The Nifty Mini-Drive for the Mac Book Air (and the Nifty MiniDrive Pro for the Macbook Pro) is a new hardware project which raised almost $200,000 (at the time of writing) on Kickstarter, much exceeding its original goal of $11,000.

From its introductory videos and write up, it's an easy to use device that will allow a quick and simple add-on to the available memory in MacBook Pros and Airs, and  as well as back-up solution.
All it does is to provide an intelligent 'adapter' that will take a MicroSd Card, which will then be inserted flush in the SD Card slot of the MacBooks, and used as an additional hard drive.


It appears that the price of the Nifty Mini-Drives will be in the vicinity of $30 each, and as the current price of a 64GB microSDXC SanDisk (as an example) is about $60, the total cost to increase one's memory by that amount is about $100 (inclusive of sales taxes or shipping, etc).

As a guidance price, the price of an 11 inch 64GB MacBook Air is $999 versus $1099 for an 11 inch 128GB MacBook Air. However, if one already owns a MacBook Air (or Pro) and wants a quick and simple increase in memory, this might be a smart alternative than to send it for an upgrade. 

I am very pleased to appear as the first photographer for the In Focus feature in Auto de Fe's magazine for the iPad.

The feature carries an interview with me, along with some of my favorite photographs that I made over the course of my 12 years career. The interview was conducted with Jack Laurenson, the magazine's Executive Editor.

What is Auto de Fe? Well, it's a cross-platform magazine of inquisitive journalism and intelligent photography. It showcases compelling writing, investigative reporting and visual documentary projects from around the world. ADF is a unique magazine for the 21st century and is available as a fully interactive digital app on the iPad. Other devices will follow. It'll also be online and in print. Its digital & print format will allow many mediums of storytelling and bring some truly spectacular reportage.

I've downloaded the Auto de Fe's App from the Apple Store, and it's truly magnificent on the iPad. I don't have the new iteration of the iPad with the Retina display, but I know people who have it, and they say it's eye-popping! So get it!!!

I would be remiss if I don't mention the photojournalists/photographers whose work appear on the inaugural issue of Auto de Fe. These are Sean Power with 40 Commando, Meredith Alexander with London's Olympic Shame, Sean Hawkey's reports from the mines of Guatemala and Nicaragua, Carole Alfarah's Waiting For Change and Lisa Wiltse's The Charcoal Kids.

Finally, I urge emerging photojournalists and visual storytellers to view Auto de Fe's raison d'etre, and consider the opportunity that it offers as per its "What Do We Offer Our Contributors".

I've been seeing these QR codes for some time now....some airlines offer them as an alternative to printed boarding passes, banks have them to facilitate mobile banking, and even cars have them painted on their sides. I've used them to download my boarding passes on a couple of occasions.

The QR codes are sort of barcodes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information, and their ease of use makes them practical for businesses. When you scan or read a QR code with your iPhone, Android or other camera-enabled Smartphone, you can link to digital content on the web; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; and connect the mobile device to a web browser!

Cool! So my quick search revealed there are many free QR Code generators such as Kaywa and others, and naturally I immediately filled in my The Travel Photographer website's URL, and voila!!! The square barcode you see above is the QR Code for it. You scan it with your iPhone/Android and your browser will immediately log on to my website.

This is the QR of for my blog, The Travel Photographer's Blog:

And finally, here's the QR Code for The Leica File:

Is it useful for photographers? I have no idea.  For the time being, I can only think of one use for it (apart from how the airlines and banks do), and that is to have it printed on one's business card. The recipient would scan it into his/her device and would be immediately logged on to your website.

I saw a post about Gumroad on Pixiq, and its premise piqued my interest, as it may do for my readers.

Gumroad claims that it serves to democratize the ability to sell stuff online, and 'stuff' obviously includes photographs, or songs, albums, videos, and other products. It does so by creating a link to your photograph(s) so that your fans, friends, and followers who want to buy it, can do so, and no store set up is needed.

Gumroad's fee structure is states as 5% + 25¢ of each transaction.  If you sell a photograph for $100, the fee is $5.24 and $94.75 is deposited into your bank account. According the Gumroad's FAQ, it supports Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and Diners Club cards.

It may be worth one's time to try this service out.

Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

I chanced on the Camerabag2's website just yesterday, and thought I'd share it with my readers, especially as it offers a free trial for 30 days.

Camerabag2 describes itself as a photo app for Mac and PC with a new approach to editing. It claims that its Analog Engine pairs a full suite of photographic tools with filters and vintage simulations. It uses a straightforward approach to layering, rearranging, and tweaking all of these effects in realtime. It has 100+ fully-adjustable filters and 25+ professional controls.

