For my recent trip to China, as I’ve done before, I planned and I planned… and I planned. I made detailed maps, took notes on locations and hints as to the best vantage points. I scoured everything to ensure that my time there was incredibly well-invested in capturing the best images I could manage within the time I had. And frankly, I feel that this was a great practice, for me.
I recently shot a wedding with just one lens, a Rokinon 35mm t/1.5 on a Sony a7S II body. This was completely unplanned and wasn’t done to prove any point.
One way to stretch yourself as a photographer is to shoot outside your comfort zone, and the Opposite Photography Challenge is one way to do so. In this 7-minute video, photographer Irene Rudnyk shows how she carried out the challenge with a recent portrait shoot.
Over the past several years, director Phil Holland has been specializing in high-res, large-format aerial cinematography. This gorgeous video titled "Above NYC" is a flyover of The Big Apple shot in 12K using a special rig comprising 3 RED Weapon Monstro 8K VV cameras.
For his project "Below the Breaking Wave," UK photographer Matt Porteous of Studio_M visited The Maldives in the Indian ocean and shot underwater photos directly beneath powerful breaking waves. The results are stunning.
Every year since 2010, photographer Clint Davis has put together a creative promotional mailer to send out to current and prospective clients. This year he got playful and created a custom LEGO kit promo mailer.
Sometimes the strangest or most mundane locations can make for compelling portrait environments. Mango Street made this short and sweet video in which it presents 9 portrait location suggestions in just 90 seconds.
Wedding photographer Taylor Jackson made this inspiring 23-minute video showing how he shot a wedding day from start to finish, as seen from his point of view.
Renowned sports photographer Neil Leifer has captured some of the most recognizable photos in the history of sports, particularly of Muhammad Ali, one of his long-term subjects. Here's a fantastic 17-minute video by The Art of Photography in which Leifer talks about his life, the stories behind his iconic photos, and his experience in the ever-evolving photo industry.
Like most good stories, this one is made of blood, sweat, and tears. Well, maybe just blood and sweat. And clicks -- lots of them. Blood, sweat, and clicks... If you have a fear of blood or find mosquitos disgusting, read on at your own risk.
We recently gave photographer Nate Luebbe a challenge to test his creativity under pressure: he was tasked with shooting 7 creative travel photos that capture the spirit of Norway within 24 hours using a compact camera. The 8-minute video above shows how he fared.
Photographer and Formula 1 fan Tim Binnion recently attended the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. In addition to shooting the race with his Nikon DSLR, Binnion also decided to document it with a 0.016-megapixel Game Boy Camera from 1998... and the results are pretty awesome.
Photographers can easily become distracted by the pursuit of things like popularity and success, but one thing that many photographers find beneficial is going out and creating photos just for themselves rather than for others. Here's a 5-minute spoken word performance titled "You Must Create" that encourages photographers to do just that.
Kai Wong recently got together with street photographers Joshua K Jackson and Craig Whitehead (a.k.a. SixStreetUnder) to make this helpful 10.5-minute tips video containing 10 nuggets of wisdom for upping your street photography game.
If you enjoy watching timelapse videos but aren't familiar with the ingredients that go into making one, check out this 3-minute video by Guardian Australia. In it, professional timelapse photographer Matthew Vandeputte talks about the process as well as his passion.
Want to be inspired by a legend of wildlife photography? Check out this new 12-minute 60 Minutes segment on the life and work of Tom Mangelsen, a 72-year-old photographer who's behind some of the most recognizable wildlife photos ever made.
Late last year, photographer Irene Rudnyk reached out to a model and makeup artist for a photo concept she had in mind that featured a woman illuminated by a lantern at blue hour. Rudnyk shares in the 7-minute video above how, after putting in considerable time and effort into putting the shoot together, she failed at the actual shoot.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most memorable, satisfying and career-changing days as a professional extreme-weather photographer.
As a travel and landscape photographer, being on the road for a lot of time is nice, but I always try to be home during the tulip season. This isn’t always easy as the exact timing of the blooming is always quite random.
Growth. Real, personal, soul-fulfilling, butterflies in the belly-inducing growth. That’s the key to my happiness; my personal metric for success. It doesn’t matter what I achieve or how much of it I attained. I define myself as successful simply in the process of progress.
Here's a new 13-minute mini-documentary by photographer Jamey Price that shows what it's like to work as a motorsport photographer during a grueling 24-hour-long endurance race.
How does a 140-year-old lens perform on a modern $15,000 cinema camera? Photographer and filmmaker Mathieu Stern wanted to find out, so he paired his ancient (by photography standards) lens with a 5K RED camera to see what would result.
I fell in love with Japan. Deeply. The culture, the clean streets, the friendly and respectful people and the full spectrum of experience that it offers. From high rise cities to quaint, beautiful gardens and temples. All within walking distance of each other.
If you think that buying a better camera or lens will instantly make you a better photographer, consider this: it's likely that the camera you already have is better than what legendary photographers used to shoot history's most famous and beloved photos. That's the nugget of inspiration and encouragement that photographer Ted Forbes of The Art of Photography discusses in this 10-minute video.
Mitchel Wu is a professional toy photographer. He combines toys, photography skills, practical effects, and imagination to create "alternative universes" in which toy characters come to life.
