Polaroid revived?

So here's a post-semester post: I just came across a couple articles discussing how Dutch scientists are trying to bring back Polaroid's instant film from scratch for those of us who can't seem to let go. Will it work? I hope so.

Switched article
NY Times article

World's Fastest Camera

Six million images a second. Continuously. With a half a billionth of a second shutter speed. That's what Steam—a new camera technology that uses rainbow laser pulses—does. And it's working today at UCLA.

The new photography technique name comes from its initials: Serial Time-Encoded Amplified imaging. It uses only one single element in its sensor as opposed to the tens of millions you get in the best high end cameras in the world today. However, this is not something you will get in your consumer camera soon. The UCLA unit will be dedicated to capture ultra-detailed images of cells, neurons firing messages, and—we can only hope—the yearly Miss Campus beach calendar spread.

It works by pew-pewing an ultrashort laser pulse—one billionth of a second long—continuously, which gets a serial data stream that gets captured by the sensor. The stream of data is similar to the one you can get through a network cable, which then gets transformed into an actual image with a technique called amplified Fourier transform. This method stretches the laser pulses in time and amplifies them, slowing them down until they can be captured by an electronic digitizer.

Yes, my mind blew up there too, right at "pew-pewing." [UCLA via BBC News]

Posting by Jesus Diaz from Gizmodo

3D Photography

3D technology has been around forever at this point, and while the film industry seems to be regressing to the 1980's with new films such as "Aliens vs Monsters," the photo world has seen little development in this field.

Artistically, there's a breakthrough. Gwon Osang has developed his own method of 3D photography. He uses hundreds of photographs together to create a composited 3D image. Each picture is precisely taken of a particular color, or line of colors to create the overall effect. Examples here. And here. From all I can tell, he sets his subject up and takes all these photos at close range in order to capture the same light and texture, though I think it'd might be more impressive and interesting had he simply taken images off various things to composite them into a whole image.

Here's a quick Bio as well.

Comedy Photos

Nothing life changing today, just thought I'd link some impressive photos with a comedic twist to them. Something more meaningful in the future. Here.

Photo Freebies

Here's some interesting (and free!) photography accessories, software, & more.

Courtesy of pop photo magazine (February 2009)

Lessons I Didn't Learn in Photo School

As someone who hasn't had a lot of training in photography, I found this to be a very interesting series of posts. Not saying the academic side of things isn't necessary, but it's cool to know not every Great Photographer came out of a program.

Lessons 1-12

13-17

18-21

Women Only Photo Workshop: July in Bolivia

From Jamie's List

WPOW (Women Photojournalists of Washington) will be hosting a Women Only benefit workshop this year to help raise money for their scholarship and grant programs for 2009. Every dollar spent on this workshop directly benefits WPOW.

This amazing workshop will be taught by WPOW members Carol Guzy, multiple Pulitzer Prize and WHNPA POY winner, and Director of Photography for AOL and photographic guru Cathaleen Curtiss.

The workshop will take place at multiple locations in beautiful Bolivia with nightly lectures on the history of photography, how women have played a role in media, understanding how to take documentary images and so much more. You will photograph every day with instructors and staff helping you craft a narrative documentary essay on Andean culture and history.

WPOW members will receive a 10% discount on this trip and special discounts are available for students and working female photographers.

Momenta is working with WPOW on this fundraising trip for all the logistics. Everyone at Momenta is proud to do a benefit workshop to help build up this great nonprofit. You can find all the workshop information at http://www.momentaworkshops.com/bolivia09.php.