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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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Benjamin Von Wong tackles First World child hunger in compelling fantasy photo series

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We tend to think we’re quite privileged here in the First World. To the point where the #firstworldproblems hashtag is basically a joke. It’s to make us feel better about all our petty grumbles the world throws at us. But even in this supposedly privileged society, there are many people truly suffering. And many of those are children.

Benjamin Von Wong discovered this after talking with the people at Second Harvest Food Bank. They told him that where he lives, in the heart of Silicon Valley, 1 in 3 children struggle with hunger. Pretty sad for an area that boasts America’s second-highest concentration of wealthy people. So, Benjamin decided to do something about it.

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Photographer turns 10,000 plastic bottles into an ocean for this mermaid shoot

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The ideas of conservation, living “green”, fighting pollution and global warming have been at the front of everybody’s mind in recent years. Well, almost everybody. It’s gotten to the point, though, where many have become numb to the relentless commercials and posters telling us to recycle and do this and that for the planet’s benefit.

Photography Ben Von Wong wants to keep bringing these issues back into the public’s conscious through amazing photography. This time around, he’s used 10,000 plastic bottles to create an ocean home for a beautiful mermaid. As usual, this was an idea in Ben’s head that came together with the help of a lot of volunteers and assistance.

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This photographer shot his subjects on a real lava field for these incredible images

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There’s a whole lot one can do with Photoshop these days to put your subjects into any environment we wish. But, for me, nothing beats the authenticity of shooting on location. It seems Ben Von Wong feels the same way. For his latest project he took his model, Tau, and crew out into the middle of Hawaiian lava fields.

The project is part of Ben’s work to raise awareness for climate change, and to give back to those who have been victims of natural disaster. In this case, Hurricane Matthew. Assisted by lava expert and landscape photographer CJ Kale, ben and his crew set off for the Big Island of Hawaii to capture the shots. Fortunately for us, as well as fantastic images, Ben also created a behind the scenes video documenting everything that went into their production.

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Want To Retouch Like Von Wong? You’ll Want To Check Out This Tutorial

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If you are unfamiliar with the work of Benjamin von Wong (previously), you have probably not read DIYP in the last few years. Ben creates epic, inspiring, larger than life art and now he released a set of video tutorials explaining how he works. But I am going too fast, let me take it from the start.

Von Wong has done some amazing work, but many of his first creations can be related to his crowd-funded trip to Europe. In this tutorial, Ben breaks down those photographs and explains his entire workflow on editing them. After watching this section of the tutorial, I can say that this alone is worth the package, as the amount of information that Ben fires while editing is incredible. If you know Ben, you know that the pace is pretty fast and expect a rate of about one tip per ten seconds.

But Ben does you one over and also includes two more sections: a Lightroom tutorial section and a Photoshop section. Both are critical for understanding how to optimize your workflow. Hit the jump to see the full review.

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Von Wong on the Importance of Problem Solving in Photography

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Von Wong is the photographer behind some of the most epic images created in recent years and even his most simple photos tend to have something rather magnificent about them.

Obviously a lot of hard work goes into each photo, but what viewers don’t know is just how much planning, organizing, adjusting and adapting is involved in such complicated, yet low-budget, productions.

In his recent blog post, Von Wong describes how he handled various setbacks such as the centerpiece props not arriving, unexpected logistic tasks and shooting an entire photoshoot on a Sony a7R camera he’s never used before – all while being 10,000 miles away from home.

While his story makes for a good read, he doesn’t stop at just detailing specific solutions to the difficulties encountered on his recent shoot in Australia. Von Wong also shares insight that will help you get the job done in the best way possible, no matter what goes wrong.

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Von Wong and a Glimpse of the Other Side – Photographs from inside a Malaysian royal palace

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Ben Von Wong is a great friend. No, we may have never spoken or emailed or seen each other in person, but in my mind we go way back. (There’s a lot of people I know in my imagination…I’m quite the popular fellow, my therapist says.) Yet, even better than a friend, Ben makes an awesome photographer, and we’ve previously featured his work here…and here…and here… You get the idea. He’s practically family.

Recently, Ben and a team of creative professionals had the opportunity to photograph and video The Royal Istana of Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia’s newest royal palace. The palace is off-limits to the general public and access is only granted on an invitation-only basis. I mean, what rich and powerful guy wants his local deli clerk just strolling into his thirteenth living room while he and his harem are seated in a circle reading Twilight?

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A Photoshoot at a Shipwreck: Part Two of Von Wong’s Epic Underwater Project

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About a month back, we featured an immersive and exhilarating underwater project done by photographer Von Wong. For those that never looked into it, Von Wong was the man behind a photoshoot done completely underwater – and it wasn’t anything I’d ever seen before. Before his work caught my eye, no photographic work done near at a shipwreck was quite as captivating at all. And if you haven’t seen it by now, you’re about to.

Back when we first posted about it, we featured a video that Von Wong uploaded to accompany his work, detailing the introductory basics of what it took to execute a project like that. It’s a privilege for me to introduce his next part in the making of this project: the second part to his video series, giving you an in-depth look behind the scenes at exactly how this photoshoot was executed.

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