Articles from Amy Hobbs

I've really been enjoying these episodes of Mark Seliger's discussion-based show called Capture. In this latest installment, you'll get to sit in with one of the most talented photographers around - Martin Schoeller. He tells the stories behind his photographs of Jack Nicholson, Lyle Lovett, Steve Carell, and the breastfeeding mother (that I'm sure you all remember).

Hey guys, Paul here. Today is a busy day of packing for me. I'm shooting 41 shows for New York Fashion week and my plane leaves bright and early. I will share my experience with all of you as soon as I get back. For now, I wanted to share a quick down and dirty solution to shooting product shots, or any subject for that matter, especially when you have the client present in the studio... or garage in my case.

A San Diego hiker was mauled to death on Friday while taking photos of a grizzly bear. It happened in Alaska's Denali National Park, and is the park's first known fatal bear attack. Richard White was backpacking by himself, and stood about 50-100 yards from the 6oo-pound bear while photographing it. "The photographs in the recovered camera show the bear grazing and not acting aggressively. Spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said the bear did not even appear aware of the hiker until the final photos, which show the animal looking toward the camera."

Who knew that street fashion photography was so trendy? Like many others, I really enjoy the work of The Sartorialist and have followed his blog for years now. But I never considered that his popularity would lead to this - streets filled with photographers trying to emulate his style. Of course, this video does take place in the midst of New York fashion week. So I'm not convinced that what these crowds are shooting can even be considered street photography. Aren't they more like paparazzi?

Stumptown Visuals sat down with world renowned photographer, Gregory Heisler just before he spoke at ASMP Oregon's August meeting. Gregory, who is best known for photographing more than 70 Time Magazine cover portraits, gives us a glimpse into what it's like to be behind the lens and have worked with some of the most famous people in the world.

Emma is a 14-foot long tiger shark living in the Bahamas. And she steals expensive cameras. While a film crew was shooting a documentary called Shark Obsession, Emma swiped $15,000 worth of equipment. Fortunately, she dropped the 30 pounds of gear soon after and it remained undamaged. Unfortunately, her camera wasn't rolling at the time.

You may enjoy this fun little video from DigitalRev. Altanta's photographer extraordinaire Zack Arias takes on the Pro Photographer/Cheap Camera challenge.  He walks the streets of Hong Kong with a little red point-and-shoot Kodak. He's also got an external flash to work with, if he can figure out how to sync it! You'll see his results at the end. How do you think he did?

This is the first episode of Mark Seliger's new show called Capture. He is filming the show in his studio in Manhattan. In this episode, Seliger sits down with Platon, staff photographer for The New Yorker known for his portraits of US Presidents and other important world figures. Actor Dylan McDermott also sits in on the conversation, discussing his photography work and inspiration.

When I clicked on this video, I figured I wouldn't learn a thing. If you're like me, you fully understand how to use the f-stop principle, even if you can't remember where all the numbers came from. I know I've heard all of this before, but it's been years. When I explain f-stop to someone, I don't get quite so mathematical. In this video, Dylan Bennett provides a straightforward and mathematical explanation of f-stop.

In this video, Ren Ng discusses the history and future of photography. Ng has spent years studying light field technology and computational science. He created the Lytro camera in 2006 and is continuing to develop some mind-boggling photographic technology. This particular video is from a recent TEDx event in San Jose. At about the 13:35 mark you'll see the newest Lytro feature - the ability to change the perspective of an image.

It's becoming more evident that print media must innovate to survive in our increasingly digital world. The makers of Layar Creator are trying to bridge that gap. With their augmented reality app, users can experience print media with the dynamics of digital media. This means you can instantly download, buy, like, and share things you find in print. And this is the part that I can't really wrap my head around - Layar allows you to turn still photos into video. What do you think? Is this useful technology?

If you don't know anything about John Baldessari, here's a quick and highly entertaining way to get up to speed on this living American legend. The great voice of Tom Waits narrates this five-minute documentary about Baldessari and his work. Considered by many to be the godfather of conceptual art, his work goes far beyond photography. He began as a painter, and eventually got into mixed media. His canvasses often feature both text

Imagine the storage you would need to shoot with a 3.2 billion pixel camera. With 189 image sensors, and weighing 3 tons - this will be the world's largest digital camera. It's called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and is being engineered by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The goal of the project is to “capture the widest, fastest and deepest view of the night sky ever observed." They are looking to the LSST to learn more about

Ten of Polaroid's former employees have created a new and improved instant film for your Polaroid cameras. It is part of The Impossible Project.  Back in 2008, they purchased one of the last Polaroid factories in an effort to keep the art form alive. Two years later, they released their first films into the world. PX Cool is the latest Impossible film,

Here's an in-depth look at the life and work of legendary photographer Alfred Stieglitz. It's part of the PBS American Masters series, and you can watch it here in it's entirety. Stieglitz was a pioneer not only photography but modern American art as a whole. He was born in Hoboken, lived his life in New York, ran numerous galleries, was friends with Edward Steichen, and married legendary painter Georgia O'Keefe.

