Lets face it, if you're reading this, it's probably slim you'll ever be an astronaut. Not because you aren't capable, but because the odds are 1 in 42,000. So there's about 7 of you guys reading this who might. So when this kickstarter came across my feed the other day, I was pretty interested. Not just because you get to be photographed in a space suit, but because you can get a pretty kick ass photo of you in a space suit.
Denali is the story of the relationship between photographer Ben Moon and his beloved dog, Denali. This short film is about friendship, loss and the beautiful fight for life. The filmmakers caught every ounce of heart they could in the last month of Denali’s life, and his memory truly lives on through this amazing video.
Two years ago I shared something called The Client Blog. It was started by Andy Baker, Group Creative Director for the National Geographic channels. Andy has been writing, editing, producing and Creative Directing promos and print ads for the last 21 years. Andy decided to start the blog as more of a personal creative project and it's been going strong the past two years. He's grouped his ten favorite takeaways he's learned from being on both sides of the table.
Well, we've just ended our last day in the Bahamas and it holds true that days fly by. Our final classes just ended and I'm almost positive everyone is going back to their rooms to nap before our last night on the island.
We're almost to our fifth day in the Bahamas and it's getting hot down here! Our second round of classes kicked off today with a new set of students in each class. Tonight our second round of instructor dinners starts as well as our second drink and mingle.
We're nearing the end of day two down here in the Bahamas and it's safe to say everyone is working their tails off! We had classes that started at 6 a.m. and are still going strong.
We're about ready to head to the welcome party down at the Fstoppers Workshop in the Atlantis, and gaging from the use of the hashtag, our attendees are livin' rough. Here's a recap of some of the classes and behind-the-scenes photos.
A little over a year ago, we were introduced to SmartAlbums from Pixellu. They helped photographers all over increase their productivity by allowing them to stop hating the process of designing albums. This year, they brought us a bigger and better product, and I got to use it first hand.
I'm not someone who is big into drones and flying cameras -- mostly because they take a lot of effort to learn how to fly. More importantly, there are typically many more things I'd rather spend my money on. Then I received an email from Antoine Balaresque, CEO of Lily Robotics, introducing me to Lily, and I threw all those reasons out the window.
As a photographer, there’s only so many things you can do on a wedding day to bring a little something extra for your couples. James Day was hired to shoot his sister-in-law’s wedding and in doing so, he decided he was going to push the envelope and deliver something they never imagined possible.
There’s been a multitude of social media apps popping up for us to use at our leisure and it might be hard to stay up to date. The most recent of them being Periscope. Periscope was recently purchased by Twitter before it was even launched in the app store, and it’s steadily gaining traction. It was developed as a real time news app but the possibilities in the creative realm are endless.
There are few companies and applications that give you constant updates and are constantly pushing the limits, but VSCO definitely ranks towards the top of them. Whether it's introducing new actions and presets for VSCO desktop or presets on VSCO Cam, they're as they like to call it, always moving forward. What they’ve done with the new Alchemy Collection for VSCO Cam doesn’t fall short.
The phrase "destination wedding photographer" never held much meaning to me, other than the rare couple who I assumed was eloping in Bora Bora. Lately that phrase is turning into something completely different and it's being referred to more as "adventure photography." It's slightly different in the fact that these people aren't necessarily having destination weddings because they're still being planned in their home states.
Justin Bettman is a talented New York based photographer who shoots mostly for his own personal fulfillment. His ideas are raw, quirky and will make you feel like you're sitting front row in an old cinema. Recently he teamed up with Gözde Eker who is a set designer in NYC to bring his newest, crazy idea to life. That's where #SETINTHESTREET was born.
Last year we featured London-based photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz with Aurum Light for his 1940’s pin up inspired milk portraits, which were then picked up for Coca-Cola's Farelife campaign. His fresh take on motion and liquids was put together in a well received and sold out magazine. This year, Jaroslav brought it bigger and better with his team by creating this years titled calendar “Splash Heroes.”
One of the big things lacking in my workflow was the ability to schedule Instagram posts. I have a personal Instagram as well as two work focused Instagram accounts and remembering to post on each one is time consuming and frustrating. About once a month I'll check to see if Hootsuite has added the ability to schedule instagram posts, but unfortunately it still does not. This month, my Google search led me to Latergramme and I was instantly smitten.
With Facebook’s reach going down hill, we’re all looking for something that will allow us to get in touch with as many people as possible and Instagram is that link. If you need persuading, follow up this article with Dave Geffin’s post about how to fully harness the app. Once you’re convinced, here are some things you can do to make sure your followers are getting the most bang for their buck and you're showing off your best work.
