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Your Stacking Rocks photos look cool, but they are killing animals

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Photos of rock stacks adorn our Instagram feeds. There are videos of them being created in elaborate styles. Sometimes they defy gravity with anything from pebbles to boulders in their formations. These eye-catching photos are usually framed against stunning natural backdrops and have a calm and tranquil quality to them.

There’s a darker side to these stacks, though. Two of them actually. So much so, that researchers are warning against making them. Is this another side-affect of the ‘doing it for the gram’ culture?

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100 Lego Star Wars photos from one dedicated toy photographer

UK based photographer David Saunders has reached 100 photographs in a Lego Star Wars project. David shoots Lego, dinosaurs, action figures, and other awesome toys. If you ever have a moment take a look at his social media. The images will amaze you.

To stay on top of our game, photographers should undertake personal projects. If you need inspiration, you’ve certainly found it here!

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Instagrammer forces plane to land 2 hours into flight claiming he has coronavirus

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28-year-old James Potok, self-professed #ViralBoy, made a very tasteless joke with a view to going viral. The Instagrammer falsely claimed to have coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on a plane. The WestJet flight he was on from Toronto to Jamaica was forced to turn around and land.

Unfortunately, this was the result of the ‘likes’ culture. James did this because he wanted to go viral. In an interview with Global News, he recalled having previously gone viral with a very different claim. He is quoted as saying, “I figured it would invoke some type of reaction. Not on the plane; more people seeing on social media, going, ‘Wow, this kid’s got some balls,’ or, ‘this kid is crazy.‘”

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The dunes are a newly discovered kind of aurora – and we have unseen photos

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The Northern Lights are on many people’s bucket lists. The celestial phenomenon occurs in the upper levels of our atmosphere. We’ve long sought explanations for these beautiful lights, and extensive research has come up with many answers. We thought we had it all covered until something strange happened. Recently, in Finland, a scientist discovered a new type of Aurora.

Each Aurora we see has a classification, it makes it easier to describe. For example,  these ripples and waves of light got a cool-sounding label like ‘corona’, which describes an Aurora straight above us. The one that appears as if it’s falling straight down. This new observation, labelled ‘dunes,’ was discovered by citizen-scientist Pirjo Koski and her team in Finland.

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Instagram is ‘killing’ Hallstatt, Let it go!

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Instagram has a tendency to make places ‘trend’. This makes global locations become inundated with tourists. Sometimes it’s cool, but sometimes this is to the detriment to the local community. Let’s look at what’s going on at Hallstatt as an example.

Hallstatt, Austria, is a very small town, virtually free of traffic, and with minimal facilities, and about 778 inhabitants. The town has featured recently in Frozen as Arendelle. It is not surprising, then, that it’s seeing a higher flux of visitors than usual. The estimated number of tourists is 1,000,000 yearly. That is an incredible number compared to that local population of 778. They are literally drowning in visitors. Many doing so ‘for the gram.’

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How I got my drone confiscated in Morocco (the most important thing you need to know about drones!)

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With drone photography, things right now are very fast-paced, both in the development of the tech and the implementation of the rules. There’s a lot I can tell you about drone photography. Overarching all of the creative elements the single, most important piece of advice I can give you is this:

Make sure you know the local drone laws, wherever you are and wherever you’re going!

As I mentioned, there’s a lot I can teach about drone photography, I’ve written a lot about it and I have a course live on KelbyOne all about it right now. The appeal of drone photography is huge. It’s been maximized by DJI, who are now the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer (true story) and camera manufacturer. Others such as Parrot and Yuneec are also cashing in on us photographers and our constant quest for new angles.

These new angles are the big appeal, and rightly so. Creatives have it embedded within them. Since our childhood, we have been scoping out birds-eye views. Think about it for a second, when we’re on a plane and we come into land we often stare out of the windows looking for a point of reference in order to see what is familiar to us from a new perspective, such as searching for our home or our favorite stadium, or simply a city skyline. Drones are here to stay. The rules are being implemented and enacted for everybody’s protection. But what does that actually mean for photographers?

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Tragic death at Iceland plane wreck Instagram hotspot

The Icelandic police (Logreglan) are investigating the tragic death of a Chinese couple close to the famous DC-3 plane wreck at Sólheimasandur, south Iceland. The couple was found 150 meters apart. They were on the trail between the parking lot and the plane, which is 7.4 kilometers long.

There is no official announcement for the cause of death yet. I speculate though, that it has to do with the severe weather conditions in the area. During the past week, Iceland has had a massive weather system coming through. Extremely strong and cold winds along with thick snow have also resulted in avalanches in the Westfjords.

The DC-3 plane wreck site has become an Instagram hotspot in recent years. Interestingly, the site is completely unmarked, which kinda makes you wonder how people got there. Apparently though, there was enough traffic to get the landowner to create a parking lot nearby. He also marked a trail with a simple series of small marker posts, and removed vehicle access to the area to save the delicate Icelandic terrain.

The wreck was featured in music videos and movies, (notably Justin Biber’s “I’ll show you“) and has received an incredible amount of attention off the back of being featured on the accounts of influencers and big brands on social media.

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