A cameraman at the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR race escaped disaster this past weekend at the Daytona International Speedway. While working a camera on a tripod on the side of the track, the man found himself just a short distance away from a car slamming into the catch fence after a big wreck.
Last month, we shared how "freedom of panorama" has come under attack in Europe. According to a proposed amendment to copyright reforms being considered, photographers would need to seek authorization before commercially using photos showing copyrighted works that are permanently located in public spaces.
If you share your photography in any public manner, you're bound to run into critics who point out things you should improve in. While some of the critiques aren't worth listening to and should be tuned out as noise, others may be from more experienced people who have genuinely valuable feedback that could help you grow.
Want to be blown away by the size and beauty of the Milky Way? daveachuk of Vancouver, Canada, created this 8-minute-long flythrough of our galaxy in 3D. It may look like a CGI rendering, but it's not: it's actually the result of combining over 400,000 photos captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope across various wavelengths and over 6 years. Gigapixels upon gigapixels of photos were processed and manipulated over 5 months of spare-time work to create what you see above.
Kaleta Bartosz was on a boat with his girlfriend off the coast of Croatia last week when they spotted the Royal Clipper -- a five-masted cruise ship -- sailing by in the distance. Bartosz raised his binoculars, placed his smartphone camera against the eyepiece, and captured this vintage-looking photo that looks like something from the pages of an old book.
Having failed woodworking at school, probably the worst thing I could have done is venture into the world of wet plate photography.
Back in April, Zeiss announced its new Batis series of lenses -- a lineup that featured the world's first-ever OLED distance display rather than a physical distance indicator window. The new OLED screens can be easily read by photographers even in low (or no) light situations.
Here's a fantastic piece of visual storytelling: the New York-based production company Variable recently traveled to the small Greek island of Chios to document an annual tradition that involves Orthodox churches firing 100,000 homemade rockets at each other in a mock war. The resulting short film, embedded above, is titled "Rocket Wars."
If you’re an Instagram fan, there is a good chance that your experience is about to get quite a bit better. In the past, Instagram has uploaded and stored user images at a meager resolution of 640x640. In a world in which smartphones are beginning to include quad HD displays, a non-HD resolution seems subpar. Luckily, it appears that 1080x1080 Instagram uploads are on the way.
Hey, Amazon Prime members: if you've been eyeing a particular piece of camera equipment, you might want to hold off on purchasing it until next Wednesday. On July 15th, to celebrate its 20th birthday, Amazon is holding a ginormous shopping event called "Prime Day." The company promises that it'll be offering more deals than Black Friday.
Patience can lead to great things in photography. For photographer Johan Georget, it's what allowed him to capture this shot-of-a-lifetime of a rhinoceros in Africa.
GoPro has just announced a new action camera, it's smallest camera yet. The new GoPro HERO4 Session is 50% smaller and 40% lighter than the HERO4 Black and Silver, and its cube-style design is strangely similar to Polaroid's Cube+ action camera.
A new idea by Hillary Clinton is going viral on the Web, and this one has nothing to do with government policies. While walking through the streets during the Independence Day parade in Gorham, New Hampshire, yesterday, Clinton's aides used ropes to contain and control photographers and others members of the press corps. Photos of the unusual "wrangling" quickly went viral online after being shared by reporters.
Last week, the Washington City Paper made a stand against what it considered an unfair concert photography contract presented by the Foo Fighters with an article entitled "Why We’re Not Photographing The Foo Fighters." Concert photographers everywhere stood up and slow clapped for the headline, the main idea of the article, and the stand it took on photographers rights.
Capturing animals riding other animals seems to be a new trend in wildlife photography. First there was a weasel riding a woodpecker. Next was a raccoon riding an alligator. The latest: this photo of a crow hitching a ride on the back of a bald eagle.
The highly-regarded Sony a7S is known to be a monster in low-light situations, a fact demonstrated by a number of short films have used moonlight as the only light source. Those projects are eye-opening, but another way to see just how good the camera's high ISO quality is is to compare it with other well-known cameras.
My Canon and I. We were like two peas in a pod. We met when I was just a young man, knowing nothing about love or how to use a camera. My Canon taught me so much so quickly. We would go out everywhere together and my Canon would teach me how to see things in a new light, see things that I’ve never seen before. My Canon was everything I could ever have wanted.
