The first digital camera
Steve Sasson created the world’s first digital camera in 1976, while working at Kodak. He discusses the development of the camera in this video.
It was a camera that didn’t use any film to capture still images – a camera that would capture images using a CCD imager and digitize the captured scene and store the digital info on a standard cassette. It took 23 seconds to record the digitized image to the cassette. The image was viewed by removing the cassette from the camera and placing it in a custom playback device.
Given Moore’s Law, they estimated that it would take 15 to 20 years before such a camera reached the general consumer. The patent file contains a description and drawings of the apparatus.
Photo tampering history
Hany Farid keeps an archive of photo tampering throughout history. Altering photographs to tell a different story is nothing new, it’s been happening for more than a hundred years. Stalin, Mao and Hitler removed their old friends from photographs too.
Lightroom presets
Presetpond is a community for sharing Lightroom and Aperture presets.
Pursuing the elusive shot
Blood, Sweat and Photographic Tears, the story of a wildlife photographer in pursuit of that rare and fleeting frame. Greg du Toit spent eight months camping out daily at a Kenyan watering hole, enduring parasites and insects, to capture a photo of a wild lion drinking.
Electric photography
Wired has posted a gallery of beautiful electricity photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto.
For his latest project, called Lightning Fields, the award-winning photographer traded optics for electricity. He wields a Van de Graaff generator to send up to 400,000 volts through film to a metal table. The resulting fractal branching, subtle feathering, and furry whorls call to mind vascular systems, geologic features, and trees.
The last London darkrooms
Last one out, please turn on the light is a survey of London’s remaining professional darkrooms, by Richard Nicholson. The photographs are well lit to reveal the beautiful machinery of an often gloomy place.
The decade in photos
The Big Picture has a good collection representing the decade in news photography.
The 1930s-1940s in colour
The Library of Congress has posted a set of colour photos from World War II era America in their photostream.
Empty
Photographs of empty motel swimming pools.
Cover artist
Thomas Allen cuts up pulp books and arranges them in a new context to create stunning photographs. I recently came across this post featuring samples of his work, and his desktop wallpaper for Kitsune Noir. Allen’s work is also featured at Foley Gallery, Carroll and Sons and Joseph Bellows Gallery.
Photos from NASA
Pretty much all of the media produced by NASA is public domain. That means you can do almost anything you want with the wealth of images available at NASA Images. In other news, efforts are being made to recover high-resolution images from the Lunar Orbiter program that was tasked with mapping the lunar surface before the Apollo missions. The ongoing recovery program is based out of an abandoned McDonald’s.
London from above
London from above, at night. Gorgeous photos from one of my favourite cities.
A six month exposure
A six month exposure of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, was taken by Justin Quinnell, using a pinhole camera strapped to a telephone pole. The photograph resembles a painting, and shows the arc of the sun from winter solstice to summer. Prints are available, as well as those from a few other long exposures.
Abandoned London
Abandoned London features Christmas day photographs of England’s largest city. Having walked around most of these places, I have to admit that it’s a little eerie seeing them with so few people.
