around the net 23, LIFE Magazine
* I mountain bike nearby at East Fork Lake when possible. A trip to the beach is always in order and so is picking up trash, doing my part to keep the beach clean. Last week I took along my point’n'shoot, making compositions of the trash and found objects. Photography can make a person do crazy things…
This week’s “around the ‘net” starts with a hearty thanks…to you, the reader. Prophotolife has never been just about technique, or just about equipment or just about the photo business. It’s a dialogue on a little bit of everything about photography, whatever I’ve managed to muster on any given day. I’m grateful that so many readers have chosen to follow along with the bouncing ball of wide-ranging photo topics.
What I’m especially thankful for, though, is the QUALITY of readers here. I’m continually impressed by the intelligent observations shared and your willingness to help one another. In case I haven’t mentioned it lately, thanks again for being a part of prophotolife.
Would you like to market and sell your own editorial photography / photo stories, all while retaining control of the images? Digital Railroad appears to be a top choice among professionals. One motivated user, Borut Peterlin, created his own video review of their services after one year. No, he isn’t rolling in sales but remains positive about the services. It’s always nice to hear about someone’s firsthand experience.
A month ago my head was spinning from work but things are back to being quite manageable. Now my head is spinning from all the new cameras coming out of Photokina. I’ll mention just one: the new Leica SL2 (full info at 1001 Noisy Cameras). If you’re a newbie unfamiliar with the Leica name, well, in the days of film cameras it was the pinnacle of fine German craftsmanship (didn’t the factory, Leitz Weztlar, invent the 35mm camera?).
After taking a thorough digital beating from the Japanese in recent years, Leica just announced the 37 megapixel SL2, a massive 30 x 45mm (larger than full-frame 35mm) sensor in a 35mm sized body. Good on ya, Leica! Of course the price will probably choke a horse (yet to be announced) but it’s good to see them setting trends once again, rather than fighting to keep up.
Are you familiar with LIFE Magazine? It was the first all-photojournalism news magazine of the mid-twentieth century. The pages were filled with the work of famous photographers and many careers were launched. LIFE Magazine is staging it’s fourth-ever comeback but this time it will be (in a joint effort with Getty Images) as a “Web site offering free, downloadable photos from world-renowned photographers“.
The New York Post reports: “Only consumers who use the images for non-commercial purposes will be permitted to tap into the photos, which will include 3,000 new downloads from Getty plus the extensive archives from both Getty and the original Life magazine.”
It’s a very interesting development because Getty makes their money from licensing images (Getty Images, iStockphoto, the Flickr partnership, etc.). Now they’re giving free image licenses to a multitude of photographs for non-commercial use. The “book” on photo usage in the internet age is still being written.
It’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend here in Cincinnati, the first weekend of fall. (sounds like more biking and trash photography should be on the schedule). I’ll also be putting together Monday’s video when time allows…have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!
- Jim T.
Hello Jim this was a very cool article, it was almost like the movie “Being John Malcovich”, but in this case it was more like “being Jim Talkington” yes its enjoyable.
And yes, life is good sometimes, we need to relax and smell the flowers, true! I do that every time I’m thru a hard period of exhausting work…and the idea of doing something outside of the box is always a marvel! Helps recover from extensive work, let’s say…therapeutic.
The new Leica gulp! Has me drawling, it’s just like someone actually listened to the cry of their people! After Leica’s fabulous lineup of range finders that cost more than average…and their virtuous glass series…finally decided to jump in to the DSLR world…and did it gracefully, loaded with real serious quantum leaps from the leaders… they are not offering carrots, they are serious about it…their large sensor with their new proportion sounds magical…pixel count fabulous… I feel like someone will actually put some pressure on those pricey thirty something MPX Hassies but for sure priced over $$15k at least! Sigh!
Life Mag, memorable, passionate about photography, serious about the human experience, a real treasure of recorded human history of the last century.
I’m really skeptical with the new Leica. First of all look at it, it looks like a completely uncomfortable brick. Many experts and “experts” estimate price to be similar to medium format. I really doubt that quality will be as good as full, medium frame digital backs and ease of use will not be as good as leading pro-SLRs either. I know it’s only a prototype but really, i would like to see something more serious when looking at probably 20 thousand USD camera and completely new set of lenses I would need to buy for it.
I feel this camera is dedicated to people who have too much money and still have memory of Leica as an exclusive brand, not for people that make or want to make living with their cameras.
I think that your interaction with the readers of your blog makes the community here the kind it is. You don’t see a lot of that interaction, that I know of, from a whole lot of other places. It’s what I enjoyed most about reading and commenting on your blog. You respond to questions.
I was never a reader of Time magazine. I don’t read many magazines, to be honest. An NRA magazine and Outdoor Photographer. That’s about it. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of photos and what resolution they’ll make available. It’ll be nice if they’re big enough to print at 8×10 or 16×20.
About the Leica… I’m too excited about the 5d Mark II to care about that. You going to upgrade anytime soon? Or are you going to wait until the prices come down significantly?
It is good to see LIFE trying to make another comeback. They, along with National Geographic, have always been high in my memories of great, topic-oriented photographic images. I hope it works out for them.
Not sure where else to put this, so here goes… a pinhole camera made from a skull.
And great craftmanship, too!
http://www.ectomo.com/index.php/2008/09/22/pinhole-camera-fashioned-from-150-year-old-skull/
Marcin, I’m sure you’re right, I probably won’t know anyone purchasing the Leica for their business. When I worked in a camera store years ago the only people that bought Leicas from us were doctors that would come in once a year to have the film loaded for them.
I’ve never been an early adopter, John, so I’ll wait a couple months…but the 5D Mark II is SWEET. We’ll be consolidating equipment so it’s next on the list. Have you seen the video it produces? That’s a crazy amount of features for $2700!
Speaking of LIFE and Time Magazine, I’ve been inspired by more photojournalism lately and have found some cool links to share this week.
Jim. I haven’t seen the video from the new 5D yet. I’ll look for it today. I bet it will be fun to play with though.
Hopefully the price is down some by the end of next year. I really want that camera!
You should consider changing this post, Digital Railroad went bankrupt…