Landscape Photography

Time and Google have created an astounding, multi-decade animated timelapse of the Earth. It is nothing short of amazing the amount of satellite photographs that has been collected and crunched. Trillions of pixels of satellite data which until now, have not been available to the public. Locations around the Earth can be searched and viewed through the latest project Timelapse: Landsat Satellite Images.

Guest Writer and photographer Phillip Schmidli wanted to harken back to memories of the movie ET with this stellar shot of the moon. To do so, he placed a model in front of the full moon and shot with a telephoto to recreate that famous scene from the classic film.

Seven months ago I shared the trailer for a documentary about French Landscape Photographer Alexandre Deschaumes, as he creates stunning landscape images all over the world. His travels have taken him to Patagonia, Iceland, Austria, and more, while the time he spends in nature is the time where he seems to get the most creative. The hour long documentary is finally available (for a small fee.)

Astrophotography is one of the most interesting types of photography, but it is also one of the rarest ones. Shooting galaxies, stars and planets is among the the hardest forms of photography, and in order to do it you need to get the right equipment, and also the knowledge and techniques.

DSLR Video pioneer Vincent Laforet partnered with Canon to create a 4 part instructional video series where he shares many great tips for getting started with shooting timelapse sequences. He takes viewers with him on a shoot in Bryce Canyon and explains his setup, and also goes in to detail on: finding a subject matter, lens selection, how to calculate properly to get enough frames, using intervalometers, and so much more. This is loaded with tons of great tips, a must watch if you do any timelapse work.

Being in the right place at the right time is often critical for making iconic imagery. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is always in the right place for creating powerful landscapes of planet earth. In a video released yesterday by the Canadian Space Agency, Hadfield demystifies his photographic process for capturing stunning landscapes of the planet from the International Space Station.

Tim Kemple has "always been an adventurer, an explorer, a climber", but how did he make the transition into being a photographer? A new web mini-series from F-Stop Gear is setting out to tell the story of outdoor and adventure photographers. In this premier episode, Tim Kemple shares his background while running around the mountains in France, and he explains what it takes to capture images in those environments.

Ok so many of you will not be fond of this technique. That is totally your preference. But for those of you who like good HDR photos, the guys are PHLEARN show a method that will teach you a method to get faux-HDR final images that will make some of your images go from good to great.

We all have been in the situation. A great shot pops up through a building, plane, train, maybe even a submarine window and you snag it. Only to see after that you got more of your reflection then the scene. Well photographer and web designer Michael Courier has a simple DIY project he discovered while preparing for a train trip.

Extreme action photographer Alexandre Socci and a team of professional kayakers Pedro Oliva, Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic do not seem to fear much.

The crew can be seen here pushing the boundaries by paddling through Hawaiian waters to get up close to Kilauea Volcano, one of the world's most active volcanoes. The footage and stills were created for a television show out

Brock Whittaker, a landscape photographer in Phoenix, AZ recently decided to take it upon himself to look at some of the unknown and dated telephoto lenses that can be bought on eBay for ridiculously cheap. Among those, he was able to pick up a Sigma 400mm f/5.6 APO, Five Star 500mm f/8, Sears 2x Teleconvertor, and a Generic 3x teleconverter all for $50. His findings, were actually quite impressive.

While many aspiring photographers work for a long time to reach their goals, it's often the journey to get there that is the most interesting story of all. This short video from Vertical Online reveals a thoughtful and inspirational tale of one landscape photographer's experiences from going broke to making amazing images.

Creating panoramas with your DSLR is not too hard to do, but it takes time and effort, and it's something you dont always want to spend time on. Also, we photographers don't always take our equipment with us everywhere we go. With the (kind of) new iOS its now easier than ever to create on-the-fly panoramas on your phone. Easy as snapping a picture. And surprisingly - the results can look pretty awesome. The iPhone is capable of capturing images up to 28 megapixels in size, which is pretty big and can be printed really nicely.

Just recently a friend of mine posted some rather stunning images on his Facebook page. While vacationing in Vegas, Réjean Brandt, a very talented fashion photographer from Canada decided to take the opportunity to organize a portfolio shoot. The photos taken at Red Rock Canyon were beyond splendid to say the least, and I quickly jumped on Réjean to get behind the scenes details for an article on this very site. The next day the images were abruptly taken down. Why? Because Red Rock Canyon threatened to seize his equipment if he didn't.

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.

Last spring, I met a group of 4 cyclists planning a 35 day epic adventure from coast to coast across the US. Their goal was to cycle over 100 miles a day, resting only one day a week, in order to raise awareness and funds for the poor and needy in Burundi, Africa. I decided it would be awesome to tag along and film their journey.

Some people love filters. I personally really like neutral density filters and I know there are those who swear by UV filters. For those of us who love these little glass lens enhancers, we have to separate from that love when we use ultra wide-angle lenses. That is, we used to. Not anymore thanks to Fotodiox’s Wonderpana system which is designed to give us the freedom to use those filters even on convex front elements.

By stitching together 48,640 individual frames, a new image, taken for the BT Tower in London, has broken the record for the largest panorama in the world. The image was taken using a rig of seven Canon 7D cameras, each equipped with a 400mm lens plus extender. What does this mean? Well, if you live in London, it means a lot of people are going to be able in look into your window.

In this behind the scenes video, you can get a glimpse into the production of a short film and a series of spots for Cabela's new outfitter line. Tyler Stableford directed this project, and Anson Fogel was one of the Directors of Photography. The work done by their team resulted in some spectacular images that portray the connection that outdoor enthusiasts feel with their natural world. Click on for the final short and links to the interview series.

