Sony and the Billboard Music Awards are teaming up to give you a once in a lifetime opportunity. We will be sending two lucky winners to the 2012 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas to shoot from the red carpet as Billboard’s fan photographers.
That means seeing today’s biggest names in music – live and in the flesh!
Of course, every photographer needs a sweet camera. So in addition to being flown out to Vegas for the awards show on May 20, we’re hooking the winners up with Sony α NEX- 5N cameras and exclusive photography training by celeb photographer and Sony Artisan of Imagery Matthew Jordan Smith.
Right after the show, the winners’ photos from the red carpet will be posted online to Billboard.com/BBMA.
Today, Personal Space – Sony’s cloud-based video and photo storage service — is becoming the PlayMemories Online service.
Part of the Sony Entertainment Network, the PlayMemories Online service gives you access to 5GB of storage, for free, to store all of your memories. That’s about 5,000 hi-res photos or 1.5 hours of video. All you need is a Sony Entertainment Network ID (Don’t have one? Get it here for free).
What’s cool about the PlayMemories Online service is that it lets you instantly access all of your pictures and videos anywhere, anytime, on any device.
That means the days of digging through your folders and devices for a specific photo/video are over – with the PlayMemories Online service, they’re all in the cloud and at your fingertips.
And when we say “on any device,” we mean it. Android™ Smartphone or Tablet? Yep. Apple® products? You got it.
Now that we’ve established how simple it is to view content, let’s tackle the uploading. The process couldn’t be easier, whether you’re transferring stuff from PlayMemories Home™ software, PlayMemories Studio™ software, or PlayMemories Mobile™ app (available in Google Play™ and the iTunes® app Store). It literally takes one step, freeing up your time to focus on what’s important – capturing your memories.
No converting, coding, or copying necessary. Just painless, hassle-free enjoyment of your personal content. Simple as that.
If you’re already a Personal Space user, all of your existing photos and videos are now available through the PlayMemories Online service.
Traveling the world and documenting it all through photos … now that has gotta be the good life and one that most people only dream about.
Well, it’s a reality and full-time job for professional photographer and Sony Artisan of Imagery Andy Katz. As an Artisan, Andy shares his expertise with Sony customers through photography discussions and events.
Andy is most known for his photos of landscapes and people, which have received major props from photographers and critics alike. His work is featured in museums and galleries worldwide, including his own in Boulder, Colo. and Healdsburg, Calif., and he has published three photo books — A Portrait of Napa and Sonoma; Concannon: The First One Hundred and Twenty-Five Years; and New Zealand: Sea, Earth, Sky; and Vineyard.
Clearly, the man knows his stuff. And since he uses the Sony a900 to capture his subjects, Andy is very familiar with what Sony cameras are capable of and how to use them to snap great photos.
Check out this video to learn more about Andy’s travels and photography as well as tips and tricks for taking the perfect shot.
I recently came across a YouTube™ video of this guy doing these awesome moves and I had absolutely no idea what it was, but was completely intrigued. It was like karate, mixed with running, mixed with gymnastics, mixed with….pure craziness! I found out that it’s called Parkour and it’s pretty amazing.
Sometimes called free running, Parkour is all about moving around and about obstacles with ninja precision and it’s principles have been around since the early 1900’s. Whether you know it or not, you’ve probably seen Parkour-esque moves in one form or another; both the villains and the good guys in action flicks often use Parkour techniques. Scaling up sides of skyscrapers, jumping from building to building, balancing on a ledge atop a 30 story building… and Spiderman – yep, Peter Parker is pretty Parkour-esque too.
I reached out to Binh Nguyen, the Parkour practitioner in the video, to learn more about it and found out that true Parkour is not all about escaping bad guys or impressing people with your moves; it’s about overcoming both physical and emotional obstacles. Check out my interview with him as he shares his experiences and advice on becoming a Parkour master.
How did you get into Parkour?
Since I was a little boy, I would watch a lot of Jackie Chan movies and the Monkey King series, and would always be left in awe by the way that these people moved. At first I would try to copy these movements, I would always try to climb high things, and jumped off high things just so I can feel what those guys are feeling.
In my freshman year of high-school I found an article about Parkour and a lot of very persuasive pictures. Immediately my attention was caught. The first thing on my mind was to look it up on Google and YouTube. And after watching a bunch of videos and two and a half years of training later, here I am today.
How do you do all these tricks without injuring yourself?
There is a very famous quote in Parkour that says “you have to learn how to fall first before you learn how to fly “. There are a lot of other Parkour practitioners that have merely skimmed this quote and never thought about it. My friends and I however took this quote and made it an essential part of our training.
A common misunderstanding about Parkour practitioners is that we are huge adrenaline junkies and that we only live for the moment or forget the consequence of our movement. That, however, cannot be farther from the truth, every time that I train I strive to feel happy and fulfilled, not afraid and anxious.
Also, I only do things that I am completely 100% sure that I can do. The only thing that is going through a freerunner’s mind is that if we can do the same 10 foot jump on the ground, then we can do the same 10 foot jump 10 feet above the ground. This mentality is the reason why I can stay calm and confident to do my jumps and “tricks”.
What advice would you give to someone who is trying to start Parkour?
Parkour is not a sport and there is no competition between anyone. The only competition is between you and the obstacles. It’s very tempting to just go outside after watching a crazy Parkour video and decide that you will try all of those things you see. That, however, is the fastest way to hurt yourself.
What you don’t see is how long they have been training to do what they can do now. Parkour is a long journey that you take to find out what your body is capable of, not to see what the highest thing you can jump off of and still survive to brag to all of your friends about is.
Most importantly, don’t break any laws while attempting Parkour!
Anything else we should know about Parkour?
Parkour is the best thing that has ever happened to my life, because of it I have met so many inspirational people and made some of the best friends in my life. I cannot even imagine myself without Parkour nor would I even want to. With my new found love for videography and film making, I will be making many more videos of myself and my friends. So please subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can see them!
Want to see Binh in action? Check him out performing some Parkour moves, all filmed with his Sony Bloggie® camera.
The Bloggie Sport™ Camera just started hitting doorsteps today! Announced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, you can drop the camera, get it dirty and even submerge it in up to 16 feet of water. And to prove it, we put it in the hands of the SGNL by Sony crew to give all of us a quick play by play of the features. Check it out.
