In today's episode a drone helps a distressed humpback whale, a photographer is charged by the FBI or child modeling fraud, Apple releases the low cost MacBook Neo and more.
Show Notes
Welcome back to the show everyone, Liam here and this is Episode 496 of the Liam Photography Podcast for the week of March 5th, 2026. In today’s episode, a drone flies over a humpback whale and discovers it’s in distress, FBI charges photographer with Child Modeling Fraud and Apple announces the new MacBook Neo.
Not long after setting off from the Hawaiian coast, underwater photographer John Kowitz and his team spotted two humpback whales and sent a drone up to scope them out — they immediately realized something was terribly wrong.
Embedded deep into one of the whale’s skulls were hundreds of feet of fishing gear and chains that the poor individual was forced to drag through the ocean.
Despite the whale’s obvious discomfort, it had a friend for company — perhaps comforting its injured companion.
The boat’s captain was trained in whale disentanglement and called the relevant NOAA authorities. The boat was granted a permit to begin documenting the animal.
“For two and a half hours we took drone photos, topside DSLR photos, and Insta360 underwater footage to capture imagery of the nature of the entanglement in order to provide the NOAA response team with as much information as possible so they could organize a plan effectively,” Kowitz explains in an Instagram post.
The photographer tells The Dodo that he and his crew mates desperately wanted to help but lacked the proper tools and training to remove the fishing gear from the whale. They were forced to wait for the rescue team.
Once the rescue team arrived, they “worked tirelessly for five hours” and scored an incredible result: they removed 251 feet of line, 10 feet of chain, and several hooks from the animal.
“All in all, an approximate 320 feet of gear was removed from the whale,” Kowitz says. “An asymmetrical cut was finally made near the mouth of the animal, which should allow the whale to shake free the line running through its mouth with ease now that all that drag had been removed.”
Kowitz explains to PetaPixel that the NOAA attached buoys to the line to slow the whale down so they could get close enough to the animals to cut the lines and free the whale.
“This was one of the most successful disentanglement efforts of the season, and this whale will most likely survive to live a much longer and healthy life once given time to recover,” Kowitz says, calling his boat’s role crucial.
“The rescuers said the whale immediately started swimming faster and moving around a lot, like it had a newfound sense of freedom,” Kowitz tells The Dodo.
Kowitz urges everyone to be better stewards of our ocean. “The entanglements are happening more frequently due to commercial fishing increases,” Kowitz adds. “I’ve seen it before with a mobula ray in Mexico and I see sharks tangled in fishing lines frequently.”
You can follow more of Kowitz’s marine adventures on his Instagram and website.
A photographer has been charged in federal court in connection with an alleged $4.6 million fraud scheme tied to child modeling opportunities.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan say Chanise Coyne, 46, was indicted on seven counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. The charges stem from allegations that she collected more than $4.6 million from a family by claiming the funds were needed for advance fees related to placing their young daughter in modeling events around the country.
According to the indictment, the scheme began in or around April 2023 and continued for roughly two years. Prosecutors allege Coyne created false records to make it appear that modeling events had been arranged and impersonated a third party purportedly involved in coordinating those events. Court filings state that the child “did not participate in a single modeling event resulting from Coyne’s work.”
Instead, authorities allege the money was diverted for Coyne’s personal use, including significant gambling expenses. The indictment references multiple payments to the online sports betting platform FanDuel, including five $20,000 transactions in March 2024 following a $160,000 wire transfer from the family.
“The purpose of the scheme to defraud was for Coyne to obtain money and enrich herself by, among other things, materially false and fraudulent representations to Victim A and his family members regarding Coyne’s purported work relating to the placement of Victim A’s daughter in modeling events,” the indictment states, per US Weekly.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. says: “Fraud schemes that prey on the emotional bonds of families are egregious. This defendant allegedly took advantage of a family’s love for their daughter, stole their nest egg, and then gambled it away. We will pursue fraud schemes in all their forms.”
