“All the Wild Horses” is a photo series by South African photographer Andrew McGibbon that consists of beautiful studio portraits of horses. McGibbon writes,
For thousands of years the horse has been mankind’s closest ally. The horse made travel and development possible. We tethered, weighted and reigned them. We captured, stabled and trained them.
Ever willing, the horse was the magnificent tool of man’s ingenuity. The Horse is a beast of legend, taking on its own character, personality, emotion and mythology. However, with the advent of the steam engine the horse was made obsolete, and now they are resigned to the realm of shows and races, a world of equestrian sport, a mere shadow of the beast’s former glory.
McGibbon says painstakingly lit each shot in a manner reminiscent of the portraiture of the rich and famous. Read more…
UK-based wildlife photographers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas got the Internet’s attention a couple years ago with the BeetleCam, a special remote controlled DSLR that allowed them to capture close-up photos of animals in the wild that photographers would have difficultly strolling up to. After the success of that experiment, they decided to return to Africa last summer with upgraded (and armored) versions of the BeetleCam in order to photograph lions in Kenya. Read more…
Zurich-based designers Atelier Volvox have a project titled “Outsiders” that consists of various stuffed animals turned inside-out. The toys were purchased from second-hand shops, cut open, turned inside out, re-stuffed, and sewed back up. Read more…
Mark Rober — the guy behind the gaping-hole-in-torso costume — recently came up with a creative way of getting up close and personal with gorillas at his local zoo. It turns out that apes can’t resist looking at themselves in mirrors, so Rober drilled a hole in a mirror and pointed his iPhone’s camera through it. He was then able to snag some awesome footage that most visitors would never be able to capture. This trick may also work for other animals that are known to pass the mirror test of self-awareness, including dolphins, elephants, and certain birds.
If you’re a vegan film photographer, you might want to think about switching to digital. Why? Because virtually all photographic films and papers are made with animal parts. Most of the thickness in film comes from gelatin, which is used to hold the silver halide crystals in an emulsion. Gelatin is made from animal hides and bones — mainly cows and pigs. People have tried to come up with substitutes, but they haven’t been able to find anything suitable that’s as stable or cheap as gelatin.
Photographer Daniel Fox captured this beautiful (and spooky) photograph of dozens of pairs of caiman eyes staring back at him in the darkness.
Depending on the angle between the reptile and the camera flash, a different colour is produced. Caiman eyes have a layer called tapetum behind their retina, containing crystals that reflect light and make night vision possible. [#]
The photograph was made at a Yacare Pora farm in Ituzaingo, Argentina.
Image credit: Photograph by Daniel Fox and used with permission
In this video, photographer Julie Johnson offers some helpful tips and tricks for photographing pets. For example: to get your dog’s attention and its ears to perk up, ask it some questions.
Real estate agents make it a point to have homes look attractive in photographs, knowing that good photography can make a huge difference, but the people at animal rescue shelters often settle for second-rate photographs of the dogs they’re trying to find homes for. Professional pet photographer Teresa Berg of Dallas, Texas realized that countless dogs are likely euthanized each year simply due to bad photography, and decided to make a difference. Several years ago she started doing shoots for a pet shelter free of charge, and helped increase the adoption rates there by 100% Read more…
