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

This is a 10K Time-Lapse Video Created Using 80MP Still Photographs

Want to see what a 10K time-lapse video looks like? Look no further than the video above. Titled "10328x7760: A 10K Timelapse Demo," it was created by Los Angeles-based photographer Joe Capra, a guy who specializes in ultra-high-definition time-lapse photography.

If you don't have a 10K display handy, don't worry: the video zooms in to show you the level of quality the video has.

Experiment Shows What Happens When You Repost a Photo to Instagram 90 Times

Every time you post a photo to Instagram, it loses a tiny bit of quality. It's not really noticeable for a single upload, but if you save and repost the photo over and over, the quality loss becomes extreme. It's a concept known as "generation loss," and is the subject of artist Pete Ashton's project "I Am Sitting In Stagram (2015)."

Modifying an Old Nikon AI-S 300mm f/2.8 Lens to Give it Faux Autofocus

If you'd like to use legacy Nikkor lenses on your modern Nikon camera, one thing you can do to improve functionality is add a CPU to them. While there are services out there that can convert your lenses for a fee, you can also buy the programmable component for $30 on eBay and do it yourself.

That's what photographer Kalafok Vlakostnitsj recently did with his Nikon AI-S 300mm f/2.8 lens.

Forgotten Moon Camera Found Tucked Away in Neil Armstrong’s Closet

After Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, passed away in 2012, his widow contacted the National Air and Space Museum. Carol Armstrong had discovered a white cloth bag in one of Neil's closets, and it was filled with items that looked like they had been used in space. Among the contents was a forgotten camera that had been used to capture images of the first moon landing.

Grammy Winners’ Official Portraits Released to the Public for the First Time

Photographer Danny Clinch has served as the official backstage portrait photographer at the Grammys for more than a decade, but his shots have largely stayed out of the public eye. One of the traditions of the awards is that Clinch's portraits are privately sent to the winning music artists as keepsakes.

However, this year was different. The Recording Academy decided to break tradition this past Sunday by releasing Clinch's portraits online for the public to see immediately after the awards.

This 3.5-Minute Music Video Was Shot in 5 Seconds with a 1000FPS High Speed Camera

The 3.5-minute music video above was captured in a span of 5 seconds. French filmmaker Guillaume Panariello tells us he did this "shortest shoot ever" using a Phantom 4K camera snapping 1000 frames per second. When slowed down, those 5 seconds of real time turn into three-and-a-half minutes of slow-mo craziness. The song is "Unconditional Rebel" by Siska.

Pentax K-S2: A 20MP DSLR with More LCD Flexibility and Less LED Flashiness

Ricoh wants to win photographers over to its Pentax K-S line of DSLRs. The company's first offering, the K-S1, was laughed at for its strange futuristic design that included strange glowing lights in different parts of the camera body. Some called it the worst camera of 2014, and a botched marketing photo didn't help the cause.

Today Ricoh unveiled a successor that aims to turn the tide of public opinion. The K-S2 is a 20MP APS-C sensor DSLR that opts for a safer and more traditional design.

Portraits of C-Section Babies In Their First Seconds of Life Outside the Womb

Warning: This project contains graphic photographs of childbirth that may be disturbing to some viewers.

After photographer Christian Berthelot's son was born through a caesarian section procedure, an obstetrician at the hospital asked Berthelot if he wanted to shoot a series of photos showing her work in the operating room -- a strange and graphic view that most people never see. Berthelot immediately agreed.

Nikon D810a Leaked Briefly on a French Website

Rumors say we will be seeing a special version of the Nikon D810 for astrophotographers announced sometime this week. Those rumors appear to have been confirmed by a French website that accidentally published a news article about the camera early before pulling it offline.

A Glimpse Inside the Photo Palace That Photographer Jay Maisel Sold for $55 Million

Back in 1966, renowned photographer Jay Maisel purchased a giant 6-floor, 35,000-square-foot, 72-room building at 190 Bowery in Manhattan for $102,000. The former NYC bank became his family's home for the next half century, and the purchase has been described as possibly "the greatest real estate coup of all time".

