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OCOLOY: A One Camera, One Lens, One Year Project

With 2016 just around the corner, many photographers will be dusting off the cameras they've been neglecting and making New Year's resolutions in an attempt to rekindle their creativity. If you're looking for ideas and inspiration, here's a good one: do a OCOLOY project. It requires using just One Camera and One Lens for One Year.

These Are the First Virtual Reality Cinemagraphs

Back in 2011, photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck helped coin and popularize the "cinemagraph," an animated GIF showing a mostly static photo with certain elements moving and looping.

Now, as the world of virtual reality is starting to take off in a big way, photographer Eran Amir is taking the cinemagraph to a new dimension: 3D. He has created a series of virtual reality cinemagraphs, which you can watch in the 2.5-minute video above.

Wedding Photographers Show Off Their Dance Moves with the Bride and Groom

Here's something you don't see very often at weddings: a choreographed dance involving the photographers. At a recent wedding in Albania, the bride and groom came up with the idea of doing an organized dance with their sharply-dressed photographers and videographers to open up the dance floor. You can watch the 3-minute routine in the video above.

Idea: Use a Car as a DIY Smoke Machine Outdoors

While shooting a recent series titled American Made, Los Angeles-based lifestyle and advertising photographer Caleb Kuhl needed a dusty scene, so he had someone drive an SUV around to serve as a DIY smoke machine. Above is a 2-minute behind-the-scenes video of the shoot.

Portraits of Babies in Camera Bags

When photographer Alessandro Della Bella's son Claudio was born in December 2014, he shared the happy news of the new family member by shooting a picture of Claudio sleeping in the main compartment of his camera bag.

Here’s a Bright Idea: Eco-Friendly Film Canisters

Like single serving coffee pods, film canisters aren't exactly the environment's best friend. One startup over in Italy is trying to change that. Called compagnia-imago, the company is trying to create a high-quality eco-friendly film canister that's biodegradable, compostable, an reusable.

Idea: Use a Long Exposure at Night to Shoot a Starry Double Image

This starry double exposure-style photograph was made using a single long exposure. Photographer Ted Schiele was 190 seconds into a long exposure photo of the night sky when he heard a car coming down the road. He then pointed his camera down towards the car and exposed the camera for another 13 seconds as it approached.

Cinder Blocks Are a Cheap Way to Give Your Photos Some Fire Protection

Photographer and entrepreneur Gary Fong lost his house to a devastating fire earlier this year, but he didn't lose any of his most valued possessions thanks to precautions that he took. After the experience, he realized that cinder blocks can be used as a cheap way for photographers to gain some fire protection for their data without having to shell out big bucks for commercial solutions.

Sold Out: Alec Soth Snapchat Photos That Disappear After 10 Seconds

Renowned Magnum photographer Alec Soth is experimenting with a new way of delivering photos to art buyers and a new way for art buyers to experience photos. One of his latest projects takes a page from Snapchat's book, using the social photo sharing service to sell photos that disappear after just 10 seconds of viewing.

This 3.5-Minute Music Video Was Shot in 5 Seconds with a 1000FPS High Speed Camera

The 3.5-minute music video above was captured in a span of 5 seconds. French filmmaker Guillaume Panariello tells us he did this "shortest shoot ever" using a Phantom 4K camera snapping 1000 frames per second. When slowed down, those 5 seconds of real time turn into three-and-a-half minutes of slow-mo craziness. The song is "Unconditional Rebel" by Siska.

Write Your Signature with a Long Exposure Photo of the Moon

Ever since light painting exploded onto the scene some years ago, writing your signature by waving a light source in a long exposure has become a very common photo idea. But have you ever tried writing your signature by waving your camera at the moon?

That's what photographer John Kraus attempted recently, and the photo above shows the results of his effort.

Idea: Make an Annual Video of Your Family Reviewing a Photo Book of the Past Year

Here's a nice idea for an annual family tradition (especially if you're a parent with young kids): take your family photos from the past year, create a year-in-review photo book, and then record some video of your family looking at the book and talking about it.

That's what photographer Tim Kyle started doing this year with his two young daughters. The video above shows the three of them looking over their 2014 family photos "with expert commentary."

This DSLR Box Design Doubles as the Owner’s Manual

Sustainability is a big and important idea these days, and it's the one behind this new concept box design for DSLR cameras. It's clever packaging that has two uses: once the camera is safely transported to the owner, the box is taken apart and used as the owner's manual for the camera.

Nikon May Be Working on a Modular Lens System with Mix and Match Pieces

In the past several years, there have been quite a few mentions of modular camera designs that split sensors, screens, and bodies of cameras into separate, replaceable parts. Today is the first time we've heard of a completely modular lens system.

A recently published Nikon patent appears to show just that: a lens that is assembled by connecting a number of circular pieces to form a complete barrel.

Try Tossing Your GoPro in the Air to Capture Awesome Group Shots at the Beach

The photo above was taken by Nathaniel Jude Heres (who goes by the Reddit username cuddymonster) and it might just turn out to be the next fun group photo trend. Rather than taking a standard beach shot or the nearly-impossible-to-get-everyone-in-the-shot group selfie, just toss your GoPro in the air and hope for the best!

Liteblades are a Unique New Light-Painting Contraption for Long Exposure Lovers

Light-painting started out as a very DIY genre of photography. Using flashlights, steel wool, sparks, LEDs, rope lights and many amalgamations of all of the above, photographers have created some interesting contraptions to spice up their work.

And now, well-known Montreal-base light painter Patrick Rochon (who we've featured a number of times) has set out to create a contraption of his very own.

Introducing Lens Chimping: A Creative New Photography Technique

So, for a while now I’ve shared photography techniques I’d worked on throughout my career. Every wedding season I try to share something new with everyone and I love seeing what other photographers have done with prisming, freelensing, and brenizer methods (aka. bokeh panoramas).

Now it’s time for my latest technique: I call it lens chimping.

Boomf Makes Instagram Photos Edible by Printing Them on Marshmallows

This might just be one of those services both the loves and haters of Instagram will like. Because while other services print your Instagram shots on magnets or postcards, Boomf prints them on... marshmallows.

So, you see, if you like Instagram you get to turn your favorite photos into edible confections, and if you don't, you get to eat all of those pretentious selfies, food shots and cappuccino pictures you so despise. As Michael Scott would say: "win win win."

Asking Random People to Tell the Story Behind the Last Photo on Their Phone

San Francisco-based interactive artist and freelance creative Ivan Cash recently had a neat idea: go out on the streets of San Francisco and ask random people to share the story behind the most recent photo on their phone (note: there is one racy photo and a few curse words dropped by some of the interviewees).

Photog Uses Photo Book Crease to Hide Important Parts of Photos… On Purpose

If you have any photo books with glued bindings lying around the house, you'll probably understand how annoying the crease in the middle can be. If a photo is printed across both pages, you inevitably lose part of the image as it curves down in the middle, taking some of your sanity with it.

But where other photographers are opting for sewn bindings (the kind that lay flat) more and more, photographer I-Hsuen Chen went the other direction. His project In Between takes advantage of the dreaded crease by hiding the most important parts of photos in there on purpose.