Inspiration

The Inspirational Story of How Photography Helped One Man Recover from Paralysis

July 4, 2011 is a day architectural and commercial portrait photographer Kevin Young will never forget. While taking a short break from a plethora of assignments he was working on, he was involved in a swimming accident that broke his C4-C6 vertebre, paralyzing him from the neck down.

In the above video, Young details his recovery, how he used photography as a motivation, and how the entire situation left him with a desires to help others, including the woman who saved his life.

Stop Hiding: Show YOU and You Won’t be ‘Just Another Photographer with Pretty Images’

In the world of photography, we typically hide behind our cameras and our images. Many of us are shy and would prefer to stay behind the camera, not in front of it. And then that starts to extend into our online brand as well.

I can relate. I’ve done this for a long time. But I recently had a meeting that changed everything.

Photographer Peeks Inside Cheap Plastic Toys with X-Ray Photo Series

Australian photographer Brendan Fitzpatrick uses images to document the hidden side of things. More specifically, he documents the inside of things.

Having turned his sights on flora and fauna, Fitzpatrick decided to peek inside the world of cheap plastic children's toys for his series Invisible Light.

This is What Happens When You Close the Drapes on Your At-Home Camera Obscura

Photographer Daniel Tellman is an experimenter, and his ideas often lead to beautiful results. After turning his daughter's room into a giant camera obscura, he decided to have some fun by closing the drapes and turning them into a makeshift projector screen.

He then set up a camera in front of the drapes to capture images of the world outside passing by over the course of a day. The time-lapse video above is a gorgeous compilation of those images.

Photographer Turns Her Spam Emails into Imagined Portraits of the Imaginary Senders

What do you do when you get spam emails from imaginary people that try to separate you from your hard-earned money? If the email is lucky enough to get past spam filters, it's usually immediately recognized and deleted by the recipient.

If it ends up in the inbox of photographer Christina De Middel, however, it gets turned into a photograph. For her project Poly-Spam, De Middel took her spam, carefully noted the details within, and created fictitious portraits of the imaginary senders.

Chicago Skylines and Thick Fog Make For Surreal Urban Landscape Photos

Photographer Michael Salisbury is a determined Chicagoan with a desire to slow down and capture the world around him in the most vivid and compositional of ways. It was last month, after a string of severe storms, that he had the opportunity to combine his love for the Windy City’s architecture with some surreal fog that coated the beaches and skyscrapers of Chicago like a blanket. The series is titled June Fog, and the results are astounding.

Marcus Haney: The Music Photographer Who Made it By Sneaking into the World’s Biggest Shows

If there is a path that music photographers usually take to make it big, it's not the path Marcus Haney chose. Rather than start at the lowest levels by shooting smaller gigs to build a portfolio and reputation, Haney decided to start things off by sneaking into Coachella as a faux credentialed photographer back in 2010. He was only a junior studying at USC.

The trailer above is for an upcoming documentary titled No Cameras Allowed, which chronicles Haney's unconventional journey into the world of concert photography.

Video: Blind Photographer Shows Us What it Really Means to ‘See’

Australian-based photographer Brendon Borellini sees the world differently than most of us. In fact, he doesn’t really see it at all. This is because Borellini was born with congenital deafness and partial blindness, which has since turned into complete blindness.

You're probably thinking to yourself that these disabilities aren’t exactly conducive to becoming a photographer, but Borellini has overcome them, making the most of every ounce of life doing what he loves.

Student and Photo Enthusiast Takes His Own Grad Photo, Blows Away the Standard Grad Shot

For going on four years now, casual photographer and shop teacher Aaron Cyr's mom has been bugging him for a graduation photo. By this year, he was already two degrees in and about to get his third, but he just couldn't make himself pony up for the standard, banal grad photos he saw his peers getting.

Still, you can only tell your supportive mom 'no' so many times, and so this year he delivered... on his own terms.

How 4 Photo Editors Are Using Instagram

Instagram is a powerful tool that professional photographers must take seriously if they want to be discovered via the platform – because just like every other person with a smart phone, photo editors from major publications are on there too. It’s a way to stay top of mind and connected with the photo-editors you’ve previously worked with, and to share work that can catch their eye and could inspire your next assignment.

Forget Clouds: Man Photographs Cheetos That Look Like Things

Have you ever looked up and noticed that a particular cloud looks like a face, a dog, a ship, or some other object? It's a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia, where the human brain takes randomness and tries to turn it into something significant and known.

Andy Huot's project Cheese Curl Art revolves around pareidolia, but instead of spotting things in clouds, Huot photographs Cheetos. Recognize the Cheeto above? The photographer captioned it, "Sasquatch."