The Aurora Borealis (Also known as "The Northern Lights") is a light glow of the upper atmosphere caused by energetic particles that enter the atmosphere. There are 2 main colors associated with the glow: Green and Red, but because of limits of the human eye, we cant always see the red aurora. In order to see the aurora, the sky must be clear and dark, and to get it on film (or sensor) you need to shoot long exposure (between 10-30 seconds, depends how bright the Aurora is). Check out this collection of great images showing this phenomenon.

One of the greatest challenges when creating art is being able to create something visually stunning while maintaining the integrity to your message. Often, one must suffer for the other to thrive, and blending them both can be a challenge within itself. Jony Karlsson was able to merge those two perfectly, with his beautiful and heartfelt short film entitled Balance of Life.

If you've been wanting to get an aerial perspective but dont have a clue how to fly an octocopter, check out the new LA100 by Lehmann Aviation. They've designed a drone that flies itself while an attached GoPro records the flight. After take off, the drone follows a preset flight pattern for five minutes and gives an excellent view of the surrounding area. While the usefulness for creative filming is severely limited by the lack of variety in flight path, it's a fantastic idea for hobbyists who want to get a birds eye view.

Now here's something I've never seen before. Photographer Mark Gee shot this footage of the moon rising in real time at Mt Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand. The video, shot with a Canon 1d Mark IV, 500mm lens and 2x teleconverter from over 2km away used the extremely long focal length to create an incredibly surreal look, which silhoutted

Man-made air pollution is everywhere and it's woeful. There is no one we can blame for it. we all contribute to the destruction of our world - if its by using cars, smoking or using different kinds of sprays. But as any bad thing, man-made air pollution can help creating striking images that are both beautiful and sad. Check out these great images of air pollution found on Flickr and think of what Michael Jackson once sang: "What have we done to the world"?

As creatives, sometimes we struggle to find that spark that ignites the fire of our motivation. Whether it's a feeling we've hit a plateau in our skills and abilities, or maybe when personal matters overwhelm us and life just gets to be too much and we lose focus of our goals... Every once in a while I find that a piece of art can be the primer for that fuel to focus my mind and energy. One such video that did that recently is Revelation, by Sebastien Montaz-Rosset.

Timelapses aren't just for moving clouds and the northern lights (but they sure are pretty) but in fact their use for studying earth sciences is becoming a key part in learning more about our landscape and using the images to educate and inform the masses. I interviewed Forrest Pound of San Francisco based Kontent Films, who was tasked with building custom timelapse rigs to document parts of the Colorado River. He has shared this DIY project step by step, so read on to learn more.

Clients, deadlines, prints, taxes, insurance, equipment maintenance, paperwork... these are all responsibilities that can quickly fall on a full-time professional photographer's shoulders; the weight swiftly dragging you to the floor. Between trying to make a living and trying to be creative all at the same time, sometimes it's hard for us to just, 'stop and smell the roses', but it's important to. Let me tell you why.

Sergey Semenov recently won the 2012 Major Amateur Award at the Pano Awards (for panoramic photography) for his interactive panorama of NYC, made up of thousands of aerial photographs stitched together from numerous helicopter tours up above the big apple...

Adventurer Dean Potter is the subject of a Nat Geo project called "The Man Who Can Fly". For part of this project, filmmaker Bryan Smith with shooter Michael Schaefer worked on this stunning clip of Dean doing a highline walk in Yosemite with the moon filling the sky. Read on to find out how he got such an amazing perspective.

As photographers, we sometimes tend to make tight compositions and make the main subject in the photo take over a large area of the frame. We feel that if its important, we need to focus on it, make it apparent and zoom on it. Sometimes, zooming out or stepping back and making your main subject take only a tiny area of the frame, can do magic to your images. Check out these great images of minimalism found on Flickr.

"In A New Light" is non-profit that uses nature photography to empower, teach, guide, and ultimately change the lives of it's students- students whose background often includes struggling in school, abusive homes, and general hopelessness. Both the photos captured and stories told are simply inspiring. Read on for an interview with Ben Thwaits, pro photographer turned teacher for IANL, and to see some of the students' impressive work. A Kickstarter to publish a photobook along with stories of the students is in the making as well.

Created by David Breashears this past spring, this gigapixel image shows some incredible detail of the Everest and Khumbu areas. If you look in the lower center, you can see the sprawl of Everest base camp, with the Khumbu Glacier icefall curving from just above the basecamp up towards the mountains. Apart from being visually stunning, images like these could prove useful for expedition planning, given their immense detail. Via GlacierWorks.

Photographer James Balog has put together a documentary called "Chasing Ice," which we featured last October, designed to look at the controversial issue of climate change. The video here is the trailer if you haven't yet seen it, but I stumbled upon another video of the largest iceberg breakup ever caught on camera over at The Guardian.

This past November while on a trip to Colorado, I had the chance to meet up with Celin Serbo, an outdoor lifestyle photographer whose client list includes the likes of Nikon, Backpacker Magazine, Nat Geo Adventure, and First Ascent, among many others. We spoke about the challenges of capturing images in the field, the importance of being business-savvy, and the obstacles of incorporating filmmaking into the services he offers.

How many times have you seen an amazing timelapse project, and wondered where exactly the photographer was when they recorded their exposures? Or maybe you wondered what they had to do to get to such an amazing vantage point? Sean Goebel created his timelapse film "Epochs" and documented the location and equipment details for most scenes. Sean told me some about his background, and links to his work and shot setups are also inside.