accident

Director Gets Two Years in Jail for Train Track Shoot That Killed Crew Member

There have been a number of cases in recent years of people getting struck and killed by trains after doing photo or film shoots on train tracks. One of the cases last year involved the filming of a movie titled "Midnight Rider." While filming on a narrow trestle bridge, a train passed through and killed one of the crew members.

The director, Randall Miller, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and has now been sentenced to two years in prison and eight years of probation for his recklessness.

This is Why Photographers Should Stay Off the Track at a Horse Race

During a horse race, the track itself probably isn't the place you should be wandering in order to snap the perfect action shot. Even if racers do tend to stay toward the inside of the track, things don't always go as expected. A photographer in Finland learned this lesson the hard way this past week.

Pilot Selfies Likely Caused Deadly Plane Crash, NTSB Investigation Concludes

On May 31st, 2014, a small Cessna plane crashed in a field a few miles away from Denver, killing its pilot and passenger. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) just published a report with findings from its investigation, concluding that the crash was most likely caused by the pilot becoming disoriented while taking selfies of himself.

Camera Drone Crashes Onto White House Lawn and Causes More Wariness of Drones

Photographers have long been grumbling about the FAA's tight regulations for camera drone usage, and the actions of one operator over in Washington DC aren't going to help the cause. An anonymous DJI Phantom owner and government employee crashed his DJI Phantom quadcopter on the White House lawn yesterday morning, causing a lock down of the President's residence.

$2,900 Camera Drone Smashes Into a House Upon Auto Takeoff

The DJI Inspire 1 is a new $2,900 camera drone that's designed to make it extremely easy to capture 4K footage from the sky. Among its many fancy features are auto-takeoff and landing, allowing you to start and stop your flights with a simple tap of your controls.

The feature recently didn't work out so well for Mark Taylor of Scottsdale, Arizona. As the 37-second video above shows, the drone appeared to think that a nearby garage door was "up."

Protective Mother Kangaroo Punches Camera Drone Out of the Air

Here's a tip for operating camera drones: stay away from mommy kangaroos. One operator in Australia found out the hard way recently. They were flying their camera close to a group of Eastern gray kangaroos in Hunter Valley when a protective mother decided to deal with the strange intruder by punching the drone out of the air.

The video above shows what happened from the camera's perspective.

Bride Thrown from Horse During Photo Shoot

Here's an example in which having a "YOLO" attitude during a photo shoot turned out to be a very bad idea. Photographer Jarrett Hucks was photographing a soon-to-be bride on a beach when a group of equestrians rode by. The client decided that "since you only live once," she wanted a photo of herself riding a horse. What happened next is captured in the video above.

Famed South Korean Photographer is Chief Suspect in Tragic Ferry Accident

On the 16th of April, 2014 the South Korean Ferry Sewol, which was carrying 476 people from Incheon towards Jeju at the time, capsized. Of the 476 passengers, most of them secondary school students from Danwon High School, only 172 survived, making this the worst ferry disaster in South Korea since December 14th of 1970.

All of this you probably know from international news coverage of the tragedy a couple of months ago. So, why are we talking about a ferry disaster on a photography website? Because it turns out one of the chief suspects the government wants to bring to justice in regards to the disaster is famed South Korean photographer Ahae.

Facebook Snapchat Competitor ‘Slingshot’ Appears then Disappears from App Store

Known for its clever combination of selfies, text and scribbles, the self-destructing messaging platform Snapchat has become a hit. So, it’s no surprise that social media giant Facebook is interested in taking a bite out of the ephemeral messaging market.

The company has even gone so far as to reportedly offer $3 billion for Snapchat at one point. But, rather than continuing to try and buy out Snapchat, Facebook has now decided to create its own competitor, an app that existed only as a rumor until yesterday.

Amazon Accidentally Publishes Nikon Df Page, Reveals a $2,750 Price Tag

It looks like Amazon made a major goof and accidentally (or maybe not) published the Nikon Df sales page momentarily before taking it back down again. In addition to confirming the specs we already expected were coming, the page also let the cat out of the bag in regards to how much the Df will cost... as it turns out, it's an expensive cat.

Photographer Captures Amazing Meteor Explosion Mid Time-Lapse

It's a day of awesome astronomical phenomenon on PetaPixel. We started off the day by sharing a stunning time-lapse by photographer Maciej Winiarczyk in which he captured noctilucent clouds and the aurora borealis at the same time.

And now, as you get ready to hit the home stretch and finish Monday on a good note, we have yet another amazing (and accidental) time-lapse capture: While photographing the 2013 Perseids Meteor Shower last week, photographer and designer Michael K. Chung was fortunate enough to capture an actual meteor explosion.

Photographer Gets a Second Chance at Life, Embarks on a 100 Portrait Journey

In 2011, photographer Giles Duley stepped on a land mine while working in Afghanistan. Originally a celebrity portrait photographer who had been turned off to celebrity culture by the people he was photographing, he had always hoped to return to portraiture.

That's why, during his 46-day fight for his life in intensive care, it was to portraiture that his mind turned, and a project took shape.

Golfer Strikes and Shatters the Lens on an $80,000 Camera at the British Open

Last month we shared a couple videos showing how it's a bad idea to ask professional golfers to aim at your camera -- there's a good chance you'll end up with shattered glass and a pricey camera repair bill.

Unfortunately, the same thing can sometimes happen even if you don't intentionally put your camera in harms way. ESPN found that out at the British Open today after a golfer accidentally smashed one of its $80,000 high definition cameras.

Accidental Double Exposures on a “New” Roll of Already Exposed Film

Yesterday was really no different from any other day, except for the fact that I was developing a roll of 35mm film -- that usually doesn’t happen. My husband Evan was sitting outside the door of our “darkroom” (read: spare bathroom) as I was hanging my film to dry, when I exclaimed, “These aren’t my photos!”

At first, I’m sure he thought that I had just taken some really rancid photos and didn’t want to claim ownership, but really, they weren’t my photos.

Giant Wave Crashes Proposal Shoot, Epic and Memorable Photos Ensue

On November 21st, 2012, Matthew Hartman attempted to pull off an epic marriage proposal that his girlfriend would talk about for the rest of their lives. He led her to a large rock surrounded by ocean waters at Laguna Beach, California, and then sang her a song that he wrote for the occasion. Then he got down on one knee to pop the question. Or, at least that was the plan.

A large ocean wave had other plans for the couple. At just the wrong time, it decided to crash the party and sweep the girl off her feet before Hartman could. The whole thing was captured by friends in the video above.

A Picture-Perfect Full Rainbow Captured by Accident in a Time-Lapse Video

Programmer and photography enthusiast Roderick Lee Mann snagged quite the time-lapse video earlier this week. He had originally set up his camera to snap photos of a beautiful Hawaiian sunset, but afterward he discovered that he had captured something that you can't really plan for: the perfectly-framed formation of an end-to-end rainbow.

Photog Accidentally Captures Proposal While Snapping Pictures of a Sunrise

Can you believe the proposal photo above wasn't planned? In fact, the photographer wasn't even aware of what was going on. It was snapped this past Sunday by 20-year-old Sydney University student Michael Keane, who visited Sydney's Bondi Beach early in the morning to capture photographs of the sunrise. After returning home to post-process the images, Keane zoomed into his photos and was surprised to find that he had accidentally captured a very romantic moment happening way in the horizon.