PetaPixel Writers Pick Their Favorite Stories of 2024

Dec 31, 2024

Matt Growcoot

A triptych: a bird flying in front of a solar eclipse, a boxer celebrating over a fallen opponent in a boxing ring, and a heron landing near a body of water with wings outstretched. — Image credits: Liron Gertsman (left), AI recreation of a famous John Rooney photo (center), Jacob Hall (right)

As we enjoy the final hours of 2024, it’s the perfect time to reflect on an exciting year of photography and reminisce about our favorite stories.

From interviews with incredible photographers making history, deep dives into how people use cameras to create extraordinary art, and how photography itself is changing, here are our photography favorite stories of 2024.

Matt Growcoot — Senior News Editor Culture

Matt writes photographer spotlight articles, photo culture, and artificial intelligence among other topics. Here he picks five of his favorite articles from 2024.

Recreating Iconic Photos With AI Image Generators

Despite some AI image generators banning users from asking for pictures in the style of specific artists, I suspected that you can get around this by simply describing an iconic photo by a well-known photographer.

Iconic photos recretaed by AI

And I was largely proved right when I spent an entire day using the leading text-to-image models to recreate famous photos. It proved that AI companies have no qualms about taking famous photographer’s images to train AI image generators with. This is a contentious issue that is still to be settled in the courts.

Bobcat Pounces on Heron

Sometimes in photography, you just get lucky. And that’s exactly what happened when a bobcat appeared out of nowhere to pounce on a great blue heron a photographer had his lens trained on.

Bobcat pounces on heron

Jacob Hall told me that he hadn’t even realized what had happened until he looked back at the images – it happened that fast. It may have happened in a flash but the story proved to be a viral hit.

Getting ‘Professional’ AI Headshots

Sometimes AI images can be funny. And while there was a serious reason for getting “professional” AI headshots done of myself, it was also highly amusing.

Side-by-side images of the same young man with short brown hair and a slight smile. On the left, he is dressed in a tan suit, blue tie, and white shirt, standing in front of bookshelves. On the right, he is wearing a colorful, patterned sweater, posing with arms crossed.

The objective was to see if photographers had anything to worry about and whether I would use the headshots myself. Suffice to say, I haven’t used one on my LinkedIn profile.

‘Star Wars’ Fans Saving the Original Movies

I love this story because it shows the passion of fans and the enduring love affair with film. Hunting down the original Star Wars 1970s film reels is a passion for Robert Williams, a computer programmer who lives in Philadelphia, who painstakingly restores the original film reels to 4K.

Two men are shown inside a spaceship cockpit. The older man, with white hair and a beard, wears a light brown robe. The younger man has brown hair and is dressed in a vest over a white shirt. Various lights and controls are visible in the background. — The 2011 Blu-ray version, top. Project 4K77, bottom.

Williams and his fellow like-minded individuals don’t like the editing changes George Lucas has made to the original trilogy in the intervening years. They don’t like the color changes and will always believe that Han shot first.

Photographer Disqualified From AI Image Contest

I wrote about this yesterday in my AI images of 2024 article but I had to mention it again because it was an awesome full circle moment in which photographers finally got one back on AI images.

After writing numerous stories of AI images winning photo competitions, photographer Miles Astray had the temerity to enter his picture in an AI image contest and duly won the People’s Vote Award. It’s a great photo and shows that the camera will always be mightier than the algorithm.

Pesala Bandara — Reporter

Pesala covers culture, tech, and social media for PetaPixel. She picks her four favorite stories of the year.

Generation Z Teens are Covering Their Faces in Family Photos

generation z teens cover faces in family photos nose cover trend — In a photo posted by boxer Tyson Fury’s wife Paris, her 14-year-old daughter Venezuela and 13-year-old niece Valentino cover their faces in the Gen Z “nose cover” trend.

It was fascinating to discover how Generation Z teens are handling growing up in an online landscape that sees their parents post their unfiltered and unedited images on social media, sometimes without their consent. Gen Z has resorted to using this “nose cover” pose to satisfy their parents in family photos while still maintaining some digital autonomy.

A Photographer Flew His Drone into North Korea

Photographer flies drone into North Korea — A photographer’s DJI drone captured these rare images of Sinuiju, North Korea.

It’s illegal to fly drones into North Korea, but this daring photographer managed to capture rarely-seen aerial views of the country before it was geofenced. These remarkable photos offer a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of the people of one of the most mysterious and reclusive states in the world.

Photographer Sues Woman Over Her 90-Year-Old Grandmother’s Wallpaper

This was one of the most staggering and confounding legal photography cases I wrote about this year. It involved a photographer who sued a woman who posted an image of her grandmother’s apartment, that featured his photo-based wallpaper on a vacation property rental website. The wallpaper was legally purchased, but eight years after the woman began renting out her grandmother’s property online, the granddaughter received a letter from a Canadian company alleging copyright infringement because the rental photos included the wallpaper. Spoiler: the photographer eventually lost the case.

