Inspiration

Update: The original version of this post quoted a flight attendant in the intro, when it was in fact the author's girlfriend who made the remark that he was annoying people. This was an editorial mistake on our part, and has been fixed.

"The sound of your shutter clicking is annoying the people around you." said my girlfriend, sitting next to me. "I know," I replied "I don't care at the moment, I'm shooting some crazy unique footage!"

Last week I was lucky enough to shoot the world's first sunset hyperlapse sequence from an airplane, here's how I did it.

Here's a set of fun and funny self-portraits to get you through the rest of your Wednesday with a smile on your face.

Created by literary translator, editor and grad student Kaija Straumanis, the Headshots series is more frequently referred to these days as "Stuff Being Thrown at My Head" -- a deceptive title since nothing is actually being thrown at Straumanis' head at all.

"Just because it isn't happening here, doesn't mean it isn't happening." That's the tagline of one of the most powerful, shocking ad campaign we have ever run across.

Put together by Save the Children UK, this campaign uses the popular 'second per day video' lifelogging concept to drive home an anti-war message in the most stark and unsettling way, focusing on how war affects children.

After sharing Paul Trillo's double exposure-inspired music video for "Be Around" by the folk duo The Peach Kings, several commenters here and on Facebook pointed out that the opening titles for the HBO show True Detective make use of the same technique.

And so we checked them out, and were blown away by the execution on this awesome video. We can see why one reader said that it's the only show she doesn't skip over the titles on.

From NYC-based filmmaker Paul Trillo, whose work we've featured a couple of times before here on PetaPixel, comes a new visual journey in collaboration with Los Angeles-based soul-folk duo The Peach Kings.

“While there’s life, there’s hope.” That was the original motto of a magazine that for more than 100 years documented …

What exactly makes one landscape, milky way time-lapse stand head and shoulders above the crowd? In a genre so over-saturated that some people have lost faith in it altogether, how do you create a time-lapse worth international attention?

We're not entirely sure, but we do know that the video above fits the bill just right -- it is, in a word, spectacular.

The 'lyric-lapse' isn't new. But creating one takes so much time and dedication that we still don't see them crop up very often.

Just over a year ago, we featured an awesome project by photographer John Deprisco called The Photo Bus. Combining his passion for vintage vehicles (particularly VWs) and photography, Deprisco created quite an incredible combination that put a photo booth inside of a VW bus.

Everybody takes photos of their family, trying their best to keep a chronicle of their children as they grow up. They capture moments both mundane and momentous and store them away in what later becomes the family album (although it seems that might soon be a thing of the past).

But while everybody might make an effort to capture these memories, photographer Alain Laboile does so with an expertise behind the lens that has turned his own personal family album, a series called La Famille, into a heartwarming viral sensation.

We've seen milk used as a prop in photoshoots before, but never quite like how Paris-based photographer Alexander JE Bradley goes about using it. Profiled in the latest The Weekly Flickr installment, Alexander goes around splashing people with milk and capturing silly, moo-ving images in the process.

When you hear the term flower photography, it probably doesn't inspire a particularly powerful reaction. There are plenty of gorgeous images of flowers -- from wildflower fields to beautifully-lit bouquets -- and so the genre isn't somewhere we usually look for inspiration.

That is, until we ran across photographer Mo Devlin's stunning shots of frozen flowers.

We've featured plenty of Pro Photographer Cheap Camera Challenges over the years, all of them informative, educational and entertaining to varying degrees. What we've never had before is the photographer's perspective. What's it like to be on the program? How does it go down? How much planning goes into it?

Thanks to Benjamin Von Wong and Silistudio we now have an answer to all of those questions and more.

News in the photo world isn't always uplifting -- what with all the layoffs and copyright scandals -- but once in a while you stumble onto one of those 'renew your faith in humanity' stories that just make you smile.

That's the uplifting story told by Imaging Resource Editor-in-Chief Dave Etchells, who recently lost $7,000 on a bullet train in Japan, only to have it found and returned to him with nary a piece missing.

Spoiler Alert: The first paragraph of this article gives away a major part of the movie 'Gravity.' Skip past it if you haven't seen the movie yet.

"You should see the sun shining on the Ganges. It's amazing..." says George Clooney in the movie 'Gravity,' as his character floats through the cold vastness of space, cool as only a very George Clooney-ish character can be when facing insurmountable odds and indescribable beauty all at the same time.

But while Sandra Bullock's character had more important things to worry about just that second, chances are anyone reading this doesn't. And so, ahead of the Oscars where 'Gravity' is bound to take home at least a few of the golden statuettes, NASA has released a beautiful photo series to remind us what the view really looks like from space.

In yet another impressive (and sexual innuendo-filled... you've been warned) DigitalRev Cheap Camera Challenge, Kai has Benjamin Von Wong try to create some of his epic fire imagery using nothing more than a crappy Ricoh point-and-shoot that was probably bought at a Best Buy... on clearance... five years ago.

