Two weeks ago, Instagram released its annual top 10 lists of the cities and locations that were photographed most often using the photo sharing service. But this year, Google has seen fit to one-up them by releasing a heat map that gives us a more visual representation of the most photographed places in the world.
It's difficult to fathom, but there is massive segment of the population who remember nothing of film photography. The idea of not having your images instantly available for review and deletion, or having to go to a shop to have a roll of film developed, is as foreign as the floppy disk and the VHS.
BuzzFeed is trying to remedy this somewhat in the video above, which they have dubbed "Film Photography Explained to Modern Kids."
Snapchat, famous for dealing with the problem of rising attention spans by whittling the life of a photo down to 10 seconds, has gotten a little more time-friendly with an update that includes a limited option for re-viewing images later.
Over the years I've tried to get better about reflecting on my work and life at the end of each year. Sure lots of people will claim to do this, but that usually just boils down to reviewing their Facebook page for a quick ego boost.
I'm talking about going in-depth. Go pull up those photos you loved at the beginning of the year and try looking at them again with a newly critical eye, do it when you're free of the fresh-born-photo sentimentality all photographer's (and really artists in general) suffer from. Try to figure out what went wrong in your failed work and what went right (purposefully or accidental) in the work that turned out good. Regardless of the conclusions you arrive at I can guarantee you'll be a better photographer as a result.
Reuters' photographers captured some incredible photographs in 2013, and now that the year is wrapping up, it's only fitting that they compile the best of them into a Photos of the Year slideshow that will hopefully inspire you to take on your photographic goals with renewed vigor in 2014.
Those who see iPhoneography as some kind of barbarian invasion may want to give their DSLRs an extra hug after hearing this: The venerable British Journal of Photography has launched a new e-magazine all about smartphone photography and available only as an iPhone app.
News flash: You can't believe everything you see on Twitter. We know, we were shocked too.
Such was the case with this striking sepia-toned image that started lighting up the mediasphere yesterday billed as "the Earliest Photograph Taken of New York City - Broadway, May 1850." (And immediately started attracting comments in the vein of: "And they haven't fixed the potholes since!")
Editors note: Be advised, the video below contains some strong language that might not be to the liking of all our readers.
There have been a lot of viral attacks on the retouching industry lately -- from these striking ads created by a student to this funny tongue-in-cheek version of another viral anti-retouching video -- but the cherry on top of the Photoshop-hate sundae came in the form of the South Park Season 17 finale.
The folks at Custom SLR are in the holiday spirit, there's no doubt about that. After all, why else would you take on the pointless (but awesome) task of creating the world's largest camera tripod Christmas tree?
Last year, a time-lapse called 'Body Evolution - Model Before and After' went viral as people the world over had their eyes opened to just how much a model can be altered with the help of hair, makeup and, most of all, Photoshop. That video has accrued almost 8 million views, and is still shared today in hopes of convincing magazines to begin putting disclaimers on images that are significantly altered in post.
The video above by ad agency Victors & Spoils takes that video and does something hilarious with it. Almost as if to say "You think that's extreme? We'll SHOW you extreme!" the agency Photoshopped the model further, from the beautiful Barbie-like cover girl into none other than Santa Claus!
Being "journalists" more or less restricted to "facts," we can only look with awe and envy at New Camera News: a blog that tells the truth about the photography industry by making up witty, insider satire in the mode of The Onion
(Private Video -- Use password "stolen")
Often there's a fine line between inspiration and theft. But watching side-by-side comparisons of wedding workshops conducted by videographers Adam Forgione and Rob Adams, it's hard not to conclude there's wholesale plagiarism going on.
Last week's memorial for Nelson Mandela had more than its share of media moments, from the fake sign language interpreter to the handshake heard 'round the world. But nothing caught on quite as tenaciously or curiously as what we'll dub "The Great Obama Selfie Beatdown."
We hope you never get sick of hearing about stories that show the true power of photography to affect change, because I doubt we'll ever get sick of finding and sharing them. The most recent such story we've stumbled across is told by photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale, whose work has already helped curtail the efforts of warlords in Africa who are exploiting children in their attempt to rule Congo.
Christmas is exactly ten days away, which means parents have a little over one week left to frantically drag their screaming children to the local mall or holiday venue to sit on Santa's lap for that traditional picture. But where most parents would do this for a few years until their kids inevitably grow out of it, a pair of brothers decided they would keep the tradition going... for 34 years.
