Since I started using ball heads in balanced mode, I’ve been a very happy camper. In this article, I'll be sharing a review of multiple ball heads as well as a tutorial about using ball heads in the balanced mode.
Kind, caring, and generous. These adjectives describe two important parts of my life; my late grandmother Anna, and my wife's late dog Buckeye. These are where the similarities end, but not according to Apple's Photos app.
Words play a significant role in photography in many ways as we talk and write about them. I created the above image many years ago using an online app, Wordle, which used text content and analyzed the significant words. The larger the word, the greater the frequency of use.
Everyone who knows me is aware that I love pushing the limits of what’s possible and creating the “makeable” from both the possible and the impossible. This time, however, I didn’t succeed, and the Glanzlichter nature photo competition disqualified me.
Springtime is a wonderful season for photography, with blooming flowers, vibrant foliage, and longer days providing ample opportunities to capture stunning images. To make the most of this colorful and dynamic season, having the right photography gear is essential.
Deep in the Congo Basin, in a remote corner of Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, lies Mbeli Bai, a vast forest clearing where wildlife emerges from the dense jungle. Unlike open savanna landscapes, the rainforest hides its inhabitants behind thick vegetation, making photographing species like forest elephants particularly difficult.
The difference between a good landscape photo and an extraordinary one often comes down to one thing: Light. And there's a magical window of time, called the Blue Hour, that offers some of the most atmospheric, cinematic light in landscape photography. However, many photographers overlook or struggle to fully capture its unique potential.
Winning awards is a powerful way for photographers to quickly gain recognition for their work. I discovered Deanne Fitzmaurice while researching Pulitzer Prize winners, fascinated by how this prestigious honor transformed and accelerated her career.
In April of 2023, my family and I sold nearly everything, left Los Angeles, and moved to the southwest of France.
Greenland has been making headlines lately, but beyond the news stories, another side of the island has nothing to do with politics.
In photography, background removal is a key technique. Whether for commercial photography, e-commerce, or personal use, a clean, distraction-free background is essential. On platforms like Amazon, product images must have a pure white background to enhance product visibility. For personal photography, background removal is often used to create professional profile pictures or for artistic designs.
I often see questions on forums about the focal length of lenses and how they work on cameras of various sensor sizes. Is a 35mm lens really 50mm on an APS-C camera? No, it’s still 35mm, but the field of view (FOV) is narrower on the APS-C camera because the sensor is narrower.
When I heard about Sony’s new FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS, I was excited. As a wildlife photographer, the appeal of a lens with 800mm reach in a zoom format is undeniable.
Have you ever wondered what the university environment in Paris is like? In which places steeped in history do the students live and work?
Photographing flowers is easy and very rewarding. You can create beautiful images with any equipment, most any day or evening, indoors and out. Spring is nirvana for flower photography but I find good opportunities all year.
We’re excited to announce the "New Year, New Gear Giveaway”! We’ve partnered with some outstanding brands to offer an incredible prize package. One lucky winner will receive a collection of 11 diverse and unique photography gear and products.
Taking on a personal project is the next level. It makes you treat photography as an art form. Like in any art, you first start with one-offs, singles, or short stories, and only then approach writing a novel. And this is how I invite you to treat your personal project, as writing a novel, as opposed to snapping unconnected stories here and there.
The images of Japan that spring to mind are of the bustling, neon-splashed streets of Tokyo—towering walls of steel and glass, teeming pedestrians dodging traffic. But the Land of the Rising Sun also harbors visions of natural beauty that stretch the eye to the horizon and tug at the soul.
In the spring of 2023, I received a phone call from Peter Blackberg (an old friend, RIT alumnus, and a space enthusiast) when he asked if I would join a call with NASA astronaut Don Pettit. Don wanted to build a star tracker for his next space flight.
Every photographer encounters challenges with image quality at some point. These could be blurry or out-of-focus pictures from unsteady hands, grainy or noisy shots from cranking up the ISO, underexposed images in dim lighting, or pixelated photos that lose their clarity and detail when zoomed in -- these are all typical headaches requiring effective solutions.
As someone who spent over a decade in the stock photography and creative tools industry, I’ve seen firsthand how it has evolved. The news of a potential Getty and Shutterstock merger made me think about how the stock photography industry actors found themselves at a crossroads and what future lies ahead.
My good friend, the oldfangled film photographer Elizabeth Nahum-Albright, was recently tasked with a common problem: the disposition of her newly dead father. His most urgent demands were clear: he was to be cremated and placed, like all of his cats, into a cookie jar.
It’s 4:37 PM Friday at a long-range planning meeting in Leica offices in Wetzlar. Attendees want to get on with their weekend. Fritz is talking.
Hello there. My name is Joe, and I’m a professional, full-time photographer hailing from Brooklyn, New York.
Let's face it, we've all experienced the frustration of dealing with subpar video and photo quality. Whether it's a grainy wedding video from low-light conditions, shaky action shots, low-resolution old videos, or choppy vintage films or animations due to low frame rates, these common issues can significantly impact the overall quality of your media.
It was not on the flight, but rather the day before, as I was sitting in a pressure chamber testing my spacesuit one last time, that I realized how absolute my reliance on it would be. I was well aware of the extreme risk to anyone who had the misfortune of being ejected from a U2. Yet, I took solace in knowing that because of this multi-layered suit, there would at least be a chance, although small, of survival should that situation become a reality.
