Cameras

It truly is a cat and mouse game between software developers and software pirates. It’s been that way for years. So when I company like Adobe decides to change up their entire business model to subscription-based to curb the piracy of their professional-grade product suite, you would expect it to take a fair amount of time before the pirates managed to find a workaround. Perhaps not the case, according to a torrent link uploaded today to The Pirate Bay, one of the largest torrent-tracking sites on the Internet. Just one day following the official launch of Photoshop CC, the software has apparently been cracked and available for downloading illegally. Upon installation of the desktop software, Adobe requires the end user’s computer to be connected to the Internet to verify the Creative Cloud subscription status. That would suggest that software pirates have found a means to bypass this authorization (not a huge surprise, if true). These desktop applications connect back to Adobe’s servers every month to re-validate a customer’s subscription status, so whether or not this is a long-term solution for pirates remains to be seen. It’s could potentially be a huge blow to Adobe’s “stop-piracy” ambitions, but with Photoshop being one of the most pirated software in the world, this may not be a game software developers like Adobe can win (yet). (via FStoppers) Disclaimer: We do not, in any form, condone software piracy.

Leica has announced a special edition of its D-lux 6 high-end compact camera, in collaboration with clothing manufacturer G-Star RAW. The special D-Lux 6 (itself arguably a 'special edition' Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7) will be available from Leica Stores and Boutiques worldwide, and is expected to cost around $1300. What do you get for your money? Well, 'a new dot structure on the leather body trim' and a leather case with 'exclusive carrying strap'. Excited? Click through for more details.

A young woman was fatally stabbed last night after photographing homeless men holding offensive signs while begging in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times reports that 23-year-old Christina Calderon of Lynwood, California was walking with her friend at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue at 8pm last night when they noticed the three men begging for money with signs laden with obscenities. After pulling out her cell phone and snapping a photograph of the transients, the men began demanding money in exchange for the photos. When the two women refused to hand over money, they were attacked, and Calderon was stabbed in the torso. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later died of her injuries during surgery. The place where the attack took place is an area that’s bustling with tourists. Attractions there include Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Capturing images of homelessness is quite a fad in the world of photography, but this story is a stark reminder that one must exercise discretion and caution when taking pictures of random strangers on the street. (via Los Angeles Times via POTB) Image credit: IMGP0028.JPG by fredcamino

A good YouTube app makes it impossible to stop watching videos when what you should be doing is writing that program's review. And this is exactly what happened to me as I attempted to sit down and write about Minitube, a YouTube desktop app that's going to change the way you consume your dose of daily videos. At €9 ($12 on 6/19/13), it's not cheap…but if you spend much time on YouTube, Minitube is well worth the price. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lytro has released a firmware update that enables the Wi-Fi chips inside its 8GB and 16GB light field cameras. The San Fransisco-based company has also announced a new iOS companion app called Lytro Mobile, which allows you to browse images from the camera on an iOS smartphone or iPod Touch. Replicating some of the functionality of Lytro's existing desktop app, the mobile app allows you to refocus and change the perspective of your images and share the 'living pictures' via social media. Click through for more details.

Professional photographers have a lot to complain about these days, particularly with the CEOs of some well-known photo services suggesting that pros are an endangered species now that everyone takes photos all the time. But don't tell that to legendary pro Annie Leibovitz, who had a very optimistic take on the future of photography when she was interviewed recently at the Cannes Lions Festival. Here's part of what she said and you can watch the video interview below. “I think that those of us who are photographers, the... (read more)

Film's not dead yet, but there's no denying that it's ailing. Every couple of months we hear of film manufacturers cutting back on their productions slightly, killing off more film types, and Kodak has even stopped making the acetate plastic that forms the base of the company's film. So while plenty of us still shoot analog on occasion, the film itself is become more and more scarce, and more and more expensive. This poster by Brooklyn artist Peter Hamilton takes us back to the peak of film use, with a wonderful print showing... (read more)

G-Star Raw is an extremely fashionable (and more than a little expensive) brand of designer denim, that's made a bit of a reputation for itself with crossovers and collaborations outside of the world of fashion. The company's newest team-up is with Leica, and while it gives the Leica D-Lux 6 a rather nice new look, it makes an already overpriced camera even more whoppingly expensive. The Leica D-Lux line of cameras has been widely criticized for essentially being rebranded versions of various Panasonic LX models, just with a... (read more)

The municipality of Tultepec in Mexico produces about half of all of the country’s fireworks. Every year, more than 100,000 people flock to the area for a nine day event called the National Pyrotechnic Festival. There are activities common to a fair (e.g. food, music, dancing), but the biggest reason people attend is to experience the dazzling firework displays. Photographer Thomas Prior traveled from New York to attend one of these festivals, and ended up capturing a collection of beautiful photographs showing people partying from within explosions. One of the main events is a contest involving “castillos,” or large flammable frames that hold up collections of fireworks. Once the fireworks are lit, the frame is often set into motion, and ends up burning for around twenty or thirty minutes. Another of the main events is called the “pamplonas,” or the running of the bulls. Over 250 “toritos,” or bull-shaped frames loaded with as many as 4,000 fireworks, are pushed through the streets. The fireworks are set off over a course of five or six hours until the bulls arrive at a large plaza in the town. The festival attendees often enjoy getting up close and personal with the fireworks, stepping into the chaos as the sparklers and tiny explosions go off around them: You can find more of Prior’s photographs from the event in this gallery on his website. Tultepec by Thomas Prior (via Visual News) Image credits: Photographs by Thomas Prior and used with permission

Lytro has today taken their light field camera to the next step with the release of a new application for iOS, eliminating the need for users to connect the device to a PC or Mac computer to sync and manipulate photos. The application for iOS, aptly named Lytro Mobile, allows users to sync images and share them now, simplifying the process for on-the-go users. How does it work, you ask? No, you won’t have to tether your phone to the camera. Instead, Lytro has put out a firmware update that activates the dormant WiFi radio in the guts of the camera’s body. With the update, users will be able to swipe to the WiFi logo on the camera’s menu, which will display a username and password to connect your device to. From there, the user is able to sync photos, manipulate them, and yes, share them. As a little bonus, the application is also capable of generating animated GIFs of your pictures, because GIFs are awesome. Effects include “refocus” (which shows off the camera’s ability to change depth of field) and “perspective shift” (which does what the name suggests). The app is available free of charge in the iTunes App Store.