You may already be familiar with Dustin Farrell. If you're not, you should be. His time-lapses are incredible. Dustin's shoots all over the world, but some of his most epic are from the American West. In this video, we get to follow Dustin on location in Utah and the step-by-step process that follows.
National Geographic contributor and wildlife photographer Steve Winter just created what might be one of the most striking photos I can remember seeing in recent memory: A 125 pound mountain lion, staring straight into the camera, with the background illuminated by the lights of downtown Los Angeles.
Whatever type of photography you focus on, I doubt there are many of us that aren’t mesmerized every time we pick up and thumb through a copy of National Geographic magazine. Over it’s lifetime, it's become synonymous with capturing images of people, places and wildlife that show us the undiscovered or hidden side of our increasingly homogenized world.
Kiliii Fish, Seattle-based commercial photographer, was always fascinated by how people interact with nature and how they use it to live their lives. Aside from being a full time photographer Fish is also an avid rock climber. Recently he decided to combine these 3 things he loves to a unique photography project showing the grace, power, beauty and vulnerability that goes into rock climbing. Kiliii spent days in each location and worked for months to complete the series. The results are absolutely amazing.
Whether we shoot stills, video or both, better utilizing light is probably the single quickest and most effective way to boost the quality of our work. I recently came across the beautiful work of cinematographer and DP Matthias Koenigswieser. If you love to shoot natural or ambient light and want to see just how beautiful applying lighting to achieve a natural light look can be, you’re in for a treat.
Strapping a GoPro to a moving object has become 'the thing' over the years. More recently, we've begun to see spectacular aerial footage of GoPro's mounted to small remote control drones, such as this video shot over New York City earlier this year. But every once in a while someone puts a GoPro on something that just makes sit up and you just go "WOW!" If you've ever dreamt of flying or soaring free like a bird through the mountains, this is the video you've been waiting for.
In wildlife photography, and being in the wilderness in general, there's always a risk that you'll meet one of the many wild and territorial creatures that calls it home. In this video, a photographer meets a (seemingly wild) pack of wolves that fight amongst themselves, yet remain gentle and affectionate towards him.
Django Greenblatt-Seay and JJ Dreier joined together to form Tree Speed, self proclaimed as "A of couple of Mid-Western guys who spend vacation time traveling the country shooting time lapse photography."
Based out of Omaha, Nebraska, the duo recently took to the road and self produced a 10 day trip to Utah to create a series of time lapse videos. In order of appearance, the team shot in Latuda, Utah (a ghost town), Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Lake Oahe.
While on a kayaking trip in the Great Lakes, I stopped just after sunset to shoot some images on the beach. The sky was still bright and very saturated, while the sandy ground was losing light and getting dark in my exposures. My kit was small, and I had no graduated ND filter, but I came up with something that worked well in a pinch.
“Philly is Ugly” is a timelapse photography project by Philadelphia area photographer, Nathaniel Dodson. He took an impressive amount of time to not only create this short film piece, but also to extensively document his behind the scenes process. When he sent this to me, I couldn't help but share this with you. In addition to the video, he provides a lot of info to help you learn everything that goes into creating a proper timelapse from pre-to-post production.
This behind the scenes video from Lars Schneider, would no doubt be a killer shoot to land.
The location for the outdoor catalog shoot took place in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies last September for Ortlieb, a company that makes various bags for outdoor activities.
Many times when shooting objects in an uneven light (usually outside), we have to choose if we want to expose for the darker areas, or for the brighter areas. This means part of the image will be exposed 'correctly' while the other parts will be overexposed (or underexposed). There are few solutions that can help us avoid these issues like shooting HDR or adding artificial light. But these solutions are not always handy and not always something that can be done. This great tutorial shows you how to fix overexposed highlights in only few minutes.
Where we’re going, we don’t have roads. The North Face sent photographer Celin Serbo on assignment to an area near Canyonlands National Park to capture stills of Alex Honnold, Daniel Woods, and Matt Segal establishing new climbs in a place called Labyrinth Canyon. In this post, Celin reveals the challenges of shooting a 10 day expedition, and shares his amazing images.
Last night, National Geographic Traveler announced the winners of their 25th annual photo contest, and as you can imagine, the images are nothing short of amazing. The prizes weren't bad either - the winning photographer received a 10-day Galápagos expedition for two - so one could assume there would be a lot of competition. The contest received over 15,500 entries. Of those, here are the top 11...
