Staying Motivated In Photography

Staying motivated to take pictures is harder than it seems just sitting around thinking about it. When you first get a new camera, like many of you will this Christmas, taking pictures is easy. You’ll want to shoot everything in sight.

A month or two after the holidays, once the newness has worn off and the demands of daily life reassert themselves, your motivation will get worn down. It won’t happen all at once, it will be a gradual process that will sneak up on you. One day you’ll need your camera and the battery will be dead. It will dawn on you the camera has been in the closet for two years. That’s how it happens.

Whether you can keep your motivation for taking photos will determine if you make it as a photographer. There’s no better teacher than experience.

Here are some tips to maintain your motivation after the holidays. [read]

:::::: 3 Penguins Photography – joe randeen ::::::

The iPhone Lens Dial

If you’re anything like us, a trip to the Optometrist is a real treat. It’s like a Photographer’s dreamland! Full of big, beautiful, and fascinating optical gadgets.

After all, getting new glasses is like getting a new lens for your brain. (If only our health insurance covered a Canon L lens).

That must be why The iPhone Lens Dial caught our EYE (heh). It looks just like a Phoropter, that doohickey the doc uses to test our sight!

The iPhone Lens Dial boasts three optical-quality coated glass lenses: Wide Angle, Fisheye, and Telephoto. All wrapped up in a slim aircraft-grade aluminum jacket equipped with two tripod mounts (for portrait or landscape shots). [read]

CNN Fires Editors & Photojournalists Because Amateurs Will Work for Free

Roughly 50 staffers at CNN were given pink slips today, including nearly a dozen photojournalists. In an email to the staff, Senior VP Jack Womack cited the accessibility of cameras and the growth of citizen journalism as reasons for the terminations: [read]

You get what you pay for CNN

To Shoot 4,000FPS Footage On a 60FPS Budget

The Beauty of Mud (4000 fps) from David HJ. Lindberg on Vimeo.

The Beauty of Mud features stunning high speed footage of someone splashing through a mud puddle. Except that it wasn’t shot at 4,000FPS—it was actually filmed at just 60—and processedwith a plugin called Twixtor.

Since capturing something in extreme slow motion requires a high-speed video camera which cost well north of $100,000, David HJ. Lindberg decided to go the cheaper route with a 60fps capable $760 Canon 550D T2i and the $300+ plugin. It’s not the first time we’ve extolled the virtues of the frame interpolating Twixtor, but this short film seems to push it to extremes without any visible artifacts.

Keep in mind that for every second of footage the plugin had to create an additional 3,940 new frames from the original 60 that were captured. And it did it with results that actually make it almost impossible to tell the slow motion sequences weren’t originally shot that way. It’s yet another valuable tool for filmmakers working on extremely tight budgets, as long as they have the time to wait for hours and hours of processing and rendering. [Vimeo via Doobybrain via PetaPixel via Gizmodo]

Objectivity vs Subjectivity: What Makes a Great Street Photograph?

One of the questions that I have been pondering for quite a while is how much a great street photograph is objective versus subjective. I would say that the general consensus is that great photography, like most of art, is purely subjective. As what they say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

However I would disagree with this opinion, and argue that great street photographs are more objective than subjective. This is much more of a controversial position to hold, but I argue it is more fun to play devil’s advocate than just go with the traditional way of thinking.

Many of my thoughts will stem from studying the works of Cartier-Bresson, in which most of his iconic images that an average person will call “great” is based on strict composition from geometry – based out of compositional theories from paiting. After all, Cartier-Bresson did start off as a painter and referred to his images as “instant sketches.” I will also draw upon some of my own personal observations and opinions—which you may or may not agree with. [read]

Staying Strong Under Stress

I’m not generally a stressed person, but I do get anxious on occasion. You can ask any member of the Behance Team who’s seen me before a big product launch or other major event. My attention to detail, normally a strength, can become a compulsive need to verify everything. If I’m not careful, my drive to be helpful can backfire. [read]

How To Make A Contact Microphone (Piezo)

You’ll find plenty of contact mic tutorials floating around the Web, but bassling (Jason Richardson) – working with a learned technique – has what I think is a really nice example, one that sounds really good. It’s easy to do, but unlike a popular tutorial (and one I’ve tried myself), you won’t wind up dis-assembling a Radio Shack piezo speaker. The result is an inexpensive, versatile microphone that will happily go places your conventional mic won’t, giving you new possibilities for sampling and sound design. [read]

iCam concept turns your iPhone 5 into a point-and-shoot killer

We only very recently learned that Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and CEO for the majority of its existence, sought to revolutionize the consumer electronics market in three key areas.

TV was the first, with Siri integration hotly-rumored to be an associated act with any future iTV developments.

Secondly, he wanted to change the way students and knowledge-seekers searched and read textbooks, with a possibly Newsstand or iBooks-like app.

The other key area – something the fruit company has already tapped into somewhat, was the photography industry. Capitalizing on the success of the iPhone’s snapper, he sought to make Apple a truly-recognized option for amateur and professional photographers alike. [read]

10 Books to Gift the Geeky Creative in Your Life

Here at 99%, we have a serious penchant for books that really dig into the nitty gritty of the creative process, productivity strategies, and/or the future of technology. Now, with our tastes fully disclosed, here’s a highly subjective list of our favorite new(ish) nonfiction titles that would make great gifts for the brainiac in your life. [read]

The Hot Water Bottle: Possibly the Coziest Invention of All Time

Winter is coming, Mr. Stark. Over here at Casa Brown, that means it’s time to break out the hot water bottles. Booyah. It doesn’t get a lot snugglier than a down comforter with a little football of warmth lurking underneath it. And there are so many other uses! Slap one on your back to loosen up a tight muscle; bring fuel to a watergun fight; or fill it with ice water in the summer and use it to cool down. [read]