Cinema and photography are two close-knit relatives that help us to tell stories through the use of a camera and mindful composition. This week, we are taking a look at the visual style heavily relied upon by the film noir genre that was most prevalent in the mid 20th century. Through the exploration of Hollywood's film noir visuals, we can learn a bit more about the history of cinema while finding inspiration for our own work.
With every report of virtual reality news, we seem to step closer and closer to a world such as the one depicted in Ernest Cline’s Science Fiction novel, Ready Player One. Today is no exception as we report on the new Sphericam 2: a 4K 360-degree video camera for transporting minds through the power of audio and video. The product, launched by Jeffery Martin, is on Kickstarter looking to meet its $150,000 goal, and it is almost there thanks to 130 generous backers thus far.
We recently reported on the 10th anniversary of Canon’s EOS 5D DSLR lineup at the end of May, but Canon isn’t done celebrating. The Japanese camera manufacturer has released a new video in which the development team behind the 5D talk about the thought process behind the 5D’s design and construction.
Singapore-based photographer Mezame Shashin-ka is a big fan of incorporating science fiction themes into his photography. Recently an engaged couple approached him with a special request: they wanted a Star Wars-themed pre-wedding photo shoot that would be "out of this world." Shashin-ka delivered.
Light-painting photographer Darren Pearson released this 3.5-minute video tutorial on how to paint a skeleton of light into a long-exposure photograph. Pearson is known in the light-painting community for his photos of animals and figures, and for creating beautiful stop-motion animations using thousands of light-painted photos.
Flying an aerial drone over a raging fire can be quite problematic, so much so that it can endanger the rescue and recovery abilities of fire officials. Recently, two incidents created difficulties for fire officials trying to battle a 24,000-acre wildfire in Southern California. The drones were flown into airspace over the blaze that then prevented the department from using aircrafts in subduing the fire.
I just installed an ANKR in my camera bag. Over the past 10 years I’ve had this reoccurring dream about my camera gear and my backpack being stolen. I’ve actually had two cameras stolen over the years, unfortunately.
Amateur photographer Dylan O’Donnell recently captured this beautiful photograph of the International Space Station flying across the face of the moon over Australia. The silhouette of the station can be seen in the upper right hand corner.
Custom SLR recently released their new Dual Camera Strap, which combines two of their previous camera straps for easily carrying multiple cameras at once. Similar in functionality to Hold Fast’s $215 MoneyMaker, the Dual Camera Strap comes in at a fraction of the cost and ensures that you can always access your cameras on hand.
This first year of officially shooting full-time has flown by. I didn’t realize how scary it was to graduate college, leave school forever, and be on my own. For years that’s all I wanted. I hated school. I hated anything that held me down. It wasn’t until I didn’t have anything to hold me down that I realized just what it takes to run a full time wedding photography business. Here are the top five tough lessons I (and probably any creative entrepreneur) face the most.
1000fps slow motion shooting has traditionally been something found only in high-end, professional-grade cameras, but it's beginning to appear in the world of consumer compact cameras. Last month, Sony announced its new RX100 IV, which boasts 1000fps capabilities in a $948 compact camera.
There's a revolution brewing in the world of concert photography. After photographer Jason Sheldon penned a viral open letter to speak out against Taylor Swift's concert photo contract, a major Irish newspaper decided to boycott photos at Swift's recent concert. Now a Washington newspaper has followed suit with another major player in the music industry: the Foo Fighters.
Did you know that a Nikon F3 still photography film SLR was used to shoot the 1984 movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? The mine cart chase scene in the film would have been too expensive if the track were built to scale, so George Lucas and Steve Spielberg turned to the special effects team at Industrial Light and Magic. They modified a Nikon F3 to shoot the chase scene in miniature using stop motion.
Traditional SLR cameras do phase detection autofocus by directing light onto AF sensors in the camera's mirror box. Some newer sensor technologies do away with the need for separate sensors by building the phase detection technology directly into the image sensor.
Photographers, beware: there may be scammers on your local Craigslist that target photography assistants. Fall into this trap, and you could soon find yourself separated from your own money.
Believe it or not, the image above isn't a digital composite created in Photoshop -- it's a light painting photo captured using a film camera. Photographer Jason D. Page spent four years planning for this shot before finally capturing it in just the right conditions recently.
Nikon today announced three new lenses: a 16-80mm f/2.8-4 for DX cameras, a 500mm f/4 for FX, and a 600mm f/4 for FX. The 16-80mm brings Nano Crystal Coating and Electromagnetic Diaphragm to DX lenses, while the 500mm and 600mm use fluorite elements for significant weight savings.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the horror stories. “ONOZ! My lens got a scratch, it’s ruined!!” someone screams, then goes to quietly cry in a corner. “Welp, shoulda used a UV filter, if those get scratched you can just replace them, now you have to sell that lens for half what it's worth on eBay.”
