Scarab Darkroom from Scarab Labs is a new, fast, free and easy-to-use raw converter for Windows. Read more and comment

Samsung has announced the pricing and U.S. retail availability of the world’s first Wi-Fi enabled compact system cameras. Read more and comment

Shaun Pendergast was working away at his Portland apartment when he heard a strange noise. He walked to the window and saw two raccoons expressing their love for each other on his roof. Armed with an iPhone, he shot a little video and let them get back to their business, which he says took at least an hour. “I didn’t want to cock block,” he says. Later, he posted the video to YouTube and sent it around on Facebook. At the urging of one of his friends he also posted it on Reddit, and soon enough it started to go wild. Today the video has received more than 2.3 million hits and has been featured on TV shows, including Good Morning America . “I see all these people putting a ton of production value into YouTube videos, but sometimes it just takes finding something completely random and funny to get people’s attention,” he says. And that’s kind of what makes us sad. Sure, it’s all a bit of internet fun – viral videos are a tradition almost as old as the internet itself – but maybe it’s time to raise the bar a bit? How many times do we have to hit that crack button in our reptilian brains? Are we doomed/blessed to be saturated with these videos forever? The internet is like a big lottery, where everyone shares their videos hoping they’ll be the one the web gods choose. This time it was Pendergast, 29, a app designer and illustrator . Unlike many of his winning peers, he’s just let the video run its course instead of trying to jump on his 15 minutes of fame. “I don’t feel famous in any right and I don’t put too much stock into it,” he says. “Remember the video isn’t about me, it’s about two raccoons doing it.” The video has driven some traffic to his personal website and he did monetize the video through YouTube, but says he suspects the return is going to be pretty small. Ultimately, he says he’s most pleased by the way the video has helped him break the ice with a couple of his apartment neighbors who found out he shot it. He’s says he’s relatively new to the building and it’s been nice to get to know the people around him. “That’s been beneficial and fun,” he says.

The rest is here:
Raccoon Sex Tape Is Sad Barometer of Good Taste

Here are 27 sample JPEG photos and 27 raw images taken with a pre-production version of the new Leica X2 compact camera, including the full ISO range. Priced at £1,575, earlier this week we had a brief opportunity to shoot with the Leica X2 at an exclusive Leica UK press event in central London. Read the preview

Here are 18 sample JPEG photos and 18 raw images taken with a pre-production version of the new Leica M Monochrom rangefinder camera, including the full ISO range. Priced at £6,120, the Leica M Monochrom is a black-and-white only, full-frame digital rangefinder camera. Yesterday we had a brief opportunity to shoot with the Leica M Monochrom at an exclusive Leica UK press event in central London. Read the preview

Hands-on gallery of photos of the new Leica M9-P Edition Hermès limited edition rangefinder camera. Read more and comment

Hands-on gallery of photos of the new Leica V-Lux 40 digital compact camera. Read more and comment

Hands-on gallery of photos of the new Leica X2 digital camera. Read more and comment

Hands-on gallery of photos of the new Leica M Monochrom rangefinder camera. Read more and comment

> Photo: Arnhel de Serra > View all Arnhel de Serra’s photos are like the British equivalent of a good New Yorker cartoon: quirky and insightful. His series on the U.K.’s agricultural shows — which are similar to county fairs here in the U.S. — gives viewers a curious peak into the eccentric events that have been part of the country’s heritage since the 1800s. “My humor is not a harsh humor,” says de Serra of the work. “If you are willing to spend the time you can get photos that have quite a bit of depth to them.” The events themselves exist primarily to promote different aspects of agricultural work, from animal breeding to the art of floral arranging. De Serra says he chose to focus on them because they’re an especially rich showcase for British character. De Serra says he is a heavily influenced by the French filmmaker Jacques Tati who de Serra says was known for a kind of humor that was “very gentle but quite observational,” but he could also be compared to Martin Parr, another British photographer who has made a career out of documenting the quirks of English culture. De Serra says it’s taken him a while to develop his style – he’s been shooting the project for seven years. “It’s one thing to take documentary pictures, but to try and get a moment that is humorous and has an element of social commentary, that’s more tricky,” he says. The photos have resonated with a British audience and a series of them will be included in the upcoming London Festival of Photography. De Serra is also trying to publish a book about the project. Ultimately, de Serra says, he’d like the project to be exhibited at the agricultural shows themselves. He doesn’t intend for the photos to be exploitative and he hopes the community he’s photographed will receive them well. “It would be great to encourage them to take a second look and maybe begin to see the shows through my eyes,” he says.

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Country Fair Photos Parade Jolly Brits, Tarts and Chintz

The Sony A37 isa new entry-level SLT camera. Read more and comment

The Future of Toiletries, 2025 Click image for a close-up view. Photo: Jason Madara For this month’s Wired magazine Found feature, we have a pair of prognostications: a peek into a pubescent boy’s medicine cabinet in 2025, and another look at how much his toiletries have changed by 2050. Found Found Contest: Imagine the Future of School Science Fairs More Artifacts From the Future What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years? We need your help creating a new artifact from the future for every issue of Wired magazine. Each month, we’ll propose a scenario and ask for your prognostications. Check out the latest challenge , then sketch out your vision and upload your ideas. See other submissions and vote for your favorites. The Future of Toiletries, 2050 Click image for a close-up view. Photo: Jason Madara Aaron Rowe helped flesh out the concept.

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Found: The Future of Toiletries

Photo illustration: Brita d’Agostino Wired magazine’s Found page represents our best guess at what lies over the horizon, from touchscreen windshields to organ farming. Now, we’re inviting readers to help create Found pages: What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years? Found Found: The Future of Toiletries More Artifacts From the Future Each month, we’ll propose a scenario and present some ideas and concepts. Then it’s up you: Sketch out your vision and upload your ideas (below). We’ll use the best suggestions as inspiration for a future Found page, giving kudos to contributors, and we’ll add our favorite submission to this story. Imagine the future of school science fairs. Will they be presented via hologram? Will entrants build particle accelerators out of K’NEX? Sequence their own genomes? Will their miniature volcanoes actually spew molten rock? One thing’s certain— there’ll still be a lot of grunling about how the winner clearly cheated and got help from their parents. You can send us your ideas in text form, but we’re keen on getting visual entries. Check out these links to some CC-licensed photos on Flickr of awesome (and not so awesome) process servers to fire up your imagination: Volcano Science fair posters Potato battery K’NEX Use the widget below to submit your best idea and vote for your favorite. The image must be your own— submitting it gives us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit relatively large images (ideal size is 800 to 1,200 pixels, or larger on the longest side). Include a description of your idea and how you made it. We don’t host the images, so upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you’re using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, provide a link to the image, not to the photo page where it’s displayed. If your photo doesn’t show up, it’s because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Make sure it ends with the image file name (xxxxxxx.jpg). Check back over the next few weeks to vote on new submissions, and look for an update announcing our favorite. Voting App For information regarding use of information about you that you may supply or communicate to the Website, please see our Privacy Policy . Except as expressly provided otherwise in the Privacy Policy or in this Agreement, you agree that by posting messages, uploading text, graphics, photographs, images, video or audio files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication (including your identity and information about you) in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter developed) and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so. In addition, please be aware that information you disclose in publicly accessible portions of the Website will be available to all users of the Website, so you should be mindful of personal information and other content you may wish to post.

