The Verge - Photography & Video Posts

Naked, alone, and dwarfed by nature: Ruben Brulat's 'Paths'

2013-05-24T08:04:36Z

Ruben Brulat's Paths is a photo series that shows figures lost in the wilderness. The young photographer, who previously gained recognition for the similarly-themed Primates, traveled Asia and the Middle East, shooting grand, hostile-looking locales. As beautiful as the landscapes are, Paths' genius lies in the contrast between the tiny, naked figures and the dramatic backdrops. Brulat captures the vulnerability and insignificance of man when shown in the context of the vast emptiness of nature.

As it turns 15, the ESO's Very Large Telescope captures another interstellar stunner

2013-05-23T13:38:02Z

The Very Large Telescope is about to turn 15, and to celebrate the European Southern Observatory has released a spectacular image of a radiant pink gas cloud. Naturally the shot you see above — showcasing just one nursery (IC 2944, according to Phys.org) where stars are born in spectacular fashion — was captured by the VLT. The telescope's massive optical power makes it feel as if you're right there, but in reality this cloud lies some 6500 light-years away. Researchers turned on the Very Large Telescope in May of 1998, and since then it's proven to be an indispensable tool cited in countless scientific papers and studies. And as you can clearly see, it's still producing wondrous results.

Exposing the beauty of deadly disease through medical photography

2013-05-21T09:35:02Z

The complex mechanisms that conspire to attack our bodies often have a beguiling allure that belies their malevolent nature. That's the theme behind Hidden Beauty, a new book of medical photography from Norman Barker and Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, both professors at Johns Hopkins University.

"Let me be very clear — in no way do we mean to glorify disease, but it is part of the human condition," said Barker to Hyperallergic. Instead, the project concentrates on the emotions that the diseases can spark when viewed in a context divorced from their malignant origin.

The photography uses a variety of techniques, including scanning electron microscopy and spectral karyotyping, to present the damage wreaked by ailments such as cancer and...

Yahoo revitalizes Flickr with huge images, sharing, and a terabyte of free space (hands-on)

2013-05-20T23:00:51Z

Yahoo has just taken the wraps off a major update to Flickr, it's long-suffering photo service, and we just sat down to put the revamped service through its paces to see how it has improved — and whether or not it'll be enough to keep up with the likes of Facebook and Google+. While it's a massive visual improvement, it's still works much like the Flickr of old, for better or for worse. But for a visual site like Flickr, those changes make for a huge upgrade over what users experienced before.

For starters, Flickr made it a priority to remove the massive amounts of whitespace, text, and links that covered up its page, and it makes all the difference. You're now presented with a stream of photos from your contacts with minimal...

Swiss group builds insect-inspired camera system with 180-degree vision

2013-05-20T22:38:20Z

There's a race underway to bring insect-like compound eyes to micro drones. Curvace, a research group from Switzerland, is the latest to announce a compound eye invention with its Curved Artificial Compound Eye (CACE) prototype, made up of a strip of small cameras. Curvace is competing with a bug inspired camera system from the University of Illinois, which detailed its own compound eye system at the beginning of the month. Both systems aim to do the same thing — mimic the vision of a fly, which relies on compound eyes to track minuscule movements with a wider field-of-view and deeper depth of field than the human eye, or moden single camera setups, can even attempt to reach.

Flickr launches redesigned Android app for smartphones and tablets

2013-05-20T21:31:54Z

After launching an all-new app for iOS last December, Flickr is finally giving its Android offering a similar overhaul. Announced moments ago on stage at Yahoo's New York City event, the revamped Flickr for Android is available today for both phones and tablets. "The new Flickr for Android maintains your photos’ original quality, so every image you take, edit, share, or view on your phone or tablet looks spectacular," wrote CEO Marissa Mayer in a Tumblr post announcing the update. The new-and-improved Flickr for Android includes support for 10 languages and is available in the Google Play store now.

Yahoo unveils the new Flickr with one terabyte of free space

2013-05-20T21:24:24Z

Yahoo has just announced a complete redesign of Flickr at its New York City event — the new site is live now and it comes with one terabyte of free photo space. Yahoo SVP Adam Cahan just made the announcement and said that "Flickr had become about words, little images, blue links. It was not about the photo anymore." But the new photostream changes that, will full-resolution images and a clean homepage with all the emphasis on images — it looks a lot like the Instagram web profile header.

In short, Flickr's done away with nearly all of the white space on Flickr, across every page you visit. Other new features include iPhoto-style slideshows (complete with music), full-bleed photos with significantly-reduced UI elements, and...

Live from Yahoo's Flickr press event

2013-05-20T20:53:36Z

Google+ update for Android includes improved photo experience and Snapseed integration

2013-05-20T15:37:15Z

Google+ received some significant updates at Google I/O last week, many of which focused on a new and improved photo experience for users, and now the company is bringing that experience to its Android app. Just like the desktop version, Google+ for Android now includes auto highlight (for a selection of "top shots" from each gallery you upload), auto enhance, and auto awesome (which searches through your images to automatically build new creations like animations or panoramas). Given the major emphasis Google placed on these features last week, we're not at all surprised to see them show up in the Android app.

Google+ continues to push photos as its killer feature

Further photo enhancements come in the form of Snapseed integration —...

'The Pirate Cinema' monitors popular torrents to create a video wall of piracy

2013-05-20T08:58:12Z

The Pirate Cinema is a cinematic collage or sorts. Its creators took torrent database The Pirate Bay's Top 100 video files and monitored each, creating small, fragmented clips based on traffic (torrents are transfered block-by-block in a somewhat random order). The resulting installation, which runs through to May 29th in Montreal's Eastern Bloc gallery, is a mash of sights and sounds, revealing the extent of global file sharing. Head over to We Make Money Not Art for an interview with co-creator Nicolas Maigret.