Coyne was arrested by FBI agents and pleaded not guilty at her arraignment. She was later released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Her attorney, John D. Dakmak, did not immediately respond to requests for comment by local media.
Separately, some Metro Detroit residents have publicly alleged smaller-scale disputes involving canceled photography sessions and refunds. WXYZ Detroit reports that a private Facebook group titled “Chanise Coyne Scam Victims” grew in membership after news of the federal charges became public.
Apple has announced a brand-new, low-cost laptop, the MacBook Neo. Starting at $599, it is Apple’s most aggressively priced MacBook ever, and it sports an Apple A18 Pro chip, like the one the company used in its iPhone 16 Pro smartphones.
This is a dramatic shift for Apple. Although the company has long prioritized affordable computers in its lineup, including entry-level MacBook models and the similarly affordable desktop Mac mini, the MacBook Neo is by far Apple’s most aggressively priced Mac yet, given its $599 starting price and all-in-one laptop form factor.
The MacBook Neo is made from recycled aluminum and features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a maximum brightness of 500 nits. The LED-backlit panel has a resolution of 2408 x 1506, which equates to 219 pixels per inch. Apple notes that it supports a billion colors and the sRGB color gamut.
In many ways, the MacBook Neo looks like the rest of the company’s laptops. It has a Magic Keyboard and a large Multi-Touch trackpad, it includes optional Touch ID, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and promises good-quality audio input and output via dual mics and dual side-firing speakers. The new laptop is 1.27 centimeters (0.5 inches) thick and weighs 1.23 kilograms (2.7 pounds).
As for connectivity, there are just two USB-C ports, neither of which supports Thunderbolt. One port is a USB 3 port (up to 10 Gb/s) that supports charging and DisplayPort. The other USB-C port is just USB 2, so it can charge and transfer data relatively slowly (up to 480 Mb/s). There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack. As expected, external display support is not too crazy here. The MacBook Neo supports one external display up to a native resolution of 4K at 60Hz. The USB 3 port supports native DisplayPort 1.4.
The biggest question of all will come down to performance. The A18 Pro, which Apple debuted in 2024 to power the iPhone 16 Pro, proved capable in the iPhone, but a Mac is a different beast. Apple has never put an A-series chip in a Mac before. Still, the company promises that with the A18 Pro, “MacBook Neo can fly through everyday tasks, from browsing the web and streaming content, to editing photos, exploring creative hobbies, or using AI capabilities across apps.”
“In fact, it’s up to 50 percent faster for everyday tasks like web browsing, and up to 3x faster when running on-device AI workloads like applying advanced effects to photos, compared to the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5,” Apple adds.
Thanks to Apple Silicon’s efficiency, the MacBook Neo delivers up to 16 hours of battery life on a single charge. While real-world results may vary, Apple’s battery life figures often reflect typical use: web browsing and video streaming at 50 percent display brightness.
Speaking of intense tasks, the A18 Pro has a six-core CPU with two performance cores and four efficiency cores. The chip has a five-core GPU, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a 16-core Neural Engine. Memory bandwidth is relatively low at 60GB/s and the chip supports 8GB of RAM. It will be extremely interesting to see how the MacBook Neo handles photo and video editing tasks.
In any event, regardless of performance, photographers seeking a low-cost MacBook will need to keep the Neo’s ports and storage situation in mind. Storage starts at 256GB and tops out at just 512GB, and the faster USB-C port is still just USB 3. These could be limiting factors.
“We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,” says John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
“Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create. It features a durable aluminum design in four beautiful colors; a brilliant Liquid Retina display; Apple silicon-powered performance; all-day battery life; a high-quality camera, mics, and speakers; a Magic Keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad; and the intuitive and powerful features of macOS. There is simply no other laptop like it.”
No matter how MacBook Neo works for photographers, Apple’s affordability mission is a great one. As prices on nearly everything increase, a more affordable MacBook series is great news for many, especially students and families.
