Two decades ago, DSLRs were introduced to replace film cameras. With only a few megapixels, very short battery life, and an overall low quality, it was only natural that most photographers were very skeptical at first. It took a few generations until digital cameras were fully accepted and analog photography was left to the enthusiasts rather than the professionals.
My youngest daughter and I are visiting New York City this week. After visiting the 9/11 Memorial in the late afternoon on March 11, we made our way to Battery Park to catch the sunset, view the Statue of Liberty, and take a few shots. I shot the above photo with a Nikon 28-300mm lens that evening. The next day I found out that one of these helicopters is the Eurocopter AS350 that crashed in the East River about 8 minutes after this photo was taken.
When NASA astronaut Anne McClain had her official spacesuit photo shoot leading up to her trip to the International Space Station in November, she decided to do something unusual: McClain brought along her 4-year-old son for the session, and the resulting photos are adorable.
My name is Skyler Adams, and I'm a photographer. I’ve noticed that camera communities these days excitedly share news about new cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment, but hardly anyone posts an actual photo anymore. Why?
If you're a business looking to license photos directly from a photographer, there are better and worse ways to respond if the photographer rejects your request and decides not to allow the use of their photos. That's what one convention recently learned the hard way.
Photographer Jonathan Usher of Wellington, New Zealand, recently created this photo of the Milky Way rising from the horizon near his city. But get this: he wasn't using a tripod or any other stabilization -- not even a rock. It's a "60-second exposure" shot handheld.
There's plenty of speculation among photographers as to when Canon and Nikon plan to announce full-frame mirrorless cameras, but Sony itself has thoughts on when a formidable challenge to its mirrorless cameras will arise from the two juggernaut industry rivals. A Sony executive is now saying that he believes we'll see the unveiling of such cameras within a year.
There's something strange going on with the International Photographer of the Year (IPOTY) photo contest. 11 of the 14 photographers listed as judges for the IPOTY 2017 contest say they weren't asked to judge a single thing before the winners were announced in February (and the other 3 couldn't be contacted).
Photographer Ariel Leshinsky of Beersheba, Israel, has spent a couple of years photographing starling murmurations, those mesmerizing, swarm-like flocks. But Leshinsky adds a dose of creativity: he aims to capture and select moments when the random swarms look like recognizable things... like the "seal" in the photo above.
National Geographic made ripples today by acknowledging that the famous yellow-bordered magazine spent decades of its history publishing photographs and stories that were racist.
Portrait photographer Manny Ortiz recently got his hands on the newly-announced Sony a7 III full-frame mirrorless camera, allowing him to compare the $2,000 camera to his $3,200 Sony a7R III. Here's a 6-minute video in which he compares the cameras and discusses the strengths of each one.
In drought-stricken Cape Town, we’ve been living with just 50 liters of water per person per day since the beginning of the year. That’s 13.2 gallons. It doesn’t go far when you think about how often you turn on the faucet each day for drinking, cleaning, flushing toilets, showering, washing dishes, and doing laundry.
She was Leningrad's lost photographer. Russian photographer Masha Ivashintsova (1942-2000) photographed constantly but never showed her work to anyone. In late 2017, a relative stumbled on boxes of negatives and undeveloped film gathering dust in an attic. Published here, some for the first time, are some of the 30,000 images from the remarkable discovery.
Want to relive the glory of SpaceX's first-ever Falcon Heavy launch? Check out this epic new 2-minute short film titled, "Falcon Heavy & Starman." It was created by Jonathan Nolan, the co-creator and director of the hit TV series Westworld and the brother of filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
When Mehrdad Oskouei, a well known Iranian filmmaker, was planning to produce his last film Starless Dreams he asked one of his former students, Sadegh Souri, a photographer and a cinematographer to join his crew as a camera operator.
A 1923 Leica 0 series camera was just sold for €2,400,000 (~$2,957,304) at auction, setting the new record for world's most expensive camera.
A private helicopter being used for a photography flight crashed into New York City's East River on Sunday, killing the 5 passengers on board who were "tightly harnessed" when the chopper became submerged. The pilot managed to escape.
Episode 261 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Aurora Borealis photographer, Sean Kurdziolek
Earlier this week, a wildfire burned through 335-acres of forest land near Flagstaff, Arizona, before it was brought under control and stopped by about 30 firefighters. The cause of the blaze? A drone that landed and "caught fire."
There are many reasons why people may like one brand of camera equipment versus another. And if you ask a room full of photographers which camera manufacturer they like the best, and why, you will often get a wide range of responses and opinions.
A portrait photographer is receiving death threats this week after his photos began circulating online. Critics are accusing him of animal abuse over his use of live ducklings and bunnies in portrait photo shoots with babies and young children.
Rumors about a first full frame mirrorless camera from Canon are continuing to heat up. The latest word is that Canon has already created at least one prototype of such a camera.
Have extremely deep pockets? You could be the owner of the New York City photo studio created by famous American photographer Eddie Adams. Bathhouse Studios is on the market, and the asking price is a cool $19,950,000.
A PetaPixel reader was browsing for photography gigs on craigslist in South Florida today when he came across this bizarre request: someone was looking to hire a photographer to provide an "unhappy experience."
Want to see what it's like to do landscape photography in sub-zero blizzard conditions? Photographer Thomas Heaton made this 10-minute video showing such an experience recently.
