Cameras that can see around walls? Ultra high speed photography measured in TRILLIONS of images a second? What on Earth are those MIT scientists up to? See for yourself and prepare to be amazed!
http://www.ted.com/talks/ramesh_raskar_a_camera_that_takes_one_trillion_frames_per_second.html
 
 
 
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Every so often I like to challenge my readers with a photo assignment; not a meaningless exercise  to fill blog space, but one based on a photographic experience that I recently had. That was the case with this next assignment. My hope is that you will find it as challenging as I did.
The back story is that I was in Iceland recently and found myself at the famous iceberg beach, an experience to which I had looked forward for years. Unfortunately, the photo gods had a good laugh that day …

For the past few days, I’ve been battling severe windy conditions here in Iceland. By severe I’m talking gale force to hurricane force winds. If there is anything that a photographer hates most it is wind. The skies can be blue, the clouds picturesque, the scene illuminated with golden light. But if the wind is blowing, it’s hard to stay steady enough to capture a good image. How, then, do the pros do it.
The following image was taken, believe it or not, on a freezing cold beach on Iceland’s south …

Good news! My lost luggage was returned to me, two days late but otherwise unharmed. I’m a happy camper now that I have my long johns, ScotteVest fleece and jacket, hat gloves and other necessities for photographing in Iceland.
After two days roaming around the Kaflavik airport area and shooting handheld because my tripod was in my misplaced luggage, we took off today for the Snaefellsnes peninsula, which is northwest of the capital city of Reykjavik (pronounced Rake-a-vik). It is a gorgeous area, dotted with immense lava fields from the many …

A friend, Morgan Melekos, just sent me this image he took while I was photographing a Vermont stream scene. It was around 1 degree Fahrenheit that day. Although I sometimes have to get into a stream to photograph, I don’t do so lightly. I advise my readers to always take proper precautions (see the ScotteVest column I did entitled “Don’t Take The Plunge!”: http://www.scottevest.com/company/photography.shtml).
If you are curious, the camera is a Hasselblad H4D-50 with a 28mm lens and a Hasselblad tilt-shift mechanism between the lens and camera. Clothing includes my …

I leave tomorrow for a week photographing in Zion National Park, a location I have long been wanting to visit. No, I’ve never been before. So many choices, so little time.
I’ll be traveling with my friend and colleague Daniel Stainer, a very advanced amateur (I consider him a pro and have featured him before in my blog: http://blog.lesterpickerphoto.com/2011/04/25/through-the-eyes-of-daniel-stainer/).
What makes this trip different for me, aside from the location, is that I will be carrying only my new Hasselblad equipment with me. For the first time since 1969 I am using …

After a year of researching, testing, talking to colleagues and trying out various cameras, I finally made the plunge. Just last week I purchased a digital medium format system, after researching both the brand new Pentax 645D and the relatively new Hasselblad H4D system. The hammer came down on the Hasselblad (oh, God, please not literally!!).
If you’re a regular reader of my blog you know that I tried a large format (LF) system for nearly a year. I finally decided it was too cumbersome for my needs, of which mobility …

I’m back in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon Territory, recharging my batteries, cleaning my equipment, doing laundry and running assorted errands before leaving for the Dempster Highway again to photograph the Fall colors and Northern Lights (hopefully). I thought it would be good to review with you the past week’s photo shoot and some things I learned from the experience.
For those of you following my progress on my interactive SPOT geo-tracking page, it will be inactive for the next two days. On Tuesday, my fellow photographer, Richard Hartmier and I …

Okay, let me get this over with before my “friend” Richard Hartmier spills the beans. I sprayed myself with bear spray today. In my defense, it was a teensy spritz and it was done protecting Richard and a tourist… well, kinda. Sorta. Well that’s almost the truth.
Here’s what happened. We were photographing a mother with three cubs that had climbed up the embankment of the Chilkoot River and were now on the road, heading for a group of tourists. So absorbed were we in our work, we did not realize …

Histograms! Sounds like a medical procedure or, worse yet, mathematics.
Well, if you’re a photographer, histograms are your friends. Don’t be intimidated by them. Learn how to use a histogram and your images will dramatically improve.
What Is a Histogram?
In digital photography a histogram is an electronic display of all the pixels, light-to-dark, recorded on the sensor when you press the shutter release. It appears as a graph on the rear LCD screen in DSLR cameras and even on many point-and-shoots, such as the Canon G12.
There is really no such thing as …