Whether you are a working professional or a passionate enthusiast, keeping your gear up to date can cost a pretty penny. For this reason, you want to ensure that all of your equipment is well protected against possible damage or theft. With many different organizations offering customized insurance plans for your gear, we are going to take a look at five options to see which may be best suited to your needs.
A camera startup called Bounce Imaging has just launched the Explorer, a tactical 360° camera that looks like a black softball with lenses scattered across the surface. The device is designed to help law enforcement scope out risky environments before entering them, capturing a spherical panorama to reveal hidden dangers.
Here's something you can file under "What NOT to do as a photographer": Singapore Reckless Drivers, an online community that promotes road safety, just published this short video of a wedding photographer that was seen shooting pictures of a bride and groom's getaway car on a freeway in Singapore.
Flickr sparked some controversy back in May after it was discovered that the service's new autotagging feature was prone to mislabeling black people as "apes." It looks like Google Photos developers didn't learn from Flickr's embarrassing misstep: a Google developer is apologizing after it was found that Google's Photos app misidentifies photos of black people as "gorillas."
Jaunt is a virtual reality company with enough confidence to proudly claim the tagline of ‘the future of cinematic VR’. Aimed at creating high-profile cinematic virtual reality experiences through their camera technology, the company has announced their latest product. The Jaunt Neo is aimed at professionals looking to capture fully immersive 360-degree experiences.
Sony announced a few years ago that digital imaging would be one of its three main pillars (with the other two being games and mobile). It looks like the decision is paying off, and Sony is doubling down on its plans. After making 40% of all image sensors sold in 2014, Sony is now announcing that it will raise $4 billion in funding in order to increase how many sensors it can produce.
Last year, the mobile photography company Moment announced the release of two mobile lenses for smartphone devices: the 18mm wide angle and the 70mm telephoto. The company then followed up earlier this year by producing the ‘Moment Case’ for iPhone 6, which features a shutter button, lens mount, and camera strap. Now the company is back again by announcing a brand new macro lens.
If you're a fan of both photography and the TV show How It's Made, here's a behind-the-scenes video that might be of interest to you. Rosco just released this 1-minute video showing how it creates its Roscolux swatchbooks, which contain a small sample filter of almost every Roscolux filter.
Four years ago we were introduced to the olloclip on Kickstarter, and now the company’s series of lenses are some of the most popular lenses available for Apple’s iPhone. And olloclip isn’t just stopping there. Recently, the company announced another Kickstarter campaign for their new studio mobile photography system and they want the help of the community to bring the product to life.
It's like deja-vu, all over again. A month after a fan photographer caused a horrible crash at Italy's top bike race, another DSLR shooter has caused a crash at the British National Road Race Championships.
Image histograms are useful tools that can be used to help properly gauge the exposure and contrast within a scene during shooting or to balance the tonality of a photograph in post-production. These days, histogram graphs can be found almost everywhere, with more modern digital cameras including live displays during composition. Today’s primer focuses on how to correctly read histograms and use them to your advantage.
My photography journey started a little differently from most because I was going into it with a handicap right off the bat. It was always a thought that I may not be able to make this work, and that I'd fail miserably, and nobody wants that. From birth, I’ve had a disability that you’d think would make me the last person to get into photography: I’m legally blind.
It's hard to look at the Fujifilm X-T10 without thinking of the company's success with the X-T1. Essentially, the X-T10 is a baby X-T1 with its identical 16.3 X-Trans CMOS II sensor, DSLR body style, and real-time 2.360K-dot OLED EVF. Of course, for nearly $400 less than the X-T1, we're expecting there to be a few compromises with the X-T10. Join us as we take a closer look at Fujifilm’s newest camera to see whether it is worth the price tag.
Chinese restaurants are known to have painfully bad food photos adorning the walls to show the different dishes offered, but what if the style were intentional and an artistic decision by the photographers? The comedy sketch group Faster Human recently decided to explore this idea and poke fun at Chinese restaurant photos.
Back in April, the lighting company Photoflex unexpectedly announced that it would be closing shop after 30 years in the business, to the disappointment of many. Later that month, the struggling company revealed that it was working on a deal to allow the brand to live on. They succeeded.
