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The PopPhoto.com Staff

Above is the full text of the settlement.

The US Department of Homeland Security reached a settlement with photographer/videographer Antonio Musumeci, who, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a claim when he was arrested six months ago for documenting a political protest outside of a federal courthouse in Manhattan.

The ACLU claimed that Musumeci was arrested based on a vague and inconsistently enforced regulation. They cited that federal courthouses in other cities like Washington DC and Philadelphia allow photography on their grounds, and that regulation must be unanimously enforced nation-wide. They also claimed that for a public building to ban photography, signs must be posted clearly and visibly throughout the area.

One of the provisions of the settlement mandates that the Department of Homeland Security issue a new set of guidelines to all police and security officials working in and around federal courthouses across the country. These guidelines will inform all security officials that videotaping and photography outside any public space, like a courthouse, is completely legal. 

Musemeci was also awarded $1,500 and a reimbursement for his legal fees from the Federal Protective Services.

From: British Journal of Photography

Almost a year ago today, we made a post about a company that was selling wacky inflatable photobooths that were designed by two professional photographers for use at weddings, parties, ect—what could possibly top that? How about an inflatable photo studio. That’s right, an entire studio made of high-grade plastic that inflates to size in 2-3 minutes. 

Brian Hedenberg, a commercial fashion photographer from New York City, was fed up with the hassle of trying to book studio space and decided to come up with an alternative to constructing his own studio—hence the I.P.S. (Inflatable Photo Studio) was born. 

It is made of 6-10mm thick light-resistant black plastic, comes in three different sizes, the largest being 20x12x12 foot, weighs only 40lbs and folds up into a 2x2x4 foot box. It can be assembled virtually anywhere, although it is recommended that it be set up on flat ground so as to avoid puncturing the floor. 

The largest studio, with the fan included, will only run you about $499, however purchasing one comes with more than a few stern warnings. In fact the Web site offers an entire page dedicated to the warnings and dangers of shooting inside an inflatable studio. They include everything from what to do in the case of a flashflood, thunderstorm, or the somewhat likely event that the studio begins to rapidly deflate—which after reading the site thoroughly, seems unavoidable over time (especially if you like to smoke, cook, or use a curling iron inside your studio).  

All in all, the I.P.S. is a brilliant solution for anyone looking for a cheap studio that can easily be packed up and moved to a new location. If you can get passed the hilariously long list of warnings, it may be the studio solution you have been looking for. With that, we leave you with this final warning from their Web site:

“Do not keep the doors sealed or you may risk puncturing the seals or the pressure may be so great that the human body may implode or your ears will just pop.”

For more information and to purchase your very own I.P.S. check out their Website.

From: TheStrobist

Nikon launched a new version of its free photo-sharing/storage Web site, MyPicturetown.com, that includes improved sharing and usability features as well as a new PhotoMovie feature.

Members who have a free account on MyPicturetown.com now have the option to create an audio-slideshow featuring their images using Nikon’s PhotoMovie feature(if you want to create more than one audio-slideshow you must pay the premium for a Gold Account). The new feature let’s user set photos to music for a unique and personalized multimedia experience. Users can also include text and various special effects in their slideshows. Once completed, slideshows can easily be shared via email or social network sites like Facebook.

Other improvements include the ability for users to have a custom homepage decorated with an assortment of images they already uploaded to the site.  As users upload new images, their homepage will incorporate them into its custom design.

Nikon also tackled organizational issues, allowing users to sort their images into categories with a simple drag-and-drop operation. They also are giving users more control over the design of their albums, offering a total of 18 new themes.            

For more information on these updates and to set up your own account, head on over to MyPicturetown.com.

If there's currently a Samsung NX10 residing in your camera bag, you might want to bust it out and bestow upon it the new firmware that Samsung has just released. The big draw for firmware version 1.20 is that the NX10 will now be compatible with Samsung's i-Function system, which lets you control crucial camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance, etc) right from the camera's lens. i-Function was first debuted with the NX100 interchangeable lens compact, which we got some extensive hands-on time with at Photokina.

The NX10 will now work with the new 20-50mm zoom and 20mm prime pancake lenses, which make use of the new Lens Distortion Compensation system. Finally, the new firmware also makes the NX10 compatible with the GPS tracker, which adds geotags to images, complete with city names.

If you want to make the upgrade, you can download it at the Samsung site. Then you can take a moment to thank Samsung for being so awesome and bringing their cool new tech to slightly older models. That's the way it should be.

