I more than often hear landscape photographers complaining about “bad” weather and then say it’s chugging down. Honestly, I don’t know what they’re talking about. I thrive in stormy weather. Rain, strong winds, and what can sometimes be a bit of a problem, low hanging clouds – yes it’s next to nearly impossible to keep your camera dry, it’s next to nearly impossible to keep the lens clean and it requires extra energy to keep up the spirit – but “bad” weather is not bad weather, it’s amazing....

In December last year, there were reports of a drone colliding with a Boeing 737 in Mexico. These were just the presumptions and the officials were investigating the case. The investigation is now finished, and it turns out that there was no drone after all. The incident happened on 12 December 2018 while the airplane was approaching Tijuana International Airport. Upon landing, the airplane had a cracked in and caved in the nose....

A new Instagram scam seems to be going around, and it’s pretty serious. It’s a good old phishing scam, designed to look just like a message from Instagram. But the scammers behind it will hijack your account and ask for money to give it back to you – and it goes up to $40,000. The scam is targeting accounts with a high follower count, many influencers being among them. So, if you, like me, have 200-ish people following you, you’re most likely safe....

It keeps fascinating me how much we don’t know about the underwater world and how many remarkable species are still being discovered. One of them is a new species of jellyfish that MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) recently discovered. Found in the depths of Monterey Bay, California, the team scientifically described the new species of crown jellyfish. But they also caught it on camera so all of us can enjoy seeing it (and perhaps be slightly terrified by it)....

A while back me and fellow DIY writer Joseph Parry were chatting over messenger. We had just started following a blog called Canon of design by Tavis Leaf Glover. Canon of design is a treasure mine of compositional information, which studies the master painters and how they designed, constructed and finished their masterpieces. These guys spent months, even years creating one image. Nothing was left to chance. Composition was perfectly drawn out, over and over again, until the image was compositionally bullet proof....

Adobe have just announced the release of Lightroom for Apple TV. Interestingly, it doesn’t actually seem to let you edit your images. What it does do, is sync up your work letting you quickly flick through your images on the big screen. Lightroom for Apple TV is available now and completely free from the App Store. It does, however, require a Creative Cloud subscription to login and sync up your images....

Alter has spent a couple of years testing and prototyping their new Rapid Filter System (RFS). Essentially, it’s a flip-up doohicky that attaches to your camera’s filter thread on one side and your filter screws into the other. And they say it completely does away with the need for step-up rings. It’s being launched on Kickstarter, and while I think it has some appeal in certain shooting situations, I’m not entirely sure it’s as essential as some of the hype in the embedded YouTube videos would suggest....

With all the goings-on at Google and people looking for alternate cloud storage options, sometimes it’s easier to just be your own cloud. I use Resilio Sync for this, but that does usually mean building up a dedicated PC. The Amber X wants to simplify that process with an inexpensive cloud-storage-in-a-box solution that lets you store your data and retrieve it anywhere. Amber X is currently running on Indiegogo, where it’s long since passed its goal....

Vogue recently hired famous photographer Annie Leibovitz to take photos of the United States Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. As perhaps we could have expected after those Simone Biles photos, people were all over Leibovitz over “poorly lit” images. Many have criticized the photographer over the “poor” lighting of Jackson’s brown skin. Some attempted to “fix” the photos and relight them. And some went as far as claiming that Leibovitz should not be allowed to photograph Black people....

Aputure’s been coming pretty thick and fast on the announcements lately, and now they’ve announced their new Light Storm 60D daylight and 60X bi-colour adjustable focusing LED lights. As the name suggests, these are 60 Watt LEDs, and everything is built inside the head, meaning there’s no external control unit to have to deal with. So far, they’ve only been announced, not released, and both lights may be subject to some changes before the final products are released....

First announced in May last year, the Aputure Light Storm LS60D and LS60X LED lights are now officially here. Available in both daylight (LS60D) and bicolour (LS60X) variants, the new lights offer an adjustable beam angle, weatherproofing. Both lights also offer a multitude of power options from the supplied AC adapter or through the use of a weatherproof DC input. It’s taken a little longer than expected for Aputure to bring these to market, having initially expected them to come in Summer 2020, but they look like a pretty exciting addition to the Light Storm product lineup....

Aputure has announced the release of the new Aputure MC RGBWW LED light. It’s the first RGB light to be released by Aputure, first shown off at NAB 2019 earlier this year. It offers full control over hue, saturation and intensity, but it also features white LED lights, too, offering a bicolour range from 3200K to 6500K with a CRI/TLCI of 96+. The Aputure MC is a small light, as you can see from the video thumbnail above, fitting into the palm of your hand with ease....

In today’s world, where knowledge is available for free all over the Internet, is there still point spending one or two years in school and learn photography there? Also, are photography and lighting skills all the schools have to offer to make you a photographer? Jared Polin discusses all these questions in his latest video. The news that Antonelli Institute is closing down was what triggered Jared to start this topic....

With Spring here, I think it’s time to fully embrace your inner photo weirdo. Seriously, hear me out. If you missed the Street Photography Anywhere class, a common comment was how uncomfortable people were to do this type of work – to shoot in quiet areas, to capture portraits of random people, to shoot in suburbs, or even in busy cities. The key is to embrace your inner weirdo....

When it comes to shooting video, many of us will cut corners, especially on small scale lower budget productions. It’s all too easy to just grab a camera and start shooting without actually putting any real thought into it. And usually, this lack of forethought shows in the final result. In this video, Epic Light Media talks about six of the most common mistakes people make when shooting a video....

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. In case you missed it, the story began with Balenciaga’s campaign promoting its holiday and Spring/Summer 2023 collection....

Anyone who has read my posts (silence) haha, will know that I am a fan of planning and preparation. I have task sheets, folders, mood boards, sketches, and the list goes on. I always try to make sure that anything that needs planning is set in stone. Although this is usually the best way to work, especially for me, it can be good to go against the norm, and do the opposite....

BLIPS is an ultra portable super slim pair of lenses for your smartphone. One offers macro, letting you focus much closer than your phone’s standard lens will allow. The other is a micro lens, allowing you to get even closer, for some big magnification. Mobile macro lenses are certainly nothing new, but this is the first we’ve seen with such a small and unobtrusive form factor, making it ideal to slip in your wallet and keep with you when you’re out and about....

LED lights have made massive leaps in quality and consistency for photographers over the last few years. With camera ISO performance getting better and better every year, many are turning to continuous LED lights as an alternative to flash. In Joe Edelman’s newest video, he shows how to pick and modify some standard LED strip shop lights in order to mount them on light stands and use them in the studio....

This only seems to be coming out now, which isn’t much of a surprise as the popularity of Cactus triggers and lights has taken a bit of a beating the last few years – what with Godox bursting onto the scene covering everything from entry-level budget speedlights to honking big location strobes. So Cactus has kind of fallen by the wayside. But Cactus, the company that failed to crowdfund the Cactus RQ250 strobe – a competitor to the Godox AD200 – a couple of years ago has now left the building....