The new Apple MacBook Neo comes in just two configurations. The entry-level one ships with a Magic Keyboard without Touch ID and a 256GB SSD for $599. The higher-tier option adds Touch ID and doubles the storage to 512GB. Otherwise, both laptops are identical; they each have the same A18 Pro chip, unified memory, and ports. Education prices start $100 lower in both cases.
Both versions are available in four colorways: blush (pink), indigo (navy blue), citrus (yellow), and silver, with color-matched keyboards and trackpads. Not only is MacBook Neo the most affordable MacBook yet, but it is also the most colorful.
The MacBook Neo is available to order now, and deliveries begin on March 11.
A photographer who had over $12,000 worth of camera gear stolen from a bar in New York is going public with his story in the hope of getting it back.
Eric Elfstrom was at the Dead Rabbit in Lower Manhattan last Thursday (February 26), going through some photos he’d just taken with a friend.
But as ABC 7 reports, they weren’t alone; they were being scoped out by a nefarious individual.
As Elfstrom and his friend were sitting close to the bar, he temporarily left to wash his hands.
“He was right next to me, my bag was on my left, he then bent down four times to see if I would notice or if anyone else would notice,” he tells the ABC affiliate. “And then the fifth time he bent down, took my bag, and just goes.”
“My stomach sank,” Elfstrom adds. “I watched my whole bag, everything I’ve worked for just leave me.”
Elfstrom managed to get CCTV footage of the thief scurrying down Water Street with his bag. ABC 7 notes that he was only in the bar for 20 minutes and the robber, who didn’t order a drink or food, was in there for less than five minutes.
Elfstrom speculates whether the thief followed him into the bar since he had a tripod and a gimbal visible outside his camera bag. “Maybe he saw that and thought there’s something good in that bag,” he says.
Police are now investigating and have security video of the incident taken inside the bar.
Elfstrom’s gear wasn’t insured but fortunately for him, his bosses have replaced the stolen camera gear. It is now insured with Apple AirTags attached.
Nevertheless, the theft is still a huge blow to the business, Elfstrom Media, which he’s spent long hours building up. His friends have set up a GoFundMe page for him.
Photographers in public places with their camera gear must always be cautious, regardless of their location in the world. Last November, photographer Roger Radstrom was sitting in a restaurant in Milan, Italy, when his camera bag just vanished, leaving him devastated.
Lawyers representing photojournalist Nick Ut have filed a criminal defamation lawsuit in France against Netflix and the VII Foundation over claims made in The Stringer documentary, PetaPixel can reveal.
The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo was released on Netflix on November 28, 2025, and it follows Gary Knight of the VII Foundation as he investigates claims that Nick Ut did not take the famous photo best known as Napalm Girl and alleges it was actually taken by an unknown freelancer named Nguyen Nghe.
The film proved divisive within the photojournalist community; many sided with Ut who was working for the Associated Press (AP) in 1972 when the photo was taken and continued working for the news agency for decades in the United States. Others believe the film’s claims, which include a reconstruction of the event in Trang Bang that day. World Press Photo suspended Nick Ut’s credit on Napalm Girl after being shown the film.
The matter may now be decided in a French court after Ut’s counsel filed for public defamation under the country’s Press Law of 1881. Ut is seeking €100,000 ($118,000) in damages and €20,000 ($27,000) in legal costs.
In the court filing viewed by PetaPixel, Gary Knight, CEO of the VII Foundation, is named as one of the defendants and so is Netflix France. They are accused of defaming Ut by asserting in the film that he is not the author of Napalm Girl and that he misrepresented his role in transporting Kim Phuc to medical care following the attack.
“These allegations, presented through investigative framing and cumulative narrative construction, are considered to gravely undermine Mr. Ut’s professional reputation, personal integrity, and humanitarian legacy,” Ut’s lawyers write in a press release.
In the court filing, timestamps of the film are provided where Ut alleges he is being defamed, including in the opening sequence when Knight says, “When you’re photographing with film, there’s always some mystery. But what you do know is what you didn’t take.”
