You're FIRED FroKnowsPhoto RAWtalk Episode #039

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Last week the Chicago Sun Times decided to axe its entire photography staff in favor of freelancers and reporters with iPhones. We had to cover this discussion in more detail because it was so out there. You will not believe the quotes that came from the people who made this decision, WOW.

Stephen sits down to bring us the week’s Photo News stories, which include a NEW image sensor that is 1000x more sensitive to light, a band trying to sell photo passes to their shows for $150 and a memory card that will allow for RAID storage.

Be sure to download this week’s episode on iTunes or give it a watch on YouTube.

Kicking off the news this week, touring band Hawthorne Heights were offering fans the chance to shoot a stop at one of their upcoming Vans Warped Tour dates this past week for a whopping $150. The band has since taken down the listing, after a harsh backlash from both the photography and music community. Here’s what the offer originally stated:

“Are you an aspiring photographer? Come take pictures of us all day at Warped Tour! We will provide you with the access, and experience you need. We will also take your pictures and put them on our Instagram page, and give you full credit for it. This is a great package for anyone who loves taking pictures, whether its for a hobby or professionally.”

They issued an apology shortly after, releasing the following statement:

“I wanted to say thanks to all of the photographers out there for sharing their point of view, and helping us understand where they are coming from. HH would never intentionally offend anyone, as we work really hard to stay in contact with our friends and fans. We were really just trying to give a fan a very unique experience. See the band from stage, hang out, and document it with your camera. I think the term INTERNSHIP was inappropriate for what we were offering. It should have just been an experience. And for that, we apologize. We work really hard to keep our prices low and keep our contact with our fans at a constant. Once again, sorry for the wording, and misunderstanding. Thanks again for showing us your viewpoint. It helps a lot to understand the situation. Thanks. JT and HH.”

What do you think? Is it fair for a band to charge for a photo pass? Check out a screenshot of the original listing below before it was pulled:

Ouch. The Chicago Sun-Times wiped out its entire photography staff, about 28 photographers in total, along with their sister newspapers’ photo staff. They even layed off John H. White, the renowned photojournalist who joined the Sun-Times in 1978 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982. They’re hoping to switch to a freelance photographer-based model, and plan on changing their reporters to faux-photojournalists, adding even more to their plate. It looks like this is the way the medium is coping with it’s loss of revenue since the internet age began. Here’s the Times’ official statement regarding the lay off: (via ISO 1200)

“The Sun-Times business is changing rapidly and our audiences are consistently seeking more video content with their news. We have made great progress in meeting this demand and are focused on bolstering our reporting capabilities with video and other multimedia elements. The Chicago Sun-Times continues to evolve with our digitally savvy customers, and as a result, we have had to restructure the way we manage multimedia, including photography, across the network.”

Wow. Researchers in Singapore have developed an image sensor that’s apparently 1,000 times better at capturing light than traditional CMOS and CCD sensors. The new sensor is made out of graphene, which differs from current sensors. Another benefit is that the new sensor supposedly uses 10x less energy and is five-times cheaper than current sensors. When will this come to market? Not in the near future unfortunately. Take a peek at the new clear-like sensor below: (via Engadget)

A Japanese company named Amulet is releasing a CompactFlash card that allows images and video files to be backed up instantly using RAID-style ‘mirroring’. The new CF card is a standard 64gb card at first look, but can be split into two partitions so 64gb becomes two separate 32gb partitions essentially. In its standard mode, the card offers 60/50MB/sec read/write speed, which drops to 30/25MB/s in mirroring mode, making it suitable for recording still images and HD video in both modes. The card is luckily coming to market in a few days, on June 14. Check out the newly-designed card below: (via DPreview)

This is cool: A behind-the-scenes video of National Geographic’s June cover is now online, which features photographer Marco Grob shooting James Cameron in an underwater tank. The footage includes Cameron in a wet suit being shot in short small bursts so he could come up for air. The final image was composited with an underwater ocean-type scene, creating the “under the ocean” look. A little background information regarding why he shot him underwater: Cameron recently took his submarine, Deepsea Challenge, to the deepest part of the ocean: the Challenger Deep – a voyage considered more dangerous by some than landing on the moon – as well as Cameron’s numerous times down to the Titantic. Great idea Marco! Check out the full in-depth video shoot below along with the final cover image:

An old NASA guide to shooting a Hasselblad in SPACE has surfaced online, which seems to be from the 80’s era. The guide is titled, ‘Astronaut’s Photography Manual’, and was prepared by Hasselblad in close cooperation with the Training and Man-Machine Divisions at the Johnson Space Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It not only describes the operation of the Hasselblad 500 EL/M cameras used on the U. S. Space Shuttle but is also a hardcore manual on photography to assist astronauts in creating the best possible space photographs. Click the screenshot below to check it out for yourself:

This is interesting, astrophysicists at both the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland and Pennsylvania State University have stitched together an amazing 160-megapixel (yes, not gigapixel, which seems odd) UV image of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (our two closest neighboring galaxies that are about 200,000 light years away!). The final photograph is composed of 2,200 images, which was taken from the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope.. The cool part? You can even download the full-resolution image for free which is 16,000 x 10,000px and is 457MB in TIFF format. Check it out below along with a video describing the galaxies and click the image to get your free download on: (via NASA)