State of the art

Jamie Russell of Cheektowaga was the winner of last year’s scholarship for her series of photos depicting poverty in her hometown (seen above). The deadline for the Sigma Corporation of America High School Scholarship is rapidly approaching—Sigma will be accepting entries until February 28, 2011. The contest is open to high school seniors who will be attending college and plan on majoring in either photography or something relating to the photography industry. Sigma will be offering up to $6000 in cash and gear to one talented and lucky winner.

I was a skateboarder, so I’ve always had an affinity for concrete. I learned about parkour and freerunning from a documentary and have been photographing it since. It isn’t like photographing other sports—parkour melds perfectly into its environment. But then it’s not really a sport, more of a philosophy of movement. Daniel Ilabaca is one of the leading freerunners—he stands out in his ability to remain self-aware and conscious of detail even in the midst of distracting physical activity. So one day I invited him down from Liverpool to do a photo shoot.

An up-close look at Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Are you a Russian spy planning on sneaking photos of the big board in the War Room without getting caught? Then boy do we have some good news for you. A company called CHOMBi has released the Cam One, a teeny tiny DSLR that’s no bigger than the size of your average eraser (you guys still know what a pencil is right?) This James Bond-type gadget not only shoots real photos, but it shoots video as well (can your D3s do that?). With 640x480 VGA video at 30fps and still images at 1600x1200px, you will be reaching super-spy-status in no time at all.