Ut’s lawyers claim that the film portrays the photographer as a “shameless liar who, over the years, has skillfully cultivated a narrative that he knew to be false and a stolen attribution” and presents him as a “man who built his reputation on an act of appropriation and who knowingly persists in this betrayal.”
Ut released the following statement:
“Ever since the VII Foundation and Netflix released a film claiming that I didn’t take the ‘Napalm Girl’ photograph, and that I have been lying about it for more than 50 years, it has caused great pain to me and my family. These accusations strike at the very core of who I am. My entire career has been built on telling the truth, often at great personal risk.
I have put my life in danger countless times as a Vietnamese photojournalist to faithfully and honestly document history starting with the Vietnam War and beyond.
I am grateful for the many friends and colleagues around the world who have stood by me, and especially thank those in France. Their support means more to me than I can express. It feels only natural to seek justice there, surrounded by people who understand my work and my character. I know that one day justice will be done so we can all breathe a sigh of relief that will also bring peace in our hearts.”
Viewers of The Stringer will be aware that some of it is filmed in France; the reconstruction was made by the Paris-based non-profit Index. The filing makes it clear that Netflix intentionally distributed the film in France and translated it into French. Moreover, the VII Foundation has an office registered in southern France.
Le Figaro notes that under French criminal law, “a direct summons allows a person who believes they are the victim of an offense to summon the alleged perpetrator before a criminal court so that they can be tried without a prior investigation by a magistrate.”
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) remarkable and relatively new Euclid space telescope teamed up with NASA and ESA’s venerable Hubble Space Telescope (Hubble) to capture beautiful photos of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543.
The Cat’s Eye Nebula, one of the most visually stunning remnants of a dying star in the observable Universe, is located about 4,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. Planetary nebulae like this are so named because of their round shape, which earlier astronomers thought resembled planets but are actually the expanding gas that stars shed in their final stages.
The Cat’s Eye Nebula was first discovered back in 1864 and has dazzled many astronomers, scientists, and astrophotographers. Euclid and Hubble’s collaborative imaging efforts show the nebula in an all-new way. Euclid’s exceptional resolution helps, of course, but scientists also used cutting-edge image processing techniques to combine Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) images and data, some from more than 20 years ago, with Euclid’s wide, near-infrared, and visible-light views of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. The resulting close-up and cosmic environmental photos are not just gorgeous; they are the sharpest-ever photos of this beautiful nebula.
“Combining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure but also places it within the broader context of the universe that both space telescopes explore,” NASA and the ESA explain. “Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.”
Although Hubble is getting up there in years, it continues to contribute to important scientific work. Euclid, on the other hand, is nearly brand-new. Just over a year ago, the 600-megapixel telescope broke new ground by photographing an “Einstein Ring” encircling a nearby galaxy. The space telescope is using its 36 CCD image sensors, each 4,000 x 4,000 pixels, to scour the Universe for dark matter and dark energy and help scientists build a 3D map of the distribution of galaxies and dark matter.
Euclid observed more of the Universe in a single day than Hubble has done in 25 years, but as the new photos of the Cat’s Eye Nebula show, space science — and astrophotography — is at its best when multiple space telescopes team up.
vivo is taking mobile videography to new lengths in a very literal sense with the X300 Ultra, putting a professional cinema camera into your pocket. This means filmmakers and content creators can now capture professional-grade footage anytime, anywhere, without compromising on quality or creative control.
In effect, this takes all the power and prowess of vivo’s capabilities in still photography and applies them natively to establish a Multi-Focal Video Camera system built to capture stable, high-quality footage. More now than ever, people are telling their stories through video, and the X300 Ultra is a clear sign it won’t be relegated to secondary status on this device.
Central to this shift is an ambition to bring professional filmmaking logic, including the relevant tools, textures, and rituals, into the accessibility of a smartphone. Forget a simple point-and-shoot scenario. This is about creating something special.
X300 Ultra pioneers a new benchmark in mobile video by introducing 4K Master Color Video with an end-to-end approach to color and tone enhancement that allows polished footage to emerge from the camera straightaway yet leaves room to color grade and refine the footage later, whenever necessary. There is no “hero lens” here because these principles apply consistently across all focal lengths. Switch between them without losing what matters.