Generation Z are Taking Aesthetic Photos of Their Airport Trays

Two trays at an airport security checkpoint. The left tray contains a book titled "Normal People," sunglasses, a keychain, wired earphones, and miscellaneous small items. The right tray holds another book, a pair of sunglasses, a British passport, headphones, and a boarding pass. — This new photography trend is called the “Airport Tray Aesthetic.”

Generation Z is turning the standard security screening process at the airport into a creative photographic opportunity. Although I might be less pleased if I was standing behind one of these snap-happy Gen Z travelers in the security line at the airport.

Jeremy Gray — Senior News Editor Technology

Jeremy writes about the photo industry with a particular focus on imaging technology. Here are his five favorite articles of 2024.

My Solar Eclipse Experience Gave Me So Much More Than Photos

Although much of my work focuses on the tools photographers use to capture images, I’m always keen to get behind the camera myself, and the Great American Eclipse was the perfect opportunity to do so in my native state of Maine.

Jeremy Gray -- April 8, 2024 -- Total solar eclipse, Patten, Maine

Venturing a couple of hours north to the mountainous Katahdin region with my parents, we were treated to clear skies, unseasonably nice weather, and one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. While I am thrilled to have returned home with good images, I’m much more grateful to have captured amazing memories with my parents that day.

Jeremy Gray -- April 8, 2024 -- Total solar eclipse, Patten, Maine

How a Photographer Captured His Spectacular Dream Eclipse Photo

While I loved shooting the eclipse myself, one of the coolest parts of the event was seeing how other photographers fared. One such person is Canadian nature photographer Liron Gertsman, who captured an amazing series of eclipse photos, including one of a bird flying in front of the total solar eclipse.

A silhouette of a bird flying in front of a solar eclipse, creating a dramatic image with the bird’s wings outstretched against the glowing halo of the sun. — ‘The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring’ by Liron Gertsman

For years, Gertsman planned this incredible image — and many others he captured on April 8, 2024, off the coast of Mexico. Speaking with Gertsman over the phone and learning about his dedication to the craft and passion for photography was one of my favorite experiences of 2024.

How an Enthusiastic New Photographer Made Birding History

While Gertsman spent years planning a very specific shot, musician, school band director, and budding photographer Michael Sanchez showed that sometimes amazing shots arrive through serendipity.

A vibrant blue bird stands on a sandy beach, with gentle ocean waves in the background and a blurred rocky foreground. — Photographer Michael Sanchez of Vancouver, Washington, captured this photo of a blue rock thrush. It was only the second sighting of the bird ever in North America.

Sanchez was out one morning in April trying to capture some lovely sunrise images at Hug Point along the Oregon coast, hoping to hone his photography skills and test his relatively new gear. While there, he saw a small blue bird hopping along the sand. Sanchez figured it was a good chance to take advantage of the range of his Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 lens, so he grabbed some shots. It turns out, the images were historic and sent passionate birders into a frenzy. I love the intersection of dedication (getting up early in hopes of getting a nice photo) and luck (an exceedingly rare bird joining you on your sunrise adventure), so this story is easily one of my favorites of the year.

This Lego Camera Is a Real, Working 35mm Film Camera

I write about a lot of cameras, but few are as interesting as the Lego ZH1 — a real, working 35mm film camera built from Lego blocks. Photographer Zung92 initially started work on the blocky camera in 2022, and the project stayed alive on Lego Ideas, a crowdsourcing platform where popular projects can one day become real Lego releases.

Lego ZH1 | Lego Ideas project by user Zung92

When I wrote my story about the Lego camera in August, the project was well short of the required 10,000 user votes with time running out. The ZH1 ultimately got the necessary support and is under active review by Lego to see if it can become a commercial release. Fingers crossed!

This Astrophotographer Captures the Universe Unlike Anyone Else

As those who know me best can attest, I love space. I talk about it constantly — too much — and think about it even more. I’m always searching for stories about the intersection of space and photography, and one of those opportunities came when I chatted with Finnish astrophotographer and artist J-P Metsavainio.

A vibrant image of the WR 124 nebula, known as the Roaring Phoenix, featuring swirling clouds of colorful gas and dust in blues, oranges, and yellows amidst a starry background. — This photo of WR 134, the Rising Phoenix, shows mapped colors for different ionized elements. The narrowband image shows H-alpha emissions as green, S-II emissions are mapped to the red channel, and O-III emissions are blue. | Credit: J-P Metsavainio

While I originally got into contact with Metsavainio to discuss one of his recent images, the story quickly evolved into a much broader one about his lengthy astrophotography career, his approach to photography, and how he artistically captures the beauty of space. Photography is often the marriage of artistic creativity and technical precision, and nowhere is that more acutely felt than astrophotography. While some are rightly obsessed with the science of space, Metsavainio is much more interested in nature’s poetry, and I appreciate that.