New Year's resolutions can be very bittersweet. Everybody loves the sweet sensation of starting off a new year fresh, cleaned of your bad habits and motivated to charge in with high hopes and grand goals. But unfortunately there's that slight bitter taste as well. It's that knowledge that we often shoot too high and end up falling flat on our faces and that this year likely won't be any different.
First things first: Happy New Year! Whether you're in Berkeley, CA, Bucharest, Romania or Shanghai, China, it's now 2014 for everyone, and we want to start off the new year by thanking you all for a phenomenal 2013. You guys and gals are the reason we get up in the morning and stay up nights wracking our brains to figure out how we can make this site the best photo blog in the world.
In the Spring of 1980, just a few weeks before the infamous Mount St. Helens eruption that would take his life along with 56 others, photojournalist Reid Blackburn captured the volcano as it looked before it exploded.
Maybe you thought year-end 'best-of' lists were only for desperate journalists trying to survive the holiday news doldrums or news agencies looking to wow you with the photographs they compiled over the course of the year. Au contraire.
The folks over at Nikon Rumors have been hard at work keeping everybody up on what you can expect from Nikon, but if you're like us, you just don't have the time to follow rumors day in and day out. So here's a roundup of what the most exciting and plausible rumors that should give Nikon lovers some idea of what to expect in the next couple of months.
In 2011, former AP president Tom Curly had the ambitious idea that the AP should establish a bureau in North Korea, and the photographer the agency ended up sending to the country is a man you should, by now, be very familiar with: David Guttenfelder.
Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.
If you've never seen a 3-axis brushless motor gimbal in action, this video might seem out of this world... or fake. But it's not fake, just the magic of advanced camera stabilization technology that'll cost you several thousand dollars to wield for yourself (unless, of course, you have the engineering know-how to build one yourself).
You, of course, are an analog purist who will forever be devoted to film. Other folks, however, may be wondering what they're going to do with a bunch of darkroom equipment that's getting lonelier by the year.
Turns out you may not have to be stupid enough to post incriminating evidence on Instagram to get busted via photo in the near future. A pair of British researchers are working on a way to collect identifiable images from the reflections of people captured on a photo subject's eyeball.
The camera industry is turning into a two-tier market, with Canon, Nikon and Sony DSLRs at the top, smartphones at the bottom and nothing in the middle, according to a recent Reuters report that finds little traction for mid-tier camera makers counting on mirrorless to save the day.
Our quest to improve dogs' standing in the world of photography continues today thanks to an awesome photo series by LA-based photographer Lara Jo Regan that's bound to put a smile on your face. The series is called "Dogs in Cars," and if you like what you see you'll be happy to know that it's being made available as a 2014 calendar.
#اینستاگرم فیلتر شد - #ایران #فیلترینگ #iran @ListenToUs @HassanRouhani pic.twitter.com/NnIDry4jsf …
Here's a little funny to get you through your Sunday afternoon: a flowchart that can help you decide whether or not that photo you're thinking of taking is actually worth going through with.
When National Geographic not only picks up your time-lapse, but also insists on interviewing you about it, you know you're doing something right. Then again, when you're time-lapse master Michael Shainblum, you probably don't need reminding.
Well, if you're gonna put a portrait of your mug on Instagram for the whole world to see, this is the way to do it. Taken from outside the ISS during one of the two spacewalks required to replace a faulty water pump, this selfie-like portrait (it is NOT a selfie, contrary to just about every headline you'll read) was uploaded to NASA's Instagram account yesterday.
If you live in a place that's not likely to see snow this winter, or you're bitter that the white Christmas you've been dreaming of decided to remain a dream, these stunning photos of the European Alps by Swedish photographer Jacob Sjöman will either ease the pain, or make you incredibly jealous. Either way, they're worth a look.
A few days back, the folks over at Egami spotted a new Canon PowerShot patent that, unlike most, piqued many photographers' interest. That's because this patent seems to show plans for a 100x (or rather almost 100x) superzoom camera.
Almost one hundred years after a group of explorers set out across the frozen landscape of Antarctica to set up supply depots for famed explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, a box of 22 never-before-seen exposed but unprocessed negatives taken by the group's photographer has been unearthed in one of those shacks, preserved in a block of ice.
It may be hard to believe at first, but the photographs in this post are just that: photographs. Though they might look like beautiful abstract paintings, they are actually photos of volcanic rivers taken by Russian photographer Andre Ermolaev from way up in the air.
A few days ago, we shared the tragic news Reuters freelancer Molhem Barakat, who some were claiming was as young as 17-years-old, had been killed while photographing a battle in Syria. Since then, Reuters ethics and business practices have been called into question by an outraged journalistic community that has even gone so far as to start a Change.org petition demanding that the news organization take responsibility for the young boy's murder.
There's no doubt the ubiquity of fake and mis-reported content on the Internet has turned many of us into big-time skeptics. Whenever we see something that seems incredible or outlandish, our knee-jerk reaction is to call it fake and begin searching for evidence of that fact, using our confirmation bias as a guide.
Two weeks ago, Instagram released its annual top 10 lists of the cities and locations that were photographed most often using the photo sharing service. But this year, Google has seen fit to one-up them by releasing a heat map that gives us a more visual representation of the most photographed places in the world.
It's difficult to fathom, but there is massive segment of the population who remember nothing of film photography. The idea of not having your images instantly available for review and deletion, or having to go to a shop to have a roll of film developed, is as foreign as the floppy disk and the VHS.
