Rich Clarkson’s photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then named Lew Alcindor, in the 1968 NCAA Men’s National Basketball Final Four semifinal game in Los Angeles is a masterpiece of composition, timing, and exposure. The square format is the result of shooting the game action with a Hasselblad – a practice that continued into the early 2000s. But that isn’t what makes this photo historically interesting.
Nestled at the base of a red rock cliff just north of the Utah/Arizona border, Goulding’s Trading Post offers a commanding panorama of Monument Valley -- it’s every photographer’s dream vista. It also invites travelers, through prominent signage, to visit “John Wayne’s Cabin”. Now, to a sucker for kitschy Americana like me (who also just happened to be moseying through on a recent 1700 mile southwestern photography trip), that sign was magnetic.
A few months ago I stumbled upon a very interesting article on PetaPixel titled "Why I Stopped Using The DNG File Format." In this article the author mentions that Capture One give us a better starting point for color processing. This point made me excited about the whole idea that my portrait images could turn up a lot better and that I only need to start using Capture One.
Pawn shops are hit and miss for photographers, but when they're a hit, they can be a freaking HIT.
During one of my bi-monthly visits to all the local pawn shops in my town, I came across the sight above. It was a popular Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens that had an "As Is" label and a $99.99 price tag. A hundred bucks? Even for a broken copy of this lens that's a great deal -- you can sell just the parts on eBay for between $200 and $500...
In 1958, Disney released the documentary White Wilderness. You’ve probably never heard of it, but you likely have heard the myth that lemmings commit mass suicide. The truth is more complex: the narrator didn’t actually say the lemmings were committing suicide, and in 1982, a CBC TV show revealed that the scenes weren’t shot where the film said they were and the lemmings were pushed over the edge by the crew. What you saw on-screen was fiction, but, if it weren’t for this film, would you have heard of a lemming?
It’s been a busy past couple of months for me, full of photo experiments and metadata blunders. But even when I’m busy with assignments, I’m still looking for a project.
I’m better at short-term projects, something I can set up quickly and shoot in a few hours. Coming up with these projects can be mind-numbing, so I look for outside inspiration. Fortunately, being with Wonderful Machine, I get ideas sent to my inbox.
At first it had been a dream to travel to Asia for a long time already, even before I discovered photography. I am now 22 years old and I finished my bachelors in psychology. Along the way I found out that I really wanted to pursue photography, but nonetheless psychology still gave me some really good insights. It never hurts to have some more knowledge about human life in general.
I have a weakness for photography travel. My trips often start with a simple phone call or email from a friend checking to see if I might be interested in photographing somewhere. In the case of my recent visit to China, however, there was no message from a friend… just a single image from a place called “XiaPu” that I ran across and that really inspired me to travel there.
No. No. Please, no. A moment of terror for every photographer out there. I opened my photo bag, took out my camera to take a picture of the street filled with warm sunset light, and then it happened.
Imagine this moment in slow-motion: while listening to music with my noise-canceling headphones, I raised my camera in order to look through the viewfinder. Surprised by the incredibly bad auto-focus, I realized -- with cheery music in my ears -- that the lens had suddenly unhooked from the DSLR and was falling down to the ground in the worst way possible. BAM!
Sometimes I make brief escapes from the humdrum of city life and venture into the woods to capture the majesty of nature. I ride around on my bicycle like a madman looking for interesting subjects to capture. The last time I did this, my beloved camera bounced out of my pocket somewhere along the bumpy road; I’d gotten some good shots that day, quite a few actually, and keeping a stoic attitude while backtracking in search of my lost camera became increasingly difficult. Not only was the camera lost, I was lost.
It's not often that one gets to narrate the story of their birth. Fortunately (or unfortunately) in my case, the story has been told to me and to others around me time and time again. It’s imprinted in memory, much like a photograph, due to its many renditions, and it's narrated more often whenever my birthday comes around each September. Thankfully, it is not one of those tales that changes and has details added or subtracted to it with every rendition.
Editor's update: It appears that SmugMug has identified and fixed the issue described in this article.