This is just too cool—Benjamin Lotan, an entrepreneurial Facebooker and a graduate student, started a Web site called PrintingFacebook.com. For $20, Benjamin will print a 20”x40” high-resolution image on quality photo paper featuring every single one of your Facebook friends’ profile pictures.

The size of each friend’s picture depends on the number of friends you have, but Benjamin’s Website claims that whether you have 200 or 2,200 friends, your poster will look great. 

Benjamin also gives four options for the background color, they include: black, white, or one of the two shades of “Facebook Blue”. In addition, he offers you the option of varying the margins on the poster as well as the size of your friend’s pictures.

We plan on purchasing one right away and will update you on its quality once we receive it—but if you can’t wait until then, head on over to PrintingFacebook.com now and buy your very own.

By the way, if you haven't done so already, add Poular Photography as one of your friends on Facebook, we would love to make it on to your poster. 

For past 25 years, the French speaking Denis MO toyed with the idea of building his very own 24x36mm reflex camera, completely from scratch, using nothing but his home workshop. Finally at the age of 42, he felt like he had the technical skills and know-how to make his idea a reality. 

His goal was to make the camera a completely new design all together. Other than the physical shutter curtain, some ball bearings and a few screws, his camera is a completely unique work of art. Dubbed the “DM flex,” the final camera ended up no bigger than a classic Zenit B.

As Denis began work on the camera, he posted each step, from the initial diagrams to the final product, in a French-speaking photography forum. Due to the positive response to his ambitious project, he recently had the entire project translated into English. We are very thankful for this because it is fascinating to follow his process step by step as he struggles through and eventually overcomes each unique challenge.

Building a camera from scratch comes with a multitude of challenges and as Denis’ post show, each step of its construction turned out to be an arduous task. He overcame many of these challenges by scrutinizing the mechanics of various popular reflex cameras and adapting their workings for his own project.

We highly recommend checking out the English translation of Denis’ process, by clicking HERE, and seeing how he constructed this camera with your own eyes. You can also see some of the beautiful images he shot with it.

Currently, Denis MO is working on a homemade rangefinder camera. You can check out his progress on that HERE, although the site has not yet been translated.

What do you get when you combine high-speed macro photography, tiny drops of paint and one stereo speaker with a membrane stretched over it? You get Canon’s groundbreaking new Pixma Colour Printers Ad campaign. 

Shot by biochemist and photographer Linden Gledhill, these beautiful stills and video clips were shot at 5,400 frames a second with a Canon 5D Mark II and an EF 100mm Macro IS USM lens. 

The entire process—which can be viewed in the video below—was quite complicated and tedious. Gledhill and his crew began by setting the camera up on a custom-built spinning rig, they than adjusted the macro lens’ focus—which was obviously no easy tasking considering they were working with about a millimeter of focus. Next they placed a few drops of paint on the speaker, hit the power button and fired away. The result? These colorful “sound sculptures” that look like something from another world.

Click the LINK to see more images from the shoot. Also be sure to watch the final commericals.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

The Portraits of Love Project—a joint effort put on by the PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association and Soldiers’ Angels, a non-profit group—has put out a call for photographers nationwide who are willing to volunteer their time to shoot family-portraits for deployed military personnel. The portraits will be delivered in time for the holidays to those in active duty. PMDA’s goal is to deliver at least 10,000 portraits.

The holidays can often be difficult for the deployed and their families back home—this project offers a chance for photographers to help make this holiday season a little easier for both.   

Last year, more than 400 photographers shared their time and talents to make the project a resounding success and this year PDMA would like to get even more people involved.

PDMA is specifically looking for studio photographers who have experience taking family portraits. Anyone interested can sign up HERE. Also, individuals with family members in active duty can sign up on the same site for a time slot to have their portrait taken. 

Bonnier Corporation, the parent company of Popular Photography Magazine and PopPhoto.com, is a sponsor of the Portraits of Love Project. 

For all you Leica enthusiasts out there with large disposable incomes, Leica just announced another super-limited edition M9. Unlike the Leica M9 Titanium that was announced at Photokina a few weeks back—you know, the one that had only 500 units available—the all-new Leica Neiman Marcus Edition M9 will only have a mere 50 units available. 

Manufactured and available exclusively through the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, this brown-ostrich-leather-wrapped M9 will run you a cool $17,500. Included with the camera is a chrome-finished Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH lens and a copy of Adobe Lightroom 3. As an added bonus, every camera comes hand delivered by a Leica professional that will offer a training/orientation session.

So if you do have the cash flow to purchase this ridiculously limited-edition rangefinder, be sure to also buy a waterproof case for it, as there are bound to be a lot of Leica-lovers out there ready to drool all over it.