Cooke Optics UK Factory Tour

How to get the Cooke Look

DL Byron

A vintage Cooke Optics lens Cooke Optics has been making lenses for 130 years, and their coatings haven’t changed much since the ’60s—that’s what contributes to the Cooke Look cinematographers want on their digital bodies, like RED and ARRI. The coatings are like pixie dust and seen here (decades of them built up) on a flange. The flange holds... Read more

Explore Europeana Photography

The photographic archive—with a searchable database of more than 2.3 million items from European collections—is part of the Europeana Collections website

DPMag

Venedig – Canale Grande (1929) by Nicola Perscheid. Staatliche Landesbildstelle Hamburg, Sammlung zur Geschichte der Photographie, erworben, 1972 In 1826 or 1827, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the world’s first image in a camera, or at least the earliest known surviving photograph. “View from the Window at Le Gras” was taken from an upstairs... Read more

Self-Assigned Challenge: Cine Lenses

Manufacturers are responding to ever more capable cameras with cinema lenses, and Byron tries out two of them

DL Byron

“The Initial Mystery that attends any journey is: how did the traveler reach his starting point in the first place?” — Louise Bogan For this journey I’m on in London, it’s an initial mystery of shooting with cine lenses, but let’s back up to the starting point. If you’ve never heard of a cine lens, that’s shorthand for cinema, and what’s... Read more

Self-Assigned Shoot—Vegas In Black & White

Why the Leica M Monochrom has this photographer reacquainting himself with black-and-white photography

DL Byron

To me, shooting in black-and-white is like listening to opera—I have to be in the right mood and frame of mind. Earlier this year, that mood happened at WPPI, a wedding trade show in Las Vegas. I had arranged a demo Leica from their booth and, well, the lighting at trade shows is always terrible, so I asked for the M Monochrom, then assigned myself... Read more

2018 Sony World Photography Awards Opens

In the Professional competition, one of four in the contest, two new categories have been added, along with new grants for winning photographers in the Professional and Student Focus competitions

Staff

“Mathilda” © Alexander Vinogradov, Russian Federation, Open Photographer of the Year, Open, Portraits (Open), 2017 Sony World Photography Awards. Says the photographer of creating the image, “My art work is a portrait of a young girl called Nastya, who modeled for me in Moscow studio at summer 2016 after I got inspired by a famous French movie... Read more

Byron’s Blog: It’s Spring, And Copper River Salmon Has Arrived

With the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, capturing the arrival of the first Copper River salmon on an Alaska Airlines cargo plane and the ritual filleting by local chefs in a cook-off

DL Byron

Following the arrival of the first Copper River salmon on an Alaska Airlines cargo plane and a ritual filleting, local chefs compete in a cook-off and serve the prized fresh fish to the assembled press, VIPs, executives and employees. Because of the high fat content, the fish from Alaska’s Copper River Delta is considered a delicacy and shipped soon... Read more

Airline Laptop Ban Guide For Photographers

Concerned about traveling with your laptop and expensive camera gear? Learn about the best ways to handle the ban on laptops in airline carry-ons

Staff

Checking your laptop and camera gear on international flights appears likely to become the norm, not the exception. You probably know that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has banned devices larger than a smartphone from airline carry-ons on flights to the U.S. from several airports in the Middle East and Africa. Recent news reports suggest... Read more

Shooting With The Canon EOS M6

Don’t think of it as mirrorless

DL Byron

I don’t think of the M6 as a mirrorless camera—Canon told me they don’t, and you shouldn’t, either. Instead, consider it a compact that will take much better pictures than a cell phone, and, if you’re a fan of the Canon brand, an obvious step-up, gift or camera you’d take on a trip when you don’t want the bulk of a DSLR. The M6 isn’t... Read more

Byron’s Blog: What Is Kando 1.0?

With the a9, Sony is certainly “Being in the moment, present with expressive technology”

DL Byron

At every Sony launch I’ve attended—Sony has been relentless in their release schedule—the president of their North American operations, Mike Fasulo, has mentioned Kando. Each time he does so with a little more emphasis. Sony is now expressing their design aesthetic even louder with an event in Santa Barbara happening now where I’m expecting... Read more

A Tough Little Camera

Testing the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, as it survives the elements in the Pacific Northwest—and a bike crash

DL Byron

Tumbling through the air after getting thrown from my bike when the front tire hit a root, I hoped I’d be okay and wouldn’t break a rib, collarbone, or worse. In an instant, I had tucked, and rolled, and hit the ground in motion, minimizing the impact, and protecting my head with my forearms. I got up, did an inventory of myself and the bike, and... Read more

Finding A Camera System You Love

It doesn’t matter what camera you shoot with—really—what matters is that you get the shots

DL Byron

Canon EOS M6 The one thing I’ve learned about camera systems, after reviewing several, is that there’s no perfect one. My idea of perfection would be an Olympus body with a Sony sensor, Fuji’s in-camera profiles and Sigma’s lenses. I’ll never get that, just like the pony I always wanted. I can get pretty close to perfection these days, though,... Read more

Self-Assigned Shoot: Urban Geometries

Using shapes, lines, colors, tones and lighting to create visually interesting and painterly photos of the city

DL Byron

Scene from a typical spring night in NYC. When considering geometries, note that the architect’s vision of the building is ignored because I’m instead concerned with the visual activity around it. In this photo taken during the Sony a9 launch of 30 photographers crowded around the long jump at The Armory, notice what David J. Schloss is doing—he’s... Read more

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