Inspiration

Vortex: A Dizzying Short Shot with an iPhone and Cinema Robot Gimbal

If you easily get motion sickness, you may want to stay away from this short film. Visual storyteller Tim Sessler recently spent 48 hours shooting in New York City with an iPhone 8 and the new Freefly Movi cinematic robotic gimbal. What resulted is Vortex, this 1.5-minute short film in which the world continually turns.

I Shot Tilt-Shift Photos of San Francisco

My name is James D. Lee, and I'm a photographer based in Oakland. I recently got around to posting four years worth of selected photos shot in and around the San Francisco Bay area strictly on tilt-shift lenses. I completed this project while working full-time marketing/photography positions.

The Top 15 Photos on Flickr in 2017

As 2017 comes to a close, Flickr has been doing some data crunching on the billions of photos uploaded during the year by photographers around the world. Today the photo-sharing service revealed the most popular pictures of the year.

I Shot 7 Photos of the Same Location in Different Seasons

Throughout the years, I noticed that I visit the same locations around my house many times to see how they look during different seasons and different times of the day. Sometimes the area where you live may not motivate you very much to photograph because you see the same things every day. However, when I started photography, I began to see the world (and my home area) in a different way.

I Took These Photos in My Dining Room

Product photography is something that I've always been interested in, but never saw myself making a career out of. However... when I do get to take product photos, I do enjoy it quite a lot.

This Photographer Climbed 300-Foot Radio Masts to Capture Africa

Kenyan photographer Mutua Matheka wants to capture a better side of Africa, showing another perspective of the continent that's rarely seen online. To do this, he's climbing to heights that he says no other photographer has done in Africa. Here's a 3-minute feature of Matheka and his work by Great Big Story.

Tombo’s Wound: Portraits of a Sierra Leone Village Without Clean Water

Unity over adversity. It’s a running theme in the story of Tombohuaun, translation “Tombo’s Wound,” a remote village tucked into the jungle of Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province. The community’s founding legend states that a villager named Tombo cut his foot on a catfish in the river, and the then chief ordered the fish to be caught and killed. Back then, as now, the community came together to put things right: they caught the fish, ate it, and went on to name the town after this symbolic triumph.

To Create Great Photos, Be Willing To Waste Your Time

Detaching ourselves from the amount of work we've spent on something, and the end result, is a critical part of the creative creation process. Nobody cares how hard it was to create something unless it shows in a material way.

Shooting Portraits with Christmas Lights in an Ordinary Bedroom

With the holiday season just around the corner, photographer Irene Rudnyk decided to do a portrait photo shoot using Christmas lights hung from the ceiling next to a bedroom window. This 4-minute behind-the-scenes video shows her results and glimpses at how she set each shot up.

Creating Beautiful Multiple Exposure Wedding Photos

The multiple exposure is one of the easiest, fastest and most flexible ways to create striking images. It is usually my go-to technique when I am struggling with creativity and I need a good shot fast or when the venue is less than ideal for creating amazing images.

The Art vs. The Craft of Photography

As creatives, we all go through a very similar journey when it comes to improving our skill. Though details of the turbulent ride vary for everyone, it always boils down to two things; the how, and the why.

How One Photographer’s Camera Saved Him from Loneliness

Photographer Ryan Pfluger says he uses photography "as a means for therapy and connection." In this 12-minute talk he recently gave at TEDxPasadena, Pfluger shares an inspirational insight into how photography has played a major part in bettering his life.

The Significance of a Personal Project

My daily stroll through the newly-built but already-decaying park near my apartment in Hanoi while listening to Spotify on a brisk (by Southeast Asia standards) morning has me in deep thought. We only get this type of weather for a couple months a year here and I absolutely love it.

Ugly Places, Pretty Portraits: I Did a Photo Shoot in Lowe’s

A few weeks ago, a model friend of mine, Rachelle Kathleen, and I were planning to meet for a fun little photo shoot. Instead of searching out the usual beautiful locations around where we live, I had the idea to do just the opposite. I wanted to go somewhere “ugly” by all conventional photography standards and then see what we could do with it. Lowe’s seemed like the perfect option.

This Layer-Lapse of NYC Combines Different Times of Day in Each Frame

Back in 2014, time-lapse photographer Julian Tryba released a "layer-lapse" of Boston that showed different times of day in different parts of each frame. That video went viral and received over a million views. Now Tryba is back with another layer-lapse, this time of New York City in the 3-minute short film above.

Photo Shoot Raises Awareness of Toxic Laundry Water

Benjamin Von Wong, a viral photographer turned environmentalist, has released a new project to raise awareness about "toxic laundry" that is full of plastic. An estimated 94% of American tap water contains invisible plastic fibers, and Von Wong felt compelled to do something about it.

