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8 Camera Shots and Angles From Cinema That Can Help Improve Your Photos

‘Sallie Gardner at a Gallop’ is sometimes considered to be one of the earliest films ever produced when it was released on June 15th, 1878. Twenty-four photographs of a horse and its jockey were played rapidly in succession, creating the illusion of motion when viewed through an old-time zoopraxiscope.

Since then, filmmakers have broken out their creativity and established a number of essential shots for depicting emotion through a lens. Today, we are taking a look at a number of these typical cinematic camera shots and angles to learn how they could be incorporated into still photography.

Macro Photos That Focus In on the Beautiful Details of Ordinary Things

Can you tell what the translucent object is in the photograph above? It's a single grain of sugar captured in a macro photograph by artist Pyanek, whose "Amazing Worlds Within Our World" project is a series of macro shots that show the beautiful details of ordinary things -- things that we generally don't (or can't) see with our naked eyes.

Alienation: Strange Upside-Down Closeups Transform the Human Face Into Something Else

The more you look at South-Africa based photographer Anelia Loubser's Alienation series, the more captivated you become. A simple idea on the surface -- close-up, upside-down black-and-white portraits of people's eyes and foreheads -- the final images encourage you to dive deeper into each wrinkle and other so-called "imperfection" than almost any standard portrait might.

Beautiful Macro Photo of a Hummingbird’s Details

In the world of macro photography, the speedy hummingbird isn't the easiest subject. With a little patience, however, you could nail a shot that reveals details you normally can't see when tracking the bird with your eye.

That's what photographer Chris Morgan was able to do on a recent vacation in Bosque De Paz, Costa Rica (a 3,000 acre biological reserve).

Surprisingly Emotive Photographs Capture 100-Year-Old Human Bodies Up Close

Photographer Anastasia Pottinger's recent viral project began when she was offered up an interesting proposition for a photoshoot; one that was very different from what she normally photographs.

Usually, she shoots portraits of babies, young children and families. But this time, the Missouri native was offered the opportunity to photograph a 101-year old woman... nude.

Stunning Macro Photographs of Animal Eyes

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of Suren Manvelyan's macro photography, it's just in the eye. After his extreme close-up photos of both human and animal eyes went viral one right after the other, Manvelyan decided to continue seeking out more beauty in the eyes of animals by releasing a part two to the amazing series we shared with you back in 2011.

Incredible Macro Photos of Insects with Drops of Water On Their Heads

Dmitriy Yoav Reinshtein is a 26-year-old photographer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He works as an advertising photographer and creative retoucher, but one of his personal passions is shooting highly detailed macro photographs of tiny insects. While all of his macro photographs are amazing to look all, there's a particular subset that caught our eye: Reinshtein managed to capture a number of insects with water drops sitting on their top of their heads.

Photos Showing the Beauty and Diversity of Seeds, Created Using a Scanner

In addition to being passionate about image making, photographer Svjetlana Tepavcevic is also an avid collector of seeds. After finding and collecting a new specimen, Tepavcevic creates a highly-detailed high-resolution photo of the seed using an ordinary flatbed scanner. The resulting images form a project titled Means of Reproduction.

Macro Photos Shot Using a Smartphone and a Laser Pointer Lens

Last month we wrote about how the small focusing lens inside a laser pointer can be repurposed as a cheap macro lens for your smartphone. After seeing this project online, photo enthusiast John Coleman decided to give it a shot. To keep the lens secure against your phone, you'll need something to hold it (e.g. a hair pin) and some tape to attach the holder to the phone. The photo above shows the super simple attachment Coleman created.

Close-Up Photos of Wild Lions Captured with an Armored “BeetleCam”

UK-based wildlife photographers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas got the Internet's attention a couple years ago with the BeetleCam, a special remote controlled DSLR that allowed them to capture close-up photos of animals in the wild that photographers would have difficultly strolling up to. After the success of that experiment, they decided to return to Africa last summer with upgraded (and armored) versions of the BeetleCam in order to photograph lions in Kenya.

Play Around with Macro Photography Using a Magnifying Glass

You don't need to shell out money for a nicer camera or a special lens to play around with macro photography. In addition to freelensing and using your lens backward, you can also place an ordinary magnifying glass in front of your lens to enlarge the world. Graphic designer Clif Dickens shot these close-up photos using a magnifying glass and an iPhone 3GS.