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

Sony RX100 Successor Spotted in Leaked Manual Illustrations

Rumors emerged earlier this week that Sony is planning to announce a followup to its popular RX100 large sensor compact camera by the end of this month. Those rumors got a huge boost in credibility today after pages from the camera's Japanese instruction manual were leaked onto the web.

Sigma’s Game-Changing 18-35mm f/1.8 Zoom Lens to Cost Just $799

Sigma shook up the camera world back in April by announcing its new 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM lens -- the world's first zoom lens with a fixed maximum aperture of f/1.8. It turns out the revolutionary lens will have a revolutionary price tag as well: the company announced today that the lens will cost just $799.

Samsung Galaxy NX Mirrorless Camera Photos Leaked, Show Android OS

We reported earlier today that Samsung's CEO recently said that his company's next "mirrorless" camera would be Android-powered, but that it wasn't clear whether it would actually be an interchangeable lens NX mirrorless camera or simply a point-and-shoot. Turns out it's the former.

Photographs of an upcoming Samsung Galaxy NX leaked onto the web today, confirming that Samsung will soon be launching an Android-powered mirrorless camera.

Heartbeat: Beautiful DIY Pinhole Cameras Powered by Watch Movements

Pinhole cameras can be easily and cheaply made using things you have lying around the house... or you can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and fashion yourself a highly intricate pinhole camera. That's what Korean photographer Kwanghun Hyun did with his Heartbeat cameras. The two cameras created so far feature one crazy design choice: they use intricate watch movements as their internal timing mechanisms.

How to Add Dynamic Clipping Warnings to Photoshop

There are two types of clipping you probably try to avoid introducing into your images during post-production: luminosity clipping (when the brightest areas of an image become white, or when the darkest areas become black), and channel clipping (when the data within an individual channel becomes compromised). Both forms – unless you've made a deliberate decision to clip your data – are something to avoid.

Taking Pictures on an Offshore Oil Rig Is Serious Business

Taking pictures on an offshore oil rig is serious business. For starters, due to the risk of flammable gas coming up the oil well, normal electronics are banned outside the living quarters. Smartphones are strictly forbidden and regular cameras require "hot work permits" be opened prior to use.

Photographer Captures the Experiences of Mentally Ill Prison Inmates

Due to the evaporation of funding that supports mental health facilities, many prisons across the United States have been given the extra duty of treating those who are mentally ill. These patient-prisoners are often trapped within the systems with no where else to go for better treatment.

Trapped is a project by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based photographer Jenn Ackerman that shares the experiences of these prisoners through gritty black-and-white photographs.

Photographing Earth from the Cupola on the International Space Station

NASA's Image of the Day today is a photograph showing one of the best photo op spots to be found on the International Space Station: the Cupola module. The image (shown above) shows astronaut and flight engineer Chris Cassidy pointing a Nikon DSLR and 400mm lens out one of the Cupola's windows to photograph some location on Earth 250 miles below him.

Video: Mechanical Shutter Spotted on the Nokia ‘EOS’ Phone

A mysterious tech blog called Vizileaks appeared on the web yesterday and stirred up some excitement in the tech world by claiming to have gotten its hands on a Nokia "EOS" smartphone. The site's "hands-on mini review" of the device features a number of photos and one video (shown above) that shows that the device features a mechanical shutter.

Adobe Pranks Pedestrians at a Bus Stop with Real-Time Photoshopping

Adobe recently came up with a clever and funny way of promoting its Adobe Creative Day event that'll be held next week. The company visited a bus stop in Sweden and pranked people by Photoshopping them in real time into a digital movie poster advertisement displayed next to the bench. The whole thing was documented with hidden cameras and shared in the video above.

Check Out These Computer Generated 3D Renderings of DSLR Cameras

Back in March, we shared about how realistic computer generated images has been encroaching on the commercial product photography industry and killing photography jobs. More and more of the product photos you see in advertisements and press releases these days did not involve an actual camera and photographer at all, but rather artist, a computer, and 3D rendering software.

