viral

Woman Disrespects Military in Facebook Photo, Has Life Turned Upside-Down

It's a story that's becoming more and more common: someone uploads tactless photos to the Internet, the Internet disapproves and collectively pounces on the person. It happened after Hurricane Sandy when a Brazilian model decided to do a photo shoot amidst the devastation, and it has happened again. The target of the Internet's fury this time is a woman named Lindsey Stone, who posted the above photograph to her Facebook page.

Viral Photos of a 72-Year-Old Grandfather Modeling Women’s Clothing

Product photos for clothing lines typically feature generic, attractive models, since the point of the images is to make the clothes accessible and desirable to consumers. Yuekou, an online clothing store in China, has found great success by using a different approach: its photos for teen girl outfits feature a 72-year-old man.

DSLR Gear No Idea: Videos Poking Fun at Clueless DSLR Users

Sony Australia is trying its hand at some viral marketing for its mirrorless cameras. The company has created a YouTube account called DSLR Gear No Idea, which contains a number of very short videos that poke fun at clueless DSLR users. The description of the channel reads:

These are the DSLR clueless - all the gear and no idea. Remind you of someone? Share it with them using the 'share' button. To find out more visit http://www.sony.com.au/productcategory/nex-camera

Each of the videos (apart from the lengthier compilation above) runs about 15 seconds and features a different stereotype. "F-Stop Fusspot" mocks the portrait photographer who's constantly changing settings on a camera he doesn't understand. "The Flasher" pokes fun at those who insist on using their flash in any and every situation.

Obamas’ Hug Becomes the Most “Liked” Facebook Photo of All Time

Barack Obama broke online photo-sharing records this week after winning Tuesday's presidential election. When his victory became evident, Obama shared the above photograph on his Facebook timeline with the simple caption, "Four more years." That photograph quickly attracted "likes" faster than any other image shared through the social networking service. When it hit more than 2.1 million likes shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, Facebook announced that it had become the most-liked Facebook photo of all time.

A Tongue-in-Cheek Explanation of How Stuff Actually Goes Viral Online

Ever wonder how some of the strangest videos manage to go viral online and generate huge profits for their makers? It all has to do with Buyral, a secret program that serves as the kingmaker behind all viral videos. Simply pay the fee, and Buyral will use its carefully developed worldwide program to ensure that your content gets the millions of clicks it deserves. The humorous satirical advertisement seen above, by Aircastle Films, explains how Buyral works.

Internet Slams Model for Using Hurricane Sandy Wreckage for Photo Shoot

A Brazilian model named Nana Gouvea is the latest person to feel the scorn of the Internet. After Hurricane Sandy plowed through New York City this past week, Gouvea decided that the wreckage presented the perfect opportunity to further her career. Going out into the devastation with her husband as a photographer, she posed for a photo shoot amidst downed trees and smashed cars. She then shared the resulting portraits through her Facebook page.

Needless to say, people didn't respond very positively to the pictures. They quickly went viral, but in a bad way.

Incorrectly Captioned “Hurricane Sandy” Photo of Soldiers Goes Viral

A few hours ago, the official Facebook page of the First Army Division East posted the above photograph with the caption:

Soldiers of the 3rd Inf Reg continue to stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, despite the worsening weather conditions surrounding Hurricane Sandy. The tomb has been guarded continuously since 1948.

The powerful photograph instantly attracted tens of thousands of Likes and Shares, and began going viral online.

The Art of Photographing People Being Scared Out of Their Minds

One year ago, the haunted house called Nightmares Fear Factory in Niagara Falls, Canada scored a major marketing win after its candid photographs of horrified guests went viral online. With Halloween 2012 only a week away, Jakob Schiller over at Wired caught up with the house's marketing director Vee Popat for the inside scoop of how the images are shot:

At one point in the attraction [...] the groups come to a spot where they trigger a Nikon D80 camera and flash at the exact moment where they encounter some unknown fright that is so scary it provokes grown men to hide behind their wives and friends to jump into each other’s arms.

