We all know that if you wear Google’s new glasses (Google Glass), you are an asshole. Now, Youtube channel Grovo has made a parody video imagining what it would like to actually use Google Glass as a still camera.

I still haven’t seen Google Glass in the wild. While some people think privacy fears relating to having a video and still camera always on are exaggerated, that hasn’t stopped some places from banning the technology preemptively.

(via reddit)

Photo contest entry flowchart – Janna Dotschkal

If you’ve been following along with our deadline calendar, you know it’s photo contest season. This photo contest flowchart (above) is worth a revisit when you’re taking a break from getting all your files prepped for submission. Good luck!

(flow chart credited to Janna Dotschkal)

The Daily Show’s John Oliver looks at investigative journalism in another classic Daily Show “what the hell is happening around us’ takedown. I think it is an instant classic.

Brad Adgate: “But you don’t have to fly to some remote location to interview someone. You can just sit and use skype and save money that way”.
John Oliver: “But Brad, I don’t know how many child soliders in Sierra Leone use skype.”

We’ve written a bit about iphone photography and photojournalism previously, and now Instagram has taken the photojournalism world by storm. The video (above), by LA improv group Olde Payphone, imagines the studio of a celebrity instagram photographer; while the joke goes on a bit too long, it hits a lot of the right notes.

While we’re on the subject of cell phone photojournalism, be sure to check out Michael Christopher Brown’s recent work from Congo using a phone. Sure, the iphone photojournalism fits in with the current trend, but he uses the phone with good reason for this essay: many of the materials used in producing the phones are mined in Congo.

The video above has been making the rounds, and it’s a great insight into what it can be like as a freelancer. While you might not encounter some of the attitudes in the video as a photojournalist, if you venture into other realms of freelance photography (PR, corporate, advertising, weddings, portraiture, etc.) you’re sure to run in to this. The video is part of a campaign called Don’t Get Screwed Over, which offers tips on how not to get screwed over in your freelance business dealings. The campaign also points to Docracy, an open source legal document repository with plenty of useful forms and contracts for freelancers. As with any legal dealings, it’s best to consult a lawyer familiar with your situation and jurisdiction, but Docracy looks to be a good starting point.

And here’s a bonus video, similar to the one above, imagining what it would be like if people treated all business transactions (a drink at the bar, buying a dvd from a store, the barber) the way that vendor/client relationships often happen.

And remember: Fuck you, Pay me!

Modified screenshot - POYi Chatroom Heroes

Taking a page from the Overheard in… series of blogs (New York, the Beach, the Newsroom), POYi Chatroom Heroes has been chronicling conversation in the chat window of the online streaming of 2012 Pictures of the Year International judging process. There’s snark, armchair judging, admiration, and anything else you’d expect to hear among the audience. Worth a laugh.

While you’re at it, make sure to look at the winners as they are announced, and sit in to watch the judging as it happens. Judging continues through Feb. 24.

(via Matt Mills McKnight on Tumblr)

Another video in the vein of Shit ___ Say…, Shtuff People Say to Photographers is the natural companion to Shit Photographers Say. This video was produced by the Outward Bound Collective. It’s geared a bit more toward wedding and portrait photographers, but if you’ve ever taken pictures in a public place, I’m sure you’ve heard half of these.

I’m surprised it took so long for this meme to get to photographers, but here it is, by Paris Visone, Tim Kennedy, Chris Sanchez, and Dan Aguirre. It’s in the vein of the original of these sorts of videos, Shit Girls Say, and the many, many derivatives. Don’t forget Shit Liz Lemon Says.

(via Photographs On the Brain)

UPDATE: Looks like there is an earlier (less funny) Shit Photographers Say video here.

“Ostensibly, the Norte Photoblocker is a functional beer cooler surrounded by four sensors that can detect the flashes from cameras or cell phones. If a flash goes off in the direction of the Photoblocker, it fires its own flash to flood the resulting photos with bright white and obscure anyone nearby.” -Gizmag, Norte Photoblocker keeps your face out of embarrassing club photos

Apparently this actually exists. A South American beer brand called Cerveza Norte has developed a beer cooler/photoblocker device in partnership with Brazil-based ad agency Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. The device keeps a beverage cold and is outfitted with an array of flashbulbs. If the device detects a flash from a camera pointed in its direction, the photoblocker fires its own flash in order to overexpose the picture being taken. Watch the video above (skip to 0:38 to see the device), and it will all be clear. The device has been field-tested in bars in Argentina, and it works as advertised. No word on when the photoblocker will be available for purchase. Fast Company has a little more background.

This isn’t the first such device. A few years ago, NYU grad student Adam Harvey developed an anti-paparazzi clutch purse that operates in a similar way.

(via /.)

Tyler Card and Adam Barr - fully-functioning camera Halloween costume

Need a last-minute Halloween costume idea? You probably don’t have time to do it now, but Tyler Card and Adam Barr built a fully-functioning digital camera Halloween costume. There’s a behind-the-scenes video (warning, annoying and loud music…) that documents the process of making the whole thing. The guts of it all are a torn-apart laptop and an actual digital camera that outputs directly to the computer’s LCD. One click of the giant shutter, and there’s a picture visible on the back of the costume. Pretty great!

(via PetaPixel)

And since I think that’s Tyler in the costume, that also makes him…wait for it…a camera card. Zing!