For example, the Nikon D60 product "photo" seen above was created entirely in Keyshot, a powerful 3D rendering program.

Build a DIY Sound Blimp to Silence Your Camera for Less Than $100

Phoenix-based photographer Dan Tabár sometimes shoots on sound stages, sets, and quiet studios -- locations where a loud camera would either cause problems or cause angry glares and murderous thoughts. Needing a way to surpress the shutter sound of his Nikon D800 -- he says the "quiet mode is a joke" -- Tabár decided to create his own DIY sound blimp.

Sluggish Canon EOS M Autofocus Will Be Up to 2.3x Faster with Firmware Update

There was a great deal of excitement when Canon entered the mirrorless camera market with the EOS M last year, but much of the buzz evaporated when people began putting the camera through its paces. Although the camera features impressive image quality, one of the biggest issues is the sluggish autofocus that often gets in the way of capturing "decisive moments."

If you're the not-so-proud owner of a EOS M who constantly grumbles about the AF, here's some news that'll be music to your ears: your camera is set to receive a major AF speed boost by way of a firmware update.

Photos of Cell Phone Towers Disguised as Fake Trees

In 1996, a palm tree was introduced to a suburb in Cape Town Africa. The tree appeared almost overnight, and it wasn't an ordinary tree: it was one of the world's first (if not the first) disguised cell phone towers. Rather than have unnatural and unattractive metal towers jutting out of the ground, companies began working to make the towers blend in with the natural environment. This fake tree concept soon spread across Cape Town, across South Africa, and finally across the world.

In response to the spread of these fake trees, photographer Dillon Marsh decided to shoot a series of photos to document the trend. The series is titled, "Invasive Species."

This Zoomable Composite Aerial Photo of San Francisco is Like a 1938 Google Earth

What you see above is an ultra-high resolution aerial photograph of San Francisco as it looked in 1938. The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection put the image together using 164 large format black-and-white photos of SF that were shot in 1938. When viewed through a zoomable image viewer, the composite photo is pretty much a 1938 version of Google Earth's satellite view.

Leica X Vario Type 107: Leica M Mini Final Name and Specs Leaked?

Perhaps Leica isn't spreading false rumors through a strange marketing campaign after all. Earlier this week, we wrote that Leica may have been leaking fake photos and specs of its upcoming Leica "M Mini" camera in order to make the real thing seem more attractive once it appears. That no longer appears to be the case.

Multiple sites are now reporting that those initial leaks and rumors were indeed true, and that the camera will officially be called the Leica X Vario Type 107.

Earthquake Turns Photographer’s Jupiter Photo Into a Light Painting

"Earthquake astrophotography light painting." How's that for a novel photography technique? It sounds strange, it's an apt description of how photographer Andrew Dare captured the squiggly photo above (on right). Dare was photographing the night sky with long exposures when an earthquake struck while his shutter was open.

The Story Behind the Iconic “Tank Man” Tiananmen Square Photo

When the Chinese military moved into Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989 to forcibly remove pro-democracy protestors, an anonymous man famously decided to place himself in front of the long column of Chinese tanks that were rumbling into the area. Photos and videos of the incident were immediately published and broadcast around the world. AP photographer Jeff Widener's "Tank Man" photo, shown above, is widely considered to be one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century.

Impressive Time-Lapse Tour of Shanghai

Time-lapse photographer Rob Whitworth (we've featured his work a number of times in the past) has released a beautiful new time-lapse video that offers a look into the Chinese city of Shanghai.

How Not to Capture a Ship Launch

If you ever get a chance to photograph or film the launching of a virgin ship hitting the water for the first time, make sure you stay at a safe distance. The short 18-second-video above shows what can happen if you bring your camera a little too close to the action.

Photographer Captures Rare Photograph of a Sprite with an Aurora

Check out this aurora photograph captured last Friday night by photographer Mike Hollingshead. See those small red squiggly lines in the sky? That's an extremely rare form of lightning called a sprite. This photograph is one of the only times a sprite and an aurora have been captured in the same frame.

