MANILA, Philippines — Capturing flawless night shots can be a challenge. However, what if there was a device that could make night photography easier and more accessible? That’s what the vivo V30 promises to do with its innovative nightography algorithm. 

The most awaited vivo V30 is a smartphone that will revolutionize night photography with its advanced features and technology. It will enhance the quality, clarity and color of your night shots, making them look stunning and professional. 

Here is a sneak peek of features that make the vivo V30 best for night photography:

Perfecting portraits with Aura Light 3.0

The vivo V30 comes with a new and improved version of Aura Light, a powerful light-filling tool that provides soft and natural lighting for taking portraits. 

It will have a larger and more even illumination area, thanks to its advanced technology. It will also have a smart distance detection feature that adjusts the brightness and color temperature of the light according to the distance of the subject. This ensures that your portraits are always well-lit and flattering, whether you are taking them up close or from afar. 

Main camera? Ultimate night vision!

The vivo V30 will also have a 50MP main camera with a vivo Camera-Bionic Spectrum (VCS) technology that can capture stunning photos with high resolution, high purity and high color accuracy. 

VCS technology is inspired by human eye bionics, which means that it can process the data it receives in a way that is similar to how eyes perceive the world. This results in photos that are more realistic and vivid, especially in low-light conditions. 

With these features, the vivo V30 can deliver amazing night photos that rival those taken by professional cameras. Prepare to capture the beauty of the city lights, the romance of the moonlight, or the mystery of the shadows, because the upcoming vivo V30 will be your perfect companion. 

The vivo V30 will be launching soon, so stay tuned for more updates by following vivo website, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and get ready to experience the magic of nightography.

Editor’s Note: This press release is sponsored by vivo. It is published by the Advertising Content Team that is independent from our Editorial Newsroom.

Encouraged by a commission from German newspaper Die Zeit, following his New Year’s Eve shoot, Goppel spent the next 18-months taking photos, with his young subjects frequently lit by the glow of a laptop screen, pictured wearing face masks, or meeting outdoors — the realities of life during the pandemic. In some instances, Goppel set up his camera and observed those around him, and at others he staged specific scenarios from the recent past.

New Year’s Eve 2020 was peculiar for many of us. As Coronavirus continued to sweep the globe, usual end-of-year reflections were replaced by a build-up of collective grief. Around the world, Covid-19 socializing restrictions put obstacles in the way of New Year’s Eve celebrations.

For German photographer Valentin Goppel, the uniqueness of the situation was underscored by his companions: Instead of his spending the night with his flatmates as he would do usually, he was instead alone with his girlfriend’s younger brother and two of his friends, making the initial images for what would become Goppel’s first photobook, “Zwischen den Jahren.”

“For weeks before, her brother had tried to persuade his parents to let him spend New Year’s Eve with his friends, which (as a young person) I found really understandable, but his parents didn’t,” the photographer recalled in an interview with CNN. “In the end, (they relented when) he agreed to spend four days (quarantining) in his room afterwards. It was a strange thing, this commitment to meeting your friends just for a few hours — then spending days alone — but to him it was worth it.”

After returning home from photographing the boys, Goppel confessed he pondered his reasons for doing so. “I was like ‘why am I doing all of this?’. I would rather have spent the time with my girlfriend!” But the evening became the starting point for a wider project about young people, lockdown and mental health.

“Zwischen den Jahren” translates as “between the years” and is a common expression in Germany for the last days of December. The title is also, however, a rich characterization of the disorientated state of limbo experienced throughout the pandemic, particularly by teens and those at university.

Encouraged by a commission from German newspaper Die Zeit, following his New Year’s Eve shoot, Goppel spent the next 18-months taking photos, with his young subjects frequently lit by the glow of a laptop screen, pictured wearing face masks, or meeting outdoors — the realities of life during the pandemic. In some instances, Goppel set up his camera and observed those around him, and at others he staged specific scenarios from the recent past.

