Inspiration

In 1984, during the height of the Soviet-Afghan war, American photojournalist Steve McCurry took what is considered by many to be the most famous photo in the world. The photo, entitled Afghan Girl, depicts a then-12-year-old girl, identified in 2002 as Sharbat Gula, while she and her family were living in Nasir Bagh, an Afghan refugee camp in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

As someone who earns a living from digital media and keeping plugged into the photographic and videographic industries, it’s only natural that I spend a lot of time cruising around on the information superhighway and frequently interacting with people all over the world on the subject of cameras and the field writ large.

When I was a freshman in high school, I signed up for a film photography class thinking it would be a good excuse to spend a good part of the school week and some homework time getting to goof around with a camera.

When I was in college at the University of Minnesota, one of my senior-year classes at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication involved putting together a website using Wix, to hopefully allow us to showcase some of the things we had worked on during our academic careers and set us up for a (hopefully) easier time finding work afterward.

Back in the day, 35mm film was called “miniature” format; its itty bitty negatives were considered only good for snapshots and maybe street photography (sorry, Leica shooter Henri Cartier-Bresson). Serious photography—landscape, portraiture, documentary, commercial—was dominated by medium format film, a platform that produced images with fine detail and luscious tonality, even when blown up to make billboard-size prints.

When Machi Yoshida visited an aquarium and saw orcas when she was a five-year-old child, the Japanese photographer instantly knew what she wanted to do with her life.

I don’t know about you, but even though I’ve been photographing for almost fifteen years now, sometimes I feel stuck when deciding which editing direction to take with some of my images.

The Mobile Photography Awards (MPA) announced the winners of its 13th annual competition Wednesday, giving out thousands of dollars in cash prizes.

My Exmouth eclipse expedition could be a case study on the 'sunk cost fallacy' or proof that even blind persistence can pay off. Either way, it is a saga.

Dune: Part II was recently released in theaters, garnering positive reviews from movie-goers and reviewers alike. Over at Kolari, we were hyped to see infrared photography used in one of its most visually stunning movie sequences in recent memory.

Twenty years ago, I was just starting to make some headway as a film-shooting stock photographer. It was a fun time, but the digital age soon dawned. I shot JPEGs on maybe my first day out with a digital camera, and then I was onto RAW.

At a recent electronic music performance, the English duo Rob Brown and Sean Booth, who perform as Autechre, plunged Sydney’s City Recital Hall into darkness.

The early days of photography were built on monochromatic imagery. Many of the greats who created what we now know as the art of photography worked primarily with black-and-white film.

In my dream I’m standing on the rim of a deep, verdant canyon. Far below, a river glinting crimson and gold in the setting sun snakes toward jagged mountains dusted with snow. My camera’s viewfinder perfectly frames this epic vista in the wilds of northern New Mexico.

A fascinating short documentary about a photographer who shoots the Golden Gate Bridge every single day has been published by The San Francisco Standard.

German photographer Sandra Bartocha has been making fantastic and ethereal nature photography for many years and is among the most creative landscape photographers working today. PetaPixel chatted with Bartocha about her interesting techniques, artistic vision, and the importance of authenticity in photography.

Breaking a pattern can work to bring attention to that pattern. You may not notice how quiet it is until some subtle noise disrupts that silence, reminding you of the context it is punctuating.

The Environmental Photographer of the Year 2023 (EPOTY) photo contest winners have been announced, including a pair of grand titles and four additional category winners.

Over the last month, communities around the world have felt passionate responses to the developing conflict in Israel, Gaza, and surrounding areas. As simple or complex as one might find the hostilities in the abstract the ripples of geopolitics affect us all, sometimes very obviously, and sometimes subtly.

The Leonid meteor shower will peak this weekend with persistent lights streaking across the night sky.

NASA astronauts who accidentally dropped their toolbox during a spacewalk may have provided a unique picture challenge to photographers on Earth.

We recently visited the Salt Flats of Uyuni in southwest Bolivia for the fourth time, having previously visited in 2015, 2017, and 2018. What a big surprise! We were not expecting to see the colors that we did.

I’ve taken quite some mushroom photos over the last few years and most of them were done with my macro lens. Mushrooms are often tiny, and it’s very inviting to single them out with a beautiful soft background. I wrote a specific article about this back in 2020.

AI is all the buzz and it seems to be attaching itself to everything, everywhere, all at once. The canary in the AI coal mine? Images and writing.

Do your photos suck? Feeling discouraged by your photography lately? Not making the progress you expected? The good news is, it’s completely normal — all photographers grow at different rates and hit speed bumps along the way.