Photographing the Nazca Geoglyphs in Peru: An Interview with Photographer Ed Ranney

Edward Ranney has been photographing pre-Columbian sites in Peru for over fifty years. His book Monuments of the Incas was released in 1982, reprinted in paperback in 1990, and re-released in 2010 by Thames and Hudson in an expanded edition, with updated text.

His monograph The Lines, being released in August by Yale University Press, presents pictures of geoglyphs created by the Nazca culture in southern Peru, and other cultures in Chile's Atacama desert.

Video: Photographing the ‘Most Beautiful Subway System in the World’

St. Petersburg-born photographer Alexander Dragunov has found his niche in the photography world, photographing the surreal, beautiful -- and often empty -- subway stations of Sweden’s capital in a project titled Stockholm Metro.

Oftentimes looking like something straight out of a sci-fi film, these caves-turned transportation hubs create mind-bending compositions when lack of commuters and symmetry gets involved.

Video: A Must-Watch Commencement Speech for Creatives at Every Stage in Their Journey

Neil Gaiman is an author, a writer whose work you have probably read at some point or another, but the advice he offers in this 20-minute commencement address is as applicable to photographers as it is to any other creative who is embarking on (or currently in the middle of living) a life whose goal might be best summed up by the phrase 'make good art.'

Photo Series Uses Laundry Machines to Frame Colorful and Abstract Shots

"Inspirational" probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you think about laundry, but for photographer Yvette Meltzer, that’s exactly what it turned out to be. Shirts strung over a clothesline, laundry being sloshed around with suds, and most recently, piles of clothes being tossed about inside the confines of a dryer.

Beautiful Macro Photo of a Hummingbird’s Details

In the world of macro photography, the speedy hummingbird isn't the easiest subject. With a little patience, however, you could nail a shot that reveals details you normally can't see when tracking the bird with your eye.

That's what photographer Chris Morgan was able to do on a recent vacation in Bosque De Paz, Costa Rica (a 3,000 acre biological reserve).

Greg Heisler Talks Photography as a Career and Having ‘True’ Style in Brilliant Interview

As much information as we’re able to pull in through the Internet, there is one thing that can never be obtained through words or pictures on a screen: experience. Through time and experience, information turns to knowledge, and we begin to wrap our heads around the complicated concepts that baffled us in the beginning.

One phenomenal example of a man who has accrued more experience than most is renowned portrait photographer Gregory Heisler, and in the interview above with Maine Media Workshops + College, he shares valuable insight and advice for photographers both young and old.

Grieving Father Asks Internet to Photoshop Baby Photo, Receives Incredible Response

It's true that the Internet can be a stupid and cruel place -- read any comment section on a controversial news piece for proof of that -- but it can also be a wonderful place that occasionally brings you to tears... in a good way.

This is a story about the best of the Internet: about a grieving father, a heartfelt request, and an overwhelming response.

The Dark and Dreamy Portraiture of Sylwia Makris

There are few enough times when the words haunting and portraiture truly go hand-in-hand, but the work of Polish-born, Germany-based fashion photographer Sylwia Makris fits this description perfectly.

Her dreamlike photographs take you into a strange, twisted world full of sculpted subjects under the most mysterious of lights and costumes.

‘Cities at Night’ as Captured by Astronauts Aboard the International Space Station

Since 2003 astronauts have been snapping up photographs of our beautiful planet from the International Space Station. All of these photographs have been archived together into a resource called The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. It’s through the utilization of this resource, as well as a database compiled by Spanish Astrophysicists that a little project called Cities at Night exists.

5 Essential Tips for Your First Commercial Shoot

Once you've been shooting for a while (and becoming good at it) someone will inevitably ask you if you are interested in shooting something for a fee, either for a commercial or editorial job (but for the sake of discussion I am labeling any paid shoot as a commercial shoot).

Your first paid assignment will certainly be very exciting, but there are a few things you should know before saying yes.

A Beautiful Look at the Meticulous Process Behind Large Format Photography

In the world of analogue photography, the larger you go in format, the more time, discipline and resources it typically takes to capture and develop your photographs. And while the age-old technique of developing film takes due diligence no matter the format, large format photography in particular has a certain quality to the process that makes it stand out from the rest.

10 Summer Photography Tips to Get You Creative in the Warmer Months

Despite the early sunrises, late sunsets and harsh daytime sunlight of summer it’s still one of our favorite times for photography. Being outside with your camera in the warmer months just feels so good.

If you’re struggling to come up with creative ideas during summer, however, we’ve got a few tips that might help.

Experimental Underwater Scanner Makes for Beautiful Happy Accidents

If you enjoy strange and experimental photography, Nathaniel Stern's work should delight you.

