disaster

A Baltimore photojournalist who covered the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse spoke about the impact of documenting such an event, calling it one of the worst things he's seen in his years working.

Being a wedding photographer for me is one of the best, if not the best, jobs in the world. As expected though, the best job in the world also has its negatives, and one of them is the reoccurring nightmares the night before a wedding day.

There has been a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria killing at least 5,200 people, harrowing images have begun pouring out of the crisis zone.

If a fire broke out, and you could only grab one thing, what would it be? For many, that question will always stay hypothetical, but for the residents of Anonas Street in Santa Mesa, Manila, on one fateful day in 2020, it suddenly became the reality that would change their lives permanently.

A major storm brought heavy rains, floods, and mudslides that brought parts of Sao Paulo to a halt this week. Renowned photographer Bob Wolfenson's studio was caught in the midst of the severe weather, and he estimates that up to 80% of his collection was affected.

An EF-3 tornado ripped through Marshalltown, Iowa, last Thursday, and one of the victims of the disaster was a 92-year-old photographer named Harold Cline. After seeking shelter from the storm, Cline returned to his work to find that his 65-year-old business had been destroyed.

After Hurricane Harvey slammed Texas, there was a group of high school students who partnered with volunteer organizations to help rescure family photos damaged in the disaster. Here's a 4-minute film by Adobe Students about the project.

Earlier this month, aerial photographer Douglas Thron captured this apocalyptic footage of a mailman delivering mail in a Santa Rosa, California, neighborhood that had gotten burned to the ground by raging wildfires.

Record-smashing rainfall brought by Hurricane Harvey recently flooded thousands of homes across the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, including my grandmother’s home in Southwest Houston. Despite being located in a flood-prone area, her single-story house had never flooded before in more than five decades of her living in that house.

Sony only recently got its sensor business back on its feet after its main factory was heavily damaged by the the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan. If you've been curious as to just how badly the Kumamoto plant was hit, check out the 8-minute video above showing the first public footage of the moments of destruction.

In mid-April 2016, a series of powerful earthquakes struck the Kumamoto region of southern Japan. A number of major camera companies have important operations in that area, and now, weeks later, those companies are still working recover from the disaster.

Chernobyl and the nearby city of Prypyat is a common subject, particularly for URBEX photographers who go there to document the deserted town. But photographer Alina Rudya's project/book Prypyat Mon Amour is different. Her family was there when the infamous accident happened, and when she returned to photograph the people whose lives were changed, she returned 'home' as it were.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. On January 28th, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger broke up 73 into its flight into space, killing the 7 astronauts on board.

Orlando Sentinel photojournalist Red Huber was covering the launch that day. In the 4-minute video above, Huber reflects on the event and shares what he remembers from shooting that fateful assignment.

Wedding photographers are generally supposed to be as stealthy as possible during a ceremony, but the poor photographer in …

I was in Nepal exactly six years and three days before the earthquake that devastated the country on Saturday.

Back then, I was photographing for a magazine feature and had spent much of the day in Bhaktapur, a beautiful and ancient city in the Kathmandu Valley.

The picture above is the only photo Jeb Bush has of his wedding 41 years ago. Here's why: Bush made the mistake of allowing his younger brother Marvin to be his official wedding photographer. Marvin, who was still in high school at the time, made the tragic mistake of rerolling already-exposed film.

When photographer Jim Stimson and I started our Winter in the Eastern Sierra photography workshop at Mountain Light Gallery we knew the drought conditions would provide a challenge for us to come up with “wintery” scenes for our clients.

A major storm was rolling in and much of California was under flash flood watches. We were under a high wind advisory with rain and snow to follow. A power transmitter was blown down in the strong erratic winds and soon a wildfire was raging out of control.

Here's an example in which having a "YOLO" attitude during a photo shoot turned out to be a very bad idea. Photographer Jarrett Hucks was photographing a soon-to-be bride on a beach when a group of equestrians rode by. The client decided that "since you only live once," she wanted a photo of herself riding a horse. What happened next is captured in the video above.

