January 2014

It's a question we hope none of you ever have to answer, but one that a talented colleague and PetaPixel reader is facing with incredible optimism and strength.

Wedding photographer Anthony Carbajal was recently diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. And he's now reaching out to the photography community for support as he comes to terms with the end of a three-year professional career that was everything he could have hoped for.

If there's a secret contest going on for most terrifying action camera video, then 25-year-old skydiver James Lee recently gave the skydivers in the mid-air plane crash a run for their money. In a terrifying video captured on the veteran skydiver's helmet cam, you see him get knocked unconscious just seconds after jumping, and then get rescued by his fellow skydivers.

Despite all of the crazy gloom and doom talk that tends to circulate in the photography industry, it seems us photographers are still an optimistic bunch.

PhotoShelter has just released their "Photographer's Outlook on 2014 Survey," and besides being chock full on interesting and useful tidbits about who to follow and what to read (we're proud to say PetaPixel made the most-read blogs list!), it also showed that photographers have a very positive perspective on the upcoming year.

What's the best way to entice the professional photography market to buy into your device? Insult them of course! At least that seems to be Nokia's strategy in its latest Lumia 1020 Ad, "Goodbye DSLR, Hello Lumia 1020."

A new app called 'Flag' is exploding on Kickstarter today, and it's based on a very simple premise. The app will print and mail you museum quality, 220 gsm prints of 20 photos per month absolutely free... just as long as you allow them to place advertisements on the usually-blank back side of the photo.

That's it: no catch, no shipping charges, nothing. For now, you have to live in the US, but they hope to expand out soon.

Artist Jon Burgerman thinks there are too many violent film posters greeting us everywhere we go. These posters of movie and TV show characters holding weapons are all too common, and most of them show the protagonist brandishing their weapon right at the viewer.

And so, Burgerman decided to fight back using a little bit of fake blood, a sense of humor and photography.

Update: According to collectSPACE, this might not have been the only camera brought back from the moon. Check out the update at the bottom for details.

A total of fourteen Hasselblad cameras made it to the moon on the Apollo missions; but of those 14, only one ever made it back. And now, that one camera is going to go home with a lucky (and rich) collector pending an auction at WestLicht in Vienna on March 21st.

Update: Andrew recently created a Facebook page where you can follow him as he continues to go on enviable adventures. Be sure to give him a follow if you found this interview and his work interesting.

A few weeks ago, we shared some photos taken by adventure travel photographer Dr. Andrew Peacock who was stranded on the Russian ship M.V. Akademik Shokalskiy in the Antarctic. The thing is, we didn't want to stop there. When we visited his site in search of his contact information, we immediately fell in love with his photography.

Our "Permission to Share Photos" email quickly evolved into a "Permission to Share Photos and Interview Request" email. Fortunately for us, he said yes.

Life as a race photographer can be a tough and risky one. Add in a little eastern spice and it has a whole different taste. Steve Thomas takes us on a back seat ride through the pelotons of Asia.

If the first two SmugMug Films features are any indication, we're going to be covering them all... and we doubt anybody is going to complain.

First, SmugMug took you behind the scenes with Benjamin Von Wong as he created magical worlds with the click of a shutter. Today, they visit the other side of the spectrum by featuring air-to-air photographer Jessica Ambats.

Camera weenies can argue until they drop about subjective qualities like bokeh yumminess or ergonomics. For the folks who like to stick with numbers, however, there's software maker and testing titan DxOMark, which recently declared the Zeiss 55mm FE the best autofocus lens it's ever tested.

Britons are seeing a new side of the nation's World War I experience thanks to the publication of a small treasure trove of negatives that were only recently discovered tucked away in someone's attic.

ZEISS is touting its latest release as a "perfect" portrait lens with serious Macro chops to boot -- a 50mm, f/2.8 model for APS-C cameras sporting Sony E and Fuji X mounts.

