Dentsu London, the same ad agency that recently experimented with iPad light-painting, was recently hired by Canon to create a commercial for the Canon Pixma line of printers. They decided to create super close-up and super slow-mo shots of paint dancing by using sound, and created a rig that spins around the paint super fast to create a sense of motion as they shoot at 5000 fps. As you’ll see from the video, this is a great idea for still photos as well.

The resulting commercial can be seen at the end of the video. It’s stunning.

(via f stoppers)

Viral marketing agency The Viral Factory is helping Samsung with an experiment in which they’re planning to drop 100 SD cards attached to paper airplanes from 21 miles above the Earth in the stratosphere. Instructions will be printed on the paper airplane informing anyone who finds one of the experiment and what they can do to participate. Finders are encouraged to shoot with the cards and then upload anything taken to the Project Space Planes website.

The claim that the planes will “carry the messages across the world” is a bit farfetched, but supposedly the planes could potentially travel hundreds of miles depending on the wind conditions. The experiment is planned for mid-October.
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Fujifilm’s Instax Mini 7S landed a pretty prominent spot in hip hop artist B.o.B’s music video for “Airplanes,” featuring Hayley Williams. It seems like instant photo marketing is especially seeking exposure through music videos — Lady Gaga’s “Telephones” also contains a hefty 10-second spot for Polaroid’s instant  camera.

Back in May we featured an Olympus commercial that was shot entirely with the camera it was promoting (the Olympus PEN E-PL1), lending credence to the camera’s video capabilities.

Panasonic recently posted a behind-the-scenes video to its YouTube account showing how a new ad for their Lumix G2 camera was made. However, a close look at the video seems to reveal that most of the filming was actually done with Canon 5D Mark II cameras and a set of L lenses. Most of the comments on the video poke fun at this, with one commenter saying,

You shoot a commercial of an HD camera with another HD camera but post the footage in standard definition? Fail.

The takeaway for camera companies: eat your own dog food.

(via CrunchGear)

Amateur Photographer magazine is doing something about all the stories in the news of photographers being stopped and harassed by police in Britain. They’ve created a special lens cloth that has guidelines that were issued to Metropolitan police officers last year printed on. The lens cloth set will be bundled for free in the July 10th issue of the magazine, which hits newsstands on July 6 and lands in the hands of subscribers on July 3.

Now who’s going to step up and make one for photographers in the United States?

Image credit: Photograph by Amateur Photographer

Kodak made the surprising announcement today that their Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Hayzlett is resigning on May 28th to “pursue personal projects.”

Hayzlett recently authored a book on his experiences with marketing and brand-building, called The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?, which he has been actively promoting on a tour and Twitter over the last few months.

Hayzlett, who has been with Kodak since April 2006, is known for his accessible public presence, especially on Twitter. Though Hayzlett was often criticized for his over-sharing, strong persona via social media, he said that sharing his knowledge, especially about his use of social media as a tool, is key to his success in bringing Kodak back into the public eye.

The CMO has more than 21,000 followers, and has used the social media site to engage with customers, sometimes with literally biting exchanges. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Hayzlett said:

“I’ve had in the corporate world my public relations, community relations people walk up to me and say Jeff, I don’t think this is appropriate that you wrote “Bite Me” to this guy. I look at them and I go, well that’s who I am. The guy said something very offensive, he had no right to say it, I’m sorry. They say well please be nicer, so now I write “Please Bite Me”.

Kodak says Hayzlett will be involved with the company through August as he transitions out.

Even as Hayzlett is leaving, Kodak is sticking to developing its online presence by launching a new photo sharing website, Kodak Moments.

Photos and videos, along with captions, can be uploaded to the interactive community site. Users then tag the photo with a certain emotion. User-submitted photos can be browsed by emotion, and other viewers can tag them with emotions they feel in response. The site also has “Moments,” which are official events by Kodak, such as the Burton US Open, Celebrity Apprentice, and the People’s Choice Awards.

Kodak Interactive Marketing Manager, Mike Mayfield said that images uploaded will be displayed in email newsletters, marketing, Times Square Billboard, and other marketing outlets.

