Friday Happy Hour: The iPad 3 Is Not Here – But the New iPad Is

Friday Happy Hour: The iPad 3 Is Not Here – But the New iPad Is

Two major releases this week were enough to put a smile on most photographers’ faces – the new 4G LTE iPad (not “iPad 3”, as most thought it would be called) and Lightroom 4. We’ll let you guess which online store had to shut down due to overwhelming demand.

Outside of the tech world, we picked up on photographers doing some pretty cool things: winning competitions, setting up somewhat absurd shots, and promoting their work for good. Check out this week’s round up:

Apple releases the 4G LTE iPad

Per usual, people freaked out when Apple announced the third generation iPad Wednesday. Spec nerds (like us) can geek out over the 264 pixel/inch Retina display, 1080p video recording, and 4G LTE connectivity. Oh, and a new camera – 5 megapixel side-illuminated sensor, 5 element lens, and infrared filter, which is basically the same configuration as the iPhone 4S.

Apple also launched a new version of iPhoto that will be available as an app for the iPad. The app will work with photos up to 19 megapixels, and once again puts Apple ahead of the curve as other tablets lack in their app support.

The latest update is that due to high pre-order volume, the white versions of the 16GB and 64GB ATT&T 4G iPads have moved their ship date from March 16 to March 19. The black models in each storage still seem to be ready to ship the 16th.

Will you be investing in the new iPad? We’re curious to know.

Source: Apple.com

Adobe launches Lightroom 4

Poor Adobe might have lost some steam announcing Lightroom 4 the same week as the new iPad, but it’s an exciting launch nonetheless. New features include:

  • Highlight and shadow recovery: bring in more image detail from dark shadows and bright highlights.
  • Photo book creation: templates + 20% off your first book from Blurb.
  • Location-based organization: find and group images by location.
  • Extended video support: organize, view, and make adjustments to video clips.
  • Soft-proofing: preview how an image will look when printed.

The best part? The price! You can buy Lightroom 4 for just $149 – half the old list price – or upgrade for $79. (Note: the PhotoShelter Lightroom export plugin by PACT Software is compatible with Lightroom 4.)

Source: Adobe.com

Smithsonian Magazine announces photo context finalists

Last week, the editors of Smithsonian magazine announced the 50 finalists in their 9th annual photo contest. The finalists were spread over 5 categories: Americana, The Natural World, People, Altered Images, and Travel. You can see all the finalists’ images here. But wait, that’s not all – one finalist will receive the Readers’ Choice Award, determined by whoever gets the most online votes. Vote here and tell us, who do you think will win?

By the way – how awesome is it that The Atlantic‘s In Focus blog, which reported on Smithsonian’s contest, posts 1280px photos?

Source: The Atlantic In Focus

PhotoShelter member Logan Mock-Bunting takes home NCPPA’s Photographer of the Year award

The North Carolina Press Photographer’s Association 2011 Photographer of the Year award went to PhotoShelter member and editorial/advertising photographer Logan Mock-Bunting for his portfolio of images of an all-girls’ school during class in the village of Nari, Afghanistan. Says the caption of this image from portfolio, “After 10-years of American Forces in Afghanistan, one of the best signs of progress is that schools are open. More than 6 million children are in school today, according to the United Nations. During the Taliban rule, girls were denied schooling, and before that many schools were closed because of fighting.” Congrats, Logan!

Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Source: gallery.ncppa.org

PhotoShelter members Astrid Riecken and Bill Clark take home awards from The White House News Photographers Association

The White House News Photographers Association’s “The Eyes of History” 2012 contest winners were recently announced. Among the winners were PhotoShelter members Astrid Riecken, who took home the award for “Feature” – a picture of a “found” situation with strong human interest, or a fresh view of an everyday scene – and Bill Clark for “Political Portfolio”. Both winners’ images were composed in black and white.