For the past ten years, Stern has been creating experimental image-capturing devices using a conglomeration of hacked-together desktop scanners, battery packs and other various computer components. Once created, he straps these machines to his body and takes them from location to location capturing images unlike any other camera out there.

Infographic Reveals the 30 Most Influential Photographers Across the Web

More so than just about any other form of content, the Internet lives and breathes images. So it's only natural photographers -- and photography as a whole -- have an inherit grasp on exploiting the networking, publishing and sharing capabilities the World Wide Web has to offer.

There's also no denying that some have learned to exploit it better than others, and so WiFi SD Card Maker EyeFi teamed up with marketing agency Evolve! to find out who the 30 most influential photographers across social media are. And while many of the names on the list are obvious, some might surprise you.

Polish Father Captures Touching Portraits of His Family Around Their Rural Home

Polish husband and father-of-two Sebastian Łuczywo is a business advisor for his day job. But when he's not at work, he's capturing incredibly heartwarming portraits of his family and their animals.

With his rural home in Poland serving as a backdrop for these images, his photographs of his family -- including his two four-legged children -- seem to be a conglomeration of many styles, from surrealism to straight up candid. And it’s this unique blend of styles, along with the intimate touch, that takes his photographs to the next level.

Is The Print Portfolio Making a Comeback In the Age of The Internet?

In an age where social media fatigue is a real and prominent problem, photographer Erik Almas tries to stand out from the crowd by means of the age-old print portfolio. Detailing the ‘whys’ and ‘whats,’ he briefly goes over what it is that made him decide to go back to the physical portfolio and how his work is organized in the interesting video above.

NASA Packs 17-Ton Telescope in a Boeing 747 to Solve Catch-22 of Astrophotography

NASA is known for using some impressive optics for its telescopes. But with amazing optics come some logistical limitations.

Ground-based lenses used by NASA can be as massive as needed, but are limited due to atmospheric distortion. Those used in space-based telescopes such as Hubble, on the other hand, must be much smaller, capable of being launched into space and fixed on-the-fly. This leaves NASA with a little Catch–22.

A Catch-22 they’ve managed to find an answer to in the form of SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy): a Boeing 747 with a 17-ton telescope packed inside.

Camera & Sky Move as One in This Twisted Time-Lapse

It’s safe to say we’ve all seen our fair share of night-sky time-lapses. Most often, they tend to show off grandiose views of mother nature as the stars (seemingly) rotate in the background. But the truth of the matter is, we’re the ones rotating, not the stars.

So what would happen if a night-sky time-lapse photographer used the stars – or more precisely a star – as a fixed axis, instead of Earth? Well, you would end up with a trippy time-lapse like the one you see above.

Unique Wedding Photographs Taken Inside an Ice Cave in Alaska

We promise we didn't plan it, but after sharing Josh Newton's amazing wildfire wedding photographs last month, we've managed to stumble across their antithesis today.

Last month it was wedding photos in front of a raging wildfire. This month we give you another beautifully-shot set of wedding pictures, this time taken inside a bonafide, had-to-kayak-to-get-there ice cave.

BTS: Corey Rich on the Most Effective Way to Set Up & Shoot a Night Sky Time-Lapse

As part of Nikon’s continuing effort to promote its gear and ambassadors while teaching you something at the same time, the company has put together yet another inspirational and educational video we felt was worth sharing with you.

Featuring outdoor and editorial photographer Corey Rich, the above video walks you through the process of setting up and shooting a night sky time-lapse.

Cartier-Bresson’s ‘The Decisive Moment’ is Back in Print 60 Years After the First Run

Henri Cartier-Bresson is a name forever engraved on the face of photographic history. Known for his humanist approach to photography and the world around him, the so-called father of street photography defined his photojournalistic style with each snap of the shutter.

And while his individual photographs are something to marvel at in their own right, one of the greatest contributions he ever gave the world was a book called The Decisive Moment, which you can now once more own without spending $500+ dollars.

Clever Trick: Document the Exact Lighting Setup of a Photo Using a Christmas Bulb

When capturing a photograph, something many of us meticulously try to account for is the lighting -- more specifically, how much light is coming from what sources.

Using ratios, a bit of rough math and a pen & paper, you could write it down. But sometimes numbers don’t directly translate into results. Here with an ingenious way to properly capture the lighting in a scene is Felix Kunze and Sue Bryce.

Bali Underwater Shipwreck Fantasy Shoot Part 2: How It All Came Together

Montreal-based photographer Benjamin Von Wong's underwater fantasy fashion shoot in a Bali shipwreck has quickly become the most popular project he has ever released. And even though he shared some behind the scenes details when the series first debuted, he's back today with a much more detailed look at how exactly these now-viral photos came to be.