Mike Kelley

Associate Editor, Architecture & Interiors Photographer http://www.mpkelley.com +Mike KelleyFacebook
I'm currently a Los Angeles-based architectural and interiors photographer. I graduated from the University of Vermont with degrees in environmental science and digital art, and after graduating, I moved to the Lake Tahoe area to follow my dreams of becoming a professional snowboarder. While I was fortunate enough to have traveled all over the world competing, injury eventually forced me to consider a different career. Shortly after, a chance encounter led me from full-time hobby photographer to full-time working photographer (funny, this life). I had always been interested in photography, but never imagined that I would be working as a full-time photographer, and I'm very excited to be able to share my knowledge of architectural photography, lighting, compositing and retouching with everyone who reads Fstoppers.

Flash Vs. HDR For Interiors And Real Estate Photography, Part II: Mood And Color Case Study

About six months ago, I wrote a piece comparing flash techniques to HDR and ambient-only techniques when shooting for architecture and interiors clients. There was some great discussion involved and many valid points raised, and I’d like to take a few minutes to bring up another scenario that really shows the benefits of using flash whenever possible when dealing with interior or architectural situations. [more]

Announcing The Winner And Runners-Up To The Fstoppers Portrait POTD Contest!

After looking at all of the great submissions for our April POTD contest, it took a few weeks to narrow them all down and come up with commentary for what were some outstanding photos. Like I said in the original post, it was truly humbling to have people from all over the world send us their images to view and judge against others. It was great to see images from all over the world of various cultures and places, and I’m happy to announce that we’ve finally settled on our top portraits and the winner of the $100. [more]

Zack Arias Claims That The DSLR Is Dead As A Result Of The Fuji X100S

We’ve all heard of renowned portrait photographer Zack Arias – not only is he a great shooter, but he’s got a reputation for making some bold claims. Make no mistake that the Fuji X100S is a great little camera. Small, compact, feature-packed and with great image quality, you’ve probably heard quite a bit about it lately. But just HOW good is it? Zack Arias says that it’s so good, in fact, that the DSLR is dead. Check out the video and let us [more]

Ian Ruhter’s Silver And Light: ‘When Dreams Collide’ Is An Inspiring Retrospective On Being A Modern Artist

Well-known wet plate artist Ian Ruhter has just released the fourth installment in his ‘Silver and Light‘ series, which chronicles his trip to Seattle to meet with Chase Jarvis, his journey to becoming an artist, Chase Jarvis’ very frank thoughts on what being an artist [more]

This Street View Hyperlapse Is The Coolest Thing You Will See This Month

Yes, that is a bold claim, but hear me out. Sometimes something so creative yet so painfully simple comes along and just blows me away. This timelapse/hyperlapse video created using Google Street View is just one of those things. My mouth was agape the entire time I was watching this. Teehan+Lax Labs created this project by recording Google Street View movements all over the world and [more]

FS Reviews PhotoBoothSF, A Portrait Studio Specializing in Tintypes And Vintage Film Processes

I have been absolutely fascinated by wetplate processes for a while now: I find the medium absolutely unlike anything else in the world of art and photography, and the one-of-a-kind results from this hand-crafted process are simply beautiful. When I learned that there was a studio in San Francisco that specialized in taking collodion (tintypes, specifically) portraits of clients, I absolutely had to have one done. [more]

Fstoppers Announces The POTD Contest: Enter Your Shot To Win A $100 Gift Certificate to B&H

Over the past few months, I’ve been looking at how we can improve our POTD feature to make it more, well, awesome. For a while now, we’ve been taking your submissions and combing through them to find some interesting shots. But we’re going to change that up a bit. We’re going to turn it into a contest format for a month, and the best shot takes home $100 at B&H for doing nothing more than sending us an image. [more]

Behind The Scenes: Matt & Kim’s Hilarious, Creative, and NSFW Video For Their New Single, ‘It’s Alright’

Not only is this video hilarious, NSFW, cute, and lovable, but we also get an awesome look behind the scenes at the cameras and filmmaking techniques used to create it. Matt & Kim, you’ve knocked it out of the park on this one. Check out the video by clicking to the left, then check out the BTS video inside the post. Oh yeah, the song is super catchy too! [more]

Fstoppers Reviews The CamRanger: The Best Thing To Happen To Shooting Tethered…Ever.

For the longest time, I’ve been using a 17″ Macbook Pro for tethering. The big screen is great. Everything else, however, was a nightmare. I recently saw some colleagues of mine raving about a new product called the CamRanger, which allows you to tether to your Android device (April 2013), iPad or iPhone to your camera and had to try it out, as any solution that would resolve my near-daily tethering headaches would be fantastic. [more]

PocketWizard Plus X: PW Shakes Up Flash Trigger Market With New Product Offering

PocketWizard has just announced the addition of a new trigger to its lineup: The PocketWizard Plus X. Priced at $99 (and already in stock at B&H), the Plus X offers much of the same functionality and reliability as PocketWizard’s much-beloved Plus II and Plus III, but with a simpler, no-frills interface and a gentler price. Read on for the spec list, a mini-review, and my thoughts on the new unit.

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Karst Country: A Haunting Infrared Timelapse Of The Australian Countryside

Karst Country is a collaboration between artists Glen Ryan and Phil Ryan that has resulted in some absolutely surreal infrared imagery. This timelapse, shot with both RED Epic and Scarlet cameras at 4k resolution, is a joy to watch. I always find it so refreshing to see when new techniques are integrated into timelapse movies. For a few BTS images and some musings from the creators, be sure to check out their blog, which can be found here.

DC’s Air.Craft Is This Week’s Beautiful Example Of High Budget, High Octane Cinematography

DC Shoes collaborated with FMXer Robbie Maddison to create this beautiful short of Maddison at an aircraft graveyard which has been converted into a playground for the moderately insane. The film is chock-full of amazing cinematography, created with a number of big-budget cameras, and the color grading is just sublime. DC has confirmed a BTS [more]

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