I recently discovered a glitch with SmugMug that's now causing me a massive headache. If you use SmugMug, this may be negatively impacting your business as well, so this article is a heads up for any photographer on SmugMug that may be affected.
Alright photographers, here’s something esoteric from a person that isn’t esoteric at all. For a minute, let’s just forget about all the settings, lenses and cameras we photographers love to talk about all day long. This article is solely dedicated to your inner creative soul. That deep, underlying voice of your photography that influences all your creative decisions. What is it in you that actually leads to hitting the shutter?
The New York Times published an article about brands using user generated content (UGC) without explicit permission. When a woman named Shereen Way posted a photo of her daughter to Instagram with the hashtag #crocs, Crocs pulled the photo and posted it to their website with other user photos.
It was only much later that Crocs sought explicit permission from Ms. Way, which she declined. And how did they ask for permission? “Please respond with #CrocsOK.”
I firmly believe that photography is a powerful force for good in this world.
As reportage, it opens our eyes to tragedies we might otherwise ignore; as landscape or wildlife photography, it reveals a beauty we too often take for granted, and encourages us to treat the planet with the respect it demands; as portraiture, it reminds us that each person has uncharted and unfathomable depths to their humanity that we may never truly understand.
As a photographer, videographer, and drone hobbyist, I follow with great interest all the media attention drones have received lately. Unfortunately, drone news coverage here in my country, Colombia, has been skewed towards the negative, with stories of isolated incidents like the Connecticut "Gun-Drone" and the Mexican "Drug-Drone" making big splashes on every possible media outlet.
So I wasn’t surprised two weeks ago when our FAA equivalent, the Aeronáutica Civil, released a new iteration of its National Drone Regulation. I knew it wasn’t going to be good, what I didn’t anticipate is that it would be a collection of some of the most absurd, abusive, illogical laws I’ve ever seen.
Dear photographer friend,
I wanted to write you a letter on the concept of “killing the masters of photography”. It is kind of a Buddhist philosophy, as well as a philosophy I gained from Seneca, my stoic philosophy hero and mentor.
This is the story of how I had to deal with a panic attack during a recent three-day photo shoot. Day three… oh day three.
With much of the shoot behind us, day three was a victory lap of sorts. The shots were more controlled and the environment allowed for great creativity. The first two days had worn us physically, but the crew, client and I had become a well-oiled machine that knew how to work a shot to be exactly what was needed. What could go wrong?…
I proudly ordered an Instacube in August 2012 amid significant press hype over a device that would display your Instagram feed with a large 6.5” screen. Finally... the digital picture frame that I actually wanted. The initial goal of $35,000 was quickly smashed, and the Kickstarter campaign ended up raising over $620,000.
Three weeks ago, I purchased off of eBay a “junk” Minolta MC Rokkor-PG 58mm f/1.2 lens. I had read so many good things about this particular lens in Minolta’s history that I really wanted to get one for my ever-growing collection. A fully-functioning, good condition one will run anywhere between $450-$700. The listing for the one that I bid on stated, “For parts.”
Reading the description a little further revealed that the glass had a lot of fungus, the aperture assembly was tanked and the focusing helicoid was seized. Call me a fool, but I bid and won it for $142 on the chance that I might be able to repair it.
Dear Photographer,
It is no secret that local business is suffering in the digitized times, with camera stores being some of the worst to feel this pinch. In our region, we are one of the only camera stores for miles in each direction. Many of our customers drive upwards of 2 hours just to come into our store to shop with us, which says a lot about the state of the photo retail world, and how far great customer service reaches.
Canon's latest press release has confirmed some of the rumors that have been floating around the Internet for a while now; that it has decided the megapixel war is not over and is preparing to drop its "nuclear option", a 120-megapixel behemoth.
The life of a freelancer can be very unpredictable. I find it to be epitome of “feast or famine.” It’s good to have some down time on equipment every now and again to get things serviced, and I took this latest opportunity to get my D700 serviced by Nikon.
One of the perks of a NPS (Nikon Professional Services) membership is loaner equipment. My Nikon D700 went in, and they sent me a D750 on consignment. No sooner did that D750 arrive than I had a barrage of phone calls for assignments. I barely had time to get acquainted with the new body before we were off to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to photograph Coach Bret Bielema of the Arkansas Razorback for the Wall Street Journal.
