2013 Nikon photomicrography competition winner announced

The Nikon Photomicrography competition dates back to 1974 and since then has invited scientist with a passion for photography or photographers with a passion for science, to showcase their amazing images from under the microscope.

Here are the winners and a few of the images that were submitted for 2013.

1st place: Wim van Egmond

This image magnified 250x shows a colonial plankton organism.

2nd place: Dr Joseph Corbo

Chrysemys picta (painted turtle) magnified 400x

3rd place: Dr Alvaro Migotto

Image of a Marine worm 20x magnified

Below are some more images that were entered.

4x image of a worker ant

A 40X view of abdominal segments of Diptera Blephariceridae larvae

Visit Nikon's small world site for more

Photographer highlight: Karina Kiel

Karina Kiel, Russian based photographer that takes children photography to new artistic levels.

She gives masterclasses in the art of children photography in her home city of Sochi.

See more of her work on her website.

Nikon's latest prime lens!

Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G

Nikon announced this new 58mm prime lens earlier this month, and it has a lot of photographers scratching their heads. Wondering, why a 58mm prime?

Most photographers will be very familiar with the good old "nifty fifty" the 50mm f/1.4 and 1.8. No professional or serious amateur photographers bag should be without one. Great value great quality.

So with this understanding among most photographers and the popularity of the 50mm prime, why then a 58mm? It's only 8mm more reach and that would hardly give you a different perspective at that focal length. So what can we make of this lens release? Why was it even released and who is it intended for?

I have a theory and i'm not alone on this. Nikon has over the last 2 years realigned their camera lineup, and introduced a tightly packed DX sensor range. They introduced what was at the time the smallest full sensor (FX) camera the D600. A sort of affordable FX camera for the serious enthusiast photographer. Nikon knows that if you are a D7000 or D7100 owner that you may very well aspire to a FX camera like the D600 or it's latest incarnation the D610. Now on a DX camera 50mm is equivalent to about 75mm and that is very close to a great focal length for portraits, generally accepted as 85mm or there about. 50mm on a FX camera is close to what your normal eye perspective is of the world. Basically it seems Nikon made a good FX prime lens that would work great as a DX portrait lens. See the connection here... I believe that Nikon is targeting this lens at DX owners that may want to upgrade to FX soon or to those who already have. Or the FX owner that has a DX backup body and would love to own a good portrait lens for their DX while still have a normal good prime for their FX camera.

The way I see it is that Nikon is covering a new segment of DX \ FX camera owners that swop between both sensor sizes but would like 1 good lens between both. It's not the most amazing idea bit I think this shows Nikon is paying attention to the serious enthusiast market.

Photo of the day

Photo by David Mckee. See more of his work here.
The death of the king of Cambodia. Monks gathered from all Cambodian provinces to morn his passing.

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See more of Tom Ryaboi's work on his website

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Photo by Andrew Cooney. See more of his work on his website

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Portrait by Abe Less
See Abe's work at 500px

Photographer highlight: Elke Vogelsang

Elke Vogelsang is a german photographer based in Hildesheim Germany.
She is a general photographer but have an amazing set of dog photos that are just amazing! I unfortunately could not get allot of information about her as all i could find was in german, but her amazing photos speak for themselves... Enjoy

See more of her work on her website and her galery on 500px

Tech News: Leap Motion

What is Leap motion I hear you ask? Well, its a revolutionary input device for your MAC or PC. But you have to see it in action to believe it. So watch the video below first and i'll continue...

Amazing right! But does the Leap offer anything for photographers in Lightroom or Photoshop? Is it better or even comparable to a Wacom tablet for example? I have used a Wacom tablet for about a year now and i cant imaging editing without it.

I have read a few reviews of the Leap and initial impressions seem favourable. It is accurate with no noticeable lag and once calibrated the gestures seem natural and intuitive.

Although this is a fantastic idea and an really well priced bit of technology (about R1400)

The problem for photographers is that its just not a good device for production purposes. Having to hold your hand in the air for more than a few minutes is at best a challenge. And the fact that it does not have a stable clicking motion gesture means you are often frustrated by moving things around in an attempt to select or click. Navigating around your images in Lightroom can be a frustrating challenge and with all the small tool icons in both Lightroom and Photoshop this can become a nightmare.

  With that said, the Leap motion was most likely not developed with Lightroom and Photoshop in mind. And its even less likely it was designed with photographers in mind. As a input device it really is a huge step into some direction... whether this is in the right direction or not will remain to be seen. It certainly has huge potential and sees like a huge amount of fun. But i would not recommend it for production purposes.

Visit the website

Quirky Portraits From the National Beard and Mustache Championships

These amazing portraits are the work of Las Vegas based commercial photographer Greg Anderson. Taken at the 2013 National Beard and Mustache Championship.

See more of his work on Facebook and his website

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