Solarcan has announced Puck, a smaller limited-time version of its soda-can-shaped Sun-catching camera. The new model comes shaped like a circle and produces round instead of more traditional rectangle images.
Solarcan, created by photographer Sam Cornwell, specializes in producing solargraphy cameras that don’t require any DIY skills. Anyone can use them without knowing a single thing about pinhole cameras, development, or even solargraphs.
The original Solarcan announced in 2017.
The company released its first model in 2017 on Kickstarter. Since then, it has also added a set of tinted Solarcans that produce vibrant and colorful results, and now — the small and round Puck.
Once an exposure is started, the Solarcan Puck will capture the Sun’s path and produce a photo that can be retrieved inside afterward. The resulting image is inverted and can be scanned or photographed to get a digital copy.
To produce an image, photographers have to firmly fix the camera to a chosen outdoor location. The exposure begins when the tab inside is removed to allow light to pass through the pinhole.
The photographic paper inside the camera only reacts to sunshine, so photographers don’t have to worry about light pollution from street lights, the Moon, or other sources.
The camera has f/132 and the exposure can last months or even years. For example, Solarcan customer Robert Miller set the camera to record Sun’s path as seen from Antarctica and produced a 6-months long exposure. Cornwell went a step further and attempted a timelapse shot with 27 Solarcans, thought to be the first of its kind.
The new Puck works the same way as its predecessor model, except it catches a circle image. The new camera also comes with three exposures. Each next exposure is revealed after removing the cover sheet and gives photographers three goes to experiment with.
As the camera has no viewfinder, it can be tough to figure out the best camera placement for a good composition. The company recommends turning to community results to get ideas for this.
Below, the company has shared a few mock-up images of what the results shot by Solarcan Puck could look like.
Solarcan has no plans to sell the Puck as a standalone product — it will instead be bundled with orders of over £30 ($40) for Black Friday weekend through November 28th.
“I’m not planning on making it a future product or selling it,” Cornwell tells PetaPixel. “It’s intended as a bit of fun for the community, hence I’m not putting a price tag on it. I’m just excited to see what people produce with it!”
Chelsea’s visit to St. Petersburg this week offers another reminder of the impact Roman Abramovich has had on the English club, but the oligarch’s role in Russian football down the years is much less widely known.
Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Zenit will be the fifth time Chelsea have made the journey for a competitive European game against a Russian club since Abramovich took over in 2003.
Each time the Blues arrive, there is the added attention of being owned by Russia’s most famous billionaire.
Even with several big-name absences from Thomas Tuchel’s squad, Chelsea will have an expensively assembled constellation of stars on show at the Gazprom Arena.
For all the domestic dominance of Russian champions Zenit – and the backing from their own wealthy benefactors Gazprom – they can only dream of the glittering success that Chelsea have enjoyed under Abramovich.
Abramovich’s investment in Chelsea has left him open to accusations of making his money at home but funneling it into ventures abroad.
“What has Roman ever done for us?” Russian football fans might well wonder.
In reality, Abramovich has had an active role in Russian football during his time at Chelsea – albeit one which is shrouded in speculation and which has waned in recent years.
‘SOFT SPOT’ FOR CSKA
According to footballing folklore, Abramovich decided to buy a club after watching Manchester United’s 4-3 Champions League thriller with Real Madrid at Old Trafford in April 2003.
After flirting with various options, he settled on Chelsea. The rest, as they say, is history.
But the Blues were not the first football club for which Abramovich had an affinity. In Russian football terms, he is most closely linked with CSKA Moscow – for whom he has always had a ‘soft spot’, according to some.
Abramovich is a close friend of longtime CSKA president Yevgeny Giner. Not long before he bought Chelsea, there were rumors in Russia – later denied – that Abramovich was mulling a 50% share in CSKA.
That came after Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov venomously asserted that the billionaire’s acquisition of Chelsea was a “spit in the face” for Russians.
“People spend unthinkable amounts of money on the acquisition of foreign clubs, while domestic teams need support, first of all,” the fiery Luzhkov was quoted as saying.