Photographers are used to being behind the camera, but the prominence and rise of photography – particularly through social media – has created emerging opportunities for photographers. No longer relegated to pimping camera gear and workshops, the contemporary photographer has many more possibilities to endorse everything from cars to credit cars.
“Regardless of what it signifies, any photographic image also connotes memory and nostalgia, nostalgia for modernity and the twentieth century, the era of the pre-digital, pre-post-modern.” --Lev Manovich
There will always be a need to connect to the past. Contemporary culture actively and unconsciously cycles through past follies and reflects upon progress. It is no surprise then, that we see popular culture re-presenting past generations. Perhaps more so than any other period in our recent past, today’s pop-cultural climate is mimicking that of the 1970s.
Dear friend,
You might have heard the term “YOLO”, which stands for “you only live once”. However, I think most people misconstrue the word. They think that it means to live a life of hedonism and pleasure, and give themselves the license to do stupid stuff and waste their time and money.
My name is Andre Oliveira. I’m 24 years old, and I began learning how to use DSLR cameras in 2008 starting with a Canon Rebel Ti that my school supplied. I worked my way to my first Nikon, the D3100, and then eventually up to a D7000. My best upgrade was buying a Nikon 50mm prime lens 4 years ago.
If you want to get a deeper insight into street photography and take better photos, I feel it is very important to study the work of the street photographers who came before us and paved the way for the rest of us. Not only that, but reading the quotes and words by these influential street photographers is a great way to train your mind to take better photos as well.
Here are some of my favorite street photography quotes that are concise, inspirational, and have influenced me in one way or another.
Whether you've been a photographer for 10 weeks or 10 years, we've all heard the cautionary tales about yet another creative who's packed it all up, sold off all their gear, and decided to do something else in terms of a career.
It's with that in mind that I am writing about the importance of personal projects.
It’s been a funny week. A couple of days ago, while I was sitting in the office reformatting my MacBook in sunny West Sussex, I was also sort of arrested in Islington, London.
Let me elaborate...
My name is Luka Gorjup, and I'm a 29-year-old photographer who was born and raised in Ljubljana, Slovenia -- you know, that tiny beautiful country in Central Europe that many mistake for Slovakia?
It is beautiful, indeed. We have the seaside,the Alps, the karst, lakes, vineyards and many many excellent athletes. And we have beautiful forests -- lots of them. In fact forests cover approximately 66% of our land. In terms of relative forest cover, Slovenia ranks 3rd in the European Union, just after Finland and Sweden. This is probably the reason I have deep respect for trees and nature.
I’m a freelance creative director and professional photojournalist. When I’m shooting, I work quite a bit for the boutique picture agency, Polaris Images in NYC, although I do take a lot of other assignments. I shoot all kinds of assignments—news, features, portraits, and politics... lately, a lot of politics.
I’m in Las Vegas, and with Nevada and its large Hispanic population being one of the early primary voting states next year, all the candidates from both parties are coming through here every week. I’m assigned to cover almost all of them, and I try hard to make more than the usual campaign pictures, if I can.
Throughout your measure of time learning photography and shooting, have you ever reached a point of realization that there is hardly a place left on the planet that you can shoot where someone else hasn’t already? Especially the most remarkable places, we find they have been packaged up, guard rails erected, and signs posted that welcome us while at the same time restrain our ability to capture a unique perspective.
Only a Luddite would still categorize Apple as a computer company. Indeed, the company officially changed its name in 2007, dropping “Computer” and simply settling for “Apple, Inc.” Still, most people probably think of Apple as the maker of the iPhone and iPad, and to a lesser extent as the company that makes MacBooks and iMacs.
But let me suggest that Apple is the most important camera company today.
Last weekend I went to the small city of Ballarat in Australia for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. I took a portfolio of prints of my most recent project with me in the hope I would get some nudges in the right direction. I also took part in a one-day workshop led by the very experienced and inspirational Stephen Dupont. While it’s still fresh in my mind, here is what I learned from the experience.