This was NOT a good week for moronic criminals with access to Instagram. After posting a bunch of ill-advised selfies on the photo sharing site, a Florida teenager now finds himself behind bars and facing 142 felony counts thanks to his oversharing habit.
Every time we decide to post something about Instagram, we go through a bit of an internal dilemma. On the one hand, it's the most popular photo sharing app in the world, and many photographers have used it to great effect -- for those reasons alone we can't exactly ignore it. On the other hand, a solid percentage, perhaps even a majority, of you guys hate the app with a passion that defies our collective vocabulary to describe.
If you're shopping for a young person who'd benefit from learning a little more about the principles of photography, you may want to consider the LAST Camera: a build-it-yourself 35mm film camera that could well outfreak Lomography for quirky build and artfully distressed images.
Lenticular printing has been around for ages as a commercial gimmick, producing untold hordes of postcards, luggage tags and other novelties with images that seem to move when you jostle the shiny surface. (Also, the particularly hideous faux-3D cover for my 1978 high school yearbook.)
Here's something that both photographers and the typical millennial have to look forward to in old age: Your memory is going to suck because of all the photos you took when you should have been paying attention to what was happening around you.
That's the upshot of a new psychological study that finds you can have a good photographic record of an event or a good memory, but not both.
Take a deep breath. Picture it in your mind. The world’s largest gathering of camels. Taking place at a tiny Rajasthani town filled with temples, narrow streets and a picturesque lake. Men in brightly coloured turbans as far as the eye can see. Enough dust and sand to make your nostril hairs work overtime. And hundreds of photographers in every nook and cranny, taking thousands of photographs of this annual event.
My experience at the Pushkar Mela earlier this month was definitely unexpected. In all honesty, I guess I should have known better. I went there with the expectation to capture a town lost in time, an event that would bring back memories of the old days gone by and boy, how wrong I was. The Mela turned out to be a hunting ground for photographers from all over the world.
Backlighting can be all moody and subtle, but you can seldom go wrong with full-on, straight-behind illumination. Especially if your subject is the planet on which your family, friends and all of humanity happens to reside.
That's what the trio of Apollo 17 astronauts -- and soon, the whole world -- discovered 41 years and two days ago today. Navigating towards the moon on Dec. 7, 1972, the spacecraft had the sun behind it, providing a rare, fully illuminated view of the Earth.
If you haven't heard of celebrity photographer Matt Hoyle's photo book Comic Genius: Portraits of Funny People, then you're in for a treat. We're talking about a book full of hilarious portraits of hilarious people that is being sold for a good cause... what more could you want?
If we start a post off by telling you that "the stop motion video above consists of 8,000 frames taken on an iPhone," you'd probably assume it was some small-time filmmaker or hobbyist that put it together, and most of the time you'd be right.
In this case, however, you'd be dead wrong. Because that's exactly how musicians LeAnn Rimes, Rob Thomas, and Jeff Beck decided to film the music video for their most recent collaboration, a song called "Gasoline and Matches."
Photojournalist Christopher Morris has documented some of the world's hottest war zones, reclusive North Korea and the 2012 Republican National Convention. But it took modern Detroit to totally punk him, with thieves there stealing $15,000 in camera equipment and another crook cheating him out of $200 in reward money later that same day.
So emergency workers are all over the Brooklyn Bridge, trying to talk down a suicidal man poised to jump. Media people are everywhere, doing their usual sensitive storytelling. A big chunk of the city is holding its breath, waiting to see how the life-and-death drama plays out.
Perfect time for a selfie, right?
What do you do when you're not busy destroying rebel planets, choking out generals and dealing with traumatizing father issues? Why, you grab a quality selfie and upload it to Instagram of course.
"Put down that phone and eat!" That's what a lot of frustrated cooks must have been yelling Thursday, as Instagram set a new one-day record for uploads thanks to the overlapping of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.
Media giant Clear Channel recently stirred up some controversy when it decided to flat out reject an advertising image of an American soldier embracing a veiled Muslim woman from its Times Square billboards due to its 'uncomfortable' nature.
Photographers around the country are banding together to figure out the best way to help out a once-prominent photojournalist who has ended up homeless and panhandling on the streets of Manhattan.
Here's a new way to be violated in the social media era: Post a photo of yourself on Instagram, then wait for somebody you don't know and didn't authorize to repost an edited version that looks vaguely like you, except shinier and with a lot more makeup.
Back in June, graffiti artist Sofles was featured in a hyperlapse that showed him making his way around an abandoned building and creating various impressive tags at super speed. That video was received very well, so naturally, if one graffiti artist is good, four would be four times better right?
