Inspiration

It is the hottest time of the day during the hottest month of the year in Montana, but two hundred feet above me a pair of nighthawks sense a change. They dive and twist with a grace somewhere between fighter pilot and falling leaf, air buzzing through their wingtips, raspy calls beckoning night, commanding the sun to set. The single, sand-rock knob that I sit on here in the prairie while I watch their aerial display will hold the heat I feel through my jeans well into darkness.

Often it is the backstory and the small stories behind a set of pictures that brings it all together. I posted the above picture back in 2011, photographed on film and included in a set of photos from an abandoned dye-works in Somerset, UK.

After seeing photographer Skyler Burt's experiments with lighting food photos using a cheap work light, photographer Jessica Kobeissi recently purchased that same $20 light from Home Depot for an experimental portrait shoot.

I do a lot of automotive lifestyle personal projects that I use for self-promotion and am constantly on the hunt for new ideas. A friend of mine recently turned me on to Turo, an app for peer-to-peer car rentals. In the past, you had to hire a picture vehicle company to get vintage cars for shoots, and those can be really pricey and are severely limited in terms of how far you can drive the car.

Photographer Eric Floberg made this 5-minute video tutorial on the subject of composing portraits.

The IPPAWARDS, or iPhone Photography Awards, has been celebrating the joy of iPhone photography since 2007, and it just released the winners of its 2018 photo contest celebrating the best iPhone photos of the year. The grand prize winner this year is Jashim Salam of Bangladesh, who shot the above photo with an iPhone 7.

Maybe you’re a beginner, just got your first camera, and you’re trying to learn to navigate the world of photography. Or you’ve been photographing for a while, but you’re looking for something different, something new. How do you decide the best direction for your photography? How do you find that photographic genre that really clicks with you, that makes you want to keep venturing out of the house, keep improving?

When most people think of the word Zen, a meditating monk in a monastery comes to mind, a practice of enlightenment, a person being in the present or someone without attachments. When I think of Zen, I think of a lifestyle that has profoundly influenced my photography practice. I would like to dive into the ways of zen photography and how it might enlighten your creative practice.

I removed the Canon C300 from its waterproof bag and attached the 24-105mm f/4.0 lens while swatting away the relentless mosquitoes. Bringing the viewfinder loupe up to my eye, my left hand flicked the power switch on, now a reflex action after shooting with this camera every day for the last three weeks. Nothing happened. Weird, I was certain I'd put in a fully charged battery.

I have been a commercial and wedding photographer for over 13 years. And from the beginning, I have been using Canon DSLR cameras and a variety of auto-focus lenses for the Canon EF system.

London-based filmmaker Frederic van Strydonck made this creative short film titled Spltch, which teleports the viewer to different locations through taking dips below the water's surface. Everything was shot with an unprotected iPhone X.

Here's a 7-minute video by Adobe Create about the life and work of Atlanta hip-hop photographer Zach Wolfe. (Warning: the video contains strong language and mature themes).

Big Red is a new 4-minute feature about Steven Glynn, a "a quirky photographer with an old-school style." Glynn shoots tintype photos.

I’ve been thinking about photography and personal style and the different ways to teach it. I’m trying to help, share and guide people along their way in finding their unique photographic style. Seeing if I can find that quick fix, that beaten path someone else has already made for us. Sadly over the many years of reflection and research, I’ve found that there is no blue pill.

For some time now I’ve wanted to do a project which follows the light over this period. The longest day. The shortest night. To sit in one spot and photograph a simple composition of sea and sky as the light changed.

Iceland is booming. More than 2 million tourists visit Iceland every year. This comes as no surprise. As I am regularly guiding tours in Iceland, I have visited the country quite a few times over the years and the beauty of the country is simply out of this world. The moment you step out of Reykjavik is the moment you enter some a fantasy movie with beautiful scenery on every corner.

Photographer Anya Anti recently did a space-inspired photo shoot and created this 7.5-minute behind-the-scenes and time-lapse view of how she styled, set up, shot, and retouched the portrait.

I just returned from a 5-week photography trip. I had a few weeks off work between contracts and figured why not hit the road instead of paying insane rent in the SF Bay area! It was still a great idea in hindsight. However, it wasn’t all bliss and glory all-day-every-day.

For about a year and a half, every time I opened my fridge I saw my last remaining 10 exposure pack of Fuji FP 100C instant film, and every time I opened said fridge I was reluctant to take it out and shoot it. I did not want to waste my last remaining packfilm but I knew I shouldn’t wait too long, because eventually the chemistry inside the film would dry. And since the film expired in late 2007, I was running out of time.

If you think you may have a passion for photography, try "developing" that passion instead of "finding" it. The shift in mindset could help keep you from giving up when the going gets tough.

We've all heard of some of the world's greatest and most spectacular places. Places like Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon, and Machu Picchu. Many of us dream of going to far away places such as Iceland, Santorini, Dubai, The Maldives, but for many of us, it is just that -- a dream! Something we have to save long and hard for. Something we are lucky to do just once a year.

B&H held its Optic 2018 conference and trade show for outdoor and travel photography earlier this month, and now you can watch 20 of the talks given by top photographers over the course of the four days.

I picked up a camera in 2008, and I laid my mother to rest in 2010. Guess what I never got around to? That’s right: I never created a real portrait of her before we said goodbye.

Apple just launched a new ad campaign called "Behind the Mac," featuring stories of how people are using the company's gadgets and technology in special ways. One of the creatives featured is photographer Bruce Hall, who's legally blind. You can watch his feature in this 1-minute ad.

Cape Town is the most dangerous city in South Africa and one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Freelance photojournalist Leon Knipe follows the police to crime scenes and works to document as many murders as he can. The 5-minute video above by Shaun Swingler is about Knipe's life and work (warning: it contains graphic photos of horrific crime scenes).

The horrific conflicts and wars of the past have shaped the world we know today. Each era has been documented by generations of photographers, with specific color tones or grain patterns evoking these periods in our minds. The culture surrounding military life has always been highly visual and has been captured in photojournalism, fine art, as well as propaganda.

A year ago, I rode my bicycle from Banff to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies to prove that my lack of a car would not hold me back from pursuing my passion for landscape photography. This year, I took a gap semester and went and did it again, cycling 1,500 miles down the American West Coast, from Seattle to Los Angeles, to photograph the coastal landscapes.

These days I spend most of my time living and traveling between Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, and Finland, exploring and researching the global analog photography scene as best I can. I do this for my own personal endeavors such as my store, Cameraville.co, as well as my continuing journey with Camerarescue.org (formerly Cameraventures), headed by Juho Leppänen, which I will get into a bit later.