In the end, CSKA actually waited until 2016 to move into a new home, in a project chiefly funded through a loan from state development bank VEB, rather than Abramovich.
Energy giant Sibneft, where Abramovich was majority shareholder, did however sign a record three-year sponsorship deal with CSKA Moscow club in March of 2004 worth a reported $54 million, which raised more than a few eyebrows at the time.
There were enough suggestions of Abramovich’s purported interests at CSKA to warrant the football authorities looking into the case. UEFA rules prevent individuals from having a controlling stake in two clubs in the same competition, with Chelsea and CSKA both in the Champions League at that time. UEFA were ultimately satisfied that neither Abramovich nor Sibneft had a direct stake or interest in CSKA.
Nonethless, such was Abramovich’s knowledge of CSKA that when Chelsea played the Moscow club in the Champions League group stage in October 2004, some still joked that the billionaire could do the scouting report for manager Jose Mourinho.
The agreement between Sibneft and CSKA was ultimately ended after less than two years after Abramovich sold his controlling stake in Sibneft to Gazprom.
However, Abramovich and Chelsea continued to be mentioned in association with the Moscow team. In 2009, Chelsea paid CSKA £18 million for the services of Yuri Zhirkov.
CSKA boss Giner would later grumble that they had let Zhirkov go cheaply, but it was enough to make the winger the most expensive Russian footballer in history at the time.
Just as with much of his broader activity, Abramovich’s supposed connections to CSKA have typically been discreet or based on rumor and hearsay.
Vladimir Putin suggested back in 2010 that Abramovich was involved in “sponsoring” one particular club, which most people took to mean CSKA.
“Everyone talks about him being an oligarch, that he bought Chelsea, which is met in Russia with positive and negative emotions,”said Putin at a FIFA press conference in Zurich with Abramovich sitting nearby.
“But Mr. Abramovich helps in the development of Russian football, supports one of the Russian clubs… He won’t say which.”
CSKA president Giner would promptly clarify that “Abramovich sponsors Chelsea, not CSKA, I don’t know what Putin meant,” but many had already made up their minds.
More recently, Abramovich has acted as something of a patron for former CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky. In 2017, when he was set to take over as manager at Hull, Slutsky said he was Abramovich’s “project” and that the Russian billionaire was helping him to land a job in England.
“He is my friend and he tries to help me in this situation,” Slutsky said after being seen at several Chelsea matches. “Today, his project in Russian football is me.”
Slutsky was a popular if unsuccessful figure in the Hull dugout before moving on to Vitesse Arnhem – another club which has faced scrutiny for its supposed ties to Chelsea – and then returning to his homeland as manager at Rubin Kazan.
Four years ago there was more talk of the Abramovich name and CSKA in the same sentence when it was reported that the oligarch’s eldest son, Arkadiy, was supposedly ready to but the club for $300 million.
CSKA president Giner would later rebut those rumors, saying: “Roman [Abramovich] is a close person to me, I really respect him, but we never even talked about his son joining CSKA.”
GUUS CHASE
If much of Abramovich’s association with CSKA is shrouded in supposition and speculation, there is far more concrete evidence for his work with Russian football at a national level.
Founded in 2004, his National Academy of Football (NAF) built around 140 artificial pitches and sponsored educational programs across the country.
Notably, it was through the NAF that Guus Hiddink was paid his €7 million annual salary as Russia manager during one of the most exciting periods for the nation’s football when the Dutchman led the team to the semi-finals of Euro 2008.
The NAF was estimated to have spent around $200 million before being wrapped up in 2013, when Gazprom took over responsibility for funding.
We are unlikely to find out whether Abramovich felt the need to invest in projects in Russia to compensate for his grand spending at Chelsea, but some observers viewed it as fulfilling an obligation to his motherland.
Elsewhere, Abramovich also promoted the cause of Russian football as part of the delegation in South Africa in 2010 when FIFA named the World Cup hosts for 2018.
As is often the case with Abramovich, he ended up on the winning team as the Russian bid beat an English effort fronted by David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham.
At a press conference to celebrate the Russian victory, Putin said afterwards that Abramovich could play some role in funding preparations for the 2018 FIFA showpiece.
