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The DJI Mini 3 Pro: A great first drone for Landscape Photographers

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Those who know me are aware that I’ve been talking about getting a drone for ages! Years, in fact. Put off by the many restrictions and rules that went hand in hand with owning and flying a drone, my biggest concern was that I just wouldn’t use it enough.

I thought that it would be mostly unused, sitting on a shelf gathering dust, but when DJI announced the Mini 3 Pro, the time was finally right to jump in and place the order. Having now owned the Mini 3 Pro for around 5 or 6 months, I thought I would share my thoughts from the point of view of a landscape photographer owning his very first drone.

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The Victorian death portrait: a family photo guaranteed to send shivers up your spine

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At a glance, this image looks like an old photograph of five somewhat bored children posing for a family photo. And indeed, it is. However, it hides a certain macabre secret: the smallest child on the far left is actually dead and is propped up on a stand.

To our modern standards, this seems rather creepy, but in the Victorian era, these ‘death portraits,’ as they became known, were very common. It offers a fascinating glimpse into what life may have been like for the early jobbing photographer of the Victorian period.[Read More…]

How I made my own 3D printed film video camera

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I’ve made an expensive and unreliable way to record low quality videos!

If you haven’t noticed from my last few blog posts, I’ve been pretty obsessed with film stuff recently. In particular, I’ve been obsessed with the warm & fuzzy look of film videos. Maybe its just my gen z brain being nostalgic of a time before I was born, but film really does just feel special compared to the sterile digital videos of today.

However, there definitely is a reason why no one uses film as a medium for recording videos anymore. Motion picture film is in short supply and it’s almost impossible to find someone willing to develop and scan your videos. All in all, you would probably need to wait months and pay ~$250 for just 10 minutes of footage – not exactly the best value proposition!

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James Webb’s recent image recreates the “crime scene” of a star’s death

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has opened new possibilities for space observation. Thanks to its infrared cameras, it can see further and observe more details than its predecessor, the Hubble.

The latest observations revealed some previously unknown details of the Southern Ring Nebula, some 2,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Vela. And thanks to the new infrared images and existing data from ESA’s Gaia observatory, researchers were able to precisely pinpoint the mass of the central star before the nebula was created.

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Balenciaga won’t sue the photographer behind the controversial kids and BDSM props campaign

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Fashion company Balenciaga came under fire recently after publishing a campaign featuring children and BDSM props. After threatening legal action against creatives behind the photos, including photographer Gabriele Galimberti, the company has decided to let them off the hook after all.

However, some images included papers showing Supreme Court’s decision regarding child pornography. Another photographer reportedly took them, and Balenciaga decided to sue the creatives behind this set.

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These are the most bizarre ways stock models had their photos used

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When you pose for stock photos, you may not even be able to imagine how those photos will be used. Writer Abigail Johnson recently warned people to “never do stock image modeling,” as a photo of her ended up in quite an… unusual article.

But then, people joined with their own experiences, each more bizarre than the other. Some of them were funny, but most were embarrassing and downright humiliating.

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Square crop compositions – They’re not just for Instagram

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It’s funny. These days, most people associate an image that’s cropped as a square as something that’s being done as a compromise for the benefit of social media – particularly Instagram. For the longest time, a square was the best format to use on Instagram because it’s all it would display, and it still is the most common crop today. On other social media, square became popular because it has the same dimensions whether the viewer holds their phone vertically or horizontally.

But square images have been around since long before Instagram or social media. In fact, they were around long before the Internet existed at all. And it has a very different psychological effect on the viewer than a vertical or horizontal orientation image. In this video, Mark Denney walks us through the square crop, how and why to use it and how you might want to use it to get better compositions.

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This is why you need an extra tall tripod in your equipment bag

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We all started out with a lightweight tripod as our very first tripod. Most likely, then, after several uses and budget allowing, you upgraded to a much sturdier tripod. If you’ve ever struggled with a lightweight tripod, you know exactly why. And then the occasion strikes where you realize, at times, you also need a really tall tripod.

Then the options become fewer. It’s that intersect between affordable, robust, easy to carry … and really tall. Nothing else will suffice. For this kind of situation, I got the Robus RC-0888 carbon fiber tripod.

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Urbex photographers find dead body in building, police say its homicide

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A group of urbex photographers made a grim discovery while exploring an abandoned building in Kansas City. Shortly after entering the building the men found a decomposing body and alerted the authorities. Police then called homicide detectives to the scene to further the investigation.

Urban explorers (or urbex as they are known) Michael Meredith and Aaron (family name not supplied) were out indulging in their hobby of exploring abandoned and derelict buildings. After doing extensive research, they told DIYP that they found what looked like a suitably interesting empty building. Upon close inspection, they noticed that the front door to the building was actually open.

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This photographer used AI to help create these exquisite Joan of Arc images

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been hitting the headlines a lot lately. According to popular opinion, it will likely destroy art, photography, and the creative industries as we know them. But is that the whole story? Perhaps we are missing something here. Surely there is a reverse side to all the doom-mongering?

Well, photographer and digital artist Chris Koeppen may actually have found that silver lining. Chris, who goes under the creative alias of An Ethereal Fire, has been using AI for good instead of, you know, evil. He has been using text prompt AI imaging to enhance his creative output and has recently created this series of extraordinary composite images based upon the legendary Joan of Arc. Chris took the time to chat to DIYP about how he made them and about where he sees the future of photography and AI.

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