Camera and lenses aren't the only photographic essentials that cost money. A decent machine with plenty of RAM and fast storage (preferably SSD) and rather expensive serious photography software are must-haves, too.
Spend your Sunday with some great reading. Here’s our roundup of interesting articles and content from around the Web for photographers. Enjoy!
My friend Jon Gilchrist and I were talking about cabin fever and ways to stay active while also socially distancing during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He had the idea to come up with a route on Google Earth and Street View for me to bike and take a few pictures on.
Australian comedian Lewis Spears is known in his home country for fake stories to news outlets. Last year, Spears traveled to Los Angeles and pretended to be a famous photographer at a popular photo spot. He managed to fool not only aspiring Instagram stars but a national media outlet crew as well.
Rogue has announced the latest version of its FlashBender shapeable reflectors and softboxes. Version 3 features a number of improvements over the previous iteration, including improved grip and shapeability.
Simple things in life can be so beautiful and love can be found everywhere.
The Military Visual Awards has announced its winning photographs for 2019, honoring the best military photos captured worldwide over the past year.
There seems to be a trend in current photography goals to achieve a “look” to one's work. I feel this is a short-sighted goal, and that a consistent aesthetic is more the result of careful curation of a large body of work, rather than something that ought to be deliberately achieved.
Condé Nast photographer Alessio Albi obviously can't do the kind of real-world shooting he's used to right now, but that hasn't stopped him from taking pictures. He's just moved his work over to video chat instead.
US drone maker Draganfly—one of DJI's major competitors in the commercial camera drone space—is working with the Australian Department of Defense and University of South Australia to deploy special "pandemic drones" that can detect coughing, sneezing, respiratory rate, and even fever from a distance.
The folks over at Syrp have just released plans for one of the most intense, involved, but potentially rewarding DIY projects you could possibly embark on: building your own professional photo studio with no corners, giving the impression of an infinite background—AKA: a cyclorama.
Sony has released an official "statement regarding the impact of the spread of the novel coronavirus," in which the company details exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted each of their businesses. As expected, the news is pretty negative across the board.
Following in the footsteps of Adobe, Affinity and others, Apple has just made their professional-grade video editing program Final Cut Pro X free for 90 days, extending the usual 30-day free trial and even allowing current trial users to re-start their clock.
Since we're all stuck inside and social distancing, I recently took out my drone and photographed people in their homes through their windows or on their terraces. It's a 100% zero-human-contact way to see how people are going crazy during quarantine times.
A new website called Compare Presets wants to help photographers find the perfect Lightroom preset for them. It does this by letting you compare hundreds of popular Lightroom presets side-by-side, on multiple genres of photo, and using raw files from all of the most popular camera makers.
Artistic duo of Tony Fero and Helena Juan have teamed up on a creative idea that uses Photoshop to send a public health message. It's called "send them home" and it involves removing the people from famous photos and paintings: a clever way to encourage people to #stayhome during the coronavirus pandemic.
Backlinks are a pillar of SEO. As photographers, we have a unique niche in to getting backlinks. Websites need images for their pages, we have images, and some of these websites might be using your images and mentioning your business, but not linking to your website. These are called unlinked mentions, and they are some of the simplest backlinks you can get.
Lomography has just announced a brand new high-contrast black and white film stock for 35mm SLRs. The soon-to-be-released Fantôme Kino B&W ISO 8 35mm Film is being hailed as "a monochrome masterpiece" that originates from a roll of German cinematic production film.
A couple of weeks ago, a number of Canon 1D X Mark III users began reporting that their cameras were locking up mid-burst, making them unusable for any sort of high-speed photography. Canon has now confirmed the issue, has found a workaround, and is preparing a firmware fix.
Back in 1844, English photography pioneer Henry Fox Talbot began publishing the seminal book The Pencil of Nature, the first photo book ever to be published commercially. As it's in the public domain, you can read the book in its entirety for free online over at Project Gutenberg.
Filmmaker Dan Denegre of Space Race Studio recently shot a short, poignant bit of footage documenting the eerie stillness of San Francisco's once-bustling streets amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Early this morning, Sony announced that it would be spinning off its entire "Electronics Products & Solutions" (EP&S) segment—including its imaging and mobile businesses—into an intermediate holding company called "Sony Electronics Corporation."
As many of you know, I have been lucky enough to have a Canon EOS 1D X Mark III in my possession for more than a month now. People have been asking me to review this new top-of-the-line camera, but I really wanted to put it through its paces in order to do a fair review.
The current COVID-19 pandemic needs no introduction. I’m sure if you are a wedding photographer like myself then your business will have been hit HARD over the last couple of weeks.
12 years after hitting the scene, and 3 years after rebranding to Polaroid Originals, The Impossible Project has completed its metamorphosis. As of today, Polaroid Originals is reclaiming the original "Polaroid" name, and celebrating this milestone with a new camera: the Polaroid Now.
