The "selfie" has made quite an impact on our culture in the past couple of years. The word was selected as Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year in 2013 and the keyword grew by over 2000% in the stock photo industry in 2014.
Author's disclaimer: This article is aimed toward commercial, business-to-business photographers. Consumer photographers may get something from it as well, but there are different market forces at work in that genre.
Photographers have long been grumbling about the FAA's tight regulations for camera drone usage, and the actions of one operator over in Washington DC aren't going to help the cause. An anonymous DJI Phantom owner and government employee crashed his DJI Phantom quadcopter on the White House lawn yesterday morning, causing a lock down of the President's residence.
Can you tell what the translucent object is in the photograph above? It's a single grain of sugar captured in a macro photograph by artist Pyanek, whose "Amazing Worlds Within Our World" project is a series of macro shots that show the beautiful details of ordinary things -- things that we generally don't (or can't) see with our naked eyes.
Last year, lighting company Profoto teamed up with New England-based wedding photographers Justin and Mary Marantz to create a series of behind-the-scenes videos showing how the duo goes about shooting a wedding from start to finish. The Walk Through a Wedding series started in February 2014 and ended in December of that year with 20 short videos.
I grew up in Guelatao de Juárez, a Mexican village of approximately 500 people in Oaxaca's Sierra Norte. Guelatao is famous not only as the birthplace of Mexican president Benito Juárez, but also as the site of the annual Copa Benito Juárez, in which more than 200 teams of indigenous Zapotec, Mixe, and Chinantec players compete at basketball over a period of three days.
If you've been itching to try your hand at shooting a hyperlapse video, the short and sweet video tutorial above may be a nice place to start your journey. It was made by Cal Thomson, the same guy who created the popular time-lapse tutorial that we featured earlier this month.
American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith was widely praised for his devotion to photography and for pioneering the use of the photo essay to tell stories. He is said to have "created at least fifty images so powerful that they have changed the perception of our history." …
Depending on the type of photography you're involved in, a multi-tool may be one of the invaluable items found inside your camera bag. If so, Leatherman has a new product for you called the Tread. Upon first glance, the product may look like a sleek but rather ordinary metal bracelet, but look a little closer and you'll see that it's actually a fancy new multi-tool that puts 25 separate tools around your wrist.
Here's something else to file under "Strange things people are doing with camera drones": PIEROGRAM was staying at a cottage with a friend this past summer when, after a few beers, the two decided to mount some roman candle fireworks to the drone to create a first person gunship type of game. The two had a blast, but it's probably not the brightest idea. (Warning: there's some strong language).
Last month, we shared a popular video in which photojournalist Steve McCurry talked about the danger of focusing on your destination so much that you miss your journey. That clip was actually from a series of videos in which McCurry shares wisdom he has learned over the decades of traveling the world and hunting for photos that will be remembered.
Romanian photographer Radu Zaciu has been experimenting recently with photographing fruits and vegetables using internal lighting. He places bulbs inside and uses that as the main light source for his series of glowing images. The project is called "The Light Inside."
Chicago-based photographer and videographer Jon Cole made this test video for the Sony FS7 that puts a humorous tongue-in-cheek spin on generic camera test videos. It features a "model's commentary" voiceover by his wife that imagines what the subjects in these videos are thinking when their friend or family member gets a new camera and asks them to stand in for a "quick test".
"The Last Book" is an interesting series of images collected by Dutch photographer Reinier Gerritsen, who spent 13 weeks over 3 years scouring the subway system of New York City for riders reading books. Every time he saw one, he would snap a picture and make a note of the book that was being read.
USA Today created this short behind-the-scenes video that offers a glimpse into how its staff photographers go about covering the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards ceremony, one of Hollywood's major award events that's attended by some of television and cinema's biggest celebrities.
Zak Noyle is a surf photographer based out of Oahu, Hawaii who's considered to be one of the best in the business. He became the senior staff photographer of Surfer Magazine when he was just 25 years old, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines (e.g. ESPN, SI, Nat Geo) and advertisements (e.g. Billabong, Chanel).
A common feature of first person shooter video games is an instant replay that pops up every time your character is killed, showing you exactly how you met your demise. Above is a new ad for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare that features Randal Higgins, the imaginary cameraman behind the game's "KillCam". (Warning: There's some strong language).
German filmmaker Werner Herzog is considered by some to be "the most important film director alive." Writer and fellow filmmaker Paul Cronin recently published a book of conversations with the legendary film director, titled "Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed." The back cover of the book features 24 pieces of advice by Herzog -- words of wisdom he picked up over the decades.
If you're not comfortable with the idea of uploading photos to the Web with geotag data baked into the file, there are some easy ways you can scrub the data to protect your privacy. Both Mac and Windows computers offer simple solutions for quickly removing sensitive location info from your photo files.
Light painting photographer Darren Pearson spent the past year working on the stop motion animation above, titled "Lightspeed." Each of the 1,000 frames in it is a separate light-painted photograph that was captured in various locations across California.
There's a sweet (and rare) deal going on today that many photographers may find beneficial: Amazon is discounting its Amazon Prime membership for one day only. It costs just $72 today through a special promotion, compared to the ordinary price tag of $99.
Would you say the above photograph has any compression artifacts? Compressed too much, not enough, or just right? What exactly is “just right” anyway. This post will explore the concept of compression, why and how do we do it, and how aggressive we should be in either reducing the file size or increasing the image quality.
For the past 10 years, 27-year-old Xyza Cruz Bacani has been working as a domestic worker for a wealthy Chinese family in Hong Kong. On her days off, she brings her camera onto her city's sidewalks and captures impressive street photos.
