Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Brickfish Sponsors Photo Shoot Out

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Brickfish, the site known for the photography contests it offers in conjunction with other companies, is holding its second Photo Shoot Out. The winner will receive a $1,000 grand prize. The photo that gets the most votes will win the “Most Viral” prize, and pick up a $500 prize. The details for entering are available on the Brickfish site.

According to Brickfish’s standard terms of use, any photograph you submit to one of the site’s contest remains yours, although by uploading you agree to leave your photograph up throughout the contest, as well as after the contest ends. You also agree to let certain third parties use your photos — such as the companies that Brickfish routinely partners with. There are more specific rules in place for the Photo Shoot Out and other contests.

 

Joby Expands Gorillapod Offerings

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Joby Gorillapod Original Flexible Camera TripodI’ve been a big fan of Joby’s Gorillapods for awhile now. They’ve recently come out with a new version, the Gorillapod Go-Go. The Go-Go is actually a little smaller and lighter than the original Gorillapod or the SLR Gorillapod. But it also comes with a couple of mounts not yet available with the older versions. Beyond the standard camera tripod mount, the Go-Go has a suction cup for temporarily holding other gear and a stickypad for a more permanent attachment.

The rumor is that they’ll be releasing the attachments as a separate product, for those of us who already own either the original version or the SLR.

Live Blogs From Photoshop World

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There’s a whole list of bloggers posting updates from Photoshop World, providing pretty thorough coverage for those of us who aren’t there. John Paul Caponigro got the idea yesterday and managed to put it together in a hurry. He invited the ‘movers and shakers’ at Photoshop World to post the highlights of their day during each day of the convention, and so far, it’s going well.

So far, the list of participating bloggers includes the following:

They keep trickling in, though, so it’s worth checking back to see who else has added their thoughts about the various talks going on.

Get Your Photos on the Cover of Lonely Planet

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The Lonely Planet travel guides have become the travel guide for the young and the hip. Now, Lonely Planet has teamed up with photo-sharing site Pikeo to find new cover images.

If you have a great photo of Paris, London, Barcelona or Istanbul sitting around, consider uploading it to Pikeo. The directions on how to do so are on the contest page. The winner won’t just get his or her image on the cover of a Lonely Planet book, though. The winner will also get a trip from Intrepid Travel — the choices are India, the Serengeti Trail, Morocco or Russia. I know I wouldn’t mind a chance to take photos on the Serengeti Trail.

Canon Releases Firmware

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Canon announced a firmware update for the EOS Rebel XSi / 450 digital SLR camera. Update version 1.0.9 fixes several problems that have been reported to Canon with Auto Exposure Bracketing, Live View and Playback. The exact fixes are:

Fixes a phenomenon in which AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) shooting does not operate normally under specific conditions.
Fixes a phenomenon in which the Live View exposure simulation warning indication does not properly display during Live View shooting.
Fixes a phenomenon in which images cannot be played back after continuous shooting when a printer is connected to the camera or a video output terminal is used.

The previous firmware version is 1.0.4 — if your camera uses this version, updating is recommended.

Further information about the update is available on Canon’s update page.

Rumors of RED Competition for D90

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RED, the company known for its ‘future-proof’ camcorders, will be adding a DSLR line, according to comments made by Jim Jannard on the company’s forums.

Jannard’s comments focused on RED’s next generation Mysterium “Monstro” sensor. Monstro will be offered as a free upgrade to the Mysterium-X piece shipping in Epic, but is also slated for a new DSLR camera. Further hints seem to indicate that RED’s new DSLR is meant to compete with the Nikon D90 — it seems likely that the camera will shoot both stills and motion.

At a guess, a RED DSLR would at least have adapters for Nikon and Canon lenses, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Snapture Improves iPhone Photography

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iPhone application Snapture may be limited to jailbroken iPhones, but if you’re willing to go to that effort, it can make some major improvements to your iPhone’s photographic abilities.

Features such geotagging and a delay timer give an iPhone the functions necessary to at lease match a point-and-shoot camera. But Snapture goes so far as to provide photographers with a little basic editing capability on the go. While few professional photographers are going to change over to the iPhone as a main camera, Snapture does extend its abilities enough to make it a useful tool for an amateur photographer.

Billboard Company Cancels Photographer’s Contract

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On the eve of the Republican National Convention, CBS Outdoor — a St. Paul, Minn. billboard company — canceled a contract with Suzanne Opton. The contract was for a series of photographs of American soldiers that would be displayed on the billboards, as part of Opton’s series called “Soldier Billboard Project.”

The images were taken of soldiers at Fort Drum, New York, in 2004 and 2005. Opton had permission from both the soldiers and their commanders. Images from the series are in in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. They have also been widely exhibited both in the U.S. and in Europe.

Jodi Senese, CBS Outdoor’s executive vice president of marketing, wrote Opton: “The reason we have advised you that we cannot post these as billboards is that out-of-context (neither in a museum setting or website) the images, as stand-alone highway or city billboards, appear to be deceased soldiers. The presentation in this manner could be perceived as being disrespectful to the men and women in our armed forces.”

Canon Powershot E1

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Canon’s Powershot E1 will go on sale at the beginning of September. The specs are respectable for a point-and-shoot: 10-megapixels, 4x optical zoom and optical image stabilization, macro
mode, ISO80-1600 (with 3200 scene mode) and a 2.5-inch TFT display.

The E1 runs on AA batteries and weighs in at 0.35 pounds. It will be priced at about $200. Oh, and it’s available in vanilla, powder blue and baby pink. After all, who doesn’t need a pink camera?

According to a press release from Canon, the color choices give the E1 a ‘youthful twist.’ The camera’s start-up screen and menus can even be coordinated with the camera’s body color.

Win a Free Lens Rental

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DPS and BorrowLenses.com have teamed up to run a contest. The prize is a two-week rental of a DSLR lens — any lens that BorrowLenses.com offers, with the exception of super telephoto lenses.

The contest is open to anyone living in the U.S. (BorrowLenses.com only ships to U.S. addresses and only offers in-person pickups in San Mateo and San Jose, California). All you have to do to enter is post a comment [Ed. on DPS’ website – link] with the lens you want to rent. A list of lenses is available on the BorrowLenses.com website and the selection seems pretty decent. The winner will need to provide BorrowLenses.com with a credit card number, ‘just in case.’

You can enter on DPS’ post announcing the contest.