In the fourth offical update on the situation in Thailand, Nikon has declared that everything should be back to normal by March of next year. The recent announcement of a new flash was definitely a good sign, and this shows that things are improving, however slowly. By Nikon’s own account, the factory has been completely pumped clean of water, and now they’re focusing on restoring the infrastructure.

Nikon already has limited production going underway at partner factories, with some DSLRs and lenses shipping out from November 30th. They hope to have some factory operations from January, and expect everything to be back up to full speed by March of 2012. This follows reports of Nikon also gearing up some operations in Japan to pick up numbers, and Sony resuming production of the previously haulted SLT and NEX cameras.

[image by noppatjak]

(via PopPhoto

Over 6 billion photos have been uploaded to Flickr since it’s launch in February of 2004. It sounds like a lot and it is, but compared to Facebook it’s nothing. Supposedly facebook gets around 6 billion photos per month. In order to put things into perspective, Erik Kessels decided to print every photo that was uploaded within a 24 hour period to Flickr. Got any opinions about it?

Remembering Steve Jobs, his home Palo Alto

Even though we knew his stepping down from CEO last Summer was a foreshadowing of what might be looming, I wasn’t prepared for the news on Tuesday. When I heard that he was gone a wave of sadness hit me.  True it wasn’t a sudden and jarring slap like John Lennon’s death, but it hit hard nonetheless.

Steve was our generation’s grand wizard, transforming otherwise mundane objects into fun, creative and empowering machines. For those of us in the visual arts, he helped us open doors that might otherwise have remain locked.

Flowers in front of Steve’s home

We know he was no saint, but dang  he somehow managed to get it right so often that we could set our clocks by his next cool release.

I stopped by his house yesterday and was surprised to see that so many people had managed to find it, how so?  I walked around quietly and appropriately getting images with my iPhone. It was a calm and orderly gathering, but clearly not just the locals who knew where he lived. In fact when I went back today to get some more images with my 5D Mark II, one of the plain clothes police, asked me what lens I was using I replied that it was a 24-70, f 2.8 and we talked about cameras for a bit. When I asked him how how these people had found his house, he replied, “we don’t know, it’s not on the web, but they’ve come from all over the world as far as Hong Kong and Russia.”

I’ve always been amazed at how accessible and open his home is, on the corner of a quiet street in Palo Alto. Far, far from a billionaire’s secluded compound. In fact, we’ve often seen him around Palo Alto, at restaurants, on the street and even the old fashioned Peninsula Creamery.  I’m sure his refusal to wall himself off from the very people  he was able to touch with Apple’s cool stuff, allowed him to stay in touch with us– and with his wizardry somehow know what we wanted next.

We’ll miss Steve, he made a huge  difference. He’s given us new age tools to work our craft, to listen and share and get work done in a new cool way. He became part of our culture, a like a Beatle of high tech leaving us with tons of cool memories and phrases like this for all artists to remember: “Real artists ship” — meaning you gotta get your work out there,  better yet get it sold and shipped off! Annie Leibovitz, Picasso, Ansel Adams — they certainly shipped!

Goodbye for now Steve, we’ll remember you with every click, touch and most importantly, every piece of art you  have helped us to ship.

Spencer Tunick has put a whole lot of life in the Dead Sea. The photographer, famous for his mass photo shoots of nude people, has collected over 1,000 naked swimmers for his latest project.

Hundreds of Israelis dressed in their birthday suits gathered on the banks of the Dead Sea — the lowest spot on Earth — to be part of Tunick’s massive photo shoot this weekend, which is partly an effort to bring recognition to the salty landmark ahead of a vote on the Seven Wonders of the World in November.

Scientists believe the sea, which lies between Jordan and Israel, could dry up by 2050 unless urgent steps are taken.

But the only steps heard so far were those of 1,200 nude swimmers as they splashed into the water, arranging themselves into what Tunick called the Naked Sea project.

It is the latest installation from a photographer known worldwide for his massive gatherings of nude people, including shoots of naked women in New York’s Grand Central Station, 2,000 nude soccer fans in Vienna and a record-setting 18,000 people in Mexico City.

For Tunick, the shoots are often indicators of how tolerant a nation is.

“In some places the work is a little bit more controversial, and then in other places the works are accepted as a litmus test for how free a country is, or how open a country is, and how full of rights a country is,” he said during a pre-shoot press briefing.

To see more of Spencer’s work, head over to his website. But be forewarned: by sheer numbers alone, this is probably the most nudity you will ever see in one place.

