James Tyler Shores and some friends in Macon, Georgia created this parody of the popular song "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift. Titled "Make You Look Like Taylor," the new lyrics change the song from a love song into one about the life of a professional photographer.
How do you build a quality DIY camera slider on the cheap? Who better to ask than the founder of a slider company? In the video above, Rhino Camera Gear founder Kyle Hart shows how you can build a cheaper alternative to their pricier sliders using parts from the hardware store.
I will be the first to admit that I am not a street photographer, not a wedding photographer, and don’t generally shoot in low light, but I wanted to get a review out since I just received my two copies of Yongnuo's $40 clone of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II.
Want to keep time with a clock inspired by camera gear? Here's a roundup of timepieces based on cameras, lenses, and rolls of film. (Note: The clocks on this list may or may not still be available for purchase.)
Yunnan, China is home to some of the most beautiful rice paddy fields in the world. The traditional agriculture fields are sprawling in size and are often found built into slopes, creating mesmerizing patterns in the landscape. These fields are also rapidly disappearing due to urbanization.
Here's a tip for operating camera drones: stay away from mommy kangaroos. One operator in Australia found out the hard way recently. They were flying their camera close to a group of Eastern gray kangaroos in Hunter Valley when a protective mother decided to deal with the strange intruder by punching the drone out of the air.
Want a simple battery-powered time-lapse camera that you can leave in locations for up to a year? A hacker who goes by "val3tra" is trying to build one. The goal of his project is a camera that can continuously photograph a scene for months or years on time while powered only by a handful of ordinary batteries.
Here's something lighthearted: While in New York City, Australian comedian Hamish Blake decided to create a parody of photographer Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York portrait. "Unable" to snag a feature through Stanton's camera, Blake decided to take matters into his own hands with a #hamishsofny shot.
Time-lapse photographer Chris Field spent 107 days photographing carnivorous plants with two cameras. What resulted is this fascinating look at the beauty of plants that survive by trapping and consuming insects.
Ryan Freeman has been creating a short film series called The Guild, which features interviews with some of the "creative minds of our time." The video above features photographer Jakob de Boer -- a guy who also tests prototypes for Leica and Adobe -- talking about his creative process and relationship to photography. "My advice to people is to walk softly but speak loudly with your art," he says.
Here's a neat idea that combines photography with Christmas spirit: the Plaza Ginza shopping center in Tokyo, Japan has been running a fun event called "I Wrap You." Instead of wrapping gifts with generic wrapping paper, the center is snapping photos of customers on the spot to create gift wrap featuring their faces.
Want to get started in photography? A camera and a kit lens can help you do that. Want to do so while touring the world on your private yacht? Fujifilm's new X-T1 Graphite Silver Globe-Trotter Kit is designed for you. It's a limited edition luxury camera kit that has everything you need to get started with Fuji X-T1 photography... and then some.
Desislav Iliev was out walking his girlfriend's dogs in Chicago when he noticed a Google Street View camera car driving by in front of him. Pulling out his smartphone, he snapped the above photograph of his dogs staring at the car.
Fashion street photographers usually look for styles that are one of a kind. Hans Eijkelboom doesn't. For over twenty years, the Dutch 'anti-sartorial' photographer has roamed the streets of major cities around the world in search for the common -- people showing similar tastes in clothing, accessories, or behavior.
What if cameras got tired of participating in human selfies and decided one day to start taking pictures of themselves? That's the quirky idea behind a project called "CameraSelfies" by German photographer Juergen Novotny (who also goes by J. Flynn Newton).
Astronaut and photographer Chris Hadfield recently paid a visit to the At-Bristol science center in the UK. In the 8-minute video above, Hadfield shares a little about what it's like to photograph the world from the International Space Station. He also attempts some recreations of his space photos using various objects and a macro camera kit.
Wedding photographers beware: you could be a prime target for robbers due to the value of your gear. Just last year we reported that photojournalists in California were being targeted for their equipment, and now another crazy incident has occurred: a wedding shoot in Oakland was targeted this weekend by robbers who made off with $13K+ in camera gear... and all the wedding photos.
Here's my 2014 Christmas card: Santa in Carbonite! At the end of every year my studio collects all of the cool card ideas that we thought of during the season. I then create a calendar event for the next November, listing out the ideas we thought of. Last year we came up with a Star Wars Christmas card idea with the boys guarding Santa Claus, frozen in carbonite. Call them Imperial Elves.
People who have autism often have trouble making eye contact and reading facial expressions but enjoy using gadgets. Samsung wants to change that with a new camera app called "Look at Me" that's designed to help autistic children become better at communication skills.
Earlier this month, National Geographic photographer Tomas van Houtryve had one of his photographs selected by TIME magazine as one of the Top 10 Photos of 2014. It was a high honor, but also one that opened an unexpected Pandora's Box for Van Houtryve: his photos began appearing on third-party products on Amazon without his permission.
Mount Javornik in Slovenia was recently battered by more than a week of strong winds and freezing fog. After the storm was safely past, weather photographer Marko Korosec decided to trek up the popular ski destination to see what he would find.
div.juxtapose {
max-width: 640px !important;
margin-bottom: 50px !important;
}
Back in November 2013, an EF4 tornado tore through Illinois, killing several people and destroying hundreds of homes. Photojournalists at the Journal Star in Peoria, Illinois captured numerous photographs documenting the devastation from both the ground and the air.
In Brook, Indiana, a town of about 1,000 people, there's a small business called CameraBands that specializes in recycling camera equipment into bracelets and rings. If you ever break your favorite gear far beyond repair (i.e. it's destined for the junkyard), you can ship it to CameraBands instead of tossing it to have it transformed into very different forms.
