The royal family joins Flickr

by Sean McLachlan on

It seems like everybody is getting on Flickr these days. Now even the Royal Family of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms is sharing their photographs. The collection of photos, both old and new, will go live on Monday. There’s also a spot where the common rabble can share their photos of the royals.

The collection will feature not only pictures of the Royal Family, but also pictures taken by the Royal Family, which promises to give insights into the bluebloods that you don’t get from the Buckingham Palace tour. Prince Charles is an avid watercolor painter and honorary member of the Royal Watercolour Society, so perhaps he’s dabbled in photography too.

The older photos should be of interest. We tend to think of Queen Elizabeth as a rather proper elderly lady who wears funny hats, but historical images reveal the many phases of her life. This one, courtesy the UK Government, shows her in 1945 when she was still a princess. She’s learning how to change a tire as part of her Auxiliary Territorial Service training during World War Two.

After you’re done admiring the royals, take a look at some of the many talented photographers who contribute to Gadling’s Flickr page.

Photos show effects of climate change on Everest

by Kraig Becker on

A new series of photos from the Himalaya reveal the undeniable effects of global climate change on the glaciers there. This is especially evident on Mt. Everest, where comparative shots from 1921 show just how much the Rongbuk Glacier has retreated over the past 89 years.

Filmmaker and mountaineer David Breashears made the journey to Everest’s North Side, where explorer George Mallory once took a very famous photo of the mountain. Standing in the very spot where Mallory once shot his image, Breashears took a new one, and the differences between the two are startling. In the earlier photo, a thick layer of snow and ice stretches far down the valley, but in the one taken by Breashears, the glacier has withered dramatically. In fact, the Rongbuk has lost more than 320 vertical feet since Mallory shot his photo.

Over the past few years, Breashears has visited a number of other famous mountains throughout Nepal, Tibet, and Pakistan as well. While there, he took similar photos, and each case he discovered a significant loss of glacial ice, which is particularly troubling considering that the Himalayan glaciers are the Earth’s largest sub-polar ice reserves. The loss of that ice has already had a direct and profound impact on the mountains and the people that live there, many of whom now have to walk for hours each day just to find fresh water.

Breashears has taken his collection of photos and created an exhibit known as Rivers of Ice, which just went on display last week at the Asia Society, located in Manhattan. The photos will be open to the public to see until August 15, giving visitors a chance to witness the changes for themselves.

[Photo credit: AFP]

Gadling gift guide – photography gadgets

by Scott Carmichael on

An essential part of any trip is photography, and an essential part of photography is good photo gadgets. In this fourth and final Gadling gift guide, we’ll recommend a couple of great photo gadgets that will make even the most amateur photographer happy.

Be sure to check out our previous gift guides:

Gift guide for the lightweight traveler
Gift guide for famlily travel and kids
Gift guide for the business traveler
The top ten travel products of 2009

Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA photo backup unit

The Colorspace UDMA is one of the fastest photo storage devices on the market. Available with up to 500GB of space, the Colorspace UDMA supports most RAW photo formats and accepts SD and CF memory cards. It’ll do up to 250GB off a single battery charge, and can even be programmed with user scripts to automate certain features.

Price: From $249
Product page: HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA

Joby Gorillapod

The Joby Gorillapod is the perfect travel photography gadget. It is small, lightweight, and lets you take photos using it as a mini tripod, or by attaching it to a solid object (like a tree). The Gorillapod comes in several versions, including one for SLR cameras and a version with interchangeable mounts.

Price: From $21.95
Product page: Joby Gorillapod

Gigapan EPIC robotic imager

If you want to take your photos beyond the dull and boring, consider investing in the $299 GigaPan EPIC imaging robot. By attaching your camera to the unit, and setting some basic options, the GigaPan starts shooting away, turning 100’s of photos into massive panoramic photos. The unit includes the free stitching software from GigaPan, and image hosting on their site.

Price: $299
Product page: Gigapan EPIC

Epson Artisan 810

Making great photos is fun – but with a good photo printer, you can take them beyond the screen and show them off the old fashioned way. The Epson Artisan 810 features a sheet-feed scanner, fax and triple-source printer tray. It’ll print on blank CD’s and comes complete with Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Price: $199 (after temporary $100 instant rebate)
Product page: Epson Artisan 810
Eye-Fi Wireless SD memory card

Eye-Fi cards turn your camera into a Wi-Fi enabled device. Photos and videos can instantly be uploaded to your PC or a variety of online photo/video sharing sites. The card is available with Wi-Fi geotagging and hotspot access.

Price: from $49.99
Product page: Eye-Fi

Epson P-6000 multimedia photo viewer

The Epson P-6000 is the professionals choice for a photo storage device. It features a large 4″ Premia LCD display with support for 16.7 million colors. Inside the unit is an 80GB drive. Photos can be loaded off one of the memory card slots, or directly off the camera with USB host and a neat tethering option.

Support is built in for almost every RAW format on the market, and the unit even allows for several powerful photo editing procedures, right on the device. Plus, at the end of the day, you can use it to watch some movies or listen to music.

Price: $599.99 (+ $75 mail in rebate)
Product page: Epson P-6000 multimedia photo viewer

Ipevo R7 Wi-Fi enabled photo frame

The Ipevo Kaleido R7 is another great way to view the photos you make. The R7 looks fantastic, but inside is where the real power is – thanks to Wi-Fi, you can view live photo channels, or even read the latest news through RSS. The unit features touch sensitive controls and its hi-resolution screen makes photos look fantastic.

Price: $149
Product page: Ipevo Kaleido R7

Manfrotto ModoSteady

The Manfrotto ModoSteady grabbed a top spot in our lineup of best gadgets of 2009 – and rightfully so. This 3-in-1 device works as a mini tripod, shoulder grip and steady-cam mount. Best of all, it is lightweight and can fold up into a compact unit.

Price: $115
Product page: Manfrotto ModoSteady

Manfrotto Modopocket

The final product in our gift guide is another Manfrotto invention – the ModoPocket is a tiny folding tripod, designed for smaller cameras or Micro Four/Thirds cameras. The ModoPocket screws to the bottom of your camera, and allows you to angle it up or down. When you are done, you simply fold it back up.

Price: $29.99
Product page: Manfrotto ModoPocket

Chess around the globe

by Kraig Becker on

Wend Magazine, an outdoor adventure/travel mag with an eco-sensitive slant, has a great photo gallery on their Wend Blog today that celebrates the game of Chess and its universal appeal around the globe. In fact, the blog post compares it to soccer when it comes to international popularity, with chess boards bridging cultural and language barriers across the planet.

The classic game traces its origins back to 6th century India, and over the centuries it has evolved into an art form. Learning the moves of the various pieces is a simple affair, and yet it opens the door for complex strategies and intense battles, played out on a black and white checker-board.

Wend warns that when you play a game abroad, you not only play for yourself, but your entire country, and offers up a few things to consider before sitting down at the chess table. That advice includes such things as don’t play anyone over 60, as they are probably better than you and it’s a no win situation no matter the results, and get familiar with local rules before you play, or you may find yourself schooled by some obscure tactic.

Of course, the real highlight of this post is the photographs, and they are fascinating. There are shots from all over the planet ranging from Argentina to Uzbekistan, and plenty of places in between. The photos capture players of all ages in all kinds of settings, and really do show just what an international game chess has become. Checkmate!