Nature Photography

At long last, the scientific breakthrough many of us have long been waiting for: A pill that we can take to get us out of an editing slump, increase creativity, or help us deal with clients. But beware: side effects may include high blood pressure, insomnia, color blindness, neck pain, and occasional dizziness.

Photographer turned wet-plate artist Ian Ruhter basically dropped everything and cashed in his life's savings to follow his passion, morphing his van into a massive camera and making enormous wet plate prints as he travels the country. From hand-making the silver emulsion to the financial risks of shooting at a whopping $500 a plate, this video "Silver & Light" gives an in-depth

Shown at Sundance this year, the project called Bear 71 is unique spin on a documentary concept. Using an interactive graphical interface, the user can explore Canada's Bow Valley, and click on points of interest like wolves and bears. It's also a linear story being told through a warm, inviting voiceover, while video clips that move the story forward narrative are interspersed. The user fills in the gaps by exploring the valley and viewing images which give a glimpse into the hidden world of the wild.

Canon Explorer of Light Tyler Stableford is making it into yet another post on Fstoppers. This time, he was out on a shoot testing the capabilities of the new Canon 1DX DSLR and the 600 EX RT (currently available for pre-order) by shooting some action shots of alpinist Steve House working with some ice climbing gear. In this video, Tyler shows us how he is using the Speedlite to get the look he wants, while having some fun with the new 1DX.

Remember the World Press Photo contest winners from earlier this year? Well, World Press Photo recently introduced (just last year, actually) a similar contest for multimedia and video entries. The winner is a stark, harrowing, and sobering documentary view into the Kommandokorps in South Africa, an apartheid-era relic that still lingers in the country.

Adventure Photographer and Filmmaker Corey Rich prides himself on being an avid outdoor enthusiast as well as a world class visual artist. Featured recently on a project that put the new Nikon D4 through it’s paces on the Project “Why”, Corey has posted this new video that documents a team of 6 adventurers traveling to Northern Alaska to summit an amazing mountain range.

Randy Gregg has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of a digital camera that is built to look just like a hunting rifle. It's completely non-lethal, and pulling the trigger will store your images, complete with crosshair overlay, onto an SD card. For hunters and law enforcement this might be useful, but something tells me I won't see this in a lineup next to a bunch of DSLRs when shooting public events. Hit the jump for some renders of the product and Randy's Kickstarter.

Brothers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas make quite the team. They're wildlife photographers based in Britain who have devised some clever means to get closer to some of the world's most dangerous animals. In 2009, they created a remote-controlled camera nicknamed BeetleCam and set out to photograph animals in their natural habitat. Armed with the knowledge they gained from the first trip, they went back a second time, and their results are nothing short of stunning.

It goes without saying that besides the Superbowl commercials, we can pretty much expect the same run of the mill advertisements. Whether it's cartoon bears with toilet paper stuck to their butts, or of babies talking like grown adults, this commercial really blew them all out of the water. Advertising film director, Bruno Aveillan, (along with a crew of about 50 people) spent two years putting together this epic 3.5 minute journey celebrating the 160 year history of luxury jeweler, Cartier. 

Corey Rich was one of the first photographers to demo the new Nikon D4. His extreme athlete documentary "WHY" was one of the best product launch videos I've seen yet. Luckily for all of us, Nikon asked Corey to produce a behind the scenes video on how he and his crew filmed the various athletes for the short film. Watching this BTS video was one of the most inspiring videos I've seen in a good while. Not only am I pumped to have

How do you set up a 150 foot rope swing and not die? YouTube user Devin Graham went with a group of rock climbers to a huge rock arch in Utah, and put together a fun video showing everyone having a great time cheating death. The making of video shows how a glidecam was used to get smooth shots across rocks where a single misstep would have ended in “splat instant death.”

A relatively new 'sky sport' out there makes use of a wing suit. Want one yourself? You'll first have to log at least 200 sky-diving jumps just to buy one. Here, via Gizmodo, Jeb Corliss jumps on a beautiful day, but cuts it just a little too close... Luckily, for those that have the stomach for it, we have a first-person view thanks to a helmet-mounted GoPro.

It takes more than a nice a camera and an amazing landscape to make stunning images. Vimeo user Dana Saint traveled with his girlfriend for 5 weeks and didn’t just capture great footage, but he also wrote a wonderful voiceover to go with it. It starts a bit slow but picks up in the last few minutes, with shots going by so fast I had to re-watch it several times over again.