Back in 2012, we wrote about a project called "Pixel Trade" by Australian photographer Shantanu Starick. The basic idea was simple but crazy: Starick wanted to travel through all seven continents on the globe without ever spending any currency. Instead, he would try to trade his services as a photographer to people willing to provide him with shelter, food, and transportation.
My name is Abe Van Dyke. I am a photojournalist who was arrested by the Milwaukee County Sheriffs department for being on Interstate 43 photographing protestors on 12/19/14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is my story.
The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is known for its impressive skyline, which features the world's tallest building. Every so often, the city will become blanketed with a thick layer of fog that opens the door to beautiful photos of skyscrapers rising above clouds.
The Nikon D750 full frame DSLR has been receiving fantastic marks from reviewers so far, but now an issue has popped up that threatens to damage the camera's reputation. Photographers around the world are reporting a problem with their lens flares. At certain angles, an ugly dark band shows up across the top, separating lens flares from the edge of the frame.
My name is Michael Pistono, and I'm a 28-year-old photo enthusiast living in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was recently playing around with a reflection photo when I had the idea of creating another one out of a puddle -- one that featured both tall buildings and an airplane.
There are two lens terms that have similar sounding (and potentially confusing) names: fluorine and fluorite. Apparently quite a few people have trouble distinguishing between the two, so here's a quick look at what they each are.
Tired of strangers giving you wary glances when you photograph them? A Santa suit can change that suspicion into smiles.
Amidst a messy legal battle over copyrights to Vivian Maier's now famous work, a gallery in Toronto has acquired the entire collection of negatives owned by Jeffrey Goldstein.
A federal judge has decided that it's okay for police officers to befriend Instagram users with fake accounts in order to gain access to photos shared through the service.
If you have 30-minutes to spare for a tutorial, check out this one by photographer and retoucher Michael Woloszynowicz on the techniques of dodging and burning. It's an in-depth video in which he discusses 4 different approaches that photographers can take and which ones to use in which situations -- things like layer blend modes, curves adjustments, frequency separation, and layer blend-if.
Here's a super random piece of photographic trivia: that $1 million giant Leica sculpture in Los Angeles is likely now in the possession of Minecraft founder Markus Persson (AKA "Notch").
If you've been dying to get your own copy of the super rare Nikon Reflex-Nikkor 2000mm f/11 mirror lens, here's a prime opportunity to snag one: a copy of the lens has appeared on eBay, complete with a leather "lens cap" and a nice aluminum case for transporting the beast. The buy it now price is a cool $32,777.
Located in the heart of Siberia, the village of Oymyakon in Russia is widely considered to be the coldest inhabited place on Earth. A temperature of −90 °F (−67.7 °C) was recorded there back in 1933 -- the lowest recorded temperature for any permanently inhabited spot in the world.
Back in May 2013, Google+ began offering auto enhancement to improve the quality of users' photos. Now the magic has arrived for video as well.
The Japan Meteorological Agency launched its latest weather satellite called the Himawari 8 this past October. A few days ago the agency released the first true color photo (shown above) captured with their new "eye in the sky." Want a closer look? Here's a massive 11000x11000 pixel version of the photograph.
If you've never picked up a rangefinder camera before and have always wondered how it differs from single-lens reflex cameras, here's a short video that may be of interest to you. In it, photographer Craig Semetko discusses the basics of rangefinder photography -- in this case he's using a Leica M -- and its advantages compared to SLRs.
Did you know that the Statue of Liberty started out as a dull copper color, but turned green over time due to oxidation occurring on the copper skin? The green patina (also called verdigris) can occur naturally or with human intervention on copper, brass, and bronze.
Universal Studios in Hollywood recently offered guests a photo op with a performer dressed very impressively as Megatron, one of the main baddies in Transformers. It turns out Megatron is not a fan of selfies.
Street photography is one of the most difficult forms of photography out there. Not only do you have to rapidly compose, frame, and approach strangers, but you have to do so with the risk of “injury.” They might injure you verbally (threaten to break your camera, give you a dirty look and call you a creep, or curse at you) or they might injure you physically (try to grab your camera, hit you, shove you, etc).
Here's an interesting weekend photography project of moderate technical difficulty: the video above is a tutorial on how you can make a DIY coffee cup spy camera. The camera sees out of the cup's base and has a shutter that's triggered whenever you lift the cup and pretend to drink from it.
Here's a short, inspiring video profile of Brooklyn-based street photographer Andre D. Wagner. We're offered a glimpse into Wagner's mind as he talks about his process for creating images, from how he approaches photographing people on sidewalks with a Leica 35mm film rangefinder to his love of making photos with his hands in his darkroom.
Canon shooters have a bit of 400mm excitement right now. The biggest news, of course, is the release of the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II lens, replacing the original version that's had a very long, successful run.
When Facebook agreed to acquire Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock back in April 2012, the world balked at the price. Instagram was only a 17-month-old company at the time that had just launched on Android, and there was no income on the horizon.
Bristol, England-based photographer Peter Thorpe has a special treat for his clients every holiday season. For the past 20 years, he has sent hilarious promo Christmas cards featuring his dogs as different animals in elaborate handmade scenes.
Planning to purchase a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D lens? You might want to hold off for now: Nikon is rumored to have a replacement to that lens ready for a near-future launch.
Guardian columnist Jonathan Jones is a master of sparking controversy in the world of photography. As you might remember, he's the guy who keeps arguing that photography is not art... a year after calling it "the art of our time." …
Christian Richter is a fine art architecture photographer based in the small town of Jeßnitz, Germany. A fan of exploring old, abandoned buildings, Richter has often come across tall spiral staircases that look both beautiful and disorienting when viewed from the very top looking down. These staircases form a photo series of his that is aptly titled, "Abandoned Staircases."