“We would like to attract the business community to minimize the state expenditure and I do not rule out the possibility that Mr Abramovich could participate in one of those projects,” said Putin, who was prime minister at the time.
Many outsiders took that as a direct order to Abramovich, but according to Forbes Russia it did not result in a significant role for the oligarch, at least publicly, after the closure of his NAF fund.
Considering the largesse he has lavished upon Chelsea, there are those in Russia who will always be unimpressed with Abramovich’s supposed lack of patriotism.
Others, though, would argue that his tenure at Chelsea has pushed the cause of Russian football in an indirect way, as Abramovich has risen to become one of the most prominent – and popular – figures in club ownership around the world.
Abramovich is adored not just by the Chelsea faithful in London. Wednesday’s game against Zenit will see Russian Blues fans travel to St. Petersburg from cities across the country, including Vladivostok – a journey that surpasses the one Chelsea themselves will be making from London.
Roman Mitkevich is a key member of the St. Petersburg Blues, and has no doubt that Chelsea has become the most popular foreign club in Russia.
“Chelsea is absolutely the most popular club (outside of Russian teams),” he told RT Sport. “There are strong followings for Liverpool and Manchester United, and Manchester City is becoming stronger. But Chelsea in Russia and the former Soviet Union is the leader in terms of the fan base, undoubtedly.
“Of course the influence of Roman Abramovich is huge, a large number of fans began to support Chelsea (in Russia) during his era,” added Mitkevich, who has been following the team for more than a decade.
“But I would perhaps but it differently – he brought attention among the Russian audience to the fact that football could be different, very competitive and beautiful.”
As for any negativity from Russian fans about Abramovich’s choice to fund a foreign club, Mitkevich is philosophical.
“In Russian there’s a saying: ‘Don’t count another person’s money’. We try and follow that,” he said.
“I don’t think everyone understands what a positive role Roman Abramovich has had on Russian football… I’m sure that Roman Abramovich supports Russian sport now in some form or another.”
By Liam Tyler
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The sudden death of a popular Russian Premier League coach has mystified his colleagues and friends, with Russia national team boss Valeri Karpin and Zenit striker Artem Dzyuba among those to voice their shock.
Igor Gamula, 61, had joint Ukrainian and Russian citizenship and most recently worked for top-flight side Rostov, who he also managed in 2014.
Details on Gamula’s death are unclear, with friend Roman Oreshchuk telling RIA Novosti that there is “no specific information” after the former midfielder’s daughter “sounded the alarm first”.
“Now the police and doctors are working [on it],” said Oreshchuk, speculating on whether the cause could have been hypoglycemic shock. “Everything happened suddenly.”
Our thoughts go out to the friends and family of Igor Gamula, who has sadly passed away.
The former Rostov manager was 61 years old, his cause of death is yet unknown https://t.co/aAznR9A9t4
Russia boss Valeri Karpin said: “I can’t believe it, [it’s] just a shock. It cannot be. We will miss you very much. Sincere condolences to family and friends.”
Russia legend and the Russian Premier League’s all-time top scorer Artem Dzyuba spoke of “blessed memories” with Gamula.
“We will miss this amazingly charismatic person,” added the Zenit St. Petersburg striker.
Former Ukraine coach Alexander Zavarov offered his condolences to Gamula’s family and friends. “He died very young,” Zavarov told Championat of “a good friend and man” who was “always cheerful”.
“Friends informed me of his death. I sit broken – the whole family is broken. We communicated very well… a month ago we talked on the phone, nothing foreshadowed trouble. We have such an unpredictable life.”
Gamula began his coaching career in 1992 at Krystal Kherson, where he finished his playing days.
From 2001 to 2006, he was at Chernomorets Novorossiysk and frequently took on an assistant role and the head coach’s job before heading to Latvia where he oversaw Daugava Daugavpils and Dinaburg.
In 2009, he returned to Ukraine where he managed Zakarpattia Uzhhorod until 2011.
He became a part of the Rostov fold to manage the youth team, the first team and work as a scout.
Sporting icon Pele has returned to hospital less than three months after being treated in intensive care for a colon tumor, doctors in Brazil have announced.
