Η ΓΝΩΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΣΤΟ ΣΧΟΛΕΙΟ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΑ ΑΠΟ ΑΥΤΟ
The global leader in the mid-size motorcycle segment has taken the wraps off not just its first-ever electric motorcycle, but also a separate EV vertical altogether, dubbed Flying Flea. RE has confirmed that it will arrive in Spring 2026.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: Royal Enfield, Electric Motorcycles, Concept Motorcycles
Of all the cargo e-trikes we've seen, the tall-framed, Japanese-designed Streek takes one of the most innovative approaches to carrying stuff. A new-and-improved version of the vehicle is now in development, aimed specifically at use in the North American market.
Category: Urban Transport, Transport
Tags: cargo bike, ebikes, Trike, Tricycle
A chopped roof, custom rear-end, and over 50% new fabrication. The Toyota LC ROX (Recreation Open eXperience), is an open-top adventurer prototype with a proper retro appeal. It is set to make its debut at the 2024 SEMA Show in Vegas.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Toyota, SUV, Off-road, Recreational vehicle, Concept Vehicle, SEMA 2024
These are just a few of the 100,000 portraits Sami Aziz captured in a single year along Philadephia's iconic South Street.
Images ©Sami Aziz
Can a creative project change your life? Photographer Sami Aziz (Instagram: @southstreetsam) discovered that it can. Armed with his camera and a lot of determination, he embarked on a project to shoot portraits every day for an entire year, capturing images of more than 100,000 people along a single iconic street in his hometown of Philadelphia.
It was a journey of exploration and discovery for Aziz. His presence on South Street became a source of positive energy for the city of Philadelphia, strengthened his own ties to the community, and helped him find a path to becoming a full-time photographer.
Shortly after reaching the one-year milestone, Aziz shared his motivations behind the project and its transformative impact on his life.
Forging a path"I've been doing street photography for a while. I picked it up when I went to college in New York City. While I was living there, Brandon Stanton was doing the Humans of New York project, and it really inspired me."
After college, Aziz traveled across Morocco and the United States, exploring different regions and taking photos.
Image ©Sami Aziz"Everywhere from Casablanca, Marrakech, and Tangier – to California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. I had a van and was driving around the country, just taking pictures of people. I like the model of focusing on just one place in a city. It's an effective way of honing your skills and building a sense of community."
Aziz eventually felt drawn back to his hometown of Philadelphia but was faced with the task of creating a sense of belonging. "Although I was born and raised in Philly, I didn't feel at home here for the longest time. I didn't have a sense of community yet," he explains. But he did have a dream he wanted to make real.
Image ©Sami Aziz"Coming back to Philly at 26 was almost like a coming-of-age journey for me. I was like, 'Alright, I want to make something of my photography career now.'"
Becoming South Street Sam"Leading up to this project, I spent about a year working as a delivery driver. One day, as I was picking up a lunch delivery on South Street, I thought to myself, 'What if I made an Instagram called South Street Sam?' My parents' first date was on South Street. My father had a store here, and my mom worked at a Greek restaurant, South Street Souvlaki, that's been around for 40 years," he explains.
Image ©Sami Aziz"I planned to make it a side project and didn't expect it would ever become something big."
Aziz initially used his trusted Canon 5D Mark IV and Zeiss Otus 55mm F1.4 lens. However, he realized he needed more flexibility for his project. "There were limitations to using one focal length. I love 50mm – it's probably my favorite because it was my first ‘big boy’ lens – but sometimes, like in these Philly row homes or on a busy sidewalk, it's harder to take group photos with a 50mm."
"Many people don't realize that all the photos on my page are hand-focused."He kept working as a delivery driver to fund his gear purchases. "I ended up buying the Zeiss Otus 28mm F1.4 and 100mm F1.4 lenses as well. They're all manual focus, cine-style lenses. But after I bought these great lenses, I realized my 5D Mark IV wasn't cutting it anymore because it didn't have certain focus assist tools, which make shooting with manual focus lenses a lot easier."
Image ©Sami Aziz"Many people don't realize that all the photos on my page are hand-focused. I was basically eyeballing it the whole time with the Canon 5D IV because it didn’t have focus peaking."
Before I quit my delivery job, I decided to make one more investment in an updated camera body and ended up going with the Canon EOS R3. It was the best Canon had to offer with a vertical grip, articulating screen, and, most importantly, manual focus assist tools."
