Smartphones and social networks have made snapping and sharing photos extremely easy to do, allowing us to preserve our memories and broadcast our experiences. It's not all positive, though: there are downsides to our snap- and selfie-happy culture.
A new study has found that 58% of people believe that "posting the perfect picture has prevented them from enjoying life's experiences."
Photographer Vanessa Hicks is fighting back today after being chastised and harassed online for using an American flag as a prop during a baby photo shoot. It was a simple Facebook share that has gotten quite a bit of national attention.
Children’s book author Josh Gottsegen says he taught his 3-year-old labrador Olive to …
When Japan was devastated by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, countless families lost precious photos in their homes that washed away. In response, many organizations sprung up to recover, restore, and reunite photos with their owners.
One company that launched a huge initiative was Ricoh. In the four years following the disaster, the company's "Save the Memory" project found and cleaned 418,721 photos, returning 90,128 pictures to the people who lost them.
An apartment complex near Orlando, Florida, is receiving a torrent of bad publicity after one of its tenant contracts was published online. The document forces tenants to agree to a $10,000 fine if they post a bad review of the complex online, and it claims copyright to all photographs taken by tenants in the complex.
The SoundBarrel is a concept Bluetooth speaker design that shutterbugs should feel right at home with. Created by South Korean industrial designer SaeJoung Kou, the device looks like a wooden camera lens and features a nifty aperture mechanism that's used to change the volume.
Some jokester has put up a listing on eBay for a DIY version of the new Leica M-P "Correspondent" edition. Carrying a €33,000 (~$35,300) price tag, the unusual camera kit comes with an ordinary Leica M6 and a small square of sandpaper.
Is this a case of sensible anti-terrorism measures or racial profiling and an inappropriate suspicion of photography? Police in New York are currently looking for two men of Middle Eastern descent who were spotted taking pictures in front of multiple Jewish synagogues in Brooklyn.
The style editor-at-large of Vogue is receiving criticism for being insensitive and "out of touch" after sharing (and subsequently deleting) a photograph of a homeless woman in Paris reading a copy of Vogue magazine.
English rock band The Police sold over 75 million records over the course of their decade-long career, making them one of the best selling music artists of all time. In addition to being the band's lead guitarist, Andy Summers was also a passionate photographer who captured behind-the-scenes photos of the band at the peak of their popularity.
Those photographs will be featured in a new documentary later this year, titled Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police.
Here’s a little comic titled “Art Project” by …
The woman who was captured in a viral video last year attacking a drone photographer and calling him a "pervert" may have her charges dropped and record cleared.
A camera used on satellites to monitor vegetation from space may soon help save lives in the battle against cancer. The special camera will be capable of peering into human skin to see things that are invisible to the naked eye for the purpose of detecting diseases early.
Here’s a 365-day project that took a tremendous amount of planning and dedication. On January 8, 2014, Dean Smith …
Los Angeles has agreed to pay a $50,000 settlement to three photographers after they were detained by LA County Sheriffs while taking pictures in public places. As part of the settlement, the city will also teach its sheriff deputies that photography is not a crime.
This guy from Trollstation recently did an experiment to see what kind of …
It pays to have a lot of Instagram followers -- literally. Top users on the photo-sharing service these days are finding that their simple picture snapping can be turned into real dollars, and a lot of them at that. The numbers may astound you: some users are receiving thousands of dollars in exchanging for sharing a single photo that promotes a company's products.
If you appreciate simple pranks, here’s a photo-related one you may find amusing. Greg Benson of …
An octopus is getting quite a bit of attention this week for its photography skills. After noticing a camera placed in its enclosure to photograph it, the eight-legged creature grabbed the camera, turned it around, and unintentionally captured a portrait of the photographer.
While major art museums around the world are issuing bans on selfie sticks, there's one unusual museum in the Philippines that's continuing to encourage visitors to capture silly portraits with paintings. In fact, that's what the museum is all about.
Called Art in Island, the museum is full of creative paintings that are designed to act as 3D illusion photo backdrops for guests.
The word "speed" is used a lot in the world of photography equipment -- things like lens speed, film speed, and shutter speed. But speed is generally used to refer to how quickly something travels or operates per unit time, rather than a period of time itself. So is the term "shutter speed" a misnomer?
20th Century Fox has come up with an unusual way to promote its upcoming film Unfinished Business. Teaming up with Getty Images and its iStock service, the studio has created a series of generic-looking stock photos showing Vince Vaughn and his co-stars in a corporate atmosphere.
Three years ago, photographer Marvin Lewis and his then-girlfriend-of-5-years Amanda Marie began an annual tradition of doing a photo shoot on their anniversary. For this year's photo shoot on the couple's 8th annivesary, Lewis decided to make it extra special by asking Amanda to marry him.
The way he popped the question involves photography in a clever way: he projected the big question onto the studio backdrop using his off-camera flash, allowing Amanda to see it when she reviewed the photo on the back of the DSLR.
If you're a fan of both photography and major Hollywood movies, there's an upcoming film to add to your "must watch" list. Steven Spielberg has signed on to direct a war photographer biopic with actress Jennifer Lawrence as photojournalist Lynsey Addario.
The film will be based on Addario's new memoir It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War.
One of the strange properties of light is that it behaves as both a wave and a particle. Experiments over the years have confirmed both aspects, but none have succeeded in directly observing both natures at exactly the same time... until now.
Scientists in Switzerland have successfully captured the world's first photograph showing light behaving simultaneously as both a particle and as a wave. In the image above, the top "slice" shows light behaving as a wave, while the particles can be seen in the slice below.
