nasa self portraits . . .

Curiosity, the recently dispatched Mars rover, took a beautiful photograph of itself earlier this month. Given the great range of terrestrial artists who have documented themselves—Cindy Sherman, Lee Friedlander, Tseng Kwong Chi, Nikki S. Lee—it’s not easy for a humble space rover to distinguish itself in the field of self-portraiture. Here’s a selection of ten NASA self-portraits.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth#ixzz27DW30kaU

Side By Side: Trailer

Digital technology has created a groundbreaking evolution in cinema, challenging film as the standard format for motion pictures. In the new documentary Side By Side, Keanu Reeves takes us on a tour of the past and future of the moviemaking process.

edward turner . . .

United Kingdom's National Media Museum revives first-ever film shot in color

In this image released by Britain's National Media Museum on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, a scarlet Macaw on a perch, circa 1902, is depicted amongst the earliest colour moving pictures ever made, which have been rediscovered after more than 100 years. The footage, made by cinematic pioneer Edward Turner in around 1901, was found in the archives of the National Media Museum in Bradford and with the help of experts at the BFI National Archive was transformed into watchable digital files. AP Photo/National Media Museum. 

By: Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press

Click here to read more.

paper-thin lens . . .

Paper-Thin, Distortion-Free Lenses Could Make Pint-Sized Pro Cameras Possible

Using an ultrathin wafer of silicon and gold to focus lightwaves, researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created a revolutionary new kind of camera lens that completely eliminates the image distortion created by traditional glass lenses. It could not only pave the way for lighter cameras that are still as capable as today's swappable lens models, but even cameraphones that snap images as impressive as a DSLR.

Click here to read more about this new technology.

kodak . . .

Professional photographers still value the unique feel that film gives to their pictures

Debt-struck photography pioneer Kodak says it may sell off its still-camera film and photo paper divisions.

The firm has already stopped making digital cameras as part of efforts to reduce its losses after filing for bankruptcy protection in January.

It has also been trying to raise funds by selling off more than 1,100 digital imaging patents.

It had originally planned to announce a buyer last week, but said "discussions continue" and a deal might not happen.

Apple and Google had been reported to have made rival bids for the patents, but the Wall Street Journal reports they have now joined forces and have added Samsung, LG, HTC and others to their consortium

The WSJ's sources suggested the offer price for the portfolio would be about $500m (£315m) - well below the $2.6bn estimate that Kodak had suggested it could be worth.

The company recently reported a $665m net loss for the first six months of the year, putting further pressure on its finances.

Film's feel

In its latest announcement the US company said it had hired investment bank Lazard to help it sell its Personalised Imaging and Document Imaging businesses.

This would mean an end to it making films for still cameras, photo papers, souvenir photo products at theme parks, scanners and picture print-out kiosks at stores.

It would leave the business focused on printers, cinema film stock and chemicals.

The British Journal of Photography said the news would concern the industry.

"A lot of professionals still shoot with film and like the quality it gives them," Olivier Laurent, news editor at the journal, told the BBC.

"The resolution is still a thousand times higher than most digital cameras can offer so long as a good scanner is used.

"A film photograph has a different mood thanks to its grain - it's about the love of the image and digital still has a hard time trying to reproduce that feeling."

francois robert . . .

“Everyone at Photographic Works/ArtsEye Gallery, a local Tucson business, loves the Holga—a plastic toy camera that shoots 120mm film. In fact, they love it so much, they host an annual photo competition that attracts photographers from around the world. The exhibit features work shot with Holgas and other curious cameras (pin hole, phones, and then some). The giant camera was originally conceived as a prop for the exhibit that paid homage to the Holga. About halfway through the construction process, it was decided it could be made into a functioning camera. All the dimensions are the same as the toy camera, only 20 times larger (to scale).” The builder of the giant Holga and the owner of the photo lab invited photographer Francois Robert to take photographs with the giant Holga on location. “I scouted around and in Tucson for 2 days making sure each location would have an easy access for the horse trailer and the pick up truck.The most challenging aspect of working with it is actually moving it from site to site. Luckily, the camera fits inside a two-horse trailer, though just barely.” –Francois Robert.

The camera is loaded with photographic paper, either color or black-and-white. It can handle film, but there isn’t any large enough on the market that will fit (30″X30″). Hence, the paper, which comes in rolls and can be used as film. A typical exposure depends on how the paper is rated and the filtration. B&W paper typically needs an exposure of about 1 to 2 minutes, while color paper, without filtration, needs about 1 minute. To learn more, contact Photographic Works (520 327- 7291).

camera obscura . . .

