Pictures

It’s almost impossible to sign into Vimeo without getting sucked into the latest and greatest timelapse video. It’s easy to understand why these videos find such great success. They allow the viewer to experience something incredibly surreal, yet familiar. Something as simple and beautiful as a sunrise can now be devoured in seconds.

I've been using a product called IndieMats for over a year now and I absolutely love them. My wife and I are big DIY'ers and decorated our daughter's room with them by creating a large collage of funny photos at a fraction of the cost of traditional frames. It's an awesome new way to display your photos with unique wall decor.

Over a year ago we wrote about Brandon Stanton's project named 'Humans of New York' where he photographs random people in NYC and post the results on his blog (and Facebook). Back then his project was still small and not-so-known, but today he has millions of followers and each one of his photos go viral within seconds of posting. Brandon just released his first book this week featuring his best 'Humans of New York' photos, and to promote it, ABC's 'Nightline' spoke with him about his project - worth watching!

Jaime Moore's daughter, Emma, turned 5 recently. As a photographer, Jaime wanted to do a special photo shoot to mark that day. Having no ideas or inspiration, she turned to Google to search for ideas fitting the young age of 5 and get some direction, but the only ideas she could find are how to shoot young girls as Disney Princesses. Jaime decided that instead of shooting "unrealistic fantasy" characters, she should shoot real powerful and iconic women. This makes for a great series and also very educational for her daughter.

Before my trip to Russia in August I wrote about what we should keep in mind when choosing our clients. While in Moscow, I photographed my own best clients and I thought it would be very interesting to find out how we, photographers, get chosen too.

Needless to say, there are many factors that influence relationships between creative professionals and those who hire them. But I thought that interviewing my own clients could be a great case study and we all could learn something from their answers.

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.

When I first started shooting, I would spend absolutely no time planning my shots. I would focus tons of time and energy into every other aspect (location, wardrobe, mood, etc) but in some weird turn of events, it must have slipped my mind that the end goal is "The Shot." How that slipped my mind still baffles me. Instead of putting in the effort to plan what my actual finished images would look like, I found a model, found a location and showed up on shoot day with a plan to wing it.

It's nice to have friends from far off places. Especially when they are talented, hard working photographers who have something interesting to share. Such is the case with Helsinki-based photographer Anders Lönnfeldt. Anders started out working in radio, TV and short films but these days his focus is on commercials, music videos, portrait and concert photography. In this post, Anders demonstrates how to knock out character rich portraits for a magazine

Game of Thrones has got to be my favorite series on television right now. Its rich storytelling, amazing character development and stunning cinematography has entranced millions of viewers around the world. Season 4 doesn't premiere until spring of next year, but instead of just catching up with George R.R. Martin's books take a look at this awesome fan-made film centering around Ned Stark's younger brother Benjen who goes missing after the first book.

Grand Theft Auto 5, which launched yesterday, is the most expensive video game ever produced, at a cost of $250 million of production and marketing costs. It also set records for day one sales. Most of the short time I played over the last day was spent inside the house one of the one of the main protagonists. I moved from room to room and realized I’d just spent almost an hour trying to work out how to position the character for best dramatic lighting effect. As I stepped outside and watched the sunset and saw the lighting change, it got me thinking - can Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 5 actually help us to improve our photography?

Exactly one week ago we marked the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. As they do every anniversary, The Municipal Art Society of New York created two vertical columns of light ("Tribute In Light") right next to the World Trade Center in remembrance of the Twin Towers using 88 powerful searchlights pointing up to the sky. Every year I photograph the Tribute In Light from a different spot, and this year, for the second time, I decided to photograph it from above. From a helicopter. Here is how and why I did it.

Dani Diamond is a talented portrait photographer based out of Connecticut and is also an active member of our Fstoppers Facebook Group. His headshot work is impeccable and eye-catching. Recently Dani has started a personal project coined simply as "The Project." His mission is to find fellow photographers from around the world, take their headshots and challenge his craft under the scrutiny of his talented peers.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to stare down the barrel of a gun? Well Toronto-based photographer Peter Andrew teamed up with art directors Simon Duffy and Derek Blais to show us. The series, “Point Blank”, features iconic handguns in high-resolution "portraits", some of which are printed as large as 4×8 feet. In order to achieve the incredible detailing in these shots Peter used

In my work, I do a lot of traveling for shoots and one of the most tedious and difficult parts of going to a new place to produce a shoot is the location scouting. There is a reason that people can turn location scouting into a lucrative profession. It is very time consuming, costs money (gas) and is constantly changing (because of season, construction, whatever).