The image in question was taken by G.B. Smith, a photographer of Confederate POWs.

Critics who describe Nicolas Cage’s acting as stiff and bloodless don’t know how close they are to the truth.

An antique photograph collector says he has discovered a Civil War-era image of Cage, and argues that the Oscar-winning actor is a vampire who has been alive for hundreds of years.

“Personally, I believe it’s him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire, et cetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so,” says the owner, Jack Mord. “150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host.”

Mord, who is selling the image on Ebay for a hefty tag of $1 million, says the photo is completely authentic.

“Any serious potential buyer will be allowed to have a photo expert of their choice examine the original photograph before any money changes hands,” Mord writes on the sale page.

Wait a second, you’re probably asking. If Cage is really immortal and has the ability to live for centuries without growing older, how is it that he’s aged so visibly over the last ten years?

“My theory,” explains Mord, “is that he allows himself to age to a certain point, maybe 70, 80 or so, then the actor ‘Nicolas Cage’ will ‘die’… but in reality, the undead vampire ‘Nicolas Cage’ will have rejuvenated himself and appeared in some other part of the world, young again, and ready to start all over.

“From time to time somebody might mention to him that he bears a slight resemblance to the young version that dead American actor, whose name they can’t recall, but eventually, those occurrences will stop altogether.”

Cage, meanwhile, has yet to offer up an argument to the world that he is not an undead bloodsucker. Considering his performances in recent films, that might be easier said than done.

Tyler Shields is at it again. The celebrity photographer, famous for dumping a bucket of blood on Lindsay Lohan and photographing her with a gun to her head, has recruited Glee star Heather Morris for his latest court with controversy: a shoot he calls “Bruised Up Barbie.”

Shields posted images of Morris on his website that depict the actress battered, beaten and black-eyed. In one photo she is shown drinking water from a flat iron, and in another her wrists are bound by the electrical appliance. The series of photos has prompted criticism from those who say the shocktographer is glamorizing violence against women.

Rita Smith, executive director for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Denver, told E! News, “I don’t know if Tyler is aware but I’m quite sure there are plenty of women who have been abused by these kinds of household appliances and children as well being hit with electrical cords. I’m not sure what the purpose is other than shock value.”

Shields, however, says that was not his intention.

“In no way were we promoting domestic violence,” he told E! News. “We wanted to do a bruised-up Barbie shoot and that’s exactly what we did!” Shields explained further to Us Weekly, “Our shoot poses a lot of questions, but just like in real life, Heather is definitely not a victim. More like a really liberated woman.”

This is not Shields’ first run-in with charges of decorating abuse. His aforementioned shoot with Lohan showed the famously self-destructive actress mimicking suicide, and a quick tour of Shields’ website now reveals a more recent image of Lohan holding a knife to her throat. That’s next to a photograph of a topless woman standing next to a cab while a tuxedoed man points an assault rifle at her head.

So what do you think? Do you find artistic merit in Shields’ work? Do his photographs provoke more than just shock and controversy, or do they merely glamorize domestic violence?

A drawing by painter Peter Paul Reubens, allegedly based on da Vinci's The Battle of Anghiari.

Dave Yoder wants to photograph a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece. But there’s just one little problem… no one has seen it in 500 years.

The Battle of Anghiari, often referred to as “The Lost Leonardo,” has been missing from the Hall of Five Hundred (Salone dei Cinquecento) in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, for half a millennium. But now Yoder thinks he knows where the world’s most famous unseen painting is hiding, and he wants to build a special camera to see it.

Yoder, on assignment for National Geographic, is trying to raise over a quarter of a million dollars in order to build a camera that is capable of peering through a wall-sized fresco by painter Giorgio Vasari, where many art historians believe da Vinci’s work is waiting.

Da Vinci is thought to have begun work on the painting in 1505 but apparently abandoned it after experiencing problems with the paint. The work then sat in the Hall for over a decade, admired by all who saw it. However, in the mid-16th century the Hall was expanded and da Vinci’s magnificent painting vanished.

Now, Yoder, continuing the work of Florentine art historian Maurizio Seracini who in the 1970s discovered clues to da Vinci’s work hidden in the Vasari fresco, has teamed up with a nuclear physicist to create a gamma ray camera capable of peering through the Hall’s brick wall and photographing da Vinci’s lost painting.

While much of the project is being sponsored by National Geographic, Yoder still has to raise a lot of money to build his super camera. To contribute to the rediscovery of da Vinci’s masterpiece (with a tax-deductible donation), head to KickStarter.

