If you are a pro (or thinking of turning pro) you really should be reading Photo District News.We get it at the office, and everything on my "to do" list gets bumped down a notch in favor of a quick read when it arrives.
The October 2006 issue is even better than most, featuring a section on four shooters who designed their own gear to help them make photos that were previously impossible to make.
John Brackenbury's macro-to-infinity-in-focus cover shot combines a half-second, hyper-hyper-focal landscape exposure with a high-speed-flash-frozen shot of the bug in Photoshop to create amazing scene as you might view it if you were 3 millimeters tall.
The macro-to-infinity lens is a combination of two lenses - a ~2mm ultrawide and a more normal lens. He has invented a new optic, and is being justifiably cagey about it.
This is a very imaginative approach to the normal "sharp-up-close, but fuzzy background" look of most macro work.
PDN only lets you view online content if you are a subscriber, but you can look right now at (also featured) photographer Igor Panitz's stuff on his site. See the transportation section to view some of the car shots he does with a moveable, programmable, continuous light.
Panitz apparently just moves that sucker around the car during a time exposure (turning it on and off via computer) to design a one-off, custom light source that lets him sculpt a car in exquisite detail with absolute control.
Yet another photog featured in this same issue is Scott Aichner, whose amazing, 270-degree surfing shots are done with a dual-camera, dual fisheye setup he designed for himself.
This guy rocks. And he shows you how he designed the special camera(s).
If you are really serious about this stuff, Photo District News should be on your reading list every month.
It's not cheap - PDN charges $65.00 a year - but you can get it on Amazon for $55.00.
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