SnapperTalk

Magnum has a really nice online exhibition of work that shows just how multimedia should be done. Entitled “Magnum in Motion” it blends great images with audio commentary, text and graphics using some very impressive Flash work. I came across the site after a photographer friend Jason Bye pointed me to the “Bitter Fruit” piece by Paul Fusco - a powerful essay documenting the funerals of US soldiers killed in Iraq which is definitely worth watching the whole of. The commentaries from the photographers are particularly interesting.

Thuraya has announced the next-generation of handheld satphones that it says will become available in early 2006.
Here’s a few excerpts from the full press release about the new cellphone-sized handsets:

“The sleek and stylish satellite phone combines satellite, GSM and GPS, with built-in GPRS, MMS and JAVA features. The GPRS feature allows an always-on access to internet. Users will be able to download and upload information using Thuraya’s satellite network anywhere in the coverage area. Similarly, the GPRS capabilities can also be enjoyed on the GSM mode.”

“Additionally, the new satellite phone has a tri-band GSM system that allows it to operate on different GSM networks (900, 1800 and 1900 MHz) and it also has many high-end GSM features such as a built-in camera, video, a high resolution colour screen and a multi-language support.”

“The new phone comes in three versions: a satellite-only version designed for those requiring mobile connectivity in areas beyond terrestrial networks, and a Satellite/GSM version that is geared towards existing GSM users requiring mobile connectivity and roaming in areas beyond terrestrial networks. Both come with superior GPS navigational features that allow users to find locations and reach destinations safely and quickly. The third version is a satellite modem that is designed for integration and use with other devices.”

They haven’t released any pictures that I could find, except a brief glimpse in this advert on their website and Thuraya CEO Yousuf Al Sayed describes them in this video.

With many photographers travelling to places where body armour/bullet-resistant vests (colloquially but incorrectly called bulletproof vests) are essential equipment but often being unaware of the different options out there, here’s a round-up of most of the offerings available for members of the media. In choosing a vest, remember that the type and size of ballistic plates used are as important as the vest itself - both in terms of bullet-resistance and weight & comfort. Compared to the older ceramic plates, the ones using newer lightweight plastic materials such as Dyneema & Famostone/Aristone can be a lot lighter and provide similar protection. It’s an obvious point but if the vest is too heavy to work in, and consequently you don’t wear it, it’s no use at all - so comfort is a serious issue not to be overlooked. If anyone has used a good vest not mentioned here, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Companies based in the UK:
Jack Ellis (UK) - good vests using Protexa material from Lorica Research
Lorica Armour Vest (UK)
NP Aerospace (UK)
Body Armour UK
Praetorian Associates (UK)
VestGuard UK
Spymaster (UK)
LBA International (UK)
EnGarde (UK)
Armourshield Ltd (UK)

Companies based in Europe:
SEMA (France) - well-fitting ‘press’ vest with lightweight plates
Swedish Body Armour (Sweden)
Sikkerhedsraadgiverne (Denmark)
BSST (Germany)
BodySafe (Netherlands)
EnGarde (EU)

Companies based in the USA:
Point Blank (US)
BulletProofME (US)
LightFighter Tactical (US)
American Body Armor (US)
Inter-American Security Products (US)
Paraclete (US)
Black Armor (US)
RBR Tactical Armor (US)
Reliance Armor (US)
Diamondback Tactical (US)
PACA Body Armor (US)
First Choice Armor (US)
Second Chance (US)
U.S. Armor Corporation (US)
Armorshield (US)
Armour of America (US)
Protech Tactical (US)
LifeTek Armor (US)
T.G. Faust (US)
EnGarde (US)
U.S. Military Interceptor Vest (US) - Standard issue for U.S. Marines, article on it here
Pinnacle Armor (US) - Impressive but expensive “Dragonskin/SOV” flexible body armour
Gentex Helmet Systems (US)

Companies based in other countries:
Craig International Ballistics (Australia)
KATA (Israel & elsewhere) - new range of well-designed vests & anatomically shaped plates.
RabinTex (Israel)
Israel Military Products (Israel)
Hagor Industries (Israel)
W.W.D.C. Group (Israel and elsewhere)
Mofet Etzion (Israel)
Global Armour (South Africa)
Ballistic Body Armour (South Africa)
Pacific Safety Products (Canada)

Wikipedia has some basic info here

For info on some of the latest body armour technology from a more military, but very informative perspective, take a look at the body armour topic section at DefenseReview.com. They also have a list of web links for other manufacturers. BodyArmorNews is another website reporting developments.

The International News Safety Institute has a good list of body armour and other safety equipment and also copies of the BBC kit lists for different hostile environments.

Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) will lend vests to freelancers heading to war-zones if you show them your air ticket, press card and identification and pay a deposit of 900 euros. Details here. They also offer an affordable insurance policy for freelance media, and some useful information and advice on related issues.

Rob Galbraith reports that Camera Bits are prepping their latest version 4.4 of the excellent Photo Mechanic image-browser, and that a beta will likely be available on November 1st. There seem to be some pretty substantial features added, notably in the area of captioning, all of which are well covered in the article.

UPDATE 01/12/05: Final version 4.4 now available for download

There’s a new generation of interactive web applications written using a combination of technologies that together are called AJAX. One of the best I have seen is Meebo - a free online multi-network instant-messaging service which could be of real use to photographers working in different locations and needing to send instant-messages from other people’s computers.

Basically you just go to the webpage from any computer, enter your instant-messaging account details on either AOL IM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ or Jabber (or all of them), hit enter, and you are presented with a dynamic page giving you the ability to send/receive instant messages, complete with all your buddy lists. The interface is super and it is pretty much as good as most instant-messaging clients, only you can access it from any computer. From what they say, it is actually a web-frontend to the popular GAIM instant-messaging client.
They also have an SSL-encrypted version here

Services like this are the future of web applications and we are going to be seeing a lot more AJAX-based solutions soon. Wikipedia has a list of some other web services already utilising AJAX here

South African journalist Sahm Venter has written an article over at Poynter Online based on the conclusions of her study of TV camera operators and producers - both staff members and freelancers - working for Associated Press Television News and and Reuters TV. In the year 2000 these two agencies along with CNN, BBC and ITN, drew up a common safety policy to advance the safety of media working in dangerous situations and the idea behind her study was to do a follow-up to see how that policy is working in practice five years on.
At the end of the article are comments from Reuters TV and from APTN, as well as a link to the 100ish page full thesis [PDF, 440kb].

The 2005 Visions of Science photographic awards have been announced. There’s some beautiful pictures and it’s a good idea for those of us in the press world to occasionally remind ourselves what the other branches of photography are up to.

Other picture galleries of the winners with larger images are viewable at the BBC site and National Geographic.

The L.A.Times has a good exposé of Nigerian 419 email scammers entitled “I will eat your dollars” showing what their background is, how they accomplish their work, and the people who actually fall for the scams - in depressingly large numbers. It’s a story that’s been done before many times but this is one of the better ones.

If you’ve ever wondered exactly what it is up in space that you are pointing your satphone to - Wired has a good article all about the new Inmarsat-4 satellites that will provide the next-generation of BGAN coverage for satphone users.

It seems everybody is releasing new photo software the last few days. LightCrafts has released a new photo-editing application called LightZone. It claims to have a somewhat innovative approach in treating images as a set of automatically-recognised tonal zones which you can then adjust, and also has RAW image support. Currently only for OSX, but a Windows version is expected in November. More information can be found on the product FAQ.

Apple has created Aperture - a new application for pro digital photography. Although not yet released, it appears to be the Final Cut Pro of stills photography and is a very exciting development in an arena pretty much exclusively dominated by Photoshop and a few other applications.

It looks from the technical specifications that it is not intended to be a Photoshop replacement, but rather an all-in-one workflow application that they claim integrates seamlessly with Photoshop. And for minimal-manipulation photojournalism photography, it may even be the only application needed for a large proportion of such work. It has extensive RAW image support and EXIF/IPTC support, although I’d like to know if the captioning is fully compatible with the multitude of imaging systems out there. Let’s hope so.

At the moment it is only available for pre-order but the Aperture page on the Apple website has a lot of information on it.

UPDATE 31/10/05: Rob Galbraith now has an extensive page of additional information about Aperture.

This new device as originally reported in this Engadget article - the MacPower DMG7 - is intended as an add-on for the Mac-Mini to give high quality audio/video playback and offers the following features:

· Embedded Linux operating system
· Supports a 3.5″ Hard Drive
· Onboard Wired LAN connection
· Wi-Fi / Bluetooth support
· High Definition 1080i/720p Large Video Playback
· SPDIF Dolby 5.1 Audio support
· All major Video & Audio formats including WMV9 & DivX support

As a recent Mac-Mini and NewerTech MiniStack owner, this device seems a pretty interesting solution for turning it into a multimedia hub.

UPDATE 11/10/05: For some reason they seem to have changed the name of this from DMG8 to DMG7… no idea why.

UPDATE 01/11/05:They say a retail version will be available towards the end of December, and that the UK retailer will be MAG (UK) Ltd