Company D soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry, known as "The Old Guard," photograph headstones with smartphones at Arlington National Cemetery, Aug. 30, 2011, to help reconcile burial records. U.S. Army photo by J.D. Leipold.

America’s most hallowed cemetery is trying to update its records, and it’s turning soldiers into photographers to do it.

The mission to reorganize the database of Arlington National Cemetery is employing the efforts of about 100 soldiers and volunteer students, armed only with iPhones, to photograph headstones and account for every single person interred at the famous military burial ground.

Over the course of several months this summer, members of the Cemetery’s Old Guard will photograph all 219,619 grave sites and the front of 43,096 cremated remains in the columbariam. That includes the 726 new burials since the project began. Dubbed Task Force Christman after Pvt. William Henry Christman, a Pennsylvania native and Civil War soldier who was the first person buried at Arlington, the project is partly in response to a scandal last year in which it was discovered that many of the graves were mismarked.

The project is conducted at night in order to avoid the summer heat (and to respect the 30 or so funerals held there every day). Photographers originally traversed the grounds in full Army uniforms, but it was determined later that the photos turned out better when there was no reflection from the soldiers’ stark white suits.

For many of the grave sites, the photographers are forced to get creative.

“President Taft’s marker is really tall,” said Army Capt. Nate Peterson, whose Company D has accomplished much of the work, “and they wanted to make sure they got a nice head-on shot, so one of the guys put another guy on his shoulders, backed up and took the picture.”

In the end, the project has given many of the soldiers-turned-photographers a chance to think about the importance of documenting the final resting place of so many heroes.

“It’s kind of a weird feeling looking at all of those who have come before me, wondering what they did in their careers,” said Army Pfc. Chris Bodell. “Looking at the graves, taking pictures to help document the people who fought in the Civil War and those who have died in the current conflicts — this is all so much bigger than just myself.”

Urban Outfitters and photographer Jason Lee Parry are the focus of a new lawsuit brought about by the parents of an under-aged girl who was photographed in a sexually suggestive pose with her legs spread apart. But now Parry is defending the photo, saying the model, a then-15 year old Hailey Clausen, knew what was happening and that her parents approved it.

“I look at it and think, ‘this is a really cool shot,’” the 32 year old Parry told ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday.

The image, which shows Clausen in leather shorts on the back of a motorcycle, was taken a year and a half ago and has since been featured in fashion magazines and on t-shirts sold by retailer Urban Outfitters.

But now Clausen’s parents are suing Parry, Outfitters and two other stores for $28 million, claiming the photograph is “blatantly salacious,” portrays a child in a “sexually suggestive manner” and has caused damage to Clausen’s reputation.

The lawsuit also claims that the model’s “crotch area [is] the focal point of the image” and speculates that the photograph has become “the object of prurient interests and provides wallpaper for the likes of pedophiles.”

Parry, however, says Clausen is a professional model who knew exactly what she was doing, and that her father approved of the images after the shoot.

But in the end, says Parry, all of the controversy surrounding permission and sexuality is pointless if there is no actual nudity.

“The real question that’s here, ‘Is she showing anything? Is she showing private parts?’ That’s the real question,” Parry told GMA. “Now if that was the case, I would completely understand. I never thought I’d be with you now, here, on ABC, about a girl wearing shorts and a button-up shirt.”

Photo copyright Elliott Erwitt.

With his uncanny ability at capturing the humorous and ironic in everyday situations, photographer Elliott Erwitt is often called a master of the “decisive moment.” And in a new exhibit in New York City, Erwitt himself has selected his favorite photographic moments from a career spanning seven decades.

“Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best” runs at the International Center of Photography in NYC through August 28, featuring 100 of Erwitt’s most cherished photographs.

Erwitt, who celebrated his 83rd birthday this summer, has been working as a professional photojournalist and commercial photographer since 1950. Later joining the Magnum Photos agency, Erwitt was able to travel the world and capture iconic shots such as Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cold War, a veiled Jacqueline Kennedy as she holds a folded American flag in honor of her slain husband, and a memorable image of segregated drinking fountains in New York City.

In his later career, Erwitt spent much of his time working with motion pictures. Directing everything from TV commercials to feature length films, including the prize-winning film Glassmakers of Herat (1977) and as a still photographer on Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (2005),

With his signature humor and effortless style, Erwitt’s work is so accesible and charming that it often belies his artistry. Check out his exhibit while you can.