Awhile ago, fellow writer Peter talked a little bit about barter, and how to use it when a client has no budget, as well as a few other tricks. We always think money makes the world go round, but if you're working with an individual, stand alone businesses, there's a lot more than money to work with. I've done quite a bit of bartering in the past year, and there's a few steps to make sure it's a win, win situation for both sides.
Many people in the editorial and commercial industry still send out promotional mailers. But the truth is, if you are just sending out a flyer with a few photos, you are flat out wasting your money. Clint Davis worked a desk job as an Art Director for multiple national magazines, which gave him a front row seat to photographers and illustrators sending in promotional mailers. He branched out, and decided to defy the odds of being thrown in the trash.
Last week we had the pleasure of hosting over 100 photographers at our workshop at the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Our opening party was hosted at Fathoms where we set up a photobooth in front of "The Digg." The tank holds over 100 venomous Indo-Pacific Ocean Lionfish, 500 piranhas, iridescent jellyfish and six-foot Moray Eels. It turned out to be one of the most entertaining backdrops with a revolving window of fish!
We get stuck, we fall into these positions where we call ourselves photographers and think that's all we'll ever be. That's not a bad thing, but the truth is there are so many different outlets we can flow into being photographers. For some of us, that means using our knowledge and abilities to help others. Thats exactly what Jose Rosado did with his new company, Zēro.
In the photography industry, having a "studio" or "meeting space" translates to success in most client's eyes. The thing is, typical photographers would rather spend their cash on gear, than a studio they would probably only use once a month. Recently there's been an abundance of places for people to meet with clients as well as have their own out of home office. They're called coworking spaces and have been popping up around the country.
We work in a field where, whatever we buy something for, we use for its intended purpose. Sometimes we just want to save money and dig through our stuff to see what else we can use it for. Here's a list of things you can use your gear for, either in a pinch or as a better replacement for something else.
According to Wikipedia lifestyle photography is "a style of portrait / people photography which aims to capture and document real-life events, situations, or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of the everyday." Photographers every day are advertising sessions as lifestyle photography, but in reality, are totally missing the mark.
We often look at photojournalists and think, how could you do what they do. How could you stand around taking photos while people are suffering or could benefit from your help? On the other hand, we rarely think about transfering that realm into something tragic that happens in our own eyes, but that is exactly what Abe did.
We talked about SmartAlbums a few weeks ago with their black friday launch and there was an overwhelming majority that agreed it was a complete game changer. I've been on the beta for about two months and have had the chance to do a review for you guys. The program is so simple to use but if you're too lazy to read there is a screen-share video at the end. It's a quick walkthrough of me building a personal album, it's silent though, so you should probably suck it up and read it, oh and then buy it.
If you do anything with albums whether it's wedding albums, personal albums or even portfolios to sit around your studio, this is going to be your jam. Two amazing photographers have developed a program called SmartAlbums. It's a full application that allows you to create albums without all the hassle. And yes, it's possible.
It's not a brand new idea to incorporate printing photos on food. Recently we talked about printing photos on coffee with the selfie-latte, but Boomf takes photo printing a little bit more out of the box. Well, maybe more out of the cup. With this product I will preface with one question: do you like marshmallows? Yes or no, this product is for you.
Currently the only black and white instant film available in the 3×4 size is the Fujifilm 3000b, and it's being discontinued. Yes, you read that right. One of the single most popular instant films will no longer be around. The photography industry isn't a stranger to films being discontinued. It happened with Kodak, so it was only time before it trickled to other manufacturers.
The newly revealed Profoto B1 flash and Nikon Df have been the talk of the town for the past week. If you've been interested in preorders you can now head on over to B&H for both as well as the new Sigma 24-105mm F/4 for Canon. The Fujifilm x10 has a $100 instant rebate as well.
The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II has an instant rebate of $300 upon checkout and then has another mail-in rebate of $300! This drops the entire price to a whopping $1,899.00.
Tonight on the National Geographic channel, they are premiering the movie Killing Kennedy, which is a movie based on Bill O'Reilly's New York Times best seller. If you've ever wanted to be transported back in time to be able to witness a moment in history, this is your chance. We have an in-depth behind the scenes view from Joey L. and Andy Baker, the Creative Director at National Geographic.
We constantly talk about websites, marketing and everything gear related under the sun, but rarely does the topic of health come up. We're usually crouching down, rolling around on the ground or balancing on our tiptoes to get a couple inches higher for the shot. So the reality is, one of the most important topics should be your health. You can replace gear but there is only so much you can do for your body.
Do you ever come across someone and think "what were they thinking, why would they even do that?" Well, I will bet money you've scrolled through your newsfeed or Facebook groups and said this at least once. There are three main sections you should probably pay close attention to while using Facebook.
