By Raffy Paredes
The Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is already on Sunday, April 29. On this day, take a photo with a lensless device, send it to http://pinholeday.org/ and see it displayed in their annual gallery of pinhole photos. This is not a contest but simply an international event created to promote and celebrate the art of pinhole photography. The event encourages people to take some time off from the increasingly technological world we live in and to participate in the simple act of making a pinhole photograph and share their visions while helping spread the unusual beauty of this historical photographic process. Visit http://pinholeday.org/ for participation details.
NASA has released a stunningly detailed 4K virtual tour of a selection of the moon’s most fascinating and historically important features. Earth’s satellite remains the only alien world ever to be visited by a crewed mission, and is likely to be revisited in the coming decades, as space agencies across the globe look to extend the boundaries of human exploration. The new video was constructed from nine years’ worth of data harvested by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been studying Earth’s moon since its arrival there in June 2009. The LRO has revealed the moon to be a surprisingly complex, dynamic world, and helped scientists gain a clearer picture of how our solar system evolved into the stunningly diverse cosmic environment we see today.
The tour takes the viewer from fascinating geological features, such as the 2,500-km (1,600-mile)-wide South Pole-Aitken Basin, to the historic landing site of the Apollo 17 mission in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. See the video at https://www.nasa.gov/ (newatlas.com).
In a recent article titled “How Pizza Night Can Cost More in Data Than Dollars,” the Wall Street Journal examined how you may be handing over personal data to Facebook and other high-tech companies when you shoot and upload a photo using your smartphone. Based on Facebook’s privacy and data collection policies, Facebook first receives your photo, caption, and tagged people. The photo can be analyzed to see what they contain—and due to Facebook’s massive trove of user data, it can identify people who are strangers to you in photos shot out in public. But that’s just the first layer of data that’s collected, as there’s also a huge amount of metadata that Facebook gets its hands on as well.
Unless you’ve taken steps to block certain details, Facebook can also collect: location from geotag data, the date, the phone model you have, the exact device ID of your phone, your cellular/Internet service provider, nearby Wi-Fi Beacons/cell towers (which can be used to triangulate locations), and even things like battery level and cell signal strength.
“You can strip some of this data by editing the photo’s EXIF data or by changing your camera settings, but some data is shared just by opening the Facebook app,” Lifehacker reports. “Facebook can then cross-reference all this data—so Facebook could theoretically record the location of anyone whose face it recognizes, whether or not you tag them. It can also crossreference this data with everything it already knows about you.” What this means is that Facebook could have the power to track your movements if you appear in other people’s private photos that were shot in public. “How much personal data do you give away during a pizza-and-a-movie night?” the Wall Street Journal asks. “Far more than you think” (PetaPixel).
And now to our featured readers.
Haydee Madronero, currently living in Melbourne sent in the photo, “Bay of Fire.” “Bay of Fires is one of the most popular destinations in Tasmania,” she writes. “It is a coastal heaven as the 50km coast have white beaches, crystal clear water, and lichen-covered boulders.”
Travel and tours company messenger Cyrus Mendez of Imus, Cavite shares an untitled photo of a woman wearing a pile of hats. He writes that he started on photography only last year and found that the craft helps him deal with stress as shooting photos provide him with calmness.
From John Kirby Dinglasan, a grade 11 student from Laguna State Polythecnic University-San Pablo City Campus is an untitled close-up photo of a stone pile on a beach. He shares: “I’m just enjoying taking pictures with my mobile phone and hoping to have my professional camera for better quality photos.”
Pier Angeli Santos, a grade 12 ABM student at Letran-Calamba submitted the photo “Rocks and Pebbles.” She shares: “I had my first camera (Nikon D3100) as a Grade 6 graduation gift, and that’s where it all began. I’m self-taught. I relied mostly on watching YouTube videos and reading photography books and magazines. I used to shoot with a Fujifilm X-A2 and upgraded to a Fujifilm X-E3 that I asked to get rather than celebrating a formal debut.”
“The Moment,” a photo from a rodeo comes from Richelle Belingon. She shares that she began enjoying photography upon taking the FPPF photo workshop in 2014.
Richard Directo of the Learning Resource Center at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts contributed the photo of Mt. Mayon. He took the photo during a pilgrimage to Albay last March. He shares that it was “a meaningful journey to visit the beautiful churches in Albay as well as to view the wonderful Mayon Volcano.”
Anne Jeneth Lopez sent in the ferris wheel photo titled “Take the Wheel.” Photo shoot location was at the Mall of Asia.
Jason Pintang shares the long-titled photo, “My Soul Wakes to Meet the Sunrise and Greet It with the Beautiful Smile.” He writes that the photo was taken at Buyayao island, one of his “favorite places to capture a stunningly beautiful perfect sunrise.”
“Penitensiya” is Shien Rhoel Moral’s photo from the recent Holy Week commemoration in Pakil, Laguna.
From Wilfred Perez is the photo of marching soldiers carrying the country’s flag titled “Valor.” He took the photo during the Araw ng Kagitingan parade in Balanga, Bataan as the marchers passed by the Plaza Mayor de Ciudad de Balanga.
Readers may now view issues of Picture Perfect including this column at www.mb.com.ph. For comments, suggestions or just to share an image or idea, email [email protected] or [email protected].