“Oftentimes it was, ‘I want to depict this memory, I want this to be a part of the project’, so there was a conscious decision before taking the picture,” he said. “And sometimes I was just waiting for something important to happen.” The last photograph for his project was taken in summer 2022.

Goppel was living with his parents in Hanover when news of the first lockdown emerged, but by late 2020, the photographer was back sharing with flatmates, who became some of the book’s key protagonists. “The idea came out of the sense of ‘I am a part of this,’” he noted, reflecting on the book’s genesis and the shared experiences of those around him. “It then became very collaborative, working with my friends. In the end they were ‘our’ images more than only mine.”

Despite this communal sensibility, the pandemic’s impact left Goppel and his friends with an altered sense of companionship, he said. As he explains in the book’s accompanying text, before Covid 1 in 10 German teenagers showed symptoms of depression; after the first lockdown it was 1 in 4.

“I tried to get back into society, which was really hard,” the photographer remarked of the images he made towards the end. “You were back with your friends, but many of us felt disconnected from them, and very isolated still. That was a strange experience, because you could be in a group and still feel alone.”

With open borders and international travel since resumed, more recently Goppel has been making photos on a road trip across America, photographing strangers with a new purpose, largely informed by the making of “Zwischen den Jahren.”

“The Covid project set the path for what I’m doing now, and a rule that whatever I’m working on, I implement my perspective,” he said. “During Corona, I realised for the first time that whatever I, as an individual was experiencing, was important.”

“Zwischen den Jahren” by Valentin Goppel is published by GOST Books and out now.

By Noma Faingold

People might be aware of master photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009) having seen his austere, innovative, high-contrast black-and-white Vogue Magazine fashion spreads. Or maybe viewers have come across his bare-bones, character-revealing portraits of artists and luminaries like Truman Capote, Pablo Picasso and boxer Joe Lewis. Then there’s the pristine still life works, at times looking like representational paintings while others seem abstract.

In Penn’s nearly 70-year career, he amassed the most diverse body of photographs, from everyday people (butcher, baker and sewer cleaner), landscapes, ethnographic portraits, closeups of flowers, provocative but artistically shot nudes of real-size women (taken in 1949-50 but not publicly exhibited until the 1980s) and literally, unapologetically made trash into art.

Penn was known for his precise, simple composition and use of light. But he also embraced new ideas and techniques with printing.

Four local photographers with different styles, at different stages in life, have each been influenced by Penn in some way and plan to attend the 175-photo retrospective, March 16-July 21, at the de Young Museum.

David Stroud

Like Irving Penn, Outer Sunset resident Stroud has evolved from being a fine arts photographer to adding painting and drawing to his creative pursuits. He has also written extensively about photography, including the text for a couple of coffee table books published by Carmel’s Photography West Gallery where he once worked.

Born in Berkeley and raised in the Napa Valley, Stroud became interested in photography as a young teen when he got his first photo kit.

“I took it seriously,” Stroud said. “I set up a home dark room.”

He earned a degree in English literature at UC Santa Cruz before going to graduate school at the University of Kent in England. After living in Pacific Grove for 12 years, he moved to San Francisco in 1989. He gets invited to be in group shows at local galleries, such as a show last fall at the Coastal Arts League Gallery in Half Moon Bay.

One of the many reasons Stroud admires Penn is because “he was an amazing artist working in a commercial field,” he said. “It’s hard to put your finger on it, but he was so unique and covered so many different subjects. He had remarkable clarity in everything he did. It makes anything very penetrating.”

Stroud appreciates Penn’s perfectly arranged still life images, as well as the bare-bones portraits of notable artists like Georgia O’Keefe.

“She’s squeezed into a corner. She looks skeptical and compacts her body. It’s not very flattering. It makes her look ordinary,” he said.

In the 1970s, Penn turned his attention to subjects like cigarette butts and discarded objects in the street, which Stroud finds stunning.

