Humor

Hailing from Seattle, portrait photographer Ben Lucas put together this amusing video pitting his talents as a photographer against those of an actor pretending to be a professional photographer. The lights are set up and the camera is the same, the only thing that changes is the person taking the pictures. How big of a difference can it make?

I'm sure by now, many of you have heard of the one and only Casey Neistat, filmmaker and YouTube extraordinaire. He has a following of nearly three million subscribers on the platform and growing. He even won "YouTuber of the Year" at the Shorty Awards. He is obviously one of a kind and an incredibly polarizing creative, but who will be the next big star we look to for photo and video inspiration? Her name is Sara Dietschy; you will want to check her out.

We've all been there. Our creativity is stagnant, our work has ground to a halt. We begin to convince ourselves that if only we had that new lens or body, we'd be creating world-class images again. Of course, the moment we actually buy that new piece of gear, the reality that our photos are not suddenly transformed sets in. One man had just such a realization, and the result is hilarious.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a video editor? Well, look no further. The team at Lixi Studio created this informative, and flipping hysterical how to video, so that you can learn what it takes to edit film.

The DJI Phantom is the most popular drone ever made. It's cheap, light, and easy to use. It seems like everyone has one and therefore we have seen some hilarious crash videos with them. The Inspire 1 is a different beast though; it's the "professional choice" and it's very heavy and extremely rigid. This poor girl takes one to the face.

The relationship between those who fly drones and those who don't has sometimes been a rocky road to equilibration, as these flying cameras often find new ways to annoy, confound, and anger the general public. On the same token, the general public continues to find new ways to express said disdain when confronted with a perceived intrusion. Apparently, medieval spears are now a method of that.

Fauxtographers. Everyone knows what that means, commonly associated with Mom-tographers and GWC's. Basically someone that self describes as a photographer with no basis or experience to warrant such a title and in some extreme cases, people who have for long stretches of time have made claims of being a professional but have not improved their methods or techniques past what that little green square on the camera does.

Watch YouTube star Julien Solomita follow behind-the-scenes as fellow YouTuber Keaton Keller of Tech Smart reviews the new DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter obstacle avoidance feature. As a review, it isn't to be taken too seriously with Keller attempting to fly the drone into a tree, branches, a tripod, and finally himself.

When Arizona-based Photographer Chad Castigliano set out to help his wife's non-profit organization, Books To The Rescue Yavapai County, he had no idea that his photoshoot to raise funds and awareness would spread like wildfire. Fortunately for Chad, his good friend and model for the project was Wildland Firefighter Tim Wilson.

There have been several posts on Fstoppers over the years extolling the virtues of the pre-shoot location scout. Knowing your location in advance not only helps to keep the crushing dread of a possible creative block to a minimum, but your confidence and decisiveness carries across to your clients. They start to see you as a god of light, a master of scene. But sometimes, location scouts don’t go as planned: sometimes, it rains, sometimes, you don’t plan for a gigantic Buddhist festival to be taking place, and sometimes, you accidentally bring a two year-old.

"Hey, I just got this sick Phantom drone, dudes!" Everyone gathers around in awe. "Hold my beer; we're going fishing." This is how I imagine the conversation went down for this ingenious video of fishing for longtail tuna with a drone.

Vancouver-based filmmakers, Jason Lucas and Matt Dennison, are all about trying to make quality videos. They're also all about trying to help you make quality videos! In this seven-minute video the IFHT (I Focking Hate That) crew run down 32 steps on, "How To Be A Filmmaker". Even though this is actually a tongue-in-cheek comedic short, rather than educational guidelines, it totally falls in the the realm of, it's-funny-cause-it's-true.

Ah, the selfie stick. And here we were thinking this was a new invention! Taken in 1934, Helmer Larsson and his wife, Naemi Larsson, show true human ingenuity as they pose for a portrait together in Wermland, Sweden, using a literal selfie stick. I think this is the first photograph I've seen where a selfie stick doesn't make the user look like an absolute tool.

Thanks to Sony's latest attempt at recapturing some of the DSLR market, in favor of their feature rich compact digital cameras, I'll never look at my Canon 5D Mark III the same again. Watch as an angry, over opinionated DSLR, muscles its way through a leisurely photo-walk, only to be outdone by a happy and helpful Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV.

