Inspiration

Shooting Portraits with a $12,000 400mm f/2.8 Lens

Ever wonder what it would be like to use a high-end telephoto prime to shoot portraits? Daniel and Rachel of Mango Street have, and so they decided to rent the $12,000 Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM IS lens and take it for a joy ride shooting their particular style of urban portraiture.

The Secret to Developing Your Street Photography

Shooting street photography without a project in mind is like shopping for food when you’re hungry. You might get a few nice treats, but ultimately you get back and find there is nothing to sustain you.

7 Tips for Better Black and White Street Photography

COOPH recently got together with London-based street photographer and co-founder of Street Photography Internationa Alan Schaller to talk about one of the most deceptively difficult forms of photography out there: black and white street photography.

9 Simple Tips for Taking Better Photos of Waterfalls

Landscape photographer and YouTuber Mads Peter Iversen has released a helpful on-location tutorial for anybody who wants to photograph waterfalls. The beginner-focused tutorial runs you through 9 simple tips that will help you take better, more deliberate photos of this common landscape photography subject.

A Whale Tail: Overcoming Fear to Swim with Humpback Whales

It’s 2019, I’m 80 miles away from land in the Atlantic Ocean, and I just have to laugh. I just got out of the water and noticed that my camera housing is leaking. I couldn’t afford the Nauticam rental this time, so I went cheap and hoped for the best. It’s my third trip to the Silver Bank with Tom Conlin and Aquatic Adventures and once again my photographic luck was left behind on solid ground.

Does Photographing a Moment Steal the Experience From You?

Countless photographs are snapped every day by people looking to preserve their life's experiences, but is the incessant picture taking actually robbing us of them? Travel photographer and writer Erin Sullivan recently gave this interesting 8-minute TED Talk on the subject.

10 Portrait Photography ‘Hacks’ You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner

Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles recently released a two-part series on "portrait hacks" that might be his most popular series of tips ever. In the videos, he covers 10 tips from his years of experience shooting and teaching workshops—tips that he says "everyone wishes they knew sooner."

10 Tips for Photographing ‘Abstract Landscapes’

As a landscape photographer I’m a big fan of grand vistas and photographing with wide angle lenses. But sometimes the smaller things can be just as impressive. In this little article I'll be sharing some tips that will hopefully give you some inspiration when photographing abstracts. And when you start to see them, you can’t stop photographing them. It’s very addicting!

Astronaut Shoots Spacewalk Selfies with a Nikon D5

This past weekend, NASA astronaut and physiologist Jessica Meir one-upped everybody else's #SelfieSunday posts when she uploaded two spacewalk selfies taken outside the International Space Station (ISS) with a special Nikon D5.

A Simple Editing Tip for Creating More Dramatic Landscape Photos

Landscape photographer and YouTuber Mark Denney recently shared what might be his most controversial photo editing tip yet. In a video titled "The Simple Secret of Creating Dramatic Landscape Photos" he argues that a Vignette—yes, a Vignette—is one of the single most effective ways to improve your landscape photographs.

Fashion Meets Fantasy in the Stunning Photography of Bella Kotak

The latest installment of SmugMug Films brings up behind the scenes with fine art fashion photographer Bella Kotak, whose stunning imagery toes the line between fashion and fantasy, creating a look that's immediately recognizable and nearly always awe-inspiring.

Street Photography: Risk and Reward

Today I'm going to talk about the correlation between lackluster street photography and avoiding taking risks when out shooting people in public. Before I do, however, I thought it would be helpful to first offer my own definition of street photography. If it does not align with your ideas on what street photography is, well that's perfectly fine. To each his or her own, right?

Photographing the Contestants of Survivor 40 on a Deserted Island in Fiji

During my tenure working as a Senior Photo Director and a still’s photographer at CBS, no other show has captivated my interest like the reality-based competition series Survivor. While other reality programs have come and gone, Survivor has stood the test of time and exceeded all expectations for 39 seasons.

These Before-and-After Images Reveal What Goes Into My Photo Art

As a digital artist, I create images that are optical illusions, interesting concepts, and fantasy worlds. For this, I have to have tools to achieve my visions and this is where my retouching background comes into play.

Bringing a Giant 160-Year-Old Petzval Lens Back to Life

It was a normal Saturday afternoon in November when I walked into a flea marked. I met some friends there, looked around a little bit, and in the end I bought this Gasc and Charconnet 500mm Petzval lens in the hopes that I could bring it back to life.

Pro Tip: Stop Buying Camera Gear to Improve Your Landscape Photos

Despite many (many) articles and advice videos and IG posts on the subject, many beginners still believe that the best thing they can do for their landscape photography is buy a better camera or lens. So here's another reminder from photographer Mark Denney about why this is not the case.

