Community Photos

I'm starting to wonder when Ben Von Wong sleeps... Not only is he constantly producing great work, but he is also constantly producing amazing Behind The Scenes videos to accompany them. In his latest video Ben takes us behind the scenes on his shoot with the band SX in Belgium.

Multimedia Artist Josiah Moore had always wanted to do a fun wedding picture when he and his wife got married. Well that opportunity came, and his wife agreed to go along with it! Armed with only a couple of props, he told the photographer his idea, and after the wedding Josiah got to work in photoshop to turn his wedding day into something out of a horror movie.

It's that time of the year people can get into character, and dress up as someone else (and yes, make fool of themselves). This is also a great time for photographers to go out and look for interesting looking people, and take photos they normally couldn't take. Check out these 20 great photos found on Flickr of people in costumes and let us know which are your favorites.  

There is something truly magical about sunrises. That orange glow in the sky, that yellow haze, or just the fact no one is out there. Its just you and the view. Call me lazy (maybe?), but I just cant bring myself to wake up at 4am or 5am to photograph, or even just look at a sunrise. At least some people are crazy enough to wake up early to shoot it for all of us to enjoy.

A few months back Victoria's Secret accidentally released a dozen unretouched photos from a shoot with supermodel Doutzen Kroes. We shared those images in a post on Fstoppers and it caught the attention of many of you. The retouched versions of those same photos are now out. Let's compare the results!  

The Barclays Center opened 2 weeks ago in Brooklyn, and it's one of the most beautiful and exciting arenas in the world to date. It's a huge project that will make that part of Brooklyn very attractive, and will bring many sporting and music events to the area. But for fans and photographers, their Facebook policy might cause some anger.

Perfect travel or street photography is a delicate concoction of the right place and the right time mixed with a superb eye for the extraordinary. William J Palank is one of those individuals who managed to brew that concoction with a supernatural elegance.

There are a few ways to photograph motocross in action, but one of the best is to use a high powered strobe. For his latest shoot in NamJi, South Korea, Manchul Kim takes a couple of strobes to the track and sees how close he can get to the action.

There is nothing better than seeing happy people around you - doesn't matter if they're family, friends or total strangers. Seeing happy people will make you smile, and this is why this week we are featuring 15 awesome pictures of happy people found on Flickr. Check them out and let us know which are your favorites.

Street photography is the kind of photography most of us don't usually like doing, but its probably the kind of photography we appreciate the most when the pictures become old. Its always amazing for me to see how people live, or lived, in other places or other times.

Sam Kaplan, a New York-based product and still life photographer, was inspired to create a series of photographs of an object that is often enjoyed in the bedroom rather than on a gallery wall. Sam decided to change all of that, and his series 'Insert Here' takes the taboo and transforms it into an exploration of line, form, and color: Dildart, if you will.

Forgive me for the non-linear article to follow, but this is my first evaluation of the transitive properties of the figurative "E" and it's marginal utility in the life of the Nikon D800. Whereas others may tell you which camera can photograph grass or your pet Weimaraner, I would like to talk about the real life application the D800 has to those of us that call this hobby a job. 

What does it take to turn a blue BMW M5 into a bullet? A little of this, and a little of that, but mostly it takes a team of talented individuals with a dream and the know-how. With a limitless imagination, impeccable understanding of light and meticulous attention to detail, photographer/director Marek Glaser and Big Block digital productions took the imaginary and made it reality.  

The universe is estimated to be 13.7 billion years old, and a recent composite of images taken on NASA's Hubble Telescope show 13.2 billion of those. Earth years, that is. Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

As a wedding photographer, there's a certain amount of pressure to get all the "key moment" shots throughout the day. Make sure you get the kiss, dances, tosses, cutting, etc... The list adds up quickly. Despite good preparation, dependable equipment, and anticipation of events,  every now and then you're probably going to miss one of these shots. 

We've seen behind the scenes videos of how projection mapping can be used artistically and commercially. Tobias Bjorkgren takes on a slightly different angle and applies the concept to his latest fashion shoot. The use of projection allows him to stand his models in front of varying scenes without having to leave the studio. To see the final images, check out his blog.