The Clown Fish wasn't always a famous fish that people recognize or know about, but thanks to Pixar and Disney, it became one of the most popular fish in the world. Visually of course, not on the plate. 'Nemo' is a bright orange fish with 3 white stripes. Easy to recognize, and great to photograph. The Clown Fish spends most of the day hiding in and around sea anemones, which make the photographs look even more epic. Check out these awesome photos of Nemo found on Flickr.
Every time I go to state parks along the lakeshore, I always see a few people with DSLR cameras walking around taking shots. Anytime there's an interesting bird nearby, it often becomes the subject of their attention. These colorful creatures are as majestic as they are quick though, and don't usually tolerate humans being too close to them. In this video tutorial from Tony Northrup, he shares many tips to get up close to birds in the field or even your own backyard.
Whenever I take a moment and look at landscape photography it's like a tiny escape. An escape from the busy commotion of the cities that we live in and the chaos of the people in those cities. Most landscape photography is calm and serene with a beautiful array of colors acting as a canvas. Photographer, Benjamin Edelstein known for his stunning work sits down with us to talk about what it is to be a landscape photographer.
Lowepro’s new DryZone bags come in two different models, a 40-Liter backpack (40L) and a 20-Liter duffel (20L). Lowepro has been making bags for years, and these are a new entry into their DryZone series. These new bags have an IPX6 waterproof rating, which means they can take a significant amount of water blasted onto them and keep your kit dry. Think rappelling through a waterfall or taking on some white water rapids in a small boat. This review will focus solely on my experiences with the 20L and how well it performed.
If you've been outside earlier this week, you must have noticed the gorgeous moon up there in the sky. Not only it was a full moon, but it was closer to us than usual. The 'Supermoon' is 11%-14% larger and 30% brighter than the normal-distanced moon we see every night. The reason for the change in the distance is the elliptical orbit of the moon around the Earth. Take the big-looking moon, add a telephoto lens, and you get some epic landscape and cityscape photos.
When was the last time you saw a spider, and decided to stop what you're doing and stare right at it? Or maybe take your camera and do a 1-on-1 photoshoot from few millimeters away? What most of us really do is somewhere between screaming, and jumping on the nearest sofa. But there is a small group of photographers that instead of screaming like a 2 year old, actually go and look for these insects. They find them and photograph them up close, and it's amazing to see how these tiny insects really look. If the insects you meet daily scare you, wait until you see this set of images.
In this short behind the scenes video, photographer Philip Lee Harvey takes to the sky, as well as the earth, for shooting images of Angel Falls in Venezuela. This expedition hits home with Philip, as he looks to follow the same path that an aviator named Jimmie Angel took when he became the first american to discover the area in 1933. With this backstory towing the line, Philip's shoot becomes that much more interesting of an adventure.
One guy in our industry that continually impresses me with his execution of beautiful environmental portraits is Joey L. One concept he has been wanting to shoot for sometime is some portraits of "artic explorers" but rather than fight with the elements of the weather he pulled it all off in studio. Read on to learn how it was done and what equipment was used.
Photographer Mike Olbinski has been visiting the Central Plains to shoot it's storms since 2010, and last week he encountered a supercell straight out of an apocalyptic thriller. The views in this timelapse are breathtaking! It's incredible to watch this massive storm tear through the fields near Booker, TX. There really isn't much more that I can say, just watch the video. Well done Mike! Amazing footage
Photographer Carlton Ward Jr. doesn't want to save the world with his imagery but he definitely wants to try and save Florida. Specifically, a wildlands passageway that connects the Everglades of southern Florida to the Okefenokee swamp in Southern Georgia. For 100 days in 2012, he, along with a filmmaker, bear biologist and conservationist, crossed the entire state in a continuous path using kayaks, paddleboards, bicycles, horses and their own feet. The visual chronicle was recently published as a book and broadcast as a PBS special.
"Coty Tarr is an active lifestyle photographer based in New York City," so says the not quite so lengthy bio on his website. On initial thought, one might think the concise personal description is a little off-putting, but to anyone that has ever met Coty, it is nothing if not an apt discriptor. In a world where many photographers feel the need for shameless overpromotion (not that there's anything wrong with that), Coty takes a more subtle approach, working tirelessly and letting the caliber of his images and his work ethic speak for him.
