During the holiday season, I’m sure all of us want to get some festive family shots with our loved ones. But how to make the best out of them? In this video from B&H, photographer David Flores shares some quick tips to take your holiday family photos to a new level.
Photographers visit hospitals around the world to create magical portraits for over 200 sick children
Karen Alsop and her team behind heART Project have put smiles on sick children’s faces so many times. Two years in a row, they organized The Christmas Wish Project, which brought joy and festive mood to sick children across Australia. But this year, the project has grown much bigger and it has gone global!
The project assembled a team of over 110 photographers and creatives who volunteered to photograph children in 10 cities around the world. The team created magical Christmas portraits for more than 200 children who are spending “the most wonderful time of the year” in hospital.
Photographer under fire for posing a baby with a toy BB gun
It’s November, but let’s face it, Christmas is gonna be here in no time. So, a Shelbyville, Indiana-based photographer Amy Haehl recently posted a baby photo inspired by the iconic movie A Christmas Story. But instead of evoking holiday spirit, the photo caused a flood of negative comments because of a wooden BB gun the baby boy is holding in his arms.
True love is this husband’s reluctant devotion to his wife’s Instagram account
We all want to do something a little crazy for our social media at some point. Or, we at least contemplate it, even if we don’t follow through. Sometimes we’re just to afraid of how it may be perceived, and sometimes it’s just because we need a little help. In this case, it’s the latter, when fitness Instagrammer Libby Burkhalter wanted to create an indoor snow angel for her 29 followers.
Well, what else is one supposed to do when they want to make a snow angel, but either there’s no snow or it’s just far too cold outside? Naturally, she enlisted the help of her husband, who reluctantly agreed to participate in the activity. I think the look on his face just about says it all.
2017 DIYP Gift Guide – Lighting
So, you’ve got your camera and your lenses, but now what? The days are getting shorter, and darker, potentially limiting what you can shoot, and for how long. Even when the weather is great and the days are long, the available light doesn’t always give you what you want and you want to augment it or obliterate it completely.
So, here we’ve put together some of our favourite lights and lighting accessories, including quite a few that we use ourselves on a regular basis for both photography and video work.
2017 DIYP Gift Guide – Lenses
In this, the second in our series of gift guides, we’re taking a look at lenses. After all, what good are cameras without them?
We’ve looked through some of our new favourites from the past year, as well as a couple of classics which consistently withstand the test of time.
2016 seems to be a record year for Christmas drone crashes
I suppose it shouldn’t come as much surprise that drones have become the hot gift this year. There’s more drones on the market now than ever before. They range in price from $10 to thousands, and anybody can get hold of one. But, what surprises me is the number of them that seem to crash within 24 hours of emerging from their box.
It’s almost like the manufacturers don’t even pop any suggestions in the box at all. You know, like “If you’ve never flown a drone before, take it easy”, “Try to avoid hitting trees, houses, and peoples heads”, etc. But, then, humanity isn’t really the best at reading instruction manuals anyway. I just feel bad for all the poor Christmas trees.
Couples play light painting charades with large format instant film
Charades is a pretty common game to play with the family at Christmas. You know the one. Where one person tries to mime out a word or a phrase, while everybody else attempts to hilariously guess what it is. Well, this year, the folks at Analog Process decided to give the name a new twist, with Light Charades.
In the game, one person had to light paint a picture to represent the word, and another had to guess what it was. In order to capture the light painting, they used a 4×5 large format camera with instant film. Despite the lack of drawing ability by some of them, and the fact they’d probably never light painted before, their results were surprisingly good.
Don’t be a zombie photographer – Use your brain and find your soul
This is one of those posts that’s going to divide people. Some will love it and completely agree with everything said. Others will hate it, but it’s usually because they’re guilty of the things mentioned. If I’m completely honest, I might’ve done one or two of them myself in the past. But, ultimately, you don’t have to agree with it, as long as you’re happy with what you’re doing.
When I first watched Joe Edelman’s Holiday Wish List for photographers, I did find myself nodding in agreement with a lot of it. I’m not planning to do anything about my G.A.S., though. Mine is a relatively mild case, and most of the things on my list aren’t being made any more.
10 Non-filmmaker (or photographer) things to try for the holiday season
The Basic Filmmaker is one of my favourite channels on YouTube. As well as offering great filmmaking and photography tips, there’s often a whole heap of common sense thrown in for good measure, too. A video he posted today, got my interest, though. It’s a list of the top 10 things non-filmmakers can try over the holidays. A lot of it can apply equally to photographers, too.
So, if you’re stuck for things to do this holiday season instead of obsessing over gear or showing off your newest toy, have a watch!
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