Category Archives: Photography

It’s been just over a year since I looked at the superb Punks Billy 2.0, and now, 3LT has launched the Punks Billy 2.0 Darkness edition. The Darkness edition isn’t a new tripod, and a simple new colour option isn’t something we would usually cover, but here this colour change is far more than just an aesthetic update, it also enhances the tripod’s features.

Essentially 3LT has once again listened to its user base and produced this understated colour option on a variety of their tripods and L-Brackets. While the design of the units remains exactly the same, the new all-black look is more than just aesthetic.

Users have noted that some of the bright colours used in the tripods can reflect back from certain surfaces, and a pure black tripod is far easier to mask and hide in the shadows than their brighter and more cheerful-looking counterparts.

Now you may be thinking that while 3LT’s USP has always been the bright anodised parts that break away from the usual muted colour tones of most tripods, most tripods, by their very nature, are dark in colour. However, look at almost any tripod, and you’ll notice silver leg adjusters, red or blue bands of colour and bright white logos that are ready to reflect off glass, water and all manner of shiny objects. In contrast, the Darkness is all black; there’s nothing shiny to reflect back and haunt your images in the digital darkroom.

The lengths that 3LT has gone to mask and hide the presence of anything other than black in the 3LT Punks Billy 2.0 is quite extraordinary; sure enough, putting the tripod to the test and the new colour option certainly does the job.

At a recent shoot in a museum and with the Punks Billy 2.0 matched with the LEE FILTERS Elements Circular Polariser and a large black sheet, the tripod vanished from the reflection of protective plexiglass and reflective surfaces. Compared with the usual use of gaffa tape to hide and mask anything on the supports that is light in colour, the neat and tidy form of the Punks Billy 2.0 Darkness edition did the job. Once again in use, the Billy 2.0 reinforces itself as one of the best tripods on the market.

Now, all I need is the same design with 32mm tubes and an accessories thread with stops!

Really this is an outstanding tripod and one of the best investments you make now, for more details check out 3leggedthing.com

A photo exhibition titled ‘Ankur’, organised by Mangaldeep Foundation, was inaugurated at Asiatic Centre in the capital’s Banani on Sunday.

The exhibition is being held at Asiatic Centre’s Batighar Sritite Shorone Aly Zaker auditorium, featuring 30 photographs by Farhana Setu.

On this occasion, a press conference was organised at Asiatic Centre where former culture minister and cultural personality Asaduzzaman Noor, Asiatic Managing Director Iresh Zaker, photographer Farhana Setu and others were present.

Farhana Setu said, “I have overcome many challenges to create these works. I want to create awareness through them.”

Asaduzzaman Noor said, “Aly Zaker was not only busy with business or cultural activities. He was involved in numerous endeavours. He died of cancer. He wanted to work with cancer patients. We are trying to make his wish a reality. We will continue to conduct such activities under the management of Asiatic.”

About three lakh children are affected by blood or bone marrow cancer every year in the country, out of which only 20% can recover. The exhibition has been organised to increase the sympathy of all towards the affected children and also to create awareness of the related issues.

The photographer has tried to highlight the dreams and visions of the affected children through the exhibition. The show will continue until 3 December and is open for all from 3 PM to 8 PM daily.

The most anticipated mobile chip of the year, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is already out with a lot new capabilities and features. It comes with many enhanced features over the previous editions. The new Qualcomm chip comes with enhancements in areas such as performance, battery endurance, artificial intelligence and camera.

With all these new enhancements, the camera capabilities will be the real game changer. Apart from the new image processing chip that powers the camera capabilities of the new Qualcomm chip. It also has a direct link with the AI chip. The end result of this collaboration will be nothing but a real eye-catching images and videos outputs.

As stated by Judd Heape, the vice president of Qualcomm product management. He said, Snapdragon phones are the new pro cameras. And that, the new chip has so many capabilities. It is up to the smartphone makers to decide which feature to use.

Below, I will talk about top five features of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that will take mobile phone photography to another level in the year ahead of us.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Camera Setup

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 now comes with a direct link between the Spectra Image Signal Processor (ISP) and the Hexagon processor in the AI engine. What this direct link does is that, it processes images with hardware capabilities instead of software.

Before this, the ISP and the AI engines were working independently. So most of the image processing were made possible with the help of software processing. Of course manufacturers will still use software processing to enhance images and videos. But this time around, hardware will handle most of the job.

Support For 200MP cameras

Yes we have seen 200MP mobile cameras this year. But the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 comes with better enhancements to make 200MP cameras shoot like real pro cameras. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 brings better support for 200MP cameras. Especially in telephoto or zooming technology.