Camera Obscura, a room as a large 'pin hole camera' in Venice, from BBC's 'Genius of Photography

jem finer . . .

A perspective-altering work in which a mirrored sphere ‘sits’ atop a shed that internally displays a three-way camera obscura image of the Japanese Garden. Produced with Julia King and Atelier One Structural Engineers.

mark ulriksen . . .

Capturing the Memories by Mark Ulriksen

percent with smartphones . . .

More than a quarter of photos and videos shot by individuals in the U.S. are now being captured by smartphones, according to an online survey of 3,300 Internet users ages 13 and up. Sales data suggest smartphones are replacing consumers’ need for low-end point-and-shoot cameras and camcorders.

The percentage of photos taken with a smartphone went from 17% to 27%, a 44% increase from the year previous, according to a survey conducted by NPD Group. Meanwhile, sales of point-and-shoot cameras dropped 17% in volume and 18% in revenue in the first 11 months of 2011. Individual sales of pocket camcorders dropped 13%, with a 10% decrease in revenue.

Higher-end items performed better: Sales of cameras with detachable lenses (average price: $863) increased by 12%, and sales of point-and-shoot cameras with optical zooms of 10x or greater (average price: $247) grew by 16%.

Liz Cutting, executive director and senior imaging analyst at NPD, acknowledged that smartphones are taking the place of point-and-shoot cameras and camcorders in many instances — particularly “spontaneous moments” — but for important events, single-purpose cameras and camcorders remain the device of choice.

We asked Flickr reps if they were seeing a similar in increase in mobile uploads. The company said traffic to its mobile site doubled this year, and uploads from mobile sources has increased eightfold in the last two years.

Image courtesy of Photojojo

new gigapixel camera . . .

An advanced camera powerful enough to shoot one billion pixels of still or video image is currently being tested at Duke University. Details of this research were released in the scientific journal Nature earlier this week. Read more . . .

the end of kodak . . .

Kodak's long fade to black

by Michael Hiltzik

December 4, 2011

Like the passing of distinguished individuals, the passing of great corporations should prompt us to ponder the transience of earthly glory.

So let's pay our respects to Eastman Kodak, which at this writing appears to be a shutter-click from extinction.Once ranked among the bluest of blue chips, Kodak shares sell today at close to $1. Kodak's chairman has been denying that the company is contemplating a bankruptcy filing with such vehemence that many believe Chapter 11 must lurk just around the corner.

The Rochester, N.Y., company said it had $862 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30, but at the rate it's losing money from operations (more than $70 million a month), that hoard would barely last a year. As for future revenue, it's banking heavily on winning patent lawsuits against Apple and the maker of BlackBerry phones.

Kodak Brownie and Instamatic cameras were once staples of family vacations and holidays — remember the "open me first" Christmas ad campaigns? But it may not be long before a generation of Americans grows up without ever having laid hands on a Kodak product. That's a huge comedown for a brand that was once as globally familiar as Coca-Cola.

It's hard to think of a company whose onetime dominance of a market has been so thoroughly obliterated by new technology. Family snapshots? They're almost exclusively digital now, and only a tiny fraction ever get printed on paper.

Eastman Kodak engineers invented the digital camera in 1975; but now that you can point and click with a cheap cellphone, even the stand-alone digital camera is becoming an endangered species on the consumer electronics veld. The last spool of yellow-boxed Kodachrome rolled out the door of a Mexican factory in 2009. Paul Simon composed his hymn to Kodachrome in 1973, but his camera of choice, according to the lyrics, was a Nikon.

It's not uncommon for great companies to be humbled by what the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter called the forces of "creative destruction." Technology, especially digital technology, has been the most potent whirlwind sweeping away old markets and old strategies for many decades. Changing economics and global competition have reduced behemoths of the past, such as General Motors, into mice of the present.

Kodak's decline is of a different order from GM's. The latter still manufactures a product with a huge market demand; it just got sloppy and inefficient at turning out its cars and trucks. That's why the federal government, not to mention GM's unions and other stakeholders, thought a dramatic restructuring might put it back on its feet. (That it was a central player in an industry employing hundreds of thousands of Americans was part of the calculus too.)

Kodak, however, markets a process technology; and as the chemistry of film has yielded to digital electronics, consumer demand for Kodak's traditional products has evaporated. A similar transition afflicts newspapers, book publishers, movie studios, broadcasters and record labels today, but the issues for those industries are different yet.

Their business models are under pressure because they're dependent on outdated distribution technologies; but their core products (information, entertainment) are still very much in demand.

