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A few months ago on the PetaPixel Podcast, we did a lens draft where we had to pick our favorite lenses from a whole selection of choices. Naturally, this came with a lot of research, and as we delved deeper into reviews and ratings, we found that the Zeiss ZM lenses were some of the most highly reviewed lenses for that mount. This piqued our interest, and I was determined to find out why these lenses appeared to be so beloved.

On an evening late in the season at Wrigley Field, a narrow beam of low sunlight reached the top step of the Chicago Cubs’ dugout. Pete Crow-Armstrong, the front-runner for National League MVP, was standing on that step, a spot he usually leaves to the team’s veterans, as the take-the-field video played. Team photographer Matt Dirksen saw the light land behind him. He had a few seconds to get the picture.

There’s a paradox at the heart of great photography: what you choose not to show your audience is often more powerful and provocative than what you reveal. In an age of oversharing and instant gratification, mystery has become the photographer’s secret weapon and perhaps the most undervalued tool of all. The unseen, the suggested, and the ambiguous can transform a literal photograph into an expressive one that haunts us long after we’ve looked away.

Shortly after sunset, the viewpoint parking lot at Grand Teton National Park begins to empty. The traffic moves on to the highway while photographer Matt Suess stays at the viewpoint. He keeps his attention on the western horizon, waiting for the color to appear. Thirty minutes later, color lights up the sky. Suess is the only photographer who stayed at the viewpoint long enough to take the photograph.

Pulling out a card to hold tons of data and capture ProRes video on an iPhone at a moment’s notice is exactly what the Lexar Muse is made for. Billed by Lexar as the “world’s thinnest portable SSD,” it shaves down to a single millimeter at its thinnest point and weighs a featherweight 40 grams. It’s thin enough to fit in a sleeve with your banking and ID cards.

Photographers often know how they want an image to look before they begin editing, but reaching that result can require both changes across the entire scene and adjustments limited to specific areas. Selecting one person in a group, isolating the midground without affecting the foreground or background, or removing dozens of dust spots can take longer than the exposure or color adjustment that follows. DxO PhotoLab 10 introduces new tools that make this process faster while giving photographers …

For 50 years, the Calibrite ColorChecker has been helping photographers worldwide accurately capture color. The ColorChecker's 24 squares have kept photos color-accurate, from family photos few will ever see to countless photos that have graced magazine covers, billboards, and museum walls.

The first time I visited Atlanta, Georgia, it was blisteringly hot, and I was there with Canon doing a review of the EOS 90D. Having now finished my second trip to Atlanta, it was still blisteringly hot, but I was able to spend much of the trip in the air-conditioned warehouse and retail front of KEH.

I love the 85mm focal length. I feel that when I walk down the street, the 85mm look is closest to the way I see the world. It's a great focal length for portrait work, shallow depth of field, and general street photography.

When Delkin announced the Valor Pro memory card last week, I had to admit the branding is certainly bold, but ultimately what matters is whether the performance backs it up. It was a lot, but in the end it doesn't matter what the card looks like, it matters how it performs.

At 1:45 a.m., photographer Maegan Lanham left camp and drove 54 miles down a backcountry road. She then hiked three and a half miles into a dark canyon, before gaining more than 1,300 feet to reach a ridge she had never stood on, for a sunrise that lasted minutes. She had no guarantee it would be worth the effort. That kind of dedication follows her everywhere, including a goal few photographers would think to chase, let alone finish: photographing every state park in Texas.

I had never before traveled to the largest Canadian city, and de facto capital, Toronto. However, a opportunity to visit this historic city provided an interesting challenge for me. Could I shoot a large and modern city with only one wide-angle lens and be happy with the results?

The Milky Way that arched over the Tetons looked nothing like the RAW file that came home. At two in the morning, on Matt Suess' camera, it glowed. On his computer the next day it was flat and gray, the core buried in noise, the color drained out. Every photographer who has pointed a camera at the night sky knows that gap between the glow on the camera and the flat file the next morning. Getting that glow back is the real work.

