Episode 420: Bird of Prey Photographed, iPhone 16 News &More...

Show Notes

Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 420 for Thursday September 19th, 2024. In today’s episode the first bird of prey ever has been photographed, Apple’s iPhone 16 news and more.

First Bird of Prey Photographed

A wildlife photographer captured the first-ever image of an elusive bird of prey long thought to be lost.

For 55 years, the New Britain Goshawk had not been seen which left many ornithologists to presume the rare bird of prey was lost. As a result, the elusive bird — which had never been photographed before and was only known to science from four specimens — was categorized as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

However, in March, Fiji-based wildlife photographer Tom Vierus was taking pictures of birds on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea on an expedition with The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Unbeknownst to the photographer at the time, as he was shooting pictures, he managed to capture the first-ever image of the New Britain Goshawk.

“I was on a scoping trip with WWF in Pomio [eastern New Britain], with three members of the local community guiding us through the forest, so we could better understand the presence of species,” Vierus says in a press release.

“I photographed several bird species, including the New Britain Goshawk, but wasn’t aware of the significance at the time.”

Internationally-renowned ornithologists later confirmed that Vierus had got the first-known photograph of the bird species which had not been seen in over half a century.

“It was such a great surprise to hear that this photo seems to be the first-ever of this ‘lost species’!” Vierus says. “It is wonderful to see how conservation photography can help in safeguarding areas by documenting the existing biodiversity and also a good reminder of how important visual storytelling is.

“I truly hope this mostly pristine part of the world can remain as intact as possible with the help of the local communities, their already existing conservation initiatives and the support of WWF.”

Vierus photographed the bird in forests that are part of the Nakanai Ranges, a rugged and remarkably biodiverse expanse of green-dotted mountains that form a section of the Sublime Karsts of Papua New Guinea, a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site.

“The last documented scientific record of the [New Britain Goshawk] species appears to be a July 1969 specimen that is kept in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, USA,” John Mittermeier, Director of the Search for Lost Birds at American Bird Conservancy, says confirming the photographed bird as the New Britain Goshawk.

“While there have been multiple sight-only records in the intervening years, the New Britain Goshawk seems to have eluded photo, sound, and specimen documentation for 55 years.”

iPhone 16 JPEG-XL

The iPhone 16 family has arrived and includes many new features, some of which Apple has played very close to its vest. One such improvement is the inclusion of JPEG-XL file types, which promise improved image quality compared to standard JPEG files while delivering relatively smaller file sizes.

JPEG-XL is a next-generation image encoding standard formally standardized in early 2022. Since then, JPEG-XL (.jxl) has been adopted by numerous operating systems and applications, albeit with some notable holdouts.

Apple and its various software iterations have supported JPEG-XL for at least a year, including in Finder, Preview, Final Cut Pro, Pages, Photos, Mail, Safari, and more. Adobe has also supported the format for a while, including in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic.

Despite JPEG-XL supporting reversible JPEG transcoding and being superior to JPEG in terms of quality and efficiency, the format has yet to be widely adopted. Neither Chrome nor Firefox, two very popular web browsers, support the format natively, for example. Extensions are available to support JPEG-XL files, but they’re not installed by default.

The creators of the JPEG-XL standard cite the format’s ability to reduce file size while delivering “unmatched quality-per-byte.” Compared to a standard JPEG, a JPEG-XL file is up to 55% smaller while providing a cleaner image that is visually lossless. Gone are typical JPEG artifacts.

Although it’s easy to appreciate the technical advantages of JPEG-XL, it is also worth pointing out a substantial benefit of smaller file sizes: reduced environmental impact. As the world generates increasing amounts of data, it’s essential to consider ways to reduce data load. All that stuff lives somewhere, and wherever it is, it requires energy to operate.

It’s also important to note that JPEG-XL supports wide-gamut and high dynamic range images. “JPEG-XL is specifically designed to handle the rich colors of high-precision, high-dynamic range images,” the creators explain.

The format supports up to 32 bits per channel, supports RGB and CMYK delivery, works with multiple frames, and is open source.

