Articles from Mike Kelley

In the most unexpected yet earth-shattering news in recent film and video memory, Disney has agreed to purchase Lucasfilm for a reported $4.05 billion. Along with that purchase, Disney has stated that it will continue to produce original Star Wars films and related material. Since I know that most all of our readers grew up watching Star Wars and at some point in their life have pretended to wield a lightsaber, this has got to be the greatest Star Wars news in some time.

B&H strikes again! This time it's a Rebel T3i, 18-55mm IS, 55-250mm IS, PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II printer, 16gb Sandisk Extreme SD card, shoulder bag, and glossy paper pack. All of that for $599 after a mail in rebate, which is just an amazing deal. If you're a new enthusiast, looking to pick up a gift for a loved one, or looking for a backup option that will create high-quality images for a great price, you need to look no further. Click here to see the deal on the B&H website.

Brad Wilson, a commercial and fine art photographer who splits his time between New Mexico and New York, recently released this video of him shooting exotic animals in a studio. Take a look at how Brad works with giraffes, elephants, alligators and more to create breahttaking studio portraits of animals that are never seen in this environment. To be honest, the fact that Brad has the guts to get six inches from some of these huge cats to take their picture with studio lighting is just incredible.

Most photographers and videographers have felt the need to slow down their shutter speeds on more than one occasion: whether you're a landscape photographer looking to get scintillating blurry water and clouds, a portrait photographer trying to slow down a shutter speed to use shallow depth of field with a wide aperture, or a videographer in search of that cinema-like look. While there are a number of solutions, one of the most well-known and most flexible is the Singh-Ray Variable Neutral Density Filter.

As Fstoppers' resident aviation dork and lone Angeleno, I'd be making a huge mistake not to share this incredible timelapse of Endeavour's final journey. Filmed over a sleepless weekend by an all-star timelapse team, the video chronicles Endeavour's slow, delicate, and surreal journey (which made for the perfect timelapse subject) from Los Angeles International Airport to its final resting place at the California Science Center.

B&H just announced this incredible deal: $2199.00 after mail-in-rebate for a Canon 5d Mark II, 24-105mm f:4 L lens, and Pixma Pro9000 Mark II Printer Kit. On top of all this, they're also throwing in a LowePro AW 170 Shoulder Bag, a wireless IR shutter release, and a bundle of glossy photo paper. For those who have been waiting for prices to fall on the 5d Mark II, you simply can't beat this. Need I remind you that the original MSRP of the 5d Mark II kit was $3,499?

We've featured Ian Ruhter before: his Silver and Light series was an incredible display of talent, ingenuity and originality. I'm glad to say that he's back at it again, this time criss-crossing the country, telling the stories of inspiring people with his portable darkroom setup. Watch as Ian shoots Madison, a young girl who overcame some serious setbacks, and creates a series of incredible portraits using his custom made (very large format) camera which is built into the back of a box van.

David Honl, photojournalist and the mastermind behind the Honl line of lighting gear, put together this hilarious behind the scenes video involving a cavewoman, spaceman, mind-altering drugs, and speedlights (which, besides getting a few chuckles, manages to pack some educational punch as well). This video is for those of us who just couldn't pay attention in those classes full of dry material and boring lecturers. Enjoy!

Phlearn.com just released this behind-the-scenes video which shows how to light, shoot, and process a shot in the style of Dan Winters. By reverse-engineering the light and color that Winters uses (and using a little Photoshop magic), you'll be able to replicate one of his most well-known shots of actor Tom Hanks. I don't know about everyone else, but whenever I look through a magazine, I guess at the lighting setups

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. It goes without saying that you might want to be careful where you open this post.

We were all stunned by Mayeul Akpovi's 'Paris In Motion' timelapse a few months ago. A spectacle of incredible timelapse techniques, the video was awesome and had many of us trying to figure out how he did it. Well, Mayeul has come clean, and let us in on the little secret. Check out the surprisingly simple technique in this short video, which was just recently released.

Alright, seriously. I keep telling myself that I'm sick of timelapses, that I don't need to watch five minutes of clouds, or that I don't need to watch a million cars stream past at lightspeed. We get it, we've seen a million sunsets, we've seen the stars pan overhead as the camera moves on a dolly. And then I watched 'Very Little Stars' by Ben Wiggins, and I took it all back. Oh my goodness. This movie is

This past week we have seen a lot of gear come out, including a brand new outdoorsman-style bag in the Lowepro Rover Pro series. We got our hands on both versions of the bag, the 35L and the larger 45L and sent Mike Kelley and Mike Wilkinson off on separate excursions to put the bag to the test. Mike Kelley reviewed the 45L, while Mike Wilkinson reviewed the 35L.

Check out this jaw-dropping (I know we throw that word around a lot here, but seriously...I mean it this time, if you disagree, you can have your money back) video project by Keith Loutit. Filmed in Singapore, this timelapse explores depth of field in a way that I've never seen before. It's simply incredible!

John Dooley from the Leica Akademie Mayfair demonstrates all of the cool features you knew about, as well as those that you didn't, in this six minute hands-on review with the new M. I have to say that it looks like an incredible piece of craftsmanship and technology, and the amount of power that this small rangefinder packs is really quite something.

Ryan Allen, the founder of SBC Skateboard Magazine, has worked tirelessly for over 15 years to create timeless images of skateboarders risking life and limb.

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. You can get more information about the project and see more photos at thetutuproject.com.

