME’s photo editors present here, unranked, as the best of 2021,” the publication writes in a forward ahead of the photos.

Below are four of the covers TIME produced for the series of 100 photos that will be available on newsstands and to subscribers of the magazine:

Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman confronts supporters of President Donald Trump who invaded the building on Jan. 6 to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. On Washington’s darkest day since Sept. 11, 2001, Goodman steered an angry mob away from the Senate chamber toward police. Five people, including an officer, would die, and more than 140 officers would be injured. | Christopher Lee for TIME

By correctly spelling murraya, a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees, Zaila Avant-garde won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Orlando on July 8. Two years after entering the world of competitive spelling, the 14-year-old from Harvey, La., made history as the first Black American to win the contest (and the $50,000 that came with it). | Scott McIntyre — The New York Times/Redux

On the Greek island of Evia, wildfires resulting from the country’s worst drought in three decades approach the home of Ritsopi Panayiota, 81, on Aug. 8. | Konstantinos Tsakalidis — Bloomberg/Getty Images

With a cease-fire in effect, a Palestinian girl stands in her destroyed home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, on May 24. Twelve in Israel and more than 250 Palestinians were killed in the deadliest escalation in the conflict since 2014, as unguided rocket fire from Hamas, which governs the 2 million people in Gaza, was answered by Israeli air and artillery strikes. The battle erupted after Israeli authorities moved against Palestinians at sensitive sites inside Israel, including Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque. | Fatima Shbair — Getty Images

The full set of 100 photos can be viewed on TIME’s website.

Image credits: All photos individually credited and provided courtesy of TIME Magazine.

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How to Create and Sell NFTs for Free

A lot of people have asked me in recent days how they can create and sell NFTs (non-fungible tokens), so I decided to write this tutorial on how you can mint (and hopefully sell) an NFT for free, with absolutely no gas fees or other costs to you.

First, a disclaimer. There are many different platforms and blockchains on which you can mint NFTs and all of them have advantages and disadvantages. In this article, I will only focus on the OpenSea platform and the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain. This is because choosing these is one of the ways you can create NFTs without paying gas fees (which are necessary, and potentially quite pricey, if you mint an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, for example).

If you need to pay gas fees (the price required to conduct a transaction on a blockchain) when creating an NFT, you will need to sell the NFT for a much higher price in order to make any profit because you will need to at least cover the gas fees that were paid. That is not easy to do… for most artists, at least.

Read also: What is an NFT and Why Should Photographers Care?

Without further ado, here is a step-by-step tutorial on what you need to do:

1. Connect an ETH Wallet to OpenSea

First, you’ll need to connect an Ethereum wallet to OpenSea. It can be completely empty — you don’t need to own any cryptocurrency. If you do not already have a wallet, I would recommend using either MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet. Both work well, are popular, and are easy to use.

Coinbase Wallet is a popular easy-to-use cryptocurrency wallet.

Don’t forget to back up your recovery phrase while you are doing this step. You will need your wallet to confirm certain steps in this tutorial, so have it ready during the process.

2. Create an OpenSea Collection

NFTs on OpeanSea are created within a collection so you should first create a collection. To do this, click on your profile icon in the upper right, click My Collections, and then click Create.

Creating a new Collection on OpenSea.

Most of the important things you will do will happen here.

3. Set Up the OpenSea Collection

Set up your first OpenSea collection. You can set images (including logo, featured, and banner), and you now pick a name for your collection, customize the collection’s URL, and add a description of your choice.

Uploading images for the look of your OpenSea collection.

Choosing basic details and descriptions of your OpenSea collection.

You can also set the Royalty percentage fee here. This is the percentage you will earn from NFTs you create every time it is subsequently sold and changes hands. If you sell an NFT for $X, you will initially earn $X, but if the buyer then resells the NFT to someone else, you will make money again by earning a percentage of that new sale. I personally usually choose 10% as my Royalty fee.

Specifying royalty percentage of a collection on OpenSea.

4. Pick the Correct Blockchain

Next, select the correct blockchain for your collection. The opinions are the Ethereum blockchain and the Polygon blockchain. If you want to pay zero gas fees, choose the Polygon option.

Select the Polygon blockchain for zero gas fees.

Finally, click Create. You will need to confirm the actions you take with your Ethereum wallet while setting up the collection.

5. Begin Minting NFTs

Now that you have set up a collection, you can start minting NFTs. Just click on your collection and then on Add item.

You can now upload a piece of art (picture, music whatever) and mint it as an NFT. You can also choose how many copies you want to mint. If you have things like stats or unlockable content you get when you purchase the NFT, you also specify those things on this page.

Creating a new NFT on OpenSea.

Once your NFT is minted, you can click on its page and click Sell to put a price on it. The price needs to be a minimum of $2 when using OpenSea. You can also choose how many copies of the NFT you would like to sell (if there is more than one copy).

Selling an NFT on OpenSea.

6. Profit!

That���s it! You created your first NFT and paid absolutely nothing in fees!

The newly minted and listed PetaPixel Coin NFT on OpenSea.

The public page of the newly created PetaPixel Coin NFT.

Now for another disclaimer: minting an NFT is much, much easier than actually selling one. You either need to have a following already or have a different way to get people’s attention.

