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.
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?
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.
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.
Instagram star Jordi Koalitic made this rapid-fire 12-minute video showing 100 of his creative photos and behind-the-scenes looks at how they were made.
Photographer Joshua Cripps recently captured something really cool. Finding himself in the UAE leading up to an annular solar eclipse, he decided to try and shoot a dynamic portrait in the middle of the 'ring of fire' effect created by this kind of eclipse.
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.
Artist duo Aleia Murawski and Sam Copeland have created an incredibly charming and impressive series of images and videos that feature snails living a very active, very human life in an intricate miniature world of their very own.
We've seen tons of "expensive camera vs cheap camera" challenges and "pro photographer cheap camera challenges," but what happens when a newbie and a pro swap gear and go head-to-head? That's what YouTuber Henbu wanted to find out.
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.
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.
It's often said that the best camera is the one you have with you. A young Indian photographer is impressing the Web with his beautiful macro photos of insects, and all of his work is shot using a smartphone.
The Underwater Photography Guide has announced the winners of their 8th annual Ocean Art Underwater Photography Competition: a selection that runs the gamut between beautiful, eye popping and, in the case of the Conservation category winner, tragic and unnerving.
The scene through the viewfinder was one of pastoral beauty: a thatched and jettied cottage, with colorful Gertrude Jekyll borders full of Lupins.
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.
Lake Superior features one of the harshest winter climates found in the United States. Despite temperatures as low as -32°F at times, photographer Bugsy Sailor visited the shoreline every day in 2019 to shoot the sunrise for his project Year of the Sunrise.
In this article, I'll share with you the lessons I have gained leading photography tours in Romania with Intrepid Exposures. These are lessons I feel we can all learn from in order to create more powerful 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.
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.
Photographer Dustin Dolby is back with another workflo tutorial that tackles a particularly tricky type of product photography: glassware. Specifically, he uses just two lights to create a "moody," backlit glassware shot that would be at home in any glossy magazine.
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.
Let’s face it — in-office corporate headshots will not be your most exciting project as a photographer. In fact, in many ways, they’re a photographer’s worst nightmare.
Let's be honest, we all saw this coming. Given the meteoric success of the Disney+ show The Mandalorian and the universal appeal of "Baby Yoda," it was only a matter of time before a photographer decided to pay tribute. Light painter Russell Klimas did just that.
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.
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.
It’s called Bertha, and it will be the protagonist of the largest slide ever made. A gigantic camera born out of a desire to find out what photography can reveal when it's pushed beyond certain limits.
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.
Denmark-based landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen recently put together a tips video for landscape photographers that has nothing to do with technique and everything to do perspective. It's called: 5 Important Reasons to do Local Landscape Photography.
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.
Photographer and Lego enthusiast Ethan Brossard has created an incredibly accurate Lego version of the classic Nikon F3 SLR that just downright awesome. Made up of 549 pieces, the Lego F3 is exceptionally detailed, and you can help turn it into an official Lego product by supporting the project on the Lego Ideas website.