Michael Zhang

Founder, Editor

Michael is a photography enthusiast, entrepreneur, and programmer based in Northern California near San Francisco. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with two degrees in computer science.

Articles by Michael Zhang

Shooting 360° Video in 48K Using 12 Sony Xperia Z5 Smartphones

Sony has created what it believes is the world's first 48K 360-degree video. The company created a special 3D-printed camera rig that uses 12 Xperia Z5 smartphones arranged in a circle. By shooting 4K with each phone and then stitching together the resulting footage, Sony was able to create 48K video that you can explore interactively.

The 10 Winning Photos of the Hasselblad Masters Awards 2016

Hasselblad has just announced the 10 winning photographers of its prestigious Masters Awards 2016 contest. The winners were selected from thousands of images by a combination of a vote that was open to the public and votes from a professional jury composed of some of the world's most renowned photographers and experts.

This Video Makes Paris Look Like the Fake World of a Movie Set

French travelers and filmmakers Claire & Max have created this new experimental short film titled "Apparences." They shot 4K imagery of Paris using a Panasonic GH4 and 12-28mm lens, and then used clever editing to make the city look like a giant movie set. Real buildings are turned into facades -- fake flat fronts that are propped up with wooden beams.

Google Uses Tiny Camera Cars to Shoot Tiny Street View of Tiny World

Google's Street View cameras have gone to the ends of the Earth, from under the sea to desolate deserts, in order to document the world in photos. The project is grand, but its latest effort is on a much smaller scale -- literally.

The company just announced Street View for the famous Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, the world's largest model railway. To shoot the images, Google mounted tiny cameras to tiny vehicles (they also had a tiny Street View car look-alike drive around).

Photographing Windsurfers with On-Shore Flashes

Here's a look at how photographer Jaanus Ree recently captured some beautiful photos of windsurfers using off-camera lighting. By placing powerful flashes on the shoreline nearby, Ree was able to freeze the action and capture some remarkable shots.

The First Leaked Photo of the Olympus PEN-F

Olympus is rumored to have a new Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera called the PEN-F up its sleeve, and today we just got our first look at the upcoming camera. The leaked photo above shows what the black version of the camera looks like with the M.Zuiko 75mm lens and an optional grip attached.

This is Nikon D5 Image Quality at ISO 3,280,000

One of the exciting features of the new flagship Nikon D5 is the fact that it can shoot with a native ISO of up to 102,400 and an expanded ISO of 3,280,000. If you're curious about what the D5's ISO 3.28 million looks like in photos, we've got some images that'll give you a small glimpse at the quality.

Photographer Captures His Proposal in 360 Degrees and Stop Motion

When Washington, D.C.-based time-lapse photographer Andrew Geraci proposed to his girlfriend, Alicia Pituch, (who's also a photographer) recently, he decided to get creative with documenting the memory. He captured the memory in 360 degrees in two different ways: one with the help of 10 of his photographer friends, and one with a 360-degree camera.

This ‘Web-Slinging’ Drone Catcher is Like the Spider-Man of the Skies

Another day, another innovative solution for catching, disabling, or destroying rogue drones. If your camera drone isn't taken down by a radio wave rifle or a drone with a giant net in the future, you now have another countermeasure to be aware of: a "Spider-Man" drone that shoots out a web-like net to neutralize other drones.

How to Shoot with 3 Lighting Setups in 1 Second

Photographer Alexis Cuarezma is a master of doing rapid-fire portrait shoots of famous athletes for Sports Illustrated. When some of his shoots are limited to just 1 minute, Cuarezma uses 2 lighting setups simultaneously and sometimes even 5 setups on 1 set using a burst of exposures.

Inspired by Cuarezma's technique, photographer Daniel Norton of Adorama decided to create this 6.5-minute video tutorial on how you can shoot 3 portraits with 3 different lighting setups in just 1 second.