Purists will probably not be interested in such as app, but for those who like presets, and appreciate tweaking these to suit their own preferences, Camerabag2 does deliver. It has all sorts of tools, from simple exposure and cropping to advanced vignetting, color correction, and curves. However, I didn't see any sharpening tools...but I may have missed it.

The image I made on Bleecker Street the other day was processed in Camerabag2 as seen above.

Does it compete with Lightroom, Photoshop et al? Of course not. But it offers a quick fix to those who have no time or interest in getting involved with these two heavyweights...and it does so at the price of only $29. Not too bad.

Note: I have no direct or indirect relationship with the makers of Camerabag2 and/or its distributors.

This is really cool! Click the arrow, and you'll get The Travel Photographer's "Breaking News"!!

Wibbitz seeks to leverage existing text-based content into video and converting readers into viewers. It's Text-To-Video Platform matches the best visual representation for the text, adds voice-over narration and generate an engaging video out of it. 

Using Wibbitz, almost any article, post or feed on the web can be instantly turned into a short video clip.

What does this have to do with travel and documentary photography? Nothing...but it's really cool. I love stuff like that...don't you?

I've had the iPhone 4S since late October, and despite my previous reluctance in having such a device, I'm head over heels with it. Well, this might be an exaggeration because some of my friends and peers have really gone "extreme" with its photographic apps, and I'm not.

 That said, I do like to use the various apps such as Instagram, Hipstamatic, Snapseed and the like that I have on mine. The lastest to appear is 646 Pro for iPhone whose claim sounds interesting. It claims that the app has been designed for professional and serious amateur photographers, and is the first and only iPhone camera app to give TIFF image files that have no in-app post-processing applied and no JPEG compression.

Its JPEGs are enhanced by 645 PRO's seven Film Modes, inspired by classic film stock as used by top photographers. It's still being considered for approval by Apple, but from the claims it makes, I'm sure many serious iPhone photographers will lap it up (subject to its meeting these claims and depending on a sensible price, of course).



 

As for multimedia photographers enamored with the iPhone, here's the iPhone Boom Mic, a small microphone that provides iPhone videos "professional" style sound. The microphone attaches to the iPhone's headphone jack. It's very lightweight, has a broad directional and a super-directional setting for more precisely focused recording.

Note: I have no direct or indirect relationship with either of these manufacturers and/or products.

I've just uploaded my first Cowbird story titled The Sufi Itinerant of Qutb Uddin.

While working on the photograph of Miskine, the Sufi in my post of yesterday, I realized I had a recording of him briefly telling me his life story. Coincidentally, I was invited to join Cowbird, which describes itself as "...a small community of storytellers, focused on a deeper, longer-lasting, more personal kind of storytelling than you’re likely to find anywhere else on the Web."

Cowbird seeks to feature incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers, and present them in the most beautiful storytelling environment on the Web. Its community consists of journalists, photographers, writers, artists, filmmakers, designers, explorers, and many others.

"incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers"

It allows members of its community to produce multimedia stories, incorporating text, photos, sound, subtitles, roles, relationships, maps, tags, timelines, dedications, and characters, thus mixing elements of traditional storytelling with elements of technology.

I'm excited to have joined Cowbird, and will upload new single image stories as time permits. I've seen that Aaron Huey, a fantastic photographer has also joined Cowbird, and already has a number of stories on it. This one of Zahoor is especially wonderful!

Readers of this blog who feel, as I do, that this is an exciting venue to display their storytelling talents, request an invite from Cowbird...as I did.

I had neglected my Tumblr blog for a while, and recently realized there was a lot more themes available. One of those is HD Exhibit free theme which is, frankly speaking, just gorgeous and displays large sized (1200 pixels by 800) photographs really beautifully.

So I've worked quite diligently during the past two days to rejig my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog which now features some of my own favorite travel photographs. From here onwards, it will be the repository of some of my photographs (more travel than documentary) which I have archived over the past years, as well as those I intend to make on my forthcoming trips and workshops.

So follow my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog for your fix of travel photography!!!

From the sublime (yesterday's post) to the (almost) ridiculous, but I just couldn't resist this!!!

An iPhone case made to look like a vintage camera...almost a Leica look-alike, and since I own an iPhone and an M9, this could make a delightful Xmas present...well, if whoever is interested in it can wait for another 11 months. The Gizmon website even has its logo that's a red dot a la Leica!!!

To be honest, this is not a totally zany idea. iPhone photography is growing by leaps and bounds, and this case would convert it to the feel of a real point and shoot.

The case is made of polycarbonate, comes in three colors ; white, black and orange. It sports an optical viewfinder, holes for straps and a functional shutter button that connects to the iPhone's volume buttons.

It costs $65, and is available via Gizmon's website.

I recently jumped ship from Blackberry to iPhone, and was glad to see how its various photography apps such as Instagram and Hipstamatic were ice-breakers during my trip to Cambodia. Even elderly and normally reserved Buddhist monks were excited to choose the filters to apply on the pictures I took of them with the device.

