Interestingly this form of photography still exists in many countries as a cheap and instant mean to a photograph.
The Afghan Box Camera Project provides a record of the kamra-e-faoree (instant camera) which as a living form of photography is on the brink of disappearing in Afghanistan.
In this video, Qalam Nabi, one of the last two remaining box camera photographers in Kabul demonstrates how to use his camera.
Shoot first, focus later!
With the new revolutionary Light Field Camera, Lytro, it is possible now to shoot first and focus later. Lytro creates still where you can focus (or correct focus) afterwards.
The team at Lytro is completing the job of a century’s worth of theory and exploration about light fields. Lytro’s engineers and scientists have taken light fields out of the lab – miniaturizing a roomful of cameras tethered to a supercomputer and making it fit in your pocket.
The light field is a core concept in imaging science, representing fundamentally more powerful data than in regular photographs. The light field fully defines how a scene appears. It is the amount of light traveling in every direction through every point in space – it’s all the light rays in a scene. Conventional cameras cannot record the light field … read all the science inside Lytro here.
Impressive … but I’m concerned that technology advancement is shifting focus from photography to post-processing. What is left now for photographers to master? From Lightroom/Aperture to Photoshop, from correcting light-metering to enhancing colors afterward and now focus too! The only thing left now is composition. I’m sure one day, very soon, there’s going to be a camera or technology that would capture images beyond the standard aspect ratios with adjustable wide angles. We already are seeing video cameras that start recording even before the button is pressed.
One practical use of this camera, aside from consumer usage, would be in journalism but one thing is for sure that there would be no more orbs and ghosts in photos anymore!
This was evident – an HDR video camera! We have seen the Highly Dynamic Range video concept with two DSLRs here and then painstakingly done frame by frame here. Contrast Optical Design & Engineering Inc. recently introduced a groundbreaking and fundamentally new technology in the form of an HDR video camera that is poised to change the HDR imagery landscape. AMP’s HDR video Camera shoots 1080p at 24ps or 30fps video with RAW data.
The AMP philosophy is to preserve all the content and information in a scene, thus giving the artist as much raw material to work with. To this end, we developed the AMP camera and video system. AMP uses a novel optical engine to split the light from a single camera lens onto three digital video sensors. AMP can produce a true, high-dynamic range (HDR) image for every single frame in the video stream. And the best news is: that’s just the beginning.
AMP captures three widely spaced exposures in order to extend the dynamic range of the camera and produce images that are as close as possible to what the human eye can experience.
The AMP HDR Camera is available later this year but it wouldn’t be a mass-produced product.
На жнитве / At the stubble-field by Sergey Prokudin Gorsky - 1909
One of Gorsky’s incredible photographs titled ‘At the stubble-field’ (above) has been my all time favourite. Taken late in the evening more than 100 years ago (1909), this photograph has a mesmerising effect on me. Can’t stop staring at it, can’t stop thinking about it … I completely feel lost in time and space when looking at it hence featuring it again. It is a wonderful record of a golden moment in the evening at a Russian farm … a farmer family finishing off day’s work to go back to home, it’s going to be dark soon, shall I warm up or cook food, peace and quiet, can I lit a cigarette, let’s talk … may be some cattle sounds in the background. Smoke coming out of a chimney, a small peaceful dwelling – what would have been the conversation topic that night? Was there anyone to tell them that there’s a revolution on its way that is going to change their and their generation’s life in years to come!
This brilliant Russian photographer from early 20th century captured something which is more than a picture to me, may be a vivid statement of more than a thousand words?
Below is another picture at the same time, place and people.
At the stubble-field by Sergey Prokudin Gorsky - 1909
Prokudin Gorsky (also Gorskii) left Russia on the brink of the revolution in 1918 and settled in France. Following is some of his other work around documenting Russian way of life back then.
Этюд на речке Кумса / At the river Kumsa - 1915
Остречены / Ostrecheny - 1909
Peasant woman in Perm Province and By yarn. In the Izvedovo village - 1910
Peasant girls - 1909
Столярный цех для выделки ножен / Joiner's shop for dressing sheath and Развесочное отделение (Чаква) / Weighing office (Chakva)
Железнодорожный мост через реку Шую / The railroad bridge over the river Shuya - 1915
Belozersk, Camera, chemist, Color photography, digital technology, Entertainment/Culture, Ethnic groups in Asia, Ethnic groups in Europe, France, Gorskii, Gorsky, Hand-colouring, Library of Congress, Nicholas II, Norway, Paris, Photographer, Photography, Politics, Russia, Russians, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Sociolinguistics, St. Petersburg, Stubble, Tsar, United Kingdom, Vladimir Province 
Pete Eckert – seeing without sight
Yet another ugliest car!
The wonderful world of watercolor maestro Alexander Votsmush (P-1)
The enticing inner world of Daniel Egnéus
Ray Caesar and life’s defining moments
Photolog: British Museum
Thomas Shahan and tiny wildly-beautiful beasts
Banksy.
Watercolors by Minh Dam
Liz Collini Typography
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