Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Photographer Nicky Bay headed to the Amazon’s tropical rainforests, but he wasn’t after the jaguars, anacondas, sloths or piranhas the region is so famous for.
Instead, being a macro photography, Nicky set out to document the creatures so small they are often overlooked or disregarded.
If you like creepy-crawlies you will love these photos. If you don’t, you’ll probably remove the Amazon rainforest from your travel wishlist.
For no particular reason red was never my first choice when it came to planning the colour pallette of a photo shoot, so a while back I decided that at some point I would throw myself wholly at it and try and create some beautiful high impact images. Like with all my ideas it had taken root and I knew that given time it would grow into a concept that would eventually be realised…
Then a few months ago I was given the opportunity to shoot in an aircraft hangar at my local airport, now being granted access to such an incredible location I knew I wanted to plan and shoot an editorial that had a very rich, elegant almost regal feel to it whilst having this emphasis on the colour red. After weeks of planning looks and working with the stylist and various designers, the morning of the shoot we faced a massive problem. The problem wasn’t the freezing temperatures or the snow flurries but that fact that we now only had two hours to shoot as opposed to having the entire day as planned! As a result not only did we have to cut our shoot time but we had to accept that we may not have time to shoot all eight of the planned looks.
Lighting modifiers can have a huge impact on specialized shots. With the right ones, light becomes putty in your hand, easily molded by the skill of the potter. (Yeah, I jumble up my euphemisms frequently.)
YouTuber Theoria Apophasis believes in the the power of light modifiers, but he believes even more in ingenuity. The “Angry Photographer” shared one of his favorite homemade mods to get creative lighting that adds drama to his images. This is one of the best lighting mods and can be easily created with craft store supplies for $5.
So, the FAA (US), the CAA (UK), Transport Canada (Canada, duh) and countless others are taking a stand against drones restricting usage and allowed flying zones and conditions. Especially for commercial use.
This is where Zurich-based company – Perspective Robotics hopes to gain footage in an ever-crowded niche. Their UAV solution is somewhat different from the DJI’s and 3DR’s out there in the sense that it does not use a radio to control the UAV. Rather it is using a tethered cable to deliver power and control to the airborne half of the unit.
Fotokite claims that at least one Airspace regulator – DGAC, the French airspace authority – exempted them from the Drone classification.
As photographer Aaron Draper believes, photography of homeless individuals is quickly become a cliché. “Far too often, photographers who are searching for urban wildlife stalk the homeless. Unfortunately, this does nothing to increase our understanding of their lives or situations; it just shows how we are elevated and photographing them from a place of privilege.”
His artistic response was to photograph the homeless with the same attention and dignity that he would any traditional client, trading in the typical black-and-white for color, and bringing a mobile lighting setup with him. His goal isn’t to share an image that makes us feel bad for a moment and whisper a half-hearted prayer before going on with our privileged lives. His goal is to share lives.
THE MOMENT OF HORROR
No. No. Please, no. A moment of terror for every photographer out there. I opened my photo bag, took out my cam to take a picture of the street filled with warm sunset light and then it happened. Imagine this moment in slow-motion. While listening to music with my noise-cancelling headphones I raised my cam in order to look through the viewfinder. Surprised by the incredibly bad auto-focus I realized with cheery music in my ears how the lens had suddenly unhooked from the cam and fallen all the way down to the ground in the worst way possible. BAM!
Overwhelmed by the moment I slowly looked down while holding the 5D Mark II body in my hands. I looked over to my friend who was making a phone call next to me on the bench with question marks in my eyes. That just didn’t happen. The exclamation marks in her wide-open eyes begged to differ. It did happen. I had just smashed my brand new $1600 L-lens, which is the only one I own: a Canon EF 24mm 1.4.
After going through all sorts of psychological troubles the last years, all the ups and downs and the rocky way up the fearful mountain of self-employment, after only 10 seconds my Dutch “bright side enzyme” kicked in to turn this negativity-ridden moment into something positive. “Het komt wel goed” (it’s gonna be fine) is what we always say when something bad happens. Challenge accepted!
Breaking Royal protocol, a professional photographer was not called in to take the first official photos of one-month-old Princess Charlotte who’s fourth in line to the British throne.
Being a keen photographer, the proud mother and Duchess of Cambridge decided to take the photos herself.
While the strict great grandmother Queen Elizabeth (Mark?) II might have frowned upon it, Kate’s charming photos prove she has alternative career options at her disposal, should the royalty thing not work out.
Russian Photographer and mom Elena Shumilova became kinda famous when photos of her kids and family went viral in early 2014. In total her photos were views over 60,000,000 times (and I guess they were viewed outside her profile some 60 million more).
Something about her photography struck a chord with almost everyone, photographers, mothers, father, young and old. I guess the innocence and feeling of childhood that projected from her photos were just irresistible.
Elena shared some great advice on photographing kids with the crew at Smugmug and agreed to share them with DIYP readers.
Drones are more popular than ever and have become rather mainstream as a photography tool, hobby or gadget.
Their popularity however led to restrictive laws and regulations due to privacy concerns, commercial rights and plain and simple dumb operating practices (a drunk pilot flying over the White House comes to mind…).
“Between the introduction of drone technology, and today’s laws limiting or banning their use, there was a glorious period when you could fly a camera almost anywhere”, says Amos Chapple, a Kiwi travel photographer who took these photos.
Below are some of Amos’ stunning photos that could land you a hefty fine or even jail time, should you attempt to take them today.
By routinely reading Photo-News and blogs from around the world, I came across homemade photo booths again and again. I saved images and ideas for my own project to be executed “somewhere in the future”. Future was supposed to be 2012, when I moved to Hamburg and a housewarming party was planned. Unfortunately, that did not work out with the schedule, the project has been somewhat forgotten and thus lay for a while semi-finished in the basement. 2015, a colleague celebrated his birthday on a larger scale and they have established a selfie-booth. The result was great and reminded me of the photo booth in the basement, which was finally pushed to completion.
Like always I joint all the best ideas from other projects that I had found in the meantime.
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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