Came across Laurent’s work via Cameron Moll and just fell in love with these photos of the Le Mans Classic. He nailed not only the post processing but the angles. Some of them look almost like stills from a 1970’s film.

Came across “…and these are the days” this morning and it reminded me of the Tumblr site I set up long ago, but haven’t touched in 3 months. I set up that site after seeing Tumblr sites popping up from people posting iPhone pics of their daily life. I also wanted to try out the Tumblr iPhone app which I heard good things about. I tried it and then lost interest (apologies to my 2 lonely followers….why are you still here?). But after seeing this site today and now that I have the much more capable iPhone 4 camera, I might be inspired to start that up again. Just don’t hold me to it.

Shawn Blanc recently posted about one of his favorite iPhone camera apps called “Pano”. He mentions that it’s so easy anyone could use it. I’ve tried Pano before and yes, it is simple, but the results I got from it didn’t impress me. For example, take a look at this photo Shawn took of his office using Pano. Notice the sharp angle on the baseboard on the wall on the right and then see how the wood floor has a bend in it in that same location. That’s the result of the app not handling the change in perspective well enough. While everything’s lined up, the transitions from photo to photo leave much to be desired.

Now take a look at this quick shot I took of my office (click for full resolution):

This is stitched together with another panoramic iPhone app called AutoStitch (iTunes Link). It’s a composite of about 6 or 7 photos. Notice how well AutoStitch handled the wood floor in our area. Granted, the perspective-handling produces a bit more curvature to your environment, but I prefer that than to have any noticeable “seams” where the photos intersected. Also the tighter the environment you’re shooting the more obvious the curvature will be. If I was shooting a mountain range it would be much less noticeable.

AutoStitch is arguably even easier to use. All you have to do is snap photos, select the ones you want to use from you camera roll, and hit “Stitch”. You have a few options at your disposal such as the ability to crop the final shot, change the resolution, blending quality, and have the app attempt to adjust the exposure automatically. I’ve found the results from AutoStitch to supersede all of the other panoramic apps I’ve tried on the iPhone.

Here’s a valuable tip when making panoramic photos. When taking your photos, imagine the camera is attached to a tri-pod and thus can only rotate around a fixed axis. If you move your hands or arms then you’re dramatically altering your vantage point and your photos will not line-up as well. You’ll also notice in my photo above that as well as this app did, you’re almost always going to have ghosting with people if they don’t sit still. Unless you can control who’s in your shot and tell them to sit still, ghosting will be an unfortunately unavoidable result.

Yet another amazing photo essay by Joshua Longbrake of a recent trip he took to San Francisco. Reminds me that I have a Nikon sitting in a closet at home that needs to be used. I also need to stop whining that it’s not full frame or, even better, a Hasselblad like Joshua uses. I also need to stop wanting so many things.

Stunning video by Mike Matas. Music is perfect and I love how he did several captures of certain scenes so that when played back like this you’re able to focus a little more on those moments.

This photoset of New York during the 1940s is fantastic! The majority of the shots are in B&W, but a handful are in color. Seeing shots in color from an era that is usually depicted in B&W always gets me. It provides that extra layer of reality that transports them from “storybook” to “life”. (via @chadengle)

Tilt-shift video has become fairly trendy recently and as with any effect, overdone at times. This video shot by Sam O’Hare is one of the best executions of tilt-shift I’ve seen yet. I think what sells it for me is that Sam is telling a story rather than showing off a new effect. He captures a glimpse into the daily lives of New Yorkers & pairs it with an upbeat soundtrack to match the sped-up movements of the “miniatures”. The close-ups and nighttime shots are especially noteworthy. Beautiful stuff!