Nikon unveiled the Z9 back in October to a world desperate for updates about their new top shelf model after months of teasers. This was eagerly awaited, not least to see how it compared to Sony's blockbuster Alpha 1 and because it beat Canon to the proverbial flagship punch.
We're starting a new tradition here at PetaPixel, where our staff gets together to discuss the things they know, not just think, will transpire over the course of the next calendar year. As bold predictions go, we're almost certainly going to get a lot of this wrong.
Everyone on the internet has an opinion and many of them are not exactly productive or supportive. This is even more prevalent in the photography community and in a ten-minute video from Miguel Quiles, he discusses five of the most common "negative" opinions that need to be stopped if creatives want to elevate their craft to the next level.
There are many debates about ethics in photography. One such debate is around making money on photos that show human suffering. It could be appropriate, but there are a few caveats you should consider before selling such work.
EuroWeekly News – based in Malaga, Spain and published by Michel and Steven Euesden – represents itself as the leading English language newspaper in Spain, with six editions and a circulation of over a half a million copies. What they seem less obvious about promulgating is that they also apparently feel entitled to exploit the work of independent visual artists.
Being a professional photographer is often a flashy “seemingly easy” career in which anyone with a camera and a lens can succeed. But why then do so many fail? Having talked to many successful photographers, I’ve noticed certain patterns that they all share.
Remember those halcyon film days? You mailed off that little black cartridge in an envelope and then about a week later negatives and prints were magically returned. With the rise of digital, the inkjet printer promised instant gratification at low per print prices. What could possibly go wrong?
The process of crafting great imagery is something I have been studying for years. One of the undertakings in this riveting pursuit was to study hundreds of great images from many photographers.
Remember those heady days of 2010? The release of the iPhone 4 and iPad, the New Orleans Saints won Superbowl XLIV, Iron Man 2 hit the cinemas, Eminem released Recovery, and Biden was Vice-President. It was also the year when camera shipments peaked at over 120 million units. How did the industry become the bit-part player it now is, shifting 9 million units just ten short years later?
Successful professionals -- that is, people who make most of their living as photographers -- have a kind of global view of their career. They behave as though marketing and contract negotiations and digital workflow are all just as important as composition and lighting.
As a 20-year old concert photographer, one of the questions that I get the most is: “How did you manage to land a touring job so quickly and at a young age?” Here are a few tips that I used when navigating my way into the concert photography industry.
Like chameleons, we photographers change with our environment to survive and thrive. It's inspiring to see the way we have risen to new and ever-evolving challenges in the industry. Yet, photographers are being taken advantage of now more than ever.
When the Sony Alpha 1 was announced, I remember being really impressed but not surprised. Sony had been the brand to beat and had been continuously pushing the envelope. What Sony did was impressive, but not shocking. The Nikon Z9 has shocked me.
Microsoft's first Surface Duo looked promising, but loud complaints about poor photo quality, bugs, and old hardware saw it flop in sales. The Surface Duo 2 directly addresses all the complaints, but the device may be too flawed to fix.
In the corner of my living room lives my piano, a cat tree, and an unassuming black Billingham camera bag containing a film and digital body. The thing that connects the three is that they’re all static objects.
Razer today announced the Enki gaming chair and while the term "gamer" comes with a lot of baggage that will make many immediately ignore it, this one looks promising whether or not you enjoy video games. I mean, we all need to sit, right?
In 2016, after Apple removed the memory card slot from MacBook Pros, I complained about this loudly. “Everything is going wireless,” a since-departed executive told me, adding that there was no need for the slot anymore.
Photographers and editors regularly get overlooked when it comes to a wide range of products. Computers, accessories, you name it, we usually end up buying something originally made for someone else. Never has this been more the case than with our chairs.
In ways much like the chicken and the egg, it is tough to distinguish which came first, my love of photography, or my obsession with optics.
Facebook and subsequently Instagram thrive on interaction. The company is only profitable if it keeps you on its platform and it will do anything to keep you there, even at the cost of your own health.
Lighting as a thought process is fundamentally easy to apply to schemata. Water is not.
I recently brought the new iPhone 13 Pro to historic Savannah, Georgia, to shoot an entire new episode of my YouTube Photowalks travel photography series.
The “purple mountain majesties” which Katharine Lee Bates reflected on when writing the words of America the Beautiful, would likely be unrecognizable to her today.
While the broad strokes of what is wanted on a camera usually revolve around the imaging fundamentals -- resolution, ISO performance, AF, et cetera -- there are some functions of camera design that have a significant impact on creating that often can be overlooked. The aspect that I want to discuss today is that of balance.
I’m a pro photographer. Do I want the new iPhone 13 Pro? You better believe it. Based on what Apple presented, this is a big upgrade for us photographers.