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Found Contest: Imagine the Future of School Science Fairs

Lomography will be releasing a new 110 format (“pocket”) black-and-white negative film called Orca BW 100. Read more and comment

Casio has launched the Exilim EX-TR150 digital compact camera, which features a rotating monitor, a special “Make-up mode”, 12.1-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor and a 21mm equivalent lens. Read more and comment

Harald Johnson has announced the relaunch of his photo education and entertainment site PhoozL. Read more and comment

Nik Software announced today that all of its plug-in products and trial versions have been tested and found to be compatible with the newly released Photoshop CS6, Read more and comment

Leica has released a firmware update for the Leica S2 medium-format digital SLR camera. Read more and comment

The winner of this year’s Webby for best use of photography, “God’s Lake Narrows,” is a multimedia project that takes viewers inside a Canadian Indian reservation and tells director Kevin Lee Burton’s personal story of growing up there. Burton left Gods Lake when he was 15 because the reservation’s school only goes through the 9th grade. But Burton says he was secretly happy to get away because people on the reservation often bullied him for being queer and half white. “It was complicated and it was shitty,” he says about life in Gods Lake. “I had to walk away and reassess my judgment, my self hate, my perspective.” Moving beyond any bitterness, Burton demonstrates an affection for the town and allows outsiders to understand the community in a deep and nuanced way. “People can argue until they are blue in the face about stereotypes, but I generally find that very tired,” he says. “I like to make my political points very subtly and to allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions.” Much like in the United States, he says, native peoples in Canada have long been viewed as either the logos we see on baseball hats or drunks on the local news. “People don’t see us as very complicated,” says Burton, 32, who is now based in Winnipeg. “Instead they see us as clichés.” Many photo projects about impoverished communities can fall flat because they are told from a distance. Burton’s personal approach does away with journalistic neutrality, and instead gains an intimacy necessary for doing the story justice. In an attempt to make the experience personal for audiences as well, the piece opens by tracking the viewer’s geographic location and calculating the distance from Gods Lake Narrows — which for most people is hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. “All things considered I’m going to bet you’ve never visited,” Burton writes in the opening text piece. In picture after picture, rundown homes generate assumptions in the viewer about the people who live there. Those assumptions are bent as the photos move inside the homes, face-to-face with the residents — many of whom are members of Burton’s family. Feeding off what Burton acknowledges is probably a voyeuristic curiosity, the photos confirm some prejudices and refute others. There are holes in walls and mismatched wallpapers, but also flatscreens and laptops. No matter what impression the viewer comes away with, it’s more nuanced than the one he or she started with . “I’m not trying to badger people who are non-native,” he says. “It’s more like ‘come in for tea and get to know us.’ To me it feels a little bit grandmotherly in terms of its tone.” Burton hired photographer Scott Benesiinaabanda to shoot the photos back in 2010. Burton didn’t want to take the photos himself because he felt like hiding his face behind the camera would have created a barrier between him and the family and community members he would’ve been photographing. The photos were originally displayed that year as a part of a gallery exhibit in Winnipeg. At the show, the photos were hung in a circle, and from the outside viewers could only see the exteriors of the houses. To see the interior photos, viewers had to enter the circle. Alicia Smith, a producer with the National Film Board of Canada — a nationally funded organization that helps artists and filmmakers with their projects — saw that exhibit and says she was immediately taken by the experience of passing from outside in. “It’s hard for me to admit, but it challenged my own assumptions about reserve life,” she says. “And to experience those interiors was really moving.” Afterwards, Smith spoke with Burton about turning the project into a multimedia piece. They spoke about their own differences in understanding and ended up using the conversation as a kind of guide for how to shuttle an audience through a similar experience online. “It wasn’t an easy dialogue,” Smith says. “You feel like you’re walking on eggshells when you deal with that subject in general. But Kevin is really inclusive and our conversation just worked.” Burton says he feels like the dialogue was key to the piece’s success. “I feel very close to her now because we were able to come from two different worlds and ask each other questions and create something out of it,” he says. Supported by the Film Board, Burton, Smith and a team of people including Benesiinaabanda and a sound person spent months recording and producing the piece, which was originally released in 2011. For Burton, the project was a homecoming of sorts. After more than 15 years, he says, it was time to come back. His family knew that he had become a film director, but didn’t know exactly what he did. By choosing Gods Lake Narrows for this project, Burton says he was able to bring his new life back home and share it in a way that made sense. His family and community were able to see how he works, creating a much needed bridge. “I wanted to reverse the flow and also show them my world,” he says. “And I wanted my family back and my community back.”

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Director’s Homecoming Spawns Award-Winning Photo Project

Fujifilm has released half a dozen sample images taken with the Fujfilm X100 large-sensor compact camera and the new WCL-X100 wide-angle conversion lens. Read more and comment

Using tiny props, the Carmichael Collective has built a series of small remembrances for dead bugs they found around their office and on the street. The “Bug Memorials” project documents these shrines in photos and a short YouTube video. Dave Damman, the driving force behind the collective, says the project is all about perspective. “We live in this world where we feel like it’s big news if Kim Kardashian changes her pants, so why in that same world can’t we take a moment to acknowledge the death of a moth,” he says. While ad agencies are known for their creative output, few people would refer to their mercenary creations as art. The Carmichael Collective is hoping to change that. Comprised of employees from Carmichael Lynch , a Minneapolis-based ad agency, the group has become a creative outlet for those at the company who want to make art but not worry about coming up with the catchiest hook or most client-pleasing video clip. “I’ve always wanted to be in a position to provide an environment where we could let the horses loose,” says Damman, who is also the chief creative officer. He just wants employees to have fun. “There is no over-think here,” he says. Changing our conception from “a fly’s death” to “ this fly’s death,” and making it personal, is a clever premise. Does that fly you just swatted have a personality? Is that cockroach you just squashed a unique snowflake? The Mother Teresa of cockroaches? “The more we don’t answer people’s questions the better it gets,” Damman says.

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Photo Project Memorializes Fallen Insects

PromarkBRANDS is celebrating National Photography Month during May on the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Read more and comment

Data recovery, file repair and PC optimisation software utility company, Yodot Software, has released its latest software to recover lost and involuntarily deleted photos on Mac OS X. Read more and comment

Fujifilm has launched the Fujifilm WCL-X100, a 0.8x wide-angle converter for the Fujifilm X100 large-sensor compact camera. Read more and comment

Olympus have expanded their Micro Four Thirds family with the launch of the OM-D E-M5. Boasting the World’s fastest autofocus system, the E-M5 brings the original design ethos of the 1970′s film OM series kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Read our expert Olympus E-M5 review to find out if it’s the best compact system camera on the market. Read the review

> In recent years, the photo collective has emerged as a clear and strategic response by photographers who’ve reasoned that – in uncertain times – there is strength in numbers. “In an industry that has become increasingly disjointed and often predatory upon its contributors, the collective has become a final refuge and place of community,” reasons Justin Maxon, founding member of Razón collective. “The collective provides not only creative inspiration, but also a sense of support that can be lacking in this field.” Photo collectives differ in organization and intent, but tend to sprout from existing friendships. Some are little more than loose affiliations, other collectives are full-on business enterprises. On any given day, members of a collective may be brainstorming story ideas, editing others’ images, marketing, developing the brand, cranking social media or helping partners draft contracts and model releases. It is not uncommon for photographers in a collective to be geographically dispersed, some internationally. From serious discussions on branding and distribution to just chatting and catching up, regular video chats are the standard. Of course, photographers rallying together is not a new thing. Magnum Photos, founded in 1947, along with large, contemporary groups such as VII and Noor Images, operate along the cooperative/agency model. These three groups license images and employ administrative staff in central offices whereas the smaller collectives — featured here — tend to work with lower overheads. We contacted members of various emergent collectives to find out what they’ve learned during their infant years. In a collective of four, is the workload quartered or quadrupled? What sort of assistance do members provide one another? Do collectives advance careers and opportunities? What are the downsides? What are the tangible benefits of collectivism? Above: Collective: LUCEO Established : December, 2007 Members : Matt Slaby, Daryl Peveto, David Walter Banks, Kendrick Brinson, Matt Eich, Kevin German. The Name : Luceo is Latin for “sparkle; shine; become light; become visible.” Hotshots of collaboration, LUCEO have hustled a rock-solid brand in a relatively short time frame. Networking and community building can go hand-in-hand; members host workshops, guest lecture at colleges and run their own student photography award. They don’t, however, refer to themselves as a collective. They feel their personal financial investment situates them differently to other photo cabals. “We go beyond gathering our work in a common space and that is why we identify as a cooperative, in the most traditional sense,” says member Kendrick Brinson. “We are a business that is run by our photographers who do work for the group as marketers, accountants, PR directors, designers, managers. Each of us focuses on our strengths…. Each of us does work for the others every day.” Luceo’s approach has been identified as pioneering. For the New York Times, James Estrin wrote, “the success of Luceo is a very good rebuttal to those who believe photojournalism is dead.” Luceo are proving that self-starter groups of photographers can partially replace the age-old newsroom. “I joined Luceo while I was on staff at a newspaper but looking for an out,” says Brinson. “I loved shooting daily for one community but in terms of my bank account and my happiness, I had to move on. Luceo offered a creative way of being and creating something bigger than anything I could have done on my own.” Out of dozens of submitted portfolios to Luceo, only that of newest member, Daryl Peveto, has ever secured an invite to join. “We take adding members very seriously. Luceo is built upon our members’ photos as well as the work each of us puts in to run the business,” says Brinson. Luceo has twice-annual business meetings in person and weekly hour-long business-planning meetings every week online. Members are expected to be present at every meeting. “I didn’t enter the life of a freelancer with a lot of business and marketing knowledge and have learned so much from Luceo in terms of running a business,” says Brinson. “I have a group of strong photographers who offer me help with ideas on photo projects, edit new and old work, read through a contract I don’t understand, and market my work. I can’t sit back and take a passive role in the business because if we all don’t fulfill our roles then the company can’t function properly. I have five people counting on me and holding me accountable.” Above photo: The Sun City Aqua Suns, a synchronized swim team made up of retirees, walk a red carpet at the Lakeview Recreation Center in Sun City, AZ, December 10, 2010. Sun City, America’s first and largest retirement city, with more than 40,000 residents 55 and older, marked its 50th anniversary in 2010. By Kendrick Brinson. > View all