The Brazil legend, who is one of the greatest players of all time, spent 30 days in Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital to remove the tumor in September.
Pele, 81, reassured fans that he had “a lot of disposition to play 90 minutes plus extra time” following that scare.
The all-time great has now returned to the hospital to continue treatment on the tumor, according to a statement issued by four medics at the facility on Wednesday.
O Hospital Albert Einstein, em São Paulo, confirma que Pelé está internado na unidade para dar sequência ao tratamento de um tumor no cólon. O câncer foi identificado em setembro deste ano, quando o ex-jogador passou 30 dias internado. pic.twitter.com/GAY3GNcDZ5
According to the medical bulletin, the revered former striker is in a stable condition and is expected to be discharged within days.
The three-time World Cup winner’s daughter, Kely Nascimento, kept fans updated when Pele was last admitted to hospital.
Nascimento’s messages included a social media video of Pele pedaling on a bike in hospital as part of his recovery.
Brazilian soccer legend Pele hospitalized to undergo treatment for a colon tumor. Sao Paulo's Hospital Albert Einstein says he is in stable condition and should be discharged in the next few days
“Today was two steps forward,” she said at the time as part of a series of upbeat posts about Brazil’s all-time top scorer.
Neither Pele nor his daughter had posted a public update on his health when the hospital made the announcement.
The former Santos and New York Cosmos superstar celebrated his birthday two weeks ago and posted about his foundation to his millions of fans on Tuesday.
Sharing a classic photo of himself with Germany legend and fellow World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer, he wrote: “One of the greatest players I’ve ever seen play and that life has given me the opportunity to call a friend. Going through the photos, I found this one.”
Pele had prostate surgery in 2015 and was seen in a wheelchair when he met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2018 World Cup draw.
He was also admitted to hospital over a urinary infection in 2019.
Boris Johnson has set out the approach UK ministers will be taking to the controversial Beijing Olympics after being asked about China’s “genocide” of Muslim and religious minorities.
With governments around the world under pressure to take a stance ahead of the start of the Games, Australia and New Zealand have responded to the announcement of a US diplomatic boycott on Monday by revealing that they will be following suit.
In front of a packed house on Wednesday, prime minister Johnson was advised by a Member of Parliament (MP) that the “chaos” of his government – which is currently embroiled in a scandal over an alleged party that took place at the height of the country’s Covid lockdown in 2020 – was a “distraction” from the issue of taking a tough line against China.
“We all know that the Chinese government denies basic human rights to China’s minority religious communities,” he was told.
I welcome the Prime Minister's announcement the UK Govt is imposing a full diplomatic boycott and that UK Ministers/Officials will not be attending the #BeijingWinterOlympics. My congratulations to @ipacglobal who have called for this, I hope many other countries will follow suit
The under-pressure Conservative leader replied: “There will be effectively a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. No ministers are expected to attend.
“We make all those points regularly to the Chinese – and, indeed, I did to [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] when I spoke to him recently.
“I do not think that sporting boycotts are sensible, and that remains the policy of the government.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces the UK will implement “a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.” He says no ministers or officials will attend.
He joins leaders of U.S. and Australia in rebuke of China over human rights violations. pic.twitter.com/klcVM9z9J8
That may be a relief to Team GB athletes ahead of the Games, which are scheduled to take place in February.
Former Tory chief Iain Duncan Smith, who watched on as Johnson spoke, said the prime minister would be “imposing a full diplomatic boycott”, praising the move while congratulating the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China’s campaign for the step to be taken.
Speaking in October, Johnson was told by an MP that women were being raped and sterilized in forced labor camps in China.
The alleged atrocities are widely considered to be taking place in Xinjiang, in the north-west of China, and affecting Uyghur Muslims.
When he was warned that the alleged acts were a case of “genocide happening in front of our eyes”, Johnson again said that a Team GB boycott would not be the right response.
Johnson described an “apppalling campaign against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang” and said that his foreign minister, Liz Truss, was working to ensure that no British companies were complicit or profiting from activity in the region.
He also pledged that his government would continue to work with the Biden administration and other allies on the issue.
