Curious about where people like to take pictures in your part of the world? Sightsmap is a simple Google Map app that takes geo data from the photos uploaded to Panoramio (now a Google service) and uses it to generate a heatmap.

The folks over at Triposo wanted to know when people around the world take pictures, so they harvested the timestamps and geolocation data from photos shared on the Internet and created this beautiful visualization showing one year of photos taken around the world (be sure to watch it full screen and in HD). It’s neat seeing certain parts of the world light up with photo activity on special days.
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Photographer Kien Lam quit his job last year and embarked on a 343 day backpacking journey around the world. He ended up traveling through 17 different countries and capturing 6237 photographs in the process. To share his incredible journey, he created this beautiful time-lapse video with short glimpses into various locations he visited. Each 2 second segment is made up of about 40-60 still photographs.

Most people like to stand inside photos taken during travels, but photographer Tom Robinson documents his adventures by showing his family’s feet. Robinson started his project Feet First back in 2005 while sitting on a beach which his girlfriend Verity, and has added over 90 photos captured from all over the world since then. In 2011, his photos began showing an extra pair of feet: those of his daughter Matilda.
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Last Thursday, three Georgian photographers including Irakli Gedenidze, the personal photographer of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia by taking photos of secret documents. On Saturday, Georgian TV aired a clip of Gedenidze confessing to selling the information to someone he thought was a Russian agent, but claimed to be the victim of blackmail. The Moscow Times suggests that this may simply be an attempt by Georgia to “chill the media”.

The personal photographers of world leaders are sometimes given an extraordinary amount of access — President Obama’s photographer Pete Souza attends and photographs Obama’s meetings, and was present in the Situation Room while the Osama bin Laden raid was unfolding, allowing him to capture his now-iconic photograph.

(via NYTimes)

“Around the World in 2000 Pictures” is a neat project by Alex Profit — the same guy that did “Around the World in 80 Seconds” — in which he takes us on a tour of major world cities (Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, St. Petersbourg, Shanghai, Tokyo, New York and London) through 2000 photographs in stop-motion. He completed the entire project in just 24 days shooting a Canon 5D Mark II. We love the way he uses photographs to transition from one city to another seamlessly.

Last week one of the big stories in the world of photography was that Kuwait had banned the use of DSLR cameras in public places. The story originated with an article in the Kuwait Times, and was then widely reported by publications ranging from The Guardian to Amateur Photographer. People were in disbelief that a country would take such an unreasonable stance against a particular camera technology while leaving others legal (e.g. mobile phones, compact cameras, etc…). Turns out the whole thing was a big hoax.
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Jock McDonald is a San Francisco-based photographer that has travelled the world, photographing people of different ages and cultures. He recently teamed up with animator Paul Blain to transform his black-and-white portraits spanning decades into a single 17-minute long video. The twist is that the transitions between faces are seamless using morphing, resulting in what feels like a single, dynamic portrait of the world.

If you’d like to try and create a similar video with portraits you’ve taken, there are free programs that can help you do so.

(via Lens Culture)

Typical sized white balance cards may be of (literally) little assistance in color calibrating global imaging satellites, but scientists have figured a clever workaround. Lake Tuz, Turkey’s third largest lake, dries out annually and turns into a giant salt bed. Because of its vast size and unique salty white color, scientists worldwide can use the lake to standardize their satellite measurements.

From August 14-25, scientists will be comparing ground-based measurements and comparing them with satellite results.

Apparently satellites don’t come with preset white balance for “sunny.”

(via PopSci)

Image credit: Satellite image via Google Maps

Nikon and NASA are showcasing some amazing photos taken aboard the International Space Station with Nikon equipment. According to Nikon, NASA took over 700,000 photos with the Nikon gear kept on board, which includes one Nikon D3S DSLR, eight Nikon D2XS cameras, 36 NIKKOR lenses including three teleconverters, seven SB-800 Speedlights, and other gear. Nikon notes that the D3S is unmodified, and is the same quality as available on the consumer market.

Nikon has a long history with NASA since sending a Nikon F camera with Apollo 15 in 1971. Since then, Nikon’s enjoyed exposure while helping NASA get image exposures. Most recently, the D3S that is currently on board was delivered to the ISS via the Space Shuttle Discovery, launched April 10, 2010. NASA says each shuttle launch costs approximately $450 million — that is one expensive delivery! Here are more images from the International Space Station taken with Nikon gear:

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