Photography is close to impossible to do without a camera, so why do so many of us both love and hate the equipment side of things? For me, the hate comes down to distraction -- and a little bit of the love as well.
On the way out of the Terai Plain in Nepal, I stopped in the town of Janakpur. The town has a beautiful temple and I was all geared up to shoot some nice stuff. But as I wandered around, I could not “see” any images despite a religious ceremony that was taking place at the time of my visit.
I am a fan of light (honestly what photographer isn’t?). Hard light; reflected light; dappled light; low-key light; colored light -- I love it all. Light makes or breaks not only my images but my mood. I’d venture to say that light is sandwiched between “belonging” and “safety” on my hierarchical pyramid of needs.
I’m not sure on what day I realized that my street photography work had become overly homogeneous, and sometimes asinine. “Oh look, a red car and a red shirt. click.” I’d been in love with the look of Fujifilm’s Classic Chrome (based off of Kodak Kodachrome) and had begun to shoot a lot of color for color’s sake.
My name is Skyler Adams, and I'm a photographer. I’ve noticed that camera communities these days excitedly share news about new cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment, but hardly anyone posts an actual photo anymore. Why?
The great photographer Jay Maisel used to talk about color, light, and gesture being three essential elements of a great image. With 20 square meters, my goal was to create a body of imagery that transports viewers into the scene and allows them to imagine the whole range of smells and sensations of a summer outdoors.
Chinese photographer Jesse Ding has spent the past 6 months working out with his family to get healthy. Ding has been shooting photos to document their transformations, and the before-and-after views are incredible.
I was nervous and excited. I had just left my 9 to 5 cubicle career and jumped head-first into full-time photography. Over the next 2 months, I would be traveling all over the world with a friend in order to build my portfolio. At this point, though, my sedentary lifestyle had caught up to me and I was about 25lbs overweight.
Every photographer and filmmaker will likely one day find they have some kind of creative block, and breaking through this can be a total nightmare. One of the best ways to do this is to force yourself to be creative in a really dull, plain situation. In this challenge by Brandon Li, a boring hotel room becomes the setting for a dramatic film sequence.
There is no shortage of technical photographic advice out there on the Internet—buy this camera, read this book, and memorize these rules of composition and you'll be great! But the process of becoming a great photographer is more subtle than that.
Canadian photographer Eric Draht posted this short video in which photographer …
Here's a strange (and time-consuming) way you can test your Photoshop prowess if you ever have some time to kill: turn a dimpled golf ball into a smooth ping pong ball using only the dodge and burn tools.