Photographer Rob Whitworth created this time-lapse of the crazy traffic found in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), Vietnam.
Everyone who has visited Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam knows part of the magic (love it or hate it) is in the traffic. Ever since I first set foot in HCMC I have been captivated by the city’s energy. Saigon is a city on the move unlike anything I have experienced before which I wanted to capture and share.
10,000 individual photos (shot in RAW) went into making this video.
Photographer Yasuaki Segawa captured this incredible photograph of the Milky Way rising above the ocean, as seen from Taketomi Island, Japan. In addition to the uber-sharp stars, reflections of two bright stars can be seen in the waters. Segawa used a Canon 5D Mark II with a 24mm f/1.4 lens, and composited 5 separate photos to make this image (allowing him to expose the sky and the foreground separately). He also compensated for star rotation to sharpen the sky and prevent star trails. A higher-res version can be found here.
Claus Thiim captured this beautiful image of fireworks showing both in-focus and out-of-focus burst of light. The trick is to capture most of the photograph while focused on the fireworks, and then throw the lens out of focus shortly before the shutter closes.
On a slightly related note, check out this crazy video of an entire fireworks display released in just one minute (something went wrong).
“What is Life?” is a creative stop motion animation created by a group of students at the MAPS Film School in South Australia, featuring the responses of people around the world who were asked that three-word question. Every single frame in the video is an individual light-painting photograph drawn with lights and torches and captured through a long-exposure shot.
Here’s a long exposure light painting tutorial by a couple MIT Media Lab students. In addition to teaching the basics of the technique, they also show off a robot arm that they programmed to do extremely precise light painting photos and animations. Read more…
For his series titled “Drift”, photographer David Burdeny traveled along roads in Canada, France, Japan, England, Belgium, and the USA, and captured the shifting light and color of the diverse landscapes by shooting at slow shutter speeds. Read more…
Photographer Mike Rosinski created this amazing image showing light trails from both fireflies and stars by stacking over 370 photos shot over 2 hours from his backyard in Hartland, Michigan. He used a Canon T1i and 15-85mm lens at 15mm with 20 second exposures. The stacking was done with StarStaX, a free program geared towards star trail photography. You can find more about Mike Rosinski’s work (prints, licensing fees, etc) by contacting him here.
Flickr user Céline Ramoni has a beautiful set of photographs shot from the Yurikamome rail line connecting the cities of Shimbashi and Toyosu in Japan. The exposure times aren’t too long (they’re all less than a second), but the speed of the train creates plenty of motion blur — even in daytime. Read more…
Here’s an awesome tutorial that teaches you how to create beautiful light painting sparkler photos. The materials are pretty cheap: all you need is some steel wool, an egg whisk, and a rope or cable. Simply place the steel wool inside the whisk, light it on fire using a lighter (or 9V battery), and swing it around at the end of the cable while your camera snaps a long-exposure photo. Just be careful not to start a fire! Read more…
There’s plenty of tutorials online teaching you the “proper” techniques for photographing fireworks, but have you ever tried shooting them “incorrectly” on purpose? When photography enthusiast Pete Rogina took his Canon 5D Mark II out to capture fireworks this past Independence Day, he decided to try “light painting” with the fireworks by shooting them at long exposures without a tripod, waving the camera so that the streaks of light would take on abstract shapes. Read more…