Jay P Morgan has been getting a lot of press recently for both his creative imagery and his informative behind-the-scenes videos, and for good reason: they're chock-full of great information and Jay shows everything from his lighting setups to post-processing tricks. In this BTS, Jay gives us a look at how he balances constant lights with strobe lights, something that

As the Curiosity rover slowly sets up shop on the red planet, we earthlings are getting our first look at never-before seen images of the unexplored landscape around the landing site. A number of panoramic images have been created and are beginning to pop up on the web. While NASA has yet to photograph the beautiful Mt. Sharp, a 3-mile high mountain not far from the landing site and

Trey Ratcliff, the world's foremost HDR guru, recently relocated to Queenstown, New Zealand, which is quite possibly the most beautiful little town in the world. He just released a timelapse video of his first thirty days and thirty nights spent in the town, and it is definitely worth a watch - especially in the native 4k format. Wow! Whether or not you like Trey's work (we all know how polarizing it is) this little video

There are just some days where you feel like there is little hope for humanity. I live in Los Angeles, and I imagine that it is the same in most other large cities around the world: There's no real sense of community, and you're just another face in the crowd, and to many people, it is just incredibly simple to be a dishonest person in a setting where everyone is anonymous. However, I had a little bit of my faith in humanity restored when

Check out this way-cool timelapse video by Mayeul Akpovi. Set in Paris, Mayeul used a number of interesting techniques to add an incredible range of motion to a timelapse video. Add in a variety of twilight and dusk scenes, and the city comes to life in a way that I haven't seen before.

I've written a number of articles about how the police and other law enforcement agencies, both in the US and abroad, have been interfering with and hassling photographers and videographers who are only trying to document a scene that's in front of them. There have been multiple instances of people in power (such as Obama himself) saying that this is unconstitutional. And finally, it would seem, one police department has begun to realize that.

A few short years ago, Flickr was unquestionably the largest and most popular image sharing site on the internet. It was clean, fast, easy, and social. In fact, it was one of the first websites to embrace the concept of social media. Flickr was on the cutting edge of the internet, and it was growing fast. But over the past couple of years, as websites like Tumblr, Facebook, 500px, smugmug, Instagram and Imgur have risen to fame and evolved

Zak Noyle is one of the world's most respected surf photographers, and in this two-part documentary by RedBull, we get a fascinating glimpse into his world. From his photographic mission and technique to the training that he undergoes to be able to stay afloat in some of the world's largest surf, this mini-doc has it all. Filmed around the world in exotic locations

Alex Jansen, who is currently on a deployment in Afghanistan, recently created this video showing off the weather and dust sealing capabilities of his Pentax K-5 and K-7 cameras. I know that even though my Canon 1D claims to be 'weather and dust resistant' it would be a cold day in hell before I ever voluntarily did something like this to my camera (and lenses!). Alex is clearly confident

Ken Block, owner of DC Shoes and action sports mogul is well known for his incredible skill in a rally car. He's also been known to make some incredible videos, such as his original Gymkhana piece. For this installment, Gymkhana 5, Ken decided that he wanted to take over San Francisco: and that is just what he did. He also made sure that it was captured to perfection: I can't imagine that any less than one hundred cameras were used in the making of this piece.

As I continue my articles on interior, architectural, and real estate photography, I thought it would be interesting to see different approaches to shooting these types of subjects. So, for this month's article, I've invited a number of professional interior, architectural, and real estate photographers to share their images and techniques with everyone who reads Fstoppers.

We've featured architectural photographer Mike Butler before, when he shot the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, FL. This time, Mike heads to Bogota, Colombia, to shoot  the Virgilio Barco Library using a slew of hot lights and assistants. If you've ever wondered why it takes 8 hours to create a single architectural image, this BTS will show you exactly why. 

FilmRiot has been quietly working on a series of educational behind the scenes videos over the last few months, and I think this one is definitely worth a mention (avoid the random skydiving tangent at 6:00). Aimed at beginner and intermediate videographers, this short video will walk us through some techniques for lighting people as they move through multiple rooms.

Well, the light painting bar has been raised again. Sweatshoppe, a European creative collaboration, recently created this video showing off their new technique of video light painting. While that may sound a little strange at first, it's actually a really, really neat technique that they pioneered on their own. Using custom-made software and a little ingenuity,

Today's edition of "The Law vs. The Photographer" brings us to Reno, Nevada, where 60 year-old Reno Gazette-Journal journalist Tim Dunn was tackled and then cited by police for documenting wildfires on public land near Reno, NV. The offense? Wearing protective clothing, which was apparently seen as an attempt to impersonate firefighters.

Filmed on a Super 8 camera without audio or narration, this is a clip for the true Star Wars aficionado. Created by Jeff Broz, this series of clips affords us a rare glimpse into the making of an incredible blockbuster film that is adored the world over. There are a number of recognizable iconic scenes visible in their rough and unedited form.

We've featured Tyler Stableford multiple times before on Fstoppers, as he seems to be one of the first to get his hands on all of the new gear before it hits the shelves. This time, he's at it again: working with action sports athletes high in the mountains of Colorado. However...the results left me scratching my head a bit. Read

Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Peter Lik's got quite the penchant for getting the shot. In this video, Peter takes us deep into some abandoned subway tunnels and high over the skyscrapers of NYC as he shows us some of the locations and setups that he uses to create his photographs. We get a nice look at the finished results, which, to me at least,