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

A Day in the Life of Street Photographer John Free

Los Angeles-based street photographer John Free just published this inspiring 14-minute video in which he discusses and demonstrates his street photography mindset and technique. It offers a glimpse into a day in the life of a man who has been doing and teaching street photography for over 30 years now.

Long-Exposure Photos of California Wildfires at Night

For the past few wildfire seasons in Southern California, Los Angeles-based photographer Stuart Palley has taken his camera out into the hills to document the blazes at night. His long-exposure photographs show both the fury and the beauty of the fires. The resulting collection of images is now part of a series titled Terra Flamma.

Fisherman Casts Line and Catches a Camera Drone

Tice Ledbetter was flying his DJI camera drone over a pier at Pacific Beach in San Diego this week when something bizarre happened: a fisherman on the pier noticed his drone, cast his fishing line at it, and hooked the quadcopter right below one of the propellers. The whole thing was captured by the drone in the video above.

San Francisco’s Police Department Has an ‘Instagram Officer’

Over the past several years, there have been a number of arrests that have resulted from photos posted to Instagram. It seems that oftentimes criminals can't resist sharing photos of their illegal activities online for everyone (including police investigators) to see.

Perhaps in response to this strange trend, the San Francisco Police Department is now employing at least one "Instagram officer" who patrols the pages of Instagram in search of lawbreakers.

BTS: Photographing Wildlife in the Land of the Maasai

Photographer Chris Schmid of Morges, Switzerland, recently traveled to Masai Mara, Kenya, to document how the Kenyans living there were helping to preserve their natural environment.

The 3-minute video above is a behind-the-scenes look at Schmid's journey.

An Interview with Selfie Stick Inventor Wayne Fromm

Wayne Fromm is a Canadian inventor who's widely recognized as being one of the main inventors of the selfie stick (with the other being Hiroshi Ueda of Japan). Fromm holds original patents for selfie sticks created for compact cameras and smartphones, and he current sells selfie sticks through his Quik Pod brand.

In this interview, we spoke to him about his involvement in (and thoughts about) the selfie stick boom:

A Look at Photo Steganography, the Hiding of Secrets Inside Digital Images

Here's a fascinating (but very heady) video by Computerphile, which recently sat down with image analyst Dr. Mike Pound of the University of Nottingham to talk about the subject of digital image steganography.

Steganography is the practice of hiding one piece of content inside another. In this case, Pound talks about the idea of being able to kind all kinds of content inside digital photograph files.

Interview with Top Action Sports Photographer Garth Milan

Garth Milan is one of the top action sports photographers in the world, traveling the world to photograph some of the world's most talented and most extreme athletes. Recently we featured Milan's photos of athlete Robbie Maddison surfing giant waves on a dirt bike. We had the privilege of chatting with Milan to talk about his life, career, and the future of the action sports industry.

Here’s a Love Story Told Through the Viewfinder of a Hasselblad 501C

After seeing the Paris through a Pentax video we published back in August 2014, filmmaker Keith Tedesco was inspired to turn the concept into a creative short film.

What resulted was "Him & Her," the 6-minute short film above that tells a love story through the viewfinder of a Hasselblad 501C medium format camera.

Photos of Amsterdam Coffeehouses Developed with the Coffee They Sell

Over the years, we've posted a number of tutorials on how to develop film using coffee and vitamin C, which combine to create a photo process known as caffenol. The solution can be used to develop prints as well, and that's what photographer Gijs van den Berg did for a recent project that documents coffeehouses in Amsterdam.

After photographing each shop, Gijs printed the photos in his darkroom using caffenol created from that shop's coffee.

CLERA is a Transparent Camera That Actually Works

Photographer Anton Orlov has created what he believes is the world's first camera that's both completely transparent and fully functional. It's called CLERA, short for Clear Camera, and is a camera that you can also look into while a projected photo is being exposed.

Why Photoshop Sucks (Except It Doesn’t)

Popular YouTube filmmaker and VFX artist Freddie Wong released this video a couple of days ago that has a lot of people talking. It's titled "Why CG Sucks (Except It Doesn't)." Over the course of 7.5 minutes, Wong argues that computer generated visual effects often get a bad rap because it's the bad CG that everyone notices -- by definition, good CG is largely invisible to audiences.

A Clever Camera Store Ad on the Side of a Bus

Over in Japan, the electronics chain Yodobashi Camera places these creative ads on the sides of buses that turn the rear wheel into a lens for a giant camera. Kevin Warnecke spotted this one in Kyoto, Japan.

500px Redesigns its iOS App to be Sleek, Simple, and More Social

It looks like 500px is putting its recent $13M in funding to good use: the company today announced a redesigned app for iOS that focuses on simplicity, personalization, and social. The company's goal is to showcase user photographs better and to make them more discoverable for other users on iPhones and iPads.

Photos of Various Food Dishes Flying Through the Air

Camden, London-based commercial still life photographer Piotr Gregorczyk likes to play with food and gravity. One concept he has focused on for a number of recent projects is the idea of showing various food dishes flying through the air as they come together on a plate or in a bowl.