A few days ago, I downloaded Google Translate, a free iPhone app, and realized it would very useful whilst photographing in a country where I needed an interpreter. I am not suggesting it'd replace a fixer or an interpreter, but it will certainly help out in situations where I am either on my own or when my fixer is unavailable or helping someone else.

For instance, if I'm in India and require assistance in asking permission from people to take their picture while my fixer is elsewhere, I'd rely on the app to provide me with a reasonable translation (both in writing and spoken). In the picture above, you'll see I typed "Can I take your picture?" which is translated as "Maiṁ apanī tasvīra lē sakatē haiṁ" in Hindi. The cool thing is that the app can also 'speak' the translation.

I don't know if this is the precise grammatical form (I'm sure my friends in India will eventually let me know), but I know the word tasvīra is to photograph...so I'm sure that I'd get across with that phrase much more easily than repeating "tasveer tikke?" like a parrot as I normally do.

I've tried the same phrase with the three languages I know well...French and Spanish (it's spot on), and with Arabic (it's very close). So I'm quite sure it'll do well in the available languages, especially if the phrases are simple...such as "Stand here"..."Relax"..."Be natural",  "Where's the bathroom?", etc.

All I need to do before traveling to India (as an example) is to make a list of the common phrases I could need....enter these in Google Translate and save the translations. Whenever needed, I'll just need to access my translation history and voila!

No, it'll never replace a fixer or interpreter...but in a pinch, it'll be very helpful...and would be an added icebreaker.

I know...the picture of my iPhone above is crap. I'm too lazy to do a proper lighting set up.

I am pleased to have The Travel Photographer's blog featured on LIGHTBOX, the new and beautifully designed social photo app for Android. This blog, along with National Geographic, 500px, Fotopedia and a few others, is featured under Photography.

The idea behind LIGHTBOX's new photo journal feature is to provide a stream of updates others can follow, share, like and comment on....which TechCrunch describes as a lazy man's Tumblr.

Although my blog has only been recently featured the LIGHTBOX's lineup, The Travel Photographer has already garnered over 600 followers!!

I thought this product would appeal to those who simply obsess over well crafted (and expensive) camera appendages. The LockCircle was designed with a minute eye for details, and as the video above demonstrates, it may well be indestructible.

The question is, of course, whether photographers and DSLR videographers will spend $79 on such a luxury item, when body caps come for free or are available for a few bucks. I seldom use body caps unless my cameras are in storage, but others may.

Now, if Lock Circle would manufacture a titanium model specifically for the Leica M9-P, and charge an arm and a leg for it, I bet it would sell like hot cakes. Currently, it's only available for Canon and Nikon.

RAW FILE, Wired magazine's blog, has started a new series of posts called Assignment Wired, where the magazine will hand out photo assignments to its readers, and then eventually choose some submissions to publish and critique. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and said so in an earlier post....ignoring the naysayers and the skeptics who commented on RAW FILE.

Its first assignment was The Corner-Store...the goal was to document the place where you buy your Gatorade and clove cigarettes and introduce us to the people who work and hang there. And the first round of submissions for that project have be in, and a few were selected to be shown on RAW FILE, and critiqued.

The three essays chosen to be shown in their entirety are far from being professional, but they clearly show an intent to learn and grow....and for that, they are to be commended. The critiques are light-weight, and are just cursory observations...and should've been deeper, giving tips on storytelling and sequencing as an example.

The next assignment is The Family, which requires participants to profile a family member by following them around on their daily routine, and dig into their history to report the most interesting and relevant info from their background.

Southampton Tomatoes-© 2011 Tewfic El-Sawy

When the heavens open up to a deluge of rain upon a Long Island summer house, what does one do? Well, in my case, I find still life to photograph with my new Holga lens attached to my Canon 7D, which I had the foresight of bringing along just in case.

Whilst in Buenos Aires, my friend Mervyn Leong won one of the Holga lenses during a quiz session at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. Having seen some of his test photographs with it, I bought one from B&H a few days ago, and I am liking it a lot.

Southampton Fruits-Photo © 2011 Tewfic El-Sawy

The results look as if they were made with a classic analogue toy plastic camera, it has soft-focus properties, produces more Holga-like vignetting, and opens up a new dimension to my photography. In a few weeks, I'll be in Kolkata leading a photo expedition and teaching a workshop, and I intend to take it with me and try it out on its streets. I have a few projects in mind while there, which involve portraits...and having this attachment will add a different style. I'll be interested to explore its video results as well.

This reminds me that John Stanmeyer published a wonderful book Island of Spirits, which he photographed using analogue (ie real) Holgas.

The main drawback with a Holga lens is that it needs a huge amount of light. That being said, I prefer an underexposed look for the images made with it, so a manual setting is preferable.

