interesting

People Magazine Once Paid $10,000 for a Photo It Didn’t Even Want

Photographers often reminisce about the glory days of magazines, when they were given huge budgets, freedoms, and paychecks to create images. Here's one crazy example of what things were like then: People magazine once paid $10,000 for exclusive rights to a photo it didn't even want... just to keep it away from competitors.

Do YOU Look Through the Viewfinder with Your Dominant Eye?

Just as people are right- or left-handed, everyone generally prefers the input of one particular eye, something called "ocular dominance" or "eyedness." Most people rely on their dominant eye for things like aiming, and a person's dominant eye actually has more neural connections to the brain than the other eye.

How to Clone a Photo by Shredding It

Here's a curious little 43-second video by Japanese artist Kensuke Koike that's going viral. Titled "Top Breeder," it shows how you can duplicate a photo of a dog by putting the print through a pasta cutter and distributing the slices into new photos. One picture can "magically" turn into four.

What Newspaper Photojournalists Get to Shoot in the Course of a Month

My name is Robin Roots and I'm a photojournalist for Õhtuleht, one of the largest newspapers in the small country of Estonia. Our team of five photographers has to write down every trip we do with a company car. I was looking over our trips from last month and thought that perhaps others would like to know what we newspaper photojournalists do on a daily basis.

This Famous Pepper Photo by Edward Weston Was a 4hr+ Exposure at f/240

Edward Weston is considered to be one of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century. One of his most famous works, titled Pepper No. 30, is a B&W photo of a single green pepper with beautiful, soft lighting. Here's a fascinating, little-known fact about the piece: it was shot at an aperture of f/240 with an exposure time of 4-6 hours.

The Magic of Polarizing Lens Filters for Your Camera

Polarizing lens filters help your camera see the world in a new light... literally. If you've never used a polarizing filter before, check out this great 3-minute video by photographer Christopher Frost in which he discusses why these filters are so neat and how to use them.

7 Ways to Make Your Photos More Interesting

When I first started taking photos, I knew the importance of finding what "good" really looked like. I knew that there were a million people out there that claimed to be more successful than they were, and that my taste wasn't refined enough and that I wasn't experienced enough to know the difference between them and those that were truly great.

Why Exercise Makes You a Better Photographer

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.

Schlieren Photography Lets Us See an Invisible World

Have you ever wondered what a gale-force sneeze would look like if you could see air currents, temperature gradients, and differences in pressure and composition of the air? Or, less disgustingly, the strike of a match? This fascinating 6-minute video demonstrates Schlieren photography, which makes the invisible visible.

Foreigners Are Photo Ops in China

If you're a tall white guy walking around in touristy parts of China, there's a good chance you may be stopped by random people and asked to pose for a photo. This strange phenomenon can be seen in this 3-minute video recorded a few years ago by comedian Paul Ogata. It's titled, "Yes You May Photograph My White Guy."

Photographer Captures Air Show with Nikon 800mm and Crazy Shoulder Rig

Photographer Jim Winters of Team Nikon Miami doesn't mess around when it comes to shooting an air show. He wants to get close, and he needs to stay mobile, so he leaves his tripod at home and mounts his massive Nikon 800mm f/5.6 VR lens onto this crazy custom-built shoulder rig instead.

The Bright Flashes During NBA Games You May Never Have Noticed

Here's something you might not be able to "unsee" if you've never noticed it before: during an NBA basketball game, whenever there's some exciting action around the rim, there's a good chance you'll also see a bright flash of light illuminate your screen for a split second. These are the powerful strobes installed high overhead by photographers.

Waterbird Develops Innovative New Bendable Slider

If you feel like your timelapses have gotten a bit stale, Austrian company Waterbird has a creative new product that might break you out of that rut. It's called the Multislider, and it's the world's first bendable camera slider.

Try to be The Dumbest Photographer In The World

I always say the Universe's favorite hiding place for the most awesome stuff is right behind fear. Isn't that a little unfair? Why doesn't the Universe put the great stuff right before the fear, so everyone can enjoy pure bliss?

What a Failed DSLR Shutter Looks Like After 100,000+ Photos

Just as how cars can fail after a certain number of miles, camera shutters can go belly up after a certain number of actuations (i.e. flapping open and closed for an exposure). If you've ever wondered what a heavily used DSLR shutter can look like after it bites the dust, today's your lucky day.

You Can Browse 437 Complete Issues of ‘Soviet Photo’ Magazine Online

This is really cool. It turns out you can browse through full issues of the old Soviet Photo (AKA "Советское фото") magazine online at Archive.org. Fans of photography history will love this treasure trove, which contains 437 digitized issues originally published between 1926 and 1991.

Photographer Hacks Security Cameras to Capture Beautiful Landscapes

Marcus DeSieno's Surveillance Landscapes are unlike any other landscape photography series you've probably ever seen. While most landscape shooters trek into the wilds, camera and tripod at the ready, DeSieno captured all of these images from the comfort of his own home... by hacking into security cameras.

Google Just Patented a Weird Camera Hat

Well this is... interesting. It doesn't seem like the very public failure of Google Glass—due, in large part, to the built-in camera—has deterred Google from pursuing wearable camera tech. A recent patent shows that they're at least considering putting a camera and microphone onto a baseball cap.

This Photo Has No Red Pixels: A Fascinating Optical Illusion

I initially refused to believe it when this photo came across my feed. My eyes aren't broken! I can see they're strawberries, and they're definitely red. They have to be trolling us with this image, right?