December 2014

Jump to articles by year, month, or day.

Year
Month
Day

Year alone opens that year’s archive. Add a month or day to narrow it.

Photographer Jakob de Boer on Being an Artist and Using Images to Tell Stories

Ryan Freeman has been creating a short film series called The Guild, which features interviews with some of the "creative minds of our time." The video above features photographer Jakob de Boer -- a guy who also tests prototypes for Leica and Adobe -- talking about his creative process and relationship to photography. "My advice to people is to walk softly but speak loudly with your art," he says.

Mall Turns Customers’ Portraits Into Wrapping Paper for Presents

Here's a neat idea that combines photography with Christmas spirit: the Plaza Ginza shopping center in Tokyo, Japan has been running a fun event called "I Wrap You." Instead of wrapping gifts with generic wrapping paper, the center is snapping photos of customers on the spot to create gift wrap featuring their faces.

The Fujifilm X-T1 Globe-Trotter Kit Costs $14,000 and Comes with an iPad

Want to get started in photography? A camera and a kit lens can help you do that. Want to do so while touring the world on your private yacht? Fujifilm's new X-T1 Graphite Silver Globe-Trotter Kit is designed for you. It's a limited edition luxury camera kit that has everything you need to get started with Fuji X-T1 photography... and then some.

Wedding Photographers Robbed During Shoot, Lose Wedding Photos and $13,500 in Gear

Wedding photographers beware: you could be a prime target for robbers due to the value of your gear. Just last year we reported that photojournalists in California were being targeted for their equipment, and now another crazy incident has occurred: a wedding shoot in Oakland was targeted this weekend by robbers who made off with $13K+ in camera gear... and all the wedding photos.

Creating a Star Wars Themed Christmas Card Photo of Santa in Carbonite

Here's my 2014 Christmas card: Santa in Carbonite! At the end of every year my studio collects all of the cool card ideas that we thought of during the season. I then create a calendar event for the next November, listing out the ideas we thought of. Last year we came up with a Star Wars Christmas card idea with the boys guarding Santa Claus, frozen in carbonite. Call them Imperial Elves.

Nat Geo Photog Says Amazon Won’t Stop Selling His Stolen Photograph

Earlier this month, National Geographic photographer Tomas van Houtryve had one of his photographs selected by TIME magazine as one of the Top 10 Photos of 2014. It was a high honor, but also one that opened an unexpected Pandora's Box for Van Houtryve: his photos began appearing on third-party products on Amazon without his permission.

CameraBands: Turn Your Junkyard-Bound Camera Gear Into Custom Rings and Bracelets

In Brook, Indiana, a town of about 1,000 people, there's a small business called CameraBands that specializes in recycling camera equipment into bracelets and rings. If you ever break your favorite gear far beyond repair (i.e. it's destined for the junkyard), you can ship it to CameraBands instead of tossing it to have it transformed into very different forms.

Photographer Shares How He Spent Two Years Living on Photos Instead of Money

Back in 2012, we wrote about a project called "Pixel Trade" by Australian photographer Shantanu Starick. The basic idea was simple but crazy: Starick wanted to travel through all seven continents on the globe without ever spending any currency. Instead, he would try to trade his services as a photographer to people willing to provide him with shelter, food, and transportation.

Nikon D750 Owners Reporting a Dark Band Problem That Causes Ugly Lens Flares

The Nikon D750 full frame DSLR has been receiving fantastic marks from reviewers so far, but now an issue has popped up that threatens to damage the camera's reputation. Photographers around the world are reporting a problem with their lens flares. At certain angles, an ugly dark band shows up across the top, separating lens flares from the edge of the frame.

Lens Technologies: Fluorine vs. Fluorite

There are two lens terms that have similar sounding (and potentially confusing) names: fluorine and fluorite. Apparently quite a few people have trouble distinguishing between the two, so here's a quick look at what they each are.

4 Techniques that Will Help You Master Dodging and Burning Your Photos

If you have 30-minutes to spare for a tutorial, check out this one by photographer and retoucher Michael Woloszynowicz on the techniques of dodging and burning. It's an in-depth video in which he discusses 4 different approaches that photographers can take and which ones to use in which situations -- things like layer blend modes, curves adjustments, frequency separation, and layer blend-if.

A Brief Intro to Shooting with a Rangefinder Camera

If you've never picked up a rangefinder camera before and have always wondered how it differs from single-lens reflex cameras, here's a short video that may be of interest to you. In it, photographer Craig Semetko discusses the basics of rangefinder photography -- in this case he's using a Leica M -- and its advantages compared to SLRs.

Megatron is Not a Fan of Selfies

Universal Studios in Hollywood recently offered guests a photo op with a performer dressed very impressively as Megatron, one of the main baddies in Transformers. It turns out Megatron is not a fan of selfies.

How to Harness Your Fear to Become a More Confident Street Photographer

Street photography is one of the most difficult forms of photography out there. Not only do you have to rapidly compose, frame, and approach strangers, but you have to do so with the risk of “injury.” They might injure you verbally (threaten to break your camera, give you a dirty look and call you a creep, or curse at you) or they might injure you physically (try to grab your camera, hit you, shove you, etc).

The Disorienting Beauty of Spiral Staircases in Old Abandoned Buildings

Christian Richter is a fine art architecture photographer based in the small town of Jeßnitz, Germany. A fan of exploring old, abandoned buildings, Richter has often come across tall spiral staircases that look both beautiful and disorienting when viewed from the very top looking down. These staircases form a photo series of his that is aptly titled, "Abandoned Staircases."

Character, Style, and Mood in Photos

In photography, many of us start our journey by studying and learning from the masters of the art. But my belief is that many of us will eventually develop a desire to create their own personal photographic style, rather than just copying others. This requires experimentation, learning, effort and creativity. In my case, I approach photography as an art form, not just a mechanism for documenting and recording events. This more expressive approach influences my work greatly and my ability to use …

Fan Gets Karate Kicked by Guitarist While Snapping an On-Stage Selfie

Here's a strange incident that's causing a stir online and in music communities: at a recent concert by the metal band Every Time I Die, a fan named Micah Barnes decided to climb onto the stage to try and snag a selfie with the lead singer. Guitarist Jordan Buckley would have none of it, and decided to put an end to the photo shoot with a swift kick that sent the smartphone flying into the air.