"It was a game-changer. After getting the Canon R3, I started shooting portraits daily and building a streak. When you start, there’s always talk about starting local, but I started hyper-local. I focused on just one street. I knew early on that I was going to be focusing on this street – no pun intended; I mean, it's in my Instagram handle. I'm South Street Sam."
A Turning PointAziz reached a crossroads where he realized he had to choose between his delivery job and his passion for photography. "There came a point where I quit the delivery job. I remember a distinct moment on a busy delivery day. I had my keys and was walking toward my car, but I had already started this new page and thought to myself, 'Am I going to go to work today, or am I going to shoot?'"
Image ©Sami Aziz"I decided to shoot. I didn't care if I was down to my last dollar. I dreamed of being a working street photographer and of being able to pay my bills with photography. It was almost a Forrest Gump-type moment. I just decided to take pictures daily and see what would happen. I never could have imagined this was where my photography career would take off."
He started taking pictures of people along South Street, capturing the diverse faces of the neighborhood. "It picked up steam pretty quickly. My first 10,000 followers were people I photographed and asked, 'Hey, can you follow my Instagram page?' Then, the second I started posting reels, I think I went from 10,000 to 50,000 followers in about three weeks." He used a DJI Osmo Action 4 camera to provide a behind-the-scenes view into his process.
"I decided to shoot. I didn't care if I was down to my last dollar."As his Instagram page grew, people started recognizing him on the street. "One night, I went out to shoot around 11 pm. I walked up to a girl and said, 'Hey, I'm a street photographer. Can I take a portrait of you?' She recognized me immediately and was like, 'Oh my God, Sam!'
While I'm doing that, another guy driving by backs up in full reverse, rolls down his window and asks if I'm South Street Sam. I'm thinking to myself, I'm out here at 11 pm on a weeknight, and people recognize me. This is crazy. It demonstrates how important this project became to people in my city."
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sami Aziz (@southstreetsam)
"I never could have predicted it would grow the way it did. I’m now approaching 300,000 followers and just surpassed 60 million video views. It's very humbling. At the same time, this is probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. To do something every single day for a year, especially when it's raining or below freezing outside... there were times when I asked myself, ‘What on Earth am I doing?’"
"And for the record, I even picked up a fully weather-sealed Canon RF 85mm F1.2 for days when it was raining or snowing too heavily to use my Otus lenses."
After spending an entire year taking portraits on this iconic street, South Street had become home for Sam. He felt the sense of community he’d always longed for, and it was there to stay.
Living in the moment"I go out, I shoot, I come home, I upload. The next morning, I edit, I post, and go out to shoot again," Aziz says of his daily routine.
He's so focused on his work that he once didn't recognize a famous actor while taking his photo. "I walked up to him and asked to take his portrait. 'You know I'm an actor, right?' he asked me. And I'm like, 'Great, let's take a photo.' While heading back towards my apartment, I Googled Michael Peña and realized that I'd watched one of his movies, and thought to myself, wow, I just walked up to a Hollywood actor completely clueless."
South Street Sam out during a weekend night taking portraits.
Photo courtesy of Sami Aziz
Aziz emphasizes the importance of confidence and positive energy when approaching people for street portraits. "An important lesson I've learned is to approach people with the right energy."
"If you walk up to people expecting them to say no, more likely than not, they're going to say no. If you approach them in a confident way, with good energy, more often than not, they're going to say yes. It takes practice. You can't be discouraged if people say no. Just keep moving, keep rolling, and don't take it personally."
Image ©Sami AzizHe also believes in giving back to the community by sharing his work. "Everyone gets a copy of their photo. Every night after shooting, I upload an album to Google Drive. All people have to do is follow a link in my story to find their photo in the album and download it. I've never charged anybody for the street portraits. I do, however, give them an option to tip if they’d like to support my creative mission."
Reflecting on the Journey"I took 100,000 portraits of people, most of which were on five blocks in one city. I can't even wrap my head around the number 100,000. The amount of diversity and human interaction in just five blocks is crazy. That's what I love about portrait photography: just being able to connect with people of different backgrounds and walks of life, particularly in a city like Philadelphia."
Aziz hopes his experience will inspire others to pursue their passions. "If you have a dream, just keep at it. Be consistent. Practice. There are no secrets. It's like in any field; you need to put in the work and pay your dues, and you'll eventually see the result."