With the new support for 200MP lenses, you can zoom and capture images from far distant. And still get crispy image quality. The new Snapdragon chip ISP supports an in-sensor zoom support that can crop down larger images to 12.5MP or 50mp. This removes noise when you zoom in images that you shot with the phone’s camera.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Semantic Segmentation

Another top feature of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the semantic segmentation. This also, is made possible by the direct link between the ISP and the AI engine. It is able to differentiate between objects in any photo and their surroundings.

While the ISP focuses on the image, the AI engine on the other hand tells it which is what. For example, if you take a photo of a person standing outdoor wearing a pair of shoes, dressed in suits and wearing a pair of sunglasses. The AI engine is able to send details of all that the person in the photo is wearing. As well as his surroundings.

The end result of this is that, the image comes out with pure details to every single object in the photo. The AI engine and the ISP works hand-in-hand to make sure this happens.

Initially, phone makers used to make this possible with software optimizations. But that will not be the case anymore, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and its excellent AI capabilities.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Bokeh Engine

The Bokeh engine was introduced in last years Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. But Qualcomm has done something really special to the engine in the Gen 2. With the new improvements you can make changes to the background effects of your photos.

You can adjust the depth of the background blur. You can also change the background lights from blurry dots to a different shape. For example, the new blur engine makes it possible to change blurry circles to heart shapes.

Horizontal Leveling

This new addition to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Will come as a very handy feature in taking both still images and recording videos. This makes sure that all images and videos you take using your smartphone look straight and upright.

So, even if your hands are a bit tilted while taking a shot. The new horizontal leveling feature will automatically correct that for you. This works more like a gimbal, so you don’t need to be a pro photographer to the professional photos and professional videos anymore. Thanks to Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.

As Judd said, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip comes with a lot of capabilities. As we draw closer to 2023, we wait to see which features each manufacturer makes use of and how well these features will work.

Source / Via : Tom’s Guide

 “How can I see this and photograph it differently? What is a way no one has photographed this before?”  -Lauri Novak

Lauri Novak is a photographer specializing in seeing the world differently. Her work features architecture and nature.

Opening photo

Top row, l-r: Church of Our Lady, Bruges, Belgium, Cyclist in front of The Broad Museum, Chicago, IL, Sky and Stone The Getty Museum, The Chair

Bottom row, clockwise l-r: Whale Fluke, Antarctica, Arctic Iceberg and Mountains, Arctic Reflections, Half Moon Island, Antarctica

Since she was 10

Lauri Novak got her first camera in her pre-teen years. She was 10. “I can’t imagine I’d be me without one,” she says. “It’s my therapy and I love being able to help others with their own work, to expand and grow in how they see.”

Lauri Novak works in dental education. At the same time, she has her camera with her everywhere she goes. It doesn’t matter if she is in her hometown of Elgin, Illinois or in one of her favorite places to photograph architecture — downtown Chicago.

Be in the location

Lauri Novak is deliberate in the way she photographs. “One of the main things I do is to allow myself actually to be in the moment,” she says. “Be in the location and take it all in before I put the camera up to my eye. I believe that you can’t really capture the essence of a place if you don’t live it, feel it and experience it first.”

Seeing differently

“My photography reflects my perspective and personality. I have always had a bit of a different way of looking at the world. I feel fortunate not to have gone along with the crowd, just following trends.” Lauri Novak says. “Even though it wasn’t always seen as “right,” my viewpoint and way of being have pushed through in my work.”

Lauri Novak not only sees differently. She shoots that way. She looks for angles and compositions that others miss. Her practice of being in a place fully before taking a photograph shows in her work that hangs in many Chicago art museums.

Arctic voyage

In June 2016 Lauri Novak traveled to the Arctic aboard the ship Akademik Sergey Vavilov. She was one of about 50 photographers on the expedition. They were learning to photograph with everything in motion. The boat and the people on it were moving. The water was too. So were the animals. All that movement made taking photos a challenge. There were four professional photographers on the trip. They helped answer questions. Every evening they held a photographic briefing to go over some of the work. They gave tips on how to improve.

Lauri Novak loves to travel. She says, “The world is always on my list, anywhere and everywhere.”

Words to live by

Lauri Novak finds inspiration in the words of photographer Elliot Erwitt.

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” -Elliot Erwitt

Sources: In the Viewfinder, Artsy Shark, Happier Place, Ugo Cei.

Read about other inspirational photographers in On Photography.

A picture of one of the most picturesque sights in Wales has been chosen as the winner of an illustrious award. Will Davies decided to enter a beautiful picture entitled ‘Brecon in Winter’ into the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards, which was founded in 2006, and considered one of the highest accolades to be had in the field.

The 42-year-old grew up in Usk, but moved to study and work overseas including a ten-year spell in Africa, and he now lives in Washington DC pursuing a career in international development. But Mr Davies tries to get home as much as he can, and during 2019, managed to take a stunning photo of Brecon which he decided to enter into the awards.

