Share your Fourth of July in living pictures. If you’re celebrating with friends, family and food, it’s a great time to put your light field photography skills into practice.
Here’s some inspiration for composing pictures with a strong refocus effect:
1.) Fill the frame to capture a pattern like this field of flags. Check out our Inspiration Gallery for more details. Continue reading
Two weeks ago, Twitter added direct support for Lytro Living Pictures, allowing viewers to interact with pictures in a Twitter stream (similar to the way things work in Facebook). Now, Google Chrome browser users can interact with living pictures directly in Google+ and Pinterest by installing the Lytro Embed for Google+™ and Lytro Embed for Pinterest™ Chrome extensions (written by Eric Cheng, Lytro’s Director of Photography).
See Lytro Living Pictures directly in Google+
The extensions embed all user-uploaded Lytro Living Pictures that are posted in Google+ or pinned on Pinterest (but pictures from the official Lytro gallery are not supported). Continue reading
In 2006, I started this company with the goal of bringing my PhD on light field cameras out of the research lab and into the hands of everyday photographers. Lytro achieved that goal this year when we started shipping the Lytro camera to consumers. The last two years have been a very exciting and dramatic period of growth for Lytro. We launched the company out of stealth, raised approximately $50M, grew a team of over 80 people, and shipped a truly revolutionary product. The most rewarding part for me has been to finally see everyday people shooting their own light field pictures out in the world. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve and grow as CEO with this amazing team.
With these major milestones behind us, we have entered a new chapter for Lytro. I have decided to step aside as CEO and take on a new role that will let me concentrate on innovation as Executive Chairman. I will remain a full-time employee, 100% focused on Lytro. In my new role I will shift attention from day-to-day operations, to focus again on product vision, technology, and strategic direction for the company. I am very excited to have the opportunity to focus on these areas where I am most passionate.
Charles Chi will be taking over as interim CEO. Charles has been our Executive Chairman for the last two years, by my side every day, and he has perfect knowledge about the business. He is a close friend, and I am grateful to him for serving in this critical role of running day-to-day operations and giving me the opportunity to focus on my passions. I know that he will do an outstanding job.
And we are searching for a permanent CEO to take Lytro into the future! We are looking for a leader with the talent to amplify what we’ve started, the experience to lead our talented and ambitious team, and a desire to transform photography in profound and lasting ways.
Viva Lytro!
Ren Ng
Founder and Executive Chairman of Lytro
We’ve always made it easy for you to share your Lytro living pictures on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. And, you and your friends have always been able to play with living pictures directly in a Facebook Wall post, or when they’re embedded on a blog or website.
Today, we’re excited to announce we’ve partnered with Twitter to use expanded Tweets so that everyone can play with living pictures directly in their Twitter feed. Now your friends and followers can refocus and interact with living pictures on both web and mobile devices, without ever leaving Twitter.
Be sure to follow @lytro to check out some of our favorite living pictures, or share your favorite living pictures with us, and we’ll re-tweet a few of our favorites throughout the day.
Expanded Tweets begins rolling out to everyone on twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com starting today, and it’s coming soon to Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android. After it rolls out to you, you can click “View Media” to play with living pictures directly in your Twitter feed.
Pictured: Lytro engineering manager Tom Hanley worked with his web development team to bring living pictures to Twitter.
Meet Lytro’s founder, Ren Ng, and other members of the Lytro Team, at the Apple Store at San Francisco’s Union Square on Thursday, June 14.
During his 4:30pm presentation, Ren will share his thoughts on light field photography and the role it plays at the intersection of art, science and culture. Everyone is invited to this open event, including attendees from Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference and AIGA’s San Francisco Design Week.
After Ren’s presentation, you can get hands-on with the camera. Lytro Team members will demo Lytro cameras, living pictures and answer your questions about light field technology.