22-year-old photography enthusiast David Maitland is a huge fan of film photography and shooting with his Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium format camera and Sekor 80mm 2.8 lens. So, for his recent birthday, he got a cake modeled after his beloved camera kit. The camera, lens, strap, film, and photos in the photo above are all edible.
Photography-centric web comic CLICKittyCAT published a series of one-liner comics this week based on true stories it gathered from a camera store in Ventura, California, called Dexter's Camera. The shop has served customers since the 1960s, so they've fielded plenty of unusual questions over the years.
New Internet culture slang words such as "selfie," "photobomb," and "duckface" are being added to respected English dictionaries, so it makes sense that there should also be new signs added for them in American Sign Language. Here's a look at what those signs are.
Actor Leonard Nimoy passed away today at the age of 83. While famous for his role as Spock in the original Star Trek, what a lot of people may not know is that Nimoy was also a passionate photographer.
Nimoy picked up an interest in photography as a child, studied photography at UCLA, and even considered changing careers from acting to full-time photographer.
The band Guster recently released this video version of their entire album Evermotion.
What colors do you see in this dress? Is it an underexposed photo of a white and gold dress, or is it an overexposed photo of a black and blue dress? It seems everyone has a different opinion on these questions, and this photo has seemingly become the most talked about thing on social media over the past day.
Here’s a tongue-in-cheek sketch in which Ramones drummer Marky Ramone shows off a …
Back in January, we reported that a DJ named Chris Holmes had developed a line of "anti-paparazzi clothing" that ruins flash photographs at night by blowing the photos out with excessive reflected light. The idea gained traction, and now the "Flashback" line of apparel will soon be hitting the market.
Illinois representative Aaron Schock is facing serious scrutiny over accusations that he has been misusing taxpayer money for expensive travel and entertainment. His downfall came in the form of Instagram photos: the EXIF data gave him away.
As a result of the selfie culture boom in the past couple of years, the media is often quick …
The picture above is the only photo Jeb Bush has of his wedding 41 years ago. Here's why: Bush made the mistake of allowing his younger brother Marvin to be his official wedding photographer. Marvin, who was still in high school at the time, made the tragic mistake of rerolling already-exposed film.
A new photo has emerged that purports to show the infamous outlaw "Billy the Kid" in his younger days, and the owner of the photograph is working hard to convince the world that it's real. If he's successful, the payoff could be grand: back in 2011, the only known photo of Billy the Kid was sold at auction for $2.3 million to Bill Koch, becoming one of the most expensive photos on Earth.
Here's a humorous video showing how the Home Shopping Network tried to sell a Canon Rebel T3i package on TV back in 2012. They do get some facts about the camera and photography right, but other statements they make may cause you to chuckle (or shake your head in disbelief).
As books are easier to buy and borrow in digital forms, public libraries are evolving and experimenting with new ways to stay relevant. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has one awesome idea for how to do so: the main branch of the library in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, features a makerspace that provides free access to tools for creative people -- equipment that includes DSLRs and photo studio gear.
Last December, the art world balked when photographer Peter Lik announced the world's priciest sale of a photograph: a single black-and-white print titled "Phantom" for $6.5 million. Here's another fact that will drop your jaws: Lik has sold nearly half a billion dollars worth of photographic prints, which means he's possibly the best-selling fine-art photographer in history.
Boudoir photography, derived from the French word for "sulky," traditionally involves a woman posing for a suggestive series of tasteful photos in various states of undress. Over the past few years, however, a new trend has emerged. Called "dudeoir" photography, these shots involve men jumping into the frame to pose for sexy shots.
China is a country that's known to take the Olympics (the summer ones, at least) very seriously as the nation competes for a bigger presence on the world stage. Chinese gold medal winners become instant superstars and the role models for a generation of aspiring athletes.
It turns out photography is another field in which China is trying to become a world superpower, and its efforts are bearing fruit.
Support is a funny thing.
As an artist, 96% of our career is spent dealing with rejection. Rejection from friends, family, other artists, and even the art world itself. Making a living from art can be a very long and lonely, misunderstood journey, especially in the beginning, and having a decent support system can help make that early journey a little more bearable.
But just as we’re often learning the ropes of how to be an artist, we also know that you’re learning the ropes of how to best support us. We need you, and here are the best ways you can help us out.
Earlier this month, we reported that a North Carolina-based photographer Faith Massey had gotten her camera bag stolen from her car. Inside was a memory card that contained irreplaceable photos of the last moments of a baby's life, which Massey captured through the charity organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.
There's a happy update to the story: the memory card has been returned, and all the precious lost photos have been recovered.
Artist Daniel Arsham has a new exhibition at the Leica Gallery Los Angeles that consists of 25 life-sized Leica camera replicas created out of various geological materials. The sculptures reimagine some of Leica's most famous products as "relics of a time past."
Update: We have removed the photos after receiving a takedown request from the photographer.
Less than a week after an unretouched photo of Cindy Crawford leaked onto the Web, a set of untouched photos from an ad shoot featuring Beyonce has emerged as well. Just like with the Crawford photo, the new images are causing quite a discussion online about the role Photoshop has in creating perfection for advertisements.
xkcd's latest comic, titled "Flowcharts," is a tongue-in-cheek take on the concept of the golden ratio (or golden spiral) in photography. It's a flow chart in which one of the steps reads: "Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?" If you choose "yes" from there, you're taken on a golden ratio journey that magically fits the design of the chart.
One way to capture your girlfriend’s reaction without the help of a third person: take a fake selfie. That’s …
Need a new show to watch? Fauxtography is a new comedic web series that's geared toward people who love photography. It's about the life of a young photographer who's struggling to figure out his work and personal life in the midst of the ongoing Instagram revolution.
Renowned Magnum and National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey offers this sweet 40-second …