"It's so cool to look back at all these years of photography and say I've found my niche."
Melatonin is already a popular supplement for those who struggle to get a solid night's sleep. But the dosage of the supplement and the best time to take it has remained largely a trial-and-error endeavor. A new study puts that uncertainty to bed.
Category: Sleep
Reaching a height of 50 m (164 ft) in Yantai, eastern China, the Sun Tower, by OPEN Architecture, cuts a remarkable figure on the shoreline. The curving observation tower functions similarly to a massive sundial and marks the changing of the seasons.
Category: Architecture, Lifestyle
When it comes to the pressure of mountain and gravel bike tires, a few psi either way can make a big difference in performance. The Outrider sensor was designed with that fact in mind, as it provides real-time pressure readings from within tubeless tires.
Tags: Kickstarter, Cycling, Tires
Consistency is always the focus of exercise plans, which can lead people to giving up altogether if they miss a few workouts. But a new study has found that even after a 10-week break from strength training, it took people very little time to get back to where they left off. It's revealed fascinating new insights into the mechanism of muscle memory.
Category: Fitness & Exercise
Tags: Exercise, Muscle, musculoskeletal, Fitness, Health
A recent study has shown that nanoplastics – plastic particles smaller than 0.001 millimeters – affect the body's ability to absorb antibiotics, and may even lead to the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Category: Science
Tags: Microplastic, Antibiotic, Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Early morning flog clings to the autumn landscape in the UK.
Photo: Richard Butler
The November edition of the Editors' Photo Challenge is open for submissions! Our theme this month is 'Fog'.
Fog provides endless creative possibilities for photography, from soft, diffused landscapes to ghostly cityscapes. It can add an ethereal quality to a scene, transforming the familiar into something magical. Show us the magic and mystery of mist with your favorite fog photos.
This challenge is open to photos taken at any time, and you may submit up to three photos. Photos must be submitted by Saturday, November 9 (GMT).
Visit the challenge page to read the full rules and to submit your photos for consideration.
With its usable length of just 4.5 m (14.9 ft), the Mo.5 450 tiny house definitely isn't suitable for raising a large family. However, its small size makes it a good fit for regular travel, and it features a compact but space-saving interior that sleeps four, at a squeeze.
Category: Tiny Houses, Lifestyle
Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home
Despite stories of "wasps getting drunk" and "beetles consuming beer," it has been thought that alcohol consumption in the non-human animal world has not been particularly widespread, deliberate or sought out for a physiological benefit. Now, ecologists challenge this theory, saying it's far more commonplace and strategic than scientists believed.
Tags: University of Exeter, College of Central Florida, Alcohol, Ethanol, Fermentation, Animal science, Food, nature, Evolution
Not only have researchers identified how a common cellular protein affects aging, but they’ve tweaked the genes that produce it in fruit flies, extending healthy lifespan by 25% to 30%. The discovery opens the door to healthier aging in humans.
Category: Aging Well
Tags: Protein, Genetic engineering, Aging, Lifespan, UCLA
Aptera Motors, based in San Diego, CA, has just successfully completed its first low-speed function test of its fully solar-powered electric vehicle (sEV). The PI2 doesn't need to be plugged in to recharge and instead gets its daily power directly from the sun.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Aptera
BenQ has launched a new 4K UHD projector, which is aimed at folks new to the projector-based home cinema universe, with AI smarts on hand to help "transform modern living spaces into theater-style settings with unparalleled ease and sophistication."
Category: Home Entertainment, Consumer Tech, Technology
Tags: BenQ, Projectors, LED, Artificial Intelligence, home theater, 4K UHD
High-end turntable maker VPI Industries has announced its first Forever Series vinyl spinner. Instead of having to invest in a brand new system when something better inevitably comes along, the Model One's modular components can be upgraded.
Category: Home Entertainment, Consumer Tech, Technology
Tags: Luxury, Audiophile, Turntables, Modular
After a week without an accessory round – mainly owing to a dearth of accessories – we're back and better than ever. Today, we'll look at a powerful flash, an exciting firmware update, a versatile set of microphones, and more. Before we get to that, though, let's see what's on sale.
Photo: Brendan NystedtPanasonic's G9 II is a substantial upgrade from its predecessor, and is now much more capable when it comes to video. It's large for a Micro Four Thirds camera, but that allows for a plethora of controls and a full-size HDMI port. It's currently $200 off MSRP.