I'm kind of obsessed with stop motion, and have dabbled in it from time to time. But this particular stop motion video is top notch. Watch as a pair of hands (belonging to an artist named Hagen Reiling) draw the story of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea. The camera work and edit were done by Marcel Schindler. He shot with a

Are you in the market for a fisheye? This one will only set you back $160,000. Nikon created this extreme wide angle lens back in 1970, for the Photokina trade show. It's the Nikkor 6mm f/2.8, and it has a 220º field of view. The lens weighs about 11 pounds, with a minimum focusing distance of 25cm. When it was first introduced, it was the widest lens available.

This is what it looks like when day and night meet in a single image. Including the prep time, it took photographer Chris Kotsiopoloulos thirty hours to capture the hundreds photos needed to stitch this together. The shot was taken in Sounio, Greece. It got so cold at times that he had to use a hairdryer to keep the lens from fogging up. See the full post for more details!

Here's a behind the scenes video featuring editorial and advertising photographer Stefan Ruiz. He traveled to Monterrey, Mexico to document the "Cholombiano" youth street culture. Skip to about the ten minute mark to see the set up and capture. He shoots exclusively on 4x5 film, and is highly influenced by renaissance paintings.

This video features humanitarian photographer, Karl Grobl as he travels to Cambodia to shoot the Angkor Hospital for Children. In this episode of his new series titled, "Come Along For The Ride", he goes behind the scenes to describe his technique and thought process as he's working. Karl has shot for more than 85 different NGOs in over 50 countries.

Here's a breathtaking perspective on the city of Dubai, created by UK filmmaker Richard Bentley. It took him two and a half weeks to capture the footage, shooting one to two sequences a day from various balconies and rooftops. He shot with a Canon 7D, and edited in Avid Media Composer. The final product is fascinating. The only problem I have with this video is that it reminds me that I have yet to see this city in person. That needs to change.

Here's a fun Saturday morning activity for you - try your hand at lighting a virtual model in this Virtual Lighting Studio. It's pretty simple, and very addicting. For each light, you'll choose the source - a bare strobe, softbox, or ringlight. Then just decide the power, gel colors, placement and distance.

Here's a great behind-the-scenes time lapse video from photographer Finn O'Hara. It's from a photo shoot he did for the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team. They set up on the ice and it was an 18-hour production. You'll see the ginormous maple leaf backdrop, measuring 55 ft by 85 ft. Fantastic work from our neighbors to the north!

Here's a behind the scenes video from Toronto photographer Finn O'Hara.  It was for a recent cover story about Toronto smokers in a magazine called The Grid. O'Hara explains that the story is "a confessional tale of the stigmas faced by smokers every day in Toronto, and what it takes to finally kick the habit. To illustrate the commitment of a winter smoker, we enlisted a

Photographer/film-maker Jason Bognacki successfully attached a 93 year old camera to his Canon 5D.  It's a Piccolette Contessa-Nettel (1919) folding camera.  Check out the results and see for yourself. The images are so much sharper than you might expect.  What do you think?

Try wrapping your head around these statistics. Approximately 3.5 trillion photos have been taken since Daguerre captured Boulevard du Temple 174 years ago.  The global photo count is rising swiftly due to the accessibility of digital cameras and camera phones. Today, more pictures are taken every two minutes

Prior to the official launch of the Canon C300, Canon sent pre-production samples to a bunch of cinematographers for real-world testing. Mario Feil was one of those film makers and once he got the call from Canon confirming his sample was on the way, he only had one day for pre-production, 2 days to shoot, and 2 days of post-production to get his film done on time.

Here's a nice little BTS from Moxie Pictures showing what kind of work goes into the making of a 30-second spot for Samsonite. The purpose was to show off Samsonite's spinners, a series of travel luggage featuring 4 independent wheels that can swivel in any direction to maximize maneuverability.

In this series of videos aimed towards novices, Vincent Laforet and Blake Whitman from Vimeo Video School give you a breakdown on the commonly used lenses in video production and their specific characteristics.