“I love those cigarette butts,” Stroud said. “He’s exploring decomposition and decay. Those cigarettes have a lot of character.”

Joeann Edmonds Matthew

Joeann Edmonds Matthew of Mill Valley relates to Penn’s need to be eclectic in what to shoot.

“He was into a lot of subjects like me, and really weird things,” she said. “That’s how creative artists work. You can’t just do one thing.”

She spent decades as a union makeup artist and wardrobe stylist for film and commercials, including “The Matrix” and several movies starring Robin Williams. She took pictures of her work and the productions while on set. But she didn’t take her photos seriously until her husband at the time, Ron Edmonds, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist for Associated Press, taught her some of the technical aspects of photography.

After the Sacramento-born Edmonds Matthew raised her two children and retired seven years ago, her artistic photography went into high gear.

“I work on photography every day. I like photography because it’s instant gratification,” she said.

Edmonds Matthew, who shows her work in small Bay Area galleries and state fairs, likes to experiment with digital photo software. Currently, she is working on a surrealist series she calls, “Spacescapes.”

“I made one out of mashed potatoes. I pushed the tech to the max,” she said. “I don’t know if they are good. I just love doing them.”

Edmonds Matthew, who is most influenced by Penn’s landscapes, wouldn’t miss the de Young exhibit for anything.

“I’m drawn to the beautiful, exacting fashion stuff he did for Vogue and the nudes he did with real bodies. You don’t see that in magazines,” she said. “But what’s great is he made it acceptable to creatively go all over the place.”

Nick Haste

During his tour of duty in the Navy, Haste started taking photos after arriving at different ports around the world. After he left the navy, he wanted to learn more about photography and enrolled at the Academy of Art.

Since graduating, Haste, 35, has been working on building his portfolio and teaching photography at the non-profit youth program First Exposures. He has concentrated on fashion but takes a naturalistic approach. He collaborates with stylists but does not use hairstylists or makeup artists. Like Penn, Haste prefers natural light.

Haste, who lives in the West Portal area, is also immersed in a personal portrait project of African Americans in the City.

“I’m taking pictures of working people,” he said. “I want to highlight how we’re not being portrayed. There’s so much to us. It’s about the resilience of people.”

He said Penn led the way in defying what fashion magazines expected from photographers.

“He gave a glimpse that we don’t have to seek that perfect model. We can show everyday people and still be successful.”

Ed Jay

San Francisco native Ed Jay, 66, was a controller at a number of financial institutions until he retired in 2018. He took up photography in the 1980s, being the official (volunteer) photographer for cross country and track teams while his two children were in high school.

“It was a way to spend more time with my kids. It was a lot of fun,” Jay said.

The Alameda resident started getting paid for his photographs in 2009. He specializes in fashion and sports. One of his favorite locations for fashion shoots is San Francisco’s Chinatown, where he grew up.

“I feel very comfortable in Chinatown,” Jay said. “It’s so colorful. I like putting the model in focus and the red hanging lanterns as the backdrop.”

Jay admires Penn’s fashion images, but he is most impressed with his gritty portraits.

“He strips away everything but the person,” he said. “His subjects are vulnerable. They draw you in an make you think. We are left to interpret what Picasso or Salvador Dali was thinking at that moment.”

Irving Penn, a retrospective exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Irving Penn Foundation in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, March 16-July 21, at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., Golden Gate Park. Learn more at famsf.org.

To see more from profiled photographers, go to davidstroudphotography.com, @david.stroud.51, edjayphotography.com, @edjayphotography, joeannsphotos.com, @joeannedmondsmatthew and nickhaste.com, @nick.haste.

WORDS Jasmine Pirovic    PHOTOGRAPHY Instagram    PUBLISHED Mon, 4 Mar 2024 – 6:29 pm

To mark two extraordinary years of waterbird breeding, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has teamed up with photographers to launch a captivating photo exhibit in Condobolin, showcasing the diversity and scale of waterbird breeding in NSW wetlands. Entitled A Waterbird Breeding Spectacular: An Exhibition of Waterbird Photography, the display aims to bring the inaccessible beauty of these wetlands and their avian inhabitants to the public eye, highlighting the environmental significance of water management in supporting these ecosystems.

