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

Photographer Accuses B&H of ‘Bait and Switch’ After $7,100 Mistake

Camera gear retailers almost always have legal disclaimers that protect them from major pricing mistakes -- if a $10,000 item is accidentally priced at $10, the order can be cancelled and there's no obligation to honor the order and take a huge financial hit.

But, as one photographer just found out, pricing errors can sometimes hurt quite a bit. He's accusing photo megastore B&H of a "bait and switch" move after a $7,100 mistake involving a Hasselblad camera kit.

The First Leaked Photos of the Fujifilm X-Pro2

Fujifilm helped kick off the mirrorless camera revolution back in 2012 by announcing the powerful retro-styled X-Pro1 camera. Now it appears that a follow-up will soon be upon us: the first official photos of the new Fujifilm X-Pro2 have leaked.

German Court Rules That Photographer Must Delete Intimate Photos of His Ex

Germany is known to have some of the strictest privacy laws in Europe, and sometimes the policies trump photography rights and copyright. The country's highest court just ruled that a photographer must delete "intimate" photos of his ex-lover -- pictures that were consented to when they were created and which the man had no intention of sharing.

Douglas Miller, The Legendary Street Photographer of Laguna Beach

You may not recognize the name, face, and photos of Douglas Miller, but many people living in Laguna Beach, California, do. He's a street photographer who has been shooting a roll of film per day for 44 years, creating a remarkable photo archive of 350,000+ spontaneous snapshots that tell the story of his town.

Filmmaker Jason Blalock decided to shoot a documentary of this prolific local artist from his hometown, and what resulted is a new documentary titled "Sawdust and Sand: The Art of Douglas Miller." Above is a 3-minute trailer.

Photographer Composites Photo-Happy Tourists into Unusual Panoramas

Every year, millions of tourists flock to Banff National Park in Canada to see and photograph the gorgeous landscapes. Photographer Meghan Krauss was fascinated by the crowds of tourists shooting selfies and other photos in these pristine locations, so in 2013, she began to shoot panoramic photos of those spots and then composite large numbers of tourists into a single frame.

1.5 Hours of Face Retouching in a 7 Minute Timelapse

To show the extensive work that can go into retouching a beauty portrait, editing guru Pratik Naik of Solstice Retouch created this 7-minute timelapse video showing how he spend 1.5 hours cleaning up a photo by photographer Jonas Jensen.

Pelican Hard Cases Are 60% Off on Amazon Today

Holiday deal alert: one of Amazon's Deals of the Day today is on Pelican's hard cases that are popular with photographers for hauling gear from place to place. 7 of the cases are currently discounted at over 60% off their MSRPs.

New Injket Printing Can Hide a Photo Within a Photo

Lenticular prints use an array of lenses to cause an image to change before your eyes as you view them from different angles. Scientists have now figured out how to do a "changing photo" trick without lenses using an inkjet printer and metallic sheets.

A Review of the Laowa 15mm f/4 and Its Crazy Close 4.7mm Working Distance

Here's a new video review by Thomas Shahan, the "Bob Ross of bug shots," of the new Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 wide angle macro lens.

There are a number of interesting features in this manual-focus lens, including a buit-in shift mechanism and a crazy close 4.7mm working distance -- you can position your lens just millimeters away from your subject.

Sony Will Be the Major Player in the Photo Industry, Says Sigma’s CEO

Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki has done quite a good job at boosting his brand's reputation in the world of photography over the past few years, as the company's Art series of lenses has drawn rave reviews for their optical quality, solid build, and relative affordability.

In a new interview, Yamaki shared a bold prediction about the future of the camera industry: he believes that Sony will emerge as the major player.

‘Impact’: A Vertical Video of a 30m Cliff Dive in 4K and 1,000FPS

Shooting vertical video, the use of portrait orientation rather than landscape, is considered by many to be one of the scourges of the Web introduced by smartphone cameras. Google's camera app even warns you when you're in vertical orientation.

Director Jean-Charles Granjon recently decided to try his hand at turning vertical video from an annoyance into a cinematic experience. His short film above, titled Impact, embraces the orientation in order to capture the "mental journey" of a high diver jumping off a cliff.

This is a Star Wars Action Scene in the Age of CGI

One of the gripes Star Wars fans have about Episodes 1, 2, 3 is that George Lucas relied heavily on CGI rather than the brilliant practical effects that were found in the original trilogy. Many of the action scenes were simply actors waving light saber sticks around on giant green screen sets.

This Photo of an Astronaut Shows How Big the ISS Is

You've probably seen countless photos by now of astronauts working inside and outside the International Space Station, but sometimes it's hard to get a sense of scale when the photos don't show much of the station. If you'd like an idea of just how big the station is, check out this photo of American astronaut Kjell Lindgren working on it.

Here’s a Photo of Tea Being Tossed in -40°C Weather

In cold enough temperatures, hot water tossed into the air instantly turns into ice. That's what's captured in this beautiful photo by photographer Michael Davies -- it shows his friend Markus Siivola tossing hot tea from a thermos into the -40°C air.

‘The Revenant’ Was Shot Almost Entirely with Natural Light

The Revenant is an upcoming western thriller film that's inspired by the crazy life of explorer and fur trapper Hugh Glass. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, the rugged and violent movie has one quality that may be of interest to photographers: it was shot nearly 100% with natural light.

Apple Has 800 People Working on the iPhone Camera

60 Minutes just aired a fascinating segment on Apple this past weekend, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the secretive and dominant company. Here's one of the crazy facts that was mentioned: Apple has 800 employees whose work is dedicated solely to the iPhone's camera.

This is How Camera Gear Was Stolen in 2015

The anti-theft gear registry LensTag just provided us with this new look at how camera gear was stolen over the past year. As you can see from the pie chart above, car and home break ins are still the biggest way thieves are targeting cameras and lenses: they accounted for over half of all thefts reported to LensTag in 2015.

DJI Just Opened a Flagship Camera Drone Retail Store

Since its birth a decade ago in 2006, the Chinese company DJI has rapidly grown into the world's leader in consumer camera drones. Now the company is soaring to new heights with the opening of its first shiny retail location where consumers can get their hands on the drones in person, directly from the company.

This is How Canon Flips the Mirror in Its New DSLRs

If you shoot with a DSLR, you might take for granted that the mirror inside your camera swings out of the way to allow light to hit the sensor. There's actually quite a bit of precise engineering behind those seemingly simple flips.

With its new Canon 5DS and 5DS R, Canon introduced a new mechanical mirror mechanism that's designed to reduce mirror flip vibrations. The 43-second video above shows how the system works.

The FAA’s B4UFLY App Tells You Where You Can Fly a Camera Drone

Since May of 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been beta testing a new smartphone app called B4UFLY (pronounced "before you fly"). It's a portable resource that helps aerial photographers and other drone pilots stay up to date on where it's safe and legal to fly.

An Introduction to the Many Kinds of Clamps Used in Photo Shoots

Photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens made this helpful 7-minute video tutorial that provides a crash course on the different types of clamps used by photographers during shoots.

"This is not super glamorous stuff to talk about," says Morgan, "but it’s the basics that we use every single day that we’re on set."