We are living in unprecedented times. As a photographer of social events (weddings), individual, family, business portraits and sports, the recent closing of schools and the virtual shut down of our towns and cities—basically our lives as we have known it—has shut everything down.
Researchers at the University of Zurich have created a custom drone that's so good at obstacle avoidance it can play dodgeball. The drone uses a special camera that allows it to react to incoming objects in just 3.5 milliseconds, about 10x faster than anything on the market today.
Activist investor Daniel Loeb is reportedly using the current low stock prices to build a bigger stake in Sony and "push for changes," including spinning off the brand's image sensor business into a separate entity called Sony Technologies.
Yesterday, UK-based film manufacturer Ilford released an official company statement regarding its handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic. And while the statement covered all of the important updates, Ilford also took the opportunity to strike a cheeky, lighthearted note.
The Robot Next Door is an ongoing project by French photographer Niko Photographisme, whose photos show a world in which the line between human and machine is blurred.
NiSi has unveiled a tiny new filter system for the fixed lens Fujifilm X100V, allowing X100 shooters to benefit from high-quality graduated ND filters, NDs, polarizers, the company's "Natural Night" filter, and more.
It is very hard to find any positives in the virus that is sweeping the world and creating havoc with every economy. But one thing that is happening in our stock world is that images and videos are being sought by buyers that just never existed before.
On March 12, 2020, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) held a webinar with General Counsel Thomas Maddrey entitled “Potential Business Ramifications of Coronavirus (COVID-19).” Maddrey covered a variety of topics, including cancellation clauses in photographer contracts.
Michael Myers spent years as a fashion and beauty photographer in New York City. Then 9/11 happened, and the event was so life-altering that Myers left NYC and the photo industry. He then decided to blend his two passions: photography and whiskey.
Photographer and YouTuber Peter McKinnon has just shared a brilliant little camera hack that's blowing people's minds. In his most recent 2-minute tips video, he shows how any bedside lamp can be used as an impromptu tripod (monopod, actually).
Paris-based artist Roman Hill explores the microscopic world as a way to capture the immensity of the universe. His latest short film, titled As Above, looks like a mesmerizing display of cosmic gasses, stars, and galaxies, but it was shot on a tabletop.
My portrait photography education didn’t happen in a classroom, library, or workshop. Most of what I learned came from studying my heroes’ work, trying to figure out why I loved their pictures, and then putting my own twist on them.
Episode 334 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Portrait Photographer, Marco Jilpas
Over the past few weeks, as people the world over were asked (or ordered) to stay home and isolate, you probably saw more than a few viral photos of animals reclaiming habitats that humans are being forced to leave alone. Sadly, almost all of those photos and videos are fake.
Nature TTL—the online nature photography resource—has revealed the winners of their newly minted "Photographer of the Year" awards, and oh man did the community deliver. From stunning aerial shots to a life-and-death struggle between a Pelican and its prey, there's a lot to love here.
Photographer Brendan Barry has put together a detailed step-by-step tutorial that might help you stay busy while you're stuck inside. In this video, he'll show you how to take and develop photos by turning your bedroom into a camera obscura, and your bathroom into a makeshift darkroom.
A Boston-area event photographer is sharing her story as a cautionary tale after she contracted the novel coronavirus at the city's Biogen conference, attending and shooting events around Massachusetts for days before she fell ill and was able to get tested.
Ricoh has announced the development of its third "Star-series lens" and second Prime in the lineup: the HD Pentax-D FA* 85mm f/1.4 SDM AW. Like previous FA* lenses, this 85mm promises to deliver "perfect image quality" and "high quality workmanship" for users of Pentax DSLRs.
As uncertainty and anxiety over coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to proliferate, media organizations have tasked a handful of freelance photographers to document the outbreak.
Less than 24 hours after Nikon USA announced the temporary closure of all repair service in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canon USA has (mostly) followed suit by shutting down its service centers in New Jersey, California, Illinois and Hawaii "until further notice."
When I’m out photographing, my concentration is on making individual frames that matter, working the scene with my eye before shooting, and staying patient for the right moment. I’m not averse to taking multiple frames of the same scene, but I find it’s a better use of my time and film to put the work into getting things right the first time.
20 months after the launch of Nikon’s first foray into the full-frame mirrorless world, it’s now time to take stock of what’s to love about the Z, or D.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court of the United States dealt a major blow to photographers' copyright protections when it declared that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement because they have "sovereign immunity."
Nikon Australia, in partnership with Surfing Australia, has announced the finalists of this year's Surf Photo of the Year awards: an annual contest recognizing "the best single surfing-themed image taken by an Australian photographer."
Though it might seem less popular than other systems (probably due to marketing), the L Mount Alliance is producing some of the best full-frame lenses currently available. In this case, Panasonic Lumix worked in tandem with their buddies at Leica to release their second 70-200mm lens for full-frame systems: the Panasonic Lumix S Pro 70-200mm f/2.8 OIS.