movement

How To Get Super-Sharp Photos Every Time, With Any Camera

As a professional photographer, I use a lot of different cameras. At any given time, I can use really expensive full-frame cameras combined with the best glass money can buy, to mid-range cameras with kit lenses, all the way down to even compact cameras that fit in my pocket.

Photos of the Madness and Motion of Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing

I crossed Shibuya Crossing 10 times for a new series of photos, and I watched pedestrians cross another 13 times. Crossings happen every two minutes, and there’s a one minute window for you to run out there to photograph.

Jackson Hole: Stop Tagging Locations

There has been much discussion in recent days of how location tagging in social media is harming natural landmarks around the world. And now even authorities are taking a stand: the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board in Wyoming has launched a new campaign against location tags.

How to Use an Ancient Photo Trick to Create Surreal Digital Photos

I recently rediscovered an old photography technique that allows you to add surreal color to photos that show movement in the frame. The technique seems to be new in the digital domain, but the technique itself has been known since the early era of digital photography.

Study: Flickr Photos Can Predict People’s Movements

Before you head out for your next vacation, you may want to consider what your photos on Flickr reveal about your travel plans. A new study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal used machine learning algorithms to model the mobility of individuals.

By analyzing the embedded timestamp and geographic information within photographs, the researchers were able to accurately predict where a person is most likely currently located and where they may be headed in the future.

Retina-Inspired ‘Dynamic Vision’ Camera Works Like the Human Eye

Technology often borrows ideas from nature, and camera technology is no exception. For example, you might remember the bug-inspired compound eye camera we shared just a few months back. Engineers at Swiss company iniLabs don't want to mimic bug eyes, however, they'd rather create something that mimics the human eye. And that's exactly what they did with the new Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) 128 camera.

Striking Images Capture the Movement of Water Using a Special Nanoparticle Film

One day, while looking at a glass of water, photographer, artist and architect Moses Hacmon realized that he could really see it. He wondered what water really looked like, and in particular what it looked like when it moved.

One nanoparticle photographic technique later, and he had his answers in the form of a breathtaking photo series dubbed Faces of Water.

Heartbeat: Beautiful DIY Pinhole Cameras Powered by Watch Movements

Pinhole cameras can be easily and cheaply made using things you have lying around the house... or you can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and fashion yourself a highly intricate pinhole camera. That's what Korean photographer Kwanghun Hyun did with his Heartbeat cameras. The two cameras created so far feature one crazy design choice: they use intricate watch movements as their internal timing mechanisms.

Shoot Slow Motion Action Footage Using a GoPro on a DIY Circular Rig

One of the interesting ideas involving slow motion cameras (i.e. high speed cameras) is to move the camera very quickly during shots, resulting in footage that looks like the camera is moving in real time while everything in the shot moves in slow motion. Last year we shared an incredible demo reel by German studio The Marmalade, which uses this technique.

Caleb Kraft over at Hack A Day was inspired by this concept and by the bullet-time rigs that have gotten quite a bit of press lately, and decided to try his hand at moving slow-mo footage using a single GoPro.

The Beauty of Parkour Photographed with a Flash and Some Flour

Dancers are often photographed with off-camera flashes and powder in order to capture their movement. Photographer Ben Franke recently completed a project titled Parkour Motion in which he used the same concept, except for parkour practitioners (called "traceurs") rather than dancers.

Blurred Long-Exposure Portraits Showing Dancers in Motion

For his project titled Motion, Brooklyn, New York-based photographer Bill Wadman shot portraits of dancers with a slow shutter speed in order to capture their movements through motion blur. The resulting photographs look like a strange fusion of photography and painting.

Abstract Photographs of Human Bodies in Motion

Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama has an interesting series of photos simply titled, "Nude." Each image shows an abstract flesh-colored shape that's created by a nude subject dancing in front of the camera.

Using Time-Lapse Photography to See the Movement of Massive Glaciers

People sometimes use the expression "slow as a glacier" to describe something so stagnant that even the speeds of snails and molasses would feel inadequately fast in comparison. The fastest glaciers ever measured move at tens of meters per day, while the slowest ones may budge only have a meter over the course of a year. Most of the time, the movement is too slow for the human eye to see.

Luckily for us, there's something called time-lapse photography. Back in 2004, PBS aired a NOVA episode titled Descent into the Ice, which followed photographers and adventurers as they ventured deep into the heart of a glacier found on Mont Blanc. One of the things they did was set up cameras to capture the movement of glaciers over extremely long periods of time. The video above shows 5 months of movement seen under a glacier moving 2 feet per day.

Still Life Photos of Desserts Spinning on Vinyl Records

"33 RPM" is a project by Stockholm-based photographer Philip Karlberg that consists of still life photographs of various desserts spinning on various vinyl records. The combo above shows "'Don’t look back into the sun' by The Libertines: Sundae surprise."

Iconic Civil Rights Photographer Exposed as FBI Informant

Some of the most raw, intimate and iconic photographs of the Civil Rights Movement were taken by photojournalist Ernest C. Withers. He was present during the entire Emmett Till trial, when Martin Luther King, Jr. rode the first desegregated bus, and in the hotel room where Dr. King was assassinated. Many civil rights activists would cite Withers' images as key to informing America of their plight and fight for equality.

But recent reports by Memphis publication The Commercial Appeal indicate that Withers, who passed away in 2007, was also informing the FBI -- on their payroll.

The Commercial Appeal posted documents indicating that while Withers was photographing key members of the movement, he was also acting eyes and ears for a now inoperative wing of the FBI that heavily tracked civil rights activists.

Due to a clerical error revealing Withers' informant number, reporters at The Commercial Appeal were able to connect Withers' name to informant activities.