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About Mike Kelley

Michael Kelley (mpkelley.com) is a Los Angeles-based architectural and fine art photographer with a background in digital art and sculpture. Using his backgrounds in the arts, he creates images that are surreal and otherworldly, yet lifelike and believable. A frequent traveler, Michael's personal work focuses on the built environment of unique

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Popular Articles from Mike Kelley
[Video] Ten Awesome Tips For Any Traveling Photographer
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If you read Fstoppers, you might be a seasoned professional, or you might have just purchased your first camera and are eager to learn. Whatever your skill level, I'm sure that you've all been bitten by the travel bug at least once before, and as a camera owner, you've been inspired to bring home the best you can when shooting in a foreign location. A friend of mine recently sent me a video made by DSLR Traveler which is packed full of tips for anyone interested in improving their travel photography.

[Tutorial] Light Painting Master Dennis Calvert's Techniques
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We've featured light-painter extraordinaire Dennis Calvert on Fstoppers before. Many of us were left wondering just how he creates those stunning images. Dennis recently wrote a post on his site detailing his method; be sure to view the full post to read more.
How to Photograph and Retouch a Hotel Room in 15 Minutes
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Last year at my workshop in the Bahamas, my students challenged me to photograph a hotel room in under five minutes. They then wanted to see how fast I could retouch it, and I've decided to do it again, this time capturing it on camera, to show everyone what is possible with only a few minutes on location, a bit of Photoshop knowledge, and of course a lot of practice in the art of previsualization!

Behind The Scenes With Wolfe Air And Their Incredible Flying Camera Platforms
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Last week I posted a gorgeous video from Wolfe Air - their promo reel for aviation cinematography, and explained a bit of the process behind it. This week, I've found and put together a few videos which detail how they equip their planes and helicopters with some of the most advanced camera technologies available, and it's pretty mindblowing. In these videos, Wolfe Air loads up a Learjet with

An Incredible Interview With The Master Of All Things Portraiture, Greg Heisler
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You've probably seen plenty of Heisler's work without knowing it, and it can be said that he is one of the contemporary greats when it comes to portraiture. His work has graced the cover and insides of many of today's largest publications, and he's responsible for creating countless iconic photos of celebrities. In these videos (part two is in the post), Greg gives some fantastic advice to photographers about getting new jobs,

BTS On The International Space Station: Discussing The Cameras, Techniques, And Difficulties Involved When Shooting In Space
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Astronaut Donald Pettit has spent more than a year of his life in space. Between two long-term stays on the ISS and a six-week Space Shuttle trip, he's racked up an incredible 370 days living, working, and photographing in the most hostile environment known to man. In this video, Donald shows us the techniques he's developed to create some of the jaw-dropping images and timelapses that he's created

Very Little Stars: Yet Another Amazing Timelapse That You Need To Watch
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Alright, seriously. I keep telling myself that I'm sick of timelapses, that I don't need to watch five minutes of clouds, or that I don't need to watch a million cars stream past at lightspeed. We get it, we've seen a million sunsets, we've seen the stars pan overhead as the camera moves on a dolly. And then I watched 'Very Little Stars' by Ben Wiggins, and I took it all back. Oh my goodness. This movie is

Shooting Architecture on Location With Mike Butler in Bogota, Colombia
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We've featured architectural photographer Mike Butler before, when he shot the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, FL. This time, Mike heads to Bogota, Colombia, to shoot the Virgilio Barco Library using a slew of hot lights and assistants. If you've ever wondered why it takes 8 hours to create a single architectural image, this BTS will show you exactly why.

[Video] An Almost-Vintage Walk Down Memory Lane For The 80s Kids
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Antonio Vicentini recently created this 8-bit gallery of cameras spanning pretty much everything from antique large format cameras through modern DSLRs. It's a cute, semi-retro, nostalgia-inducing piece for anyone who grew up in the 80s or early 90s. What I find most interesting is how many cameras I was able to recognize; though I'm not sure if that means I'm an uber-dork who has spent far too much time in front of old game consoles and camera websites, or I've just got a killer memory. How many cameras do you recognize?

[BTS] Behind The Scenes Photos of Iconic 'Star Wars' Scenes
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We recently came across this collection of behind-the-scenes photographs from the filming of the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi). To see Sir Alec Guinness working on his tan in a pair of oversize sunglasses, Chewbacca unmasked, and Carrie Fischer about to get intimate with C-3PO, check this out!

[Video] Stunning Nikon D4 Release Video
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Check out this beautifully shot video made by Corey Rich of Lake Tahoe, CA. The video shows off not only the incredible capabilities of the Nikon D4 (be sure to watch it in HD and full screen), but also offers inspiring footage of three athletes in action: Alex Honnold, a free-solo climber, Dane Jackson, kayaker, and Rebecca Rusch, an ultra-endurance athlete. The final product combines both time lapse footage and video footage, which according to Corey was recorded directly to CF, and all of the interview audio came directly off the camera. Now that I mention it, you might want to grab your headphones while you watch this video.
I Started a Kickstarter Campaign, and It's One of the Craziest Things I've Ever Done (Part 1)
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I've spent the last two years photographing Los Angeles from a Helicopter, in what is surely the largest project I've worked on to date. After a long, extensive and ultimately unsuccessful search for a publisher, I finally decided to scrap that idea and self-publish via Kickstarter. I'll be doing a series of weekly posts about what I've learned and just how insane this whole thing has been.

A Beautiful Look Into The Rarely-Seen World Of Aviation Cinematography
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Wolfe Air is a company that specializes in creating air to air footage for airlines, big-budget movie productions, the military, and private commercial clients, and they recently released their updated reel, which is absolutely mindblowing. Not many people think about what might go into these shots, so as the Fstoppers designated aviation photography dork, I've decided to write up a reader's digest version of how they're made.