Chicago Sun-Times Photographers React and Respond to Being Laid Off

When the Chicago Sun-Times unexpectedly laid off its entire team of photojournalists last week, Al Podgorski was one of the photographers hearing the bad news at the meeting. Having worked for the paper since 1984, Podgorski's image-making instincts kicked in, and he shot the photograph above showing his colleagues learning that they were being laid off.

The photographer in the center of the frame is John H. White, the renowned photojournalist who joined the Sun-Times in 1978 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982.

Photographer Creates Portraits of Family Members by Shooting Possessions

How much can you learn about a person by simply looking at things he or she has owned in their life? This question was explored a couple of years ago in a project that documented the things people would save from a burning house, and it's also the question behind photographer Camilla Catrambone's project titled, "Portraits of My Family."

Tornado Chasers Getting “Too Close” In Their Hunt for Dramatic Imagery

There has been a series of devastating tornados in the American Midwest recently, and one of the emerging trends -- especially in this social media era -- is the hunt for dramatic photographs and videos. Earlier this week we wrote about how one particular filmmaker created a tornado-proof vehicle to capture footage from directly inside funnels.

That filmmaker is backed by the Discovery Channel and has the funds and know-how to do things correctly (i.e. "safely"). On the other hand, there is also a new generation of storm chasers who are getting closer and closer to the storms in ordinary vehicles; the video above is one example of when people take their cameras too close.

Beautiful Camera Lens Ring Creations by Photographer Ben High

Ben High of Marion, Iowa has two big passions: making jewelry and making photographs. When he's not designing jewelry at Philip's Diamond Shop, High loves tinkering with old cameras and shooting instant film photographs.

The two talents sometimes come together for some pretty fantastic results; a number of rings High has created are inspired by camera lenses.

Craigslist Ad, Spoofed Screenshot Mock Sun-Times After Photographer Layoffs

The Chicago Sun-Times has raised quite a furor talking after unexpectedly laying off its entire photography staff yesterday. Everyone seems to have something to say about it, with some commentators calling it "a sign of the times," while others are wondering whether the newspaper is trying to pull "a union-busting move."

Los Angeles-based writer and comedian Jason Sereno decided to weigh in a different way: he created a tongue-in-cheek Craigslist job listing in Chicago.

Interview with Jeff Lombardo, Ne-Yo’s Personal Photographer

Jeff Lombardo is the personal photographer and videographer for Ne-Yo. Visit his website here, his Facebook page here, and his Instagram account here.

PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Jeff Lombardo: For the past 16 years I've been working as an independent contractor in the entertainment industry as a digital artist. During those 16 years I've worked at many of the top ad agencies, motion picture studios and television studios in Hollywood such as, NBC, Universal Studios, MGM, FOX, Disney, and Warner Brothers.

Beware of Weak Docks When Shooting a Wedding Party Over Water

If you're ever photographing a group of people on a dock or pier, be sure the structure can support the full weight of your subjects. The video above shows what happened to newlyweds Frank and Tricia Fearon and their 29-member wedding party a couple of weekends ago after they decided to pose on a dock for a photo.

Tintype Portraits of Photography Students Created on Their Discarded Film Canisters

Photographer David Emitt Adams experiments with unique metal bases in his experiments with tintype photography. Last week we shared a project in which he used abandoned tin cans found in a desert to create tintype photographs.

36 Exposures is another project of his that uses unconventional materials for creating old school photos. It's a series of tintype photographs that were created using 35mm film canisters.

$25 Space Camera: Raspberry Pi Camera Snaps Photos of Earth on a Balloon

Raspberry Pi's new Camera Module is starting to hit store shelves, and we're starting to see some interesting photo experiments being done with the simple programmable camera kit.

High altitude ballooning enthusiast Dave Akerman recently decided to send his $25 module up to the edges of space to snap photographs of Earth and beam images back during its flight.