Born in Vienna and trained as a filmmaker in England, Tina Schula's photography combines cinematic techniques, portraiture, family stories and political history to create staged narratives of complex human drama. In 2009, she received her MFA in Photography from The School of Visual Arts in New York.
She was a finalist at Critical Mass 2013, Photoville 2012, The Print Center 86th International Photography Contest 2011, The Sixth Annual BamArt Silent Auction, Scope Basel 2010 and a winner of the CCNY Darkroom Residency in 2010.
On the off-chance you thought photo blogs had some kind of monopoly on rants about lazy and thoughtless photography practices, witness the majesty of Denver TV news anchor Kyle Clark in action.
After experiencing one too many embarrassing, high-profile Photoshop disasters, China is turning its research focus on image-editing software, although not in the way you might think.
Here’s a little bit of funny to start your Saturday off on the right foot. A while back, …
Picture -- A representation in two dimensions of something wearisome in three. - Ambrose Bierce
I’m a fan of the satirical and cynical definitions of Ambrose Bierce, first written as a daily newspaper column and later collected in The Devil’s Dictionary. (It was originally called the Cynic’s Word Book, but so many politicians of the day called Bierce a Devil that he felt the new title more appropriate).
It's not necessarily the way you expect to go viral when you're a photographer, but one of NYC wedding and lifestyle photographer Sascha Reinking's photos is racing across the Internet at warp speed today after actor Zach Braff (of Scrubs fame) photobombed his newlywed shoot in the middle of NYC.
A few days ago, we shared photographer Sasha Leahovcenco's inspirational project in which he photographed people in Siberia who had never had their photo taken. Photographer Jimmy Nelson's series/book Before They Pass Away is similar in that he, too, is probably photographing people who have never seen a camera.
But the project takes on a deeper, more tragic meaning as well. You see, as the name suggests, Before They Pass Away is about capturing photographs of ancient tribes and cultures that, before long, may no longer exist to be photographed.
Twice, once in 2011 and once earlier this very year, photographer Sasha Leahovcenco packed his bags and travelled to the ends of the Earth to bring photography to those who have never had their photos taken. As you might imagine, the experience left Leahovcenco a changed man, and when you look through the photos he came back with, you begin to understand why.
The host of a Minnesota-based hunting show recently found herself in hot water with animal lovers everywhere after she posted a photo of herself posing with a lion she had just killed to her Facebook.
Well, this news will probably either make you shake your head or cringe, but there's no avoiding it: Selfie has officially been named the Oxford Dictionaries' "Word of the Year 2013" thanks to the ridiculous surge in popularity the word has enjoyed over the past year.
Instagram may be home to a wealth of aesthetic and legal offenses, but it can also be a tool for promoting our better instincts, as a recent movement involving relief for victims of typhoon Haiyan attests to.
The Google Street View team went amphibious for its latest mission: a 360-degree capture of the canals, streets and piazzas of Venice -- the city many view as the most romantic on Earth Venice.
The idea isn't entirely new. At one point, photographer Allen Murabayashi experimented with re-imagining famous photos as if they had been taken with Instagram to dispel the thought that filters and a square crop often somehow "improve" a photo.
The website Histagrams is similar, only it takes it a step further and lends a comedic edge to the whole experiment. Site creators Gusto NYC and Gavin Alaoen imagine how historically significant moments might have been shared if the people behind them had had Instagram at their disposal.
This tattered old photo album containing a fascinating collection of some 1,500 mugshots taken over one hundred years was recently sold by the Swann Galleries auction house in New York for $10,000.
Victoria's Secret model, mother, and wife to Hollywood star Orlando Bloom (for now... I'm still hopeful) Miranda Kerr landed in some seriously hot water with the Internet-at-large recently after posting a clearly Photoshopped photograph of herself to her Instagram account.
One of the things big time photographers are phenomenal at is getting their subjects to trust their judgement implicitly. Of course, how far does that trust really go? Well, in the case of celebrity photog Tyler Shields and actor Zachary Quinto, that trust meant Quinto being willing to be dragged behind a car at 40mph.
A popular iOS and Android app that promised to generate torrents of Instagram likes and followers for its users also swiped thousands of passwords for the service, and is now being called a massive scam.
Analog photography buffs can rest a little easier: Photographic film is now supported by the combined economic majesty of Lomography and the photographic offshoot of post-bankruptcy Kodak.