Continued here:
7 Budding Photo Collectives You Need to Know

> In recent years, the photo collective has emerged as a clear and strategic response by photographers who’ve reasoned that – in uncertain times – there is strength in numbers. “In an industry that has become increasingly disjointed and often predatory upon its contributors, the collective has become a final refuge and place of community,” reasons Justin Maxon, founding member of Razón collective. “The collective provides not only creative inspiration, but also a sense of support that can be lacking in this field.” Photo collectives differ in organization and intent, but tend to sprout from existing friendships. Some are little more than loose affiliations, other collectives are full-on business enterprises. On any given day, members of a collective may be brainstorming story ideas, editing others’ images, marketing, developing the brand, cranking social media or helping partners draft contracts and model releases. It is not uncommon for photographers in a collective to be geographically dispersed, some internationally. From serious discussions on branding and distribution to just chatting and catching up, regular video chats are the standard. Of course, photographers rallying together is not a new thing. Magnum Photos, founded in 1947, along with large, contemporary groups such as VII and Noor Images, operate along the cooperative/agency model. These three groups license images and employ administrative staff in central offices whereas the smaller collectives — featured here — tend to work with lower overheads. We contacted members of various emergent collectives to find out what they’ve learned during their infant years. In a collective of four, is the workload quartered or quadrupled? What sort of assistance do members provide one another? Do collectives advance careers and opportunities? What are the downsides? What are the tangible benefits of collectivism? Above: Collective: LUCEO Established : December, 2007 Members : Matt Slaby, Daryl Peveto, David Walter Banks, Kendrick Brinson, Matt Eich, Kevin German. The Name : Luceo is Latin for “sparkle; shine; become light; become visible.” Hotshots of collaboration, LUCEO have hustled a rock-solid brand in a relatively short time frame. Networking and community building can go hand-in-hand; members host workshops, guest lecture at colleges and run their own student photography award. They don’t, however, refer to themselves as a collective. They feel their personal financial investment situates them differently to other photo cabals. “We go beyond gathering our work in a common space and that is why we identify as a cooperative, in the most traditional sense,” says member Kendrick Brinson. “We are a business that is run by our photographers who do work for the group as marketers, accountants, PR directors, designers, managers. Each of us focuses on our strengths…. Each of us does work for the others every day.” Luceo’s approach has been identified as pioneering. Writing for the New York Times, James Estrin wrote, “the success of Luceo is a very good rebuttal to those who believe photojournalism is dead.” Luceo are proving that self-starter groups of photographers can partially replace the age-old newsroom. “I joined Luceo while I was on staff at a newspaper but looking for an out,” says Brinson. “I loved shooting daily for one community but in terms of my bank account and my happiness, I had to move on. Luceo offered a creative way of being and creating something bigger than anything I could have done on my own.” Out of dozens of submitted portfolios to Luceo, only that of newest member, Daryl Peveto, has ever secured an invite to join. “We take adding members very seriously. Luceo is built upon our members’ photos as well as the work each of us puts in to run the business,” says Brinson. Luceo has twice-annual business meetings in person and weekly hour-long business-planning meetings every week online. Members are expected to be present at every meeting. “I didn’t enter the life of a freelancer with a lot of business and marketing knowledge and have learned so much from Luceo in terms of running a business,” says Brinson. “I have a group of strong photographers who offer me help with ideas on photo projects, edit new and old work, read through a contract I don’t understand, and market my work. I can’t sit back and take a passive role in the business because if we all don’t fulfill our roles then the company can’t function properly. I have five people counting on me and holding me accountable.” Above photo: The Sun City Aqua Suns, a synchronized swim team made up of retirees, walk a red carpet at the Lakeview Recreation Center in Sun City, AZ, December 10, 2010. Sun City, America’s first and largest retirement city, with more than 40,000 residents 55 and older, marked its 50th anniversary in 2010. By Kendrick Brinson. > View all

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Forging New Paths? 7 Budding Photo Collectives Speak

Sigma has released a firmware update for the Sigma SD1 and Sigma SD1 Merrill digital SLR cameras. Read more and comment

DxO Labs have released an update to DxO FilmPack, which adds compatibility with Adobe Photoshop CS6. Read more and comment

BlueCam Free is a new camera app for the Apple iPad. Read more and comment

Akvis has released updates to Akvis Sketch, ArtWork and ArtSuite. Read more and comment

LPA Design has announced a firmware release plan for the PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 radios to address compatibility with several new Nikon and Canon cameras and flashes, as well as the new Sekonic RT-32CTL module. Read more and comment

Just posted: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V in-depth review. The second review expanded from Jeff Keller’s work at the Digital Camera Resource Page looks at Sony’s latest full-size superzoom camera. The Sony HX200V combines the company’s latest 18MP back-lit CMOS sensor with a 30x zoom lens giving a 27-810mm equivalent range. There’s image stabilization, as you’d expect for such a long zoom range and, as indicated by the ‘V’ in the model name, it also has built-in GPS. So does this add up to a perfect vacation camera or an unwieldy confection? Read the full review to find out.

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Just Posted: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V review

Athentech Imaging has released updates to both the iPhone and iPad versions of its Perfectly Clear app. Read more and comment

Unified Color Technologies have announced an upcoming free webinar on architectural HDR photography to be hosted by professional photographer Michael James. Read more and comment

Darlings of Chelsea have announced a photography competition centred around the theme of “Environment”. Read more and comment

Adobe today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Creative Cloud. Read more and comment

Leica has launched the Leica S-Adapter H accesory, which allows all Hasselblad H-system lenses to be mounted on a Leica S2 camera body. Read more and comment

