Douglas Kirkland, renowned celebrity-photographer, passed away at 88 this week:
Douglas Kirkland, known in the celebrity-portrait world as “Hollywood’s favourite photographer” passed away earlier this week at the age of 88, surrounded by family, friends and his dog Sonny Boy.
Born in the summer of 1934 in Toronto, Kirkland began his career in photography at Look Magazine at the age of 24. It wasn’t until 1961, however, that Kirkland’s career really started to take off.
His photographs of Marilyn Monroe, appearing in Look's 25th anniversary issue, made the young Kirkland a household name, and secured him a position at the world-renowned Life Magazine. As a photojournalist, Kirkland shot photo-essays of countries like Greece, Lebanon and Japan, all while continuing his celebrity portfolio. Besides the aforementioned Monroe, Kirkland made a name for himself by capturing distinctive portraits of Hollywood icons such as Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Andy Warhol, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Mick Jagger. He also worked as an on-set photographer for a number of years, capturing behind-the-scenes shots for over 100 productions including Titanic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Sound of Music and The Great Gatsby.
Various collections of Kirkland’s photographs can be admired at The National Portrait Gallery in both London and Canberra, the Smithsonian, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Eastman House in Rochester, the Houston Center for Photography and the Annenberg Space for Photography.
Douglas Kirkland is survived by his wife and business partner, Françoise, his son and animation director for The Simpsons, Mark Kirkland, daughters Karen and Lisa, along with five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Below is a collection of some of our favourites from Mr Kirkland’s astounding portfolio. For more on Douglas, visit his official website at http://www.douglaskirkland.com...
The world’s largest camera ever built is nearing completion:
Researchers at San Francisco’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are nearing completion on the construction of their massive 3,200 megapixel Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera, the world’s largest digital camera ever built.
Weighing in at over three tons and roughly the size of a family sedan, with a five-foot lens and a specially designed -100 °C liquid-cooled sensor, the LSST is slated to be moved to its future home atop the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope in Chile sometime later next year.
The large aperture, wide-field optical camera is capable of viewing light from the near ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths and is made up of 189 CCD sensors. When fully operational, the 3.2 gigapixel sensor will capture over 15 terabytes of data per night, for a rough total of nearly 55,000 terabytes of captured data over the camera’s projected 10 year lifespan. With an astounding 3.5 degree field of view (roughly equivalent to seven widths of the full moon), the LSST is projected to observe over 37 billion stars and galaxies over a total of 3,652 nights.
Once the camera’s construction is completed in May of 2023, after a final round of testing, it will be packaged up on a specially chartered Boeing 747 cargo plane for delivery in Chile. The team behind this massive, near decade-long endeavor says that we will see the first images captured with it sometime in 2024.
Xiaomi’s 12T Pro smartphone boasts a whopping 200MP main camera:
Chinese-smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is known for their exuberant product launches, often including headline-breaking specs like the fastest charging available on a smartphone, foldable displays and most recently, the largest mega-pixel count in a smartphone camera, ever. The newly announced 12T Pro has a 200MP main shooter, nearly doubling the previous record of 108MP, held by the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
It is important to note that most smartphone cameras with resolutions greater than about 20MP tend to pixel-bin their photos; typically by averaging every 4-16 pixels into one larger pixel, the phones can have seemingly better low-light capabilities and overall sharpness, without resulting in enormous final files. The 12T Pro is no exception, with the shots taken in Automatic mode coming out at 12.5 MP- the ideal resolution for posting to socials, but it leaves much to be desired for the prospective cropper. For those users that are comfortable with larger files and want more flexibility in cropping and editing their photos, Xiaomi offers a Manual mode which skips the pixel-binning and offers a full 200MP photo with vastly improved detail. Users will be able to crop in nearly 16x while using this mode, without a discernible loss in image quality.
