Howdy everyone and welcome to the Wednesday Rundown. This week we have a great shoot and edit of Norah Jones' photo shoot for Time Out NY. The photographer, Dale May, shows us how he created the final composite for the magazine cover. If you have a great and informative video you want to see in the Wednesday Rundown please shoot me an email jerrit@fstoppers.com .
A long-time friend of Fstoppers Felix Hernandez shoots an out of this world cover for Top Gear Magazine. This project is a perfect example of how brands, publications, and artists can collaborate authentically.
Learning and improving our craft should be as important as producing content. Online educational resources have made training and workshops accessible to everyone worldwide. One fantastic example is this year’s CineSummit. If you are into cinematography, want to get into it, or even if you are just curious to learn more about content production, then this is for you!
Capturing the world in 360 has been a thing for years. While companies such as Ricoh and Insta360 have made the process far easier than the days of specialized tripod heads and sophisticated software, it’s still not an easily understood process or format. Vecnos aims to change that with its new IQUI 360 camera.
On March 16, University of Missouri student and freelance photojournalist Tim Tai is set to be awarded the First Amendment Defender Award by the Radio Television Digital News Foundation. The foundation is an educational group that supports journalists' first amendment rights and the public's rights to free media. While the foundation recognizes outstanding journalism annually, this is the first time that the award wil actually be presented.
Samyang (a.k.a. Rokinon) has just announced that it is releasing the first 14mm f/2.8 prime lens with autofocus for the Canon RF system, ahead of Canon itself.
When we think about photoshoot essentials, we often picture the big, exciting pieces of equipment:the camera, the lenses, the light, the modifiers. However, today, I’m sharing the unsung heroes in my kit. Here are five small, inexpensive, but essential bits of kit for styling product photography photos.
As mobile photography continues to grow in popularity, so does the creativity that goes along with it. It is truly amazing to see some of the images and videos that people are creating using smartphones, GoPros, and other devices. It is no surprise that companies are creating mobile accessories designed specifically with mobile photography and videography in mind. One company, Think Eleven, has developed an interesting new LED light.
Moment has made a name for itself with its beautifully crafted lenses for smartphones. More recently they also teamed up with Freefly to create the Movi, a stabilizer and cinema robot for your iPhone. Today, they announced a new product that follows the trend of shooting professional quality videos and photos with a phone. It’s a 62mm filter mount for their lenses.
As someone who spends more time typing than shooting pictures, I value the keyboard I use quite a lot. Having tried a number of keyboards over the years, I still stick with the Apple Magic Keyboard. Here is why.
Today, Apple has released the latest version of their video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, with some intriguing new features and improvements.
In an age where content is king, it can feel overwhelming to constantly churn out post after post ad nauseam. Is there an alternative?
Venus Optics (Laowa), a small Chinese lens manufacturer founded in 2013, has risen to prominence with their sometimes off-beat, always different, and always high quality lineup of lenses for all the major lens mounts. They have launched niche lenses like the 24mm f/14 probe macro and a series of their flagship close-to-zero-distortion Zero-D lenses. Today’s topic is the latest in that line and the widest lens available for the Fujifilm GFX system, the Laowa 17mm f/4 Zero-D.
The United Conference in Santa Barbara has just come to a close, and I am filled with inspiration, excitement and joy from the speakers and attendees. Everyone at the conference was so passionate about helping and serving each other, and our own communities and clients, it was contagious. I’ve come out of this week with a few things on my mind, and I want you to benefit from them as well, so here they are!
Today, NikonRumors published a brief story about Nikon's winnings in the 2014 Red Dot awards. Every year the fellows at Red Dot in Essen, Germany select products in various fields with outstanding design. In the past, Nikon has been awarded Red Dots for their D4, 1-series mirrorless system, and various coolpix cameras. This year Nikon took home three Red Dots for their ACULON T51 binoculars, D5300 APS-C DSLR and, surprisingly, the Df.
In this article, we'll go through the best sources of inspiration to plan a successful photography drone trip to a place you have never been to before. This is not an easy task, as unlike landscape photography, not everything has been photographed from a drone point of view, so just searching the usual photo sites doesn't always give you good results. It's also difficult because not every scene that works from eye level will work from a drone's perspective. It is vital to plan as much as possible to avoid disappointment and maximize the chances of coming home with some nice pictures. We'll also look at the results of the trip's expectations versus reality.
Blur is generally seen as a negative thing in photographs. Sure, it can fully ruin an otherwise good image or take away from a moment that would have otherwise been wonderful to document. But, blur can also be an amazing and helpful tool, one that can add a lot to an image, as long as it is used intentionally and thoughtfully.
When audiences at the Sundance Film Festival were told that "Tangerine" was filmed entirely on an iPhone 5S, people were not sure if they believed it. It soon became clear that this was a fact, and that mobile videography had reached a new plateau in the film world.
There are many cine-arms on the market and there's one more on its way. On November 3rd the Infinity Arm, a Kickstarter project, reached its goal of $50,000 with just under 200 backers. Of all the arms out there, none boast the heavy lifting capability like the Infinity Arm. This little product is said to support over 10 lbs. and as you can see from the video, it supports a Red Epic with a standard lens!
We're live now, come humor me as I mock the company that takes all of my money!
Since 2008, The Impossible Project has kept the Polaroid flame alive with their line of instant films. Today, in the Apple app store, they've released version 1.2 of an iPhone app designed to integrate mobile photography with analog instant film. The features allow for instant digitization and photo sharing for your Polaroid prints as well as a way of making Polaroid prints from iPhone captures with their soon-to-be-released Instant Lab.
Several years ago Richard Schneider of PictureCorrect.com decided his new years resolution would be to begin training to be able to fly a wingsuit. This dream along with his passion for photography eventually led him to Dubai, where he captured the footage you'll see in this video. Learn more about Richard and the work it took to get to this point in the full post.
We've all had times where we are constantly out shooting, coming up with new ideas, and going out to create them. There are also times where we struggle with new ideas and lose our motivation to create. Over the past few months I feel like I've been going through some stages like this but I always try to stay positive and create when I can.
Zach Arias has a new educational site called DEDPXL where him and a group of his friends write on their experiences, struggles, and successes. Commercial Photographer Sid Ceasar is among those writers. A few months ago he produced a video appearing as Sid "The Muppet" Ceasar and talks about inspiration, getting out and making new work, and why surrounding yourself with creative people is so important.
Pitching can seem like a really scary thing to start doing. But I fully believe that anyone can pitch effectively, they just need to know how to! So today, I’m going to break down how to get started.
I have been visiting the surrounding areas of Mt. Fuji for the last ten years and here are my five best landscape locations.
Donna Von Bruening’s studio was thriving: bookings of more than 50 weddings a year, a full time studio manager, associate photographers and a new studio space but she lacked one thing — quality of life. Ten years after starting her studio in Savannah, Georgia, she faced the common small business dilemma of having to turn down work due to scheduling. So she expanded and grew her business only to realize that she regretted it and missed the quality of life she had with a smaller studio.
Last week I shared the story of Andy and Jess Wickstrom and the DesignEgg. Continuing with the theme of creatives who travel full-time for their work, brings me to the husband and wife photography team of HagePhoto.
Joshua Chuang, associate curator of photography and digital media at the Yale University Art Gallery, created a photography exhibit 'Best of 2012' list for Art in America magazine. While many of these are over, some can still be seen (but hurry, some end as soon as Monday!). Check to see if they're in your area...
