ocean

Michael Zhang

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.

Michael Zhang

How to Shoot an Ocean Sunrise Portrait In an Ordinary Swimming Pool

Check out this album cover portrait photo of the Belgian indie pop band SX, shot by photographer Benjamin Von Wong. While it looks appears to show the band standing in the ocean with the sun rising (or setting) in the background, it was actually shot in a much more controlled environment: a swimming pool.

Michael Zhang

7 Colorful Hours of a Sunset Captured in a Single Photograph

Turkey-based photography enthusiast Isil Karanfil created this beautiful image showing an entire sunset in a single photograph. Karanfil fixed her Nikon D60 in its view of the seascape, and then shot a single photograph every hour for seven hours between 3pm and 9pm as the day turned into night. She then took the resulting photographs, sliced them up, and combined them together using Photoshop for the image seen above, which she titles, "Sun Lapse".

Michael Zhang

Google Street View Now Has Underwater Panoramas of the Great Barrier Reef

If you've always wanted to go scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef but haven't had a chance to, this might be one of the next best things: Google has added gorgeous underwater panoramic photographs to Street View, allowing to swim around at the world's largest coral system as if it were a street in your neighborhood.

Michael Zhang

Why You Shouldn’t Leave Your DSLR Unattended on the Ocean Floor

Everyone knows you shouldn't leave DSLRs unattended in public places on land, but did you know that the same is true for when you're shooting on the ocean floor? In the video above, one unlucky diver leaves his DSLR rig sitting on the ocean floor while swimming with sharks, only to have a klepto tiger shark swipe it and swim away.

Michael Zhang

Creative Portraits of Classical Musicians

Denmark-based photographer Nikolaj Lund specializes in shooting the world of classical music, and captures some pretty unique portraits of musicians with their instruments. He takes the subjects out of their natural environment -- the orchestra pit -- and has them do epic poses in random places (e.g. streets, oceans, deserts).

Michael Zhang

Photographer Captures Photos Showing the Underside of Giant Waves

You've likely seen plenty of images of giant waves from above the surface of the water, but have you ever seen what it's like to pass under a wave? Photographer Mark Tipple has an amazing project called "The Underwater Project" in which he captures epic photographs of swimmers diving deep in order to survive passing waves, which look like ominous storm clouds rolling overhead.

Michael Zhang

Photo Exhibition Held at a Shipwreck 93-Feet Deep in the Ocean

Austrian photographer Andreas Franke chose an interesting photo exhibition location for his project "Vandenberg: Life Below the Surface": a shipwreck 93-feet underwater. It makes sense though -- the project consists of photos Franke took of the wreck last year and subsequently turned into surreal composite photos containing people. The images, encased in 3mm thick plexiglass and mounted on stainless steel, were attached to the ship using magnets that don't damage the ship or affect the sea life.

Michael Zhang

Photos Recovered from Camera That Spent Four Years in the Ocean

We've heard of digital photos being recovered after lost cameras drift for 1,000 miles (in underwater casing) or spend a year at the bottom of the ocean floor, but is there any hope for a camera that experiences four years of abuse at sea? Turns out there is. A man named Peter Govaars was walking along a beach in California when he stumbled upon a battered camera "skeleton" with a memory card still attached. He took the SD card home, took it apart, spent 30 minutes cleaning it, and was surprised to discover 104 photographs taken within a 2 week period in June 2007.