Unveiling Nature’s Marvels Through Lens

According to Dr Simon Banks, the collection of photographs portrays an unprecedented glimpse into the large-scale breeding of waterbirds in areas often unseen by the public. The exhibition, featuring works from several astute photographers including local birdwatcher Warren Chad, offers a vivid portrayal of the chaotic yet mesmerizing breeding environments found within various Murray-Darling Basin wetlands. From over 100,000 ibis nests at Booligal wetlands to around 49,000 pelican nests at Lake Brewster, the images capture the essence of what it means to witness such a natural spectacle firsthand.

Education and Conservation Efforts

Aside from its visual appeal, the exhibition serves an educational purpose, illustrating the life stages of birds and the crucial role of environmental water in fostering their breeding success. Michele Groat, Commonwealth Environmental Water Local Engagement Officer, emphasized the critical support provided by environmental water, especially in maintaining stable water levels and quality, which are vital for the survival of waterbird populations. The exhibition also aims to raise awareness about the long-term decline in waterbird numbers across the Murray-Darling Basin, stressing the importance of habitat conservation and sustainable water management.

Community Engagement and Future Prospects

The exhibition not only showcases the stunning biodiversity of the region but also fosters a sense of community through the involvement of local contributors and the general public. Scheduled to run from 11 to 21 March at the Condobolin Community Centre, with an opening night on 14 March, it invites attendees to engage directly with the photographers and conservationists involved in waterbird monitoring and environmental management. By bringing these issues to the forefront, the exhibition hopes to inspire ongoing dialogue and action towards preserving Australia’s wetland habitats for future generations.

As visitors wander through the displays, immersed in the beauty and complexity of waterbird breeding, the exhibition stands as a testament to the interconnectedness of our ecosystems and the pivotal role humans play in their preservation. By highlighting both the challenges and triumphs in waterbird conservation, it encourages a deeper understanding and appreciation of Australia’s natural heritage, underscoring the collective responsibility towards environmental stewardship.

Todd Gray assembles his photographs so as to draw attention to what remains outside the frame, as much as on the content inside. The artist’s intricately constructed collages of pictures that he takes in various parts of the world – from the wetlands of Ghana to the Palais de Versailles – are akin to poetic verses. Like a carefully chosen word, each image joins a constellation of a few, and together, they reveal uncharted meanings beyond the seen. Through framing cut-out portions from his own archive, the artist frees the image from a singular narrative. 

It’s a case of ‘rupturing the seamlessness of photographic imagery’, as Gray explains his gesture to Wallpaper*. A shot of an African woman in traditional garb, for example, is orchestrated with that of a palatial door; or, two ornately trimmed trees bookend a pile of three frames that show a lush forest, a stone monument, and a wild animal. Some ornate and others minimal, the frames both underline and confine Gray’s allusive images, while pointing at the potential in the unseen.

‘Reality Reframed: Recent Works by Todd Gray’

Gray’s new exhibition, ‘Reality Reframed: Recent Works by Todd Gray’, at The 8th Floor in New York, includes images he snapped in the last 40 years from his travels and life between America’s west coast and Akwidaa in Ghana. In contrast to the pictures’ ample timeframe, the resulting three-dimensional works are from the last five years, letting the artist take a retrospective look at his own holdings. 

Delving into his repertoire through collage helps Gray revisit the moment of pressing the shutter, bridging the emotionality of the past act with the very moment. Although he operates from the ‘theoretical foundation of questioning power, hegemony, and colonialism’, he admits, ‘I am not thinking about them while I am shooting.’ 

