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New York’s “Vessel” is under fire over rights-grab photo policy for tourists

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The Vessel, in New York City’s latest luxury neighbourhood, is Hudson Yards’ fancy tourist trap. But it’s also a rights grab when it comes to photography. Initially, spotted by Gothamist, two particular clauses in the Hudson Yard Terms & Conditions were extremely overbearing. Terms and conditions to which you agree as soon as you enter the place.

Those clauses have since been combined into a new “My social media posts” clause. The new clause is a little shorter and combines the two previous clauses together with a little more clarification. But it still looks like pretty rights grabby to me.

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I got $5,000 worth of gear stolen from me through Fat Llama

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As mentioned previously on this site, I use the Fat Llama website to loan out some of my photography gear when not in use, and I’ve been very happy with the extra beer money… well up until last week that is, as my camera kit was stolen!

Let’s rewind a bit and go through exactly what happened, how I was dealt with by the Fat Llama team and my thoughts on how to better protect yourself if you use Fat Llama or something similar.

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This photographer shot his own wet plate passport photos

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I love seeing the wet plate experiments of Austrian photographer Markus Hofstätter. He’s so prolific with them that when he decides to do something interesting it ends up being very interesting. Lately, he’s been trying to apply wet plate techniques to types of photography you wouldn’t normally associate with the medium.

He has a couple of very cool projects on the go at the moment that he will tell us about in due time, but for now, check out these passport photos shot on wet plate using the Polaroid MiniPortrait 402 camera.

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Why Size Matters – Perspective and lens compression in landscapes at 400mm

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Most the time when I am out doing landscape photography, I have a Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS and Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS with me. On roadtrips, I try to bring my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II – it’s a fantastic lens with great image stabilization and impressive image quality. Unfortunately, it is a bit too big and heavy for me to bring out more often!

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This bridezilla threatened to withhold pay unless the photographer shot everything on her list

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This is why I don’t shoot weddings. Ok, it’s not the only reason why I don’t shoot weddings, but having to deal with people like this is the main reason why I don’t shoot weddings – especially when most of them don’t want to pay the photographer what they deserve or even need to charge in order to thrive and survive as a business.

One bride in particular, though, has taken crazy to a whole new level. She’s created a five-page checklist of photos she wants the photographer to get, and is refusing to pay them unless they show her every single last one of them having been captured. She also posted her checklist to Facebook for those who might want some tips for booking their own wedding photographer.

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Canon is working on a new global shutter CMOS sensor with dual memory pixels

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Published in the Japan Journal of Applied Physics, Canons is working on a new global shutter CMOS sensor with dual in-pixel charge domain memory. The rather technical paper explains the research and development of the new sensor technology.

This new technology would allow camera manufacturers (or, at least Canon) to remove the final major mechanical component from camera bodies. With a global electronic shutter, there is no need for a physical mechanical shutter anymore.

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Dismantling the new Canon EOS RP in this extreme teardown

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I’d think most people were pleasantly surprised with the release of the EOS RP. Full-frame mirrorless cameras were getting increasingly sophisticated, which is a good thing, but they were getting increasingly expensive along the way. After all, it’s the enthusiast and prosumer crowd that wants mirrorless cameras more than anyone else.

Top tier professional photographers are still largely sticking with traditional DSLRs, for now. The only full-frame mirrorless options for that growing crowd of serious but not seriously paid photographers were the now-5-year-old (time is really flying) Sony A7 II or the even older and clunkier A7. Anything with current tech would run you $2,000 minimum, namely the A7 III. I’m not saying this camera wasn’t an absolute steal considering what it can do, but $2,000 is still a lot of money for most people who do not shoot full-time for a living and leaves little room for modern, mount-native glass. If only there was something to fill that gap.

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