Some photographers may be uneasy with uploading, since the rather broad Terms of Service currently states:

In consideration of acceptance of my submitted photo, video and/or story (“Contribution”) as part of KODAK Moments, I hereby grant Kodak, and others with Kodak’s consent, the right to edit, copy, distribute, publish, display and otherwise use the Contribution for purposes of the KODAK Moments program without attribution, consideration or compensation to me, the photographer, my successors or assigns or any other individual or entity.

Mayfield responded to the concern, saying:

Kodak has great respect for the rights and use of images we receive. Images submitted to the KODAK Moments website will only be used in the context of promoting the KODAK Moments program. The language in the terms of service stating it could be used for any advertising or publicity is an oversight and we are correcting the terms so that language is removed. We have received some wonderful submissions and if we do decide we would like to use those images outside of the KODAK Moments program, we will reach out and obtain permission from the photographer before doing so.

So it sounds like Kodak still has to hash out some legal jargon, but at least they’ll ask your permission before running specific photos in their ads, albeit possibly without attribution.

(via PDN)

Okay, so Polaroid partnered with Lady Gaga, and Sony has teamed up with Taylor Swift. How about Canon? Well, they’ve just gone a step further by releasing a Jackie Chan-branded version of the Canon Rebel T2i (AKA 550D).

The “EOS 550D Jackie Chan Eye of Dragon” special edition kit comes with an EF-S 18-135mm lens, camera case, strap, and special photo album. Everything except the lens is branded with Jackie’s logo. Only 2010 of these kits will be made, and each costs a whopping ¥10,000, or roughly $1465.

Any guesses as to which random celebrity Nikon is planning to team up with?

(via Engadget)

Country-pop darling Taylor Swift has joined the growing list of camera-toting celebrity spokespersons. Swift’s partnership with Sony hit the limelight in January during CES2010, when Swift joined in the Sony press event to announce her use of Sony 3D technology during her current tour.

In a commercial released today, Swift demos the iSweep Panorama feature on the new Sony TX7 Cyber-shot. According to a Sony press release, the ads will air tonight on NBC, FOX and CW, likely targeting  a younger, primarily female demographic — though as the commercial suggests, she’s got a pretty broad fan base.

The camera boasts a number of other noteworthy features including a Carl Zeiss lens, “Exmor R” CMOS censor, HD video, and a touch screen, but Sony says Taylor Swift fans can get extra excited over the limited edition version with the singer’s signature engraved onto the camera.

However, the camera comes at a steep price of $400, which is considerably pricey for point-and-shoots. That’s nearly the cost of six tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert.

Here’s an idea for those of you who are looking for photography clients of any kind: Offer portraits and other kinds of photographs at your local farmers market for a nickel.

In the above video by Michael Hanson for the NYTimes, architect John Morefield describes how he offers architecture advice at his local farmers market for a nickel. While a whole day of doing this might net less than a dollar, Hanson found 100% of his work for a year using this creative way to connect with potential clients.

Photographers might be able to do the same thing. Why not set up a booth in your local farmers market and offer portraits or photography help/advice for 5 cents? You could take down email addresses, pass out business cards, and later email photographs to your nickel “clients”. If 5 cents would create too much work in terms of emailing photographs, you could increase the price or tweak the strategy to your liking.

(via A Photo Editor)

Hasselblad has had a cryptic countdown displayed on their promotions page for a couple weeks now, and we’re about two weeks away from the date being counted down to. The text on the page doesn’t provide any hints:

You might have noticed a strange countdown clock on the Hasselblad website lately. You might have wondered what this rapidly running time gadget is counting towards. A countdown away from Christmas? A countdown towards the next sunny day in Scandinavia? Some unknown Hasselblad holiday? Well, “what?” indeed. All we can say is watch the space and try to be patient. Good things come to those who wait.

Any guesses as to what Hasselblad has up their sleeve? Is this simply a clever marketing stunt that hasn’t attracted all that much attention, or is there actually something big planned that we’ll find out very soon? Either way, we’ve marked the date on our calendar, and will report to you if there’s any interesting announcement.

(via Photo Rumors)