Nature Photography

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. After watching the behind the scenes video, click the full post to see the final interactive campaign and you yourself can smell like a clean lake from Switzerland.

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. Anyone who has ever shot anything underwater knows that the deeper you go, the bluer the image becomes. With a little bit of color work you can create a much more pleasing looking image. Fast forward to 4:00 for the goods.

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. This isn't an ad for the camera and I am not saying that this is the one I will buy, but man what else compares? With that said, watch this trailer, it really is rad to see what kind of punch that tiny package can deliver! (that's what she said)

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. In the video below, they take us behind the scenes of the creation of this project. Check out the full post to see the reel from the shoot.

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 quick video below Jeff takes us through his setup for his segment for 60 Minutes in which he filmed Honnold climbing without any sort of safety gear on a massive rock face. The setup alone took 2 days and a huge crew of people to pull off.

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. Dewitt explains what it takes for him to not just get a decent shot, but continue to get the "right" shot over and over in every situation. How confident are you that you can deliver amazing photography in any situation?

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. Click the the full post to watch how Trey made this video.

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. The video is no where near as complicated as Jeff's version but it's still fun to see how much the landscape changes across North America. This reminds me of the time my family drove from Alaska to Maryland and down to Alabama back when I was a kid. I'd love to see someone create another video like this but travel through some more extreme terrain like the Rockies or the Arizona desert. Always remember, just because you only have a camera phone doesn't mean you have an excuse not to be creative!

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. It's pretty amazing how much light pollution makes it to each exposure and look carefully for bursts of lightning over the Pacific Ocean. Props to the person who spots the satellite that makes the frame as well!

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. Photographer Richard Misrach went down to New Orleans to capture the devastation and the human response from the terrible event. This documentary gives an interesting perspective into the eyes of a photojournalist in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's pretty amazing to see both the reoccurring responses from those affected within the community as well as humorous responses after such a life changing event. As a photographer it was also interesting to see how a 4 megapixel point and shoot camera came to be the main storytelling tool throughout Richard's documentary.

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. I'm not sure that Teahupoo is actually larger than Peahi or Mavericks but it must be called the most dangerous wave for a reason. This video was shot with the Phantom in all it's slo-mo glory. Click the full post to see more footage in real time as 32 of the world's top surfers try to wrangle the beast.

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. My personal favorite is Tom Lowe and we haven't heard much from him in the last year because he is still working on his timelapse feature film. Check out the video below to learn from the best.

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. He and his fellow climbers explore Yosemite National Park as he captures images for National Geographic. I dabble in climbing and think base jumping would be a huge thrill but I'm not sure I would ever have the guts to even hang with Jimmy for one day if this is his typical photoshoot. Check out 2:40 for some interesting off camera lighting while climbing!

On Assignment from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

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. Recently, photographer turned videographer Vincent Laforet was able to demo the new Canon lens adapter which allows the RED cameras to use most of the EOS mountable lenses. In the video below, Vincent shows what the RED/Canon combo can do out in the field. One particularly interesting combo is the Canon 600mm f/4 L lens mounted with the 2x Canon Teleconverter. Some estimates give this combo a 35mm equivalent of 3400mm with the crop factor but I think it's actually a bit less than that (the RED should have around a 1.2x crop factor depending on the file output). Either way, the footage is pretty amazing and super exciting if you dream of using RED gear down the road with your existing Canon lenses. Any idea how he shot the video in low light? Looks like the lens would be at least at f8 which is almost unusable in anything but bright light.

One Degree from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

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. Yosemite National Park is known for it's amazing rock formations, waterfalls, and forests but few people know how beautiful it can look after the sun has set.

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. Using the camera system made by Cotton Carrier, Jerry is able to keep his camera snug against him and out of the way. If you prefer to get a little more wet and wild, you can always opt for our personal favorite underwater housing by Iwa-Marine. I'm not going to give away the ending of this video but I'm sure you will find it as scary as I did watching Jerry casually rowing along during this video. Any of you guys doing nature photography that requires this sort of thing?

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. Check out the full post to see the finished product and head over to Vincent's blog for the full gear list.

A few weeks ago we posted a video by SLR Lounge that we called "The New iPhone Fashion Shoot." In that video a reflector was used to light a model and the results were fantastic. In the video below Pye takes us through a few of the ways that you can use a reflector to get similar results.

Many of you may know what a polarizer does in theory, but you may have never seen a side by side comparison like this. The video below from OliviaTech does a great job of showing examples of this filter in use. If you shoot outside, or reflective subjects, a polarizer like this one is a must have.

When I first saw this video I was completely blown away. Michael Levin is an outstanding black and white landscape photographer. Recently Michael teamed up with Brad Kremer to produce the most artistic behind the scenes video I've ever seen showing a day in the life of a photographer. I really really wish there was more technical information to this video but unfortunately like most landscape photographers their secrets are hard to pull from them. Brad shot this whole video on a Canon 5D Mark II and the highly praised Dynamic Perception Dolly. Michael is primarily shooting on a Hasselblad body but that shouldn't come as any surprise. Make sure you check out Michael's portfolio -- much of his work features spectacular locations around Japan.

Ben Canales is one of those photographers who enjoys taking photographs in total darkness. He also enjoys shooting when the skies are the clearest and the stars are the brightest which also happens to be when it's freezing outside. At some point you have probably seen these amazing night images and maybe you have even tried your hand at a few. Well Ben has a made a rather simple but exhaustive tutorial on how you too can capture the earth and the skies at night. Some of his tips like the 600 rule and how to easily setup a nice composition in near darkness are really insightful and almost makes me want to try my hand at a few long exposure shots next winter. Check out his other star tutorials, and hopefully this post helped you forget about the blazing summer heatwave going around!

You feel butterflies in your stomach, adrenalin in your viens and joy in your heart. As a photographer this means you either just fell in love OR you just got, "the shot". Marc Montocchio of Occhioinc.com sent me his video of how he fell in love... no wait, of how he got the shot, shown below. Come to think of it, he does seem pretty obsessed with marlin so it's hard to tell either way. And for all you gear heads who want to know what camera Marc uses and how he got the cover shot for the Feburary 2011 of Marlin Magazine, read the full post.

Over the weekend, one of our readers sent us this amazing behind the scenes video for the bicycle saddle manufacturer Brooks England. The basic concept for the photoshoot was a couple saving a fox from a bunch of hunting hounds while out in the British countryside. Photographer Frank Herholdt and his team had to balance two models, a tamed fox, four hounds, forest smoke, well placed studio strobes, and the natural elements to pull of this classic looking image. This is such a great example of taking your photography to the next level by pushing your concept and focusing on production value rather than just lighting a simple subject correctly. If any of our readers have any opinions on one of these saddles specifically, let us know on our Twitter because I'm in need of a new bike seat myself!

In the video below writer Ransom Riggs gives us an artistic tour of the Salton Sea in California. With a tripod, 5DmII, Steadicam Merlin, 24mm, and 100mm, Riggs creates a powerful look at a deserted town in desert of California.

Darren Samuelson created a "great big camera." Although it isn't quite as big as another camera we have featured on FS, it is still just as interesting. Darren's camera shoots on 14x36inch X-Ray negative film.

Darren's Great Big Camera from SULTAN on Vimeo.

Below is a fantastic TED Talk given by David Griffin, the photo director of National Geographic. David gives us a unique look at how Nation Geographic's images come to be and he also explains the power of photography in general. As David says, even the most average amateur photographers will take a few amazing pictures in their lives.