Fun With Flatbed Scanners and Tornadic Supercells

As a long-time photographer, I was saddened recently to read that Nikon is discontinuing the bulk of their film camera line, choosing instead to focus boom! crash! on their digital offerings. Digital is definitely the way of the future, but I still have fond memories of long nights in the darkroom making prints from negatives the old-fashioned way.

Today, though, I came across one of the coolest camera hacks I've seen in quite a while: a camera made from a flatbed scanner. Such a simple, elegant idea, yet totally original. The notion of selectively making use of three-dimensional motion in the frame, while recording static images normally, is really clever, and makes for some seriously unusual pictures. And as often happens with great ideas, it makes perfect sense once it's explained to you. Excellent stuff.

On a related note, this post gives me an excuse to point out the most incredible page of weather photography I've ever seen. (And yes, I'm aware that Mike shoots with digital gear. Irony, shmirony.) Not only are the photographs mind-blowingly great, but Mike is a good guy who has had to deal with insane, systematic, and ridiculously widespread misuse of his work for the past several years. I can't decide which is more incredible: his photos or his patience, given the extent to which they've been dispersed around the 'net without his permission. In any case, I figure any excuse to post a few links to his site is good enough for me.