$1,697 at Amazon $1,697 at B&H $1,697 at Adorama Photo: Brendan NystedtCanon's EOS R8 is also $200 off, which makes it an even better deal as an entry-level full-frame camera. However, it may be worth spending some of those savings on an extra battery or two, as battery life isn't the EOS R8's strongest suit.
$1,299 at Amazon $1,299 at B&H $1,299 at Adorama Light, camera, action Image: ProfotoThis week, Profoto announced the D30, a bright monolight flash that's still compact and lightweight. It has a range of 11 F-stops, outputting between 0.5 and 500Ws of light.
It also has a continuous dimmable LED modeling light, with an adjustable color temperature ranging from 2,800 - 7,000K and a >94 CRI. Its recycle time depends on what type of mains electricity you have it hooked up to, but it ranges from 0.1 seconds to a maximum of 0.9 seconds.
The D30 is undeniably a professional tool and has a price tag to match: it comes in at $1,995, and adding a handle is an extra $50. But if you need a lot of lighting power and are making money from your photography, it's certainly an interesting option.
$1,995 at B&H $1,995 at Adorama A versatile mic kitSennheiser's new Profile wireless microphone system could be an interesting option if you're looking for a plug-and-play audio kit that covers a lot of bases. It includes a few components: two microphone packs, a dual-channel receiver, a charging bar, and a host of accessories, such as wind blockers, a 3.5mm TRS cable, and mounts.
The simplest setup involves clipping the two microphones to your talents' lapels and having them record to their 16GB each of internal memory. Of course, if you're filming those people, you can also have the microphones transmit to the receiver, which can output to a camera's mic jack.
If you'd rather them not be conspicuously in the shot, both packs have locking 3.5mm inputs and can act as transmitters for more traditional lav mics.
Clipping one or both of the microphones into the battery bar lets you use it as a handheld microphone.Here's where things get exciting though; the microphone capsules and receiver all fit into the charging bar, which makes sure their batteries are topped up. However, that charging bar can also become a handheld wireless microphone if you're doing a piece to camera and want to look official.
It also has a tripod mount, letting you use it as a desktop microphone. You could connect it to your computer via a 3.5mm cable or USB-C... or you could snap on the included USB-C adapter to the receiver and plug it into a phone or computer, letting it work wirelessly in that mode, too. That adapter's also useful if you want to use any of these configurations while recording video with a phone instead of a dedicated camera.
Given just how many roles this setup can fill, it comes at a surprisingly reasonable price of $299. The company also says there's no app required to use it; you can manage all the settings using the receiver's touchscreen.
$299 at B&H $318 at Amazon $299 at Adorama Focus bracketing comes to the a7 IV Photo: Richard ButlerIf you have a Sony a7 IV and haven't updated it in a while, now might be the time. Sony recently released firmware version 4.0 for the camera, which adds support for focus bracketing, letting you automate the process of taking several images to get an object entirely in focus.
The update includes several more features and fixes, such as the ability to continue taking pictures while your camera transfers images to your phone.
The firmware can be downloaded from Sony's website.
Magical control Image: BlackmagicSpeaking of updates, the Blackmagic Camera app for iOS recently got support for the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro's new Camera Control button, and the ability to launch the app from the lock screen or control center. The 2.1 update also adds bitrate selection options for when you're recording in H.264 or H.265.
As ferocious and unstoppable as its namesake, the all-new Panthera overland motorhome is designed to push the boundaries of RVing well beyond glamping resorts and National Park campgrounds. The all-terrain powerhouse comes from one of the most established names in the American overland industry and brings the rugged, thoughtful construction to match.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: RV, Off-road, Ford, Truck, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, Off-grid
Omega and Swatch's MoonSwatch line of fashion wristwatches may not qualify as haute chronologie or a showcase of the watchmaker's craft, but they have managed to introduce what may well be a unique function in the Mission to EarthPhase watch.
Category: Wearables, Consumer Tech, Technology
Tags: Watches, Omega Watches
We've been focusing in on some of the powertrain innovations Mahle has been developing and fine-tuning for the electric car and truck market, and the company hasn't been letting its ebike offerings slide, either. This week, it launched its lightest electric bike drive series yet. The new XS system shaves over a full pound off the brand's previous lightweight champion while also freeing up more latitude in ebike design.