Here's why: in late 2014, Maisel sold the valuable property to real estate investor Aby Rosen for a whopping $55 million.

Winter Wonderland: Photos of an Abandoned Indoor Mall Filled with Snow

Last year, photographer Seph Lawless published a project called "Black Friday" showing abandoned malls across the US -- widely-published photos that documented the victims of the recession and the online shopping revolution.

Lawless recently revisited one of the malls and found that it had become filled with snow. The broken roofs and skylights had turned the indoor mall into a winter wonderland.

10 Tips for Optimizing Your Photos with Lightroom: A Primer on Basic Techniques

If you're just starting out in Adobe Lightroom and would like some guidance on how you can use the software to improve your photographs, here's a free lesson that may be of interest to you. Photography instructor Tim Grey shares his top 10 tips for optimizing photographs in Lightroom.

The talk runs for nearly 2 hours, so you'll need to carve a chunk out of your day to watch it, but it could be helpful for anyone in need of a primer on some basic tools.

Photo Booths In Japan Will Quietly Retouch Your Face to Fix Your ‘Flaws’

In Japan, purikura refers to a photo booth in which you can pose for a photo with friends and decorate the portraits before receiving little printed versions.

One interesting thing that sets many of these machines apart from their Western world counterparts is the fact that they will quietly do beauty retouching on photos in an attempt to fix subjects' facial "flaws."

A Close-Up Hubble Photo of the Rare Triple Transit of Jupiter’s Moons

On January 23rd, 2015, there was a rare triple transit of Jupiter's moons, during which observers here on Earth were treated with the sight of three moons crossing the face of the planet at the same time. This event happens only once or twice every ten years.

The Hubble Space Telescope was pointed at Jupiter during the triple transit and captured the beautiful photo above. It shows, from left to right, Europa, Callisto, and Io.

Street Photography in Saudi Arabia Could Lead You Straight to Jail

If you'd like a long and fruitful career as a street photographer, Saudi Arabia might not be the most welcoming place for you to pursue it. Shooting public photos and sharing them online is becoming more and more popular in the Middle Eastern kingdom, but many practitioners are unaware that the country's strict cybercrime law could bring down huge fines and even jail time for their snapshots.

Explore Fujifilm X-Mount Lenses with This Interactive Test Website

Fujifilm has a new website that lets photographers "try" X-Mount lenses to see what they can do. It's a lens simulator of sorts: select the lens, aperture, and focal length you want, and press the shutter button on the page. A sample photo will pop up showing what that combination of gear and settings would produce.

A Blast from the Past: How the World of Photography Was Changing Back in 1887

Back in 1887, a photography instructor named Edward M. Estabrooke published a book titled Photography in the Studio and in the Field. It was "a practical manual designed as a companion alike to the professional and the amateur photographer."

Filled with detailed information on how to practice photography with the equipment and technologies of the time, the book also contains interesting passages that describe how the world of photography was changing.

Glimpses of People and Places in Monrovia, Captured Through Cinemagraphs

Monrovia is the capital of Liberia, the West African country that was founded by the United States and settled in the 1800s by mostly freed slaves (hence its name, which means "land of freedom").

When French photographer Francois Beaurain visited the city in early 2014, he spent five months wandering the streets and documenting this land that he previously knew nothing about. He then created a series of cinemagraphs -- or "moving photos" -- that offer a glimpse into what Monrovia is like.

Photographer’s Portraits of Hairless Dogs Warn of the Dangers of Messing with Nature

If you look through the winners of the annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest, you'll find that many of the crowned contestants lack hair on most -- if not all -- of their body. For some reason, it seems people just aren't very fond of how hairless dogs look.

Photographer Sophie Gamand recently decided to make hairless dogs the subject of a portrait project titled "Prophesy."

Canon 11-24mm f/4L is a New Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens for Full Frame DSLRs

Canon today announced a new ultra-wide zoom lens for its EF lineup: the 11-24mm f/4L USM. Canon claims the lens offers the widest angle of view ever achieved for a rectilinear full frame DSLR lens.

It boasts an angle of view of 126° 5'. By comparison, the popular 16-35mm offers an angle of view of 108° 10'.