TWiP #215 – Stock it to Me

This week on TWiP: Stock buyers or stock shooters – who's to blame for the state of stock photography today, Delkin releases new CF cards for extreme conditions, a photograph of President Obama at a memorial site stirs some controversy, and Nokia creates the world's largest stop-motion animation with a cell phone camera.

Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Derrick Story, Nicole Young

NEWS & DISCUSSION

Amateur Buyers Buying Stock from Semi-Pro Photographers – Is it Ruining the Photography Industry?
A recent article on Photopreneur.com raised the question about who is to blame for the current state of the stock industry. The article points to amateur buyers and low budgets as a contributing factor to the current state of stock photography and that more and more semi-pro photographers are happy to shoot the same boring stock that these amateur buyers are snapping up. Nicole thinks that this article is just link bait and that no matter what genre of photography you look at, this situation exists.

New Delkin CF Cards Will Out-Survive Your Camera (and Possibly, You!)
New CF cards from Delkin will be able to withstand temperatures between -40 to +185°F.  Assuming you want, or can, shoot in those conditions, you are covered – as long as your camera survives too which is not a given since those temperatures are way outside of most camera's safe operating parameters.  The price for these crazy-tough cards: $550 for a 32GB version.

Photo of President Obama at Military Memorial Service Stirs Controversy
Controversy has been generated over a photo of President Obama paying his respects as the remains of Navy SEALs, killed in that downed helicopter in Afghanistan, were returned to the U.S.  Traditionally, photography of returning caskets at Dover Air Force Base has been allowed only if the families of the dead give their approval.  In this case, White House photographer Pete Souza was able to create the image even though 19 of the 30 families did not give the okay.  The press were told they could not take any photos of the scene, not even some of just the officials at the event while the White House widely distributed their photo.

Nokia Creates Largest Stop Motion Animation
Not satisfied with creating a stop-motion animation of microscopic proportions, Nokia has gone in the opposite direction, this time turning a beach into what Guinness deemed the “world's largest stop motion animation set.” The 12-megapixel stills were shot over five days using a Nokia N8 cell phone strapped to a 40 meter high cherry picker, and the largest scene spans a whopping 11,000 square feet! Nicole points us to Timescapes.org as a great resource to learn more about time-lapse photography. Both Derrick and Nicole encourage everyone to get a copy of QuickTime 7 Pro to do your stop-motion animations.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Question 1 – Photowalk Tips
Jason Heynen  from New Zealand is organizing a Photowalk focused on iPhone/mobile photography and is looking for some tips and advice to focus on during the walk?

Nicole – I would encourage the walkers to share photos as they post them (like to Twitter, or G+). Or, maybe give them a theme to work with (shape, perspective, etc.). Derrick doesn't worry too much about creating amazing images but focuses instead on the social aspects and getting to meet other photographers.

Question 2 – Natural ISOs
Guillermo from Mexico City would like to know more about the native ISOs on cameras to get the best out our pictures. For example, he's heard you get better noise performance at ISO 640 than at ISO 200 on a Canon camera.

Derrick – He's heard about natural ISO but not 640 as a natural ISO. ISO isn't the only thing that affects noise. How hot the camera is can also push the noise up. Nicole hasn't seen any hard science but if some proof does exist then she'd like to test it out.

Question 3 – Lens Recommendation for the E-PL1
Sam Brooks writes: I've recently brought a micro four thirds camera (the e-pl1) for my trip to NY. What lens would you recommend for making the most of my trip? I can only buy one extra lens with my budget.

Derrick – for NY, I'm thinking street photography and buildings so I would recommend the 17mm f2.8 prime lens for around $299. It's a small, discrete lens that is very sharp. If money is no object, they also have a beautiful new 12mm f2.0 lens.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Derrick – Epson R2000 13″ WiFi Printer

Nicole – onOne webinars and Copyright panel on Google+

Frederick – Tokyo Girl Documents her levitation adventures and Chase Jarvis' blog: Aperture vs Photoshop in post production

WRAP UP

Follow us on twitter.com/ThisWeekInPhoto. Join the Flickr critique group. You can also join our Facebook group.

Derrick Story – http://www.thedigitalstory.com or http://www.twitter.com/derrick_story

Nicole Young – http://www.nicolesyblog.com or http://www.twitter.com/nicolesy or http://www.nicolesyplus.com

Frederick Van Johnsonwww.frederickvan.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan or Google Plus

CREDITS

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Pre-Production and Show notes by Bruce Clarke www.momentsindigital.com or www.twitter.com/bruceclarke

Producer: Suzanne Llewellyn

Bandwidth provided by Cachefly

Intro Music by Scott Cannizzaro

Photo Credit: Peter Harrison

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