July 2014

The oceans are in trouble, and while marine biologists and conservationists and (God help us) politicians are the main advocates for the health of our planet, photographers can also play a role.

One photographer doing his part to help ensure future generations enjoy pristine oceans is Richard Salas, a talented underwater photographer with a decade of underwater photo experience who is currently crowdfunding the last of a trilogy of underwater photobooks that are helping both fund and inspire change.

The general consensus is that photography as a business is competing in a 'race to the bottom.' Photographs are regularly devalued by people who steal them, agencies that sell them for a pittance, and photographers who are willing to work for free.

Given this rapidly worsening status-quo, wedding and commercial photographer Greg Lumley's latest venture is either incredibly ballsy, or incredibly naïve: he's trying to sell a single print of his viral aerial photograph of Cape Town for $35,000... no we didn't add a zero by mistake.

A team from Berkeley, in collaboration with MIT and Microsoft, have developed a super exciting display technology that should have glasses and contact-wearing photographers jumping for joy. Due to be showed off at SIGGRAPH this coming week, the prototype they've developed automatically adjusts to suit your less-than-perfect eyesight so you can ditch your contacts and/or glasses when you're using it.

The next time you want to photograph some cool graffiti, you might want to think twice... you could get sued by the artist if that picture makes it big.

After the popular Canadian drama 30 Vies aired, graffiti artist Alexandre Veilleux recognized a tag of his in the opening sequence. Now, Veilleux -- who goes by Alex Scaner in the graffiti community -- is seeking $45k in damages from Radio-Canada and Productions Aetios Inc., stating they used his work without permission.

As someone who accumulated $25,000 in student debt in just the one semester I chose to attend medical school, the fate of photographer Damon Casarez's subjects in the series Boomerang Kids is one I've tried my damnedest to avoid. I've been fortunate, many of my friends have not.

A slumping job market and rising average student debt from undergrad, grad school and beyond means that more and more college graduates are moving back in with mom and dad, and it's their stories Casarez told in this poignant series of portraits commissioned by NYT Magazine.

When you’ve captured as many photographs as renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz has, it’s not exactly a simple task to pick and choose your best work. Shooting for over four decades for the likes of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, her collection of work is as vast as it is rich.

And so, when it came time to create her latest book, rather than selecting just a few dozen of her photographs, she decided to step it up... a lot. Her latest book is a $2,500, 476-page visual journey through every single step of Leibovitz career.

Well, this is awkward. From the looks of it, Lens Rentals Canada is suspending services due to the theft of their equipment while in transit.

TL;DR: If you are using Dropbox as a sole backup of your files, think again. Without making a mistake, you might lose your files.

I started using Dropbox back in 2009 and have always loved the service. Over time, I kept moving more and more files to my Dropbox folder and eventually had to upgrade to the Pro plan to keep up with the space requirements. In particular, I moved there all of my photos in order to be able to view/share them online and also to have them backed up.

In April of this year, a hard drive in my laptop was running low on space so I decided to use the Dropbox’s Selective Sync feature to unsync some large directories from the laptop. Because there was never any problem with the service and also because it’s already the year 2014, I thought it might be about time that one can trust a cloud-based storage service and use them as a sole backup of their files. Boy, I was wrong.

One of the draws of Urban Exploration photography, or Urbex, is the chance that you'll discover and photograph something truly strange and unique. A building abandoned for so long that nobody realizes the treasures hidden within. Or, in this case, a 'train graveyard' with over 70 dilapidated subways, trains and busses in the middle of a North Carolina forest.

As the rumor mills continue to churn out their dose of information, more and more information on Canon’s successor to the 7D is coming to light. Earlier rumors have pointed to a brand new, “revolutionary” sensor being in this impending beast, but new rumors have pointed out even more exciting use for those holding out, specifically, that the 7D replacement is going to have “a lot of 1D X” in it.

A couple of days ago, we republished a short tutorial by talented photographer Justin Ng that explained how he uses the Expose To The Right (ETTR) method to capture milky way photos in the heavy light pollution of Singapore.

But if you'd like a more detailed, video run through, this tutorial by astrophotographer Ian Norman -- whose Sony a7S Astrophotography Review, incidentally, appeared on PetaPixel yesterday -- shows you exactly how to adjust your images to get the perfect results.