The prestigious Sony World Photography Awards has announced its overall winners for the 2018 competition. The Photographer of the Year award was won by British photographer Alys Tomlinson for her series Ex-Voto.
Check out this surreal 4-minute short film titled Club Palace. It may look computer-generated, but everything you see was captured on camera using miniature sets, careful lighting, practical effects, and precise camera moves.
Last year, during my last months in Melbourne, I got a text from one of my closest and oldest friends from Italy. “We need to talk, I have some important news for you. Skype?” Minutes later, we were online.
Defining your style is one of the, if not the, most difficult and time-consuming aspects of photography. It takes many people years or even decades of shooting before they really start to narrow down their photographic style.
Want to see some impressive camera drone piloting? Check out this 1.5-minute video featuring the Japanese group Onnanocos. It was shot in one single, continuous take using a tiny drone that can squeeze through tight gaps.
At the WPPI wedding and portrait photography conference and expo this year, photographer Trevor Dayley taught this 1-hour class titled "17 Fast, Easy, Awesome Lighting Recipes." Dayley shares 17 lighting ideas you can keep in mind on any portrait shoot using a memorization story.
Portrait photographers Manny Ortiz and Jessica Kobeissi just did a shootout that pitted flash against natural light. The two each shot portraits of the same model in a studio, except Ortiz used an off-camera flash as his main light while Kobeissi only used the sunlight bouncing around in the space.
National Geographic contributing photographer Laurent Ballesta was diving in the waters of French Polynesia when he finally saw a sight that he had been working for the last four years to capture: a shark feeding frenzy in the midst of breeding groupers.
If you want to see an example of passion and talent rolled up into one photographer, look no further than landscape photographer Christopher Burkett. PBS NewsHour just aired this wonderful 8-minute segment on Burkett's life and work.
Photographer Luc Kordas first moved from Europe to New York City in 2014 after living in six different countries in six different years. Since then, he has made his living as a photographer while doing street photography for himself. And one of the recurring subjects he has captured is the idea of loneliness in a big city.
"Crowded Fields" is a new eye-popping photo project by photographer Pelle Cass, who used Photoshop to combine hours of sporting events and hundrds of athletes into single composite photos.
Ever taken professional camera equipment on vacation and left with too many memories of setting up tripods or staring at screens? Well, I have. I've also traveled and taken no pictures at all - only to regret that as well.
Venezuelan photographer Ronald Schemidt has just been awarded the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year prize in 2018 for his striking photo of a Venezuelan man on fire during violent clashes with riot police.
Achmad Zulkarnain is a professional photographer in Indonesia who has been gaining international recognition for creating his images without hands or legs. This 3-minute video by Great Big Story is the latest look at Zulkarnain's life and work.
Just as vinyl records have made a comeback as of late, film photography has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Film is Still Alive is a 10-minute miniature documentary that explores why film photographers these days are still in love with their medium despite the camera industry moving to digital.
Here's a light-painting photo shoot that Star Wars fans may appreciate: photographer Dominic Chiu visited the world's largest salt flat and shot a series of photos showing a lightsaber duel under the reflected starry night sky.
"Sun Moon London" is a beautiful 3-minute short film by photographer and filmmaker Luke Miller, who captured scenes of the sun and moon illuminating the city of London through a 2520mm-equivalent lens.
She came in for her senior session. Her hair was a mess of tangled waves, unruly and uncooperative. Her face was covered with freckles and dotted with acne. She wasn’t model proportions and the clothing she wore required careful adjustment to keep it from bunching up in places.
I've been seeing lots of cherry blossom photos from many friends who are visiting Japan or Korea for their beautiful and famous cherry blossoms. I’m sitting here at home in the Netherlands for a change and figured I’d show how I don’t need to travel halfway across the globe to get these shots.
Did you know that the worse you are at photography, the more likely it is that you think you're great at it? It's a cognitive bias in psychology called the Dunning–Kruger effect. Here's an inspiring 9-minute video by photographer Jamie Windsor on how you can avoid falling into this common mental trap and actually become a better photographer.
Need some posing inspiration for an upcoming wedding or engagement portrait shoot? Photographers Sara Byrne and Phil Chester made this 2-minute video that shows some of the trendiest poses being used these days.
As a spiritual symbol of Japan, Mt. Fuji is one of only three sacred mountains of the country and its tallest at 3,776 meters. Its designation as a UNESCO world heritage site further exemplifies its importance to not only the people of Japan but to the world as well.
This year, the wet plate supply brand Modern Collodion ran its first annual Wet Plate Competition. The 2018 contest received over 200 submissions from 75 wet plate photographers based in 19 countries. The grand prize winner is the photo above, titled "Aristolochia Pods," by Paul Barden.
My name is Pep Williams, and I'm a photographer from Los Angeles. I recently shot a project with the help of Leica called "Out of Bounds." I'm one of the few photographers allowed to shoot inside a California state prison.
How do you photographically represent a war that takes place entirely in software? Is it even possible? Taking place across the world at this very moment is a non-stop, low-intensity cyber war complete with reconnaissance, probing attacks, feints and defensive operations the details and extent of which can only be guessed at.
