If ever there is one event that is romanticized, it is War. Otherwise, who would want to go to war, face getting killed and kill others. Photographer Claire Felicie followed 20 Dutch Marines between October 2009 and September 2010 and took pictures of their faces before, during and after deployment in Afghanistan. The results are not surprising, but sad nevertheless, as we see the alterations that take place, if sometimes they are only perceived subtly.

Read the article and view the images at: Daily Mail.

Procter & Gamble, manufacturer of CoverGirl, “voluntarily” pulled a print spot featuring Taylor Swift for “excessive Photoshopping.” The ad made claims about the NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara that the National Advertising Division (NAD) — the ad industry’s self-regulatory body created to review factual claims in national advertisements — found could not be substantiated except by “post-production enhancement.”

Looks to me like either the NAD missed about a gizzilion other ads — or the players involved chose not to “voluntarily” comply.

Read the article at: E! online.

How does a professional photographer approach his or her wedding day assignment? Jesselynn Quinn, an international wedding photographer based in Oxford, England, shares with us “3 Rules for Portraits Worthy of a Wedding Day” — concentrating on “posing subjects and trying to capture for them one of life’s real milestone moments.”

Read the Black Star article “3 Rules for Portraits Worthy of a Wedding Day“.

The Hunt - © Stefano Pesarelli

National Geographic has published the Winners of its Photo Contest 2011 in the People, Nature and Places categories. More than 20,000 images were submitted by professional and amateur photographers from more than 130 countries. Shikhei Goh won the $10,000 grand prize for his Splashing picture of a dragonfly weathering a rain storm. The Hunt by Stefano Pesarelli (above) of a big cat hunting an impala was obtained by panning the camera. It wonderfully evokes speed and drama.

via pdn

The future is green and Sony has unveiled a battery that generates electricity using paper as fuel. An enzyme called cellulase is used to decompose paper into glucose and the glucose is then used for power generation. The battery can theoretically generate up to 18Wh of electricity, which is the equivalent of using 6 AA batteries. Interestingly, the cellulase can be reused.

In the photo above, Sony reduced its battery to the thickness of a birthday card and left a hole for the “fuel.” Spill some “cellulose” (juice is fine) on it and it generates enough electricity to play music.

Imagine your future electronics gadget with one of these battery built-in. To power it up, instead of inserting 2 AA batteries, you might simply fill it up with juice (or insert a piece of paper if the cellulase enzyme is already included in the setup). Keep those scraps of paper!

Read the article at: Tech-On!

This year has been marked by many sad events: war, economic turmoil that is still being played out and natural disasters. In the world of photography, the year marked a turn in major news firms infringing on photographers’ copyrights, continued limits on public photography that don’t help anyone and death. PDN looks back on the biggest photography news stories in their 15 most-read news articles and blog posts of 2011.

Read the article at: PDN.

The Big Picture from boston.com has publishes their 50 best photos from the natural world. It’s well worth a visit and not necessarily the kind of pictures we see everyday, unlike the ones from LIFE.

via robgalbraith

Simply beautiful photos of the Lunar Eclipse of December 10, 2011. It was the longest lunar eclipse in over 10 years. With the Earth swinging between the Sun and the Moon, Earth’s shadow was cast onto the Moon, with the red hue of the Moon resulting from the sun’s light passing through the earth’s atmosphere. If you missed it, the next total eclipse will occur in 2014.

View the lunar eclipse pictures @ boston.com