“Everyone, in both personal and professional experience, is familiar with moments of regret, of chances seen but not seized. But photographers might have this sensation more often than most.” – Andrew Moore, from Photographs Not Taken Photographs Not Taken is a book about photography in which there is not a single photograph. It’s a collection of essays by 62 photographers about the ones that got away: the images — burned to memory and conscience — that, for one reason or another, the photographer could not make. The photo community has grasped this little book to its bosom. The premise is simple and the emotions expressed, often by big-name photographers — Jim Goldberg, Emmet Gowin, Todd Hido, Nadav Kander, Mary Ellen Mark, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sylvia Plachy, Mark Power, Alessandra Sanguinetti, to name a few — are common to us all. Readers learn that talented photographers experience wobbles just like anyone else, and that photography, as it reflects life, can be a struggle. PNT is now in its second run after the first edition sold out in March. Editor Will Steacy began soliciting the essays over five years ago. In a clumsy effort to share material with interested contributors, Steacy posted essays online in a blog format but didn’t password-protect the URL. Within 24 hours of e-mailing the blog to collaborators, it had gone viral. “I woke up in Vegas after a shoot, had a cup of coffee, sent the e-mail out, went to the airport, and got on a plane. When I arrived back in New York that evening my inbox was flooded with e-mail,” he recalls. Steacy, who doesn’t have a Facebook account and describes himself as a “Neanderthal” when it comes to technology, quickly put the kibosh on the short-lived liking, tweeting and sharing, and deleted the blog, but the frantic fascination during those few days of teasing access confirmed he was on to a good thing. The final published work doesn’t disappoint. Many of the essays focus on ethical dilemmas. On the outskirts of Lahore in Pakistan, Ed Kashi is jolted from his journalist M.O. by a filmmaker friend to help the victims of a fatal traffic collision. Joseph Rodriguez, with memories of his own addicted parents, steps in when one of his subjects, a crack-addled man, is shaping to assault his wife. In a harrowing tale, Misty Keasler describes a drunken father’s abuse against his daughters to prove to the photographer how desperate life was for his ostracized gypsy families. “I would never be able to reconcile the fact that violence, especially against children, had been created for me,” writes Keasler. The book also includes lighthearted moments. Michael Meads recalls the last hurrah of an aging New Orleans drag queen. And Matt Salacuse recounts the moment he raised his camera to snap an image of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and their newly adopted baby, only for Cruise to command, “You’re not doing that.” “It must have been some crazy Scientologist voodoo mind trick, because I looked at him and said, ‘You are right. I am not.’ And I didn’t,” writes Salacuse. For the most part, however, the contributors are earnest, and even grave. Elusive images are mourned and in their place robust memories are inserted. It’s all quite bittersweet. Steacy refers collectively to photographers’ memories as “mental negatives,” as if to suggest photographers’ eyes and the proteins and synapses of memory are wired differently. Certainly photographers — by nature or nurture — are visual beings, but, ironically, PNT’ s essays render these mental negatives in ways the lost images could not. The task of singling out one memory invariably summons meditation on life’s fundamentals — the love of family (Carucci, Jordan, Sanguinetti); the absence of family (Elkins); the loss of home (Patterson); threatened lives (Mosse, Webb). For all their devotion to photography, the consensus among the essayists is that images on paper and in pixels are mere reflections of — and no substitute to — lived experience. And when life is extinguished or hangs by a gossamer thread, photographers’ own motives and compulsions to record are under the fiercest of self-examinations. Photographer Simon Roberts finds himself unable to shoot a portrait at the deathbed of Priscilla Dzvengwe, a young Zimbabwean girl. “The girls, including Priscilla began to cry as they sang. For the first time in my career, I felt physically unable to take a photograph. It was a moment to be lived, not framed…. A photograph could not have conveyed the horrors that Priscilla had experienced in her short life nor her acknowledgement that she would soon be leaving this world,” writes Roberts. In a book about lack and loss, perhaps it is unsurprising that many of the essays focus on death. For example, due to cultural beliefs, Zwelethu Mthethwa’s family denied him permission to photograph his dead mother at her funeral. “No image of the body must exist after its life is gone…. I realize that, in fact, the final image could never have been that specific photograph. The image was, and remains to this day, a nuanced and ever shifting conglomeration of the memories [of my mother] themselves,” he writes. Peter Van Agtmael’s story from an Iraqi cemetery taught him only that “even the spiritual leadership was not immune to the war’s dehumanizing effects.” The photograph he did not take was of a military chaplain relieving himself while the soldiers radioed in their position. “He zipped up, turned around, and declared it a ‘holy piss.’ As I gawked, rivulets of urine snaked onto the sun baked hump of what was clearly a child’s grave. The patrol moved on,” Van Agtmael writes. Conversely, Jim Goldberg’s trigger finger was stayed by the beginning of life — during his wife’s long and painful labor. “There was no way in hell I would use a camera to miss those incredible moments,” he writes. It’s comforting to know that even the best photographers question the purpose and act of image making and that when it comes to life and death, the full sensory experience outside any potential frame is of more importance. Photographs Not Taken is not a book about regret; it’s about gratitude. The missed opportunities are merely the back-stories to photographers’ appreciation for life. And for one contributor, that life was cut short. Before Tim Hetherington was killed by a mortar last year while he was working in Libya, he submitted an essay that deals honestly about the perennial photojournalist’s dilemma of how to depict foreigners and when to photograph trauma and death. In his essay, Hetherington describes the aftermath of a road accident in Liberia for which he’s “too far gone to be able to attempt any recording” of the dozens of injured and dead. While understandable, he criticizes himself that earlier that same day he had “no qualms” photographing five tortured corpses. His constant questioning of his own biases is admirable. When selecting images from Liberia for Infidel , a book about American soldiers in Afghanistan, he chose not to include a graphic shot of an American shot in the head out of respect, but notes he had not hesitated publishing a similar image of a “nameless African.” Hetherington, more than most photographers, pushed discussions about what interests images served. He handled visual documents responsibly in a frenetic digital world. He made choices based upon, not only his subject, but also his audience. His essay adds to his already considerable legacy. The 200+ pages of Photographs Not Taken do not focus on amazing light, or compositions missed, but on humanity seen, remembered, cherished, learned and broken. Maybe photography can’t live up to experience. Maybe photography steals away – or sullies – the preciousness of memory. After reading Photographs Not Taken , those moments of hesitation, so warmly shared, are far more arresting than some of the most engaging photographs. As Aaron Schuman speculates, those memories are “perhaps the photographs kept, not taken.” – – – – – - Book-reading : Amy Elkins, Eirik Johnson and Michael Itkoff, founder of Daylight will read excerpts from Photographs Not Taken and be in discussion at Ampersand Bookstore and Gallery in Portland, OR on May 11th at 7:30pm.

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Must Read: The Photographs That Got Away From Famous Shooters

Leica is expanding its Leica S medium-format system with five new central shutter (leaf shutter) lenses, with availability from October 2012. Read more and comment

Leica has announced the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. The company is making grand claims for its latest standard-focal-length prime, which uses specially developed glass to create an apochromatic design to minimize chromatic aberrations. The lens was designed to match the specifications of the existing 50mm f/2 lens – a 1979 design that is the oldest in the company’s current lineup. The APO version of the lens will be available from late July 2012 at a cost of around $7,195.

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Leica announces APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH normal prime

Leica has combined with luxury fashion house Herm

Here’s a recipe for success: Take two of the hottest, fastest-growing websites in the world and mash them together. That’s exactly what Pek Pongpaet, 35, and Brandon Leonardo, 28, did this week when they launched Pinstragram , which uses the famous waterfall layout of Pinterest to create a platform for viewing your Instagram photos on the web. “I think Pinstagram fills an important void because Instagram never focused on the desktop experience,” says Pongpaet. There are plenty of third-party apps that allow you to view Instragram photos on the web, but we suspect that none will have the success of Pinstagram, which has already made quite a splash, with thousands visiting the site. Aditya Herlambang, an iOS developer, has also just joined their team and is building a Pinstagram iPad app. Pongpaet and Leonardo say the idea for the project was actually kind of a joke that only came to them last Friday. Over lunch the pair, who are also co-founders of the startup Tapisto.com , said they were joking about the famous “X for Y” pitches that often happen when companies are pitching venture capital firms. Take Spotwag, for example, which could be called an “AirBnB for dogs.” They were playing around with combinations and came to the pairing of “a Pinterest for Instragram.” “We thought it would be hilarious to combine them because they are two of the hottest and most valuable companies on the planet,” Pongpaet says. While it remained a joke for a while, Leonardo says that he saw something click in Pongpaet, and later that day the wheels started turning. “The idea really took hold of me,” says Pongpaet. The next morning Pongpaet got in touch with Leonardo. “He was like, ‘Dude, you’ll never believe what I built,’” says Leonardo. It turns out Pongpaet had spent a chunk of the night developing their concept and already had a functional site that had brought their idea to life. “I’m sort of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy,” Pongpaet says. After Pongpaet’s original draft the pair continued working and on Wednesday morning the site went live. So far they say the response has already been overwhelming. They haven’t been contacted by Pinterest or Instagram, but all the feedback they’ve gotten has been positive. They’re not sure what the future holds, but say they want to continue working on it and see where it goes. “We enjoy using it ourselves and want to continue to provide an optimized way for users to view their Instagram feed on the web,” Leonardo says.

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It’s Not a Joke Anymore: Someone Actually Built Pinstagram

The Leica M Monochrom is a new, black-and-white only full-frame digital rangefinder camera with a highly sensitive 18-megapixel monochromatic sensor. Read more and comment

The Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. is a new, apochromatic standard lens for the Leica M system. Read more and comment

We’ve prepared a hands-on preview of the Leica M-Monochrom 18MP black-and-white rangefinder. The M-Monochrom has no color filter array in front of the sensor, meaning it captures more of the available light but cannot perceive color. It also means there is no need for demosaicing (the process of combining color information from adjacent pixels), so higher levels of detail are retained. Our preview includes real-world samples we shot with the M-Monochrom, to show just what that means in-use.

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Just Posted: Leica M-Monochrom hands-on preview with image samples

Leica has unveiled a special edition of the Leica M9 full-frame digital rangefinder camera: the Leica M9-P ‘Edition Hermès’, limited to 300 units worldwide. Read more and comment

The Leica X2 is a 16-megapixel, large-sensor digital compact camera with a new, APS-C format CMOS imager and a 36mm equivalent Leica Elmarit 24mm f/2.8 ASPH. lens. Read more and comment

Leica has released the V-Lux40, a 14MP, 20X compact superzoom camera. It is the second V-Lux model to feature GPS and appears to very closely resemble the Panasonic DMX-TZ30/ZS20. This gives it a 24-480mm equivalent zoom range and 14.1MP output (from a 15.3MP CMOS sensor). It also means it’s capable of capturing 1080 video. The camera also features the highest-res screen in the Leica range – a 460k dot 3.0″ LCD. Unlike the similar Panasonic, the Leica V-Lux 40 includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Premier Elements 10.