These Short Films Were Shot with the Nikon D5

Want to see what the Nikon D5 can do on the video front? Nikon ambassador photographer Corey Rich shot this short film titled "Inspired" using the new flagship DSLR. The video "explores what drives today’s most diverse and interesting professional photographers and filmmakers, and captures the commitment it takes to tell truly meaningful stories."

A Photographer’s Photos of His Camera-Shy Girlfriend

Some people can't get enough of having their photos taken. Photographer Mikaël Theimer's girlfriend is the opposite. She's extremely camera shy, so it's difficult for Theimer to get any photo of her smiling and looking into his camera.

That doesn't stop Theimer from trying though, and over time an unusual photo project was born.

10 Iconic Photos from the First NFL Super Bowls

This year's NFL championship game is Super Bowl 50, and it'll be played on February 7th, 2016, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California (the home of the 49ers). To celebrate what is often the most watched TV broadcast of the entire year in the United States, Sports Illustrated is spending 50 days posting 50 iconic photos from each Super Bowl to the magazine's Instagram page.

Photographer Spells Out ‘Love’ with Baby’s Umbilical Cord

Photographer Emma Jean Nolan of Brisbane, Australia, recently captured and shared an unusual baby photo that's attracting a great deal of attention. While photographing the birth of a baby boy named Harper, Nolan decided to arrange the umbilical cord so that it spelled the word "love."

The Lily Throw-and-Shoot Drone Has Seen $34 Million in Pre-Orders

One of the biggest drone stories in 2015 was the unveiling of the Lily drone, a robotic device that makes shooting aerial photos and videos as easy as tossing a drone into the air. There's no complicated piloting: AI, computer vision, and GPS help take care of everything for you.

It's a idea that has attracted a huge amount of interest: after announcing $15 million in private funding last month, Lily is revealing now that it has received a whopping $34 million in pre-orders from 60,000 customers.

Nikon Can Swap Out the Memory Card Slots in the D5 Between CF and XQD

The new Nikon D5 is available in 2 different versions: one with dual CompactFlash memory card slots, and one with dual XQD slots. Both cameras cost $6,497 right now, and you'll need to make a decision on which one you want when you purchase.

But there's some good news: the decision isn't permanent. If you decide you'd like to use the other format later on, Nikon will take your camera and exchange the memory card slots for you.

This New ‘Art Hotel’ in Japan is Filled with Photos by Daido Moriyama

There's a new photographer-themed hotel that just opened up over in Japan, and it features photos in an unusual way. The new DAIDO MORIYAMA X ROCK STAR HOTEL in Osaka is a six-floor building that's packed with photos by Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama -- some of the spaces have images on the walls from floor to ceiling.

An Interview with British Army Photographer Tim Jones

Tim Jones is a Bristol-based photographer who is currently serving as a British Army Photographer covering West Midlands and Wales. His photos for the army are published in local and national publications

We chatted with Jones to learn more about his life and career as an official army photographer.

Shooting with a 136-Year-Old Lens from 1880

For his latest Weird Lens Challenge experiment, French photographer Mathieu Stern found a 136-year-old lens and mounted it to his Sony a7 II mirrorless camera to see what the results would look like. You can see his test footage in the short video above.

Nikon Sliced This D5 in Half to Reveal the DSLR’s Guts

Nikon's big announcement at CES 2016 in Las Vegas this year was the new flagship D5 DSLR. In the company's exhibition space, Nikon is displaying a Nikon D5 DSLR and Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens that have been sliced cleanly in half to show off the innards with a cross-section view.

Here’s the Thrifty Way to Mount a DSLR Lens to Your Phone Camera

Smartphone camera quality has gotten pretty darn good in recent years, but one of the limiting factors is still the tiny lens that's found in front of the (usually) tiny sensor. Accessory makers have started addressing this problem by creating add-on lenses that you can attach to your phone to improve the look of your photos -- even ZEISS jumped into the game this week.

Jake Burgess wanted to use his Canon SLR lens on his iPhone, but he didn't want to pay the high prices it takes to buy a commercial one. So, he came up with a makeshift solution that costs $0.