So Kodak has faced a tougher challenge than automakers or content producers. Still, it has met the challenge ham-handedly. This is characteristic of companies that have enjoyed what one might think of as success on a tragic scale.

Almost from Kodak's founding by George Eastman in 1880, the money had rolled in, thanks to Eastman's razor-blade strategy of selling cameras cheaply and reaping lavish margins from consumables — film, chemicals and paper.

As late as 1976, Kodak commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the U.S., according to a 2005 case study for Harvard Business School. Such seemingly unassailable competitive positions tend to foster unimaginative executive cultures, and Kodak's was no exception.

Even after Fuji Photo crept into the U.S. market with lower-priced film and supplies, Kodak refused to believe Americans would ever desert its sacred brand. Complacently, the company spurned the chance to become the official film of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics; the bid went instead to Fuji, which exploited its sponsorship to win a permanent foothold in the marketplace.

Then came digital. Far from scorning the new technology, Kodak ramped up research and development to nearly 10% of sales in the mid-1980s and integrated digital features into its product lines, including video systems, scanners and photo enhancement software.

But its executives couldn't foresee a future in which film had no role in image capture at all, nor come to grips with the lower profit margins or faster competitive pace of high-tech industries. At one meeting with Microsoft's Bill Gates to discuss integrating Kodak's photo CDs with Windows, Kodak Chairman Kay Whitmore fell asleep.

Whitmore was succeeded by George M.C. Fisher, who as the former CEO of Motorola had a better grasp of high tech. Fisher reached out to Microsoft and other new consumer merchandisers. For example, Apple's pioneering QuickTake consumer digital cameras, introduced in 1994, were mostly Kodak products with Apple nameplates. But Fisher never conceived of an entirely filmless world, either.

Under Fisher's successor, Daniel Carp, Kodak moved headlong into digital photography, but at a cost. In 2001 it held the No. 2 spot in U.S. digital camera sales (behind Sony), but its executives acknowledged it was losing $60 on every camera sold. By last year it ranked fourth. And it can hardly escape the company's notice that an ever-smaller percentage of digital pictures are being taken on digital cameras, as opposed to cellphones and tablets.

As time passes, Kodak looks more and more like a truck spinning its wheels in mud. The company hasn't had a profitable year since 2007. Its current chairman, Antonio Perez (a former executive at Hewlett-Packard, another company riding on bald tires), said last month on announcing Kodak's dismal third-quarter results that he's delighted in the profit prospects for its inkjet printers. But does anybody else out there think that desktop printing is a growth market?

Kodak's biggest revenue score of 2010 was $838 million it collected from patent licensing, evidently including a settlement it reached with LG after suing the South Korean company for patent infringement. Through the first three quarters of this year, the same category produced zero. But Perez is still hoping for a big score from another patent sale.

It may be premature to write Kodak off. After all, the company does have more than a century's experience in consumer marketing and a technology portfolio potentially worth billions. But companies that can remake themselves to survive changes on the scale of what Kodak confronts are rare indeed.

IBM has done so, and General Electric, but not many others.

Kodak was once such a pervasive part of our lives that the "Kodak moment," defined as a personal event that demanded to be recorded for posterity, entered our lexicon.

Now when even the most private Kodak moment seems to unfold before the digital gaze of a hundred iPhones, it looks as though Kodak's moment has passed. The circle of life in business is a natural phenomenon, the lesson of which shouldn't be overlooked by companies that seem to have cemented themselves into permanent spots at the top of the world today — including Apple, Google and Facebook. The lesson is: Nothing lasts forever.

Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. His latest book is "The New Deal: A Modern History." Reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik,check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

richard learoyd . . .

For those of you interested in portraiture, take a look at the work of Richard Learoyd, currently on view at McKee Gallery. According to the press release, "Mr. Learoyd’s large-scale, unique photographs are achieved through his mastery of the camera obscura technique. His studio, a single room in which the subject, the lens, the Ilfochrome film, the artist, the lights and the darkroom occupy most of the space, becomes, in effect, the camera itself."

early kodak circular photos . . .

Here's a link to the "Retronaut" blog I told you about in class Monday. And a selection of circular photographs taken with an early Kodak camera.

tiny cameras, big features . . .

In the September 29 issue of The New York Times, David Pogue describes two new compact cameras whose features rival those of a larger DSLR. Click here to read Pogue's Posts.

most influential cameras . . .

Click here to see and read about the 14 most influential cameras of all time. Fun reading. A couple pictured below:

new camera technologies . . .

Click here to read about the latest new camera technologies coming down the line, such as:

Panasonic 3-D Camcorder

Big Canon Chip