Canon 7D With A Holga Lens f8

I am pleased that Photoverse will be including The Travel Photographer blog on its application. Photoverse collects information from multiple news sources and blogs related to photography, pools them and presents them to you in an easy to read scrollable list. It enables you to  choose the view you want to see, be it from a single news source or blog or a time-sorted collection from multiple sources that you can select. All pages are rendered locally within a web view so that you never have to leave the application.

Photoverse also allows you to share any interesting article you read via Twitter, Facebook or email. It even allows you to bookmark articles for later perusal.

Photoverse is a utility application developed for the iPad, iPhone by photographers for photographers and is available from iTunes. All i need to do is to get an iPhone!

As I'll be on my way to Buenos Aires this evening for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, I thought of posting this potential photojournalism opportunity about Once Magazine.

Once Magazine claims that it will publish three stories of about twenty-five full-screen photographs with captions, an introductory text essay, and interactive features. The magazine will allow photographers to tell their stories by using the iPad as one of the mobile platforms.

The magazine will split all subscription revenue directly with photographers, and its stories will be chosen for their "narrative appeal, journalistic insight, and photographic quality."

For further information and to submit stories and projects, take a look at the magazine's About page.

I wish Once Magazine's team success. I can't foretell its future but I'm sure many photographers/photojournalists ought to be rooting for it to succeed.

Erica McDonald is an institution. Yes, you read that correctly. She's an institution for a number of reasons; primarily because she's a damn good photographer/photojournalist, and also because she recently and single handedly initiated DEVELOP Tube, an educational resource on photojournalism.

If you need proof of her photographic talents, just drop by her website, and take a good look at her New York City Portraits, amongst her many galleries. You'll immediately agree with me.

And when you finish doing that...drop by DEVELOP Tube on YouTube and on VIMEO.

DEVELOP Tube features interviews, profiles, lectures, films about photojournalism, fine art, documentary photography, photographers, including multimedia productions which effectively incorporate the still photograph, and slideshows created to showcase powerful photographs, especially those concerning humanitarian issues: human rights, environmental sustainability and global health.

It's a veritable compendium of photography, and Erica must be commended for making all this trove easily available to the public. Bookmark it or follow it on Twitter @DEVELOPphoto

Erica has chosen two of my audio slideshows to add to DEVELOPphoto. White Shadows and Cham.

Kickstarter is featuring Darshan: Photographic Series on Indian Deities, an interesting visual project by Manjari Sharma and for which a funding goal of $20,000 is hoped for.

The project aims to photographically recreate nine classical images of gods and goddesses that are of primary importance in the mythological stories in Hinduism. For Manjari,  the Darshan project is a mission to preserve her heritage by using the medium of photography.

"What is innovative about Darshan is that I am recreating these icons as photographs while maintaining their spiritual sanctity." - Manjari Sharma

The first photograph created for this project is of Laxmi,  the Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune, and Manjari's Kickstarter page for the project details the process in creating this first image, and how the 9 six-feet tall images will be displayed.

Manjari Sharma is a photographer based in New York City. She grew up in Mumbai, India and currently lives in Brooklyn. She holds a bachelors degree in Visual Communication from S.N.D.T University, Mumbai and a BFA in photography from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.

Disclaimer: I do not know Ms Sharma and to the best of my knowledge, nor do I know anyone who knows her. I found her project to be interesting and innovative...that's all.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Through Twitter, I've noticed a post by RAW FILE, Wired magazine's blog, which is starting a new series of posts called Assignment Wired, where the magazine will hand out photo assignments to its readers, and then eventually choose some submissions to publish and critique.

WIRED's expertise and interest is in reportage and photojournalism, and it expects its participating readers to get quotes, do some writing, do some research and take emotive photos.

"We want gritty, real and human stories. We want to throw you into new situations and give you a chance to sink or swim."

It actually just launched its first assignment, and it's to feature the corner store where the participating photographer buys his/her daily Coke, milk, doughnuts...whatever. It wants the story of this local corner store through photos and reporting. The assignment "sheet" lists the skills required for such a project, and there's a deadline of July 7th.

I think the experiment (as they call it) is a damn good idea! It will provide an impetus to budding photojournalists (and others) to go out there and actually work on a local project. As it says, it's hardly sexy or glamorous, but it's an interesting project that will teach basic photojournalism skills to those interested. I only wish they included audio recordings, and even expand it to short audio-slideshows...but perhaps that will come in time.

As always, comments from naysayers, cynics and skeptics have come in fast and furious....some accusing WIRED magazine of using this experiment to get work for free. To those, I say you don't have to participate...or participate and don't send in your material. Just take the time to learn something new...or refresh your skills, and if you do a good job, you might get a critique from the magazine. It will surely be worth it.