KFC’s New Tray Liners Let You Take ‘Fakation’ Photos

KFC Romania wants to help you make your life appear more exciting on social media. The restaurant chain's new 'Fakation' campaign features new tray liners that display photos from vacation spots around the world. You're supposed to use the photos as backgrounds to create fake vacation photos for sharing online.

Wow: This Algorithm Can Separate Reflections from Photographs

Researchers at Google and MIT have figured out a way to automatically remove reflections and obstructions from photographs, and their latest demo of the technology is amazing.

Check out the 6.5-minute video above for an explanation of the algorithm and some examples of what it can do.

Fashion Photos Recreated with an Everyday Woman as the Model

What would fashion photos look like if the models in them were more... ordinary? French fashion stylist Nathalie Croquet recently decided to find out. She took a number of photos from the high fashion industry, recreated the sets, and stood in front of the camera herself as the model.

Govt PSA Video Warns: Don’t Fly Your Camera Drone Near a Wildfire

A month after Union Pacific published a PSA video warning photographers to stay away from train tracks, the US government has published its own PSA video that warns people to keep drones away from wildfires.

The 30-second video above, titled "Drones PSA," was released by the National Interagency Fire Center last week. The center also has a new webpage titled "No Drone Zone" dedicated to warning photographers and videographers that camera drones and wildfires don't mix.

This is How Fujifilm Recycled Disposable Cameras in 1998

What happens to used disposable cameras once the film has been processed and printed for customers? Well, oftentimes the camera company is able to get its hands on the discarded shell, load it up, and sell it to customers again. If you want to see exactly how this recycling process is/was done, check out the fascinating 15-minute video above, which shows how Fujifilm recycled and reused disposable cameras back in 1998.

Music Visualized with Light Painting Photography

How do you go about capturing music in a photograph? Photographer Stephen Orlando has an interesting answer: light painting. By attaching LED lights to the bows of violin, viola, and cello players, Orlando is able to capture a creative representation of the sounds created by musicians.

How Nikon Film SLRs Were Made in the 1990s

Want to see how Nikon SLR cameras were made two decades ago? Back in 1998, the Japanese TV show "The Making" -- an international predecessor of How It's Made -- aired this 15-minute-long segment showing how Nikon manufactured its F70 film SLR (known as the N70 in the US), which was first introduced in 1994.

A Glimpse Into the Alliance Between Sony and Zeiss

Sony and Zeiss are two brand names that appear together on many of Sony's cameras and lenses. For the past two decades, the Japanese and German companies (respectively) have had a fruitful partnership in designing and manufacturing gear.

To help clear up any confusion regarding dual-branded camera equipment, Zeiss recently published an interesting article that explains some behind-the-scenes details about the partnership.

Father and Son Take the Same Picture Every Year for Nearly 3 Decades

An anonymous father and son over in China are making headlines in that country and across the Internet after their special photos tradition came to light recently. Ever since the son was born in 1986, he and his father have posed for a picture together every year up through 2013. Together, the photos form a powerful series of images showing this special relationship over nearly three decades of life together.

This Guy Managed to Shoot a Self Portrait with the ISS

Photographer Trevor Mahlmann has a knack for capturing light trails showing the International Space Station zipping across the sky. Back in June, he made headlines by photographing the ISS from the seat of airliner as he cruised at 40,000 feet. Now he's back again with another neat feat: he shot a self-portrait of himself staring up at the ISS as it zipped by overhead.

This Insane Motorcycle Surfing Shoot was 2.5 Years in the Making

Surf photography doesn't usually feature motorcycles, but this crazy shoot did. For its latest project titled "Pipe Dream," DC Shoes partnered with Australian stunt bike rider Robbie Maddison for dirt bike surfing. The team spent 2.5 years working on making the idea a reality, creating a modified bike that has boasts special fins for hydroplaning, a waterproof engine, and custom rear tires.

You Need More than ‘Natural Talent’ to Make it as a Photographer

Movies on the big screen sometimes have valuable nuggets of wisdom that can be applied to photography (and life). We recently shared one such clip from the movie "The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty." Here's another one from the movie "Boyhood."

In this 3-minute clip, the main character, Mason, has a conversation with his photography teacher, Mr. Turlington, in the class darkroom. It turns out to be a fatherly lecture about the importance of adding hard work and other qualities on top of natural talent.

This One Teen Was Behind Two Major Drone Stories

Austin Haughwout has a knack for getting drones featured in news stories... and usually not in a positive light. The 18-year-old's name first appeared here back in 2014 when he captured viral video of himself getting attacked by a woman on a beach. She claimed that he was being a "pervert" and was using his camera drone to photograph girls in bikinis.

This is a Stereograph Photo Viewer from 1896

Australian toy photographer Ray of ToyShoots recently purchased this old school stereoscope that was apparently manufactured in 1896. It's the device people used to view stereoscopic photos as one 3D image (the View-Master, which was released in 1936, is also a stereoscope).

Portraits of Babies in Camera Bags

When photographer Alessandro Della Bella's son Claudio was born in December 2014, he shared the happy news of the new family member by shooting a picture of Claudio sleeping in the main compartment of his camera bag.