Beyond resolution and frame rates, the X300 Ultra is equipped with enhanced texture processing to deliver more authenticity. Think of this as a “camera feel” that prioritizes natural shading and lifelike transitions, where rendering tonal gradients feels smooth. It’s always been traditionally difficult to capture the cinematic subtleties of faces, skies, and complex lighting conditions on mobile devices, but that can change here.
Less about spectacle, the emphasis is on displaying what’s believable, meaning images that feel artistic rather than processed.
The all-new Pro Video Mode is a good example of where this premise is supposed to take you. It doesn’t simplify video capture or automate the process, it recreates the interactive logic of professional cameras. Monitor and adjust parameters in real time, where you determine how to frame a subject and expose a scene to realize your vision.
It’s thinking like a filmmaker, not a passive recorder — and videographers who seek greater creative control aren’t the only ones who can reap the benefits. Consumers can also upgrade their shooting experience to create more engaging and empowering content without needing professional training.
That will be just as evident in the Pro Video Mode interface that’s been designed to more closely emulate a traditional cinema camera monitor. Instead of always setting everything in advance, real-time monitoring only gets easier to make adjustments based on what the subject or scene requires.
Taking that further, native Log support offers plenty of color grading latitude to deliver classic cinema-camera color, tonality, and texture. This is available to all rear cameras to provide flexibility on the fly. Not to mention plenty of wiggle room considering Multi-Focal 4K video capture at up to 120 frames per second with 10-bit Log support. Inconsistency can hobble mobile video but when creators can record in Log across all focal lengths, it opens the door to mix shots freely without losing a unified look.
Plus, footage emphasizes smooth tonal roll-off and film-like texture, while avoiding common smartphone pitfalls like over-sharpening, smudging, or artificial digital artifacts. The system prioritizes tonal subtlety over aggressive processing, helping footage look less “digital” and more emotionally credible, especially with skin tones and natural lighting.
No need to sacrifice color depth, dynamic range, or post-production reliability, especially since creators can edit footage long after capture.
Getting credible video is one thing. Sound is another. That’s why vivo is introducing a Quad-Mic Audio Recording Master feature built for real-world environments. The system’s strength lies in its directional recording to reduce unwanted noise from off-axis directions while allowing users to tailor audio capture to specific scenarios.
There are presets for particular situations, like concerts, indoor or outdoor dialogue, and ambient or empty-scene recording. For example, the concert preset can emphasize vocals over atmosphere for a cleaner, more focused live recording. The system can dynamically shift audio behavior based on framing, so that zooming in visually also emphasizes sound coming from the same direction.
Broad support for wireless earbuds and Bluetooth microphones further extends flexibility, acknowledging the growing role of hybrid mobile production setups.
It doesn’t end at what the X300 Ultra can do with its own built-in system when there’s a surrounding ecosystem to utilize. The Professional Photographer Kit includes the upgraded vivo ZEISS Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, which pushes the system to an industry-leading 400mm equivalent focal length.
Pairing the phone with the Pro Video Rig Kit places it right in the middle of an advanced camera rig. It features an expandable cage with multiple cold shoe mounts and quick-release ports. Dual handles provide a comfortable two-handed grip with adjustable angles and controllable shutter and zoom. A cooling fan on the opposite side features adjustable cooling levels, while an external lens expansion frame accommodates the Telephoto Extender.
Easy to attach or detach them as needed, the entire setup is designed to support extended shooting sessions and professional workflows, further blurring the line between mobile and traditional imaging equipment.
This system and the vivo X300 Ultra’s advanced videography are the culmination of long-term research and development that treats photography and video as equal parts of a single storytelling platform. vivo is going all in to show that the balance is now shifting to make video a core pillar of the creativity the device can deliver.Today’s video creators demand more, and vivo is heeding the call to make mobile video highly capable of offering an effective mix of cinematic output, professional control, and everyday accessibility.
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