Monthly Archives: April 2012

Facebook and Instagram

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The dot com bubble all over again?

It can’t have passed you by that Facebook bought out its biggest photo-sharing rival, Instagram, for $1bn (£626m) recently.

I’ll start by making it clear that I don’t like Facebook and I don’t like Instagram. Facebook is everything I hate about social media, not to mention the fact that it’s everywhere you go online. Every page now has a ‘Like’ button and tells you, if you’re already logged in to Facebook, who else likes the page you’re on. Creepy.

I don’t like Instagram because it implies that a photograph is only worthy of being a good shot if it is heavily overlaid with retro/vintage-style, faded or unnaturally coloured filters. I don’t think it does anything for photography, much like Lomography. Occasional use isn’t so bad, but for every photo? It just doesn’t sit well with me.

Someone on Twitter amusingly pointed out that Kodak, who spent a century perfecting images, is now bankrupt yet Instagram, which makes a point of adding those imperfections back in to the final image, is worth $1bn.

I understand Facebook have bought access to 30 million users, which is sure to increase dramatically now that the Android app is available, but it’s seems a) like a ridiculous partnership and b) a massive over-spend.

After the news of the purchase broke there were many tweets from people suggesting that they would be closing their Instagram accounts, followed by numerous blogs offering advice on how to copy your image from Instagram to your computer. For me it was the catalyst to delete my Facebook account.

I used Instagram for a brief period of iOS camera app testing but stopped using it after discovering that their copyright and photo usage policy was not wholly in favour of the user. See my post on copyrights here for more information. (I should point out that I have not contacted Instagram to respond to my thoughts on their policy. This will come in a future post.)

How long before the Instagram experience becomes properly Facebook-ised? Facebook have said that Instagram will remain a separate entity, but they surely have to make that $1bn back at some point? Will it be ads? In-app purchases for new filters and effects?

It’s easy to see why so many people are scratching their heads over the future of their favourite photo sharing service.

I for one will most certainly not being going back to Instagram or Facebook.

Long exposures

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I have been wanting to do some really long exposures for some time. I used to be able to when I had a D700 as it was easy to find a cheap cable release.

In the last couple of years I’ve only had a D40, Panasonic GF1 and G1 that would be sufficient replacements.

However, the D40 has no cable release port and the Panasonics only work with a £60 Panasonic-branded release. Sorry but it’s not worth that much.

I picked up a Nikon infrared remote a while ago for my D40 and haven’t really used it. I have tonight found out that if I set the D40 to bulb mode, the remote enables ‘time mode’ on the camera.

Essentially it’s an alternative to bulb mode. Bulb holds the shutter open for as long as the shutter button is held down. Time mode opens the shutter upon the first press of the button and closes it upon the second, thus allowing for any length of time for the shutter to be open on the D40.

I want to try star trails without going outside so I’m going to try shooting with a 135mm lens, or possibly the 500mm mirror lens.

I’m thinking that I’ll use my 10-stop neutral density filter to get some exposures in the minutes, rather than seconds.

This opens up a huge amount of possibilities which I intend to exploit this summer when I can be out at night and it be a bit warmer!

Update: I think the 10-stop filter was a bit much. I need to experiment with shutter speeds and apertures to get the right balance of exposure. Maybe I’ll try a 3- or 4-stop filter next!

I Really Want…

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Dangerous words for a photographer. Gear Acquisition Syndrome, as some call it, is a catalyst for stifled creativity.

I can’t shoot x because I don’t have y and z. Yes that’s zipped around my mind a few times and it’s never healthy.

At the moment it has entered my consciousness a little because this month’s photo club subject is ‘Unposed People’ and suddenly NONE of my cameras are suitable for street photography.

The Trip 35 isn’t accurate enough at focusing.
The Panasonic GF1 doesn’t have a decent viewfinder.
The D40 isn’t discreet enough.
I wouldn’t be able to focus quick enough on my FE.
The FM2n is manual exposure and I’ll miss loads of shots.
The Canon S95 is too slow.

All true statements but also utter bollocks. I ran two rolls of Superia 200 through the Trip on Saturday and it was perfectly acceptable. I’m obviously just looking for excuses.

I would however quite like a rangefinder camera. A Leica is way out of my price range but I would be more than happy with a Voigtlander R4A (*cough* it’s my birthday in June *cough*) and a 35mm lens.

For those that don’t know, a rangefinder camera has a small body, no internal mirror box and uses a focusing method unlike an SLR in that you don’t look through the lens. In the viewfinder there is a small patch in the middle which essentially has two images on top of each other. When you focus with the lens one moves across the other and when they are aligned the image is correctly focused.

Having no mirror box means that the camera can be smaller than an SLR and also allows for a shorter lens to film/sensor distance which in turn makes for smaller lenses.

Rangefinders can be a bit weird if you’re used to SLRs. Composing through a viewfinder which doesn’t show the actual framing of a shot that will appear on the film/sensor is disconcerting. There are frame lines in the viewfinder which give an approximation of your composition but if you use a lens for which there is no frame line, you’ll also need an external viewfinder. You could end up having to look through one finder to compose and one to focus. Not very fast then!

That said, pre-focusing can help for street photography and with a wide lens like a 21mm or 18mm the depth of field would be fairly huge – enough not to worry about focusing too carefully.

If I had the cash I would get a Voigtlander R4A, a 12mm and a 35mm and go shooting. As that would set me back a couple of grand I think I’ll make do with my £49 Olympus Trip!