Underwater photographer Keri Wilk was swimming with sperm whales off the coast of Dominica in March 2014 when found he found himself capturing something rather unexpected: a massive whale "defecation event."
A photographer has filed a copyright lawsuit against Nike, accusing the global athletic brand of ripping off his photograph of Michael Jordan to create its iconic "Jumpman" logo for Air Jordan merchandise.
Sports Illustrated has laid off the last of its staff photographers. All six remaining photographers at the magazine were laid off yesterday due to economic circumstances and company restructuring.
While pursuing a self-portrait project about motherhood, photographer Jamie Diamond stumbled upon the world of reborn dolls. These are realistic dolls that are made to look like actual babies as much as possible.
When Summit Entertainment tapped me to shoot the Movie Poster for Step Up All In I was super excited. Combining professional dancers who can pull off moves I didn’t think humanly possible, a water tank, and good creative direction from the agency had this shoot set up to be the perfect storm of photo awesomeness. Add a lot of gear, fast sync speeds and this photo tech head was in heaven.
The photo illustration above shows what a photo of a sunset here on Earth would look like if the sun were replaced with Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in our "neighborhood." …
Online creative portfolio service Format has launched a sleek new iPad portfolio app called Kredo. In addition to being a way to share your best images with someone in real life, the app also features a network of creative professionals for sharing your work digitally.
“Space Awaits!” is a personal project I did. I came up with the idea of a photo shoot featuring young astronauts. My inspiration was retro futurism as a fashion style and the era of human excitement about space travel.
Finnish photography student Tomi Rantanen contacted us to tell us about a unique exhibition that he participated in last week. His photography school, Kuusamo College, partnered up with students from the University of Lapland to create an outdoor exhibition out of snow and ice.
Richard Roberts is a freelance creative retoucher and digital artist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the past decade, he has worked on advertisements and promotional materials for clients that include Fox, HBO, Mountain Dew, Under Armor, Kelloggs, and Gillette.
Throughout the history of photography, cameras have mostly been designed with right handed people in mind. For DSLRs in particular, the shutter button and camera controls are usually on the right side of the camera, making it difficult to operate without using your right hand.
China's CCTV is reporting that more and more couples in Asia are flocking to South Korea in order to have their engagement photos captured on the sets of Korean drama TV shows. These shoots can cost upwards of $4,000 -- at least four times more than the shoots would cost in other countries.
The first mistake I made was hate on film photography when I knew nothing about it. My earliest experience with 35mm was on my 10th birthday. I got a point and shoot camera from my family overseas as a present. Went on a day trip with my school and shot half a roll before I opened the back and ruined whatever was on there.
Artist INSA is known for creating mesmerizing animated GIFs using street art and photos. He was recently recruited by the scotch whisky brand Ballantines to create "the world's largest animated GIF," one that was created with gigantic paintings on the ground and photos from a satellite camera.
If you want to stay up to date with Adobe's Lightroom software, you'll need to make sure you're up to date with the latest operating systems. Adobe has announced that Lightroom 6 will only be compatible with 64-bit operating systems.
GAS, also known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome, is very common among photographers. It simply means that you just can't get enough new lenses, equipment and upgrade your camera as soon as possible in order to have more options and - according to the seemingly prevalent opinion - become better.
When the Green Back Packers played the Seattle Seahawks this past weekend in the NFC Championship Game, Seattle-based photographer Mike Sternoff was there documenting the action from the sidelines with a Lytro Illum light field camera.
Taking artistic photographs is one of the sexiest forms of creativity -- at least that's what scientists are reporting. The activity ranked 7th on a list of most desirable qualities in a partner according to a new research paper that was published recently.
For his project "Comfort Zone," Lithuanian photographer Tadao Cern visited a public beach and shot photographs of the people sleeping comfortably on the sandy beach. The images were not staged, and none of the subjects were aware that a photograph was being made.
If you've invested any significant amount of money in your camera gear, it's a good idea to make sure it's insured against loss or damage. If you've never really explored this subject before, here's a helpful video that can bring you up to speed. It's a 13-minute overview by the folks over at DSLR Video Shooter on the best services and solutions out there for making sure your gear is insured and recoverable.
Picattoo is a new service by INK361 that turns your Instagram photographs into temporary tattoos that you can decorate your body with.
Stay Focused is a new app that brings focus stacking to the iPhone. By shooting multiple photos at different focus distances and then combining them, the app allows users to capture images with a greater depth of field than a single iPhone snap may allow.
This isn't related to still photography, but we occasionally share some creative ideas from the world of video. The short film above by Eran Amir is titled "This Video is in Reverse." It may look relatively straightforward at first glance, but get this: everything you see was captured in a single take and then played backwards.
Renowned Belgian artist Luc Tuymans has been found guilty in a plagiarism case after basing one of his paintings on a photo by photojournalist Katrijn Van Giel. Tuymans has been ordered to cease exhibiting and reproducing his painting, and will be fined €500,000 (~$580,000) if he does not comply.
Ashot Gevorkyan is a professional photographer and retoucher based in Kaliningrad, Russia. He recently created a series of animated GIFs that offer a look into how commercial images are composited and retouched from the original photograph to the final delivered image.
Here's something super random that caught our attention: the new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons football team features an innovative roof design that seems to be inspired by the world of photography: it opens and closes like an 8-blade camera lens aperture.
You know those hands you see in advertisements and commercials? Those hands belong to people who make a living by offering up their beautiful hands to help companies market their products. Some of those hands are insured for seven figure sums and have helped their owners become "supermodels" in their field.
