Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• We begin in outer space, where Curiosity, the Mars rover, has sent back a self-portrait. Cindy Shepard, eat your heart out! Viva Mars!
• Here on earth, the next James Bond movie is about to be released. Here’s a great behind-the-scenes (BTS) look at the locations and setup used in the film. Video geeks, this one’s for you.
  
• Photographer Kenneth Jarecke posts a searing critique of Instagram and its use by Time magazine to document the effects of Hurrican Sandy. Definitely worth a read.
• Photographer Steve McCurry is one of the most renowned photojournalists of our time. Here’s a great look at his work in the area of documentary portraiture.
  
• This next one’s a bit artsy, but it’s absolutely worth a look if you’re interested in the “why” of photographs you see, not just the “how”. Flakphoto presents “Looking at the Land: 21st Century American Views,” a collection of lansdscapes and the stories behind them.
• And finally, we bring you a collection of amazing videos from the folks over at PhotoShelter. Taken as part of their Luminance convention, these feature folks like David Burnett, Zack Arias, and more. Four videos have been released thus far; we can’t wait for all of them to be online. Our favorite so far? Retoucher Amy Dresser’s scathingly irreverent presentation, embedded here for your viewing pleasure.

And now for the BorrowLenses.com Rundown

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. As always, questions and feedback are welcome in the comments below.

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• David Hobby’s been the king of DIY photography for some time now. From his original macro photography studio-in-a-box, to homemade speedlight grids, David has shown a whole generation of photographers how to light their image to great effect at a low cost. Now, he shows you how to create a north light studio on-the-go. And folks? It’s a doozy.
• Photographer Daniel Milnor posted this great video we think you should take a look at. Gunther Holtorf put a half-million miles on his Mercedes SUV, taking it around the globe on a journey of exploration and discovery. Along with him, he also took two Leica film cameras to record his travels.
  
• By way of PetaPixel, photographer Ted Sabarese guesses and sketches lighting diagrams behind some famous photos.
• Reuters is going to be using some awesome underwater robot cameras for the Olympics. Here’s a look at what they can do.
• We know that apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic are increasing in popularity. Now, Hipstamatic is planning the launch of a foundation for photojournalism.
• Speaking of Instagram, Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love has become the USA basketball team’s unofficial Instagram photographer.
• Who doesn’t like high-speed photography? Courtesy of DIYPhotography.com, here’s how to rig your own high-speed photo trigger.
• Nighttime photographers, this one’s for you. The folks at Luminous Landscape have a nice piece on what they call “Landscape Astrophotography.”
• Heads-up, Fuji fans. The X100 looks to be discontinued. Is Fuji bringing the X200 to Photokina?

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. As always, questions and feedback are welcome in the comments below.

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• 

  Canon 60Da

  Let’s kick off with a couple of new product announcements. First, Canon just introduced the 60Da. The “a” designation is for astrophotography. Hit up the link to learn why you’d want this variant of the 60D.

• Sony’s got a new camera that might shape up to be good competition for the RED Scarlet. It’s 4K-ready, has built-in ND filters, and retails for less than $10K.
• Speaking of video, Dan Chung at DSLRNewsShooter.com has a great comparison of the two big guns in this DSLR video arena – the D800 and the 5D Mark III.
• Speaking of news, here’s how one small-time newspaper is surviving the publishing apocalypse: by focusing on photos.
• Here’s a bit of humor for you. Having difficulty with your photography? Try Fauxtographer!
  
• And speaking of fauxtography, Picnik users rejoice! You were crushed when Picnik was shut down; now, Flickr has a new option for you.
• Let’s keep going with this thread – the bane of overly serious photographers everywhere, Instagram is now available on Android.
• And, because you can’t have an Android story without some controversy,  the complaints from iPhone users about the Android fanfolk ruining Instagram have already started.
• In the end, though, regardless of which camera you use and how you share your images, what brings photographers together is passion for image making. In that regard, we can probably find something to related to in this letter by one of the greats of our time, Joe McNally, to a newcomer to photography.

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!