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Leica offers V-Lux40 20X 14MP compact superzoom

Leica has announced the X2, a 16MP APS-C compact camera with a fixed 36mm equivalent F2.8 lens. The camera is an updated version of its X1, with the biggest changes being the use of a 16.2MP CMOS sensor and the addition of an accessory socket for adding an optional 1.44M dot ‘Viso-Flex’ electronic viewfinder. An add-on handgrip is also available. Leica says it has improved the autofocus system (one of our biggest criticisms of the X1), but has retained the rather low-resolution 230,000 dot rear LCD. The X2 has a list price of $1,995.00. (Updated with first impressions of AF performance)

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Leica unveils X2 16MP premium large-sensor compact

Leica has announced the M-Monochrom, a black-and-white version of its M9 full-frame rangefinder.

Adobe has announced a release candidate version of Adobe Camera Raw 7.1 and DNG Converter 7.1. The latest near-release version of the Raw processing plugin only works with Photoshop CS6 and brings support for the same 21 cameras that were added to Camera Raw 6.7 in the most recent update. This includes the Nikon D800m Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the most recent releases from Samsung.

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Adobe launches release candidate of Adobe Camera Raw v7.1

PermaJet hss announced that all users of the PermaJet range of papers are automatically entitled to use the company’s new free ICC Custom Profiling Service. Read more and comment

> Photo: Bieke Depoorter > View all Photographer Bieke Depoorter has been traveling around Russia and the United States asking random people on the street if she can sleep at their homes on and off for the past three years. The result is a series of eerily intimate photos that capture the inside lives of people and families throughout these two countries. “It’s all been very accidental,” says Depoorter, who lives in Belgium. “And that’s what I like. It’s like a surprise every night.” In 2008, Depoorter, now 25, decided to travel to Russia for a school photo project, though she had no idea what exactly that would be. She had a friend write her a note in Russian that she could present to people asking them for shelter at night if she ever needed it. The note came in handy. Depoorter needed a place to stay a couple of times and ended up photographing the families she stayed with. She quickly realized that these photos were the project she was looking for. She went on to spend three months sleeping in strangers’ homes. The photos are not photojournalism or some kind reportage about Russia, says Deprooter. She’s not trying to tell some kind of complete or linear story. Instead, she wants her photos to be about the quick, but surprisingly open, relationships she developed each night. “I was there as a person, not as a photographer,” she says. “The first thing was not to take pictures; it was about being with the people and the photographs would come as the come.” Depoorter doesn’t speak Russian, but instead of being a liability, her ignorance actually facilitated the encounters. “You end up communicating in another way, a more honest way, a more personal way,” she says. Her pictures capture small yet genuine moments that don’t feel forced or preconceived. This is partly because any time Depoorter feels like she is taking a “good” photo, she says, she puts her camera down. She says she doesn’t want to have an audience in her head dictating what she should be shooting or influencing how she sees. The moments have to happen on their own and can’t be tarnished by her need to capture them. “It’s all about the feeling,” she says. “Sometimes I want to feel like I’m amazed, and sometimes I want to feel like I’m struggling.” Here in the United States, Depoorter has been working on a similar travel project since 2010. She’s visited the States five times, flying into major cities like Dallas or Memphis and then heading out on the road to small-town America. She gets around by hitchhiking, and like in Russia, randomly asks people she meets on the street if she can stay with them. Not surprisingly, she’s had some interesting encounters. In Louisiana, Depoorter stayed in a home where the majority of the family was addicted to crack cocaine. In one of the photos she made, the son is pretending like he’s going to stab his mom with a kitchen knife. The picture is quite striking, but it also demonstrates Depoorter’s ability to enter people’s lives in a shockingly short amount of time. One of the main differences between her Russian and American projects is that Depoorter speaks English. As a result, she says, people immediately want to tell her their stories, which changes the way the photos come about. Instead of capturing an atmosphere or a feeling, like she did in Russia, Depoorter says her photos in the State are much more about individuals. Like her Russian project, she’s not trying to photograph the “essence” of the United States or its people. She just wants to make photos. “I have these relationship with people, not with ‘Americans,’” she says. “It’s strange for me to try and say things about what ‘Americans’ are. I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences there. It’s the same as Russia.” The work has earned Depoorter a Magnum Expression Award, and more recently she was selected as a participant in the 19th annual World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. Her photos from Russia were published in a book called Ou Menya and she hopes the same will be true for her work from the United States. Depoorter, who is a member of the Tendance Floue collective, says she is not finished with the project and has plans to return to the States early next year. She has also started shooting a similar project in Cairo. “Maybe there will be a moment where I can put all the photos together from the series and it won’t matter where it’s taken,” she says. “It sounds like a cliché, but again this is not journalism, it’s not important where the photos are taken. It’s always about the people.” On May 25 Depoorter will have an exhibition in Ghent, Belgium, from her first book Ou Menya and also her project from the United States which is called “I am about to call it a day.” The exhibit will be up until Sept. 23 and can be found at the Kunsthal Sint—Pietersabdij Ghent.

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Scenes From Spending the Night With Strangers

Lensbaby has announced the availability of its Pro Effects Kit, which bundles the Lensbaby Composer Pro with Sweet 35 Optic, the Edge 80 Optic, Macro Converters, Lens Cleaning Cloth and the Lensbaby System Bag. Read more and comment

Novoflex has unveiled thirteen new mount adapters for the Fuji X-Pro 1. Read more and comment

Nikon has posted firmware updates for the Nikon 1 V1 and J1 compact system cameras. Read more and comment

Adobe has posted ACR 7.1 and Adobe DNG Converter 7.1 as release candidates. Read more and comment

> New York winter self-portrait > View all Like many photographers who struggle to find subject matter worthy of photographing, Sandy Kim turns her camera on a subject with which she is intimately familiar – her friends, her love and her life. “I use what I have, and since my life is readily available that’s what I shoot,” she says. Kim, now 26, came into the public eye a few years ago when Girls, a San Francisco band she had befriended and was photographing religiously, started to make it big. Suddenly her photos were in the New York Times and Fader . Her unique style garnered praise from both audiences and other shooters and she was name-checked in an interview with art photographer Ryan McGinley . Her photos continue to appear in Fader – the mag calls her their “BFF” – and her latest project ties together the last two years of her life through sexual degrees of separation. “I started making this map of sexual relationships between me and my friends,” says Kim. “Once I started mapping it out on paper, I was surprised to see how big and complicated it became. We live for sex, and because of sex we’re alive. The photos represent the different intersections on the map. There are portraits, feelings, and special occasions, kind of like different stations on a subway map.” Sex Degrees of Separation Rail Map. Image: Sandy Kim Kim is not the first photographer to turn the camera back on herself, and its rare to have conversations about her work without hearing references to Nan Goldin and McGinley, among others. Yet her work is more carefree and loving than Goldin and less contrived than McGinley. Her photographs allow viewers to be voyeurs in lives they may or may not ever lead themselves. The images deflate the youthful fantasy that people never have to grow up and that summers are forever endless. Viewers watch her grow up, watch her fall in love and, by proxy, get to re-live their own versions of these moments. Her pictures of her relationship with her boyfriend, Colby, are intimate and genuine in a way few photographers accomplish, if for no other reason than they are a document of tender moments, pure and simple. “Sex has always been present in my work,” says Kim. “Especially because I started shooting more after I fell in love. I think sex is beautiful and ugly at the same time and I try and show both sides, mostly the beautiful part.” Kim grew up in Portland. In 2004, at age 18, she moved to northern California where she found herself exposed to a world she never knew existed. “When I lived in Portland I lived in this little bubble and didn’t really look past it,” she says. “After moving to San Francisco I was introduced to a badass music scene where artists were so talented, inspiring and beautiful, I got excited and wanted to photograph everything around me.” She befriended artists and musicians, and was asked to tour with local bands. That’s when she hooked up with Girls. Though she’d been taking pictures on her own, and got her BFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art in SF, Kim started to take photography more seriously through the external pressure of friends. Girls bassist, JR, encouraged her to shoot more, and photographer Bryan Derballa (who shoots for Wired), built her a blog to use as a platform and pushed her to use it. Kim uses various point-and-shoot cameras purchased at thrift stores, from Yashica T4s to Olympus Stylus Epics to her favorite Contax T2. “I didn’t consider myself as a serious photographer, or even photographer at all, so I couldn’t justify spending more than $10 bucks on a camera. I still prefer film over digital. It’s changed my process because when I edit digital photos it takes me a lot longer to edit and look through. With film you’re kind of stuck with the photos you get and have to make it work. Sometimes I get unexpected surprises that come out to be pleasant in the end or used to my advantage.” While the camera in her hand has an impact on how the images ultimately look, her pictures are less about the tool and more about the events unfolding around her. “I think my friends enjoy being photographed by me because I’m capturing a time of their youth and just like for me and everyone else 10 years from now things are going to be different but we’ll have photos to remind us of our wild youth,” she says. Her work is a reminder that photography can be used not as a means to experience, but as a means to remember. Her photos are reactionary rather than anticipatory, composition and lighting not meticulously thought-through or planned. Her exploration of themes in sexuality, tinged with love and naiveté, are painted with a brush of carelessness and mild sentimentality. “I find that I’m constantly changing. Even by the day. I also feel that I’ve matured over the last year. I used to go out and get wasted every day so I would be taking photos of crazy situations my friends and I would get into because of us being drunk. But nowadays I find myself wanting to hang out with my boyfriend all the time so I end up photographing him. Also I’m madly in love, which helps. He’s a beautiful person inside and out. Sometimes I find myself just staring at him, watching him, learning him, the way he plays a guitar or the way he peels an orange in bed and eats it. And while I find myself in this trance I realize, why don’t I just take a photo and remember this moment forever.”

