Inspiration

VICE 2015 Photo Issue Offers a Powerful Look at the World Around Us

Established in 1994, VICE Media is an agency focused on covering the arts, modern culture, and recent events of our world. This month, the media company has released their yearly photo issue (Volume #22 Issue #7) in collaboration with Magnum Photos and Magnum Foundation. Featuring a number of thrilling photo essays, VICE explores the heart of a crumbled Gaza, a world of poverty and drugs in South Africa, life after the infamous Killing Fields, and much more. Best of all, the pieces are …

Creating a Photo of a Smoldering Bouquet of Roses

Warsaw-based creative agency Ars Thanea recently created a photograph called "The Ash," which shows a bouquet of charred roses sitting amidst glowing embers. While the same photo could be created through Photoshop manipulation, the agency decided to go a more "real" route with the project.

Edge of Stability: A Time-Lapse of Severe Weather and Natural Wonders

Photographer Jeff Boyce of Negative Tilt recently took an epic photography journey across the United States, shooting 70,000 photos across 15 states with 20,000 miles of driving. He then turned those frames into "Edge of Stability," the time-lapse video above that "highlights some of the most unique, awe-inspiring, and incredibly strange sights on the planet."

POV: Street Photography on the Sidewalks of Chicago

Street photographer Keenan Hastings released this short 2-minute video that shares his point-of-view during some photos he shot in Chicago recently. We see him roaming the sidewalks of the city in search for interesting people and photos with his Fujifilm X-T1, XF 35mm lens, and a GoPro camera.

24 Hours of Le Mans in Stop-Motion, Made with 1,158 Photos

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the racing world's oldest, most famous, and most grueling races. Racing photographer Camden Thrasher covered the 2015 race last month and shot over 1,000 photos over the course of the day. Afterward, he took 1,158 of the photos he shot and turned them into this stop-motion video for Audi.

Tips for Shooting Food Photos with Simple Tools and Natural Light

With a little ingenuity, you can use everyday objects to craft a beautiful photoshoot of professional proportions. In her latest video on Vimeo, photographer Jenny Woodward showcases how to use natural light and household objects to photograph different bits of food, from cookies to a salad. Most captivating is how she utilizes each household object to manipulate the light around her subject.

13 Exercises for Photographers That Can Help Jump-Start Creativity

Like the world’s tidal waters, photographic creativity ebbs and flows for many of us. Sometimes creativity can use a jump-start, an artificial method to get the photographer to start looking at the world in a new way in order to facilitate, restart, refine, or improve your photography.

20 Years Digital: A Migrant’s Story

It occurred to me last night that 2015 marks my twentieth year as a digital photographer. I suspect that many of you geezers reading this (i.e. those of you over 40) are approaching or have already passed a similar milestone. You’ll probably agree with me that it’s been quite a roller coaster ride, one that my younger readers might not fully appreciate. So like any other two bit amusement of questionable soundness, I feel it’s my responsibility to post the following notice right up front: …

Timelapse: Restoring an Old, Ripped-Up Photo

Here's a great look at how far Photoshop can go in restoring a heavily damaged photo print. Argentinian photo restorer Hernan Folmer made the time-lapse above showing how he reconstructed an old photo last year using Photoshop CC. The video shows 2 hours of work in Photoshop CC condensed into 2 minutes.

On Shooting at f/0.95 for Wedding Photography

My name is Will Chao, and I'm a wedding photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. I’m a huge fan of large aperture lenses. I shoot every lens almost 100% of the time at the maximum aperture possible. At any given wedding, over 90% of my photos are taken with 35mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.2, and 200mm f/2.0, each at its widest aperture setting. I’m also one of the few people who use f/1.2 and f/1.4 for group shots.

How to Photograph Swirling Splashes of Liquid

Shooting splashes is always great fun, even if it’s a simple image with a coffee cup and a falling piece of refined sugar. Plus, there is always so much room for experimentation for even more fun!

5 Steps to Making a Magical Animal-Filled Forest with Photoshop

Before I get into the nitty gritty details of how this piece came together, I would just like you all to take a minute to appreciate how very talented Mackenzie Johnson is. (She is the model for this photo, and happens to be a YouTube-singer-songwriter in case you were unaware.) Not only did she do her own hair/makeup/wardrobe and model like boss, but she even actually played and sang for this photo.

No Filter: This ‘Vintage’ Photo Was Shot with a Phone and Binoculars

Kaleta Bartosz was on a boat with his girlfriend off the coast of Croatia last week when they spotted the Royal Clipper -- a five-masted cruise ship -- sailing by in the distance. Bartosz raised his binoculars, placed his smartphone camera against the eyepiece, and captured this vintage-looking photo that looks like something from the pages of an old book.

