Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
If you’re a fan of sports, you’ve no doubt seen the work of photographer Peter Read Miller at some point, even if you haven’t been aware of it. He’s been covering sports photography for over three decades and he’s managed to get his hands on a new Canon 1DX Mark III.
In this video, he talks about his experiences with the new camera with images from a couple of NFL games, and breaks down some of the new features that it offers.
Making cameras move in ways that are different can be a challenge, especially as cameras and all their associated bits seem to keep getting bigger and heavier. In a recent short film release, Skywatch, filmmaker Jason Levy needed to produce a camera rig which orbited around an object in a scene, early on in the film. There was no commercial solution available, so he made his own.
It’s called the Spin Rig and we’ve seen similar such rigs before, although mostly on a much smaller scale or designed for lighter weight cameras like GoPros. The Spin Rig, however, is much more substantial. If you don’t want spoilers, watch the short film first (it’s at the bottom of this post).
When Dolly Parton posted a photo of herself on her 74th birthday, I doubt that she had in mind what she would start. She posted four photos that jokingly emphasize the differences between people’s photos on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder. Soon enough, her post started a viral thread among celebrities. Everyone is sharing their photos in the same meme format, and it’s absolutely hilarious!
In a statement posted to their website, New Jersey-based lighting company, DynaLite, founded in 1970 has closed its doors and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. They say that they find it “difficult to remain competitive” and have decided to close the company.
Photography gear is getting more and more advanced, and it seems that new lenses are being announced every few weeks. But even with all these fancy new lenses, there are still reasons to use vintage ones.
Mark Holtze says that there are as many as 100 reasons to use vintage lenses in 2020, but “nobody is sitting through 90 minutes of this,” he adds jokingly. So, he limited himself to a 7-minute video and five big reasons to shoot with vintage glass even in 2020. And I’d say these will apply in the future, too.
I have warned people multiple times to do their research before hiring a wedding photographer. However, it seems that sometimes even that isn’t enough. A UK couple reportedly hired a photographer based on her portfolio only to discover that she had used stock photos in it. Their wedding photos apparently turned out so awful, that they had to restage the wedding for another shoot.
It might seem odd for Godox to release a 300Ws strobe when they already have the AD200Pro and AD400Pro (not to mention the AD360II is still technically a thing), but that appears to be exactly what they’re doing. A listing on the Adorama website for the Flashpoint Xplor300 Pro TTL strobe has just appeared.
Godox hasn’t made an announcement, but given that the rest of Adorama’s range is made by Godox and the similar design construction, it’s not much of a stretch to assume this is, too. But what makes this strobe particularly useful for photographers is that it’s about the same size as your average 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, so it’s easy to throw in your camera bag.
According to the recent reports, DJI is set to announce three new drones over the course of 2020. The most recent one is likely to be the Matrice 300, so as we could have probably expected, its specs were the first to leak online.
When it comes to adding a night mode camera, Samsung was late to the party. The Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S10 received that addition through an update last spring, whereas the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 came with a pre-configured Night Mode camera. Night Mode replaced Bright Mode which allowed you to take long exposures in low-light conditions. It was kinda automatic and you had no control whether to turn it on or not.
And this is my biggest issue with Bright Mode. It turned on automatically based on how dark it was. In other words, the software decided which mode to use in low light, not the photographer. Night Mode is a different story.
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?
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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