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Dear PPA, I Still Love You, But…

Note: I wrote this because, well, if you make your living with your camera, this IS your circus and these ARE your monkeys.

Dear PPA,

You know that I have had nothing but mad love for you. Even as I typed those words, I made a peace-sign with my fingers and thumped them against my chest. I’m street like that.

Mom Goes on TV to Warn About Man Taking Pictures of Her Kids at McDonald’s

Photographer Randall Armor recently wrote an article about the war on photographers in which one scary 'P' word is being thrown around: the accusation of being a pedophile. News stories like the one above don't help the cause.

The 3-minute segment features an interview with a mother who called her local news station's whistleblower hotline. She says she and her family were "disturbed" and "shaken" recently after discovering a man taking pictures of her kids at a McDonald's restaurant.

1970s Olympus Trip 35 Commercials Starring British Photographer David Bailey

Back in the 1970s, Olympus launched an advertising campaign for its Trip 35 35mm compact camera that featured renowned British photographer David Bailey. The 46-second commercial above is one of the ads that was aired: it depicted the popular racing driver James Hunt being confused for Bailey because of the Trip 35 he was shooting with.

A Sports Shooter Shoots Shooters Shooting Sports

Last week, freelance photographer Manuel Lopez of Thun, Switzerland, attended the annual Athletissima athletics meet in Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition to photographing the athletes and events, as all the photographers were doing, Lopez decided to turn his camera on the other sports photographers.

How to Photograph Swirling Splashes of Liquid

Shooting splashes is always great fun, even if it’s a simple image with a coffee cup and a falling piece of refined sugar. Plus, there is always so much room for experimentation for even more fun!

Trioplan 100mm f/2.8 Rebirth will Bring ‘Soap Bubble’ Bokeh to Modern Cameras

Since Globell Deutschland revived the Meyer-Optik-Görlitz brand, they have been committed to continuing the legendary engineering of lens optics that began in 1896. As of late, they have introduced a number of high-quality lenses designed and crafted in Germany. Now, Globell wants to breathe life into a modern 100mm f/2.8 Trioplan ‘soap bubble bokeh’ lens, a piece of glass known for its unique bokeh. The company has launched a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that has already raised more than $250,000 to bring this lens back to life.

Lighting Portraits to Bring Exposure to Homelessness in America

Photographer Aaron Draper wants people to see homelessness in a different light -- literally. For his project titled Underexposed, he hit the streets with his camera and off-camera strobe in order to capture portraits of the homeless and "bring them into the light and out of the shadows for others to view and appreciate."

This is the Upcoming Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 for Nikon

We reported at the end of last year that Yongnuo was planning to expand beyond Canon lens clones and begin offering thrifty lenses for Nikon DSLRs by the end of 2015. It looks like the lenses are just around the corner: Yongnuo is already showing off the new lenses over in China, and here's a first look at them.

6 Top Online Photography Portfolio Hosting Options

Your photography deserves a website that can showcase its creativity and beauty... without breaking the bank. Former TIME CEO and Curator Gallery owner Ann S. Moore told us in a recent interview, “Shame on you if you don’t have a website! You absolutely have to have one!” Today we'll be looking at a few of the top industry solutions for hosting your photography portfolio in style.

CamSwarm Turns Multiple Phones Into a Bullet-Time Camera Array

The "bullet time" effect popularized by the 1999 film The Matrix is generally done by arranging a large number of still cameras on a circular track, so most of the rigs out there cost quite a bit of money to put together. A Columbia University researcher named Yan Wang is trying to make bullet-time imaging more accessible. With his CamSwarm technology, all you need is a group of friends who have smartphones or tablets.

Photographer Upset After Seeing Daughter’s Face on Theme Park Sign

Florida-based photographer Kiersten Grant was at the Miracle Strip Amusement Park with her daughter Mylie recently when she came across a board near a ticket line that featured a girl that looked surprisingly like Mylie.

After taking a closer look, Grant was surprised to discovered that it was Mylie.

Just In: The Clearest Photo of Pluto Taken So Far

Prior to this year, humankind didn't have a good idea of what Pluto looked like. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is working to change that. It has been steadily flying toward the dwarf planet over the past many months, and on July 14th, during a flyby, we'll be seeing the first-ever clear photos of Pluto.

On July 7th, New Horizons snapped the above photo of Pluto from 5 million miles away, giving us the clearest view yet of what Pluto looks like. Back in April, we shared a previous closest-ever view that showed Pluto as a blurry dot, as seen from 71 million miles away.

How I Built Myself a Large Format 4×5 Monorail View Camera

I’ve been taking photos all of my life. Something that I realize now started from a young age: I’ve been genetically disposed with bad eyes, but it was only discovered around the age of ten. This forced me to look closely at what was in front of me for a long time. Once I got tested and got glasses an entire world opened up. As a result, I’ve always looked at things and people with an appreciation I doubt I could’ve had any other way.

It’s a hunger to try and capture what I see in the moment as it presents itself, be it a theme or a feeling, a relationship or a time. There’s always a story to tell and that’s why we take photos.

How I Made a DIY Concave Flash Diffuser for Macro Photography

As long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with the small and wondrous world of macro imaging, predominantly as a macro videographer, but also in the stills realm as of late.

One thing that is a constant in any form of creative imaging is the need to constantly update, modify and adapt the base equipment we are dealt when we make our already-expensive gear purchases. Recently, I've been focusing my attention on adapting photographic flash guns for macro photography.

Photographer Recovers $15K in Stolen Gear Thanks to EXIF Copyright Info

If your camera lets you automatically add copyright EXIF metadata to every photo you take, you should do it: it could help you recover your gear if it ever gets stolen. That's exactly what happened to photographer Jon Grundy: after losing $15,000 in gear, Grundy was able to identify the thief and recover his stolen equipment after seeing his name in the copyright info of online photos.

Anti-Freedom of Panorama Proposal Rejected by EU

Good news for photographers in Europe: freedom of panorama will live on to see another day -- in most countries, at least. Today the European Parliament voted on a controversial proposal that threatened to restrict the photography of copyrighted buildings and sculptures from public places. An overwhelming majority of MEPs voted against the plan.

Astropad Turns Your iPad Into a Pro Graphics Tablet for Mac OS X

A graphic tablet can be a useful but expensive piece tool in a photographer’s setup. That's why the folks over at Astropad HQ decided to enable Apple’s iPad to give you the same experience as using a graphic tablet. Astropad is a $20 solution that lets you to turn your iPad into a full featured graphics tablet. Powered by the company’s custom technology know as ‘LIQUID’, your iPad is always responsive and ready to work.

5 Steps to Making a Magical Animal-Filled Forest with Photoshop

Before I get into the nitty gritty details of how this piece came together, I would just like you all to take a minute to appreciate how very talented Mackenzie Johnson is. (She is the model for this photo, and happens to be a YouTube-singer-songwriter in case you were unaware.) Not only did she do her own hair/makeup/wardrobe and model like boss, but she even actually played and sang for this photo.

5DS Handed Highest DxOMark Score for a Canon, But Still Trails Nikon and Sony

DxOMark published its sensor test scores for the 50.6-megapixel Canon 5DS and 5DS R DSLRs today, and the news is both good and bad for Canon shooters. On the good side, the cameras scored the highest scores (87 and 86, respectively) ever achieved by Canon sensors. On the other hand, they still lag behind the Nikon D810 and Sony a7R (97 and 95, respectively) in overall quality.