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The Thursday Society is the world’s first global open artists collective

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Thursday Society, the world’s first open global artists’ collective, launches simultaneously tomorrow (Thursday) in six international cities: London and Leeds in the UK; Indianapolis and New York in the USA; and in Europe, Vienna, Austria and Valencia, Spain. Based on ideas of ‘open collaboration’, the collective plans to make creative support and education freely available to all artists (including photographers), both online and in real life. 

Any artists and creatives are encouraged to participate from anywhere in the world, particularly photographers and visual artists. Participation will begin through Instagram and will feature the hashtag #ThurSoc.

Here is the fine line between imitation and blunt copying

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“Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattering, it’s the sincerest form of learning” – G. B. Shaw. This is one of the quotes that open Sean Tucker’s latest video, and I find it to be a perfect description of the importance of imitation. Imitating other artists is an essential process of learning and growing. We’ve all done it, and maybe we still do. But when is it time to stop? In this video, Sean discusses imitation and its importance, but also innovation and the time when it should take over.

How to be a more creative photographer and enrich your life in the process

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One does not think during creative work, any more than one thinks when driving a car. But one has a background of years – learning, unlearning, success, failure, dreaming, thinking, experience, all this – then the moment of creation, the focusing of all into the moment. – Edward Weston

Creativity is, in some respects, intangible. It does not have a physical form. It cannot be distilled and sold in bottles. It cannot be summoned at will, and if it does happen to show its face, there is no guarantee that it will stick around.

Creativity is elusive and as such, is one of the pinnacles of photographic achievement.

Many photographers will ask after its whereabouts, and how it might fashion them a personal style, vision, or voice.

Here are some macro photography ideas you can shoot at home right now

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Just because you might know your own home like the back of your hand, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing exciting left to shoot there. If you’re not convinced, this video from COOPH will change your mind.

Your home is full of photographic opportunities you can grab on a rainy day or when you simply feel like playing with a camera. And best of all – you can try them out straight away. Check out the ideas in the video below, and I’ll give you a few suggestions of my own, too.

These mesmerizing eye photos were made entirely in-camera using multiple exposures

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Multiple exposures can add a totally new dimension to photos, making them dream-like and surreal. Ben Dauré is a filmmaker and photographer from Leeds, UK, and his work is eye-catching in every possible way. He photographs human eyes and uses multiple exposures, which results in truly unique and breathtaking images. And what’s more, he does it all entirely in-camera. We bring you some of Ben’s awesome work, and he was kind enough to share with DIYP how he creates it.

Here are some ideas for photos you can take with a $6 shiny purse and your smartphone flashlight

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Mainly, I do photography for fun, and I like experimenting with random stuff to get unusual effects in my photos. For my birthday last year, a got a brilliant shiny cosmetic purse from a friend. It instantly became my favorite traveling companion, but I also immediately saw the potential for using it in my photos.

There have been a few occasions this year that I have used this little purse for photography, combining it with the LED flashlight on my smartphone. And I must say: I’m surprised by the funky lighting effects you can achieve with just two everyday items!

Lucky accidents: how I turned “glitched” corrupted photos into my advantage

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I’ve always had bad luck with portable hard drives. Over the years I have had failures with several brands and models that today I have almost everything in the cloud for more security.

The last time this happened was a couple of months ago, one of my backup hard drives became corrupt, I took it to the tech and they gave me a very high budget that at the moment I could not afford to pay. As a photographer I’m not a very good computer technician, I do not know much about recovery software but a friend who is quite geeky suggested that I run a program called Wondershare Data Recovery on my other backup discs to see if I could rescue some of those same files that they were previously stored there before being transferred to the disk that was damaged.

How to find inspiration and get those creative juices flowing

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Photographer Ed Verosky admits in the opening line of this video that he’s not a creative genius. But then, very few of us are. Just coming up with something creative out of thin air isn’t easy. We need inspiration. And I’m not suggesting we copy. Just something that inspires us, gets us thinking and starts those creative juices flowing.

Different things inspire different people. What might inspire me may not inspire you, and vice versa. For me, it’s often movies and music, but I can be inspired by all sorts of things going on around me. Ed talks about what inspires him in this video. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas you hadn’t considered.

12 photographers unite to create a fantasy photo book and comfort sick children

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We’ve featured the heart-warming, beautiful projects of The heART Project before. This time, 12 photographers came together to create a wonderful photo storybook, The Get Well Tree. It contains 14 photos that look like they came straight out of a fairy tale. But the main characters are real-life girls, two little heroes.

Evie Gleeson (5) and Indy Dawes (4) met two and a half years ago in a hospital where they were undergoing childhood cancer treatment. Over this time, they became close friends, and they both managed to fight the illness. Now they want to encourage other sick children through their story. So, they posed for the photos that became a part of the Get Well Tree book. We share these amazing photos with you, together with the video and the story.

Nike challenged this photographer to walk on air and he did, right off the edge of a skyscraper

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Did you dream as a child that you can walk or run on air? Benjamin Von Wong was wondering what it would be like, and he got a chance to experience it and capture it with his camera. He and his team defied gravity in the new Nike campaign. They created fantastic images that alter the reality, but they also experienced what it’s like to run on air.

It took creativity, courage, lots of safety equipment and thorough planning. Ben didn’t use stuntmen or stuntwomen, but his models were everyday heroes. He chose athletes, social entrepreneurs and community leaders who make the world a better place, and they defied gravity for this bold photoshoot.

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