And he admitted he was stunned when he received a phone call to say that not only had his photograph been chosen to feature within the Landscape Photographer of the Year collection book, but he had won the competition outright to be crowned Landscape Photographer of the Year and receive a £10,000 cash prize.

READ MORE: Country home in a national park with sweeping views and a surprise converted barn

© Will Davies
‘Brecon in Winter’

© Will Davies
Will Davies

Mr Davies explained: “The competition is something I’ve followed for a number of years as I have been interested in landscape photography. I never thought I’d have any chance of winning it. I’ve been based overseas a lot for work, but I spent just over a year back in Wales in 2019, then 2020, 2021, and I was able to get a decent number of photos together and I thought I’d might as well have a go. For me, a great result would have been to just get in the collection, because it’s quite prestigious, and just getting a photo in the book would have been an achievement.

“To then find out that the photo I took of Brecon actually won the whole thing was amazing. I was pretty shocked. I think it is the first time a Welsh photo has ever won the overall category. My dad used to take me up the Brecon Beacons pretty often walking and fishing and that kind of thing. I was so pleased the winning picture was one from close to home. I’m trying to spend more and more time back in Wales and I think this has motivated me even more to get over as much as I can.

“I have played around with cameras since I was a kid, but it was probably travel which brought it out for me. Spending time in Africa really first got me obsessed with the landscapes, and the wildlife and everything else. What’s been nice is when you come back home you realise how beautiful your own country is, and taking these amazing photos almost on your doorstep back home has been really nice.

“We’re doing a renovation in the house at the moment and the trophy is in a box, but I’ll have to find a mantlepiece to put it on! My mum has been buying up copies of the book and handing them out, and I’ve been getting prints of the photo as well so it makes nice Christmas presents. I’ve spent a lot more printing them for friends and family than I have made out of selling them that’s for sure! I’m hoping to get back for Christmas, hopefully we’ll have some snow over Brecon Beacons and I can take some more to enter for next year.”

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Photojournalist Lynsey Addario could not have been a closer witness to the devastation of the war in Ukraine when Russian forces fired mortar shells as civilians tried to evacuate from Irpin, near Kyiv, on March 6.

A round exploded only feet in front of her and her colleague, leaving four members of a family, including two children, dead on the street.

“That was extremely difficult because we were both in shock,” she told Newsweek, “it’s rare as a journalist that you are actually in the attack that you end up photographing.”

She had previously defended her controversial image after it was published on the front page of The New York Times, as an important testament to Russian aggression.

It is one of a collection of striking pictures by photojournalists in a newly released photo book, Relentless Courage: Ukraine and the World at War, published by Blue Star Press, which documents the human cost of President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

“A lot of the policies and punishments that have been imposed on Putin have been because of the testimonies and the documentation of journalists on the ground, whether it’s from the war crimes in Bucha to the intentional targeting of civilians,” she said.

“I’ve covered war for over two decades and I’ve rarely seen people pay attention to my coverage the way they have in Ukraine,” she said.

Connecticut-born Addario received a Courage in Journalism award from the International Women’s Media Foundation this year and was part of a New York Times team that won a Pulitzer prize in 2009 for their coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Unflinching in their depictions of the impact of war, the book’s images from five featured photojournalists and other photographers document death, evacuations, burials and the trauma endured by Ukrainians.

Justyna Mielnikiewicz was in Dnipro on February 24 when the war started. “It was like the whole country within a day was just hit,” she told Newsweek. “The scale of the attack was so overwhelming.”

Covering the war for The Wall Street Journal, she said that after the initial shock of the invasion, she noticed Ukrainians got to work organizing themselves with volunteer centers being set up.

There were logistical difficulties in getting around, not helped by gasoline shortages and the dangers posed by the fact that the “whole country had become a frontline.”

“It’s important to show people as individuals and not some kind of anonymous mass representing some abstract suffering. I believe in showing individual stories,” Mielnikiewicz said.

“In a time of war, I think you just tune into other people’s emotions,” she said. While she saw herself as a chronicler of the war, it was still important to help where she could. “I’m still a human.”

Meanwhile, another of Addario’s images in the book was taken right at the start of the war during a mass mobilization of volunteers. Flanked by two women holding guns is a teacher called Yuliya looking up in tears.

“I asked her, ‘why are you crying?’ And she said, ‘I’m scared. I’m scared for my country. I’m scared for my future,'” said Addario.

“It was incredible to me to see a teacher go and despite her incredible fear, to volunteer and she’s still in the military,” she said.

“I have witnessed that sort of resilience and determination to fight against the Russians from the very beginning and that’s what sort of made this war unique for me.

“As well as this incredible bravery, people are so unified and they are totally determined to not let Russia take over their country.”