In the crowded and often distracting world of social media, finding your place and your people can seem daunting. The truth is, there are supportive, creative communities all around you — showing up every day to lift each other up, shout each other out and help one another get ahead. For photographers, finding a passionate community on social media can lead to new connections, job opportunities and that creative spark you might be looking for....

Photography Life has just contributed to the selection of online courses that you can take for free. While their premim courses are normally paid $150 per course, you can now access them free of charge. The founders have released them on YouTube, available for everyone to watch. The Photography Life team came to the decision in the light of the current situation. “With the world dealing with possibly one of the worst health and economic crises the world has ever seen, we thought it would be a good idea to give away everything we got to our community,” Nasim Mansurov writes in the announcement....

I’m fussy today. And it’s not because I ran out of coffee; it’s not because I didn’t get a proper night’s sleep, and it’s not because I’m worried Gary Johnson won’t be given a chance to participate in the Presidential debates, although that last one is a concern. I am fussy because, once again, a leader in the photography industry committed plagiarism on her blog, Facebook account and website. Yes, that’s right; I said “again....

So, it looks like there will be three different DJI Mini 3 Pro packages when DJI makes the official announcement, which now seems to be rumoured for May 10th – it was previously rumoured to come yesterday. And after seeing one DJI Mini 3 Pro package leaked by a Dutch retailer, more images have been leaked showing that there will be three different packages available along with their European prices....

There aren’t many companies out there making UHS-II microSD cards, as there are virtually no cameras out there that can fully support them yet (still). One of the companies that does make them, though, is ProGrade Digital. They launched their initial V60 UHS-II microSD cards back in September 2018 with read and write speeds of up to 200MB/sec and 80MB/sec respectively. Now, ProGrade has launched new V60 UHS-II microSD cards with increased read and write speeds of 250MB/sec and 130MB/sec respectively....

With more and more of us shooting 4K footage, fast, large storage is becoming a must-have for those of us editing this footage. For the last few years, I’ve been using the Promise Technology R2+. It’s a two-bay thunderbolt 2 RAID array with a cool feature that it has a third bay that you can swap out. I normally have a card reader in there as it allows me to copy footage from cards at the fastest speed....

Shooting in public places is generally allowed and you shouldn’t have any problems with the authorities. However, if you plan a photo shoot in the City of Laguna Beach, whether commercial or non-commercial, be ready to file for a permit. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay a fine. A photographer recently had a photoshoot on the beach, when a ranger approached him. It turned out he needed a permit to take shots, although he was shooting in a public place....

The golden hour is probably the time when most of us would choose to take photos. But, there will be times when you’ll be forced to shoot in a harsh midday sun, for one reason or the other. You can bring reflectors, strobes, or try to find or make a shade. But in this video, Manny Ortiz will give you some quick tips on how to embrace the direct sunlight and turn it into your advantage without any gear but your camera and lens....

Advertisements This year, the contest marks its 12th year. There were eight prizes across five divisions, and we have a chance to see both winning entries and honorable mentions. They were selected among nearly 2,500 photographers from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and 10 Canadian provinces and territories. They sent in almost 8,800 images and over 260 videos, so I believe the jury had a tough time picking the best ones....

Yes, this is just a rumour, but the clues do suggest that it may turn out to be true. Prices for the Godox AD600BM (and its various rebrands) have been dropping pretty drastically lately. Typically available for $595 in the USA, I’ve seen them as low as $399 in the last couple of days. Usually when this happens, it means that Godox are about to announce a new product that will compete heavily with an existing one, and the retailers know something....

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of M42 and other older manual focus lenses. I’ve been using them for years with my DSLRs. They have imperfections, suffered from very random quality control, that give each one a slightly unique look and feel. They often have characteristics that can’t be reproduced with modern “perfect” glass and post production. So, whenever I see my favourite photographers also using them, I get interested....

Shure has announced their new MV88+ Video Kit for smartphone video shooters. The kit builds on the success of Shure’s previous MV88 iPhone microphone. This time, though, it’s compatible with Android, too, via Type-C USB and it comes with a Manfrotto Pixi tripod, phone clamp, and shoe mount microphone clip. The new MV88+ version of the microphone keeps the similar looking digital condenser mic to its MV88 predecessor, except with a sleek, black exterior....

This is the first of a number of new announcements from Sigma today. They’ve finally added a macro lens to their Global Vision Art series lenses. That lens is the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 DG Macro Art. With an aperture range of f/2.8 to f/22 and offering up to 1:1 magnification, this lens is likely going to be a big hit with macro fans. While this is a full frame lens, it may be of particular interest to APS-C shooters....

Sigma has today announced the 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as it was rumoured a week ago that that was exactly what they would be announcing and the short Sigma Stage briefing shows that it was all they were planning to announce today. Well, now it’s official and it’s being released this month. They say that the new 16-28mm f/2....

Well, we knew it was coming but now it’s official. Sigma has now launched the new 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports lens for mirrorless cameras. Specifically, that means the Leica L mount (utilised by Sigma’s fp and fp L cameras) and the Sony E mount. Still no word on any Nikon Z or Canon RF mount lenses coming from Sigma yet. The new lens marks Sigma’s first ultra-telephoto zoom Sports lens designed specifically for mirrorless cameras....

Frøydis Dahlheim is a trained singer and teaches singing in an arts school. In addition, she sells images and works part time as a photo guide. It was actually by accident she became a photographer back in 2014. She had signed up for three painting classes, but picked up a camera instead when the organizers cancelled the courses. Later, she was introduced to Instagram and she intuitively understood that this was a media where she could express herself creatively....

“Snapchat is a camera.” Yeah, you’ve read it well. In its very first TV commercial, it seems that Snapchat wants to rebrand as “a new kind of camera.” Would you ever call it that way? How can a silly app be a camera? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfqABVVN9ck The commercial explains right at the beginning that it’s “not that kind of camera.” On Snapchat’s website, you can read that it’s a new kind of camera “that’s connected to your friends and the world....

It’s not often a piece of new kit leaves me lost for words, but the new Sony RX0 action camera has left me kind of stuck. It’s as revolutionary to the action camera world as the original GoPro was. And oh boy does it look good. On paper, at least. Sony appear to be sending action cameras upmarket with the RX0, offering features that GoPro users could only ever really dream of....

The article contains information that may speed up Lightroom by spreading disk reading load across multiple drives. It achieves this by utilising symbolic links within windows. This simple approach does not require any advanced knowledge of windows, Lightroom, or involve RAID or other such technologies. So one day I was running out of space on my f: drive, something that happens a lot as it is a small SSD and I have a bunch of photos....

This is probably one of the most in-depth lens teardowns I’ve seen from Lensrentals. Their efforts weren’t by choice, though. The lens lied to them. The team recently posted a teardown of the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM lens that had a broken element inside it. It appeared as though the element might reside inside the stabilization system, which is relatively easy to remove. It turned out, though, that the IS system of the lens was simply masking the true location of the broken element....