How I Spent My COVID-19 Vacation

Like most of you, I'm cooped up at home other than occasional forage for groceries. As a landscape photographer in Arizona, there's plenty of landscape, but I'm doing my best to abide by the stay at home rules. So basically, the landscapes are in one place, I'm looking at 4 walls.

Using the Loupedeck+ With Capture One Pro

Loupedeck have released a version of their software that plays (somewhat) nicely with Capture One Pro. Today we’ll take a look at what you can expect and what we think could be improved.

The Fstoppers Photo Plus Party Pictures Are Live

On Friday we threw a party at Peter Hurley's studio and opened it up to the public to celebrate Photo Plus in NYC. Over 400 people showed up and luckily we never ran out of drinks (in other words it was a big success). Peter built a wacky photobooth out of some AstroTurf he "found" and the characters that showed up for the party knew exactly what to do with it. These photobooth pictures are finally available here. Now that we know we can draw a crowd we will plan to do it even bigger next year.

Flickr Spotlight - Striking Images Of Rainbows Around The World

Photos of rainbows tend to look cheesy and kitschy, and people usually "abuse" the pictures with tons of crazy editing and heavy HDR effects to make it look cooler (and fail). But - when doing it tastefully, the results can be breath-taking - and breath-taking are exactly the kind of images we collected here for you. Check out all these amazing photos from all around the world and let us know which you liked the best in the comments!

The New Edelkrone SliderONE PRO: The App-Controlled Slider for Run and Gun Shooters

Edelkrone has a knack for creating technology that captures the imagination in ways that other brands don’t. With the release of the original Edelkrone SliderONE, we saw that ingenuity manifest itself in what looks like the future of video camera support. That same ingenuity has guided the development of the new SliderONE PRO.

Nikon Falls Short of Financial Projections, To Restructure Leadership

Sony posted some pretty staggering losses last week, and Nikon is apparently not faring much better as the company stock value fell "4 percent to 1,567 yen, its lowest close since March 2011. The company announced net income of 46.8 billion yen for last fiscal year, missing its own forecast of 50 billion yen.*" When peering at the chart of stock value over the last year, it's not a great outlook.

Small Town, Big Sales: How to Profit in a Podunk Market

In a small town in West Texas, one photographer has established a thriving business that rivals big city photography studios. “We’re in podunk Texas,” Kaleigh Horelica says with a spirited, self-deprecating laugh. Although Abilene isn’t an affluent market, it has been the perfect place for Kaleigh to grow a successful studio that earns over six figures in annual revenue.

What Gear Do You Need to Photograph Your First Wedding?

A lot of new photographers view weddings as an easy way to break into professional photography while making a lot of money with minimal time, effort, and gear. As a professional wedding and portrait photographer, I can tell you part of that is true.

Make Your Videos More Cinematic With Letterbox Templates

Whether you realize it or not, most videos produced for cinema or even high-end marketing campaigns have some sort of cropping on it, be it by design or with a specific purpose in mind. It's a common occurrence, and for the most part, when you wanted to use this kind of cropping you either had to make your own templates or scour the web in order to find what you were looking for. Well thanks to the folks over at PremiumBeat.com, they have compiled an extensive list of what they claim to be every popular video resolution in the world. All the way from 720 HD to 8K and creating crop ratios from 1:1 to 4:1 Polyvision.

[News] Canon Cinema EOS 1D, C100, and C500 Coming Soon?

EOSHD.com reports that Canon is working on both lower- and higher-end versions of the C300, the C100 and C500. While we're unsure about the C100, new rumors indicate that Canon could be ready to announce the C500 along with the previously rumored Cinema EOS 1D DSLR made specifically for video! And all this could happen before the weekend, when NAB 2012 is set to kick off. Read on for some specs!

How To Back Up Your Digital Photos... To Film

Backing up is easy, right? You import your photos from a memory card, then everything is safe and sound on your hard drive. Wrong. Norwegian startup — Piql — believes the answer is to back up your files to film.

Cherry Blossom Peak in D.C. Delayed

Once a year over a million people head to the tidal basin area of Washington D.C. in hopes of catching a glimpse of the thousands of beautiful cherry blossoms lining the streets. This year you may need to adjust your schedule to catch the peak bloom.

Jellyfish Soup: Combining Photography and Conservation

After changing careers from 12 years in the scientific field into the photography industry, I often wondered about merging the two together; science and art. I started shooting underwater photography a few years back in hopes of bringing a new light on the waters with my background. So when I came across the work of Christine Beggs and Brett Stanley I was intrigued to learn about their collaborations. They have created a way to bring critical issues of the oceans to light with their underwater art work.

