As the coronavirus has spread throughout the U.S., it has left a wake of economic turmoil. As of Wednesday, April 9th, over 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Like many other freelancers, photographers have seen an abrupt drop in income. For many, late March brought about cancellations in droves over the course of about a week.
I've been an amateur landscape photographer for some time now. I remember fondly my first years in the field—I loved roaming around and shooting like mad. I even started getting good at it. Year by year, though, I found myself shooting less and less.
It's common knowledge that being an artist—and trying to turn art into a profitable career—is one of the most challenging pursuits a person could undertake. But for many artists, there is no other option than to make it work, one way or another.
If you haven’t heard about this following situation, then you might just lose your temper now.
After a recent bad experience in Ukraine, I returned to the UK upset, fed up and tired of things not going my way. I can't get into details about what happened in Ukraine and although it was personal, it acted as a catalyst which then got me reflecting negatively on other areas of my life too.
Since mid-March, various policies have been implemented at the state and federal level in the U.S. to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19.
I have sometimes been critical when landscape photographers combine two or more photos not taken at the same time to make one great photo -- adding northern lights or beautiful skies to a photo that did not have them, for example -- and then making people believe it was something that really happened.
I don’t remember the first time I became aware of my family photo album, but from a very young age I always found looking at those photos a time absorbing, and totally enthralling pastime. I would sit for long periods of time staring at those familiar faces, all those captured moments of times gone by, and lose myself in a world of wonder.
As amusing as some COVID-19 memes and tweets have been (not to mention a welcome break from the endless news cycle), we want to be very clear about the importance of taking care of your mental health right now.
My name is Brad Trent, and I'm a portrait photographer based in New York City. Yesterday, on April Fools' Day, I received an anonymous email that pointed me to a photographer’s website who seemed to be passing off one of my photographs as his own.
As with a majority of newbies to photography, the obsession with gear and chasing the newest toys proved to be irresistible to me. I spent far more time reading reviews, comparing charts, watching youtube videos, and looking for deals than actually going out and shooting.
Last night, once the kids were safely nestled in bed and only the wife and I remained awake, I reached for my iPhone, opened up the Remote app to fire up my Apple TV, launched Apple TV+, and hit play on one of the tech giant's newest shows: Amazing Stories.
Since we're all stuck inside and social distancing, I recently took out my drone and photographed people in their homes through their windows or on their terraces. It's a 100% zero-human-contact way to see how people are going crazy during quarantine times.
We are living in unprecedented times. As a photographer of social events (weddings), individual, family, business portraits and sports, the recent closing of schools and the virtual shut down of our towns and cities—basically our lives as we have known it—has shut everything down.
On March 12, 2020, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) held a webinar with General Counsel Thomas Maddrey entitled “Potential Business Ramifications of Coronavirus (COVID-19).” Maddrey covered a variety of topics, including cancellation clauses in photographer contracts.
Given the recent guidelines on social distancing from various health organizations, the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes (COVID-19) means that most of us will be self-isolating for some time. As a freelancer, how can you manage this enforced downtime positively?
Let’s not waste any time. What is the most important element in someone’s photography style? The quick answer is repetition.
My name is Neil Ta, and I'm a photographer based on Toronto. In this article, I'd like to share what it's been like being a photographer in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s been crap, honestly.
Amid countless updates about major industry events being cancelled (or not cancelled), gear being delayed, and factories being temporarily shut down—to say nothing of the day-to-day realities of dealing with a pandemic that have nothing to do with photography—it’s easy to overlook the long-term impact that this virus will have on our industry... has already had on our industry.
It was my younger years. I had just published work from the Sudanese Civil War, and the Editor-in-Chief of Germany's GEO magazine, wrote that “Per-Andre risks life and limb for a good shot." Basically, I presume he meant I was a young fool, who took on assignments very few in their clear mind would consider.
You’re pretty new to hiring professional photographers, so perhaps you feel you need to provide them with a wedding photo list in advance of your wedding. Here are 5 important reasons why you probably shouldn’t.
Photographer Heather Lahtinen of the Flourish Academy recently took on one of the most common complaints among working photographers: that cheap photogs are "saturating" the market and stealing all the jobs by undercutting better photographers on price. Lahtinen says this is "the biggest load of crap" she's ever heard.
First, a little backstory. For much of my young career, I shot Canon. Be it the 1D, 1D2, 1DS, 1D3, 1DS2 and 1DS3, let’s just say I had a thing for the ergonomics of that chassis. In every camera I would replace the focusing screen with the cross-style manual focusing option and would never use AF. To make things even more difficult, I only shot primes.
For Canon, Nikon and Panasonic/Leica/Sigma, 2018-2019 was the first year where they all truly “went for it” when it comes to full frame mirrorless. All three released full-frame mirrorless cameras, and all three seemed to have different priorities with those releases. In this three-part series, we’re looking at each of these companies in their first year and evaluate where each of them stands today in what is now a very competitive market.
The particularity of the photo industry is its death wish. At its core, everything and everyone in this industry seems hell-bent into destroying itself and, along with it, the whole industry.
Street photographers are not known for their reserve. We are happy to give advice on gear, framing and technique. But I believe the best photographers are those who also seek advice and look to learn from others. That said, not all advice is equal, and some ideas are outdated, narrow minded, or just plan wrong.
