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

Have a Flash-Based Photo Website? Now is the Time to Switch

Heads up: if you have a photography website powered by Adobe Flash, you should make plans now to switch to something other than Flash. Flash-based photo sites have long been the source of frustration due to usability issues (and auto-playing music), but now major Internet forces are rallying to kill off the technology.

Photographer Shoots Engagement-style Photos of a Man and His Burrito

San Francisco-based writer David Sikorski was getting tired of the lovey-dovey photos dominating his Facebook feed, so he partnered with photographer Kristina Bakrevski for a photo shoot with his own "one true love": the burrito. The duo trio traveled around San Francisco and shot stereotypical engagement photos showing Sikorski's intense love for his burrito, which was dressed beautifully in foil.

TEDx Talk: Babycakes Romero Discusses ‘The Death of Conversation’

Street photographer Babycakes Romero scored a viral hit last year with his project "The Death of Conversation," a series of photos showing people "together" but lost in the worlds of their own smartphones.

Romero was recently invited to TEDxBergamo in Italy to talk about the project and his thoughts on the images. You can watch the 16-minute presentation above.

Photojournalist Loses Life’s Work After Burglars Steal Hard Drives

Camera gear may be expensive and painful to have stolen, but your photos are priceless and devastating to lose. A photographer's worst nightmare just happened to a well-known photographer: on Monday, Montreal-based photojournalist Jacques Nadeau returned home to find that burglars had stolen all the photos he has taken during his life and career.

No CGI: Tom Cruise Actually Rode the Outside of an Airplane Taking Off

We recently shared how the film Mad Max: Fury Road mostly used real stunts, physical effects, and compositing instead of relying on computer generated imagery.

Here's another (even crazier) example of people actually doing something on camera rather than using CGI: for a scene in the upcoming film Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, actor Tom Cruise was actually strapped to the outside of an a military transport plane while it took off.

Nikon Offers ‘Maintenance Service Initiative’ to D800 and D700 Owners

Nikon has begun contacting owners of D800 and D700 DSLRs with an offer to participate in a new "Maintenance Service Initiative." Photographers who are interested can have their camera sent to Nikon's repair center, examined, cleaned, and repaired (if there are any issues discovered). The entire program -- including shipping both ways -- is being offered for free.

These are the Most Incredible Photos Shot by NASA’s Cassini Probe

NASA's New Horizons probe dazzled the world with a detailed photo of Pluto today, but another probe has been beaming back stunning shots of space for over a decade already. The Cassini space probe has captured its fair share of eye-popping photos since launching in 1997 and arriving in Saturn's orbit in 2004.

Seagull Grabs GoPro and Helps Tourist Capture Aerial Shots of the Coastline

If you'd like to shoot some aerial images but don't have a drone or balloon handy, see if you can get a seagull to help you out. German Martin Lozano tourist was visiting the Cies Islands off the coast of Spain recently when a seagull grabbed his GoPro, flew away, shot some breathtaking views of the coastline, and then flew back to return the camera. Everything was captured in the 1-minute video above.

RED Cameras Get New Still Photography Features via Firmware V6.0

More and more still photography cameras are getting advanced video features, so it only makes sense that cinema cameras are moving more into the world of still photos as well. Last week, RED launched a new version 6.0 firmware for its cameras, which brings a number of powerful new features for shooting photographs alongside video.

Field Testing the Canon 5DS R in Botswana, Africa

Abraham Joffe of Untitled Film Works released this 3-minute video showing photographer Denis Glennon field testing the new Canon 5DS R by capturing wild animals in Botswana, Africa (he was likely using the first 5DS R to hit African soil).

Timelapse: Restoring an Old, Ripped-Up Photo

Here's a great look at how far Photoshop can go in restoring a heavily damaged photo print. Argentinian photo restorer Hernan Folmer made the time-lapse above showing how he reconstructed an old photo last year using Photoshop CC. The video shows 2 hours of work in Photoshop CC condensed into 2 minutes.

The Final and Finest Photo of Pluto Before Flyby

After traveling nine years and three billion miles, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally reached the dwarf planet Pluto today. To celebrate, NASA released this final and sharpest photo of the dwarf planet captured before the historic flyby.

Newspaper Sends Cartoonist to Foo Fighters Concert to Protest Photo Contract

The Washington City Paper recently decided to boycott the Foo Fighters' restrictive concert photo contract by buying photos from fans instead. Now a different paper is protesting that same contract in a much different way.

This past weekend, the Quebec newspaper Le Soleil decided to send a cartoon sketch artist to cover a Foo Fighters' concert instead of putting a photographer in the media area.

This Time-Lapse Shows the Passing of a Day on Earth From 22,000 Miles Away

Since late 2014, Japan's Himawari 8 weather satellite has been in stationary orbit above New Guinea, 22,000 miles out (Earth's average diameter is 7,918 miles). It shoots one photo of Earth every 10 minutes, capturing 144 pictures of our planet over the course of a day.

When combined, the photos form a gorgeous time-lapse video showing the passing of a day on Earth. In the 20-second video above, the Sun's reflection can be seen in the daylight that moves across the surface of the globe.

Report: Panasonic Making the First Interchangeable-Lens Light Field Camera

Lytro may have launched the world's first consumer light field camera back in 2011 and a more powerful followup, the Illum (pictured above), last year, but it may not be alone in rushing for future milestones in light field photography.

Case in point: Panasonic is said to be working on the world's first light field camera that uses interchangeable lenses.

A Peek Into the Intense Workouts of a Top Adventure Photographer

Want to see what it takes to be one of the world's top adventure photographers? Hitting the gym isn't a requirement for most types of photography, but it's absolutely essential for renowned photographer Jimmy Chin, a man who regularly carries his camera alongside the best athletes and explorers in the world.

Fujifilm to Raise Prices and Kill Film Lines Yet Again

In response to struggling film sales, Fujifilm has repeatedly discontinued unprofitable lines and raised prices over the past several years. The company has now announced its latest round of price increases and film discontinuations for its Japanese market in an attempt to make sure that its popular and profitable films can live on.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Instagram Resolution Increase: Here’s How It Affects Image Quality and File Size

On Monday, we shared that Instagram had begun quietly storing larger 1080px versions of photos, up from the 640px resolution of the past (when the service launched the size was 612px).

Instagram has now confirmed the resolution increase across its photo-sharing service, and says that the change will improve the quality of photos while having minimal impact on file size and data usage.

Russia Unveils ‘Safe Selfies’ Campaign as Death Count Grows

This headline may sound like a piece of satire, but unfortunately it's not: Russia has just launched a new public safety campaign called "Safe Selfies" to warn citizens of the dangers of taking careless and risky self portraits. Apparently there have been a large number of deaths and injuries in recent days that have been directly caused by selfie-taking.