LEGO and baking powder, that and some Star Wars inspiration is all Finnish photographer (and PetaPixel reader, we might add) Vesa Lehtimäki needs to blow your mind and send you into a nerd frenzy that'll have you digging up your old D&D set.

Well, at least that's how we feel about it, because we couldn't have geeked out any harder than we did when we stumbled across Lehtimäki's miniature movie scene photography.

Ever since we here at LensRentals first tested a Sony A7R, we were dying to take a look under the hood. Say what you will about Sony as a company, but they create some of the most elegantly-engineered camera bodies we’ve seen. Plus, the A7R is something of a groundbreaking camera, and we wanted to see how they crammed all that stuff into its little body.

Tablet photography is something of an oxymoron for most photographers, but there are those who occasionally (or more than occasionally) snap a photo on their iOS or Android tablet, and Sony would like to help those people take better pictures.

To that effect, the company has released a new add-on that will allow tablet users to securely fasten their QX10 or QX100 lens cameras to their tablets as well as their phones.

The Mars Opportunity Rover has found a jelly donut on Mars... man would that be an awesome headline. Unfortunately we couldn't run that unless we were intent on click baiting you (we're not...). What the 10-year-veteran Mars Rover did find (and photograph) is a mysterious rock that looks like -- and has been nicknamed -- the 'jelly donut.'

Why mysterious? Because it seemed to appear out of nowhere in pictures of the exact same spot on the Martian ground only 12 Martian days (or Sols) apart.

Don McCullin is a household name in the photographic community, but as far as he is concerned, it's for all the wrong reasons. In this incredibly poignant and thought-provoking interview, he shares his thoughts about an illustrious career that was spent photographing atrocities, and left him somewhat haunted.

There's no rule against having a little fun while proving a technological point, even if you're Microsoft.

So when the software giant's research arm wanted to flex some image-editing muscle by creating a 20-gigapixel panorama of Seattle, they decided to bring local artists into the picture (literally) and encourage them to do creative stuff while the camera was clicking away.

For those intrigued by the notion of add-on lenses for smartphones but put off by the bulky design, Apple offers hope with a couple of recently patented designs for swapping camera components on an iPhone without turning it into an unwieldy monster.

Dominic, the guy behind the popular web comic Domics, put together this humorous …

The lens is the most important factor in the image quality of a landscape astrophoto.

There are a number of lens traits that will determine the quality and usability of a camera lens for astrophotography. Let me explain what sort of thinking should go into choosing and using a lens for making astrophotography and Milky Way nightscapes.

On the weekend of the 18th, 23-year-old Annie 'Kim' Pham accidentally photobombed a group of strangers in front of a Santa Ana nightclub while out with her friends. That accident cost her her life, as the strangers converged on her and beat her to the point where she had to be put on life support before ultimately succumbing to her injuries one week ago yesterday.

There's a good chance you're sick of reading about Fujifilm this week. But with the fever-pitch buzz surrounding the release of the X-T1, it's not often that we consider the business behind these popular cameras.

Let's take a moment to reflect on the unique history of the Fujifilm X-Series, and the ways in which it reinvigorated both the company that created it and the camera industry as a whole.

As it turns out, we all might have some skin in the Daniel Morel vs. AFP/Getty Images copyright game; and we're not just talking about emotional investment here, there are serious precedents being set.

The E-M10 wasn't the only announcement to come out of Olympus tonight. Also arriving (and also noteworthy) is the longest superzoom Olympus has ever made, and a new, tougher tough camera -- both of which have some world's first features to their name.

Alright, it's time to set aside all the Fujifilm talk for a moment, because it's now Olympus' time to shine. Debuting tonight is the new OM-D E-M10. A camera that packs features from the E-M1 and E-M5 into a more affordable package that Olympus is proud to call 'the OM-D for all.'

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If you were watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, you might have noticed a friend of ours stopped by. It was an expensive friend known as the Leica M Monochrom, and it earned a surprised and somewhat confused reaction from Jon Stewart.

