Interviews

Professional architectural photographer Mike Kelley has achieved extensive commercial success but has remained dedicated to personal artistic projects as well. These personal projects have often been the ones to lead to Kelley's "craziest opportunities," including one that took him to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility to photograph the Orion crew capsule and SLS rocket that just last week carried four brave Artemis II astronauts into space to orbit the Moon.

If there is a villain in The Stringer documentary, then it is not so much Nick Ut, the AP photographer who has long been credited with taking the famous Napalm Girl photograph, but Horst Faas, the Chief of Photos in Saigon who allegedly swapped the credit on Napalm Girl.

Photographer Steven Madow has been photographing rocket launches for over a decade, but arguably no rocket launch he has photographed has been as big of a deal as the Artemis II launch on Wednesday, April 1. Madow set up 14 different Panasonic Lumix cameras to cover the monumental event, including seven remote cameras at the launch site. His outstanding photos are the result of years of practice and planning.

Photographer Jon McCormack's new monograph, "Patterns: Art of the Natural World," is a beautiful visual love letter to nature and all its intricate patterns, from microscopic and rarely-seen to vast and majestic.


As its name suggests, National Geographic's new two-part documentary series, "Secrets of the Bees," turns the lens toward one of Earth's most important inhabitants: bees. The series is fascinating, full of interesting information and science about bees, but also replete with exceptional cinematography. The miniseries has many fantastic close-up shots of bees, unlike anything captured before.

Tamron is focused on making lenses that no other manufacturer does. A consequence of this is that Tamron makes a lot of zoom lenses, although the company reiterated to PetaPixel at CP+ 2026 that it is not opposed to making new prime lenses, but it needs to be the right prime, a unique offering.

Nikon's original Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S and Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S lenses were already superb when they were released in 2019 and 2020, delivering great optical performance and dependable autofocus inside a well-designed chassis. However, much has changed in lens design in the years since, and Nikon's even better, significantly lighter 24-70mm f/2.8 S II and 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II zooms reflect multifaceted technological advancements.

Photographers would be forgiven for thinking that Panasonic is no longer committed or interested in developing new Micro Four Thirds products, but as the company told PetaPixel at CP+ 2026 in Japan, it is still very much interested in developing new MFT products that capitalize on the format's core strengths.

For the last couple of years, PetaPixel has asked OM System executives about the company's plan for the beloved Pen series. Previously, the response has been tepid, so it didn't ask again this year. Surprisingly, OM System executives brought it up instead.

Panasonic Lumix makes fantastic hybrid cameras that perform well in a variety of situations. However, many argue that most aren't particularly good-looking cameras.

For over a decade, Panasonic Lumix has been at the forefront of video production in an affordable and compact package. But in speaking to PetaPixel at CP+ earlier this year, the company also expresses a desire to be recognized for photography -- just not for high-end sports.

The compact camera market is white-hot right now. Compact camera sales more than doubled in Japan in 2025, and many of the best-selling cameras last year at Map Camera, a major Japanese photo retailer, were compact models. Canon is no stranger to compact camera success and is committed to giving people what they want.

Many exceptional photographers captured jaw-dropping photos of world-class athletes performing incredible feats at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. In most cases, these photographers used the expected equipment, the latest full-frame mirrorless cameras and telephoto lenses. However, a select group of Getty Images photographers took a very different approach, and documented the Winter Olympics with thermal, infrared, and vintage film cameras, and using unique processing techniques.

Earlier this month, the Seattle Seahawks bested the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and the Seahawks' team photographer, Rod Mar, was there to capture all the action, and ultimately, the Seahawks' elation.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its onboard LEDs, typically used for illuminating shaded areas during daytime operations, to capture a very rare nighttime shot of the Martian surface.

Alongside being an aerospace engineering student, Tyler Staub and his brother, Calvin, also started a drone service company to capture aerial media for local businesses. Now you can add "inventor" to Tyler's list of accomplishments, as he has built a new adapter, the aptly named Dronebal, to turn a DJI Mini 4 Pro drone into an easy-to-use, high-quality handheld camera.

Photojournalist John Abernathy was tackled by ICE agents in Minneapolis last week and his last-ditch effort to save his camera was successful thanks to fellow photographer Pierre Lavie, who captured Abernathy's camera-saving toss in a now-viral image. Lavie's powerful portrait reflects the importance of photojournalism, captures the risks photographers face in the field, and, to the benefit of Leica, shows how rugged the company's cameras are.

When Apple announced Creator Studio, it made sure to almost immediately highlight its selling points: low cost of entry, easy to use, wide breadth of capabilities, and cohesion among apps. Combine that with the education discount, and it's clear Apple is targeting up-and-coming artists.

After 25 years behind the camera, OM SYSTEM photographer Jerred Zegelis thought he knew the rules of photography. Shoot RAW. Stay neutral. Fix it in post. Art Filters are for amateurs. These weren't suggestions. For Zegelis, they were law, absorbed from forums, tutorials, and years of professional habit.

Then he invented a fictional town, shot an entire trip using a filter he once dismissed as cheesy, and intentionally started to break the rules. The Nebraska native calls the results the best work of his career.

The Kodak Charmera keychain camera has been a smash hit. Sold in blind boxes, the 1.6-megapixel retro-styled toy camera was one of the biggest photo gifts of the holidays. However, straight out of the box, its capabilities are arguably a bit lacking, thanks in large part to its tiny built-in lens. That's where expert camera modifier James Warner, or Snappiness as he's known online, comes in. What would happen if you gave the Kodak Charmera a better, bigger lens?

At the end of each year, TIME selects its Top 100 photos of the year. As always, the 2025 edition is replete with superb photography, ranging from split-second action shots of important news events to powerful photos from longer-term projects, the collection is a compelling visual reminder of the major events of 2025 and, perhaps as importantly, photography's power in telling the world's most important stories.

Award-winning photographer Stephen Wilkes has two photos in this year's National Geographic Pictures of the Year, a celebration of 25 of the best and most important photos featured in this year's issues of National Geographic. The photos, Wilkes' famous Day to Night images, add a new layer -- time -- to beautiful wildlife scenes.

The North American Nature Photography Association has revealed the winning photos for its 2026 Showcase, featuring stunning landscape images, action shots of wildlife, eye-popping macro photos, and powerful conservation work.

Acclaimed photographer and industrial designer Matt Draper's latest solo exhibition, Within One Breath, opens today at the Leica Gallery New York. The photos featured in the show were all captured on a single breath while freediving with Leica rangefinders and using only natural light, ensuring that the beautiful underwater environment was disturbed as little as possible.