Watch out aerial videographers, you may soon be replaced by birds with cameras. A few weeks ago we shared some great footage captured by a bird who got his beak on one of the BBC's egg cameras and took flight over a group of penguins. And today, we show you what a pelican can capture when his human helps him 'hold' the camera.

What's the best thing about a 365 project? Some would say it's that you develop the habit of shooting every single day. Others that you develop your skill because you're shooting more than you probably ever have. But for photographer Aliza Razell, the best thing about a 365 project is the ability to experiment.

And it's experimentation that led her to create the stunning images you see above and below. Images that combine watercolor and photography into something greater than the sum of its parts. Images that, as you probably already guessed, are spreading like wildfire.

Created by Polaroid in 1976, the 20x24-inch instant camera is one of the most unusual and massive pieces of photographic history you can get your hands on (if you're lucky enough... or have the dough). Fortunately for those of you who want to see the cam in action, photographer Chuck Close managed to do just that in a series of images for Vanity Fair's 20th Hollywood issue.

When a lot of the really big life moments are happening, we’re often too busy living them to find a way to document them for later. Who wants to be fumbling with a camera when you’re trying to say something important? But maybe there is an option that lets you capture the precious moments without having to worry about manning your camera at the same time...

If you browse around online, even if you stay away from the magazine covers with their models liquified into long-legged oblivion, you will be hard-pressed to find professional portraits of women that are as honest and raw as the ones featured on RAW Beauty Talks.

That's because this organization, dedicated to empowering women through portrait photography and an honest conversation about beauty, doesn't just do away with photo manipulation in its portraits... it does away with anything meant to enhance or cover up the way the models actually look.

As with most fields that are technology driven, in photography, if you don't keep moving you'll quickly find yourself dead in the water. This is why seasoned pros and amateur hobbyists alike should always be learning and expanding their abilities. It's really the only way to stay competitive. And I don't even mean that in a financial sense, I mean that just in terms of your skill set.

In need of some spiritual inspiration, photography style? Well you're in luck, because His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama himself has opened an Instagram account and is proving to be a fairly prolific poster.

If you've followed PetaPixel for a while, or even if you just keep up with popular photo news, the image above probably looks familiar. Created by photographer Fong Qi Wei, it looks like it's a part of his very successful series Time is a Dimension, which we featured back in August of last year.

But this isn't part of that series, it's actually one of 37 images combined into a single GIF. A GIF that is part of his creative followup to TIAD called Time in Motion.

Commercial mountain photographer Alexandre Buisse is a natural adventurer. When it comes to rock climbing or going for his major dream client with a cold call, Alex is a brave soul with immense talent to match. His client roster includes Patagonia, Red Bull, Sports Illustrated, Outer Edge Magazine, and many more.

We talked with Alex about his experience cold emailing and calling, what he’s learned about negotiating licensing rights, and his key marketing strategies. He also lays out the three things a budding adventure photographer should do when looking to get work -- including the importance of a work/fun balance.

We spend all day staring at pixels, but really, just how good is our vision when it comes to noticing the small details in photographs? Well, I can't speak on behalf of everyone, but using the tricky images below, you can get a good idea for yourself.

German artist Simon Menner created an interesting photo series that features military snipers hiding in various landscapes. The photos show just how well these highly trained individuals can blend into their surroundings, which vary from empty fields to rocky valleys.

Living smack in the middle of the information age, we're well acquainted with the incredible amount of data and statistics gathered and thrown around on a daily basis. And with the advent of social networking, the amount of publicly available data about society has only increased.

These networks are a treasure trove of information for better understanding the underlying trends and habits of people. Trends that would otherwise go unseen. One research project in particular, called Phototrails, is trying to spot these trends by gathering insights from that photography-oriented social media site many of us love to hate: Instagram.

It can often be a challenge explaining to others what we do as photographers, whatever genre of work we may be in. But where we often struggle to explain our vocation to friends or family, in wedding photographer Chris Thornton's case, it was his 3-year-old son whose understanding of what his dad did as a wedding photographer wasn't quite pieced together.

And so, he decided to put his creativity and photographic abilities to use and do what any good father would do: he put it into terms his son would not only understand, but appreciate.

It was in the early part of 2013 when Trent Bell, a commercial photographer known for his architectural photos, received the shocking news that a friend of his had been sentenced to thirty-six years in prison for some trouble he got himself into.

What is your perfect day? And when was the last time you had your perfect day? If you're like most photographers the answer to the first question may come out pretty easily (or not...), but the answer to the second...

That was the question that wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis once asked a fellow photographer, and when she heard the second part, it left her in tears. She couldn't remember her last perfect day, because she was so busy working and working and working at her career that she had forgotten to live the lifestyle she was hoping photography would offer.

Sometimes it's the small details of our photographic endeavors that bring meaning to our work, which is why we love this fun, creative mini-portfolio tutorial from the crafty minds at Photojojo

When it comes to wildlife photography, the Snow Leopard is almost unicorn-like. No, it's not mythical, but it's almost as hard to capture one of these infamous "gray ghosts of the Himalayas" on camera as it is to track down a creature that doesn't actually exist.