Three Posing Tips that Will Improve Your Portrait Photography

Posing is one of the most difficult "arts within an art" to master when it comes to photography, but this short video from Eli Infante might help. Eli shares three tips that you can use to liven up your posing and improve your portrait photography in the process.

A Bell Isn’t a Bell Until It Rings

The scene through the viewfinder was one of pastoral beauty: a thatched and jettied cottage, with colorful Gertrude Jekyll borders full of Lupins.

How I Succeeded at Doing a 365 Photo Project

Three years ago, I attempted a 365 Project. About 90 days in, I had to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to make it to 365 days, so I turned it into a 100 Day Project. I know that a 365 Project sounds pretty simple -- take and post one photograph each day. My standards for the images I post on my social media are very high, but in the end, I had to accept the reality that I wasn’t going to strike gold each day. I really did try though.

How I Use My GoPro Cameras for Landscape and Travel Photography

As a landscape and travel photographer with more than a decade of experience, I always found myself carrying a ton of gear. With huge wide-angle and telephoto lenses, multiple DSLR camera bodies, heavy-duty tripods, and occasionally drones in my backpack, my mobility while trekking to locations was often limited. However, things changed dramatically in 2016 when I started working at GoPro and discovered its amazing cameras.

Twenty Meters of Rocks: Revisiting the Same Spot Multiple Times

Tyrifjorden is one of Norway’s largest lakes. Along its shores, I have found a spot that I have visited frequently over the past few years. It has become my favorite location for sunrises, especially during winter when the sun rises right in front of me.

Why Artists are Never Happy: A Candid Message for Creatives

Whether you're a photographer, a filmmaker, a YouTuber, or a painter, this latest video by Kaiwan Shaban will probably hit home on some level. It's an honest, candid message for artists of all stripes who struggle with the fact that they are never quite satisfied with the work they are creating.

In Our Time: A Year of Shooting Exactly One Film Photo Per Day

At the end of every year, I get to see, for the first time, all the things I’ve already seen. New Year’s Eve is my final film pickup day for One Second, an ongoing project in which I, an otherwise sane, rational, working modern photographer, make one photograph, and only one photograph, on film, every day, with no do-overs and no second chances.

The 10 Most Popular PetaPixel Posts of the Decade

On May 14th, 2009 a little blog called PetaPixel made its debut. More than 10 years and nearly 27,000 published posts later (26,886 to be exact), as we wrap up our first full decade in existence, it seemed appropriate to look back at the ten most popular articles of the decade.

Shooting Creative Holiday Portraits at Night with a Single Flash

Photographer and YouTuber Irene Rudnik was recently scrolling through Instagram when she stumbled across some beautiful blue-hour snow portraits by photographer @kateblc. Like any good artist, she decided to run with that inspiration, and in the video above, she takes us along behind the scenes to see how she captured a beautiful holiday-themed nighttime portrait using only a single flash.

Dear Introverted Photographer: Top Tips from Two Successful Introverts

Can an introvert "make it" as a professional photographer? According to self-proclaimed introverts and successful shooters Manny Ortiz and Taylor Jackson, the answer is a resounding "yes," and in this video they explain how they each overcame the challenges of being an introvert in a highly interactive industry.

15 Inspiring Landscape Photographers

There is a plethora of very talented landscape photographers out in the field these days, both hobbyists and professionals alike. The following is a collection of some of them, and may you enjoy their talent, craftsmanship, and dedication to the genre.

Looking vs. Seeing as a Photographer

I’d like to share some thoughts here on being a musician before I get to the difference between seeing and looking as a photographer. Please bear with me. This will all make good sense.

Why Shoot Documentary Photography on Film?

Shooting a long term project, whether personal or professional, is a wonderful way to explore areas of photography you might not have previously considered. I know of photographers who have experimented with different types of filters, post-processing techniques, actual shooting methods (long exposure, panning, unfamiliar/conventional focal lengths), and so on, as their projects evolve.

Four Modern and Creative Christmas Portrait Ideas in Two Minutes

Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co is back with a great holiday portrait tutorial that won't waste your time. In just two minutes (actually less) Hedayet covers four creative Christmas portrait ideas for anyone who wants to create some photos with a "commercial and catalog feel" this holiday season.

Intimate Portraits of New Mothers Capture the Beauty of Postpartum Bodies

When Alberta based photographer Meagan Elemans became a mother, she had no idea the toll that postpartum would take on her both her body and her emotions. But rather than bury these feelings and stay silent, she chose to use her skills behind the camera to capture this beautiful and difficult time in a new mother's journey.

5 Creative Portraits in a Crappy Parking Lot

You don’t always get perfect locations or circumstances on every shoot, so in this video, we wanted to show you how to achieve 5 creative and unique portraits in a small parking lot.