Our minds are so rarely silent. For those of us with anxiety disorders, the noise is constant. From what we’ll cook for dinner to the specifics of how our lives will end, there’s no shortage of things to worry about. But how does the creative mind function amid all this static?
Late Winter and early Spring bring another cycle of photo contest season – that time of year when many major prizes are announced (especially in the photojournalism realm). And with each year brings another round of punditry regarding the value of photo contests and an almost inevitable controversy regarding the winners.
I have in mind a program that would be of great assistance to anyone trying to do panoramic pictures. I am confident that someone who understands the math and how to create an app would make short work of it. That is certainly NOT me! I do know it would be quite useful for me and I would happily pay a few bucks for it in the app store. (I use Android!)
This is a question that I struggle with, because I truly believe that the best camera is the camera you already have. I want to believe that you can give me any camera and I will still make great photographs. But the truth is, camera gear does matter... kind of.
As the world scrambles to find an effective treatment and develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus, camera maker Fujifilm's name popped up in the headlines, but it had nothing to do with the cameras or film that they're known for.
I was sent an article yesterday. It is entitled “A Photographer is One Ingredient In a Recipe of Many.” I was asked to read it and provide my thoughts.
I just did an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Instagram Stories, and someone asked the question: ‘Do You Photoshop Your Pictures?’
In Guns, Germs, and Steel, author Jared Diamond describes two systems of invention transmission: 1) idea diffusion: imitation of an idea, and 2) blueprint copying: literal copying of an idea.
Last year, Usman Dawood of Sonder Creative decided to switch systems from Sony to Fujifilm for both his stills and video work, but he didn't end up doing it. In this video, he shares the three main reasons why the switch never happened—in other words: the three "major" advantages of Sony cameras over Fuji.
When I’m not working on animated films like “How To Train Your Dragon”, I spend my free time photographing architecture. These are my passion projects. It is the creative outlet that stretches my brain in a totally different way then when I’m working on animated films.
The battle is on. The forces of truth against forces of deception. With visual AI making it easier to fake visual content, its credibility is at stake. And with it, the income of thousands upon thousands of people worldwide who depend on the credibility of visuals to thrive: newspapers, magazines, photographers, newswires, webcasters, television news, videographers, journalists, and photo agencies, among many others.
I did my first advertising assignment in the year 2000. I still remember how excited I was when I, a few months later, walked out of a bookstore on Chestnut Street in San Francisco with several magazines with my pictures in them.
I am an amateur photographer, and I’ve sold cameras non-professionally on Amazon for over eight years as I’ve upgraded. That trend comes to an end with my most recent transaction. In December, I sold a mint-in-box Sony a7R 4, and the buyer used a combination of social engineering and ambiguity to not only end up with the camera, but also the money he paid me.
Over the years I’ve been contacted through social media, emails and in person by young photographers seeking advice on being a sports photographer. I never try and discourage them, but I also have to try and be honest: Sports Photography is dead as a profession… sad but true. I know very few who are scratching out a living shooting sports.
I've noticed that a commonly used compliment for street photographs is to describe them as "timeless." My interpretation of this is that it is used to mean that there are characteristics of the image which in some way transcend the boundaries of the context it was made in and can exist almost in its own context, its own space.
Fourteen years ago I took an interest in street photography. I went looking for resources and information on this amazing genre, unfortunately to no avail, until I came across a great free ebook in 2006 called “Street Photography for the purist” by Chris Weeks.
"Take another photo and I'm going to shove that camera up your a**." Beware of small guys with big mouths. That's the takeaway here.
I’ve always laughed when, as a photographer, people ask me if I can deal with a difficult client or shoot in a difficult situation. But even still, things are never going to be as bad as the conditions on my most recent trip – after this, I feel like I can shoot anywhere.
Facial recognition is an incredibly useful consumer tool for organizing our burgeoning photo albums. Companies like Google and Apple have slowly integrated machine learning algorithms into their consumer photo products, which allow you to search by keywords without the need for manual tagging, or to simply click on a face to see more photos of that person.
The Fujifilm X100 was the single most impactful camera of the 2010s. I’ve seen folks say the same about the Sony a7/a7R, Samsung Galaxy NX1, and various Micro Four Thirds cameras, but I will argue that the Fujifilm X100 delivered a bigger bang than all of them combined.
I used to work for Nikon cameras. From 1995 through 1999, I was Nikon UK’s Senior Photographic Advisor. My job was basically to be the guy in the building who knew what a camera was for!
Photo Twitter collectively chuckled at the announced availability of Canada Goose’s Photojournalist Jacket. With editorial day rates hovering below $300/assignment, actual photojournalists were unlikely to be purchasing such a luxury item – even if it was inexpensive by Canada Goose standards.
My name is Adam Marsh, and I'm a Melbourne-based event photographer. I recently wrote an article titled "Adobe, This is Why Photographers Are Hating on You,” and it seems to have been incredibly divisive. There was a huge amount of feedback and engagement on this topic in the wider global photography community.
When it comes to technology, consumers have been conditioned to expect notable feature changes with version numbers increases. The iPhone 11 Pro, for example, not only included the snappier A13 Bionic chip, it also sported a three lens array and significantly better low light performance.