PGYTECH has built a reputation for designing camera accessories that sit between professional function and everyday usability, and the OneGo Roamer Tote Backpack continues that approach. Available in both 18L and 25L versions, it is designed to switch between a dedicated camera backpack and a more casual tote-style carry solution.

Looking to upgrade your content creation kit for less? SmallRig's Prime Day sale includes major discounts across tripods, lighting, batteries, smartphone filmmaking accessories, camera support gear, action camera accessories, and creator-focused tools, with savings available on many of the brand's most popular products.

Over the last few decades, most photographers have believed that the more powerful the editing tool, the longer they need to spend behind a screen. Selection tools, color grading, and creative effects require layers of manual work and patience. A major update to one of photography’s oldest plug-in suites broke that pattern by taking the editing problems most photographers have accepted as unavoidable and building tools that solve them.

Six in the morning on the Brooklyn Bridge, and New York City is something it rarely is. It is quiet. Not empty, but quiet. Dan Aragon is standing on the walkway watching the light come up across the East River. The bridge holds a few early walkers, runners, and cyclists. A ferry is just starting to move on the water below. He has not raised the camera yet. He is still enjoying the silence.

In March, Jaron Schneider and I traveled to Japan for press coverage at the CP+ photo and imaging show in Yokohama. After four days covering the show, we had a decision to make: go home, or continue the trip and head somewhere else. So, we decided to go north.

Photographer Matt Suess was halfway through a 45-minute star trail exposure in Joshua Tree when he noticed a hazy band stretched across the sky. He had grown up in New England, where light pollution hid the Milky Way, so he didn’t know what he was looking at. He pointed his camera at it. It was Suess’s first time seeing the Milky Way, but the photos came back soft. Decades of night shooting later, understanding why is the kind of lesson only experience can teach.

For many photographers, their photos look good on the camera’s LCD. The exposure is right and the scene looks exactly how it was envisioned. That confidence lasts until they open it on a larger screen and zoom in.

Wildlife photographer Tiffany Taxis had been sitting with a bear and her three cubs on the Alaska coast for hours when the large animal went rigid. She stopped nursing. Her gaze became focused and she started to drool. Thirty yards away, a lone wolf stood against the glaciers. Every photographer's instinct would say the same thing: zoom tight, fill the frame with the wolf. Taxis did the opposite. She pulled wide, trusting her storytelling instincts that years of art school had taught her.

Most people dread receiving their monthly electric bill. For a Colorado Springs man named Thomas, however, receiving his first utility statement in his own name was cause for celebration. After six years living in a tent on the streets, Thomas now has an apartment, a job, and a piece of mail worth framing. Through a decade of work with Springs Rescue Mission, Thomas’ is just one of the many stories of transformation that photographer Aaron Anderson has documented in an ongoing project …

Chris Poplawski doesn't believe in specializing. The OM SYSTEM photographer and USC business graduate left his corporate marketing career over a decade ago to pursue travel photography full-time alongside his wife, Meagan. Together, they've photographed more than 30 countries, built an impressive client list, and led workshops around the world. Poplawski calls himself a "jack of all trades," comfortable with landscapes, wildlife, portraits, and commercial work. Above all, Poplawski has a gift …

After 15 years reviewing cameras, Chris Niccolls knows gear. The PetaPixel YouTube host has tested every major system and built a reputation for making technical knowledge accessible. But knowledge and skill are different things. When Niccolls recently traveled to Costa Rica with fellow PetaPixel host Jordan Drake to learn bird photography from experts Ben Knoot and Ken Martinez, he found himself in the role of learning again, chasing shots he couldn’t guarantee and loving every moment of …

A few months ago, I traveled to Vietnam with my family, and I only had 11 days to experience as much of the country as I could. From the chaotic energy of Hanoi’s streets, to the preserved stillness of Hoi An, the calm waters of Ha Long Bay, and the temples of Da Nang, each place felt visually and emotionally distinct—almost like traveling through different worlds in a single trip.