A Beautiful Look at a Greek Tradition Involving 100K Homemade Rockets

Here's a fantastic piece of visual storytelling: the New York-based production company Variable recently traveled to the small Greek island of Chios to document an annual tradition that involves Orthodox churches firing 100,000 homemade rockets at each other in a mock war. The resulting short film, embedded above, is titled "Rocket Wars."

A Look at The Striking Low-Key Black-and-White Style of Film Noir Cinema

Cinema and photography are two close-knit relatives that help us to tell stories through the use of a camera and mindful composition. This week, we are taking a look at the visual style heavily relied upon by the film noir genre that was most prevalent in the mid 20th century. Through the exploration of Hollywood's film noir visuals, we can learn a bit more about the history of cinema while finding inspiration for our own work.

An Epic Star Wars-Themed Pre-Wedding Photo Shoot

Singapore-based photographer Mezame Shashin-ka is a big fan of incorporating science fiction themes into his photography. Recently an engaged couple approached him with a special request: they wanted a Star Wars-themed pre-wedding photo shoot that would be "out of this world." Shashin-ka delivered.

How to Light-Paint a Skeleton in a Long Exposure

Light-painting photographer Darren Pearson released this 3.5-minute video tutorial on how to paint a skeleton of light into a long-exposure photograph. Pearson is known in the light-painting community for his photos of animals and figures, and for creating beautiful stop-motion animations using thousands of light-painted photos.

My Journey as a Legally Blind Pro Photographer

My photography journey started a little differently from most because I was going into it with a handicap right off the bat. It was always a thought that I may not be able to make this work, and that I'd fail miserably, and nobody wants that. From birth, I’ve had a disability that you’d think would make me the last person to get into photography: I’m legally blind.

A Photographer’s Girlfriend Leads Him One Last Time

Since 2011, photographer Murad Osmann has been shooting a hugely popular series of photos titled "Follow Me" showing his significant other leading him through scenic locations around the world, from his point of view. We featured the project back in 2013, but recently Osmann's girlfriend led him by the hand one last time in the photo above... down the aisle at their wedding.

The Passion of Two Kiwi Landscape Photographers

Cinematographer Abraham Joffe of Untitled Film Works made this 3-minute short film for Canon about the passion of two award-winning photographers based in New Zealand: Mike Langford and Jackie Ranken. It's an inspirational look into the world's and minds of two photographers who have made photography one of the primary joys of their life -- when they're not shooting for work, they're out making pictures for themselves.

Timelapse: Restoring and Colorizing an Old Damaged Photo

Argentinian professional photographer and retoucher Joaquin Villaverde has a knack for restoring and colorizing old photographs. The video above is a time-lapse he made showing how he recently breathed new life into a vintage portrait that had a good amount of damage. It's 2 hours of work in Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 condensed into 3 minutes.

Starry Photos of Glowworms in Limestone Caves

In New Zealand, there's a species of glowworm called Arachnocampa luminosa -- commonly known as the New Zealand glowworm -- that can be found in dark, wet caves. Photographer Joseph Michael made these insects the subject of a series of photos titled "Luminosity."

Creative Portraits That Use Handmade Paper Props

Adriana Napolitano is a 31-year-old Italian artist and photographer who creates beautiful paper props by hand for portrait and advertising photo shoots. Her creations include everything from food to costumes to phones to water gushing out of a crying woman's face.

6 Tips in 45 Minutes by 2 Top Wedding Photographers

Canmore, Canada-based photographers Lanny and Erika Mann of Two Mann Studios are considered two of the best wedding photographers in the world by Fearless Photographers, a popular online directory of global wedding photographers. ShotKit recently sat down with the Manns and recorded the 45-minute interview above in which the duo shares six tips that helped them get where they are.

How I Use the Fujifilm XT-1 for Documentary Wedding Photography

I'm a documentary wedding photographer, which means there's a certain way that I work, and a certain style to the photography I produce. The end product of which is an accurate, beautiful document of the single most important day thus far in a couple's life together. I want my clients to feel what they felt on their wedding day, years later when they're reminiscing with their album.

Art of the Storm: A Time-Lapse of a Massive Supercell

Back on June 1st, 2015, landscape photographer Nicolaus Wegner was on the scene as a massive supercell formed over the Black Hills of South Dakota near Rapid City. As the stationary storm unfolded over several hours before Wegner's eyes, he shot photos at one-second intervals with his Canon 5D Mark II and wide angle lenses. Afterward, he combined the photos into the 2-minute time-lapse short seen above, titled "Art of the Storm." …

Photographing the Default Wallpaper for Windows 10

'Bliss,' the default wallpaper that shipped with Windows XP, was photographed in Sonoma County, California, and may be the most viewed photo of all time. For its upcoming Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft enlisted the help of creative director Bradley G. Munkowitz for a fresh new default desktop photo that the company hopes will one day be just as iconic.