Two emperor penguins in Antarctica recently stumbled upon a camera left by researchers. Curious about their find, the penguins ended up knocking over the camera and then posing for an adorable selfie video.
Like many other types of businesses, camera equipment stores can make a lot of money by upselling, or convincing a customer to also purchase additional products and services. But how far can this upselling go before it becomes unethical? A new camera store receipt published online has many photographers furious and some crying "scam."
Japan goes into a frenzy each spring as millions of locals and tourists gather to catch a glimpse of the elusive cherry blossom. Simply known as sakura, the petals come and go like the wind, representing the ethereal beauty of life.
Film photography has been seeing a renewed interest from photographers and manufacturers as of late, but that doesn't mean that all well-known film stocks will survive through the resurgence. And today there's news that another fan favorite is biting the dust: Agfa Vista is reportedly the latest film to be discontinued.
Diane Arbus was honored with an obituary by the New York Times today, 46 years after the renowned American portrait photographer died. It was one of 15 obituaries published today as part of a project titled Overlooked.
Back in December 2016, we featured the work of Kurt Moser, an ambrotype photographer who turned a Russian truck into a massive camera for his glass plate photography. After seeing the article, the team at Valkyr Productions connected with Moser and created this beautiful 9-minute video profile about the photographer and his work.
Here's a fascinating 4-minute video by vlogbrothers that tells the sad and infuriating parable of The Broccoli Tree. It's a tale that shows the dangers of photo sharing in the modern Instagrammed world.
Photographer Nick Fancher is known for combining thriftiness and creativity into eye-catching portrait lighting, and he has even written two books on the subject, titled Studio Anywhere and Studio Anywhere 2. If you like workshops more than reading, Fancher just shared this free 2-hour video of his Studio Anywhere workshop.
Wacom has introduced its newly refreshed Intuos pen tablet. If you're a photographer in search of an affordable drawing tablet for photo editing, the Intuos is one you may want to take a look at.
My name is Steffen Jahn, and I'm a seasoned car photographer based in Germany. With over 20 years in the business and having worked with all the famous manufacturers like Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes and Audi, I have a basic understanding what professional car photography is all about.
Leica has just announced a new special edition of the Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) called the "Stealth Edition." If you're a fan of minimalism and matte black, this may be a look that tickles your fancy.
Episode 260 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Entertainment and advertising photographer, Robby Klein
Film Washi V is probably the most unusual film announced in 2017, and I had the privilege of being present when Lomig, the founder of Washi Film, introduced it at the Salon de la Photo in Paris last year. Since then I have always wanted to try it and see what it's like to shoot with this very special film.
Loupedeck and Palette Gear are two completely different types of consoles that essentially aims to do one thing: help you edit a little faster in Adobe Lightroom. That’s a general statement, but if you’re here, you probably have a bit of an idea about the two devices.
Venus Optics has just announced its new Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra-Macro lens, an "affordable extreme macro option for full frame cameras."
On March 3rd, during a large East Coast winter storm, I headed to the ocean to capture some wave action. My travels eventually took me to Great Island Commons in New Castle, New Hampshire, where Whaleback Lighthouse is prominently featured .8 miles offshore. I was hoping to capture big waves crashing around the lighthouse, and Mother Nature didn’t disappoint.
Photographer Steve Perry's most popular video ever was his "7 Useful Camera Tricks for Nikon Shooters." Now he's back again with 7 more camera tricks that can help improve your shooting style and workflow.
BlackRapid is taking to social media to warn customers about counterfeit hardware being bundled into kits by some retailers. Not only can the hardware put your gear at risk, but any damage that results from using counterfeit gear will not be covered by the warranty on your authentic BlackRapid gear.
A photographer and model have learned that hard way that if you're going to do a photo shoot involving nudity, a busy strip mall is not a wise location to pick. The Pennsylvania duo has just pleaded guilty after they were arrested last year for their ill-advised shoot.
ProGrade Digital, the new memory card company launched in mid-February 2018 by a group of former Lexar executives, is trying to stay ahead of the game in the memory card format wars. It will not be making any XQD cards, and instead the company is pushing for the CFexpress format.
Pau Buscató is a street photographer who has a knack for capturing playful moments in which subjects and scenes come together in curious ways for brief moments of time. Many of his pictures are illusions that may cause you to stare a little longer to understand what it is you're actually seeing.
The world's first major photography exhibition was held back in 1839 when British scientist and photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot held a show to unveil his photo prints to the public. Fast forward nearly 180 years, and now an artist has created Talbot's first photo show as an immersive virtual reality experience.
ShiftCam has announced ShiftCam 2.0, a new iPhone case that supports 12 different for the iPhone. The case is a follow-up to the original ShiftCam case, which supported 6 lenses.
Ilford recently released a popular 8-minute video on how to process black-and-white film yourself, and now the film company is back again with another helpful crash course on how to make a black-and-white print in a darkroom. If you've never worked in a darkroom before, this intro is a great way to see what it's all about.
Photographer Reuben Wu is a pioneer of using LEDs mounted to drones to light landscapes at night, and his project Lux Noctis is filled with gorgeous and unusual photos created using this technique. More recently, Wu has added yet another creative touch: he adds halos above the rock pinnacles on dramatic landscapes by flying the drones in circles during long-exposure photos.
