Inspiration

So an image of mine (@lightbrekkie) appears to be doing the rounds lately on Instagram and you may have seen it.

Here's a gorgeous 3-minute infrared short film titled "Nostalgia." The project was an attempt at creating "the world's most beautiful drone video" by experimenting with new ways to capture images with a drone.

Photographer Jonathan Diaz is using his imagination and portrait photography skills for a good cause. He's the founder of Anything Can Be, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based non-profit that's working to inspire hope in young cancer patients by bringing their dreams to life with photos.

You know those brilliant colors that appear when the sun is just rising or setting? While you may be lucky to see those colors for minutes in most parts of the world, in Iceland they can last for hours. Los Angeles-based photographer Henry Jun Wah Lee spent two weeks in Iceland from late June through early July, when the sun sets after midnight. He was able to capture some remarkable views of Iceland's landscapes glowing under the midnight sun.

The result of his trip was the 4-minute, 4K time-lapse video above, titled "Odyssey."

Every year, Crankworx Whistler hosts a Deep Summer Photo Challenge that pits six elite mountain biking photographers against each other. The shooters have three days to put together the best and most epic slideshow they can, and the results are judged by a panel of judges, the audience at the event, and online voters. Two photographers each walk away from Whistler, British Columbia, with a $3,500 prize.

What happens when you combine the art of light painting with fifty Olympus OM-D E-M10 mirrorless cameras? The team at ZOLAQ in Germany wanted to know just that. Teaming up with Olympus and design agency ‘Bird Like’, the team created the 2-minute video above, titled ‘Bullet Time’.

My name is Luka Gorjup, and I'm a 29-year-old photographer who was born and raised in Ljubljana, Slovenia -- you know, that tiny beautiful country in Central Europe that many mistake for Slovakia?

It is beautiful, indeed. We have the seaside,the Alps, the karst, lakes, vineyards and many many excellent athletes. And we have beautiful forests -- lots of them. In fact forests cover approximately 66% of our land. In terms of relative forest cover, Slovenia ranks 3rd in the European Union, just after Finland and Sweden. This is probably the reason I have deep respect for trees and nature.

The latest Superman movie Man of Steel had an estimated budget of $225 million. Camera drone owner and …

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.

Last weekend I went to the small city of Ballarat in Australia for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. I took a portfolio of prints of my most recent project with me in the hope I would get some nudges in the right direction. I also took part in a one-day workshop led by the very experienced and inspirational Stephen Dupont. While it’s still fresh in my mind, here is what I learned from the experience.

UK-based photographer Jamie Brightmore tells us that he has been working on a new style of filmmaking: a "a bird's-eye aerial timelapse cinematography technique" that he calls the Satlapse. The 1-minute video above shows some sample Satlapse clips.

Photographer Tanya Musgrave shoots weddings professionally, but she also dabbles with photo manipulation on the side as a hobby. A groom she worked with recently asked her to do a special Star Wars photo based on the Battle of Hoth seen in The Empire Strikes Back. So, Musgrave shot a special photo on the way of the ceremony and then did the rest of the magic in Photoshop.

The 3-minute video above is a time-lapse of the long editing process.

FrontYardVideo pointed a camera at a caterpillar and captured this beautiful time-lapse video …

There was a time when I guess you could have called me a wedding photographer. Although at that point you could have really called me an ‘anything’ photographer. It was early in my career. At that point in time I would have photographed a cat eating belly button lint if someone had paid me to do so.

The team at Uncage the Soul Productions followed 23 high school students around as they spent a week at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s Astronomy Camp. The event was held during the 2015 Perseids Meteor shower and videographers were able to capture the reactions of students as they witnessed the beauty of space through their own eyes and, of course, a couple of DSLRs.

“What single moment defines a skydiver?” This is the question I kept asking myself as I prepared to photograph Sarah. At the time of this shoot, I only had a few tandem jumps (attached to an instructor.) But still, that "moment" -- for me at least -- had always been getting in the door before a jump. You can put the gear on, you can ride the plane up, but getting to the door is where you really have to face yourself. And so it was this moment that I chose for our shoot: at the door, arms overhead, eyes fixed on the beyond.

Cafe Art is a UK-based initiative that aims to connect the homeless with their wider community through art and photography. The project was founded in 2012, and since then they've hung up artwork in more than 20 cafes across London.

Back in July, Cafe Art handed out 100 Fujifilm disposable cameras to homeless people in London, connected them to photography training with the Royal Photographic Society, and asked them to shoot photos with the theme "My London."

Earlier this year, Czech Republic-based street photographer Rishabh Kaul was hired to document the Podoli Public Swimming Pool in Prague. Over the course of two months, that single swimming pool became the focus of Kaul's camera as he applied his keen eye for framing and storytelling.

Have you ever looked at a piece of artwork -- a photo, for example -- and had the thought “I could do that”? PBS's The Art Assignment takes a closer look at the statement to explore a few questions it raises.

Professional free runner Jason Paul recently teamed up with Red Bull to create this wild optical illusion video that you have to see to believe -- or not. The video’s description says that “Life as a free runner means the world is your playground… or is it just one big illusion?” It's a mind-bending visual experience that will have your brain questioning reality.