On September 27th, 2014, Mount Ontake in Japan erupted and began spewing ash. A popular destination for tourists and beginning hikers, several hundred people were reportedly on the volcano at the time. At least 56 of them didn't make it off.

Now, in the aftermath of the disaster, damaged cameras and phones are yielding photos that offer a glimpse into what things were like on the slopes just moments before the rumbling began.

When the 2013 Moore tornado struck Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013, Charles Gafford III took refuge in a storm shelter. Once inside, he noticed that there was a small gap in the shelter that he could stick his smartphone through. He did, and ended up capturing the footage above that shows what it's like to have an EF5 tornado -- the strongest strength rating assigned -- pass almost directly overhead.

In Oklahoma, tornados are a common thing. Every spring they occur and every Oklahoman grows up knowing what they are and the damage they can cause. As a native Oklahoman, I've only seen two tornados in person after chasing them down. Most of the time they do little damage and dissipate fairly quickly. People are usually more worried about damage that comes from the gigantic-sized hail than from tornados.

Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

A devastating tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, May 20, 2013. It was reportedly over 2 miles wide at one point, and covered 20 miles during the 40 minutes it was on the ground. The National Weather Service has classified it as at least an EF-4 tornado with winds of at least 166 miles per hour.

NBC affiliate station WMC-TV had a helicopter camera in the sky capturing the whole thing, and released the time-lapse video above showing the storm traveling across the land before finally disappearing back into the clouds.

Wedding photographers are supposed to stealthily document unique moments, not become part of them. Unfortunately, the latter is what photographer Jacki Bruniquel did last month while photographing a wedding in South Africa. As the bride walked down the aisle with her father, a wedding photographer's worst nightmare unfolded for Bruniquel: her head got too close to a burning candle, kindling a small blaze in her hair. In a few short seconds, the entire room was staring and gasping at Bruniquel rather than the bride.

Camera companies are doing their part to help victims of Hurricane Sandy get back on their feet. Here's something that might be great news to some photographers on the East Coast: Sigma is extending its warranty to cover damage caused by the hurricane.

This may be a rare case in which a $695 class might actually save your life: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is offering a safety course for journalists who cover war, conflict and disaster zones.

The photograph you see above isn't the result of Photoshop or infrared photography. Captured by Spanish photographer Palíndromo Mészáros, it shows what the landscape of Ajka, Hungary looked like half a year after the Ajka alumina plant accident -- an industrial disaster in which 35 million cubic feet of toxic waste flooded the land to a height of around 6.5 feet. Mészáros lined up the thick red line caused by the sludge with the horizon line to obtain this surreal image.

A UK couple is very displeased after their wedding photographer lost all the images from their wedding during a scuffle in a pub.

Jackie and Anam Sanderson enlisted a friend, Ben Fagan, to take wedding photographs -- mostly to his benefit, they said, to boost his portfolio. But after the wedding, Fagan placed the card in his wallet and lost it a week later -- though he doesn't have a clear memory of when or where. Unfortunately for the couple, who had a small wedding service with just 60 guests, Fagan was the only one taking pictures, save a few blurry photos taken by guests.

A week ago we shared a photo showing Nikon’s factory in Thailand submerged due to the …

Thailand is experiencing the worst flooding it has seen in more than 50 …

You’ve probably seen countless photographs already of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan back in March, but …

There have been a number of devastating tornadoes in the Southeastern United States this past week, with the homes …

The stock prices of major camera equipment manufacturers took a major — and expected — dive after the earthquake …

After last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Canon and Nikon have …

The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that devastated Japan today was located just east of the city of Sendai, which subsequently suffered major damage due to the resulting tsunami. What you might not know is that the city is home to Nikon's flagship manufacturing facility -- the plant that produces Nikon's professional DSLRs (e.g. D3s, D3x and D700). Fortunately, Nikon reports that there have been no reports of injuries among its employees in that city, and the plant seems to have escaped serious damage as well.

This poor wedding photographer wasn’t looking at where he was going and, as a result, caused a huge commotion …