My life is pretty good. I live in one of the coolest cities in the world (Toronto), I have a lot of close friends, good family, an amazing girlfriend who loves me, and I’m beginning to think my photography business is sustainable after almost five years of hard work. I’m happier now than I have been for most of my life. But here’s the reality: I am just a blue collar photographer.
Instagram cracked the restrictive barriers of its iconic square format yesterday, announcing to the world that it intends to remain the dominant platform of the visual content world. Initially created so that the every picture could be seen full screen on any device and any orientation, the square frame also incidentally made reference to the Polaroid format, adding another touch of the nostalgia that made Instagram so popular. So why change it?
There was a time when I guess you could have called me a wedding photographer. Although at that point you could have really called me an ‘anything’ photographer. It was early in my career. At that point in time I would have photographed a cat eating belly button lint if someone had paid me to do so.
Photography has been used in many ways throughout its history: as documentation, propaganda, keepsake, etc. But never has it been so frequently used as a weapon as in the Information Age. As visual communication becomes the de facto language of social media, we can only surmise that we will see more and more examples of using photography for nefarious purposes.
After reading Stephen Mayes’ TIME essay on the end of photography I couldn’t help but respond. To begin with, his main proposition is that “in the future there will be no such thing as a ‘straight photograph’” to which I’d add that I’m not sure there ever really has been much of a ‘straight photograph’ although in recent decades the public has become increasingly aware of this.
The 42MP Sony a7R II has got to be one of the most anticipated camera systems in the history of cameras, and for good reason.
Over the years, I’ve had the chance to play with all sorts of camera systems, from cheap point-and-shoots to $30,000 80-megapixel behemoths. I’ve observed as the DSLR video revolution spread across the world, and watched as the lines between photography and videography started to blur as video cameras started to shoot stills and still cameras started to shoot video.
Since my first DSLR purchase in 2001, I’ve exhibited symptoms of Gear Acquisition Syndrome that have left a sizable dent in my wallet. Here is a list of my most regrettable acquisitions. What are yours?
Here are some glitterbombs of truth about photography and being a photographer...
How much would you need to earn to make photography a full-time job? On a recent visit to India, I was strolling through Mumbai's colonial-era neighborhoods when I was approached by a young man with a Nikon DSLR and a backpack. He offered to take my photo against the backdrop of two of the city's landmarks, the Taj Hotel and the Gateway of India.
Instant prints were available, and examples in a clear plastic file were offered for inspection.
Here's my story on what it's like to have a photo go totally viral around the world. After accidentally capturing a portrait with the ISS in the background, I sent it to a lot of local news outlets in the Netherlands, along with a lot of big international photo blogs (PetaPixel was one of them).
I started by just contacting them on Facebook with a short message along with the photo, to just try to see if they would be interested in the photo itself. No need to write a long story if they don’t like the photo anyway, I thought.
Lately, drones have been the topic of many privacy concerns. Notably, one Kentucky man gunned down a Phantom that he thought was taking photos of his teenage daughter. But are drones any more creepy than existing technology?
As landscape photography has grown in the age of digital cameras, photographer etiquette has seemingly plummeted. In this article, I will share some words for landscape photographers who need to check their etiquette.
In 2013, my then-girlfriend Martina and I were in Queenstown, New Zealand at the end of a two-month trip. The evening before our journey back home, we went out for a walk, absorbing the magical streets.
At one point in the stroll, my attention was drawn to a busking pianist on the Marine Parade. The music was so amazing, and we lingered for a few minutes just listening to the man play and observing the quiet and melancholy scene (even though we needed to start packing).
As a junior in high school in 1997, when I was deciding which path I wanted to go down, fine arts or photography, things were pretty simple. Did I want to express myself with a camera or a pencil? Inspired by masters like Annie Leibovitz and David LaChapelle, I opted for the camera.
All I wanted to do was create beautiful images for a living. By signing up for a degree in fine art photography, little did I know what lay ahead for me.
There’s been a lot of news coverage and editorializing about vertical video. It’s become such a scourge that PSAs have been created to stop the phenomenon in its tracks.