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Cactus has ceased trading – but apparently they didn’t tell anybody for three months

Mar 26, 2021 by John Aldred 2 Comments

This only seems to be coming out now, which isn’t much of a surprise as the popularity of Cactus triggers and lights has taken a bit of a beating the last few years – what with Godox bursting onto the scene covering everything from entry-level budget speedlights to honking big location strobes. So Cactus has kind of fallen by the wayside.

But Cactus, the company that failed to crowdfund the Cactus RQ250 strobe – a competitor to the Godox AD200 – a couple of years ago has now left the building. According to an email response sent out to one of their customers recently, Cactus actually ceased trading in December 2020, but they just didn’t tell anybody and nobody seemed to really notice.

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Australian Associated Press deemed “unsustainable” – Shuts down after 85 years

Mar 9, 2020 by Dunja Djudjic 1 Comment

After 85 years of operation, the news agency Australian Associated Press (AAP) is set to close down. The major shareholders said that the agency is unsustainable, and as of June 2020, it will cease to exist.

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After 20 years, camera review website Imaging Resource is shutting down

Oct 12, 2019 by Dunja Djudjic 8 Comments

After more than 20 years, Imaging Resource, one of the most respected camera review websites, is shutting down. The founder Dave Etchells sent an email yesterday to his friends in the industry, and the sad news became official shortly after.

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Thinking about closed and open form pictures; or how old art history terms can still be useful

Sep 10, 2016 by Daniela Bowker 1 Comment

If you were to mention the term ‘formal analysis’ to an art historian today, you’d probably be told it’s passé. No one really tries to objectively compare one painting against another using formal concepts anymore. However, formal analysis—or the concepts that it identified—does still present some interesting ideas, especially for photographers.

Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin was a key figure in formal methodology. He devised a system that compared opposing artistic concepts so that they could be applied to paintings and used to analyse them. In particular, Wölfflin was interested in trying to characterise Renaissance and Baroque art.

One pair of comparators used by Wölflinn was closed form against open form. While I’m doubtful you’re set on recreating Renaissance or Baroque pictures, knowing what the terms mean, and how they can be applied to your photos and make your audience feel about them, is useful.

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