Photos of 1930s New York City by Berenice Abbott

The Federal Art Project was a Depression-era program that launched in 1935 to fund projects by visual artists in the US. That same year, American photographer Berenice Abbott received funding for a "Changing New York" photo project to document New York City.

She shot 305 photos for the project between 1935 and 1939, and her work was published in a photo book and distributed to public institutions in New York.

Woman Slammed for Photoshopping Her Face Onto African Tribeswomen

Hungarian journalist and human rights lawyer Boglarka Balogh recently published a series of photos for a good cause... and it blew up in her face.

Balogh is now being widely criticized online for the project, which featured Photoshopped portraits of her face edited onto the portraits of black African tribeswomen.

Watch The Muppets Cover the Song ‘Kodachrome’ by Paul Simon

Kodak's iconic Kodachrome film was retired from service back in 2009, but back in 1973, American singer Paul Simon immortalized the classic film stock in his hit song "Kodachrome."

The new ABC series The Muppets recently posted this short music video in which Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem -- the rock band of The Muppets -- perform "Kodachrome" live in concert.

Photographer Shoots a Self-Portrait with Star Trails

We recently shared a 52-week photo challenge you can do to improve you skills over the course of a year. The challenge for week #1 was "self portrait," and photographer Trevor Mahlmann completed it by creating this eye-popping photo, titled "The Universe At My Feet."

These Photos Show the Sun Bouncing During 24-Hour Sunlight in Antarctica

If you ever visit Antarctica in the summer, you'll find yourself in a place where there's 24 hours of sunlight in a day. Instead of setting in the horizon and ushering in the night, the Sun "bounces" on the horizon and rises up again -- it's a bounce that can be captured in a series of photos captured through a day.

A Quick Guide to Mixing Flash with Ambient Light

Here's a short 3-minute video by Australian photographer Pete Leong on how you can set your flash and camera settings to illuminate portrait subjects while a bright sun is in the background back-lighting them.

"Although I'm using a Profoto B1 in this video you can do the same basic thing with speed lights which is what I do a lot of the time also," Leong says.

Fujifilm X70 Photos and Specs Leaked: Touchscreen Has Arrived

Fujifilm helped popularize the retro camera aesthetic with its X-series line of cameras, and the next generation will continue that trend. The company is set to announce a set of new models later this month, and now photos and specs of one of them, the X70, have leaked ahead of the unveiling.

Forget Camera Drones… This Drone is Big Enough for You and Your Camera

Camera drones have exploded onto the scene in the past few years, and they're being used by photographers around the world as a cheap and easy way to obtain aerial photos and videos. But what if you want both the convenience of a drone and the joy of being able to see and shoot things from the air with your own eyes and camera?

That's where something like the Ehang 184 comes in: it's a new giant drone that may one day fly both you and your camera.

CameraLends Launches iPhone App for Mobile Peer-to-Peer Gear Lending

After launching its peer-to-peer camera gear rental network back in 2013, CameraLends is now pushing into new territory: mobile.

The startup just launched an iPhone app that allows photographers to lend and borrow gear to/from other photographers. It's "the first ever mobile app for renting," says CameraLends.

Judge Rules That Monkey Can’t Own Copyright to His Famous Selfie

It seems that there's finally some resolution in the curious legal battle between PETA and a photographer over whether a monkey owns the copyright to the viral selfies he shot back in 2011.

A federal judge in San Francisco said yesterday that he's planning to dismiss the case, ruling that the monkey cannot own the copyright to photos.

An Uber-Steady Continuous Camera Drone Shot from an LA Street to the Coast

Video effects specialist Robert McIntosh was recently featured by Vimeo for this 2-minute video showing an unusual continuous shot captured with a camera drone.

It "seems impossible flying through signs, benches and fences from the street to the coast to reveal a perfectly lit Los Angeles all without a single cut," McIntosh says. "And it was made with the cheapest of gear as well."