Since joining Fstoppers I had planned on doing a "behind the scenes" of one of my shoots, so today I've put together a lighting diagram courtesy of Kevin Kertz, and a detailed description of how the finished product was produced. Fair warning, I am a bit of a technique nerd and can get pretty detailed. We've all seen diagrams online, and brief descriptions on what goes where, but it seems there are always details left out that can significantly impact the results. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to leave no stone unturned and give you guys as accurate of a diagram and explanation as possible.

Just about every day I read a comment from a photographer complaining about Facebook making their images look terrible. There are hundreds of websites that have done tests and posted results to show what they feel is the best resolution to post your images to Facebook. Rather than run a bunch of tests I am going to keep things simple and tell you exactly what has worked well for me.

Tomer Jacobson and Maxim Golovanov, conceptual photographers based in Israel, recently started a very interesting project together: they take songs they like, and transform them into visual photographs. They analyze each song, and try to understand who are the characters and what is the story behind them. Their most recent song-photoshoot was "Lost In The Flood" by Bruce Springsteen and the E street band. This was a complicated shoot and it involved shooting out in the water with a lot of equipment and many people. Check out the behind the scenes video and the awesome final result inside!

Smoke machine (also known as 'Fog Machine') is one product most photographers don't own or have access to. Many believe it is just too expensive to buy one, but the fact is, you can get a smoke machine for just $29! Those machines are not just good for parties and concerts, but great for creative shoots. Adding smoke can add depth, texture and drama to your images. Check out these 18 great photos using smoke machines (or smoke bombs).

I grew up as part of the generation of photographers that developed film (or had a lab develop it) and mounted photos in family albums. At the time, I would remember thinking it wasn't a particularly special exercise or the photos themselves weren't particularly amazing. But how many of you remember the feeling - often years later - of finding those same 'mundane' shots and nostalgically revisiting the past? Wasn't that a powerful and often wonderful feeling?

As a wedding photographer, the engagement session is probably one of the best ways to get to know your clients before spending 8 or more hours with them on their wedding day. These sessions are about the two of them as a couple and how they fell in love. Most of my sessions are held about 2 hours before the sun sets, but what about when you have a couple that wants to shoot at sunrise? I have to admit, I hardly ever get up any earlier than 9 AM most days, so the thought of being functional at 6 AM was terrifying. But the results? The light was beautiful and completely worth it.

Some people go through life and aren't sure how they can take their photography to the next level of giving back. There are many programs and non-profits such as Help Portrait and Operation: Love ReUnited, but nothing that you can say you did or created. Well these 16-year-old brothers decided they would do just that and create something worth remembering.

Since 2007, Red Bull has hosted an international action and adventure sport photography contest called Red Bull Illume. It's where fifty winners are chosen every three three years from tens of thousands of photographers around the world. The winners were unveiled at a grand ceremony in Hong Kong on August 29, 2013.

There is a fine line between having a well defined photographic style, and constantly putting out the same stale, boring work week after week. A fine and dangerous line. A line that can make the difference between being a successful, inspiring photographer and a photographer who has lost his audience and has even lost interest in his/her own work.

A few years ago we featured photographer Kevin Kozicki in a behind the scenes video using pointsettias for a beauty shoot. Kevin is back with an amazing glamor photo and video shoot with filmmaker Christopher Park in a beautiful pool location using the Phase One IQ180 that was featured in Sessions Magazine. We had the opportunity to speak with Kevin and get his insight on the shoot.

It felt like yesterday that we featured Underwater Dogs. Seth Casteel took those incredible photos and it definitely was a really memorable series of animal shots. How could you not love them? In fact, Seth is such a great animal photographer that he didn't just stop there. He's created some great tips on photographing animals for the intent of getting them adopted.

Certainly, we've talked about how to always protect your photos and watch for thieves. In fact, Fstoppers' very own writer, Noam Galai has had his photo stolen, and turned into one of the most iconic pieces of pop art in the last 15 years. So what happens when Samsung foolishly awards a fraudulent submission a Samsung NX300 camera?