One of the last vestiges of the Kodak of old, the one part of its film division not sold off in 2012, is the company's motion picture film business. But even that is in trouble, and might be taking its dying breaths right now if it wasn't for some of Hollywood's biggest filmmakers coming to the rescue.

There is beauty in imperfection. In fact, imperfection might be considered the subject within a subject that photomicrographer Danny Sanchez tirelessly seeks out to create his stunning photography.

Sanchez's main subjects are gemstones, but the colorful, alien 'landscapes' he captures are made up of imperfections called 'inclusions' that actually make a gem less valuable. You might say that one gem merchant's trash is a gem photographer's treasure.

Noted photographer Gregory Heisler has captured hundreds upon hundreds of iconic photographs. But, in the above video, he tells the inspiring and even humorous story behind one particular photo shoot that involved Olympic gold medalist diver, Greg Louganis.

The video above by photographer Gary Yost is remarkable for two reasons. The first is that it was shot in true infrared, with a camera that had a 650 nanometer conversion applied. The second, is that the haunting, stirring quality of the time-lapse serves a greater purpose than simply offering a novel look at the Hawaiian landscape.

The subjects of the video are skeletons of the endangered Māmane trees of Hawaii. "A powerful metaphor," Yost says, "for how outsiders have crushed the native Hawaiian ecology."

In portraits, we’re well aware of the role physical proportions play on how a subject looks. Generally speaking, longer legs, an elongated neck, and other such physical attributes dramatically affect the aesthetic quality of portraits for many, be it subconsciously or not. And while ethics are rightfully called into questions when changing these proportions in Photoshop, it’s continuously done.

Looking to take this questionable practice and capitalize on it in the mobile market, developer Kim Taewan has created an application for both Android and iOS called Spring.

When his wife Meghan refused to have maternity pictures taken, Justin (who goes by DruishPrincess69 on Reddit) decided to take matters into his own hands. And by matters we mean his belly. Since his wife wouldn't take the photos, he hired a photographer and posed for all the stereotypical maternity shots himself.

Who Pays Photographers? is a Tumblr dedicated to demystifying at least some of the compensation standards held by many editorial clients throughout the world.

Dear Eric,

You are 18 years old. You just got a point and shoot digital camera from Mom as a high school graduation present. You are super excited, as you never had a camera before. A lot of exciting things will happen in your life surrounding photography. I wanted to write this letter to you and give you some advice I wish I knew. This is coming from your 26-year-old-self.

As a SWAT officer, Hou Weilin needs to be constantly prepared for any situation that may arise. Thus, when his fiancée, Li Jinyang, wanted to get engagement photographs, he was unable to do so in a studio setting, where he’d be too far distanced from his equipment and gear, should a situation arise.

As a compromise, Weilin and his fiancée used his workplace to their advantage to create some crazy, cinematic engagement photos.

As soon as the Sony a7S was announced, I knew I had to try it for astrophotography. With a full frame sensor and ISO 409600, is it the best low light camera out there?

If it wasn't for the very short behind the scenes video we've embedded below, we would have a hard time believing that the animation above really was just an incredibly intricate mix of stop-motion and long-exposure lighting effects -- it's beyond impressive.

We knew that Instagram was working on a Snapchat competitor of its own, and now that competitor has arrived... sort of... not really. It's called Bolt, and the 'sort of' and 'not really' have to do with the fact that the iOS and Android app is currently only available to people in New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa.

It may seem as though creativity is an innate trait, passed down in the genetic code from generation to generation, but that's just not the case.

It’s been shown over and over again that with the right mindset and ideals, creativity and success can indeed be taught. And in the above video, writer Shawn Blanc shares his insights on the abyss of creativity and how proper time-management, focus and routine lead to creativity and success.

Mirrorless Rumors has caught wind of a strange-but-exciting rumor from a trusted source: namely, that Nikon has a medium format camera based around Sony's much-lauded 50MP CMOS MF sensor in the works, and could be debuting it as early as this year's Photokina.

When it comes to photographing the elusive Milky Way in one of the most light-polluted major cities like Singapore, timing is critical. Most of the faint details will be washed out by the extreme light pollution and if we were to shoot the Milky Way under unfavorable atmospheric conditions, our attempt would be futile.

