Category Tech Talk

Entries 725 Total

Transmitting History

Jan 1, ’20 6:52 PM

We think it so common now – make a photo, two or three clicks later it’s shared around the world. There’s an entire generation who doesn’t even understand the idea of having to wait to see your own photos, let alone having to wait to see news photos from around the world.

But 85 years ago today, the Associated Press changed the world – the first Wirephoto made its way around the country and visual storytelling became an integral part of our news consumption.

Sixty years later, I was racing around New England with a trunk full of chemicals, stainless steel tanks, film reels and a … $35,000? … Leafax IIId digital transmitter, still needing a place to process film and tap into a phone line.

We’ve come a long way and it has been a very good journey.

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The Importance of Design in Cameras

Oct 2, ’19 9:00 AM

The designed Luigi Colani died recently. While that New York Times obit deals with many things, it doesn’t do justice to the work he did with Canon in the 1980s – he is credited with the design of the T90, the first truly modern SLR camera.

Look at that camera – introduced in 1986, almost every DSLR of today owes a debt to its purposeful, organic and humanist design. That was the camera that truly moved manufacturers away from the dedicated dials and knobs and started to take full advantage of microprocessors.

In the mid-1980s, that was one of the cameras we all lusted after. A beautiful piece of kit that was truly revolutionary.

Over at The Online Photographer, Adam Richardson has a nice tribute to Colani.

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And We’re Back …

Sep 20, ’19 2:25 PM

After being down for a month (long story and, while I gravitate towards long stories, I really don’t want to talk about this one), Visual Journalism is back up and running.

Mostly.

We did lose all of the Category assignments for the last 12 years worth of posts. Hoping we can recover them, but I think that may be a bridge too far at this point.

New posts coming soon, it’s nice to have this corner of the web back to myself again.

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Photographing Apollo 11

Aug 6, ’19 10:00 AM

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen online, if you’re a space geek, you’re about to lose part of your morning.

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Inside the Canon EOS R

Oct 21, ’18 8:50 AM

Sometimes, I really want to take things apart … then I remember I would be responsible for putting them back together. Which makes me happy when Roger Cicala at LensRentals.com does it.

They last camera I disassembled was an all-mechanical Nikon, things have changed.

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Printing Out of Time

Apr 19, ’18 8:27 PM

My darkroom days are, thankfully, in the past. I was never enamored with the process of photography, it was the message and meaning of an image I fell in love with. The ability to bring someone somewhere, to let them bear witness.

That said, I do appreciate the work of masters in the craft and the Cibachrome prints of Christopher Burkett are enchanting. That his days in the darkroom are numbered is, truly, saddening.

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Automating the Copyright Infringement Search

Feb 24, ’18 9:20 AM

Steven Melendez at FastCompany has an interesting piece up on two companies – Copypants and Pixsy – that are automating the search for copyright infringements online.

The technology (similar to Google’s and TinEye’s reverse image search) has the potential to be a powerful way to control how our images are used. The danger comes from how the process moves forward after finding a possible infringement – overly aggressive law firms could spur rollbacks of copyright protections in a worst-case scenario.

Now, if there were a way to get hosting platforms to tie into a reverse image search with the Copyright Office to stop the images from even getting posted, that could be a game changer – getting more people to register AND making potential infringers aware of what they are doing.

(Thanks to John Harrington for the link.)

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This Is Why I Can’t Have Nice Things …

Sep 29, ’17 9:11 PM

I would be just like Roger Cicala at LensRentals.com.

Where are my screwdrivers …

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Nerd Alert: Filter Testing

Jul 6, ’17 10:00 AM

So how much light does your filter transmit? How much should it? What about the people who say they don’t use filters because it degrades the image?

Many answers in Roger Cicala’s giant test of lens filters.

And, of course, many more questions …

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Time Check

Mar 12, ’17 11:16 AM

Now that you’ve finished going through the Sunday papers, haul out your cameras and get those time stamps updated.

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