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.
News flash: You can't believe everything you see on Twitter. We know, we were shocked too.
When it comes to the film vs. digital debate, many people are fairly entrenched on one side or the other. But can you really tell the difference between RAW digital footage and film footage? What about when the digital footage is made to look like film using filters in post? PBS Digital Studios wants to put you to the test.
A couple of weeks ago, we shared a video that showed a guy dropping his brand new $2,300 24-70mm f/2.8L lens as he demonstrates how to quickly swap your lenses out "just like the pros." Some people thought it was real, some thought it was fake, but whatever the case it definitely WAS a big fat fail.
Well, your last chance to order something online and get it in time for Christmas pretty much came and went already, and yet us lazy PetaPixel editors (okay, not us, just me) have yet to put together a holiday gift guide. Well, I offer my hardiest apologies, and what we'll call our 'Holiday Exchange Guide.'
You think 41 megapixels is a lot? Try 1000 megapixels! That's how much resolution the camera attached to the ESA's Gaia satellite is packing; a satellite that, as of yesterday, has left the Earth in its quest to photograph things that have never been photographed before at a resolution as of yet unheard of in space photography.
As if people up in the Nordic countries don't have enough gorgeous scenery to hold over our heads (my chances of seeing the aurora borealis in Alabama are far slimmer) we now have yet another thing to envy them for: light pillars.
Sigma is on a tear when it comes to releasing amazing glass. From the groundbreaking 18-35mm f/1.8 for APS-C cameras to the 24-105mm f/4 that had people pretty excited, Sigma glass is quickly becoming synonymous with phenomenal quality and affordability.
Editors note: Be advised, the video below contains some strong language that might not be to the liking of all our readers.
Yesterday night, Yahoo! took yet another step forward in the Flickr renaissance, although we doubt all photographers will see it this way. In a bid to make the service more share-friendly, Yahoo! has introduced new, cleaner embedding capability to the photo sharing site.
The folks at Custom SLR are in the holiday spirit, there's no doubt about that. After all, why else would you take on the pointless (but awesome) task of creating the world's largest camera tripod Christmas tree?
Fans of Sony's QX10 and QX100 lens cameras -- you know, the ones that use your smartphone as a controller/LCD but pack all of the important bits in an external unit -- have reason to rejoice today, because it looks like there's a major update coming to both versions.
From no Photoshop straight to excessive yet awesome image manipulation, we're all over the spectrum today. Although general belief (at least among purists) is that it is always better to create something in-camera than in post, there are certain things that just can't be done in-camera... and architecture photographer Víctor Enrich did ALL OF THEM to this one hotel in Munich.
For a recent project, Montreal-based photographer Benjamin Von Wong wanted to do something interesting: he wanted to create 'world within a world' style photographs WITHOUT using any Photoshop to achieve the final effect. It took some creativity and help from some very talented set designers, but in the end they pulled it off!
One of the most popular camera apps on iOS is Camera+. In fact, it's so popular it currently ranks at #33 on Apple's top paid apps chart. But that number is likely to jump after today, because version 5.0 has just been released, and this update is a big one.
It's common knowledge that the Giottos Rocket Blowers and the TSA don't get along. In the past we've told you to just leave it at home unless you want it confiscated with no more reason than "it looks like a bomb." But the reason photographer and Canon Rumors forum user Surapon got was a whole lot more entertaining than that.
With every passing year, the digital camera sales dataset offered by the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) grows more comprehensive. These records are made available to the public by this coalition of camera manufacturers which includes Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Sony, Sigma, Ricoh, Olympus, and dozens of other recognizable brands. Since 2002, they've been improving and increasing the scale of their database, which now separates digital cameras into fixed-lens, mirrorless and DSLR …
Photographs of galaxies far far away rarely convey just how large what you're looking at really is -- after all, how can you even fathom something that is measured in light years across. But these photos of the cosmos do an even worse job. By applying the tilt-shift effect in post, these photos show galaxies and nebulae look like they could fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.
One of the common complaints people hesitant to switch to mirrorless systems have is that there just isn't enough glass for this that or the other mount. Micro Four Thirds cameras don't really suffer from this problem, but proprietary mounts like Sony's E-Mount (especially full-frame) and Fuji's X-Mount certainly don't offer the kind of selection you get from Canon or Nikon.
Last year, a time-lapse called 'Body Evolution - Model Before and After' went viral as people the world over had their eyes opened to just how much a model can be altered with the help of hair, makeup and, most of all, Photoshop. That video has accrued almost 8 million views, and is still shared today in hopes of convincing magazines to begin putting disclaimers on images that are significantly altered in post.
If you don't want to cry today, we suggest you skip this one. That being said, for the love of all that is holy, please don't skip this one! The tears are more than worth it when you hear the story behind these touching and at times heart-wrenching daddy/daughter photos.
Being "journalists" more or less restricted to "facts," we can only look with awe and envy at New Camera News: a blog that tells the truth about the photography industry by making up witty, insider satire in the mode of The Onion
Rejoice, all ye illustrators and designers, at least if your work involves antiquarian subjects. The British Library has just posted more than a million copyright-free images to its Flickr photostream, and the pickings are choice if you need to illustrate anything from phrenology to 17th century geological theories.
We take no responsibility if you're all of a sudden afraid to take your camera anywhere after reading this (especially if you have a Nikon D7000 or a Canon 60D), but this gear theft infographic by anti-theft service Lenstag is packed interesting information that we think every photographer should be aware of.
(Private Video -- Use password "stolen") …
As a self-appointed pundit, I spend a fair amount of time criticizing the photography industry, but I have a little secret ... I love photography! And 2013 brought yet another year full of strange, interesting and inspiring moments in photography. Let’s go on a little journey ... in no particular order.
About 88,000 people in the U.S. are missing all or part of an arm, and among the things that are difficult or impossible for them to do is use an full-size camera. Smaller point-and-shoots and phones allow simultaneous holding and operation, but anything bigger is out of the question without a tripod.
Say you and your girlfriend are both photographers. And say, also, that you've been together for four years and you've decided it's time to send out your first Holiday card as a couple. There's only one issue: you celebrate Christmas and she celebrates Hanukkah. What are two photographers to do? …
Admittedly, it's not last-minute Christmas shopping until 10 minutes after the stores close on Christmas Eve, but if you plan to order your photography gifts online, you might want to get on that so you're sure they arrive in time for the big day.