On May 20th, one of the deadliest twisters in known history touched down in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City. The Tornado caused catastrophic damage to homes (over 13,000 of them were destroyed), infrastructure, schools and a hospital. Take a look at these powerful images showing the aftermath of the deadly Tornado as found on (the new) Flickr.
Winners of the 4th International Earth and Sky Photo Contest, hosted by The World at Night (TWAN), were announced this week with some awe inspiring photographs.
TWAN is an international effort to photograph nightscape and time-lapse videos of the world’s landmarks. According to TWAN's website "The contest was founded by TWAN and Dark Skies Awareness project in 2008 as a regional
In this amazing split second moment of time, Travis Roe captured a bolt of lighting striking the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The once in a lifetime photograph was shot last year but recently surfaced after Roe submitted the image to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Thanks to redditor Gypp and his amazing sense of humor and creativity in photoshop, the world now has an abundant new array of animals to appreciate. How would you like a Guinea Lion or a Purilla to be roaming in your neighborhood? Which one would you keep as a pet?
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.
You submit your assignment images each year as a staff photojournalist at a major newspaper and never place in the prestigious Picture of the Year International competition. Then, years later as a freelance photographer, you win first place for a body of work that was undertaken solely as a personal venture. This is the story of Bob Croslin's self-assigned "Grounded," a portrait project of injured birds undergoing rehabilitation at a sanctuary in western Florida.
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.)
Pierre Carreau shot at high speeds to freeze the moving ocean waves, creating sculpturesque photographs of natures powerful movements.
Carreau works intensively on his project "AquaViva", a study of wave shapes. "I like the fact that this energy comes from far away to be revealed on our beaches." His facination with the waves started at a young age.
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.
This is the kind of story that just boggles my mind. IBM just released a Guinness World Record-setting movie called "A Boy and His Atom," made by moving atoms using an IBM-invented scanning tunneling microscope. It weighs two tons, operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times. IBM researchers used the microscope to control a super-sharp needle along a copper surface to “feel” atoms.
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.
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.
Yahoo's new weather app that was released today just replaced my Apple weather app, and probably for good. Why? Because it's outstandingly beautiful thanks to Flickr image integration. Rather than just showing bland vectors of sun and clouds, Yahoo has backed up their accurate weather forecasting with geolocated imagery from Flickr users. So pretty...
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
Bugs, rain, rough terrain and carrying gear– forget about all of that. Shift your focus and get creative all of a sudden. Think: how can you approach taking an image that you'll have just one chance to get, but also capture it in a unique way? One take is all Tim Kemple had, and using a Phase One camera, he scored this shot of kayaker Tyler Bradt going over a waterfall in the jungles of Mexico.
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.
Would you ever turn your back on a river full of roaming crocodiles while your cohorts chucked food into the water? I wouldn't either, but this photographer at the “Crocodile Bridge” over the Tarcoles River in Costa Rica, got a close look at one of the river beasts while perched in the grass.
Robert Capa said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” This might be an exception to that rule.
What do you think about him pushing the boundary?
This isn't the first time Air New Zealand has made waves across the internet. While their previous safety video featured hobbits, elves, and wizards in a Lord of the Rings inspired piece, this new video features wilderness survival talent Bear Grylls. In this behind the scenes video, you can get a closer look at the conditions and locations the crew had to work around, while having a fun time even while trying to keep warm on the mountaintop. Check the BTS, then click on for the final video!
Preston Kanak has been featured here before for his wonderful tutorials on time-lapse cinematography. Now, he's back with an all-new 3 minute short called, ' A Moment of Silence. Shot with the Kessler CineDrive, Preston explains in this very comprehensive behind the scenes video how the CineDrive functions and gives some amazing tips on how to push your cinematography to new heights. You can view the 3 minute short in the full post below. Enjoy!
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.
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.
Freddie Child-Villiers was invited as one of two photographers worldwide in November of 2010. "He was officially allowed to photograph the only White Lions to be successfully reintroduced back into their endemic habitat after being technically extinct for over two decades." The images in the series were shot with the Hasselblad H4D-50 for entry into the wildlife category of the 2010 Hasselblad Masters competition
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
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.
