Inspiration: An Interview with Von Wong by Von Wong

Spend 16 minutes with Benjamin Von Wong as he answers questions about inspiration, photography as a career and himself. Benjamin is very prolific and for that reason on it's own he is worth listening to. Getting off your ass and doing it is the hardest part and some of what Benjamin has to say may help you do that. Check out his Q&A as there are definitely words to live by.

A Timelapse Video Of Chicago Taken From A Boat

Patrick and I were just in Chicago a few weeks ago filming an upcoming FS Original and when we asked the locals what we needed to do, everyone suggested the architectural boat tour. Riding a boat through the center of a huge city was a really cool experience and if you ever visit, I would suggest you also check it out. It appears that Philip Bloom also went on the same tour but he (being the smart guy that he is) strapped a camera to the boat and made a video out of it. Now everyone can enjoy hours of boating through Chicago in about 3 minutes.
Simply Undefeated: We Review the Datacolor Spyder X2 Elite

If you haven't calibrated your monitor recently — or perhaps ever — you may not realize the impact it can have. It is a rather dry topic and you might want to allocate those dollars toward a new lens, which I understand, but a color-calibrating tool is an essential piece of kit and Datacolor are the best in the game.
My New Filming Set Behind the Scenes

For the last couple of months, Patrick and I have been moving into our new homes in Puerto Rico and building out personal studios in each. Let me show you what I've built.

[Pics] Photographer Plays With Positive And Negative Light

Slovakian Photographer, Tono Stano has created an almost Yin and Yang effect with the images in his series titled, White Shadows. If you started out using film then you understand that what is dark on a negative becomes light on a print. Stano experimented by doing just the opposite with the images. Click the full post to see more images as well as a behind the scenes video.
Top 10 WeeklyFstop Photos: Sunrise

There is something magical about witnessing a sunrise and watching the land warm as the day begins. Unless of course, you are just still up from the night before. Then the sunrise has a whole different feeling. Luckily all of the great shots submitted this week seemed planned.

City Immortalizes Selfie Takers With Statue

Traditionally, statues are erected to honor people, things, or ideas of note that have contributed something valuable and/or memorable to humanity. Traditionally, selfie takers aren't placed in that category. One Texas city begs to differ, however.

Some Users Can Now Post Instagram Stories Directly to Facebook

In a possible push to make Stories on its main platform gain traction, Facebook is allowing some users to cross-post their Instagram Stories directly to Facebook using the platform’s mobile app. According to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Facebook and Instagram confirmed that the feature is being tested by a small percentage of users, predominately in Portugal.

Video Interview with Brandon Stanton of 'Humans of New York'

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!

Get A Healthy Dose Of Inspiration With Revelation, A Visual Poem

As creatives, sometimes we struggle to find that spark that ignites the fire of our motivation. Whether it's a feeling we've hit a plateau in our skills and abilities, or maybe when personal matters overwhelm us and life just gets to be too much and we lose focus of our goals... Every once in a while I find that a piece of art can be the primer for that fuel to focus my mind and energy. One such video that did that recently is Revelation, by Sebastien Montaz-Rosset.

November Is a Good Month to Fill Your Idle Time With Thought

In November, some of us have less projects to work on, and it might be smart to not just idle, but make the best of it. Thinking about photography and business is a good idea to be prepared for whatever is coming next.

Slow Motion Video Of Fire Breathers Shot At 2,000 FPS

As a pyromaniac I am instantly satisfied by watching a fire breather spit flames in any way. But show it too me in ultra slow motion at 2,000 FPS and I am mesmerized! Chris Bolton is the creator of this short video titled "First Time". Essentialy, the premise of this video is quite simple, lots of fire breathing, really really slow, from lots of different angles. Chris shot the footage on a Weisscam HS-2 digital video camera and used Cooke S4 prime lenses. Enjoy!

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (May 2019): Giulia Valente

The Fstoppers community is brimming with creative vision and talent. Every day, we comb through your work, looking for images to feature as the Photo of the Day or simply to admire your creativity and technical prowess. In 2019, we're featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.

