Ken Burns is a documentary legend, and even though he comes from a filmmaking perspective, his ideas on what makes a story worth telling (or, in our case, a moment worth capturing) are universal and universally inspiring. In this short interview he did with Redglass Pictures he talks about finding subjects where one plus one equals three — where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. He also talks about sincere emotional manipulation, and how he believes it is at the heart of his greatest documentaries. “Emotional truth,” maintains Burns, must be pieced together and created.

And it’s these abilities: the ability to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, and the ability to “manipulate” the story to piece together an emotional truth that may not be obvious to the casual onlooker; its these abilities that should be at the center of every artist’s tool chest, be they photographer or documentary filmmaker.

Ken Burns On Story (via Fstoppers)

As behind-the-scenes videos go, this one is pretty short, but it still offers an interesting look at how photographer Thomas David put together his popular Dust and Dance photo shoot. Obviously there was some post processing involved to go from initial image to final product, but it’s always great to see a talented photographer put a novel idea into action.

If you’ve been using smartphones for any length of time you’ve probably heard of Bump, the app that allows you to transfer photos and contact information between two phones with a simple… well… bump. And now they’ve expanded their functionality to include a website/webapp that makes transferring photos from your phone to your computer a breeze.

All you have to do if you already have the app is log on to bu.mp, select the photos you would like to transfer from your phone, and bump the phone against the space bar (although we’re pretty sure you could just hit the spacebar with any apendage…). After that you can download them straight to your computer to get them off Bump’s servers or share them with your friends via permalink. There’s not much “professional” application here, but it’s a great way to quickly transfer photos from your phone to your desktop when you’re in a bind.

Bump (via Lifehacker)

For those of you who use your Sony NEX-5N to shoot video, you may have noticed that longer clips have a tendency to lock up your camera. It’s not a problem for shorter videos, but clips over 20 minutes, especially in hot weather, often brings the camera up to a temperature it would rather avoid. To solve this problem, Aron Anderson of trinityfxmg had the idea of modding the camera by adding a battery powered fan to keep it cool even in blistering weather.

So if you have an NEX-5N and want to rid yourself of overheating woes, this video tutorial will show you how to do the mod from start to finish, and even demonstrates the fan in action in brutal 107-degree weather.

(via DIYPhotography)

In Episode 1 of the Framed Network series Film, hosts and photographers Tanja Lippert, Ryan Muirhead and Tia Reagan take an in depth look at the history of photography. If you love the analog way of life then you’re going to want to stick around and watch the entire thing, because when Tanja, Ryan and Tia aren’t being a bit crazy, they’re sharing some really interesting information about the roots of film photography and, therefore, photography in general. People without a sense of humor beware, they can get pretty silly, but the end product is as much educational as it is fun to watch.

The ability to connect your camera to your smartphone wirelessly is starting to really gather some steam. Unfortunately, up until now, that technology usually required a WiFi connection and an adapter that often cost some serious dinero. But if all you’re looking to do is share the photos you take instantly sans WiFi network, you don’t have many options. Enter CloudPic Mobile.

Having already generated some buzz in the world of cameras, CloudPic is an affordable bluetooth 4.0 adapter that works with any camera sporting a mini usb port. The whole package consists of the CloudPic app (available for both iOS and Android) and the bluetooth dongle which connects up to your camera. Once you sync those two up, every photo you take can be send instantaneously to your phone at a more-than-respectable 27mbps, and from there on to the internet via your mobile network — no WiFi required.

The project isn’t yet fully funded but it is more than halfway there. With 13 days left, creator Brad Hudes still needs about $9,000 to turn this from idea into reality. If you want to contribute to the idea, or want to get your hands on a CloudPic as soon as it’s ready, head over to his Kickstarter page and be ready to pony up at least $35 for both the app and the adapter or $15 if you only want the app… although as far as we can see that doesn’t make much sense on its own.

CloudPic Mobile [Kickstarter]

When Hamburg, Germany-based photographer Florian Bison first saw a video of parkour, he was mesmerized by the concept and curious as to how he could integrate it into a photography project. That’s when he came up with the Double Gravity series, a mixture of real and parkour/camera created gravity. The video above offers a behind-the-scenes look at how he created the final product, which was shot using a Nikon D700 with a Nikkor 24-70mm F/2.8 lens and a Pocket Wizard triggered Profoto B2 with two Profoto heads.

(via ISO 1200)

After discovering that multiple websites had used one of his photos without permission, photographer Jay Lee began sending out DMCA takedown notifications to web hosts in an attempt to protect his copyright. One of the websites was owned by a woman named Candice Schwager, who had 14 of her sites temporarily taken offline as a result of the takedown request. Turns out Schwager is involved in both helping represent special needs children and helping a man named Louis Guthrie get elected as County Sheriff. This is where the story gets weird.

Lee and Schwager engage in an email exchange that grows increasingly bizarre, and both parties subsequently write blog posts presenting their cases. Lee published emails from Schwager (here’s a cached copy of the page) that appear to show her accusing him of conspiring against her charitable business and campaign. Schwager also published a lengthy piece titled “Chronicle’s Jay Lee’s Cheap shots at Atty4kids Nonprofit ~ Garcia Style” on one of her websites, and then emailed Lee stating that she intended to sue him for “libel, defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and seek punitive damages as well as actual, court costs, attorney fees, and interest.”

Not wanting to engage in a legal battle, Lee quickly took down his post… but not before the story began to go viral online with the help of sites like Slashdot. What began as an effort to protect one’s copyright quickly swirled into a very messy and public battle, and one of the strangest infringement stories we’ve seen thus far.

Thanks for sending in the tip, Joshua!

If you think 14fps on a high end DSLR is fast, check out this video by Mike’s Electric Stuff. In it, he does an extreme teardown of a cheap Panasonic Lumix compact camera and spends 30 minutes exploring and explaining the various components. At about 18 minutes in, he hooks up a signal generator to the shutter mechanism to see how fast the shutter can flap. He’s able to take it up to around 70 flaps per second before the shutter begins to stutter. The limiting factor in FPS isn’t the mechanical components of a camera, but how fast the sensor and memory card can capture and store data.

Thanks for sending in the tip, StuartB!

Hovering somewhere between “novel idea” and “pointlessly stupid,” InstaCRT is a new iOS app that bills itself as “the world’s first real camera filter.” Photographs processed through the app are given a CRT monitor look that doesn’t involve any digital fakery. Instead, your photo is actually sent to the creators’ machine located in Stockholm, Sweden, where it’s displayed on a tiny CRT monitor and then photographed by a DSLR. The new photo is then beamed back to your phone in less than a minute.

Here’s the rig that performs the magic:

Some sample photographs captured with the app:

This demo video shows how the system works:

We’ll let you form your own opinions about the “world’s first real world camera filter,” but if those opinions happen to be positive, click here and have $1.99 in funds ready to get your own copy of the app. You can also check out more sample photographs over on the app’s website.

InstaCRT (via Coudal Partners)