.jxl files support RGB, YCgCo, and XYB color space. The RGB color space is familiar to most photographers, but XYB? That’s an odd one. This color space is built on the physiological processes by which people see.

“XYB facilitates perceptually uniform quantization,” the JPEG-XL standards body explains. “JPEG-XL uses a color space derived from LMS called XYB. Based on the lower spatial density of S cones, this is interpreted as a hybrid color theory where L and M oppose each other while S is handled trichromatically. As a result, less data is needed for storing blue signals without losing much quality. JPEG-XL’s colorspace was derived from Guetzli’s butteraugli metric and is based on Google’s Pik project.”

Overall, JPEG-XL addresses many of JPEG’s shortcomings. The 30-year-old format is not very efficient, only offers eight-bit color depth, doesn’t support HDR, doesn’t do alpha transparency, doesn’t support animations, doesn’t support multiple layers, includes compression artifacts, and exhibits banding and visual noise. JPEG-XL tackles these issues, and unlike WebP and AVIF formats, which each have some noteworthy benefits too, JPEG-XL has been built from the ground up with still images in mind.

As for why it is including JPEG-XL in the iPhone 16 Pro, Apple tells PetaPixel that the format promises two primary benefits over standard JPEG format: improved image quality and better compression performance. If there’s a 32MB JPEG image, that same photo will be 24MB in lossless JPEG-XL and, even more impressively, about five megabytes in perceptually lossless format.

Apple has wrapped JPEG-XL photos inside a DNG container, enabling ProRAW files to retain their flexibility while being significantly smaller — up to nearly five times smaller.

So, what’s the catch? Apple admits that JPEG-XL is not universally adopted or supported, at least not yet, so it is not the ideal choice for every person. Each user will need to evaluate their workflow and needs and determine if JPEG-XL fits. JPEG-XL’s benefits won’t mean much to someone who works with software or platforms that don’t support the file.

As Apple explains on the new iPhone models, JPEG-XL files are supported on iOS 17 and later and macOS 14 and later. However, as mentioned, these .jxl files are wrapped in a DNG container, so you can’t just fire off .jxl files from the iPhone 16 Pro.

As has been the case with some of Apple’s other early adoptions, like Thunderbolt, not everything always works in every case. One can just look at the rollout of the HEIC format in the photo space for evidence of how new formats don’t always take hold and receive fast, widespread support. Compared to JPEG-XL, HEIC — an implementation of HEIF — is just not good.

With JPEG-XL, while the benefits of the format are obvious and numerous, there are apt to be growing pains. Apple has done its part to limit these issues by offering JPEG-XL support across its platforms and utilizing DNG containers.

The other side of the coin is that because Apple is adopting and supporting JPEG-XL, other companies may follow suit. While Samsung added JPEG-XL to its latest Galaxy smartphones earlier this year, that doesn’t carry the same weight as Apple bringing JPEG-XL to its latest smartphones and supporting it across its entire ecosystem.

That’s not to say that JPEG-XL is a few short months away from being as ubiquitous as the standard JPEG image format. It will take time, and there’s no guarantee the format will ever be universally supported.

JPEG-XL addresses many of the problems of JPEG images, so hopefully, JPEG-XL will receive widespread support. As Apple fully understands, JPEG-XL is clearly the superior format for photographers.

For now, those who happily live inside Apple’s walled garden will benefit from JPEG-XL. Even when wandering outside the Mac/iPhone/iPad ecosystem, using JPEG-XL can be a painless experience. It’s easy enough to open and edit JPEG-XL files in Adobe software, for example.

However, beyond that, support will come later or may not come at all. JPEG is old and outdated, but its age has come myriad support and compatibility. Fortunately, reverse transcoding between JPEG and JPEG-XL is possible, but even that still requires development efforts. The point is that just because JPEG-XL is obviously better than many competing formats, it doesn’t mean everyone will adopt it.

For iPhone photographers, the benefits far outweigh the potential downsides. There’s little doubt that JPEG-XL is an excellent image format that offers the quality of heavyweight formats with a file size even smaller than that of JPEGs. What would typically be a 75-ish megabyte ProRAW Max file will be about 20MB in a lossy ProRAW format using JPEG-XL compression. A lossless file is still under 50MB. Without compromising quality, those are significant storage savings.

OWC’s Thunderbolt 5 SSD

In October, OWC will ship the Thunderbolt 5-equipped Envoy Ultra external SSD that promises to be twice as fast as Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 devices with speeds up to 6,000 MB/s while maintaining backward compatibility with computers with Thunderbolt 5, Thunderbolt 4 Thunderbolt 3, and USB4.

Powered by Intel’s Thunderbolt 5 technology, OWC’s Envoy Ultra promises some incredible speeds, although the company isn’t being specific if that 6,000 MB/s performance can be expected as a read speed, write speed, or “transfer” speed. Still, even if it’s just read speeds, write performance is likely to be exceptional too, especially compared to the peak capabilities of Thunderbolt 4 and USB4, which typically don’t exceed 3,000 MB/s speeds up or down.

For example, OWC’s current Envoy Pro FX, which shares its design with the new Envoy Ultra, clocked in at 2,720.2 MB/s read speeds and 2,121.2 MB/s write speeds out of the box. If OWC’s claims of 6,000 MB/s apply to peak read speeds, then peak write speeds of the new Ultra should still be north of 5,000 MB/s if the performance ratio remains consistent.

“Intel’s innovative Thunderbolt 5 technology sets a new standard for performance and simple connectivity, and OWC’s Envoy Ultra SSD is a perfect example of how this technology can be harnessed to meet the needs of today’s most demanding users,” Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO of Other World Computing (OWC) says. “OWC continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, delivering a solution that not only leverages the full potential of Thunderbolt 5 but also opens up new possibilities for professionals and creatives alike.”

Just as is the case with the Envoy Pro FX, the Envoy Ultra uses a fanless, heat-dissipating aluminum design that lets the SSD work silently. It’s also bus-powered and pretty tough: OWC says it’s water-resistant, dust-resistant, and crushproof.

The drive ships with OWC’s Thunderbolt 5 cable, which is also available separately, and is designed to deliver up to 80Gb/s of bi-directional data speed and up to 120Gb/s for higher display bandwidth needs. It is backward compatible with Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and USB4, too.

The OWC Envoy Ultra will be available in two capacity options: 2TB and 4TB for $399.99 and $599.99 respectively. OWC is accepting pre-orders now through its website and expects to start shipping in late October.

Gallery Owner Sentenced

A gallery owner was sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding clients out of $1.6 million worth of fine art photographs, including prints by famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams.

Wendy Halsted Beard, who owned the Wendy Halsted Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan, previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud related to a scheme involving more than 10 clients.

Last week, Beard was sentenced to five years and three months in jail for what the FBI described as a criminal scheme to swindle older photography collectors, according to a report by The New York Times.

In October 2022, the FBI arrested Beard and released a 24-page criminal complaint spelling out the case against the gallery owner.

Between March 2019 and October 2022, Beard had agreed to sell over 100 fine art photographs on behalf of collectors, for which she earned a commission, according to the FBI.

However, prosecutors alleged that she sold pictures without the owner’s knowledge, pocketed the cash, or failed to return unsold works.

“Over 100 rare fine art photographs with a combined estimated value of approximately $1.6 million have been identified as being consigned to Beard and not returned or sold to victims without being delivered. Beard’s victims are typically elderly individuals,” the FBO alleged.

Works from some of the most acclaimed photographers of the 20th century — including Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, and Ansel Adams — were among those entrusted to Beard.

According to an affidavit, an 82-year-old victim gave Beard $900,000 worth of fine art photography in 2018 for her to sell on consignment. Included in the collection was a mural-sized photograph of The Tetons and the Snake River by Adams.

Beard agreed to sell the photograph for $685,000 with a 5% commission. Investigators say she sold it for $440,000 but the victim was never notified she had sold it and never received the money.

A second victim, an 89-year-old collector suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, consigned photos, including prints by Adams as well as photographers Ion Zupco, Arnold Newman and Jerry Uelsma.

The collection included a signed print of Tenaya Creek shot by Adams in Yosemite National Park in California in 1948 and valued at $4,000 to $5,500.

Investigators say that when the said client’s relatives asked for the Adams photos to be returned to them, Beard gave them cheap copies from a gift shop instead of the original, signed photographs.

According to the complaint, Beard went to extraordinary lengths to conceal her deception. She falsely claimed to have been in a coma for several months and to have undergone a double-lung transplant to explain delayed responses to clients. Additionally, she fabricated fictional employees to communicate with them.

At the time of Beard’s arrest in October 2022, the allegations reportedly stunned the famed photographer’s grandson, Matthew Adams, who runs the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite, California.

“Holy mackerel,” Adams told The Detroit News during a phone interview. “Wow, that’s not good.”

Beard’s gallery was created by her father, Thomas Halsted in 1969 and was a respected gallery focused on photography. He died in 2018, and his obituary notes how he forged friendships with great photographers, including Adams.

Albert Einstein

The day Albert Einstein died was, obviously, huge news. Journalists and photographers rushed to Princeton hospital, all looking to get a scoop but there was one photojournalist who succeeded above the others by going a different direction.

Life magazine staff photographer Ralph Morse managed to get into Einstein’s office — bribing the building’s superintendent with scotch whisky — and took a poignant photo showing Einstein’s cluttered desk looking as if the great scientist had just stepped away.

“Einstein died at the Princeton Hospital,” Morse explained in a 2014 interview with Life. “So I headed there first. But it was chaos journalists, photographers, onlookers. So I headed over to Einstein’s office at the Institute for Advanced Studies. On the way, I stopped and bought a case of scotch. I knew people might be reluctant to talk, but most people are happy to accept a bottle of booze, instead of money, in exchange for their help. So I get to the building, find the superintendent, give him a fifth of scotch, and like that, he opens up the office.”

Morse’s quick, ingenious thinking enabled him to capture a photograph that echoes through the ages. Case in point, a recent viral Reddit post of the photo received over 60,000 upvotes.

The below excerpt from Life magazine describes Morse’s shot.

“The empty chair by the formula-filled blackboard looked as if the scholar who usually sat in it had merely stepped away, perhaps to gaze reflectively at the meadow that rolls past the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. But the chair would not again be filled. Last week the entire world went into mourning for the greatest scientific thinker of his age. . . . For 50 years the world had been heaping honors on him, but Einstein remained indifferent to worldly glory. Dressing in baggy old clothes, he shut himself away in lonely contemplation of the massive intellectual problems he alone could solve. But he emerged to champion the ideals he cherished: justice, freedom, peace. He believed in his own form of ‘cosmic’ religion. ‘I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil,’ he said. ‘The presence of a superior reasoning power, revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

Despite the above excerpt from Life describing Morse’s photo, it was never printed in the magazine. Morse was certain that he had obtained an exclusive photograph and would be feted by his editors — but he was shocked when told they wouldn’t run the photo.

“I get to New York with the film, and there are signs all over the place in the office: ‘Ralph, see Ed!’ Ed Thompson was Life’s managing editor,” Morse, who passed away in 2014, explained.

“Ed says, ‘Ralph, I hear you have one hell of an exclusive.’ I say, ‘Yeah, I think I do.’ And he says, ‘Well, we’re not going to run it.’ I was stunned.

“Turns out Einstein’s son, Hans, called while I was on the road to New York, and asked that we not run the story, that we respect the family’s privacy. So Ed decided to kill the story. You can’t run a magazine without an editor to make those decisions, and Ed had made his. So I thought, ‘Well, that’s that,’ and went on to my next assignment. I figured the pictures would never see the light of day, and forgot all about them.”

Einstein died on April 17, 1955, but Morse’s incredible photo didn’t see the light of day until the new century.

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