Photographer Mark Laita was shooting snakes for his book, Serpentine. And marvelous photographs indeed. They are shot against black background and really bring out the shape, color and texture of those awe inspiring royal creatures.
However taking serpents pictures sometimes comes with a price. After shooting a Black Mamba Mark was bitten by the snake. Click to continue ›
In 2006 the Beatles released a new album - Love. It was pretty weird considering John was long dead, but after some googlling I realized that it was a new reworked version of some of the songs made by the band's original producer, Sir George Martin. It was based on the bands already exiting recordings, demo tracks and bits that never made it to any of their prior albums.
One of the songs (track #22) is an acoustic version of While my guitar gently weeps, written by George Harrison, where Eric Clapton joins the band (AFAIK the only time where anyone ever joined a recording by the Beatles). For me this song is even better than the original track (please no flame wars on this :). If you know the story of Harrison, Clapton and Patti Boyd you know how touching it is to hear those two guitar legends play together.
Back to now, I have 18 versions of this song. It is just one of these songs that everybody loves playing. I love it too. This is why I wanted to create an image for this song based on the immortal line "I look at the world and I notice it's turning While my guitar gently weeps".
The general idea was to shoot a Star Trail photograph with a guitar player in the foreground of the frame. This idea has been bouncing in my head till a sketch was entered into my sketch book. Well, it stayed in the book for a while till my exams were over, and then it was time to play. Click to continue ›
Dreams of flying by German photographer Jan von Holleben is a unique series that visualizes the dreams of children.
Interestingly enough the inspiration for the project was a counter point to how children are treated in modern photography. Click to continue ›
Laya Gerlock is no stranger to the blog and has been one of the most prolific guest writers we ever had, always coming up with crazy ideas - 4 feet Ring light, CF carbon lens hood, putting stars in the model's eyes. Today he shares something that is between the realm of DIY and romance - how to make the perfect proposal in a photography studio. You'll have to read to the end to find out the answer to THE question...
When I saw Vesa Lehtimäki's photos depicting the life on the freezing planet of Hoth I was immediately drawn to it. Partly because I am a Star Wars fan boy and partly because they looked so darn good that I had to learn more about how they were taken.
I mean, just swap those little plastic characters with people and you could actually believe that this series is photojournalism at its best.
I contacted Vesa and asked him a bit about the process, the setups and the inspiration for the series. The answers I got were a solid proof that inspiration and motivation trump gear and budget. Click to continue ›
I love Von Wong's weekly videos, in this installment Ben breaks down both a photo shoot and the post production he made for the band Trio Dinicu. While the video is short it is packed wit goodies, starting from how Ben and the band infiltrate the Disney Concert Hall. Ben, the three band members, assistants, Elinchrom Ranger heads and all, through a neat t-shirt lighting trick ending with some placements tips.
The tutorial ends with some very impressive photoshop tutorial dealing with a way to clean noise while retaining texture. This is the technique that made the photo look semi-painted.
Getting a digital camera up in the air is something we've gotten a big accustomed to. But I believe that getting a Lomography Diana F+ on a copter has not been done before. Till now.
The team over flitetest hooked up a Diana F+ to a tri-copter and sent it up in the air. I thought it would be interesting to go over the list of challenges they faces and break down the solutions to each of the challenges. This, and the video after the jump. Click to continue ›
A while back photographer Benjamin Von Wong was invited to the Underwater Realm set to take a group portrait of the actors and crew.
If you cringe at the thought of taking a big group shot, you would probably cry with the added difficultly of managing everything underwater (while being videographed by Erwan Cloarec) I was really unaware of all the added challenges of shooting underwater.
From water safety personal, through using weights to speed up descent to weighting down the wigs so they don't float. It seems that everything we know as photographer has to be relearned for underwater.
The video and Ben's post provide an interesting look into that world, as well as to some of the unique features of shooting underwater, like the inability to use radio slaves (which can be solved with optical wires), the "natural" depth of field that water provides and what's it's like working in the water in general. The BTS and more photos after the jump. Click to continue ›
Sean Goebel shot Epochs, a spectacular time lapse piece over 11 months and 4 states. Interestingly enough, a lot of the tracking gear he used was home made and lots of the "pro" gear borrowed. Just goes to show that talent and dedication trumps budget anytime. Sean was king enough to share the complete super-detailed making of Epochs, including gear lists, locations, challanges and a lost-in-a-desert with a dying flash light story. So sit back, go to full screen crank up the volume and enjoy. Click to continue ›
Ian Ruhter is not only a talented photographer, he is also an incredible story teller. If you recall the story, Ian set out on a mission to capture the spirit of America in a way no photographer has done before - In a wet plate camera built inside of a truck.
Today, Ian shares a bit more of his personal story intertwined with four other stories (and portraits) from LA that connect to Ian's inspirational story.