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Sandy Kim Puts Fresh Spin on Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll (NSFW)

On 17th May, Manfrotto School of Xcellence (MSoX) will be hosting the renowned photographer Drew Gardner for a webinar devoted to celebrity portraiture. Read more and comment

Getty Images has released its newly redesigned The Curve: Technology and Telecommunications, a multimedia research report on visual trends shaped by the “democratization” of technology and the rise of social media. Read more and comment

Fujifilm has announced the FinePix XP170, an updated rugged, waterproof compact camera, featuring Wi-Fi to allow wireless image transfer to Android or iOS smartphones and tablets. The XP170 features a 14MP CMOS sensor that can shoot at up to 10fps, mounted behind a 5x, 28-140mm equivalent zoom lens. It is shockproof from 2m (6.5ft), and waterproof to 10m (33ft). The stand-out feature is its wireless image transfer function that allows images to be sent to smartphones and tablets, making it easy to upload to the internet.

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Fujfilm announces XP170 waterproof compact with wireless image transfer

We’ve just posted our Nikon D800 review. At 36MP, the D800 is the highest resolution camera you can buy without making the step up to medium format, it’s also one of the first DSLRs to offer uncompressed video output. Despite these drastic increases in capability over the D700, Nikon’s latest full-frame offering will be immediately familiar to any one who’s shot with one of the company’s high-end cameras. So what’s the D800 like to shoot with and does all that resolution render its competition redundant?

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Just Posted: In-depth Nikon D800 review

Ahead of our full review, here are 32 sample JPEG photos and a 1080p movie taken with a full production version of the new Nikon D800 DSLR camera, including the full ISO range. The Nikon D800 is a 36.3 megapixel full-frame DSLR with an ISO range of 50-25600, Full HD (1080p) movies, a 921k-dot LCD monitor and 4fps continuous shooting. Read the preview

> An employee adds freshly mixed batter to a tub that feeds into the cookie-making machine. > View all Every day, tourists pop into the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory to watch its three machines squirting out batter and bathing it in flames. Each one is the size of a piano and their operators only have a few seconds to stuff the batter with an enigmatically profound message before it hardens. The one-room workshop is narrow, long and fragrant with warm sugar and vanilla. “Look! They’re making them!” a woman squeals during a recent visit. Located in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the factory has been in business since 1962 and produces 20,000 cookies a day. “There’s a certain amount of thrill to come into an old-school factory,” says tourist Joanne Phua, who followed a friend’s suggestion to see the factory while visiting from Las Vegas. What we now call fortune cookies are based on Japanese tsujiura senbei , cookies that are traditionally served in Shinto shrines to celebrate the new year. They’re larger, darker and less sweet than the fortune cookies we know and love, and are often flavored with sesame and miso. Jennifer Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles , believes the sugary shift may have happened in 1894. That year, a Japanese-American aristocrat commissioned a baker to sweeten the tsujiura senbei to court the American palate at the California Midwinter International Exposition. As part of the event, he funded and built a traditional Japanese village in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, complete with gardens and a teahouse, where his modified tsujiura senbei were served. Lee explains that the international popularity of the fortune cookie began to explode as a result of World War II, and suggests that Chinese restaurants took over the treats while Japan fell out of favor during the war. Chinese cuisine saw an initial boost in popularity during Prohibition, because its meals don’t promote alcohol as much as those of other restaurants. China’s alliance with the United States during World War II helped boost the popularity of its cuisine, as did its traditional recipes that made good use of wartime meat rationing. After the war, military personnel returning home from the Pacific Theater requested that their neighborhood Chinese restaurants start selling “fortune tea cakes,” as they were known at the time, and word spread. As demand increased over the following decades, several machines like the one at this Chinatown location were invented to help speed production. “There is some glamour in low tech,” says Chris Lahji, who visits the factory periodically from nearby Danville to pick up bags of the freshly baked cookies. “You won’t believe how much technology has changed and yet stayed the same.” The traditional method of making the cookies is to use an iron kata , which resembles a pie iron. The round surface holds a small amount of batter, which is then pressed into a disc and cooked over coals. After a few seconds, the disc is removed and folded into its familiar shape and left in a specially shaped pan to cool and quickly harden. In the factory, the gas-powered contraptions are elegantly simple: At each machine, a tiny spigot squirts batter onto one of many circular kata-like cooking surfaces arranged on a rotating platform. The lids are forced down along a track as the platform turns the cooking batter toward the back of the machine and into a tunnel of tiny blue flames. The clamshells emerge on the right and the lids are forced open to expose the cookies, flat and golden brown. The machine’s operator has mere seconds to collect the hot disc and fold the paper message inside, or it will become too brittle and snap. The cookies are then left to cool in the same special trays used in Japan. The entire process takes four minutes, factory employee Nancy Tom says. She is seated at one of the machines and maintains her focus and swift pace while tersely answering questions about the factory, where she has worked since 1980. Franklin Yee, owner and founder of Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co., says that in the past 50 years he’s only met 10 people who haven’t enjoyed his factory’s cookies. “Diabetics,” he jokes, and proudly points at cases of fresh ingredients stacked around the workshop. He says his cookies are so good, people from all over the world return to buy more. All of the fortunes are written by fortune tellers, Yee says. He points to a sampling of “adult” messages on display, so potential buyers know what to expect. These fortunes are sage (“When wine, women and song become too much for you, give up singing”), punny (“Kiss is application for a better position”) and downright confusing (“Bad girl is one who gets mink fur the same way minks do”). On our tour of the factory, we bought two bags of cookies. After it was over, we stepped out into the alley to crack one open. The fortune did not disappoint: “Look for the dream that keeps coming back. It is your destiny.” Photos: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

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Fortune Cookie Factory Still Rocks Old-School Tech … In Bed

The FinePix F770EXR is the latest travel-zoom camera from Fujifilm, sporting a 20x lens with a versatile focal range of 25-500mm. The 16 megapixel F770 EXR features a fast auto-focus system, full 1080p movies, enhanced GPS, high-contrast 3 inch LCD screen and 8fps continuous shooting. Read our in-depth Fujifilm FinePix F770EXR review to find out if this is the ultimate travel camera… Read the review

The Olympus Tough TG-1 is the toughest Olympus camera ever released. Read more and comment

The Fujifilm Finepix XP170 is the latest addition to the tough XP series of cameras. Read more and comment

Canon has created a new partnership with two-time Academy Award winner Ron Howard for year two of the brand campaign, “Long Live Imagination.” Read more and comment

LockCircle has announced the new LockPort 5M3 accessory for the Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera. Read more and comment

Winning entries from the 2011 Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) are going on display at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London from June 22nd to August 19th 2012. Read more and comment

Olympus has announced the Tough TG-1 iHS, a high-end rugged, waterproof compact camera. The main selling point of the camera is its 25-100mm equivalant F2.0-4.9 zoom lens. The TG-1 is tougher than previous Tough models, being waterproof to 12m (40ft) and shockproof from a height of 2m (6.6ft) and will have optional waterproof fisheye and telephoto converter lenses available. The TG-1 iHS is built around a 1/2.3″-type 12MP back-lit CMOS sensor and a TruePic VI processor to make the most of its output.

