Here’s What You May Have Missed This Week In Photography
So onto the rundown of this past week in the photography world!
HARDWARE AND GEAR
The Rarest Canon Lens Ever Just Appeared Out Of Nowhere
Yup, once again, we have stumbled onto what seems to be a pretty rare lens. This time the spotlight is on the Canon 45-200mm f/2.8. This is a prototype that was presented in a by Canon in 1959 in a press release, but that it never made it to market. The extremely rare Canon Prototype Lens appeared last week at an auction at eBay for almost $30,000. It is suggested that only 4 or 5 copies of this lens exist on earth.
Leica Went Accessible
Compact and powerful, the new D-Lux 7 is a very interesting camera released by Leica. This small camera promises to deliver a unique combination of first-class optics and high-end technology. The camera features a very large 4/3rds sensor, with an impressively fast f/1.7-2.8 10.9-34mm lens (24–75mm 35mm equivalent). The price of this bad boy is somewhat accessible if you compare it with other Leica models.
It isn't A Vape, But It's Smokey!
If you like to shoot commercial or conceptual photographs, then it is very likely that you have needed some smoke on your images. Cigarettes and Vapes don't deliver smoke in a photogenic way, and regular smoke machines are bulky and expensive. Last week the guys over at Fstoppers reviewed a very interesting Pocket-Sized Smoke Machine called the Micro Fogger, check it out, it could be pretty useful and is really cheap.
What The Brown?
Fujifilm released a pretty hipster looking X100F in the colour brown. Personally, we love the inconspicuous nature of all-black Fujifilm cameras, but this could be a really elegant trigger for some people still shooting DSLR cameras to go out and buy it.
SOFTWARE
Decoding Lightroom
Lightroom is the whole package for developing a Raw file from start to finish (finish being online publishing or print). A lot of people are familiar with Photoshop, so when they get Lightroom in their hands their heads explode a little. In this brief yet smart guide, you can learn how to start decoding Lightroom easily. It is quite simple, you just need to follow its built-in workflow and you'll be all set.
SOME STORIES
Coming Soon: The Art of Street Photography
What about taking a course given by Magnum? Sounds great doesn't it? Well, Magnum will launch their first online photography education platform soon, with “The Art of Street Photography”. The course comprises ten engaging, in-depth, video lessons: Learn what is required to become a successful street photographer, understand framing, how to photograph people, discover alternative approaches, and how to create meaning from chaos through the editing process. You can sign-up for the course here.
Sweet Revenge
Getting your camera stolen is really awful, and we wish that it never happens to any of you. If this has ever happened to you, you'll understand the bitter experience behind getting not only your precious gear stolen but also your photos getting ripped from your hands. Read this story about a man not only recovering his camera but also helping to get the thief arrested. Sweet revenge indeed.
Margins of Excess
Max Pinckers documented the lives of six individuals who embody the inseparability of fact and fiction. Take a look at this series of images to feel how the message and story in a photograph can really exist on its own, without a trace of the hand of its maker.
THE WEEK IN IMAGES
Escaping from Modern Life by Being Imprisoned for a Weekend
Modern societies have reached an almost full state of drowsiness and anaesthesia. For the last years, a “prison” in South Korea has been locking up paying “inmates” in order to escape from the frantic lifestyle of our modern day. Obviously, mobile devices are not allowed, but beyond that, the “inmates” aren't allowed to talk to each other, and there aren't even clocks around. Take a look at these photographs by Kim Hong-Ji in order to get a grasp of this new approach to freedom.
Fires in California – Not Just Human Lives Are At Stake
Around this time of the year, California always gets hit by dangerous fires – and this year has been devastating. But there are more lives at stake beyond the human ones as you can see here in this collection of photographs from various photojournalists covering these disasters.