The idea for the photos was inspired by photos of people yelling as they ride rollercoasters. Popat says the owner used to actually sit in the haunted house and take the photos himself. Just like amusement parks, attendees at Nightmares can purchase their photos after they’ve recovered from the excitement and the “best of” photos circulate on monitors in the lobby.

Colorful Explosions That Show How Viral Photos Spread on Facebook

Want to see what it looks like for a photo to go viral on Facebook? Check out these visualizations by San Francisco-based studio Stamen Design, which took three of the most shared images on the social networking service -- Marvin the Martian (visualized above), Famous Failures, and Ab Fab London, all shared by George Takei -- and created a visualization using the data from the hundreds of thousands of shares.

Clever Video of a Man Turning the B&W Photo He’s In Into a Color Photo

About a year ago, we shared a creative stop-motion video by Eran Amir that involved 500 different volunteers holding 1,500 individual photographs in order to create an animation. That video has amassed over 1.5 million views since then. It appears that Amir has a magical touch when it comes to viral web videos, because now he's back with another video that's going viral -- one that's also related to photography in an unusual way.

Stealthy Photo of Marriage Proposal Goes Viral on the Internet

Photographer Patrick Lu always carries around his Olympus OM-D EM-5 camera around. "Every day. Everywhere," he says. That came in handy last week, when Lu and a friend were at the capital in Austin, Texas. His eagle-eyed friend somehow noticed that a man nearby was about to propose, and Lu was able to snap some stealthy photos of the event, including the beautifully framed one above.

Dancing Around the World with a Camera in Hand

Seattle-based techie Matt Harding became an Internet celebrity back in 2005 after a video of him dancing in various locations around the world went viral online. Now he's back again with a new 2012 edition that's sure to go just as viral. Harding spent months traveling to tens of countries around the world, capturing short clips of himself dancing with thousands of people. The project is titled, "Where the Hell is Matt?".

Almost (I’ll Make Ya) Famous

One year ago today I took a photograph that would change my life. A single frame turned my whole world upside down, and brought on a storm of media attention, praise, criticism, confusion, wonder, and doubt. After one hell of a ride this past year, I think today is a good day to finally tell this photo's story...

Images That Magically Appear Through Long Exposure Photos

Here's amazing concept: use a seemingly random display of dots (like the static you see on a signal-less television set) to share photographs that only a camera can see. The International Federation of Photographic Art created this clever interactive video that asks you to grab your camera and follow the instructions. Set your aperture to f/5.6 and your shutter speed at 1s. Snap a photo of the screen filled with static, and prepare to be amazed!

The World’s Most Downloaded Man

This is probably the strangest and most awkward thing you'll see today. It's a short 5-minute video titled "The World's Most Downloaded Man" that chronicles photographer Fernado Martins' journey to meet Jesper Bruun, the world's best-selling stock photography model.

Viral Photographs Bring Instant Success

Photographers used to spend lifetimes building up their portfolios and networks before their work became widely known to a global audience, but with the advent of the Internet, the fact that anything can "go viral" is completely changing the equation for success.

The African Elephant Durability Test for Camera Gear

In this social media age, companies are constantly dreaming up all kinds of random ideas for demonstrating the benefits of their products, and hoping that the videos will go viral (an example would be this bulletproof glass CEO that literally stood behind his product).

World’s Largest Stop Motion Animation

Not satisfied with creating a stop-motion animation of microscopic proportions, Nokia has gone in the opposite direction, this time turning a beach into what Guinness deemed the "world's largest stop motion animation set." The 12-megapixel stills were shot over five days using a Nokia N8 cell phone strapped to a 40 meter high cherry picker, and the largest scene spans a whopping 11,000 square feet!

World’s First Stop-Motion Animation Done with Fake Fingernails

It's not a microscope stop-motion animation, but this stop-motion ad Kia created for its 2012 Picanto is pretty incredible. Over the course of 25 days and nights, they used 1200 bottles of nail polish to paint 900 individual fake fingernails. Each nail took a whopping 2 hours to paint.