A fascinating story about a Japanese tanker-truck driver, Toshifumi Fujimoto, who goes to conflict front lines for some [photo hunt](https://www.facebook.com/toshifumi.fujimoto.52/photos_stream) and adrenaline kicks:

> “It’s more dangerous in Syria to be a journalist than a tourist,” he said, describing how “each morning I walk 200 metres (yards) to reach the ‘front’, and I’m right there on the firing line with soldiers of the (rebel) Free Syria Army.”

> “It fascinates me, and I enjoy it,” he says, as some FSA fighters stop him in one of the Old City’s streets to have their picture taken with him. […]

> “I’m not a target for snipers because I’m a tourist, not like you journalists,” he told a reporter. “Besides, I’m not afraid if they shoot at me or that they might kill me. I’m a combination of samurai and kamikaze.”

The reason I think he can get away from harm’s way is because he looks like a ‘chinese’. Most journalists working in conflict areas are caucasians, aided by local fixers/drivers/translators wearing nearly identical safety aparatus; he has none on him (he refuses to wear helmet or vest), thus uniquely identifiable as a ‘neutral’ guy.

I go to the extreme for my adventures too, but this dwarfs any previous efforts I have done. [Additional Coverage](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Toshifumi+Fujimoto&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=Toshifumi+Fujimoto&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&tbo=d&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=LxbqUJy1NIzUkgXg9oHQBw&ved=0CA0Q_AUoAA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.dGI&fp=59862e1479b56502&bpcl=40096503&biw=1111&bih=914).

Where does the word originate from, who made it popular in the English-speaking world and how to pronounce it correctly.

In a bid to fight petty copyright theft, photojournalist John D McHugh, enlisted the help of an iOS developer to create Marksta, a watermarking app for the iPhone:

Why can’t I put my copyright information on images on my phone? Some developers have done it already, but you can tell these applications have been created by developers, not photographers.

The idea was to create an application for photographers.

I have a different approach to fight this copyright issue: I don’t post image that has commercial value, but those that are ‘socially interesting’.

There are times where I’d stamp my name on images, but doing so means i have to go back to the Mac; and that’s where Marksta comes handy. It is geared to just do this one thing right.

It’s free during the first few days, and will later be priced at $2. You’re nuts if you don’t get it now.

Flickr is offering a Holiday Special if you click through the link above, most of the Pro user benefits are yours for free for three months.

It may coincide with the Holiday Season, yes, but I’m pretty sure the [Instagram T.O.S. fiasco](http://blog.instagram.com/post/38421250999/updated-terms-of-service-based-on-your-feedback) was the main reason behind it.

Jason, the man behind Goruck, had a nice write up about photography. It’s a long read that illustrates his approach and philosophy of his life that made him (and the company) thrives, which can be summed up to this particular bit:

So over the last few years I’ve taken hundreds of thousands of pictures. It doesn’t make me an artist, it doesn’t make me a photographer, but it does make me committed. There are no shortcuts in life, and you gotta put in the work if you want things to work out. It reminds me of the commercials that promise to teach you how to speak a foreign language in a month. Don’t buy them, it’s a total lie. It’s the same with cameras. If you really want to get better, you gotta put in the work and you gotta take your camera everywhere.

Near to the end of the post he wrote something about happiness that also stuck out. It is the values and his approach that made me believe in Goruck’s product, not the product itself. The resulting excellence is just the manifested byproduct, it is the values reflected in them that connects an inanimate object to its creator, and the users, rendering them to life.

Less like the old Flickr, more like Instagram and Twitter hybrid.

Doesn’t feel sluggish, and less prone to crashing, the fresh new interface nearly brings Flickr’s entire web feature to the palm of your hand.

Flickr is a great product, and it should remain awesome, the new leadership in Yahoo! seems to be making sure of that.

[Get in on the App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/app/id328407587)

Looks like Zeiss is still making great glasses after all this year. Remarkable, knowing how old-school Zeiss as a company is, and still can matter in the digital space.

But, does a sharpness comparison still relevant these days? Perhaps, physical form & design matters more?