We've embedded the five-minute segment above, but truth be told, the camera only plays a role at the very beginning and end of the video. It's nice to see a gorgeous piece of photographic gear getting some primetime airtime though, and it seems Jon Stewart reacted to it just like most people would: "wow that's a beautiful camera" is followed by "wait, it only shoots black and white!?"

Okay, fine, the normal human being would follow THAT up with a third statement: "What do you mean it costs eight grand!?"

Well, well. Fuji's done it again. They've simultaneously wowed fans and foes with the newly announced X-T1. There's a lot to learn here and a lot to discuss. Let's take a look at some of the details and perhaps more subtle or overlooked points.

Wedding photography gets a bum rap among many photographers, but the thing is, it gets that bum rap because it's hard! You're working in a high-stress environment, tasked with capturing someone's 'most important day of their lives'... and you'd better be doing it on par with the 3,426 amazing wedding photos they've compiled on Pinterest in preparation for this day.

Yesterday we featured a far too common headline that went something like "*insert newspaper here* fires all photographers." This time, it was an entire chain of local UK papers, and like the Chicago Sun Times before it, the chain is planning to replace these pros with freelancers, submitted photos and reporters with smartphones.

These kinds of headlines and stories make us sad, because we believe that the newspapers are making a grave mistake in undervaluing photography and the professionals who call it their vocation, but one Guardian writer has caused an uproar by holding to the exact opposite opinion.

For all you hipster and pro photogs out there, I’m sure you already know that the X100S has already been out for quite some time now. So if you’re looking for another one of those lengthy, technical, in-depth pixel peeping reviews about this camera? Then you’ve most definitely came to the wrong place.

This is about a four-month adventure with a piece of technology that the good folks from Fujfilm generously offered to let me put on my left shoulder. A journey through life as someone who makes pictures for a living.

For some reason we're fascinated by photographs of real things made to look like drawings or paintings. Series like Alexander Khokhlov's 2D or Not 2D and pretty much Alexa Meade's entire portfolio are great examples of this.

Now we have another similar series to share with you. Created by artist Cynthia Greig, Representations is a series of photographs of everyday objects that have been white washed and outlined so that they look like very simple drawings.

Nikon's release of the D610 was met with a bit of... hostility... from many of the D600 users who were and still are dealing with sensor spot/oil/dust (whatever the heck you wanna call it) issues. But it looks like at least a few D600 owners have been treated to a nice surprise from the company service center.

It's finally here! About one bazillion (official statistic) leaks and one teaser later, Fujifilm has finally announced the much-longed-for X-T1. With a weather-resistant body, a large and powerful OLED EVF and the fastest autofocus in its class, Fuji promises that this camera will make for a "truly remarkable photographic experience."

In the last days I received multiple requests to translate my posts for foreign readers, as they have very limited information about the happenings in Ukraine. This material describes events which took place in Kiev on January 22nd and 23rd.

Sharing and distribution is appreciated.

When DxOMark tests out the quality of mobile phone cameras, they usually classify and rank them as such. There's a whole mobile section to the site where one can compare different smartphone cameras using a different scoring system.

The thing is, the Lumia 1020 is no typical smartphone. Nokia has touted it as a camera first, and it seems DxOMark was listening. When they put the Lumia 1020 through its paces, they tested it as a full-fledged camera. And it didn't perform half bad.

The Impossible Project, the ongoing effort to keep classic Polaroid cameras alive and well-fed, has added a splash of color to its catalog with three new special edition SX-70 that films sport gold, silver and colored borders instead of the usual white.

Britons tend to take their newspapers a bit more seriously than Yanks, but that hasn't stopped a newspaper chain there from Chicago Sun-Timesing (yes, we verbed it!) its way to ignominy by firing its entire photography staff.

Sometimes, all that's required to take a standard photo and turn it into something special and unique is to flip your camera upside down. That's what artist Peter Wegner did for his Buildings Made of Sky series, which features 'skyscrapers' outlined by the New York City streets when you flip your perspective.