A Simplified Round-Trip Workflow for Davinci Resolve and Your NLE Program

In the world of film and commercial video work, there are so many working components that need to come together in order to have a successful production. So when it comes to bringing all those components together, you want it to be as smooth and simple as possible to minimize stress and streamline efficiency so that production does not fall behind schedule. One of those components that is insanely critical for a finished product is the coloring — not an area you want to skip on.

[Video] Gotye's "Easy Way Out": An Elaborate Stop Motion Animation

In an earlier post, Prime vs Prime and Other Lessons in Stop Motion Animation I tried to show you where homegrown stop motion animation is in it's evolution and offered a couple links to get you motivated. But compared to this video, for Gotye's "Easy Way out", directed by Darcy Prendergast, those other videos with their hours and hours of painstaking meticulous work will seem down right simple.

Nikon D810 Available for Pre-Order

If you've been holding out for the D800/D800E replacement, today's you're lucky day: it's finally here. Featuring a new 36-megapixel sensor, better ISO range, and shutter and AF technologies from the D4s, the D810 is now available for pre-order from B&H, or you can also pre-order from Amazon, too.

Photo Series Celebrates Aging Through High-Fashion Photography

I was completely blown away when I came across Diane Villadsen's project “Old Friends,” a high-fashion, conceptual take on aging. To celebrate the process all of us will go through eventually, why not do it in a unique way through photography and fashion? I got in touch with Villadsen to find out more about her inspiration for the shoot.

Researchers Create Nano Camera Held Together With Molecular Glue

It is easy to get hung up on the artistic side of photography and forget about how significant the craft is in the sciences. Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a camera so minuscule that it allows the observation of chemical reactions in real-time.

Choosing the Right Tour Guide or Fixer for an International Project

Over the last two years, I have been traveling quite a few times for a personal project involving the last remaining tribal-tattooed faces of Asia. The results of that project are finding a home at Tattoos of Asia. I still have five or six more trips to make before I can consider the project complete, and I wanted to share my experience so far with finding help for a project like this. Finding the right guide or fixer for your project isn't easy, and can be a lot like hiring a new employee. Let's go through my process for finding and hiring the right person for the job.

100,000 Photo Timelapse of NYC!

Samuel Orr is a film maker from Bloomington, IN. He created this beautiful 4 minute long timelapse of NYC titled 'A New York Day' from over 100,000 photos and from dozens of locations. This video is just a fraction of a much longer timelapse film, which he hopes will be around 25 minutes once it is finished. He has created a Kickstarter for 'New York Year' which explains more about the film and shows other work that he has done. Enjoy!

Power Station for Photographers: We Review the Bluetti AC60

I have been searching for a portable power station that can meet my energy needs on the go and power my home office during power outages for some time now. And with the Bluetti AC60, I found a compact solution.

[BTS] Photographing the Teaser Poster for Indie Film "Dark Harvest"

Although the creation of the upcoming horror flick "Dark Harvest" has less production value than what you would get from Hollywood, it might relate to the average photographer a little better for that reason. In their behind the scenes, Tim Tabke and Joel Hinojosa team up to show us a glimpse of what it took to kick off the new indie film with a teaser poster. The mood they capture is as much about interacting with the actors as it is the lighting and drama of the shot. I find their work encouraging as it shows you dont need a hollywood budget to be able to produce a quality piece of work...

Adobe Adding Team Collaboration to Premiere Pro

Highly anticipated for years, Adobe have finally released their team collaboration system for Premiere Pro. Until now, only large enterprises would be able to do this. However, is it powerful enough?

Fstoppers Reviews the Tenba Axis 20L Backpack

For those of us who insist on lugging our gear out on location, a sturdy backpack is a must-have. As a hiker, climber, and chronically over prepared photographer, I’m used to packing a heavy load up the side of a mountain. That’s why I was so excited to get my hands on the 20L Tenba Axis Backpack.

Mixing Photography and Activism: Are You Making Work That Means Something Or Are You Just Pushing A Button?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." It's no secret that many of my clients belong to the LGBTQ community. I've worked hard to build a following in a demographic that should consider me an outsider; there is a real fear of being judged by anyone who doesn't routinely walk in their shoes. However, my client base hasn't always looked like this, and the road to building trust has been interesting to say the least. Why go through trouble? The simple answer is, “Because I love doing it!”