"Don't be afraid to be different." That is the moral of this video. Usually you save the moral for the end, but it is stated, restated and demonstrated so well with this shoot that it's worth starting the post with. Don't be afraid to let your creativity break the barriers of the proverbial box and try something different, because you might just stumble onto an idea as unique and creative as "Love Sick" by Simeon Quarrie of Vivida.
The holidays are a great time for gift giving, which also normally means they're a time for cleaning out closets and camera bags. Every year, I find myself needing to get rid of old stuff that has been replaced; or dealing with the thoughtful but odd and/or useless gifts given to me by well-meaning family and friends.
The much-anticipated 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens from Tamron, which replaces its current 200-500mm, has officially gotten a US price and is now available for pre-order. As you might remember, the lens was announced back in early November, with US availability and Japan pricing going public earlier this month.
It being the day after Christmas, it's only appropriate that we share an awesome story that involves the giving of an amazing gift. If we can throw in a behind the scenes look at a complex classic car photo shoot, well, that's just a bonus.
The popularity of Instagram as a place where you can buy or sell goods (both legal and otherwise) is well-established, but we were still surprised to find out that Leica Brazil has begun selling one of its cameras straight through the photo sharing site.
Fresh rumors fueled by a contest currently underway on Nikon's Middle East & Africa Facebook page have many speculating that Nikon might be preparing to release a D4 followup, or even the long-awaited D400.
Sixty-one years ago, when Dorothy and Donald Lutz got married, there was one conspicuous absence as they recited their vows: the wedding photographer... he never showed up. And while they can't go back in time and right that wrong, granddaughter-in-law and event planner Lauren Wells recently made sure that they would have a photo album worth envying.
Olympus' decision to put all its chips on the mirrorless market seems to be paying off, with the once-troubled company finally poised to register a profit next year after several quarters of losses.
Many of you are familiar with the website PhotoStealers, which acts as "a wall of shame... dedicated to photographers that feel that it's okay to steal others work and post it as their own." Photo theft is expertly weeded out and exposed by the site's creator, who has taken on some big names including Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon.
Snapchat, famous for dealing with the problem of rising attention spans by whittling the life of a photo down to 10 seconds, has gotten a little more time-friendly with an update that includes a limited option for re-viewing images later.
Everybody is coming out with their editor's choices and best of's and holiday gift guides, but The Camera Store added another facet to their "best of 2013"... the "worst of 2013." From lenses, to still cameras to video cameras, take a gander at what was really good and, inevitably more entertaining, what was really bad.
A while back I wrote a post I humbly called Roger’s Law of New Product Introduction, complete with the graph shown below. The release of the Sony A7R has demonstrated the accuracy of that post as few other releases have.
Just incase @29_JL @hullcityteam your not sure the ball is the yellow thing.... not the £6k camera (photo al walter) pic.twitter.com/op6zGrUBVX …
Over the years I've tried to get better about reflecting on my work and life at the end of each year. Sure lots of people will claim to do this, but that usually just boils down to reviewing their Facebook page for a quick ego boost.
I don't have kids just yet, so I can't say from experience, but it seems one of the benefits of having a child is the ability to feature the adorable little guy or gal in creative photography projects. Examples abound: from Queenie Liao's wondrous naptime photos, to Nagano Toyokazu's series My Daughter Kanna.
A young photographer who was freelancing for news agency Reuters chronicling the ongoing clash between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Syria was killed Friday while covering a battle at a hospital in Aleppo.
Once you've gotten to a certain level of proficiency as a photographer, it's easy to forget how rough things looked when you first started out. Of course, that forgetfulness might be a good thing, but there's a site out there that wants you to relive those moment by sharing them with the world.
There are all sorts of statistics we can look up to tell us how the photography industry is doing and whether or not smartphones really are going to steamroll the market (spoiler alert: it's not as bad as some make it out to be). One source of information that probably doesn't cross your mind, however, is Amazon's Most Wished For lists.
Reuters' photographers captured some incredible photographs in 2013, and now that the year is wrapping up, it's only fitting that they compile the best of them into a Photos of the Year slideshow that will hopefully inspire you to take on your photographic goals with renewed vigor in 2014.
Carli Davidson's photos and slow motion video of dogs shaking off water and spittle have been a huge hit with people all over the world. In October, the photos were even immortalized in a book by the same name, and while she was working on that book, Nikon caught up with her at her Portland, OR studio.
Editor's Note: There is a bit of strong and suggestive language used in a few of the scenes.
Here's a cool holiday chart that only us photo types will appreciate. It was put together by Sigma Jack and Sigma's in-house 'design wiz' Emi Erata, and shows the entire Sigma lens lineup arranged by size and placed next to some to-scale objects so you can visualize just how large some of these behemoths are.
When it comes to iconic imagery, there are few individual photographers who can best NASA. From the pale blue dot, to the blue marble, to the amazing photo of Bruce McCandless II floating out into space on the first ever untethered space walk, NASA's got quite a repository of amazing imagery.
Forget gold plating and celebrity altruism -- the rarest Leica camera of them all may be made entirely out of plastic.
Those who see iPhoneography as some kind of barbarian invasion may want to give their DSLRs an extra hug after hearing this: The venerable British Journal of Photography has launched a new e-magazine all about smartphone photography and available only as an iPhone app.
In order to make a little bit of money on the side, Toronto-based portrait and wedding photographer Alex Neary does some nannying, but she probably never expected that her nannying gig would be her ticket to viral photography success.
