Ideas

Photographer Helping ‘Girl Power Project’ Equip the Future Leaders of Uganda

The United Nations has said that educating women is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty around the globe. Having taken that statement to heart, The Girl Power Project -- a collaboration between by The Collective Heart and Unstoppable Foundation -- is committed to empowering the girls of Uganda and putting a stop to generations of poverty, disease, abuse and illiteracy.

Photography on Fire: A Trash the Dress Shoot Done with Real Flames

Most portrait/wedding photographers are familiar with "Trash the Dress" sessions. A client, dressed in a gorgeous formal gown is photographed in a location in a less than elegant outdoor location, one usually involving water, and in the process the dress becomes "trashed." It's a fun juxtaposition and it's been popular for some time, but water and mud are one thing...

Self-Destructing Snaps: Secret.li is Like Snapchat Meets Facebook Photos

Privacy concerns abound in the digital age, especially where pictures are concerned. With massive social networks like Facebook and Instagram offering more-or-less on/off security with little in way of customization, apps that allow you to take your photos' privacy in your own hands by deleting the photo after a set amount of time have taken off (think Snapchat and Facebook's Poke).

Nikon Facebook App Encourages Friendly Competition With Fellow Photogs

We received a new press release out of the Nikon camp this morning, and although it didn't announce any fresh cameras or lenses, it was eager to share a different creation with us: My Nikon World. My Nikon World is a brand new Facebook app that seeks to "Challenge photographers to shoot, share and learn," mostly through friendly competition.

Spliced Film Negative Portraits That Show the Similarities of Siblings

Back in 2011, we shared a series of "Genetic Portraits" by photographer Ulric Collette that showed portraits of various family members spliced together to show the similarities and differences of those who share DNA. Photographer Andrew Ryan did something similar for his project Base Pairs, except he ventured along the analog route instead of going fully digital.

Dad Captures One Second Per Day of His Son’s First Year of Life

On July 9th, 2012, photographer Sam Cornwell of Hayling Island, England welcomed his son Indigo into the world and became a father for the first time. Starting on that life-changing day, Cornwell and his wife Beverley have been documenting the growth of their boy by capturing at least one second of video every single day.

PhotoYOLO: Receive One Photo Per Day from ‘a Friend You Just Haven’t Met Yet’

Where popular culture is concerned, YOLO might be the new Carpe Diem. The acronym, which stands for "you only live once," has become increasingly popular over the past several years after its first known mention in the NBC reality show The Average Joe back in 2004. Now, almost 10 years later, it's broken into the photography industry with the new site PhotoYOLO.

Photographer Uses Stones as His Canvas for Portrait Photo Prints

Madhava Bence Kalmar is a 22-year-old Hungarian photographer who's currently studying at the University of Brighton in the UK. Passionate about experimental and portrait photography, he has been working on a project that combines the two. It's called "Stone and Silver," and involves printing black and white photographs on rocks instead of traditional mediums.

Beautiful Photo Collage of the Sun Shows Different Wavelengths of Light

Our sun can look very different in photographs depending on the wavelength of light you're trying to capture. Some photographs show the sun as a glowing white ball, while others capture hotter areas in a cold blue color. NASA recently took a collection of sun photos shot at different wavelengths and combined them into the beautiful photo collage seen above (here's a higher-res version).

Lifestyle Photos Featuring Wookiees

Portland, Oregon-based photographer and art director Mako Miyamoto has an ongoing project that consists of lifestyle photographs... of Wookiees. The photographs have scenes and aesthetics you might see in some kind of clothing catalog or marketing campaign, except all of the models are sporting giant furry Chewbacca faces.

Capturing High-Speed Photographs of Exploding Wires

Contrary to what you might think, exploding wires are actually a fairly common photographic subject. Although cat bearding probably has it beat in terms of sheer volume, in the world of science, capturing photographs of wires turning into plasma is an often-attempted experiment.

Pixelist Turns Your Favorite Instagrams into Hand-Made Oil Paintings

There a good few Instagram-related services out there that offer you different ways to print, send and/or use your favorite Instagram shots. From Postagram, which lets you send your Instagrams as (sometimes free) postcards to friends, to the Nike web app that allowed you to decorate your sneakers based on an Instagram photo, we've seen quite a few applications.

