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In order to celebrate the unholy amount of snow that just fell on my neighbors in Buffalo and Western New York (how does two meters or six feet of snow in November sound to ya?), I thought I’d share a few of the stories behind some of my favorite winter photos.
When it’s cold and snowy, it can be hard to find the motivation to pull your camera out, so hopefully the stories behind these photos might inspire a few winter photography moments. Because, winter is coming.
Sony Japan announced their new Sony A7II and according to Sony.net it packs quite the punch, as it should because the original A7 line is an amazing piece of technology to build upon. Some of the specs that really standout on the A7II:
I did a shoot recently with a big BMW using only one speed light and I wanted to share how I made it happen. The idea is, of course to learn something new, but also to show that having little gear should not stop you from pushing yourself. Sadly I cannot use the bike photo, but I reproduced the process using a trusted unique Kymco Like, it’s not a BMW but it will do. My original plan was to use a full blown studio setup: monoblocks, softboxes and umbrellas as diffusers for the shot. But as I was setting up I thought of a crazy idea: Light is light, so why don’t I just add the light from multiple exposures and shoot it with one small speedlight. So here is a step by step tutorial and video on how we did it.
Although the access to satellite imagery has never been as broadly available as today, it is still not without its issues. The pictures are often very old because shooting a satellite up to (near) space with a rocket is just crazy expensive. In fact, according to Will Marshall, building a satellite can cost up to $85o,000,000 (yup, this is a 7 zeros figure) and weigh over 3 tons in avarage. Planet Labs however aims to revolutionize satellite images by building cheaper, smaller (think Red Epic size) and lighter (4kg) devices that are capable of updating pictures daily. Will Marshall, co-founder of Planet Labs recently gave a TED- Talk.
Nikon is trying to be the first horse in the race to cross the line and lock your holidays presents with an impressive discount program. Of course Nikon is not just begin generous for the sake of generosity. They are hoping to get your holidays presents and end of year money. Luckily they are doing quite a good job.
The biggest news is the discount on the D610 @$1600 (or $2245 wit a kit lens, which is about $800 discount) and the D7100 @$945 (or $1,500 with both kit lenses which represents about $630 discount).
Here is the full list of available product. The link above directs you to B&Hs Nikon selector where you can choose a bundle and see the pricing/discount. Like any good thing, there is a time limit and the counter currently points at Nov 22nd. Following below is the full list of discounted gear. We expect Canon to throw a counter punch soon.
With the help of his father’s wise words, Jay P. Morgan has just put out a fun video chock full of tips to help you get started in wildlife photography. Morgan’s father was a photographer for National Geographic and the Audubon Society for many years. He did us all a favor by imparting his experiences and wisdom onto his son, who is paying it forward and sharing the tips with us. Even if you’re already familiar with some of the concepts he mentions, there’s certainly some gems to be found. Number 8 is a personal favorite. (I, too, can vouch for it’s usefulness.)
There are many times we write about how the photography market is changing. How photographers are perceived to bringing less value to projects and how they are perceived to be worth their gear and nothing more. Heck, we posted an open letter about this today.
But while we have been mainly highlight the small business photographer, a recent interview by PDN reporter Amy Wolff with photographers’ rep Julian Richards sheds some light a similar process is happening at the very high end market as well.
Mr. Richards had a successful photo rep agency for over 20 years and at times his roster included photographers such as David Barry, Chris Buck, Michael McLaughlin, Dana Gallagher, Sian Kennedy, Greg Miller, James Smolka and Henrik Knudsen. A pretty impressive team. Yet, after 20 years he decided to quite. The interview is filled with painful insight from Mr. Richards.
The most striking thoughts comes when Mr. is asked about how the industry changed. (Bolding is mine)
Gels are common tools to use when you want to change the temperature of your light or add color to white backgrounds. but they can also be used to simulate the look of different kinds of lights. In this case, Joe McNally uses a blue gel over a speedlight to mimic the look of a glowing movie projector. It’s a pretty creative application of the gels and goes to show that with a little imagination and a pack of Rosco gels, the sky is the limit.
Hello Potential Client,
Regarding your last email in which you said:
“… if they (your client) saw the $700/ $1400 a day fee for the photographer they would dismiss the project immediately … (most of my client’s people make between $25 and $45 an hour)… Showing $100/hr was also a job-killer as you can imagine”.
Well sure thing. I see where you’re coming from… Let’s rewrite the quote to show the actual number of hours I will work on this job, instead of only those spent with my face in a camera. Maybe that will help.
Do you use long lenses for landscape photography?
When most people think about landscape photography, they often think Wide. Using wide angle lenses is very common with landscape photography and for a good reason. Wide lenses have some great advantages for landscape photography. They capture a wide view of the scene; they provide great depth of field; and they create a deep perspective which emphasize the foreground and minimize the background. But in many cases they’re not the best choice, and you shouldn’t fixate on shooting wide every time you see a great landscape.
Using long (or tele) lenses allows you to capture amazing scenes you wouldn’t be able to shoot with a wide angle lens for several reasons:
Here are some examples:
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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