Unfortunately, most of the tutorials online only work in locations that are at least 2 stops darker than most of the dark locations in Singapore and so, we need to do more in post-processing to unveil the elusive Milky Way and more complex workflow is required if we’re shooting at much brighter locations.

Today, Mobli, a mobile app maker known for its ridiculous Yo application, has launched a new photo-messaging app called Mirage. Hoping to take away some of the ephemeral messaging marketshare of Snapchat, Mirage takes a minimalistic approach to sending and receiving self-destructing messages.

This past March Leica announced the opening of a new flagship store. It sits on Hanamikoji Street in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan.

Most of us baby our film, making sure it's kept at the right temperature so that it produces the best possible photos when we finally do use it. Photographer Brigette Bloom takes a different approach: she pees on hers... seriously.

For her series Float On, the Hawaii-based photog produced ethereal imagery by soaking the film in a cup of her own pee before she ever went out to shoot it.

Only NASA could turn photography into literal rocket science. As Reddit user truetofiction points out in a resource-rich post, NASA meticulously decided upon a number of factors that determined the fate of the space-bound Hasselblads and the resulting images.

Not a particularly exciting release, but a camera release nonetheless, Canon earlier today debuted the PowerShot SX520 HS and PowerShot SX400 IS: two new affordable superzooms that will get you really close to the action without emptying your wallet.

The video above isn't a time-lapse per-se, but it is being reported as such because it allegedly condense a full hour of Israeli Army air strikes on a Gaza Neighborhood down to just one minute of footage. In that minute, you see an entire neighborhood vanish into explosions and massive clouds of dust that clear to reveal only piles of rubble.

Just picked up a DJI Phantom but don't have the cash to drop on an expensive gimbal to keep your shots steady and level? Well, it turns out $10 will get you at least half-way there and keep the 'jello effect' and blur out of the videos and photos you plan to go out and capture.

Flickr announced this morning the addition of a new licensing program to their lineup. Describing the program as a way for photographers to “partner with photo agencies, editors, bloggers and other creative minds who are seeking original content,” Flickr seems to be taking strike at 500px and others to get their hand in on the licensing game.

DIY paper pinhole cameras aren't a new idea, but a new creation called Viddy thinks it can stand head and shoulders above the crowd by sheer 'cuteness.' Seriously, the camera has dubbed itself the 'world's cutest' medium format and 35mm pinhole camera, and it's so easy to put together, it might even entice some newbies to give pinhole photography a shot.

Zack Arias is a man who knows his gear inside and out. Switching multiple times between various companies, he’s seen almost everything there is to see in terms of equipment. In the past, he’s continuously praised full-frame sensors, for their quality and the aesthetic they’re known for.

But lately, as many you may know, he’s fallen in love with the FujiFilm X-Series. It’s this switch that lead him to realize that while full-frame most certainly has its benefits, crop sensors com with a myriad of their own benefits. In the above video he takes a look at both full-frame and crop sensors, giving his honest outlook and opinions on both.

Today, 500px launched a new iOS app. It’s called 500px Insights and its purpose is to provide users access to the statistics of their 500px content. Not only does it provide statistics though, it’s also meant to provide a better promotional platform to strategically engage with their audience, all from a mobile device.

It’s been a tough few years and people are frustrated with the state of the industry. Everywhere I turn, people seem to be saying that a photography career isn’t what it used to be and that budgets are tight. Many of the blogs I read and the message boards that I visit all seem to be repeating the same message: There’s no work, there’s no money, and the competition is too intense to succeed. To quote one frustrated photographer, “How do you f’ing make a living shooting pictures anymore?”

It’s a sad day when your Grandfather needs to go into a ‘nursing home.’ For years my Grandpa, Stephen Clarke, had always been the strongest, smartest, most capable guy in the room. Now, he had been reduced to needing 24-hour care in a place that smells like a hospital.

In an effort to help him, my family and I cleaned out his now empty house. As I was sorting through things and cleaning I found a box of old 35mm slides. Little did I know just how much these slides would change the next half-decade of my life, eventually leading me to create my latest project, Grandpa’s Photos.

In the age of social media, major publications frequently source photos from Facebook or Twitter profiles. But as the NZ Herald recently discovered, this can lead to major, embarrassing mistakes.