National Geographic photographer Boyd Matson takes us on a 25 minute journey through the 2.5-mile Hang Son Doong cave along the Vietnam-Laos border. This cave is 3 times the height of Niagara Falls and has a complete Jungle growing inside of it. If you have any interest in photography, biology, or geography, you have got to check out this video.

Photographer Lewis Carlyle at Sun Gallery Photography has been exploring some amazing landscapes and sharing their beauty in his series American Photographic. This video explores Garden of the Gods in Colorado, including info on the challenges of shooting there, as well as a history lesson. What landscape destinations are on your list to visit?

If you thought Jasper James's City Silhouettes were crazy wait until you see Ira Fox's Puddle Portraits. Using the natural reflections caused by rain puddles, Ira has captured the world in an interesting yet pyschodelic way. The results are one of a kind, and it just goes to show how thinking outside the box can pay off in a big way!

The filmmakers at Louder Than 11 shot this documentary in Yosemite Valley and have made it freely available for anyone. While most of this visually-rich film shows bouldering, it’s all about the stories of the climbers, including the filmmakers themselves, who talk about balancing their passions for climbing and filmmaking.

Everyone remembers the original Battle at F-Stop Ridge, the live-action camera battle that had camera enthusiasts everywhere laughing. The creators of the video, The Camera Store, in Calgary, AB, have created a sequel and I'm happy to say that it's just as awesome as the original.

French outdoorsman Sebastien Montaz-Rosset likes to play in the mountains. He discovered a second passion while there, which was shooting photos and videos. Sebastien has made some amazing pieces, especially for not having any formal training. These videos show his unique approach to getting some creative shots for his adventure films.

The BBC has produced some of my favorite shows of all time. Their newest program called Earthflight captures amazing HD video from the skies as they put you literally on the wings of wild birds. I really can't imagine how they got these shots of eagles stalking unsuspecting flamingos but it's definitely not filmed on a Gopro Hero.

Why does a group of creative artists take their gear on a 230 mile, 25 day backpacking trip? The Muir Project is why. This team not only creates masterful images in remote places, but they're able to endure rough terrain and heavy packs. Hiking for 25 days with a 75lb pack is crazy, but the images are certainly worth it.

This day at Teahupoo- Aug 27th 2011 during the Billabong Pro waiting period is what many are calling the biggest and gnarliest Teahupoo ever ridden. Chris Bryan was fortunate enough to be there working for Billabong on a day that will go down in the history of big wave surfing.

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 ISO sensitivity on today's flagship DSLR cameras is pretty amazing. They are so amazing in fact that for the first time, NASA is able to use Nikon D3 cameras to create night time timelapse videos as the earth sleeps. You've probably seen a bunch of these stunning videos here but now we are able to see who is responsible for capturing the raw images from orbit.

Inspired by Google's street view, Honda Civic is launching their 2012 campaign by creating an interactive 360 degree online experience that will let viewers explore unique environments that have never been seen before. This behind the scenes video is just a peek at what is to come and so far it is pretty awesome.

We first featured film maker and timelapse master Tom Lowe almost 2 years ago. This week he released another mind blowing trailer for his documentary TimeScapes (pre order your copy here). Tom's vision was to give viewers a modern look at the American Midwest in all of its glory, and it to say it's glorious is an understatement!

These days it's not surprising to find out that most of what you see in a movie or commercial is completely green screened or created with CGI. So I was pleasantly shocked when I saw the behind the scenes video for the outdoor clothing company Quechua's latest advertisement.

A week ago today, a friend of mine introduced me to environmental art photographer Jack Gescheidt. Minutes after talking with Jack about his Tree Spirit Project I knew I had to share his work with the Fstoppers community. Jack's photographs are unlike anything I've ever seen; yet even while they appear rather innocent, they still somehow strike up a bit of controversy.

Now this is clever. Victorinox makes a few fragrances and wanted to create an interactive video that shows just how fresh their perfume makes you feel. So they sent a crew up to Cauma Lake in Flims/Laax, Switzerland to film a 360 degree video UNDERWATER! To capture 360 video footage they used the new Yellowbird camera which works a lot like the Google streetview car.

A few months back I posted a video created by the team at The Underwater Realm showing how they created waterproof hotlights to be used on their feature film that is currently under production. Their entire movie is planned to take place underwater and the shots will be a combination of real underwater footage and studio work.