Lytro spent the weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, a fantastic festival of DIY enthusiasts in celebration of invention, creativity and resourcefulness. Our booth was completely mobbed for the 2-day event, giving everyone there a chance to play with a Lytro light field camera in person. We ran continuous photo walks, encouraging attendees to wander the fairgrounds in search of interesting light field compositions.
One of the great things about Maker Faire is that it fosters hands-on creativity in children. Many booths offered creative space for kids to experiment. We had a few kids using the Lytro camera during photo walks, which is always exciting for us. Some of the kids who came to the booth already knew everything about the camera, and could easily have led the photo walks for us!
We’d like to congratulate Jeremiah Cohick, Komei Harada, Ingo Richeter, and David Lytle for winning Lytro’s Maker Faire Picture Challenge. All of them posted living pictures to win free tickets in our Maker Faire Challenge
Also, special thanks to beta-tester extraordinaire Grant Hendrick, to the Lytro employees and others who volunteered at our booth, and to the Maker Faire staff who made the booth and photo walks possible last weekend. See you at the next Maker Faire!
More Lytro living pictures from Maker Faire are embedded below. Continue reading
Did you see the “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse last Sunday? Lytro camera owners and employees have been sending in solar eclipse pictures taken with the Lytro light field camera. Living pictures of people enjoying the eclipse worked well, as did pictures of the various methods used to project the eclipse onto safe viewing surfaces. Continue reading
San Francisco is a city that is well known for its street fairs, which draw eclectic crowds who are virtually begging to have their portraits taken. About a week ago, a few Lytro employees went to the 13th annual How Weird Street Faire, the longest-running electronic music street festival in North America. The faire is run as a fundraiser benefitting the World Peace through Technology Organization. Continue reading
Lytro is going to the Bay Area Maker Faire and you can too. On May 19th and 20th, the Lytro Team will be hosting several photowalks, demoing the camera and living pictures at our booth, taking pictures of festival attendees, and sharing them on Lytro.com/CampLytro.
Want to go to Maker Faire for free? You can win two free Adult Day Passes ($54 value) by participating in our Maker Faire Picture Challenge. Take and share a picture of something you’ve made to Lytro’s Facebook Wall or tweet the link to @Lytro with #MakerFaire. Deadline is 12noon PT on Wednesday, May 16. Five winners will be randomly chosen from among eligible pictures and announced before noon on Thursday, May 17. Winners will also be able to join the Sunday 2:30pm photowalk with Eric Cheng or any of the other photowalks lead by our Lytro Team.
Want to join our photowalks even if you don’t win free tickets? Sign up now to guarantee a space at your preferred time.
Want to win a Lytro camera? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter – and check out Lytro.com/CampLytro on May 19 and 20th to find out how.
The Fine Print:
Eligibility: US legal residents at least 18 years old who are not Lytro employees or immediate family members of Lytro employees are eligible to participate.
Sponsor: Lytro, Inc. 1300 Terra Bella Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043.
Other Rules: Respect copyrights – share only pictures that are yours or you have the right to share. No indecent pictures, please. By playing, do not violate Facebook, Twitter and Lytro terms of use. An individual may win only once. The odds of winning depend on shared pictures by eligible participants during each day of the sweepstakes. While we will make every effort to contact winners, it will be the winner’s responsibility to claim a prize. Unclaimed prizes will not be awarded. Prizes are not transferable and cannot be redeemed for cash value. Winner is responsible for any taxes on a prize. We reserve the right to terminate the sweepstakes or amend the rules at any time. Lytro, Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter, Inc. will not be responsible for any injury, loss, damage or expense caused by participating in the sweepstakes. These sweepstakes are not endorsed, administered, sponsored or associated with Facebook or Twitter; any information provided by participants is provided to Lytro, Inc.
Lytro Desktop for Windows is a top priority for us and will be available in 2012. It will support all models of the Lytro camera including those that have already been shipped. You can sign up to be notified via email when Lytro Desktop for Windows is available, and you will also be eligible for special offers that we may have at that time.