I ought to precede this piece with the disclaimer that it is meant as "photographer humour" and must be taken as tongue-in-cheek. That said, my tongue is so furiously pressed against the inside of my cheek I’ve developed ulcers.

Swimwear Photography with Joey Wright Behind The Scenes continues today with Episode 3. In last week's episode we started filmed the first lesson of the entire tutorial but in this episode we cover 3 full days of filming.

The Gustaf III airport in St. Barts is considered the third most dangerous airport in the world. Airliners of many sizes come roaring in for a landing only a few feet over a traffic circle that stands on a hill. The departure isn't much better as planes cast shadows over sunbathers by merely a few feet as well. On this particular landing, a private plane comes a little too close for comfort to an enthusiastic photographer.

Swimwear Photography with Joey Wright Behind The Scenes continues today with Episode 2. In last weeks episode you were able to see our journey from the US down to Curacao. In this episode we finally begin filming lessons with Joey for this swimwear photography tutorial.

Best or worst idea ever? April Fools Joke? While this might be the perfect zombie slaying device ever created, a Finnish video production company decided to have some fun with their multi-rotor UAV and the results are awesome.

We're no strangers to drones here at Fstoppers. They provide opportunities for shots that were unheard of just a few years ago, which we take advantage of quite often in our work. Along with that, though, they create an entirely new way of working, and with that often comes some rather spectacular fails.

Sometimes we all take for granted the sheer wonder of the tools at our disposal in this industry. Sometimes what it takes is transplanting those tools to a world a little further removed from technology, and sometimes seeing it through the joy and amazement of a childs reaction is exactly the perspective that is needed. That is exactly what Mark Brandon Smith did when he flew his drone for a group of school children in Uganda and their reaction to it will put a smile on your face.

I can remember when I first got my 36 MP Nikon D800 a few years ago. I actually bought three of them, and I took them out with two assistants to shoot a 10-hour wedding... in raw. We came home with around 3,000 images. That worked out to 180 GB of files I had to transfer, edit, and then save forever. It was a time-consuming process to say the least.

Our second tutorial with Elia Locardi: Photographing the World: Cityscape, Astrophotography, and Advanced Post-Processing was all about different types of cities. We started in Cinque Terre, a region of Italy where cities are basically built into the side of a natural landscape. We then moved on to Rome to shoot ancient architecture. Next we moved on to Singapore and Hong Kong for something a little bit more modern.

Nothing makes for a great photo like an equally impressive moment. Whether it’s an outpouring of jubilation, a solemn, tearful lament, or the grasping of victory, a one-of-a-kind moment is a photographer’s best friend. So, why not make some great moments for yourself, even if it pains you (or some of your friends) to do so? Enter Photographers Ofir Abe and Ben Saar.

We first saw the trailer for "The Boy with a Camera for a Face" some three years ago. And while it may seem like director and writer Spencer Brown took his good old time, (at least for those of us who were waiting with bated breath), you'll be glad he did. The resulting satirical fairy tale, narrated by Steven Berkoff, is beautiful, humorous, and grim and speaks to how we live our lives in today's media-driven society.

This short film is a great piece of satire, aimed at some of the stereotypical characters and views found on an indie film set. Couple that with a concept that is ridiculous, yet believable enough to be true, and you've got gold. This humorous short takes you behind the scenes of a film shot using only the Toyota Prius backup camera.

The next time you're having a rough day thinking about how all your photography is looking the same, the competition is stiff, and bookings are down, remember that there are photographers out there taking pictures exclusively of the male anatomy and translating those into $10,000 limited edition prints.

Our behind the scenes journey around the world continues today with episode 10. This episode takes place in Rome Italy as we film three separate lessons for our "Photographing The World" cityscape tutorial.

Leave it to a German drone company to create the world's first light painting by drone with a fully programmed flight path, all to create one fantastic holiday time-lapse of Santa Claus delivering presents. Perhaps the most unique part of the project isn't the world-first of programming a drone to complete a multi-colored light painting, but is instead the reimagining of Santa Claus' method of delivery, as something more similar to that of your neighborhood newspaper boy with perfect accuracy.

Social media and online content can make everything look a little more perfect than it actually is. Hồ Anh Đức of Vietnam has created a hilarious video that gives us a true to life behind the scenes experience. As photographers many of us can probably relate to manipulating reality in order to show a better version of our selves or our circumstances.