Reddit is one avenue you can take: there are numerous subreddits in which you can do giveaways to promote your collection — it’s a good way to start and the way that I achieved my first few sales.

Thanks for reading this tutorial, and good luck with selling your own NFTs!

About the author: ArtosisCurse is an NFT artist and the creator of The Crypto-Bears. You can find his collection and purchase his works here.

Image credits: Header photo licensed from Depositphotos

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Film Studios are Struggling to Find Crews in Exploding European Market

As Hollywood made the most out of production companies in central Europe during the pandemic, the industry in the region has now been left with large staff shortages and is struggling to keep up with the demand.

Reuters reports that Hollywood picked central Europe for filming during the pandemic because the region kept its cameras rolling while most of the production was halted in the United States. Now, the area is one of the world’s largest hubs with around $1 billion a year generated from the United States-based movie and television businesses. The attraction of the region also lies in its lower labor costs, more generous tax incentives, and access to picturesque locations like countrysides and castles.

The demand is so high that production companies struggle to find enough qualified staff to keep up with the needs of large clients like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. Hungary’s state-of-the-art Korda Studio, which is one of the world’s biggest sound stages, has reduced its output and focused on fewer shots and movies to maintain quality. It has also had to come up with imaginative ways to achieve more with less.

Lights, camera.. anyone? Film studios can’t get the crew https://t.co/9mzKJIomSD pic.twitter.com/4Nm4ClQHMA

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 24, 2021

“Set directors and designers have to be smarter about shooting angles,” says Korda’s Chief Executive Gyorgy Rajnai. “Now we build a house with three sides instead of four. We save on resources, time, and people.”

Other companies have had to turn to hire less experienced staff to fill the demand and at times have to turn down new work altogether due to lack of resources.

Jonathan Olsberg, executive chairman of London-based film industry consultancy Olsberg SPI, says that “this is a fundamental global problem and we will be experiencing these shortages for years to come.”

The film-industry giants also “suck up a lot of the local talent” which further increases the competition between production companies who are looking to hire with some resorting to poaching one another.

Although this is not an ideal situation for the companies, it has created an appealing environment for those who are looking to enter the film industry or those who want to climb the career ladder faster.

“If people keep their eyes open and want to work in the film industry, now is a pretty good time,” says Vojta Ruzicka who was worked for nearly 20 years as a logistics specialist and productions in Prague for big titles like Mission Impossible 4 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

For photographers in the region who may still be experiencing a downturn in demand for their work, now is an excellent time to consider moving over to movie production where many photography skills easily translate.

Image credits: Header image licensed via Depositphotos.

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Chinese Photographer Slammed for ‘Stereotypical’ Dior Photo

A photo of a woman holding a Dior bag by notable Chinese photographer Chen Man has sparked controversy in China, with netizens and multiple local publications claiming it furthers stereotypes common in the West.

Man’s photo was on display as part of a fashion exhibition for Dior in Shanghai but was removed after it went viral and the photographer and the French brand faced blowback from Chinese citizens online as well as the Global Times, a state media publication controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Critics of the photo say that the image is “deliberate sweet talk” of Western stereotypes of Chinese people.

The photo breaks with more typical photos found in China that feature large eyes (a modern beauty standard) and fair skin, and instead shows a woman with single eyelids, narrow eyes, and dark skin who is dressed in traditional Chinese clothing and holding a Dior bag. The Global Times went as far as to describe the model as one with “spooky eyes.”

The Beijing Daily published an editorial that asserted the model had a “gloomy face” and “sinister eyes.”

“For years, Asian women have always appeared with small eyes and freckles from the Western perspective,” the publication wrote. “The photographer is playing up to the brands, or the aesthetic tastes of the western world.”

The photo appears to be a reference to Man’s earlier series for ID magazine called “Whatever the Weather” that she shot in 2012, which is made up of 12 photos of women from China’s various ethnic groups.

Chen Man

While many have criticized the appearance of the model in the photo, some praised the photographer and her willingness to break with societal norms and use a model with darker skin.

Dior removed the photo from the exhibition and clarified that it was not a commercial advertisement for the brand and that it had removed all references of it from all its online and offline platforms. In a post on Weibo, Dior also said that the photo was only part of an art project and that the company would continue to respect the feelings of the Chinese people, abide by Chinese laws, and cooperate with CCP authorities to review all work that would be displayed in public.

“Dior, as always, respects the sentiments of the Chinese people… If any errors happen, [Dior] must be open to receiving feedback and correct them in time.”

Some in China apparently do not take the apology as genuine, however, as they believe the company should have more strictly reviewed all the works that would be shown in that exhibition.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ChenMan陳漫 (@chenman)

Man also took the blame for the photo and issued an apology on Weibo.

“I blame myself for my immaturity and ignorance [in my past works],” she writes. “I was born and raised in China. I deeply love my country. As an artist, I’m totally aware of my responsibility to document Chinese culture and showcase Chinese beauty through my work.”

This is not the first time Dior has offended the Chinese. In 2019, one of its staff members displayed a map of China that did not include Taiwan; China sees Taiwan as part of the nation, while Taiwan has repeatedly rejected moves at unification.

Image credits: Header photo by Chen Man.

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