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David Bickley
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Articles written by David Bickley

The Science of How to Stay Motivated in Your Work
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Author Dan Ariely gave an interesting talk on motivation and how to feel good about our work at TEDx Rio de la Plata. Ariely suggests that it isn't money that truly motivates us, but meaning. Ariely believes this is the difference between those that love what they do and those that don’t. Through a series of experiments Ariely shows how much we actually value meaning in our work. No, the talk doesn't specifically

NBA Player Picks Up Photographer's DSLR and Snaps Away
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How would you react if someone grabbed your camera and started taking photos without asking you? What if that person was a professional athlete? Would that change your opinon? The question comes up due to an event during today's Bulls game. Bulls power forward Carlos Boozer accidentally kicked a photographer’s DSLR (complete with a pocket wizard on the shoe) onto the court at the same time as

Yoga in the Desert with Kurtis Kronk (BTS)
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Balancing environmental light with flash is and will probably always be one of my favorite aspects of the lighting process. In this video San Antonio photographer Kurtis Kronk takes us behind the scenes of his recent shoot at Enchanted Rock for Profoto. While the video focuses quite a bit on the AcuteB two-head split cable there are plenty of shots of the setup and resulting images.

LineCam Systems: Cable-Assisted Media Capture
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An interesting system is in development via Kickstarter for video professionals to get excited about. The LineCam can most easily be compared to a zipline style "track" that can either be operated through gravity (with the Glide) or via remote control (with the Flow). The devices themselves appear to be very well designed and prototypes have already been used in the field by the GoPro Media Team, who had this to say:

The Making of an X-Rated Liqueur Product Shot (BTS)
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Commercial photographer Alex Koloskov takes us through his setup for this relatively simple (although it uses five lights) product shot. While not an incredibly in depth video, there are definitely some often overlooked things it shows that should be committed to memory. The first is that in several cases a basin of dry ice in water can make a much more versatile fog than your standard Halloween store fog machine.

What If You Couldn't Chimp? What If You Couldn't Edit?
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It occurred to me today that the vast majority of modern photographers are completely dependent on the perks of technology to make their images. Of course even in the darkroom there is a certain level of "tweakability" but never before have we been able to do the things we can now. The phrase "fix it in post" is so commonplace today that everyone assumes that we can alter the very fabric of reality in Photoshop...and while that may be true,

Silencing The Critic with Brian Bowen Smith
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Brian Bowen Smith speaks at Chicago Ideas Week about utilizing the creative process and relying on your subject to allow your work to reach it's potential. This amazingly successful photographer takes us through the successes and challenges of three different shoots all the while touting the importance of trusting your gut. The common misconception is that great shoots require a great investment. I love the fact that the first shoot he discusses was done for under $500.

Not Just A Fairytale (BTS)
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For the launch campaign of the new H5D, Hasselblad asked Henrik Sorensen to put their new camera through its paces while shooting the new campaign. What he came up with is nothing short of spectacular. Denmark is known as the land of fairytales and castles so Sorensen opted to do a twisted take on that with a floating fairy in an 18th century palace...underwater.

Honestly while I think the whole shoot is awesome, my favorite thing is the backdrop. In a time where the prevailing

Modular Camera Concept Allows Sensor Switching
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Most cameras are not designed to be any more modular than switching a lens out. They are next to impossible to user-service or upgrade, and if you want to use a different lens system and there isn't an adapter...too bad. That's where Korean designers Dae jin Ahn and Chun hyun Park come in. Their modular camera concept envisions a future where the user can upgrade or completely change key aspects of their system with ease.

We Can Explain: An Educational Ad Campaign
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The advertising agency Rethink has developed some awesome work for their client Science World over the years. Catching people's attention in the midst of their busy lives is a difficult thing to do well. Combining weird facts with strong visuals is in my opinion what makes these work so effectively. Also the fact that they offer no explanation for the facts presented. Instead you have a call to action to go to the museum to learn.

Young Leibovitz Speaks About Her Work.
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Annie Leibovitz is, in my opinion, one of the only photographers that has managed to become a household name. She is so iconic that even people that don't care about photography seem to know who she is. That's why this video is so cool. In it we get to hear a young version of the 63 year old icon talk about her hopes for the future.

Wacom to Make Multi-Touch Tablet
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If you are anything like me your Wacom tablet is nearly indispensable in your creative process. I would even go so far as to say that for me personally I could never use another device for sketching or painting on a computer. When the painting apps for the iPad started surfacing I got excited, hoping that it would be a portable version of what I had loved for 10 years already.

HP Brings Photos to Life
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HP may not be making cameras anymore but they still have a strong hold in the printer market and they are still moving. To expand on their existing offering they are trying to build excitement about a new consumer printing experience which embeds a video into a printed photo via augmented reality. So far the app HP Live Photo appears to only be available on the iPhone and uses video (45 seconds or less)

Proposed Ban Could Kill Aerial Photography
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Many states are struggling with how to deal with drone technology, more specifically "mini-drones" and the adoption of UAV's by law enforcement. Spurred by this, Representative Neal Kurk has recently proposed a bill to squash any sort of aerial imagery.

The bill says this:

A person is guilty of a class A misdemeanor if such person

Coiling Your Cables ... You're Doing it Wrong.
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There's one pet peeve I have above all else in the studio, and any assistant can attest to it. Coiling cables around your elbow is wrong. Really really wrong. Of course I realize that it's how you were taught, I learned the same way. Until the day I was working with an audio engineer and nearly made him cry. You would've thought I set fire to his birthday cake and kicked him in the shins.

Behind the Scenes with Masahiro Knives
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Anyone who has ever tried it can tell you...photographing highly reflective surfaces can be very challenging. This behind the scenes video shows photographer Michal Tomaszewicz tackling this issue as he photographs a series of knives for Masahiro's product catalog and website. Specific things to note for those new to product shooting. Pay attention to how close his reflectors

Fashion BTS with David Thompson
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Watching behind the scenes videos with tons of lights is always interesting to me and this one from leading fashion pro David Thompson is no different. Not to mention the workflow insights he gives. This is a two-part video so be sure to tune in after the jump for the other half.

What if Siri and Photoshop Had a Kid?
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By far the thing I hear most often when I'm teaching Photoshop is "there's just so much to remember." We have tons of tools at our disposal and more ways to use them than I can count. This only grows more problematic when you try to edit on a small portable device...but what if you could just say what you wanted to your editing program, and have it done?

Timbavati's White Lions
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Freddie Child-Villiers was invited as one of two photographers worldwide in November of 2010. "He was officially allowed to photograph the only White Lions to be successfully reintroduced back into their endemic habitat after being technically extinct for over two decades." The images in the series were shot with the Hasselblad H4D-50 for entry into the wildlife category of the 2010 Hasselblad Masters competition

The Power of a 365
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The commitment to do anything every day for a whole year is a difficult one. So difficult in fact that the very concept of a New Year's resolution is a joke to most. It's no surprise then that for a photographer to commit to a 365 project takes some serious dedication. Doing so means that you will create and publish something new, every single day. The question is: Is forcing yourself to be newly creative every day really worth it?