Does this mean that professional DSLR and Mirrorless models are soon going to be relics of the past? Not necessarily. Smartphone cameras continue to use sensors less than 1” in width, and while HDR and AI processing have made leaps and bounds in the last few years, shots from these devices continue to fall short in the areas of depth of field, dynamic range and overall detail and sharpness when compared to their full-size, interchangeable lens counterparts. It will be interesting to see what other smartphone models adopt this new Samsung-made sensor, to bring 200MP photos to the mainstream, particularly since Xiaomi devices aren’t currently sold in North America.
For a full spec breakdown of Xiaomi’s newest handset, visit: https://www.mi.com/global/product/xiaomi-12t-pro/
Insane FPV Fly-Through of Wrigley Field
FPV one-take drone videos seem to be the cool, hip thing to do these days, and the Chicago Cubs’ season-ending fly-through of their iconic baseball stadium Wrigley Field is certainly no exception. The incredibly choreographed clip, commissioned by Sky Candy Studios, was shot on an insane-looking rig using a RED Scarlet attached to DJI’s Matrice 600 Pro. If you’ve got 4-minutes to spare, we’d highly recommend checking out this wildly entertaining video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xqdj1TBOtU&ab_channel=ChicagoCubs
Firmware Updates
Keeping up-to-date with the latest firmware ensures you can take advantage of all the latest features available for your camera. Firmware updates can also add compatibility with lenses and accessories or improve functionality. If you are not comfortable running an update on your own, let the experts at McBain help! Bring your camera down to the McBain nearest you to have its firmware updated to the latest version. Please be sure your battery is fully charged before turning it in for servicing.
Sales
- Sennheiser’s Double Mic Deal: Receive a free MKE200 with the purchase of an MKE600 microphone. While supplies last, $129.99 value.
- 3 Legged Thing Rocktober: Save 10% on 3 Legged Thing’s entire lineup* of tripods and tripod accessories. *Excludes clearance items. Offer valid from Oct 1st-31st.
- Sony Autumn Savings: Receive a bonus 160GB CFExpress Type A memory card with the purchase of a Sony A7S III. Offer valid until October 27, 2022, $519.99 value.
Events
- Reflecting Indigenous Realities with Nadya Kwandibens: Tune in for an evening spent exploring Nadya's photography, her journey since starting photography, and how her work authentically reflects Indigenous realities. Nadya Kwandibens is Anishinaabe from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is an award winning portrait and events photographer, a Canon Ambassador, and has travelled extensively across Canada for over 14 years. In 2008 she founded Red Works Photography. Red Works is a dynamic photography company empowering contemporary Indigenous lifestyles and cultures through photographic essays, features, and portraits. Red Works specializes in natural light portraiture and headshots sessions plus event and concert photography. Red Works also provides image licensing, workshops, presentations and print products and has been exhibited in group and solo shows in Canada and the United States.
- Night Vision: The Technique and Art of Lurking in the Dark with Monica Deviat: Monika combines technique and artistry to teach you how to embrace the discomfort of lurking in the dark while creating stunning night sky photos. This talk will begin with the technical aspects of night photography, including settings and gear. Monika will discuss where her creative ideas for nightscapes come from, how she plans for compositions, and how she sees what she wants to capture in the dark. This evening's presentation will include taking advantage of spontaneous moments, having backup plans, and being best prepared for risks and the unexpected.
- Aaron Pedersen Studio Portfolio Review: Photography can sometimes seem like a solitary pursuit. You might work alone and edit alone, and when you finally release an image or project, you are generally rewarded with likes and the ubiquitous fire or heart emojis. Chances are you are the best photographer you know. So maybe it’s time to talk about your work with someone that cares as much about the craft as you do. As part of the growing community that is PS+A and in association with McBain Camera, we’d like to invite you for an industry review of your portfolio. This is a chance to have your work seen by professionals that have made photography part of their livelihood and to talk about what inspires you and your work. We encourage photographers from all disciplines to attend, from portrait to landscape, fashion, and still life. We want to see what you have dedicated your creative efforts to.
For more information and to sign up for one of our events, visit mcbaincamera.com/workshops