“Modernity Miami” group show opening this weekend

The Harold Golen Gallery in Miami opens a new show this Saturday, March 10, called “Modernity  Miami: MiMo Architecture through Contemporary Eyes”. PhotoShelter member and Miami-based fine art photographer Andrew Kaufman is one of several photographers whose work is represented in the show. Click here for more details.

One year after the disaster: Skye Hohmann print sale proceeds to benefit Japanese communities

This March marks the one year anniversary of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit coastal Japan, and while there as been an astounding amount of rebuilding, the full recovery is far from over. That’s why PhotoShelter member and landscape, travel and fine art photographer Skye Hohmann is donating all print sales’ proceeds from her gallery “the Road Onward – for the Tohoku” to the Japanese charity Second Hand. In addition, 10% of any other limited or open edition print sales through Skye’s website will be donated to the same cause.

Photo by Skye Hohmann

Spencer Gordon’s Oyster Swimsuit Shoot = March Madness

PhotoShelter member and New York commercial photographer Spencer Gordon shot Oyster‘s swimsuit “JUMP!” Spring/Summer 2012 line. The Brooklyn-based company wanted to work with “real” models, one of whom was totally new to modeling, which can sometimes be challenging in itself. “Patience is key,” says Spencer. “Working with new models in a friendly, helpful way makes them feel comfortable.” Another challenge? Convincing the after school basketball players to let Spencer use their court! Check out the results in his blog post.

Photo by Spencer Gordon

Up close and personal with Kenya’s lions via the “BeettleCam”

What’s a photographer to do when he wants to get close-up shots of one of nature’s most noble but probably dangerous creatures? Build a remote-controlled DSLR, of course! At least that’s what UK-based wildlife photographers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas did, reports PetaPixel this week. The so-called “BeetleCam” is actually a remote-controlled buggy equipped with a mounted camera. The original BettleCam lost in a fight against a lion in 2009, but the new-and-improved version comes totally armored and ready to rock. Check out the full galleries of photos from the BeettleCam Project 2011.

Source: burrard-lucas.com

A Photo Editor reports on Michael Muller’s underwater studio for sharks

Speaking of risky situations…Heidi Volpe from aphotoeditor.com interviewed photographer Michael Muller about his Travel Channel shark portraits, where he essentially set up an underwater studio to optimize his shots of big toothed sharks in Fiji. Check out the results and full interview here.

International Women’s Day – who’s your favorite female photographer?

In honor of International Women’s Day this past Thursday 3/08, we went out to the photography community via Facebook and Twitter to ask: Who’s your favorite female photographer? We received a ton of responses, ranging from Sally Mann to Diane Arbus to Francesca Woodman to our friend Ami Vitale. In related events, the New York Museum of Modern Art is celebrating its Cindy Sherman retrospective with a cocktail and interactive dance party on Saturday, March 10th at 9pm. Click here for more details.

Source: MoMA

Next Post:
Previous Post:
This article was written by
There are 3 comments for this article
  1. Shane Srogi at 2:09 pm

    LR4 and the new iPad are pretty big announcements. I can envision each having significant benefit…..so I had no qualms about pre-ordering both straight away.

    -Shane

  2. Greg Vaughn at 9:58 pm

    ASMP members can get a discount on both the iPad and Lightroom. The 15% off from Adobe means that Lightroom 4 for upgrades is only $67. I’m not a member of PPA or APA, but they might have similar deals.

    I’m definitely impressed with LR4. The new processing engine is able to pull detail in raw files that earlier versions showed as clipping highlights and shadows on the histograms.

  3. Simon Brown at 6:25 pm

    Favourite female photographer; Eve Arnold. She is actually simply one of my favourite photographers, I don’t split them up by gender. I’m interested in the quality of someone’s work and how they carry themselves; gender is immaterial to me.

    I know out in the big wide world we all, whatever our gender, have to deal with sexist idiots. I’m not for one minute suggesting this does not remain a serious problem. But for me a photographer’s gender doesn’t matter a jot as to whether I like their work.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *