In today's episode a drone saves a teen, Google Photos turns 10, The Mandler 35mm F/2 and more stories for this week.
You can find the show notes here.
You can find the show notes here.
Show Notes
Welcome back to the show, Liam Douglas here with the Liam Photography Podcast and this is Episode 456 for the week of May 29th 2025. In today’s stories, a Drone Saves a Teen in Florida, Google Photos Turns 10, the Mandler 35mm and more.
Dramatic footage has revealed the moment a shark fisherman saved a drowning teenager by using a drone to drop a flotation device.
Drone hobbyist and fisherman Andrew Smith was using his SwellPro Fisherman Max drone to scout the water for sharks off Fort Pickens Beach in Pensacola, Florida earlier this month when he heard screams from the surf.
According to a report by 7 News Miami, a teenage girl was struggling in the water after getting caught in a strong riptide that was pulling her further away from shore. Her friend ran up to Smith and asked if he could swim.
Smith can’t swim due to a seizure disorder and uses a drone instead of a kayak to set bait for sharks. However, the quick-thinking fisherman decided to use his drone to save the teen instead.
“I was sitting there and this girl came running asking if anybody could swim, I said ‘No I absolutely could not swim’, and she was running and screaming and nobody could swim.” Smith tells 7News Miami. “Her friend was getting sucked more and more out, and I looked down at the drone and I was like, ‘Well, the drone can swim but I can’t.’”
Springing into action, Smith grabbed a flotation device and hooked it onto his drone. He then launched the drone into the air and began flying it out over the rough water. He hoped that the girl would be able to grab onto the device and stay afloat long enough until help arrived.
Unfortunately, Smith’s first attempt to fly the flotation device to the teen didn’t go as planned.
“I ran up and grabbed one of those and ran back down to the drone, I flew it out and it was a terrible miss,” Smith says. “I released it too early, it was really windy. Like it wasn’t close at all.”
The worried fisherman knew time was slipping away for the girl. She was getting pulled further away and had been battling the relentless current for five minutes at that point. However, a stranger handed Smith another flotation device and he tried again, carefully piloting his drone amid powerful gusts of wind.
“I flew it back out and after the first one, I could tell how windy it was. So then I lowered it down, you had to go slower and slower down to her because that was it. That was the last opportunity we were going to have,” Smith explains.
This time, Smith’s efforts paid off. Video footage captured by fellow beachgoer Robert Nay shows Smith’s drone struggling against heavy winds and under gray skies as it maneuvers just above the choppy waters. Finally, Smith flies his flotation device low enough for the girl to reach out and grab it.
She clung to the device for another five minutes — long enough for paramedics and lifeguards to arrive on the scene. Thanks to Smith’s resourcefulness and quick thinking under pressure, the girl was brought safely back to shore.
Smith says he teared up once the girl made it safely back to shore and first responders credited him with saving her life. According to Fox10, Smith’s SwellPro Fisherman Max drone is designed to be used while fishing and can hold up to two life jackets.
“The drone has two releases on the bottom and can be used for fishing, and you can carry two life jackets on it and get to people fast,” Smith tells the news outlet. “It has a camera on it too, so I could see the girl’s head on the camera.”
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Google Photos, a platform that has evolved from a simple storage solution into a powerful tool for organizing, editing, and sharing photos and videos. To celebrate, Google has shared jaw-dropping milestones and announced new features to usher in its next decade.
Over the past decade, Google Photos has revolutionized how people capture, store, and relive their memories, with the added benefit of utilizing AI to enhance photo management and editing. With 1.5 billion monthly users and over 9 trillion photos and videos stored, Google Photos remains a cornerstone of many people’s digital lives.
“10 years ago today, we introduced Google Photos as a home for your photos and videos. Since then, we’ve added tons of features that make it so much more than that: AI tools help you instantly find that specific photo you’re looking for; editing options let you bring your photos to life; and new sharing features make it easier than ever to stay in touch,” writes Shimrit Ben-Yair the Vice President of Google Photos & Google One.
“Every month, you perform more than 370 million searches, share 440 million memories and edit 210 million photos. With so many memories made over the last decade and as we look towards the future, we’ll continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI, unlocking new ways to relive, connect with and share memories.”
To celebrate this milestone, Google has introduced several exciting new features designed to make preserving, sharing, and enjoying memories not only easier but more intuitive. Here’s a look at what’s new in Google Photos.
One of the standout updates is the completely redesigned Photo Editor, which brings all of Google Photos’ powerful editing tools into one place. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), the new editor provides AI-powered suggestions that offer quick fixes for your photos. Whether users are adjusting brightness or experimenting with creative effects like Reimagine to transform the feel of their pictures and Auto Frame for help with composition and crops, the editor is now more intuitive than ever.
Google says these improvements make photo editing accessible to everyone, whether a casual user or a seasoned photographer. The new editor will be available on Android devices next month, with iOS to follow later this year.
Google Photos has also made it easier to share albums with the introduction of QR codes. With this feature, users can generate a code for any album, allowing others to scan it and instantly view or add photos to it. This feature is perfect for gatherings, family events, or travel with friends, making it easy to share memories in real time. The ability to print the QR code or share it digitally ensures that anyone nearby can participate, making the sharing experience even more seamless.
Along with these new editing and sharing tools, Google Photos continues to add features that help users organize and engage with their photos in creative ways. For example, the Places feature allows people to explore their photos on an interactive map, making it easy to relive trips and revisit locations through their images. The improved search function also helps people find specific photos with greater accuracy, allowing them to search for detailed queries like “me in a sparkly blue dress” or “Alice at the beach.” The search function becomes even smarter when people tag people and pets in your photos, making it easier to locate memories without having to guess keywords.
To help users relive cherished memories, Google Photos now automatically creates “Best of Month” and “Year-End Recap” memories. These nostalgic summaries are perfect for reflecting on the most memorable moments of the year, and they’re easy to share with friends and family. Similarly, creating montages is now simpler than ever with automatic highlight videos. By selecting specific people, pets, or events, users can have Google Photos combine those moments into a short video set to music, ideal for sharing special occasions or just reliving great memories.
Google Photos also offers more meaningful ways to stay connected with loved ones with Shared albums that automatically add photos of specific people or pets, with updates flowing directly into the app or even photo frames. This feature is ideal for keeping long-distance friends and family updated on the latest adventures.
For those looking to declutter their feed, grid controls enable users to group similar photos or hide unwanted images, such as screenshots and memes, keeping their gallery organized and tidy. Additionally, users can now customize album memories, choosing which photos, people, or dates to see, and even hiding those they don’t wish to appear.
Lastly, if a user’s phone is running low on storage, Google Photos offers a handy tool to help free up space. The “Free Up Space” feature removes items that have already been safely backed up to the cloud, allowing users to make room for new photos and videos while still maintaining access to everything in their Google Photos library.
While all Google account holders currently receive 15 GB of free storage across Google Photos, Google Drive, and Gmail, this storage is shared across these services, meaning that any files stored in Google Photos will count toward this 15 GB limit. Photographers and videographers, many of whom are small business owners without a dedicated server, will likely burn through this data quickly.
Google offers options to upgrade through Google One or a subscription. However, I have a little tip for you; it’s what I do. By subscribing specifically to Google Workspace, users gain access not only to more storage in Photos, but also additional features such as a custom email domain, Google Meet for video conferencing, appointment scheduling for your clients and collaborators, contract management with eSignatures, and more.
Google Workspace subscriptions start at $7 per month for 30 GB, $14 for 2 TB, and increase from there. If you already subscribe to services for video conferencing, appointment setting, email server, or any of the other sundry tools photographers and small business owners need to don their many hats, then you might save by just bundling everything into one with a Workspace account.
This is not sponsored, but I couldn’t write an article on Google Photos without sharing my tip on getting the most out of it with Workspace, just in case it helps anyone feeling a little overwhelmed trying to do it all across multiple platforms like I was.
Google Workspace offers professional photographers a powerful suite of tools that seamlessly integrate with Google Photos to streamline workflow, enhance collaboration, and ensure secure storage. Photographers can use Google Drive to organize and back up their images, while Google Photos serves as an intuitive platform for managing and sharing large photo libraries. Via Shared Drives, photographers can collaborate with clients or team members, providing easy access to albums and images, all while maintaining control over permissions and access. The enhanced storage options in Google Workspace enable the safe archiving of high-resolution photos, ensuring that even the most extensive portfolios remain secure and accessible.
Additionally, features like Google Meet facilitate virtual consultations or portfolio reviews with clients, and Google Workspace’s admin controls offer advanced security features to protect sensitive content, making it a complete solution for photographers who need to manage, edit, and share their work in a professional environment. This makes Google Photos a valuable tool for small teams and individuals to organize and share business-related media, working seamlessly with other Google Workspace apps such as Google Docs, Slides, and Meet.
As Google Photos celebrates its 10th anniversary, the platform remains committed to pushing the boundaries of AI to enhance how users interact with their photos and videos. With all these new features and future innovations, it’s clear that Google Photos will continue to evolve, offering fresh ways to store, edit, and share your memories. Whether through more powerful editing tools, smarter search features, or innovative sharing options, the future of Google Photos looks bright, ensuring that users can continue to capture and relive life’s moments for years to come.
Recreated lenses are not new, but few are quite so forward with their inspiration as the new Chinese-made Mandler 35mm f/2 for Leica M mount.
As reported by The Phoblographer and Digital Camera World, the Mandler 35mm f/2 takes its name from Dr. Walter Mandler (1922-2005), who made more than 45 of Leica’s most iconic lenses over the years, including the Summicron 35mm f/2 that inspires the new Mandler 35mm f/2.
Like the legendary Leica Summicron 35mm f/2, the Mandler 35mm f/2 features seven elements arranged in five groups — an identical optical formula to the Summicron 35mm f/2 released in the late 1970s. Some earlier Summicron 35mm f/2 M mount lenses had eight elements instead of seven
There is significant interest in faithfully recreated vintage lenses, especially ones inspired by Leica lenses because these older lenses are often rare and expensive. Leica M lenses are also easily adapted to other camera systems, making them a coveted choice for many photographers and videographers. In the case of the seven-element Summicron-M 35mm f/2, well, the appeal of an inexpensive knockoff is clear, as both vintage and modern versions are thousands of dollars. The latest Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH is $4,275, for example. The Mandler 35mm f/2 is expected to arrive next month for significantly less money than that, possibly under $1,000.
Light Lens Lab also makes a recreated version of the Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 lens, albeit one based on the earlier eight-element version. The Light Lens Lab optic starts at $1,049, with different finishes increasing the price.
For an even more affordable 35mm f/2 lens for M-mount cameras, 7Artisans’ 35mm f/2 Mark II is a mere $298.
It remains to be seen whether the new Mandler 35mm f/2 lens can keep pace with Leica’s Summicron-M 35mm f/2 lens, but if the price is right, it may be an appealing option for some photographers. Per Leica Rumors, Mandler plans to release three to four new lenses annually, so it will be interesting to see which iconic Leica lens the company replicates next.
Viltrox has announced the AF 28mm f/4.5 Chip lens for Nikon Z mirrorless cameras. The ultra-compact full-frame lens is the thinnest and lightest lens Viltrox has ever made.
The pancake, or “chip” lens as Viltrox calls it, is just 16.8 millimeters (0.66 inches) thick and weighs a paltry 80 grams (2.8 ounces). In PetaPixel‘s preferred parlance, the Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 Z is 1/25th of a Noct. Viltrox’s new lens is so thin that it’s basically a camera body cap except it can be used to take photos.
Achieving such a compact and thin design understandably comes at the cost of the lens’s aperture. An f/4.5 aperture is not exceptionally fast, although it will suffice in many daytime shooting scenarios, such as travel or street photography. The aperture is fixed at f/4.5, by the way.
However, the lens doesn’t sacrifice usability. Despite its diminutive stature, the lens includes autofocus. Viltrox says the focusing is “efficient and precise.”
The lens somehow manages to include six elements, some of which are extremely thin. These half-dozen elements are arranged across as many groups. The lens also features a pair of ED lenses and two aspherical elements. Viltrox promises “impressive image quality.”
The 28mm focal length is a popular choice for many street and landscape photographers, as it provides a wide enough field of view to capture a significant portion of the scene without excessive distortion. Viltrox calls 28mm a “sweet spot for street photography,” although the lens should be useful beyond that situation.
Leaning heavily into the body cap-turned-lens theme, the AF 28mm f/4.5 lacks a traditional lens cap. Instead, a sliding mechanism on the barrel enables users to open a front aperture that protects the lens when it is not in use.
“Slip it on, shoot anywhere, no burden,” Viltrox says of its tiny lens.
The new Nikon Z-mount version joins the existing Sony E-mount version released last year. And like the E-mount version, the new Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 “Chip” for Nikon Z is still just $99. The AF 28mm f/4.5 Z is available to purchase now from Viltrox and authorized retailers.
French photographer and acclaimed photojournalist Marie-Laure de Decker (1947-2023) made a name for herself documenting numerous armed conflicts, social and political upheavals, and historic portraits. Her work and legacy will be honored in a new retrospective.
In 2023, PetaPixel reported on the sad news of the passing of Marie-Laure de Decker. The striking photographer was born in the then-French Colony Algeria in 1947 and quickly gained notoriety in her 20s as a model before deciding to be behind the camera rather than in front. With years of experience as a model, she directed and captured beautiful portraits of noted French figures. However she was drawn to a greater purpose and endeavored to document the Vietnam War, despite the risks.
De Decker was plagued with self-doubt which she mentions in her 1985 memoir, both due to inexperience and her aging Leica camera.
“I said to myself: people are going to see that I’m not a real photographer,” De Decker wrote.
There was no need for anxiety however, as her work in Saigon with Newsweek marked her a rising star in the photojournalism industry. Not only did she prove her skill to herself but also to the world as after Vietnam she went to Chad then Yemen and South Africa, India, and Chile, de Decker was driven to create and dared to enter even the most dangerous war-torn areas.
De Decker’s career was prolific, over 40 years, yet still she was plagued by the challenges that come with being a woman photographer and how she overcame them.
“If you’re a woman, you’re never taken seriously,” de Decker explained. “There is an advantage to being a woman, as was the case in South Africa — they don’t kill you right away, they give you a chance.”
Now, in the years since her passing, Marie-Laure de Decker’s son Pablo Saavedra de Decker has taken up the banner to champion her work, maintaining her social media accounts and organizing the upcoming retrospective of her iconic and historic imagery.
“I feel so immensely proud to show you my mother’s work,” he writes. “Five years of archiving, classifying, scanning, meetings etc. Hopes, deceptions and finally results.”
The exhibition, to be held at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in the heart of Paris shows some of her most memorable photographs, carefully and lovingly curated by her son and the esteemed museum staff.
“Marie-Laure de Decker has traveled through the history of the second half of the twentieth century with her camera, capturing the major upheavals of her era as she met people and made commitments. She made her mark in a largely male-dominated environment, where working as a photographer was — and still is — a real life choice, driven by passion, adrenaline, risks and renunciations. At a time when few women dared to enter this field, she did so with fierce determination and extraordinary courage,” MEP said.
“From the 1970s onwards, she stood out for her unique approach to photojournalism. Her reports, covering major conflicts such as the Vietnam War, apartheid in South Africa and the Chilean dictatorship, are characterized by a profound humanity. Rather than seeking the shock image, she prefers to capture the dignity of individuals, exploring the off-field of war. Her photographs do not show violence head-on, but show it in a different way — through the faces and stories of those who live through it, as illustrated by her poignant series on Chadian combatants and her portraits of Yemeni women activists.”
Despite every inherent challenge, Marie-Laure de Decker went on to create a breadth of photography, from armed conflicts to powerful portraits, that will stand in history marking her place, with this first retrospective opening on June 4 once again bringing her legendary work to the public eye.
“By rehabilitating her work, the MEP is paying tribute to her by highlighting her vision and approach, which are capable of bringing together history and intimacy, and which have a particular resonance today,” MEP writes.
After branching out into five new market segments at NAB, Atomos is clearly not done and today announced its entrance into the microphone scene with the StudioSonic Shotgun Mic, a compact wired or wireless mic designed for a wide range of pro uses.
Made for filmmakers, journalists, YouTubers, and production professionals, the mic can function both wired with USB-C or wirelessly, and this dual-mode design offers what Atomos says is enhanced flexibility, with the choice to use wireless 2.4GHz or a wired connection via the company’s “unique” locking connection which securely attaches it to cameras and monitors.
The mic features a 48kHz/24-bit super-cardioid design that Atomos claims isolates voices even in noisy environments. It also features an internal, USB-C rechargeable battery that can power the mic for up to eight hours in wireless mode and up to 50 hours when used wired.
The StudioSonic mic features both analog and digital outputs, and thanks to its USB-C connection, it can be easily used for live streaming or podcasting when connected to a computer.