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Olympus launches Tough TG-1 iHS higher-spec rugged, waterproof camera

We’ve just been given access to a beta version of Adobe Camera Raw that supports the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and have used it to process our standard test scene. The good news is that it produces similar resolution to the camera’s JPEG output and that it appears to recognize the selected dynamic range extension setting. The X-Pro1 is not a camera with obvious peers, so we’ve presented it alongside a mixture of DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. These are just our suggested comparisons – you are able (and encouraged) to choose your own. (Samples updated)

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Fujifilm X-Pro1 studio samples published, including Adobe Camera Raw conversions

We’ve prepared a user guide to the Olympus OM-D E-M5, uncovering some of the more interesting features that might not be immediately apparent to new users. As part of reviewing the camera, and detailing its menus, we found a couple of settings combinations and obscure options that we think are worth knowing about. So, if you’ve recently received an E-M5, or are thinking about parting with your hard-earned cash for one, we hope you’ll find this article useful.

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Article: Getting the most out of the Olympus OM-D E-M5

Issue 4 of David Noton’s Chasing the Light eZine has now gone live. Read more and comment

The new Benro Traveler Flat 2 tripod offers a combination of robustness, high build quality and light weight. Read more and comment

OmegaBrandess has announced the new b-grip EVO line of camera accessories. Read more and comment

LockCircle has announced the LockPort 800 accessory, a new product developed to help avoid damaging the miniHDMI port on the Nikon D800 digital SLR camera. Read more and comment

In the semi-viral, Webby-nominated short film “School Portrait,” a grumpy school-portrait photographer berates his lovable subjects with his cynical views of the world, sadistically trying to elicit frowns for his photos. It’s a simple concept, but the kids reactions make the film stand out. “We only needed a few beats of a genuine reaction” to make it work, says director Nick Scott. To get those little moments, Scott cherry-picked the kids’ responses to events and conversations not in the film, and then spliced them into actor Jonathan Rhodes’ dialogue. The best reaction, where the girl listens to Rhodes say “there isn’t a pet heaven,” was actually just something that happened when Scott was talking to the girl and then suddenly turned around. Scott says the kids are not professional actors but instead participants in a regular drama class at a London school. He purposely wanted amateurs, he says, because he knew their reactions would be more genuine. “It was very important that we had regular kids because we didn’t want them to overdo it,” he says. So far the film has over a million views, a success that can be attributed, at least in part, to seeing the seriousness of the world’s problems through the refreshing lens of young kids. “At the present moment there are a lot of reasons to feel depressed,” says Scott. “The economy, the climate. But with these kids we see their belief that things will get better.” Even though that belief is manufactured and stitched together in the film, it feels true. Scott says he and the rest of the crew didn’t want to expose the kids to everything that Rhodes says in film because they didn’t think it was necessary to spoil the enthusiasm the film so cleverly captures. “We wanted to make sure their purity and hope still shined through,” he says.

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Kids Triumph Over Gloomy School Photographer in Clever Short Film

The name Leica carries considerable cachet for many photographers, regardless of whether they’ve ever had a chance to shoot with one of the company’s rangefinders or used with one of its lenses. The fabulous cost and continued adherence to a near-obsolete, manual-focus, rangefinder design can be off-putting, making it easy to wonder whether the brand’s proponents have bought into marketing or mystique. So just what is it like to shoot with an M9-P? We put the camera in the hands of four photographers with different backgrounds and shooting styles to see what the ‘red dot’ meant to them.

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Article: Shooting with the Leica M9-P

Accessory maker LockCircle has announced it will offer its ‘LockPort’ durable HDMI socket bracket for the Nikon D800. The LockPort800 combines a mounting plate that secures to the base of the camera with a miniHDMI-to-standard HDMI adapter that bolts onto it. This provides an easy-access full-size HDMI connector while also protecting your camera’s miniHDMI socket from damage. The mounting plate is designed so that the camera can still be used with other mounts, tripod plates and accessories, in tandem with the LockPort. The LockPort800 will be available from June 2012 at a cost of $199/€99.

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LockCircle brings LockPort secure HDMI ports to Nikon D800

Nikon has confirmed to PDN that it is investigating a problem that can cause the D800 and D4 to lock-up while shooting. The company says that the issue – identified while PDN was reviewing the camera – can be avoided by disabling Highlights and RGB Histogram on the display. At present the lock-ups require the battery to be removed to restart the camera but PDN thinks it likely that Nikon will be able to come up with a permanent fix.

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Nikon tells PDN it is looking for a fix for D800 and D4 lock-up bug

Vanguard USA has announced mail-in rebates on two of its series of tripods and camera bags. Read more and comment

Redrock Micro has ultraCage DSLR and ultraBase hand-held support rigs for video-enabled digital SLR cameras. Read more and comment

Adobe has released the final version of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 6.7 for Photoshop CS5 users. Read more and comment

The Lomographic Society has launched a range of limited-edition La Sardina film cameras. Read more and comment

The inaugural Eye International Photography Festival will take place from 29th June – 1st July at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Aberystwyth, Wales. Read more and comment

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally posted by PhotoShelter Chairman and co-founder Allen Murabayashi on the PhotoShelter blog . Murayabashi was kind enough to share it with Raw File readers. Although everyone has an opinion on Facebook’s purchase of Instagram for $1B, I think we can all agree: Instagram is terrible for photographers. (gotcha) Why? Let’s count the ways. Why Instagram is Terrible for Photographers… The rights grab Let’s look at the Terms of Use: …By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly (“private”) will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services. …You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Instagram Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, (ii) the posting and use of your Content on or through the Instagram Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, intellectual property rights or any other rights of any person, and (iii) the posting of your Content on the Site does not result in a breach of contract between you and a third party. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of Content you post on or through the Instagram Services. Like many businesses on the web that deal with photo assets (from Facebook to Pinterest), the Terms of Use are encompassing, and grab rights from photographers as a condition of participation. Brad Mangin recently wrote about using the iPhone and Instagram . He spends most of his time shooting peak baseball action with high end Canon DSLRs and 400mm f/2.8 lenses, so he sees Instagram as a cool way to show life around the ballpark and behind the scenes moments. Photos by Brad Mangin The problem with this wonderful dugout photo with the Gatorade coolers is that Instagram could, in theory, license that image to Gatorade without compensating Brad. Would they? Probably not, but more and more companies are finding utility in using Instagram to create user interaction and build their content-based marketing strategies, so it does fall within the realm of possibility. This is the main reason Darren Carroll has resisted the urge to jump on the Instagram bandwagon, and prefers sticking with apps like Hipstamatic, which have friendlier terms. The quality sucks Director Nick Knight recently used Instagram to photograph model Cara Delevinge posing with a bunch of animals in a series that was “inspired by Internet memes, animal GIFs and Autumn/Winter 2012′s taste for grown-up, blown-up overdressing.” There is clearly a sense of parody here, so I think this was more of a way to generate publicity than to take beautiful photos. But the point is pretty clear, the quality leaves something to be desired in low light situations. Photo by Nick Knight Motion blur, poor dynamic range, pixelation, and the list goes on. The beautiful model wearing stylized clothing while holding cats is done a major injustice by taking an image with the quality you might get if you photographed an old television set. Art filters Tell me why the masses believe that applying an art filter to an image instantly makes it better? Oh look, it’s blue! It has a fake lens flare! Is that polaroid edge real?!!?! It’s strange to me that we fall back on these anachronisms of the analog world. Kids don’t even know that these art filters were based on real analog phenomenon, and now they use them because they think it looks cool. Damn kids! DC Stock Images photographer Randy Santos uses Instagram and DSLRs. There’s no comparison in my opinion. Which Randy Santos image do you prefer? Instagram below, or DSLR above? Instagram is a repository for cute animals While you’re trying to build a serious body of work, Instagram is being dominated by people who take photos of their pets. And these people are simultaneously amassing huge followings. In the same way that our societal love of America’s Funniest Home Videos was supplanted by the viral video on YouTube, I feel like we’re being suckered by this most basal response to want to say “awwww.” Do we lack any power of discernment and taste? …And All the Reasons You Should Be Using It The rights grab is a theoretical threat Brad Mangin has used many photo apps on his iPhone, but the Instagram hook for him was the social networking aspects. Not only does he build followers through the mobile-only Instagram network, but he also publishes images onto Facebook – thus, he reaches two distinct demographics. We’ve constantly preached the need to go where your customers are, and to also understand that different demographics hang out in different places. By building an audience through multiple social networks, Brad is teeing up the ability to 1) continue providing his legacy customers like Sports Illustrated and MLB with sports action, while 2) creating a consumer-based audience that might purchase a book or photo or attend a workshop with him. Is the Gatorade threat real? Maybe. But using Instagram in an ad campaign is a visual gimmick in the same way that the heavy handed HDR might be used. It’s less likely that a pro photographer’s image would be misapporpriated for commercial purposes than user-generated/submitted content being used as part of a viral campaign. The quality is good enough and only getting better Getty Images thought it was good enough Foreign Policy and Newsweek thought it was good enough  (Hipstamatic) Pictures of the Year International thought it was good enough (Hipstamatic) updated : Sports Illustrated  thought it was good enough (Hipstamatic) Sports Illustrated chose Greg Foster's Hipstamatic portrait over the images shot with a Canon DSLR for this feature spread. Maybe art filters do make the world look better Have you ever watched Steven Sodebergh’s Traffic ? Depending on which storyline he’s telling, you get a different film tint. Lots of people have commented on Hollywood’s obsession with this banal color correction, and how it makes every movie look the same visually. But it’s kind of like getting a polaroid camera. There’s something about that look that is so compelling, and it never gets old when you’re  the one doing it. Don’t get me wrong. It is a shame that bad photography suddenly seems better. But we can’t stop our visceral reactions from happening. Why do you think Jersey Shore is so popular? Karen Rosenberg had an insightful piece in the New York Times  about the retro look that is enabled by apps like Instagram: Why do we want to tweak our photos so conspicuously? Why do we suddenly want them to look as if they came from old analog cameras?…Nostalgia is certainly a factor; parents, for instance, may want their children’s photographs to look like the ones in old family albums…The photograph itself, even an artily manipulated one, has become so cheap and ubiquitous that it’s no longer of much value. But the experience of sharing it is, and that’s what Facebook is in the business of encouraging us to do. Instagram is a repository for cute animals This is still true. Don’t do this. Ok, do it. Don’t hate the player Photojournalist Teru Kuwayama doesn’t hate the player, nor the game. In a piece in The Telegraph , he said: “You could make an analogy to the advent of the electric guitar or electronic music. Much to the annoyance of classical musicians, those things made ‘everyone’ a musician. I grew up on punk rock, hip hop and death metal, so I welcome the post-classical age of photography, and the explosion of amateur expression that comes with it. Obviously, it sucks to be a professional photographer, and it’s personally inconvenient to lose your pedestal and your livelihood to a $2 app, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing for photography.” Photos are the glue and currency of social networks. They are fantastically “sticky” but as we’ve seen with Pinterest, the photos are great when they depict your product, not when they are  your product — at least not in the traditional world of photography. But in the new world, this golden age of photography as I like to call it, photographers need to find how to leverage the distribution and “any one can do it” capabilities of the photo “app” to sustain and expand their business. Alternately, you could invent Instagram. (By the way, you don’t need $400m to party in Vegas until 4am ). ———————————————— Allen Murabayashi is the Chairman and co-founder of  PhotoShelter . Allen authors PhotoShelter’s  free business guides  for photographers and marketing professionals, including topics like email marketing, search engine optimization, and starting a photography business. Allen is a graduate of Yale University, and flosses daily.