Imagine, then, how amazed the people on a recent INDRI Ultimate Wildlife Tour were when they got to watch AND photograph a Snow Leopard making a successful kill -- a world's first.

The saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. I certainly agree with this sentiment, but there's more to it. For every thousand words the photograph is worth, there's three thousand explaining how the image came to be.

We've all had that moment when we're browsing through some photographs online and the questions hit us. How did someone capture this photo? What gear did they use for this? What was their inspiration? How did they plan it?

Well, for moments like this, there's now a beautifully designed resource called The Image Story.

Surreal self-portraits from young photographers are nothing new. In fact, one could say there are almost too many of them out there. But that makes it that much more impressive when a young photog breaks out of the pack and catches the attention of the masses.

That's exactly what 18-year-old photographer and college student Laura Williams did with her viral self-portrait series 'Invisible.'

If you've ever dreamed of being published in National Geographic -- and let's be honest, a good number of us have fantasized about that career path -- then you're going to want to pay special attention to the short video above.

At the request of Nat Geo photographer and burn magazine editor David Alan Harvey, Nat Geo photo editor Susan Welchman gives you some concise advice on what she's looking for from her photographers.

This is just plain beautiful, no matter which way you slice it. Using the magic of time-lapse photography and microscopy, Vyacheslav Ivanov captured the formation of those ice crystals we call snowflakes that caused so much grief in the northeastern US over the past several weeks.

Riding in the Goodyear Blimp might not be a lifelong dream for everybody, but it was for photographer Dan Marker-Moore, and it's now one he can cross off his bucket list. Last week, he got to ride in (and even fly!) the blimp, capturing video and photos that he graciously sent our way to share with all of you.

There's a reason the retro movement has such staunch supporters, and it's not just because there are a lot of people with ironic facial hair intent on buying a camera that looks as old as possible. The old cameras were at once functional and beautiful, or at the very least beautiful, and an industry that prides itself on appreciating beauty can't help but appreciate the beauty of their tools.

Treasured Cameras is a short photo series by photographer Julian Calverley that celebrates this aesthetic beauty in an ironic way: by taking portraits of vintage cameras using an iPhone.

Apparently the newest, coolest way to show off your new camera is by sending it up with some professional skydivers and telling them to have at it. Okay, maybe it's too early to spot a trend, but Nikon did recently decide to follow in Sony's footsteps and send a couple of D5300s up with a pro skydive photographer to show them off.

Simeon Quarrie of Vivida is back at it again, giving us a behind the scenes look at yet another of his equal parts intricate and subtle pre-wedding (read: engagement) shoots, Released by Love.

If you walk into the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center right now, you'll very quickly find your jaw on the floor alongside the reason for its gaping state. Stretched across the entire promenade of the theatre is a large-scale photo installation that has well-dressed ballet-goers so enthralled they're laying down on the floor, striking poses and climbing up several flights of stairs to get a better view of the massive photograph.

Controversy over the World Press Photo organization and the way they handle their judging aside, most people were in agreement that photographer John Stanmeyer deserved the award he received this year. In the above video, the World Press Photo winner shares some insight as to how his widely-praised photograph came to be.

Editor's Note: This video is a tiny bit NSFW. All nudity has been censored, but the models are at times very scantily clad so you may want to wait until you're at home to watch it.

While The Body Issue of ESPN Magazine usually keeps the focus on bodies in a sporty sense, Fiat wanted to make an impression in its advertising pages as well.

Human photographers aren't the only ones dragging their cameras to every corner of the globe in search of the decisive moment. As it turns out, a little LEGO man spent a year doing the same thing as part of life-sized human photographer Andrew Whyte's fun 'The Legographer' series.

A couple of days ago, National Geographic released this fascinating look inside the magazine's vintage photo archive and introduced us to the dedicated man who runs the whole thing, Bill Bonner.

Not all of the women in this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue are made of plastic, and yet the unique Barbie swimsuit shots we told you about a few days back will STILL play second fiddle to a much cooler photo shoot of model and actress Kate Upton... scantily clad... floating around in actual zero gravity.

Earlier this month, storm Petra battered parts of the French and British coast only days after another storm had smashed its way through the area. And while powerful winds and massive waves were tearing into the French coast, photographer Philip Plisson was in a helicopter capturing the action from a bird's eye view.

Want to know what it takes to photograph the Olympic Games these days? Well, according to Jeff Cable it takes the kind of speed that most photographers can only dream of, because when it comes to the Internet age, people want their photos and they want them NOW.

Tragedies happen. We weep. We grieve. And then, life moves on. I suppose it’s good that it stands still …

New York-based photographer Alex John Beck began his series Both Sides Of in order to explore two beliefs. First, that perfectly symmetrical faces are the most beautiful. And second, that one face is representative of one character.

The final photographs, displayed as pairs of symmetrical portraits that show what the subject would look like if you simply mirrored their left or right sides, seem to indicate that neither of these beliefs holds true.