Exclusive photo ops are sometimes only available to those who win an application lottery. The McNeil River bear sanctuary in Alaska is one example -- photographer John Daley recently shared about his experience with that. Here's another one: CERN.
Photography has the power to change lives, and that's what happened in a big way over the past week for one Syrian refugee. After a photo of the man selling pens went viral online, people around the world have donated over $150,000 to help give the man start a new life.
Photographers often use UV filters for lens protection, but how much are they actually able to prevent your lens from getting damaged? Photographer Steve Perry of Backcountry Gallery recently decided to find out... by breaking a large number of filters and lenses.
Love someone who loves photography, and planning to pop the question soon? Check out this homemade ring box Matt Chalker made for his photographer girlfriend recently. It opens and closes like the aperture on a camera, and it took about 50-60 hours to make.
Throughout your measure of time learning photography and shooting, have you ever reached a point of realization that there is hardly a place left on the planet that you can shoot where someone else hasn’t already? Especially the most remarkable places, we find they have been packaged up, guard rails erected, and signs posted that welcome us while at the same time restrain our ability to capture a unique perspective.
The popular Holga lo-fi camera is about to get a digital makeover. The Hong Kong-based company Holga Digital has unveiled a new digital camera system based on the design of the vintage toy camera.
Back in May, a body painter offered to collaborate with me for a photo shoot with airbrushed models. This offer gave me a reason to finally experiment with black light photography, which I've wanted to try for years now.
Only a Luddite would still categorize Apple as a computer company. Indeed, the company officially changed its name in 2007, dropping “Computer” and simply settling for “Apple, Inc.” Still, most people probably think of Apple as the maker of the iPhone and iPad, and to a lesser extent as the company that makes MacBooks and iMacs.
Scientists have created a new algorithm that can magically give photos the look of famous paintings by old masters.
The latest Superman movie Man of Steel had an estimated budget of $225 million. Camera drone owner and retoucher Barry Craig’s latest Superman short film cost quite a bit less. For a bit of fun, Craig attached a superman action figure to a DJI Phantom 3 drone and took it for a spin over Victoria Park in London. Turn up your speakers to hear a bit of the official Superman soundtrack and enjoy thirty seconds of pure joy. Maybe this will hold us over until DC Universe releases the next feature …
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.
Back in July, writer David Sikorski and photographer Kristina Bakrevski gained quite a bit of attention online after publishing engagement photos of Sikorski and his one true love: the burrito.
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.
My life is pretty good. I live in one of the coolest cities in the world (Toronto), I have a lot of close friends, good family, an amazing girlfriend who loves me, and I’m beginning to think my photography business is sustainable after almost five years of hard work. I’m happier now than I have been for most of my life. But here’s the reality: I am just a blue collar photographer.
Washington D.C.-based wedding photographer Sam Hurd has quite a wild backup system for his clients' images. In an article and video Hurd posted on his blog, he explains the extensive setup behind his apocalyptical-style backup protection. If you thought you had your files well protected, you might feel otherwise after watching this (unless you're careful to the same degree).
Update: It appears that the video has been taken offline.
The iPhone may be set for a significant upgrade in the camera department when the next model is announced. It will reportedly shoot higher resolution for both photos and videos.
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.
We’ve written a number of times recently about how flying your camera drone near wildfires is both dangerous and illegal, but this week two men also discovered that getting too close to killer whales can also get you in trouble with the law. Two drone pilots recently did just that in Washington, and they received hefty fines.
A decade ago, photographer Matt Logue started creating unusual photos of Los Angeles by using Photoshop to remove all the cars and people from the scenes. His project is titled Empty L.A.
Canon has some interesting ideas for what cameras of the future will be like. A newly published patent shows that Canon has looked into the idea of an LCD screen that can expand and contract on the back of the camera.
Instagram cracked the restrictive barriers of its iconic square format yesterday, announcing to the world that it intends to remain the dominant platform of the visual content world. Initially created so that the every picture could be seen full screen on any device and any orientation, the square frame also incidentally made reference to the Polaroid format, adding another touch of the nostalgia that made Instagram so popular. So why change it?
There have been different solutions developed over the years for quickly and easily swapping out lenses with a single hand. First, GoWing introduced the Lens Flipper and Clip, which allows photographers to quickly do swaps in only a few seconds. Now, the folks over at Peak Design have announced the CaptureLENS, a similar fast lens switching device with a few unique stand out features and a smaller price tag.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina ravaging the city of New Orleans. Photographer Seph Lawless was recently commissioned by The Guardian to use his camera to explore and document the aftermath of the storm as it appears a decade after its landfall.
If you happen to own a Leica M camera, here is an accessory you may find useful: MGR Productions of Hong Kong is selling an adjustable viewfinder magnifier. Simply screw the accessory into your viewfinder ocular and you are ready to begin using it. Twist the dial to vary the magnification level between 1.1x and 1.6x.
Working with a collection of film negatives can be quite an overwhelming task that requires each photograph to be carefully loaded into a scanner for identification. However, when developer Bruce Johnson needed to go through his grandfather’s extensive collection of photographic work, he realized a better solution was needed. Light Box Loupe is the easy iOS solution for proofing negatives (and reversal film) in real-time.
