DIYPhotography.net

The thing about a GoPro is that if you constantly challenge it to stay in one piece, eventually the odds will accumulate against you and it will fall and hit the ground (see the compilation of videos after the jump).

While a GoPro placed low and getting hit is no issue, having a camera drop a few meter is not healthy for the camera of the people below it.

DIYP reader Joe Romie shoots a lot of volleyball and to get interesting angles he places a GoPro over the stadium mounted on a superclamp and manfrotto arm. Here comes the smart part (although somewhat trivial). Joe's idea for using a GoPro in an impact prone environment is tethering it to the rail with fishing leaders so if it gets hit by the ball, it will not fall all the way to the floor a few meters below.

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Photographer Ole C. Salomonsen create a yearly time lapse compilation of the Aurora Borealis.

So far his clips are amazing and Polar Spirits from this year is no different.

Here is how Ole describes his project:

"In the film I have tried to show the slower majestic dancing lights,
as well as the more faster, dramatic and abstract shows, and finally the auroras in combination with city lights and urban elements.

The video is shot using stills and assembled together for best
possible resolution and dynamic range. In this video however, for the first time, I have also chosen to include some real-time video footage. This is to better show how furiously fast and beautiful the polar spirits can dance! The two sequences which are shot in real-time (in the middle of the video) could never have been recreated using still photos, regardless what camera you are using."#

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It has been a long time since we had a good solid studio PVC build (pun intended), so I was quite thrilled when David Schöppe sent in this full body backdrop stand made from PVC

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Update: Please see coupon code on "how to enter" for free entry.

Today we are proud to present a new photo contest, Share Your Monochrome Photos To win a Mitros Strobe and other goodies. We are hosting this contest with ViewBug, a contest centric photography community.

Freelensing is a form of photography where the lens is hand held in front of the body and is not inserted into the bionet. If you ever tried it, it is pretty cool and creates tilt/shift like effect, only with a random aspect to it because you are... well... hand holding the lens. This is why it's called Freelensing.

If you are new to the subject, or just want a refreshment, Luke Roberts has a great introductory tutorial on freelensing (which is where the title sketch was taken from).

One of the harder things to do while freelensing is focusing, you are constantly moving, the camera is moving in relation to the subject, and the lens is moving in relation to the camera. This is where Magic Lantern can help. Magic Lantern is a custom firmware pack for Canon DSLRS which adds features to the camera. Click to continue ›

Today we have something a bit unorthodox. We'll be sharing the live view from KameraKind & Benjamin Von Wong's largest photographed Where's Waldo? ever made. If you want the live on-location feed, just hit the jump. (a detailed account will follow in a dedicated post)

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While we have featured quite a few home made gridspot before I don't believe I have ever seen a gridspot based on a Quaker Can. This is a fairly easy build, You will need an empty can (preferably Quaker oats) with a plastic cap and some black straws. Click to continue ›

"What Inspires me" is a short film inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson's Decisive Moment interview given to Cornell Capa in 1973.

Director Eli Sinkus of 522 productions created a new interpretation on the words of the iconic interview.

Watching and listening to the original DVD is an amazing experience. Almost every second sentence feels like a cosmic truth and resonates very well.

This new short takes the words of part of the movie and pours a new meaning into them while describing a story of a young boy falling in love with a young girl through a camera. Click to continue ›

I was not always a photographer. I used to be a project manager and before that a coder. (If you are you using Skype, Comcast voice or TimeWarner cable modems, you are probably running my code daily).  One thing that we were thought as coders is that it is a pain to memorize keyboard shortcuts, but once memorized, it is significantly faster to work with keyboard only than with mouse and keyboard combined.

This is especially true for programs like Lightroom where items are hidden in sub-menus and issuing a command looks kinda like this: take hand off keyboard; find the right menu; the right sub menu; click command; regain hands-on-keyboard position.

In fact, there is an Apple study by UI guru Bruce Tognazzini saying just the same. So is how to get your Lightroom workflow mojo on: Click to continue ›

GoPro cameras have became almost synonymous with low-risk-stick-it-anywhere cameras. And they can really be stuck almost anywhere given the proper mounting solution. The black edition ability to record 1080p videos @60fps (or 720p @120fps) without worrying too much about killing the camera makes is a great tool for sport-extremists and movie makers alike.

But, as we said before, given the proper mounting solution is key to paling the camera in weird location. Here are 11 DIY solutions to sticking a GoPro practically anywhere. Click any of the titles after the jump to read the full tutorial. Click to continue ›