Nature

I always watch aerial videos; there's just something about them that really stands out to me, so my bad for another aerial video. In this video, "Perspective," we see nature in a very different way. Drones are tools that give us the freedom to film and photograph from the air. These tools allow us to change our perspective and create imagery that is new to our eye. In this video, Jay really captured some content that we don't get the opportunity to see. He does a great job controlling the camera, panning, flying and shooting in a unique way.

Drone Videos are slowly becoming more and more popular as the drone market seems to endlessly expand. Consumer drones now seem like one of the most popular items for people to buy for themselves or as gifts for others. I walk around and see “drones” in 7/11’s and other random stores with the advertising “HD Video.” These tools are becoming so popular that almost anybody can get one and start flying around.

Fripito is a new mobile application made for photographers, by photographers. With many travel guides catering to the casual tourist, the creators of Fripito wanted to have a resource where professional photographers could research and plan their shoots for a specific destination, while also offering information on transportation, food, lodging, and so on.

London-based Sports and Portrait Photographer Levon Biss wanted to see how he could take his commercial lighting techniques into the world of macro photography. After attaching a microscope assembly to the end of his DSLR lens and getting some samples from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Biss was able to achieve extremely detailed, high resolution three-meter prints of 10 mm insects.

Now that everyone's feeds have been flooded with typical Earth Day stock imagery of beautiful rolling hills, ocean waves, and lush trees, Photographer Joe Freeman takes a darker tone and shows us the harsh reality of what future generations will see if humanity continues on the same devastating path.

Documentary Filmmaker Janssen Powers makes me want to go to the mountains immediately. The beautiful Pacific Northwest is on amazing display in "Muir Song," an ode to naturalist and conservationist John Muir. Fittingly released on what would have been his 178th birthday, Powers takes us on a beautiful journey through the mountains and sea. If after watching this video you haven't booked your tickets (or if you're lucky to live there and don't go outside immediately), there is truly something wrong with you.

I've been feeling pretty cool lately. I've been making some time-lapses and doing a lot of aerial work. It's hard not to feel cool when you're taking shots from 300 feet in the air. Then, NASA came along and made a time-lapse 250 miles up in space. I no longer feel cool.

Adventure, outdoor, and eco-sports photography has had a surge in popularity over the last decade. Rapidly growing social media outlets like Instagram have narrowed a spotlight across specific arenas of interest. Many photographers are making a living on the outskirts of the grid creating mesmerizing imagery of U.S. National Parks, remote foreign territory, and backcountry destinations only accessible by highly technical off-road transportation or arduous hiking. With the flux of imagery and surge of outdoor brands promoting a simpler lifestyle more closely connected to nature, more photographers are taking to the outdoors to create imagery that communicates a love for nature.

Reportage seems to be a genre where feminine qualities are seen as an obstacle rather then as an asset. I sat down with French photographer Audray Saulem who proved them wrong and listened to her experience shooting an epic race of 210 kilometers in the Sahara over 6 grueling days.

"We all have the ability to be creators of hope," notes Conservation Photographer Thomas Peschak. Take ten minutes to explore the world of a man whose work embodies that every day.

We have finally made it to the end of our behind-the-scenes series of Elia Locardi's “Photographing the World” tutorial. In episode 18, we continue our travels through New Zealand as we hike out 4 miles to the base of Mount Cook for an interesting astro photography lesson, the team celebrates the end of this trip with a skydiving session in Queenstown, and Lee and I say our final goodbyes to Elia and Naomi Locardi.

The smaller size, lighter weight, and ability to get a high angle shot has made the monopod a useful tool for many photographers and videographers, especially for subjects like sports, wildlife, and run and gun situations. I got to review the new 3Pod Orbit Monopod to test its features on a couple of different projects to see how it holds up to real world shooting scenarios.

Photographing The World Behind The Scenes continues today with Episode 17. This is the second to last episode in our series. In this video, we head back to New Zealand to photograph astrophotography with Elia Locardi.

Photographing The World Behind The Scenes continues today with Episode 16, our final few days in Cambodia. In this episode we visit a gun range, we fly in a hot air balloon, we ride an elephant, Patrick eats "happy" pizza, and we have dinner with our tuk tuk driver's family. We also get to see the most spectacular sunrise of our lives.

"Undisturbed Places" is a time-lapse film by Maciej Tomkow. This breathtaking four-minute film transports you to some of the most beautiful uninhabited places in the world. Tomkow presents them in a way that creates a sense of awe that I didn’t think possible. I had previously seen another award-winning film created by Tomkow, "Treasures of Zakynthos." This film covered a relatively small area, focusing on the Greek island of Zakynthos. Tomkow has taken that same masterful vision and technique and applied it to a vast array of locations around Namibia and Botswana.