FrontYardVideo pointed a camera at a caterpillar and captured this beautiful time-lapse video of its metamorphosis. We see it feeding, turning into a chrysalis, and emerging as a monarch butterfly after about two weeks.
PRENAV is a company aimed at developing extremely sophisticated automation systems for small aerial drones. Recently, the company announced that they had acquired $1.2 million to help make their drone technology smarter. So, what better to do with a bit of the seed money than fly drones around, create precise light patterns for light painting, and photograph them?
It looks like the hype surrounding the new Sony a7R II is justified... at least when it comes to sensor quality. DxOMark tested backside-illuminated full-frame sensor in the camera -- a world's first -- and the sensor received the highest overall quality score ever awarded by the testing lab.
Disappointed with Instagram's limited selection of filters? Well, a new app on the block called ‘infltr’ is promoting the ability to give your photograph over 5.1 million unique hues. Throw in one of your favorite pictures and simply swipe your finger to begin moving throughout the color spectrum. For a small price, you can have more hue filters than you could dream.
For some photographers, no term strikes more fear into one’s heart than "Color Spaces." The idea that different devices, along with our eyes, perceive light differently can seem confusing. Anyone that has gone to print one of their photographs probably knows that it can take some know-how to ensure your images are correctly represented on paper.
For the past few years, video effects specialist Robert McIntosh and another buddy of his have been working on creating a better way for consumers to stabilize video footage. What they've developed is a proprietary video stabilization program called ReelSteady. The first consumer version of the software just launched today.
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.
Last month we reported on the AstroPad App for the Apple iPad: a solution that allowed you to turn your consumer tablet into a professional graphics tablet when working with applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Illustrator. Now, the company is announcing a new app for the iPhone called AstroPad Mini -- it's everything you love about AstroPad... just minimized.
Photography has been used in many ways throughout its history: as documentation, propaganda, keepsake, etc. But never has it been so frequently used as a weapon as in the Information Age. As visual communication becomes the de facto language of social media, we can only surmise that we will see more and more examples of using photography for nefarious purposes.
Starting today, Instagram users will no longer be limited to posting square photos. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing company just announced that it is finally enabling support for landscape and portrait format photos and videos.
You've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, perhaps not always. Redditor doowi1 created this humorous illustration showing the Google result for the exchange rate between pictures and words over the past half decade. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," they write.
After reading Stephen Mayes’ TIME essay on the end of photography I couldn’t help but respond. To begin with, his main proposition is that “in the future there will be no such thing as a ‘straight photograph’” to which I’d add that I’m not sure there ever really has been much of a ‘straight photograph’ although in recent decades the public has become increasingly aware of this.
World champion sprinter Usain Bolt had a scary encounter with a clumsy cameraman at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing today. After winning the 200m race, Bolt was upended after the cameraman lost control of the Segway he was riding.
Typically, tying a model up and throwing her to the bottom of a pool isn’t a recommended practice for both legal and moral reasons. However, this new music video for the song "Lydia" by Highly Suspect dares to do just that. You begin to realize something is a bit odd as the video rolls on and on -- there are no cuts, meaning Marina Kazankova actually had to hold her breath during the entire 4-minute-plus video.
Earlier this year, Canon unveiled their EOS M3 24.2 MP mirrorless compact camera with interchangeable lenses. Unfortunately for those in North America, the M3 was only launched in Europe and Asia at the time. Now, Canon’s mirrorless compact is making its way to American shores and will be launching in October of this year.
Cube is a small new device from the Australian company Palette. Easily sample colors around you using the portable color digitizer and sample them later on your PC or Mac. While the Cube’s central abilities focus on identifying the beautiful colors that surround us every day, it can also be used for color matching and achieving picture-perfect white balance in photos.
As expected, Canon today announced its new EF 35mm f/1.4L II prime lens. On APS-C sensors, the lens is the equivalent of a 56mm. It's the world's first lens that features the company's new Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics (BR Optics) technology.
Adobe Photoshop is ubiquitous on the desktop computers of photographers around the world, but the company has yet to win the same amount of love on mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones. After calling it quits on Photoshop Touch earlier this year, Adobe will be bringing a full-featured version of Photoshop to iOS this October.
"Photoshopped" photos may be everywhere these days, but retouching images to make them look nicer has been around since the early days of photography -- it was just done differently through the years as new techniques and technologies emerged.
If you constantly move your camera from one device to another in the course of your work, you may have experienced the annoyance and inconvenience of different manufacturers offering different plate designs. What they generally have in common, however, is the same standard tripod screw. The folks at Edelkrone used this fact to create the QuickReleaseONE, which the company claims is the world's first universal quick release for switching between plates.
Here's an interesting rumor that has emerged in the camera world: Leica may soon offer a camera that competes directly with the likes of the Sony FE system. The company is reportedly planning to announce an interchangeable lens followup to the new Leica Q. It would be a full-frame, non-rangefinder mirrorless camera with autofocus lenses.
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.
People often say that dogs and their owners look more and more alike as the years go by. For her ongoing project "The Dog People," German photographer Ines Opifanti is shooting portraits of dog owners trying to mimic the expressions on their dogs' faces.