The immediate bodily instinct to monumentalise a still is a drive Gray began appreciating in the late 1990s after graduating from CalArts, where he studied under John Baldessari and Allan Sekula. ‘I began questioning why I was relying on rational thought and [pre-visualising] a picture,’ he remembers. The epiphany imbued the artist with a desire to operate ‘like a jazz musician who improvises and let my body come into the process’. Along the way, he found himself resisting the binary readings in photography and shift to what he calls ‘the polymorphous’.

The multitude of contexts in his strategically collaged and intricately built sculptural photographs open doors for subjective readings on power structures and the biased linearity of history. ‘Multiple temporalities in a singular visual field’, as Gray describes his non-hierarchal stacking of places and people. ‘I am creating a rupture between the ancient time, recent time, and contemporary time, with multiple chronologies to connect to.’ 

In Euclidean Gris Gris (Ship of Fools) (2019), a bronze statut shows a European woman holding a cornucopia and an enslaved African woman underneath eating the fruit bits falling from the bunch. Gray juxtaposes the circular image of the troubling monument in Versailles with a horizontal landscape from the same garden. The ornate frame holding the two women overlaps and slices the precisely sculpted bushes. 

The artist’s interest in capturing architecture lies in the comparison he finds between pictures and edifices. ‘Architecture freezes time, like an image,’ he says. A quartet of semblances inhabits Atlantic (Keisha’s Redemption Song) (2022). The largest frame is a vertical image of the Official Palace of Portugal with saints perched over its arch. Gray overlaps the flamboyant architecture with another vertical – yet smaller – shot of the Grand Rotunda at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, where elaborate columns convey a similar old worldly grandiosity. 

A contemplative shot of the Atlantic Ocean from Gray’s own Ghana home in an oval frame is finally crowned with a portrait of the American singer Keisha Jackson, whose face is concealed with a shot of the space taken from Hubble telescope. The infinity that substitutes for the woman’s likeness pairs with the aquatic endlessness that once carried enslaved Africans towards Europe and America where they were forced to build still-enduring architectural legacies.  

Travelling with Michael Jackson as his personal photographer between his Off The Wall and Thriller eras in the 1980s ushered an understanding of the images’ account for representation. In his pictures of the world’s most famous pop star during his career peak, Gray saw ‘mental colonialism’, and how Black representation is fragmented and repurposed through collective consciousness and media. Reading Toni Morrison and Stuart Hall ‘switched something in my brain around 2013’, Gray says about the moment he began covering Jackson’s face in his fine art photography. ‘Michael was the poster child of mental colonialism of the African diaspora,’ he adds.

David Lewis gallery’s Frieze LA 2024 booth included a work from Gray’s On Pointe series, which features fragmented images of Jackson with immediate recognisability. On Pointe (Atlantic) (2024) builds a transcontinental and pan-historical composition of places and people: a circular frame holds a photograph of a Ghanaian chief during the harvest festival in Axi, laid over another circular shot of Jackson’s iconic toe point stage move that sits on a large shot of the Atlantic Ocean from Ghana. The corporal thread between two performing Black bodies – one in a communal ritual and the other in an arena in front of thousands – is tied through the eerie infinity of the ocean with an unknown destination waiting on the horizon. 

‘Reality Reframed: Recent Works by Todd Gray’ is on view at The 8th Floor, New York, through 13 April 2024. 

the8thfloor.org/gray

In an unprecedented technological breakthrough, Vivo has launched the world’s first flying camera phone in Pakistan, drawing commendations from Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. Priced at Rs 2,07,999, the Vivo Drone Camera Phone is poised to transform the smartphone photography landscape with its advanced aerial capabilities and superior features.

Aerial Photography at Your Fingertips

The hallmark of the Vivo Drone Camera Phone is its innovative flying camera, which effortlessly detaches from the phone to capture breathtaking aerial photographs. Equipped with a 200-megapixel quad-camera setup, the device promises unparalleled image clarity and detail, establishing a new benchmark in mobile photography. This feature allows users to explore new perspectives and capture images that were previously impossible with traditional smartphone cameras.