The holiday season is here, and Canon is making it easier than ever to give the gift of photography with deals on cameras and lenses through their online store. Whether you’re shopping for a budding photographer, upgrading your gear, or treating yourself, Canon's holiday promotions offer something for everyone.
Accurate and efficient background removal is vital for professionals in photography, design, and e-commerce, as cluttered backgrounds can detract from the subject. Whether it’s for advertising, e-commerce listings, or social media content, seamless matting is crucial for adapting images to various platforms while preserving quality.
For years, my wife and I have been aimlessly stuck in a first-world conundrum. We enjoy traveling, and like most folks, we enjoy capturing photos and videos of our trips as keepsakes that remind us of the tremendous experiences we have been fortunate to have. But whenever we have considered buying a dedicated camera for our travels, we just haven’t been able to pull the trigger.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner, and it’s high time to gear up for the best deals of this year! ugee offers whopping discounts of up to 40% off on our linkups including the latest comers Fun Drawing Pad UT2&UT3. Whether you find yourself as an artist, designer or just looking to explore your creative side, there’s no better chance to upgrade your toolkit with ugee’s fun gear.
Being a photographer takes a toll on your time, and you find yourself spending endless hours on tedious tasks instead of being behind the lens or doing other things you enjoy.
This Black Friday, OBSBOT’s AI cameras are on sale, offering up to 22% on select models.
Creativity meets affordability this month with Huion’s latest deals. Photographers, designers, and artists can now enhance their workspaces with pen displays and tablets.
SIGMA has been crafting lenses specifically designed to appeal to every type of photographer since the launch of SIGMA Global Vision back in 2012. Since then, SIGMA has been innovating the most standard of workhorse zooms to the apex of niche astrophotography gear. This year, SIGMA announced several new takes on old favorites, including the 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art -- a reinvention of a classic complete with more bells and whistles than ever before.
Boomtown is a local independent movie by Big Picture Media. It chronicles key moments in the history of downtown Frederick, Maryland through the lens of the Frederick News Post and their first African American chief photographer, Amos Brown.
Excire’s photo-management software has been rapidly growing in popularity thanks to its time-saving AI solutions to common photography problems - and this Cyberweek, you have a unique opportunity to grab the company’s latest programs for a bargain price.
Welcome to the ultimate holiday gift guide for photographers! Whether you're shopping for a professional photographer or someone who is just starting out in this creative field, we have curated a selection of gifts that will inspire, enhance, and elevate their photography experience.
The right gear can mean the difference between a fleeting moment lost or perfectly captured. This Black Friday, Bluetti is offering limited-time deals on three products tailored for photographers who demand performance, portability, and peace of mind.
Some advertising photographers equate the degree of stress during a high-profile shoot as a metric of their skill as a photographer: If you’re stressed, then perhaps you were unprepared or lacked knowledge, they might say. I don’t think that’s always the case, as sometimes the extreme challenge of a complicated image requires stress to realize its full creative potential.
Black Friday is a battleground for deals, and this year, SmallRig is arming photographers and videographers with some of the best discounts on essential gear.
We recently launched Memberships for those of you who would like to directly support our publication while receiving a banner-ad-free experience at the same time. We also promised that additional perks would be added over time, and today we're announcing the first one.
The Leica M6 is one of the company's most popular cameras. Built from 1984 to 1998, it proved to be so desirable that two years ago, Leica reintroduced a modestly revised version at a time that no other marque is building new, professional 35mm film cameras.
ProMaster products are designed and developed in the US by a small team of enthusiastic photographers for fellow creatives, storytellers, artists, and adventurers. Each product is thoughtfully designed to be practical, dependable, and enjoyable to use.
Light Lens Lab (LLL) has released a re-creation of Leica’s first generation 28mm f2.8 Elmarit lens introduced in 1965. The Leica lens has become a collector's item known as the 28mm 9 Element. It contains nine spherical surfaced lenses in six groups and the fast f2.8 aperture was a significant improvement from the Summaron f5.6 lens that preceded it. If you can find an original Leica 28mm 9 Element (V1) lens on eBay, prices range from $8,000 to more than $15,000.
In the world of professional photography, the choice of print medium can dramatically affect how an image is perceived and experienced.
GuruShots, the "World's Greatest Photo Game," has announced the winners of its "Art of Architecture" challenge, which received thousands of entries and over 29 million votes. The "Top Photographer" winner of the contest is Bruno Ribeiro of Portugal (whose photo is seen above).
Geneva Navarro has been old longer than I have been alive.
OWC specializes in designing and manufacturing professional-grade solutions for photo and video professionals, including the fully integrated Atlas ecosystem of CFexpress and SD memory cards and memory card readers, alongside expansive Thunderbolt docks and blazing-fast external SSDs.
Every photographer has experienced the frustration of taking the perfect shot and then having it buried in a sea of digital files. Sound familiar? Well, photographs are meant to be seen and felt, and canvas prints do exactly that. You can showcase your pictures in a manner that others can touch and admire them up close.
Since launching its store-builder in 2019, over 1 million photographers worldwide have joined Picfair. Their pitch is simple: Picfair is the quickest and easiest way to launch a professional quality photography website anywhere on the internet.