Category Archives: Photography

The Future of Photography – An Oomska Series

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Future of PhotographyTake one Irishman with a passion for photography, throw in a healthy talent for writing, add a sprinkling of questions and apply gently to several of todays best photographers and what you get after baking gently on a medium heat for a few months is perhaps the best photography interview series you’ll ever read.

Oomska is a fantastic online arts & pop culture magazine which has recently undergone a facelift for 2012 and came out fighting right from the off with the Future of Photography series. Included so far are: Ed Swinden, George Plemper, Steve Gullick, Derek Ridgers, Phillip Greenspun and Carlein van der Beek.

Each offers their unique and occasionally controversial view on The Future of Photography. Oomska has put together an excellent series of questions including “How and when did you first become interested in photography? What was the trigger which led you to take a serious interest? How different would that trigger be now, with all the changes – technological and otherwise – in photography during the intervening years?“ and “Are there some qualities or aspects of film photography which digital will never be able to replicate or replace? If so, will these aspects of photography die with film?” The answers aren’t always what you’d expect which is what makes this series probably the best you’ll ever read.

Get yourself over to Oomska now and get reading, you won’t be disappointed.

The Future of Photography? by Oomska. It’s the best Photography interview series you’ll ever read.

 

1954 Leica, 2011 Fujifilm – Boing Boing

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BoingBoing have a great shot of a 1954 Leica and the 2011 Fuji X100 side by side.  The styling of the x100 stands up very well, but given a choice (and the money with which to make it) I’d have the Leica every day.  There’s just something magical about removing yourself from your comfort zone and working with some classical, timeless gear.

1954 Leica, 2011 Fujifilm – Boing Boing.

 

Re-licensed! SDN-Photography free’s up.

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For some time now I have been going through a transformation in my understanding and acceptance of Creative Commons licensing.  In the past few months I’ve been absorbing much of the work produced by Cory Doctorow, specifically his essays collected together in Content, which is fantastic and a recommended read for anyone who produces anything from software to photography.  You’ll gain a real understanding the difference between copyright and licensing as well as learning a lot about DRM.  I should also offer credit to Craig, a good friend of mine, who has been a big flag waver for open source and Creative Commons for some time.  I finally got re-educated buddy ;0)

I’ve always been a fan of open source, and have been aware of Creative Commons for many years but only recently have the grey cells aligned to reveal an understanding of the difference between licensing your work and copyright.  A real ‘light bulb moment’ as people seem to say.

So, from today ALL of my photographic work will be available on Flickr licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.  In short this gives anyone the right to download and share or remix any of my photographs on condition that you attribute the original work to me, it is for non-commercial use and you share the resulting work under the same license.

Am I mad?  possibly, but I’m convinced this is the right move in the next stage of my personal journey into photography.  I’m not giving my copyright way I’m just licensing the work for others to use and  I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone takes up the opportunity and remixes any of my work, I sure hope they do.

 

Fuji goes retro for “professional” digital compact camera

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There’s a great article on the new Fuji compact, the X100, over on ars technica: Fuji goes retro for “professional” digital compact camera.

It looks like a neat bit of kit, perhaps we’ll see more of this retro styling coming to the fore as companies like Fuji, Canon and Nikon try to find a new edge in the race for more users.

Interesting that they put an APS-C sensor in the X100 rather than a micro sensor like the 4 thirds Olympus favour, perhaps the APS-C helps give it the more professional edge?

My initial take on this, given I’ve not actually seen one in the flesh yet, is that I like the styling, love that it has the APS-C sensor in it, but hate the massive screen on the back.  Don’t get me wrong though, I realize completely the need for a screen on a digital camera, but I’d like it more if you can turn it off and only have it come to life after you’ve taken the shot.  Looking retro isn’t enough for me, you have to use the viewfinder and lose the tourist ‘arms length, squinting into the sunlight’ stance that makes you look a complete pleb.