Super AMOLED 6.9-inch Display

Users can enjoy an immersive viewing experience on the Vivo Drone Camera Phone’s expansive 6.9-inch Super AMOLED display. With HDR sensors and Corning Gorilla Glass 7 for added protection, the device delivers vibrant colors and enhanced durability, making it perfect for browsing, gaming, and watching videos. The high-quality display ensures that every detail is crisp and clear, providing an exceptional visual experience.

Long-lasting Battery

Designed to cater to the needs of power users and photography enthusiasts, the Vivo Drone Camera Phone features a powerful, long-lasting battery. This ensures that users can spend more time capturing and creating content without the constant worry of running out of power. The device’s battery life is a testament to Vivo’s commitment to delivering not just innovative features but also practical solutions for everyday use.

Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter to express his admiration for the device, acknowledging its innovative features and the potential impact it could have on the smartphone market. With the introduction of the Vivo Drone Camera Phone, Vivo has not only redefined smartphone design but also set a new standard for mobile photography, offering tech enthusiasts and photography aficionados a device that promises to elevate their creative capabilities.

As the official launch date approaches, anticipation continues to build for this groundbreaking device. The Vivo Drone Camera Phone represents a significant leap forward in mobile technology, offering users the opportunity to explore new horizons in smartphone photography. Stay tuned for updates on this revolutionary device and prepare to take your photography to new heights.

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough,” echoes the spirit behind the San Diego Padres’ unique team bonding project, despite its originator, Robert Capa, having no direct ties to baseball. Padres All-Star pitcher Joe Musgrove, inspired by a moment of spontaneity, introduced a Polaroid camera into the team’s dugout, transforming the squad into unwitting yet passionate documentarians. Their collection, a blend of celebration, camaraderie, and candidness, now adorns the hallway to their dugout, potentially poised for a grander exhibition.

The Birth of a Tradition

The inception of this unconventional photography project was as serendipitous as its outcomes are unpredictable. Musgrove, drawing inspiration from an opposing player’s celebratory gesture, envisioned a unique way to capture the Padres’ triumphs and trials. With a Polaroid camera in hand, he unknowingly laid the groundwork for what would become a cherished ritual. The Padres’ pitchers, none of whom claim proficiency in photography, have become the team’s unofficial chroniclers, capturing moments that range from the euphoric to the introspective.

In the Moment: Unfiltered Joy and Spontaneity

The essence of the Padres’ dugout photography lies not in technical perfection but in the authenticity and immediacy of the moments captured. Overexposed, blurry, or oddly tinted, each photograph carries with it the raw emotion of victory, the bond of teamwork, or the quiet reflection of individual effort. Players take turns stepping behind the camera, ensuring that the perspective remains intimately tied to the team’s collective experience. This practice has fostered a unique form of expression and celebration within the team, with players eagerly anticipating their turn to either be captured in a moment of glory or to capture it themselves.

Legacy in the Making

As the Padres navigate their season, the Polaroid project has garnered attention far beyond the confines of Petco Park. Fans have embraced the initiative, with some replicating the practice in their own celebrations. The potential for these snapshots—ranging from the celebratory to the serene—to be compiled into a coffee-table book or featured in an exhibition highlights the project’s unexpected impact. Beyond the immediate joy and team bonding it fosters, the Padres’ dugout photography project is creating a unique legacy, one Polaroid at a time.

The Padres’ experiment with dugout photography transcends the boundaries of traditional team rituals, offering a glimpse into the genuine camaraderie and dynamic spirit that fuels them. As they continue to capture moments of triumph, defeat, and everything in between, these snapshots become more than just images; they are tangible memories, tokens of a journey shared. Whether these photographs end up auctioned, compiled into a book, or simply treasured by the players themselves, their value extends beyond the moments they capture, embodying the essence of team spirit and the unpredictable beauty of the game.