The Best Video Production Techniques for Your Marketing Video: What to Consider

A video production technique is any method that you use to capture video. It's often incorporated into a specific style of video production, such as live event video production or staged video production. Here are a few things that you should consider when trying to determine which techniques to use.

Why Revisit Landscape Photography Locations

Are you the type of landscape photographer who visits a location once and then head off to other new locations, never to return? Or are you the type that returns to a location over and over? Revisiting a location presents significant opportunities for the landscape photographer.

Olympus Announces New PEN E-PL7 "Selfie-King"

Olympus announced the successor to the successful micro four thirds E-PL5, creatively named the E-PL7. It has a few new features that MFT photographers will like, but the flip down screen will be getting most of the attention. Olympus designed the screen with optimal selfie composition in mind. The styling of the camera screams "vintage modern," the oxymoron of choice for many camera makers in that market.

FS Weekly News #4: The Week’s Best Photo/Video Related Stories

This week FS Weekly News announces the winner of a Urban Disguise® 70 Pro and a Big Photo Blog Theme from Big Photo Blog.com. So dive in and check out the week's news, leave lots of comments and send me tons of presents. That last part is optional. Just a heads up, as of Issue#5 and on, FS Weekly News will be released on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays. Don't forget to sign up and if you missed last week's issue you can find it here: Issue #3.
A Look Back At Fstoppers Workshops 2015 And Our Plans For The Future

When we created Fstoppers five years ago, we always knew that eventually we would host a live event of some kind. In 2013 we started planning for our first ever live photography workshop that would take place in the Bahamas the following year. Our first workshop proved to be far more complicated and expensive than we ever imagined but it was an amazing experience so we decided to attempt it one more time in 2015.

Believe It or Not, the Camera Industry Experienced Growth in 2017

For the better part of a decade, we've been hearing doom and gloom analyses about the death of the camera market at the hands of the camera phone and the like. This has been reflected by a steady decline in sales, but for the first time in years, 2017 experienced an overall growth.

An Interview With Siddharth 'Sid' Mantri: Moments of Narrative in Landscape Imagery

Siddharth "Sid" Mantri is a landscape photographer currently based in Spain. His unique voice leads him to find smaller moments of a narrative within large landscapes. He creates images that aren't just swathes of landscape, but rather elements within a landscape that unequivocally act as a subject within a scene.

Raising $30,000 on Kickstarter: Building Your Audience, Part 1

There is a ton of information and so many great resources on how to raise money for a project with crowdfunding these days. So I’m going to skip the tips and show you proven strategies to fund your projects no matter what they are.

Art Rangers: A New Way to Support the Preservation of National Parks

The national parks system in the United States has provided enjoyment of the outdoors for millions upon millions of people since August 25, 1916 when the National Parks Service was founded. For over 100 years now we have had access to some of the most incredible hikes and views to be found on the planet. As is similar to any well used item, the parks often fall into disrepair and need to be maintained and upgraded with continued use. The Art Rangers has stepped up to help the National Park Foundation in generating funds to help with the costs of maintenance for the parks.

Live-Stream and Switch Between Six Cameras With the Yolobox Pro

I was sent this live production system that doesn’t require anything else to get you streaming six feeds of live camera action to your social video platforms, all at the same time. It’s an encoder, switcher, recorder, and monitor, all in one. You can even insert a SIM card to stream over your mobile network if your destination doesn't have a stable internet connection.

Luminance 2012 Conference: Peter Yang

I was completely f*cking torn as to what to do here. Post them all at once or roll them out. Here is the thing. I attended Luminance, Photoshelter's two day conference, back in September expecting the same old song and dance of over crowed auditoriums as speakers and spokes people try to sell me their wares. (Hmmmm kind of makes you wonder why I keep going to these things.) But I was pleasantly surprised as the conference was

Introducing Kids to Photography With a Kids Photo Walk

It felt good to watch what was possibly the largest group of kids with cameras ever in my little community diving head first into photography. Are you ready to inspire the next generation of photographers where you live?

Should the Images From Camera Reviews Be Edited or Not?

Recently I got a friendly comment about the images of a camera review I did. It was all about how the results should be presented. Straight out of the camera, or edited? I want to have a closer look at this question and what could be the answer.