There is just something about portraits of people looking out the window - doesn't matter if its in a building, train or car. Its something we do all the time, but never really pay attention to it. This is why seeing these awesome images capturing this quick-everyday-moment is really great. It makes you think. What are they seeing? What are they thinking of? are they happy? sad?

Update: Warner Brothers has asked us to remove the images.

Stressed at work or need a break? Seriously, put your feet up and enjoy. There's nothing that will relax you quite like some gorgeous scenes of nature put to some dulcet piano notes. John Eklund took this series of time lapses at multiple locations throughout the pacific northwest shooting around 260,000 images.

Now available on Netflix, "Shooting Robert King" goes behind the scenes of what it was like to be a documentary war photographer. You always hear and see images from the war but NEVER about what it's like to be thrown into it as a documentary photographer. At just 24, American photojournalist Robert King began his 15 year journey to follow his passion.

I have never been a huge preset guy. I love having total control over my images, so presets were never really a big thing to me. I also love shooting film, and no matter what kind of tinkering I do in Photoshop I never really nail that film look with my digital files. Then I discovered VSCO Film.

Kim A. Thomas, a photographer out of San Francisco, recently shot an entire wedding using just her iPhone. She processed everything using Instagram as well. The couple, Jonathan and Brandi, wanted her to do so by request. She never used an SLR for any of the shots. Her main camera was the iPhone 4s with an iPhone 4 as a backup. She did use an SLR mount for her lenses and a tripod.

For once, I'm going to keep my mouth shut. I'll let NASA do the talking on this one, and then let the picture speak for itself: "Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center.

11 years passed since that horrible day on September 11, 2001, where 2,996 people lost their lives and many more injured in the biggest terror attack in history. Since that horrifying day, every year on the night of 9/11 - NYC's sky is being lit up by 2 beams of lights as a memorial for the twin towers. Check out the best photos of 'Tribute In Lights' found on the net.

Camera/video tech is becoming ever more sophisticated to the point where we now have cameras that can recognize and track faces. So, how long will it be before we start seeing cameras that can completely change a person's face in-camera? Never going to happen you say? Tell that to Arturo Castro and Kyle McDonald.

Photographer John Keatley takes us behind the scenes of his latest series "Bad Coffee" and gives us a great look at how it was shot. He gives us some really interesting insights into how he deals with the with the myriad of ideas that come from working with retouchers, assistants and make up artists on a big shoot.  

Photographer Bob Carey has taken the fight against cancer into his own hands with the most unusual of tools: a man-sized pink tutu. By creating a combination of whimsical and emotionally charged self-portraits, Bob's project tugs at the heartstrings and spreads awareness in a humorous, yet touching, way. Check out the amazing photos and story in this video, which was produced by PocketWizard.

Lighthouses are a pretty rare thing to see these days - every time I see a lighthouse, I feel like I went back in time to late 19th century or early 20th century. Check out these 20 magical images of lighthouses found on Flickr.

If you have your own images of lighthouses, feel free to share them with us on our Facebook Group.

Photo: Tim Poulton.

About a month ago, you might recall my bitter disappointment with Canon’s new 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens. Aside from being light, it presented very little else that I could see as a positive. So my search for a great pancake lens continued, eventually leading me to the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2 SL II Aspherical lens.  

Hard to believe summer has come and gone, eh? Well, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere. You guys gave summer a smashing farewell, as the images we've seen in the Fstoppers Facebook Group were downright stupendous. With now over 5200 members, we're swimming at the deep end of the talent pool. Here's the best from August!  

If you've ever wondered about a simple, travel friendly time lapse setup, check this out. During his recent time in South Africa, Chase Jarvis was able to use four different cameras to capture time lapse sequences over the course of two hours. Not only does Chase break down the settings he uses, he also explains how time settings of his camera will translate to a final product at 24 fps.