So I am going through some of the slow-mo HD camera options that are on the market right now for an adventure I will be taking soon, and I stumbled upon the new GoPro HD Hero2. On their site they have one of the illest trailers I have ever seen for a camera, and I had to watch it several times.

As we have said many times before, we are huge fans of the crew at StillMotion for their wedding work. In this video, the team steps outside of their standard job to shoot for Shedd Aquarium. They decided to film most of the project on the new Red Epic so that they could shoot at variable frame rates up to 300fps.

Videographer Jeff Newton is most well known for his work shooting war zones. When he wasn't being shot at Jeff decided to take up climbing as a hobby and through that heard of free climber Alex Honnold. After meeting Alex, Jeff was hired to film one of his giant free climbs.

In the video below National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones talks about looking for the "right answers" during every photoshoot. As professionals we are always put in the position to take the best possible image even if that image may not be easy to capture.

This video by Trey Ratcliff is a pretty cool idea. Trey traveled across the world in 80 days and documented his adventures with over 8,000 photographs. I hardly ever travel with a camera when I'm on vacation and even if I did, I'm not sure if I could ever force myself to take so many images in the moment. But then again I probably won't ever have anything this cool.

Awhile back we featured a popular video by Jeff Calbom in his Walk Across America commercial. Smithje77 recently traveled from Washington to Maine in 7 days. He was creative enough to take photographs every 90 seconds with his Droid X and piece them together in this fun video.

It seems every day someone is creating an interesting timelapse that shows something we've never seen before. This one comes from the International Space Station as it orbits around the earth at night. The video was made from using data from the Gateway To Astronaut Photography Of Earth and stitched together with the open software Virtual Dub.

Photojournalists have always struggled with balancing subject sensitivity with truthful documentation after horrible moments in history. Almost six years ago to the day, the United States was hit by Hurricane Katrina resulting in the most costly natural disaster the country had ever witnessed.

If you have seen Peter Lik's work in person then you understand that it's impossible to put into words the look and quality of his prints. Peter's photography (and his post production) is fantastic, but what really makes his work stand out is his printing and presentation. If his images were printed on standard photo paper at a standard size, his work would not have the same "wow" factor.

Footage like this scares the bejesus out of me but also makes me wish I knew how to surf. Tahiti is home of Teahupoo, the world's most dangerous naturally occurring wave. If you've watched the documentary Riding Giants then you've seen how monsterous these waves can become.

Tom Guilmette is now a pretty regular name on Fstoppers because his BTSVs in the field of video are some of the best we have seen. In the video below Tom travels out west with Eric Kessler to film BTS footage of some of the top timelapse shooters of our time.

A few weeks ago Reese Moore interviewed Jimmy Chin for her column the Fstoppers Spotlight. Her Fstoppers interview revealed a lot about what makes Mr. Chin put himself in harms way as he climbs, rappels, and base jumps from assignment to assignment. In this behind the scenes video, Jimmy talks about the changing culture taking place within the sport of extreme rock climbing.

There is no doubt that the RED's Epic video camera produces some of the most crisp and surreal footage you are likely to see at a reasonably "budget" price point. Up until now, the only lenses you could use with the Epic had to have the PL lens mount found on cine lenses.

This video is totally relevant this week after Ken's post "If A Monkey Takes A Photo, Who Owns The Rights". It's really interested to see this Silverback play with this video camera from 2 angles. The most shocking part of the whole thing was that he actually throws it back after he's done!

This video was emailed to us and I when I watched it I thought "wow I've never seen anything like this before!" We've all seen rainbows and you've probably had your fair share of experiences taking images of them. What's so interesting about this video is it showcases the elusive "moonbow" formed as moonlight passes through the mist created by waterfalls.

This video has been passed around the internet a good bit in the last week but for those of you who have not seen it, enjoy. It really goes to show you just how small and light GoPros really are.

It's summer time which means you probably are looking to get out of the house and find some adventure. For photographer Jerry Monkman that often means taking his DSLR cameras out with him on the water. In this short video, Jerry gives some great tips on how you can keep your camera safe from water while still keeping it within reach.

We have posted a lot of great time lapse videos here on Fstoppers but nothing quite like this. A standard time lapse by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado has been edited to show the earth moving and the stars remaining still (what is actually happening).

Vincent Laforet recently released a new short titled "Epic #308" because this was the first test footage taken with his new Red Epic camera with the serial number of 308. The footage was shot in California, from Big Sur, to Ft Bragg back through Mono Lake and Death Valley. Head over to Vincent's blog for the full gear list.