The wide use cases were supposedly considered, as the mic is built with a shielded, all-metal body, which the company says is meant to allow it to work well in rugged environments. Atomos says the microphone also features a 75Hz low-cut filter and a 150Hz high-cut filter, which can be used to minimize noise, as well as a high-frequency boost to improve clarity and manual gain control for precise adjustments. Monitoring can be achieved through an integrated OLED screen. Latency is promised to be less than 20 milliseconds, and it has a range of up to 100 meters (line of sight) and up to 20 meters in busier environments.
“With StudioSonic, we’re delivering a microphone that matches the mobility and precision today’s content creators demand,” Peter Barber, CEO of Atomos, says. “It brings together robust construction, flexible connectivity, and studio-quality audio, all in a smart looking directional shotgun form factor.”
Atomos promises that the new StudioSonic Shotgun Mic can handle harsh environments. The mic features an all-metal body, and its USB-C connection is reinforced with the same locking mechanism used across other Atomos products, including Ninja Phone and Shinobi II.
“This is another step in our journey to broaden the Atomos ecosystem into audio, bringing the same standard of reliability and innovation we’re known for in video,” Barber adds. “You’ll see even more ecosystem products coming soon.”
The Atomos StudioSonic Shotgun Mic is available for pre-order starting this week and is expected to ship in mid-July for $249.
Inside a nondescript building on an industrial site outside of Cologne, Germany, there is a recreation of the Moon’s surface, allowing astronauts to practice, among other things, taking photos on the Moon.
The LUNA Analog Facility is a state-of-the-art lunar simulation center developed collaboratively by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Soon, humans will once again walk on the Moon thanks to NASA’s Artemis program and when they do, they will be capturing photos and videos in far better definition than the grainy footage seen during the Apollo missions of the 1960s.
But despite advances in video technology, engineers and imagery experts still face a range of challenges specific to the lunar environment. These include limited bandwidth, signal delays, moonlight variability, and lunar dust, which can interfere with both equipment and image clarity.
To prepare for these conditions, the ESA and DLR recently conducted a simulated moonwalk at the LUNA facility in Germany. The exercise involved astronauts conducting mock lunar surface operations, including exiting a landing module, exploring the terrain, and taking a “lunar selfie.” The simulation aimed to create reference footage to support future Moon missions.
“This exercise was not about creating fake Moon footage,” ESA officials say in a statement. Instead, the team focused on generating a range of test clips, including high-motion scenes, sometimes called “encoder killers”, designed to test compression techniques and optimize video quality while minimizing data use.
High-resolution video from space is not new, but transmitting it from the Moon remains complex. Space agencies routinely compress videos before sending them to Earth. Experts from 28 countries will soon participate in the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), to set standards for video encoding and transmission.
“These efforts should help agencies and companies create a ground truth for video applications and equipment,” says Falk Schiffner, DLR’s representative in the CCSDS Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group. “The activities to refine video quality are not geared only to Moon imagery, but to all space transmissions.”
The LUNA facility, designed to replicate lunar conditions, serves as a testing ground for both hardware and procedures. Melanie Cowan, ESA’s representative in the CCSDS motion imagery team, described her first experience at the facility: “I had a glimpse of what it may be like on the Moon. One cannot get any closer to the real thing. It was a special and challenging experience to film and photograph in this surreal environment.”
Cowan highlighted the complications posed by lunar dust, which can cling to surfaces and distort images. Protective clothing was required to avoid contamination. The team also experimented with lighting techniques to simulate sunlight on the Moon and studied shadow effects from rocks and craters.
Transmitting high-definition video from the Moon is constrained by the size and power demands of communication equipment. Unlike Earth-based networks, lunar systems must be lightweight, energy-efficient, and able to function in extreme temperatures.
Back in 2023, PetaPixel revealed that NASA’s Artemis Imagery team was working on a brand new camera design, the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC), for use on the Moon.
During the Apollo era, transmissions relied on microwave frequencies that required as much as 20,000 watts of power on Earth. The spacecraft’s antennas transmitted with only 20 watts, requiring support from NASA’s Deep Space Network to maintain communication.
Signal delay also remains an issue. A radio transmission takes approximately 1.3 seconds to travel from the Moon to Earth.
ESA’s Moonlight program aims to address some of these limitations by deploying a constellation of five satellites around the Moon. One of the satellites will be dedicated to high data rate communications, potentially improving the reliability and speed of video transmission from future lunar missions.
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