Photography is an art; by looking upon past examples, we can not only learn to improve our own technique, but also to study and appreciate times before ours. However, with the first photograph taken almost two-hundred years ago, it can be difficult to find a place to start. Enter, The Red List: a website with over 100,000 images that continues to cull the world of photography to find the very best images.

CBS Evening News just aired this short segment on the work of photographer Rick Guidotti, who has spent years shooting portraits of people with genetic conditions for his non-profit, Positive Exposure. As we first shared back in 2013, Guidotti is using his background as a major fashion photographer to change the way people see and think about beauty.

Last month, we shared a glimpse into the intense gym workouts of renowned adventure photographer Jimmy Chin, who constantly trains his body for his next extreme shoot when he's between assignments. If you'd like to see what those workouts are for, check out this new 5-minute feature by VICE Sports.

If you'd like to experiment with some do-it-yourself photography hacks and tricks, check out this new video by DigitalRev. Over the course of 10 minutes, Kai shares 10 different cheap and simple hacks you can do with ordinary things you'll find lying around your house.

Photographer Elisha Minnette recently accompanied her friends Matt and Abby on a trip to pick up their new puppy from Groodle breeder. On the way home, they came up with a strange idea: why not announce their new puppy to the world with a newborn baby-style photo shoot?

When protests and riots erupted in Baltimore earlier this year after the death of Freddie Gray, 27-year-old photographer Devin Allen began capturing remarkable photos from ground level, giving the world a look at the events through his eyes. Amidst the powerful stream of images he shared on Instagram was one particularly iconic shot of a protestor running from a crowd of police officers -- a photo that soon appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.

Fine art photographer Kylli Sparre spent years training to become a professional ballet dancer. After realizing that dance wasn't what she wanted to pursue as a career, Sparre picked up a camera, found that it was the perfect tool for channeling her creativity, and "never looked back."

Since then, Sparre has become well known for her surreal self-portraits, holding international exhibitions featuring her work.

Photographer Pontus Lindström made this 4-minute point-of-view video that shows how he photographed …

Helsinki, Finland-based photographer Lauri Laukkanen was recently hired to shoot the official poster for the 2015 Helsinki International Film Festival, which had the theme "Love & Anarchy."

"I’ve always been intrigued by movie posters," he says, "so saying yes to a project like this was a no brainer."

Hyperlapse artist Vadim Tereshchenko spent the past two years working on an ambitious project that showcases the beauty of Los Angeles. The fruit of his labor is the 2-minute video above, an eye-popping journey through the City of Angels.

When photographing Czech aerobatics and fighter pilot Martin Šonka recently, photographer Dan Vojtěch wanted to capture the plane in a different light than other photographers have done in the past. He then decided that he would shoot the plane in motion, but light it like he would a studio photo using flashes firing around it.

Here’s a daily dose of cuteness: this 3-minute behind-the-scenes video shows how Long Island-based photographer …

This past weekend, New York-based photographer Brian Maffitt set up an angled mirror underneath his bird feeder and photographed hummingbirds for a few hours. Afterward, he combined a large number of the photos into this single, surreal composite photo showing ruby-throated hummingbirds swarming.

Wet plate collodion photographer Alex Timmermans recently shot a new photo titled "Swan Lake" for his surreal Story Telling project. Here's a look at how the image was made.

With a little bit of patience and a whole lot of luck, I was able to capture this photograph of myself perched on a rock above the Pacific Ocean. When I set out to photograph the annual famed Perseids Meteor Shower last week, I had a specific goal of capturing a "selfie" photograph with myself in frame and hopefully a meteor streaking overhead (along with a variety of other images throughout the evening). My hope turned into reality in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

In the summer time at Scott Base in Antarctica, there are 4 months in which the Sun never sets. From the latter part of October through the latter part of February, the Sun stays above the horizon line, giving each day 24 hours of sunlight.

New Zealand filmmaker Anthony Powell, the man behind the award-winning film Antarctica: A Year on Ice, created this 2-minute time-lapse video by pointing a camera at the Sun and tracking it over a full day of daylight.

If you want to experience what it's like to shoot as a combat photographer, but don't want to actually risk getting shot at, you can look into photographing war reenactments. Lucas Ryan is a photographer who shoots reenactments, and last year he covered D-Day Conneaut, one of the world's premier D-Day reenactment events.

If you're a dog lover, photographer Amanda Jones has a photo project that will tug at your heartstrings. After photographing 30 different dogs as puppies years ago, she revisited them and captured what they look like as older dogs. The before-and-after portraits, a series titled "Dog Years," show how dog's have a unique spark of personality that lasts a lifetime.

In 2013, my then-girlfriend Martina and I were in Queenstown, New Zealand at the end of a two-month trip. The evening before our journey back home, we went out for a walk, absorbing the magical streets.

At one point in the stroll, my attention was drawn to a busking pianist on the Marine Parade. The music was so amazing, and we lingered for a few minutes just listening to the man play and observing the quiet and melancholy scene (even though we needed to start packing).

As a junior in high school in 1997, when I was deciding which path I wanted to go down, fine arts or photography, things were pretty simple. Did I want to express myself with a camera or a pencil? Inspired by masters like Annie Leibovitz and David LaChapelle, I opted for the camera.

All I wanted to do was create beautiful images for a living. By signing up for a degree in fine art photography, little did I know what lay ahead for me.