I am a sucker for beautiful space photography so you can imagine I how delighted I was to discover that NASA has recently released an updated high-res version of the famous Blue Marble photograph for 2012.
This is certainly not the first time that NASA has updated the 1972 photograph but the Blue Marble 2012 photograph taken using the VIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite – Suomi NPP is being called the ‘most amazing high definition image of Earth’ by the space agency.
Blue Marble 2012 is a beautiful composite image using a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. NASA has made this photograph available via their Flickr account where a super high resolution 8000×8000 pixel image can be downloaded – that’s my new desktop wallpaper sorted! Fascinating.
View full size image on Flickr
Related Posts:
This stunning time lapse photography video released by NASA includes photos from space shuttle Discovered and the International Space station.
All images © Nasa
The fact that space shuttle space travel is now over makes me feel extremely sad. I personally cannot wait for the the next phase in space exploration and I really hope we don’t have to wait too long.
(via PetaPixel)
Related Posts:
You may remember a few weeks ago when space shuttle Endeavour blasted off for the final time and the unique photograph captured by Stefanie Gordon who was in a commercial passenger plane at the time. Well that photo isn’t quite as unique today as it once was as Ryan Graff has captured a very similar shot of the final mission for space shuttle Atlantis today.
Images © Ryan Graff/Twitpic
It’s interesting to note than these shots were taken with an iPhone 4. It’s truly wonderful to live in an age where we all have the potential to capture remarkable shots as and when they occur thanks to the ever more capable little cameras in our pockets, travelling with us everywhere we go! It may be a sad time for the future of space travel but it’s also a massively exciting time for photography.
You can read the full story behind these images including some comments from the photographer, Ryan Graff on the Huffington Post article linked below.
From: The Huffington Post
Related Posts:
Google has just announced a brand new feature for its image search engine. The new feature allows a user to perform a reverse image search to discover how and where their images are being used online.
There are some similar services already available (TinEye being the most notable) and while certainly useful, they don’t seem to find every instance of image use from my personal experience.
This new functionality is gradually being rolled out and is currently available to users of the Google Chrome web browser. When accessing Google Image Search the user will now see a camera icon and clicking on this allows the user to upload an image or provide an image URL and then search for the locations where that image is being used online, as well as for similar images. This is incredibly useful and easy to use from a photographer’s perspective and I think it has some really interesting potential.
Google Image Search screen shot
Google’s new functionality will no doubt be welcomed by photographers wishing to know if their images are being used online without permission. In fact the very first image I selected to test using this new functionality last night was being used commercially without permission and I more than likely would never have known about it.
Here is the official promotional video from Google:
I would like to see this functionality taken a step further and I think this is almost certainly going to be the case. Imagine being able to feed Google your Flickr, 500px, PurePhoto or SmugMug streams and allowing it to automatically monitor the usage of your images, alerting you when sites using your images are discovered.
I for one can’t wait to see how this technology evolves.
Happy shooting.
Related Posts:
This stunning photograph of space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station was taken by Russian astronaut Paolo Nespoli while departing the ISS in a capsule. The photograph was taken on May 23rd, 2011 but has just been released by NASA along with over 30 more shots.
All images © NASA
The images are all absolutely incredible but considering that this was the final mission for space shuttle Endeavour I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing this particular shot appearing across all forms of media for many years to come!
Take a look at all of the 30+ high quality photographs on the NASA website.
Related Posts:
There are currently some absolutely incredible photos of space shuttle Endeavour’s final mision which touched down in Florida on June 1st over on The Atlantic’s website including the spectacular self portrait pictured above.
All images © NASA
You can see the full set 30+ stunning photographs on The Atlantic website.
Happy shooting!
Related Posts:
Reuters photojournalist Pak Bea was onboard a flight from Singapore to Jakarta with his family when one of the planes engines exploded.
In the face of adversity and unsure what was about to happen he picked up his camera and instead of becoming hysterical started to take shots of the situation unfolding around him. Fortunately the plane went on the land safely but by all accounts it was an extremely terrifying situation for all of the passengers onboard the plane.
I find it incredible that given the enormity of the situation and being with his wife and children this photographer had the presence of mind to take photographs of the situation. I guess the years spent working as a photojournalist had fine tuned his instincts. I’m not sure photographing the planes descent would have been my top priority if I’m honest but it certainly makes an absolutely fascinating story.
All images © Pak Bea\Reuters
You can see the shots and read the full story on the Reuters blog.
Related Posts:
{EAV_BLOG_VER:67e17734cd66bb12}
Firstly please ignore the ID at the top of this post. I am adding my blog to Empire Avenue as it’s supposed to help with promotion and I thought I would give it a go. Part of the process involves adding this ID to my blog post, so please ignore it!
I don’t know a great deal about Empire Avenue but it is a social media game and seems (from what I have seen so far at least) to be a good way of promoting your content to relevant users. Time will tell I guess!
If you are interested you can find me on Empire Avenue at:
http://www.empireavenue.com/markjp
Related Posts:
I was recently reading the fascinating story of Vivian Maier (1926-2009) and wanted to take a moment talk about her here.
Vivian Maier’s photography has only recently come to light following her death in 2009. Details are still scarce but it is know that Vivian Maier worked as a nanny in Chicago for approximately 40 years starting in the 1950s. She was by all accounts a very private individual who would spent much of her free time exploring the streets of Chicago taking photos with her Rolleiflex camera, which she subsequently never showed to anybody. Oh and it also turns out that she may well have been one of the finest street photographers of the 20 century.
Vivian Maier’s work was discovered at an auction house in Chicago shortly before her death. It is believed that she fell upon hard times later in life and may have actually been homeless for a period of time. It is understod that the photographs and film were recovered from a storage locker when she had failed to maintain the rental fees and were subsequently sold at auction.
The photos were bought by John Maloof in 2007 and consisted of 100’000 medium format negatives, thousands of prints and undeveloped rolls of film. There is some debate and interest regarding the circumstances surrounding the discovery and emergence of the work shortly after her death and I’m sure that this will continue for the foreseeable future but what is clear however is that her work is striking and since being made available to the public in 2008/2009 has received critical acclaim.
Vivian Maier’s work consists predominantly of black and white street scenes of Chicago taken during the 1950s and 1960s, often depicting the less privileged individuals of the era. I easily managed to spend a couple of hours looking at her work on John Maloof’s blog dedicated to Vivian’s work. The shots are absolutely fascinating, even more so because they are from a period in time that I have did not experience, these shots really give you a feel for and an insight into what life must have been like for some of these people.
I find it incredible that such a large body of work was possibly never shown to anybody and also sad that this collection may now potentially be worth a fortune but the artist herself may have died without any recognition and very possibly without a penny to her name.
Some examples of Vivian Maier’s work
Vivian Maier’s work can be seen on John Maloof’s blog and the exciting thing is that there is still plenty more to come in the future as more negatives are developed and uploaded.
http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/
There was also an interesting article regarding Vivian Maier on the BBC News site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12247395
Take a look at the official blog and let me know what you think about the work.