Music Video Uses Animations Projected Onto Warm Breath in Freezing Temps

Here's a really creative idea that makes for a really cool and unique music video. For the second single off of his upcoming album Where You Stand, musician Travis teamed up with a creative directing duo to put together a music video shot entirely using an animation projected onto the band's breath in freezing temperatures.

This is a DIY Camera Obscura You Wear on Your Head

Photographer Justin Quinnell is a pinhole photography master. Over the years we've featured his work taking six-month long pinhole exposures that show sun trails, as well as his DIY camera obscura kit that allowed you to display an upside-down version of the outside world in the room of your choice.

Funny Portraits of Men Dressed in Their Girlfriends’ Clothes

When Spanish photographer Jon Uriarte first started exploring relationship dynamics and gender roles in his work, he did so by photographing couples together in their shared homes. But at some point, he realized that this method wasn't getting his message across -- that's when he switched to a stranger, more humorous approach.

A Shutter Sound Symphony Created with $30,000 in Nikon DSLR Gear

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong was taking a tour of Nikon Professional Services facilities recently when he had an idea: with so much Nikon gear around, why not try making music with the cameras? After all, it's not often that you have tens of thousands of dollars in gear at your disposal to create something fun. The video above is what resulted.

Photos of Diet Wiegman’s Mind-Blowing Shadow Sculptures

Voted "The Most Brilliant Artist of the Netherlands" in 2009, Dutch artist Diet Wiegman is a master of his craft. But of all the amazing creations he has to his name, his work with light and shadow is most breathtaking. Using garbage, pieces of glass and other rubble, he creates a sculpture that, with the help of a light source, projects a beautiful image onto a wall.

These Hundred-Photo Composites Take Street Photography to the Next Level

At first glance, photographer Pelle Cass' series Selected People makes it seem like Boston is horribly overcrowded. The streets and squares are flooded with people, some of whom look like they're about to bump into each other without a second thought. And it's not just people, one tree seems to be the favorite spot of every single squirrel in the city.

Nighttime Scenes Illuminated with the Soft Glow of LED Lights

Photographer Harold Ross is a practitioner of "light sculpting." Visiting various outdoor landscapes at night, he uses LED flashlights and other sources of light in order to selectively illuminate portions of his images. The resulting photos, which together form a project called "Night," show various locations in a style that looks more like an illustration or rendering than a photograph.

Light Painting Photos Taken Inside Marble Mines in Italy

We've heard it from light painters before: the air is their canvas. The great thing about light painting is the ability to create something great just about anywhere. But that doesn't mean that you have to start with a blank or un-interesting 'canvas,' so to speak.

Unconventional Studio Portraits of Dogs

When dog owners take their pets to a photography for studio, they're probably hoping for a series of portraits that make their little friend look "nice." That's most likely not the word that'll come to mind when you look at photographer Pablo Axpe's dog portraits in his project CANIO.

It’s Hardly Noticable: Photographs That Represent the Feeling of Anxiety

Photographer John William Keedy has had to deal with an anxiety disorder for some nine years now. Never feeling like he quite fit in, and at times so nervous around crowds that he would only go to the grocery store when he was certain it was empty, he's intimately familiar with the type of neurotic behavior a condition like his can encourage.

Poppy Turns Your iPhone Into an Easy-to-Use 3D Camera and Display

Remember the old ViewMaster toys? All you had to do was put in one of the special cartridges and you could go "sightseeing" in 3D. A new invention by entrepreneurs Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg harkens back to the old ViewMaster days, only instead of a cartridge, you have your iPhone -- and instead of just viewing 3D content, now you can capture it as well!

Can You Figure Out What’s Strange About These Family Portraits?

Pay a visit to photographer Jamie Diamond's website, and you'll find that one of her projects is a series of family portraits. The images look like standard family portraits: the members are posed in different places and positions, there are older members and younger members; everyone's dressed nicely, everyone's smiling.

Using Focus Stacked Photos to Create 3D Reconstructions

Creating a 3D scan of an object can be done several different ways. We've seen everything from long distance laser cameras and hacked Kinects used to great effect. Computer engineer Giancarlo Todone's take on creating a 3D reconstruction takes another approach: using focus stacking.