Canon has spent the last five months hyping up its new sports camera and if there is anything to take away from it now that the R3 has been fully announced, it is that Canon has done a remarkable job closing the technology gap with Sony.
Live music and the resumption of public schools have become a flashpoint (1, 2) in the battle about masks and vaccines in the public sector. My son is homeschooled so I cannot speak to that, but I can speak about live music.
The overall measure of success for any photographer will likely be at least partially attributable to the effectiveness with which they are able to edit their own work.
A few of you may remember, but most might have missed it entirely: Around 2018, the mobile social networking app Vero experienced short-lived hype. Within a day the user numbers exploded from about 150,000 to over 3 million.
Is Apple actually snooping on your photos? Jefferson Graham wrote an article last week warning this based on the company's child safety announcement. An attention-grabbing headline? Certainly. Accurate? It’s complicated.
The photos on your iPhone will no longer be private to just you in the fall. The photos are still yours, but Apple’s artificial intelligence is going to be looking through them constantly.
Back when I was taking pictures just for the fun of it, I never once thought to optimize my preparation. There was no preparation -- no shot list, no scouting, no mood board. That all changed when making pictures became my job and my livelihood.
Among the most important concepts learned when beginning to ride a motorcycle is that of target fixation. This attentional phenomenon occurs when an individual becomes so focused upon an observed object (whether it is a target or hazard) that they inadvertently increase their risk of colliding with it.
The Digital Age has well and truly established itself and has transformed the photography industry in ways that seemed impossible just a few decades ago. Over the last several years, analog photography has been put on life support, only keeping a pulse thanks to a determined community of film lovers.
From my beginning days in photography, roughly 1969, I had the ambition to travel and make photographs. Somehow, I felt a great satisfaction in producing photographic art that came from within.
Nikon's recently announced Z fc is a camera that shows how not only can the company learn from and fix past mistakes, but also illustrate how it plans to succeed today as well as where the company can move in the future.
Photo organizing software Mylio (which stands for "My Life Organized") has re-emerged after nearly seven years thanks to a recent wave of updates and partnerships with influencers like iJustine. After a tepid launch back in 2014, is the service worth revisiting?
Like all major camera manufacturers, Nikon has different teams for different regions. As part of that, each gets its own budget to market new products, and comparing Nikon USA's choices versus that of Nikon Asia presents two wildly different approaches to selling the retro-inspired Z fc.
As reported recently here on Petapixel, the FAA has rolled out a new testing program for recreational UAV (a.k.a., drone) users, created to “provide education and testing for recreational flyers on important safety and regulatory information.” As with many government-mandated programs, it provides neither education nor safety.
As a landscape and nature photographer with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology, I often enjoy trying to blend the two disciplines to better understand the human experience as it relates to photography. One subject that particularly intrigues me is the impact of social media on photography and photographers.
With the increasing power of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence available on both phones and PCs, we have reached a point where it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between photography and composites.
The world clamors for our attention and technology demands our hard-earned money, but what has happened to the quality of the experience and the investment in ourselves? Our time is now owned by social media, competitions, and the need to prove how good and well-received our images are, usually to the detriment of the images and our self-confidence.
Today marks three years since the world lost one of its most interesting and likable public personalities. Anthony Bourdain was one of those unique souls that found a way to inspire people from all walks of life: Foodies, filmmakers, photographers, and casual travelers alike.
The development of personal vision in photography often gets mired in thoughts of what to avoid, the suppression of familiar ideas, and the desire to do something different.
Why do we create photos? Well, for a variety of reasons, but the one reason that connects them all is we feel we have made something that we want to share and we feel is worth time and attention. So, how can we create photos that are worthy of another’s time and attention?
I called the Google Photos photo sharing and management app the Turkey of the Year in my 2020 USA TODAY round-up of the apps and gadgets that screwed over consumers last year. Reason: Google Photos was free for all, but starting June 1st, it switches to a paid model after five years of bait and switch.
Long before photography was even a dream, people were trying to document the beauty of landscapes in a two-dimensional medium. From romantic interpretations of natural beauty to the realistic and mystifying Hudson River School painters, there have always been trends in how we see the landscape.
After almost five years in Germany, I've amassed an impressive body of work. I love many of the photos I have taken here, and some of them are even selling rather well. Yet, I have very few images to show when people ask me to show photos of Germany as most people are not into architectural abstracts.
When taking a look at Sigma's newest zoom in its Contemporary lineup, one can't help but draw comparisons to the myriad of other standard-range zoom lenses available. Let's be honest -- it doesn't break any new ground.
Last week I was in San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world on a video shoot for Kelby One on Crissy Field -- one of the premier spots in town -- at the foot of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge when one of my cameras was stolen right in front of me.
