The Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, is at 160 stories and counting, with the tower due to be complete next September. But it's not the only tower under construction in Dubai, not by a longshot. No, the city appears to be sprouting up from the ground like a bunch of weeds, with as many cranes as buildings. And now, The Big Picture has nearly 30 amazing shots of the city in transition. Hit the jump for another of my favourites and then head over to The Big Picture for the rest.

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San Francisco artist Robert Burden spent a year — a year — painting his man-sized Voltron pièce de résistance, "Defensor Mundi", and caught the whole process in time-lapse. Sure, the floral theme doesn't inspire much confidence in Voltron's RoBeast-slaying abilities, but the music and painting are a treat. [BoingBoing via Make]

Okay, so this new moving-photo tech doesn't have the photo subjects actually dancing about within the frame, but it does allow for objects to have moving/reactive shadows and highlights and it's zero-powered like an old-fashioned picture.

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When NASA released this image from their Lunar Orbiter 1 back in 1966, the first photograph ever of the Earth rising above the Moon's surface, it was low resolution but they still amazed the world. This week, they have surprised every space aficionado re-releasing the same image in ultra-high definition. The cool part now is that NASA hasn't used any upscaling or magical infinite zoom-in filter from CSI. Instead, they have created a new technology that uses refurbished analogue machines and a new digital process that fully extracts the information stored in the program's old magnetic tapes, something that was impossible to do in the 60s. Click on the image to watch it in its 3673 x 1740 pixel glory.

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The Gadget: The Griffin Clarifi. It's a polycarbonate iPhone case that features a macro lens. The idea is that you can take close-up shots with your iPhone (from about 4-inches away) but flick the macro lens to the side when it's not in use.

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Paul Smith's Fisheye No.2 Lomo camera is a subtle mixture of two things: The 180-degree bug-eye lens creates distorted images that are even more arty than your usual Lomograph. Plus to the dwindling number of wet-chemistry photography fans (including myself) Lomography is something of a fashion-statement all of its own. The camera has bulb setting for long exposures, a multiple-exposure setting, built-in flash and a hotshoe, and is dressed up in trademark Paul Smith stripes. And it's limited edition, so it's going for a fashionably high $US150. [PaulSmith via LikeCool]

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Despite my best intentions, my photography is often 1 or 2 degrees off centre, as if the horizon is slowly sliding my subjects off its back. But with the Brando 3-Axis Bubble Level Cube that fits in any hot shoe mount, photographers can conveniently double check every possible angle of their camera before snapping a shot. Priced at just $US11, it's far cheaper than getting one of my legs shortened by half an inch. And I'm guessing it'll save me a lot of time arguing with my HMO, too. [Brando]

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Though it had the pro-end E-3 and entry-level E-520, Olympus until now had not been offering a mid-level DSLR: but now there's the E-30. The 12.5-megapixel cam mixes up the 11-point autofocus if the E-3, and entry-level functions like face detection and live visual effects—"Art Filters"— to please all sorts of users, and throw in an electronic levelling system to banish wonky horizons, and sensor-shifting image stabilisation.

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Say what you will about what we're reading into this device, but the Biopod automated tripod (concept) crawls around about 7.5cm off of the ground and can't stick to walls. Now unless you're really, really into ant and shoe photography, this little guy will be used to grab shots of one thing and one thing only. It's not my masculinity, but designs like this that keep me so sub-waist sweaty through the day, afraid to wear a skirt despite their superior breathability. Thanks designer Morteza Faghihi. Thanks a lot. [coroflot via Yanko Design]

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Redrock's "cinematising" kit stirred up some attention last week with its bolt-on professional movie-camera-alike zoom controls and lens hoods for video DLSRs, and now Zacuto has something similar to offer. The camera sits up front in this rig, with the same kind of light controlling barn doors, fine focus and zoom controls, but this system has a video monitor and a structural beam that goes past the user's shoulder, over an adjustable pad, with counterweights behind, making the whole thing act a little like a steadicam. The system's customised for Canon's 5D Mark II and Nikon's D90, as you may expect, but fledgling videographers'll be disappointed that there's no pricing available yet. [Zacuto via Photographybay]

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