How Ultra High Speed Cameras Shoot Up to 25,000,000 FPS

Tracking and panning a camera in time with a tank shell seems impossible given that the shell travels at over 1,500 meters per second. Yet, somehow, there are videos showing just that floating around the Internet. Here's a 7-minute video from Curious Droid that lifts the veil of mystery on ultra high-speed cameras and explains how they work.

This Timelapse Was Made by Flying a Drone in Giant Circles

Need a dose of inspiration for your aerial drone imagery? This 3-minute film of drone footage from Hong Kong-based production company Visual Suspect will provide it. It was shot by fixing the drone's camera on a landmark while the drone flies around it in giant orbits, and the result is mesmerizing.

This Photographer Hiked 14 Hours for Epic Wedding Photos at Trolltunga

Trolltunga, or "Troll Tongue," is a famous rock formation in Norway that's used often for breathtaking photos. Photographer Priscila Valentina was recently asked by a couple to shoot wedding photos at the cliff. After the ridiculous challenge of hauling her photo gear to the spot, Valentina managed to capture a series of epic wedding photos of a lifetime.

Nighttime Photos of Tokyo Under the Glow of Neon Lights

German-French graphic designer Matthieu Bühler has been shooting gorgeous nighttime photos of Tokyo, Japan, focusing his attention on the illumination created by all the different neon lights found across the city. His series is titled "Neon Dreams."

Creating a Surreal Photo of a Man on a Ladder Crossing Water and Sky

Erik Johansson is a Swedish photographer who creates surreal scenes with his camera and Photoshop. His latest work is titled All Above the Sky. It shows a man climbing a ladder and poking his head above the sky, only to find himself looking up out of the waters nearby. Above is a 1-minute behind-the-scenes video that shows how it was created.

How I Accidentally Became a Marriage Proposal Photographer

Being at the right place at the right time sometimes results in the unexpected. That’s exactly what happened to me on November 7th, 2017, when my wife and I were waiting to photograph the sunset at Lookout Mountains’ Sunset Rock while returning home from a West Virginia photo adventure.

How to Shoot Double Exposure Concert Photography

I recently shot a series of double exposure photos of the band I Don’t Know How But They Found Me at The Knitting Factory, and they've received a great response. So, I thought it would be worth explaining how I took them!

Pete Souza Looks Back on 1.9 Million Photos of Obama

NPR's Fresh Air just aired this fantastic 30-minute interview (here's a transcript) with Pete Souza, the Chief Official White House Photographer for U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. In it, Souza reflects on 8 years of capturing Obama's presidency, creating an archive of over 1.9 million photos during that time.

Photographer Recreates the Iconic Photo ‘Dali Atomicus’

The 1948 photo 'Dali Atomicus' by American portrait photographer Philippe Halsman is regarded as one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century. It's a surreal image showing surrealist artist Salvador Dalí in midair with three cats, a bucket of thrown water, and a chair. Photographer Karl Taylor recently decided to try his hand at recreating the photo.

I Photographed the ISS Crossing the Full Moon at 17,500mph

This image was taken on November 4th, 2017 at 4:19 am in Titusville, Florida. It shows the International Space Station (with a crew of six currently onboard) transiting the full “Beaver Moon.” As the ISS orbits Earth at 17,500mph, or roughly five miles per second, the transit lasted just 0.90 seconds.

Shooting Blade Runner-Inspired Portraits Using Color Gels

Almost a year ago I purchased a set of color gels on Amazon but never got around to actually trying them out. Recently, after watching Blade Runner 2049 and being smitten by the gorgeous cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins, I just had to play with them. Not only that, the original Blade Runner, shot by Jordan Cronenweth, is one of my biggest influences ever so this shoot was bound to happen.

Photos of People Matching Paintings in Museums

Photographer Stefan Draschan visited museums across Europe and spent hours looking for curious coincidences in which other visitors matched the paintings they were looking at. The series is titled People Matching Artworks.

Out West: A Visual Narrative of China’s Westernmost Region

Borrowing from romanticized notions of the American frontier, synonymous with ideals of exploration and expansion, I captured a visual narrative of China’s westernmost region, Xinjiang. Whereas the American West conjures images of cowboys and pioneers, of manifest destiny and individualistic freedom, the Chinese West has not yet been so defined.

The Story Behind That Iconic Portrait of Steve Jobs

Photographer Albert Watson is the man behind the iconic photo of Steve Jobs that is seen all over the Internet and on the cover of the Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson. In this 2-minute video from Profoto, Watson shares a delightful peek into the shoot itself.

Great Photos Don’t Need to Be Technically Perfect

Do photos always need to be technically perfect? In this 10-minute video, landscape photographer Thomas Heaton discusses whether photographers worry too much about the technicalities of a photo, forgetting about what's actually in the image.

A Duty of Care: Using Photography to Battle Anxiety and Depression

Meet Jim Mortram, a photographer with a past that involved battling anxiety and depression. Now he uses photography to interact with his community and draw attention to those who are "struggling to get by." In this 3-minute video by Wex Photo Video, find out what Mortram thinks about the power of photography.