Photographer Noah Kalina was one of the first people to make a viral video on Youtube, back in 2006, when he posted a clip made out of self-portraits he took of himself for 6 years. He called it "Everyday", and got over 23 Million views. It got so big back in 2006, even the Simpsons made a parody about it.

Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) portrayed working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. The Library of Congress' National Child Labor Committee Collection includes more than 5,100 photographs that came with the records of the organization.

We've been featuring a lot of space-based photo news lately, and for good reason. Since the Curiosity's landing on Mars, there has been a renewed interest in life beyond Earth. That, and NASA has been rockin' it with some seriously cool stuff. Like this, a photo captured by the Hubble Space Telescope of a supernova exploding 80 million lightyears away.  

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and I am new here to Fstoppers. I really got into photography by documenting hardcore shows (as in hardcore punk rock). I first encountered Manny Mares on a message board for this genre of music. During this summer I have watched Manny continuously post images from a series he has been working on called "Summer in America."  

For the past 30 days NASA spammed the Internet with Panoramas or regular format pictures from Mars. Any news site I read features new photos from Curiosity every 2 days, 20% of the tweets on my feed are related to photos from Mars. Yeah, Its awesome to see photos from other planets around us, but to be honest? Earth photos are way cooler.

Most of us probably use Photoshop on a regular basis. We've almost taken it for granted and it has made life a bit easier for us when it comes to correcting images. It's hard to imagine a world without Photoshop where people still modified and manipulated photos. These images exemplify that and will be a part of a showcase put on by The Metropolitan Museum Of Art.  

"Nightfall" is one of the most recent works by photographer Colin Rich, who photographs the transition from day to night over the massive city of LA in a stunning way. Colin utilizes some fantastic camera movement which really adds a dynamic element to the work.

Ontario ceramic artist Steve Irvine took this wickedly wonderful long exposure that had me drawn to it like a moth to a flame. If you haven't figured it out yet, these are moth trails at night, shot infront of a flood light. 

When off duty, Officer Gared Hansen enjoys shooting (photographing, that is) nude models as mermaids and other magical beings. But when his department found out about the extracurriculars, they suspended him -- Internal Affairs even looked into him after that. Naturally, Hansen sees it as a fun hobby. But the SFPD says that it reflects poorly and in bad taste upon the department... 

Talented Magnum Photographer, Christopher Anderson, experienced something that completely changed his life. In June 2000, while traveling in Haiti, he met writer Michael Finkel and together they documented a group of 44 Haitians on their journey to the United States. A few days after they set sail, they realized the handmade boat was sinking.

'Awkward Stock Photos' is a great tumblr blog featuring some of the weirdest and the most unnecessary stock images in the world. From Santa without pants to a snake smoking pot all the way to a banana kicking a cow. You wont believe the amount of awkward stock photos companies like Shutterstock, iStockPhoto or Getty Images offer for sale.

In this behind the scenes video, photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens shows us how he shoots zombies through a car using a Kessler shuttle pod. The camera movement is the most crucial part in making this commercial. The Kessler pod has to stay high enough so that when they move through the car, it will not shake the camera.

Check out these 20 images of few of the most interesting animals on the planet: from Sentinels to Eagles, owl and Egrets. Birds of all types flying, Eating or just posing to the camera.

If your wedding client asked to have a customized pre wedding shoot halfway around the world, how would you treat the opportunity? Simeon Quarrie, who has developed a reputation for himself as an incredible creative and committed photographer jumped at the option to be flown to Jaipur, India to shoot in a unique setting for his wedding clients.  

Active volcano is something most of us will never see 'face to face', but the ones who do go next to one can get beautiful and unique images of this geological phenomena. Check out these amazing volcano images found on Flickr - some taken by pro photographers, some by amateurs - but all are truly great.  

Specialized lenses are tricky things. Since they are built for a set of specific purposes in mind, they really need to follow through on that small list of tasks lest they be discarded as an unnecessary expenditure. That is a lot of pressure to make an outstanding lens, so how did Sigma fare with their new 180mm f/2.8 macro? Is it a good addition to your lens collection?