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Why Instagram Is Terrible for Photographers, and Why You Should Use It

Ladybug & her funny daisy by Antino Cervigni Lady bug traversing flower peddles by Ron Forster Ladybug Portrait by Scott– Ladybug ladybug fly away by Tiffany Brook Pale Ladybug by Susan Wolfe

Bag maker Think Tank has announced an update to its Airport series of camera bags. Designed to meet the restrictions imposed by airlines on carry-on luggage, the series includes a model designed for international flight as well as smaller versions for space-limited short-haul flying. The three bags are all designed with room for an iPad and increasingly large laptops, and give clear indications of the camera bodies and lenses they will accommodate. All three come with a seam-sealed rain covers.

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Think Tank announces Airport line of carry-on compliant camera bags

Without further ado, here are all of the Top Rated Photos of the week, based on the sum of all photo ratings. This week’s top 3 images are (just click on the image to view larger): Dwarfed by Marsel van Oosten Azure Kingfisher Fishing by Ford Kristo Annas Hummingbird by Monte Stinnett

We’ve teamed up with Manfrotto to give away two fantastic Photo Kits. Read more and comment

> Photo: Jason Lee > View all By now Jason Lee is used to going viral. Last week, Lee’s quirky and inventive pictures of his two young daughters made their third large showing on the internet, driving enough traffic to his website to crash it several times. His mailbox is full of new client requests and he’s been inundated with media requests. “Every time the photos pop up it’s nice exposure, but at the same time it causes a lot of headaches,” says Lee, a Bay Area photographer. Lee says he’s flattered by the attention he got after the photos went up on sites including Bored Panda and Yahoo. But he already has a booming wedding business and not much time to squeeze any new work into his schedule. “I’m looking at my inbox and just shaking my head,” he says. It’s easy to see why the project has enjoyed so much success. Lee’s photos mix well-executed photography with creative concepts and inventive Photoshop work. He’s been shooting the portraits since 2006 and says he never intended for them to get so much public play. They were initially thought up when Lee’s mother started getting chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and couldn’t be around germ-ladened young kids. He says he wanted his mom to be able to see her granddaughters but didn’t want to send the same old boring photos. “I really wanted to be able to show my mom what was going on with the kids but I also wanted to cheer her up a little bit,” he says. “I wanted to make her laugh.” Today Lee says his mom is still sick but holding on. She can be around the kids and even babysat them just a couple of weeks ago. The project itself, however, has taken on a life of its own and Lee continues to find new ways to creatively capture the personalities of his two daughters. The best inspiration, he says, always comes from the girls themselves. The other day, for example, Lee says he was thinking about how to get his kids to sit still so he could get some work done at the house. The idea of taping them to the wall came to mind and within a day he had the picture set up and shot. To make the photo, Lee took one frame of his younger daughter Kayla standing on a table with one piece of tape on each arm and one across her mid section. He then took another picture of his older daughter Kristin by herself that made it look like she was applying tape to the wall. In Photoshop Lee removed the table from under Kayla’s feet, tilted her slightly, cloned the tape so there were multiple pieces and added Kristin into the frame to make it look like it was her handiwork. “The ideas just pop into my head sometimes,” he says. It hasn’t always been the easiest thing to get two small kids to sit still through a photo shoot even if they are quite cooperative. Lee says the secret has always been some kind of payoff. “I figured out early on that bribery really works,” he says. “Any time I’m like, ‘Let’s go take a picture’ the first thing that comes to their mind is treats.” Over the years the lighting and complexity of the photos has gotten more sophisticated, but the soul of the work has always come from the girls themselves. Kristin, 8, is more reserved, and Kayla, 5, more outgoing. Together, however, their dynamic is surprisingly symbiotic. “My older daughter is very calm and my younger daughter is like the wild child,” says Lee. Nowadays Lee and the girls have been doing the project for so long that he says his daughters have started submitting their own pitches. They don’t always come to fruition, Lee says, but he enjoys the enthusiasm. “As they have gotten older it’s nice to see them giving their own ideas and not just being in the photos,” he says. “I’m glad they are still enthusiastic.”

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Creative Dad Works Photoshop Magic on Adorable Daughters

The winners of the April 2012 Photography Blog Competition have been announced. Read more and comment

The Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM is a cheap and more than cheerful prime telephoto lens for Sony APS-C sensor cameras. Offering an effective focal length of 75mm and a bright maximum aperture of f/1.8, you’ll hardly notice this diminutive lens in your camera bag. Read our Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM review to find out if it’s worth the modest £159 / $145 asking price. Read the review

Verbatim has just launched its new Store ‘n’ Go V3 USB 3.0 Drive. Read more and comment

The Association of Photographers (AOP) has announced the launch of Exposure 2012 , a range of photography related events beginning on 17th May 2012. Read more and comment

Boston-based Litl has released version 1.3 of Woven, a free photo viewing app for iOS devices. Read more and comment

Just posted: Pentax K-01 studio sample shots. We’re in the process of running a production K-01 through our studio tests, so wanted to present the results of our standard test scene. The K-01 fits a lot of the excellent K-5 into a somewhat avant-garde mirrorless body. Retaining a similar 16MP APS-C sensor to the K-5, we expect great things from it, in terms of image quality, so does it live up to those expectations?

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Pentax K-01 studio test shots published

Software maker Visual Supply Co has created the VSCO Cam iOS camera app, to go alongside its ‘VSCO Film’ film simulation software. The $0.99 app works with both iPhone and iPad cameras, offering ten filters and a series of simple editing tools, including Grain, Fade, Contrast and Fill Light. It also makes it easy to share the images via social networks. Unusually, the app applies its filters to the pre-compression camera output. The company’s blog features a selection of images taken on the launch day of the app, to give a taste of what its users can do.

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Visual Supply Co’s VSCO Cam app offers image filters before compression