Not many of us have a chance to photograph the enthralling landscapes of coal mines. German photographer Tom Hegen did while riding in a gas balloon, and the result is a series of mesmerizing images that look like scenes from another planet. The project is named The Coalmine Series and it shows one of the largest open-pit mining operations on Earth. As tom tells us, all photos were taken from the air, during several gas-balloon rides in 2017....

When photographing wild animals, we can capture lots of incredible moments in nature. But photographers Scott Joshua Dere and Beaumon Day witnessed quite an epic one! Thankfully, they also manage to capture it. A large owl landed on Scott’s lens and struck a pose, and Beaumon took a photo of the scene that you don’t see every day. We chatted with Scott about it, and he told us a bit more about how everything happened....

Photographer-owned brand Long Weekend has launched three colourful new camera bags. The new lineup includes the Beacon Tote, Monterey Sling, and a snug little camera pouch for your favourite point-and-shoot camera. The bags are aimed purposefully at the film shooter, but also straddle the digital photography world perfectly. Long Weekend was started in 2021 by photographers Willem Verbeeck and Allison Simon. They wanted to create a fresh new gear brand that was inspired by epic road trips, shooting film, and slowing down to take it all in....

When buying and selling gear online, you can run into all sorts of scams. UK-based photographer Joanna Rose Hufton recently fell victim to one that makes use of a Paypal loophole. She sold her £1,300 camera through eBay, but due to the scam, she was quickly left without both the camera and her money.Advertisements Joanna Rose sold her camera on eBay for £1,300 (around $1,670). She agreed with the buyer to do the transaction via PayPal, but the buyer asked her to change the delivery address....

Imitation can be a form of learning, and using other people’s photos to create something new is perfectly fine. But when one awarded photographer takes the work of the other, photoshops it in their own “documentary” photo, it’s wrong on so many levels. Award-winning photographer Souvid Datta has been accused of stealing work from another renowned photographer, Mary Ellen Mark. And the evidence is more than evident. He took a woman from Mark’s image and badly photoshopped it in one of his own photos....

The current pandemic has killed creativity in some of us, but it made it improved it in others. Some photographers have been finding creative ways to shoot portraits while maintaining the social distance, and Kyle Roper is one of them. He turned the front door of his house into a large format camera to capture “socially distanced portraits.” Kyle is the producer behind Brendan Barry’s Skyscraper Camera Project. Other than being creative, his “front door camera” is definitely an example of finding the silver lining through limitation and reinvention....

An Australian astrophotographer has pleaded guilty to several counts of fraud and theft after stealing over $16,000 from the Professional Photographers’ Association of Queensland (PPAQ) over a 3 year period. Photographer Mark Culley allegedly used his Photoshop skills to forge bank statements and financial reports, and also to replicate the signature of the association’s accountant. Culley pleaded guilty to five charges of fraud including two counts of forgery. The crimes were committed between 2015 and 2019 when Culley was the Association’s President and Treasurer....

When I first started on my journey of learning my way around Photoshop I was a full-on Apple product fanboy, it just seemed like every creative was using an Apple machine and that I should do the same. Once I went full time I realised that I would build myself a PC that would be much more powerful for the price. After my build was complete the first thing I did was install the Wacom drivers and Photoshop only to find that some things didn’t work quite as I had expected them to....

Fast portable SSD storage has really kicked off over the last year or two. We’ve seen Samsung, G-Technology, Glyph and more releasing SSDs offering some pretty crazy transfer speeds. Now, Plugable has joined entered the fray with Thunderbolt 3 1TB and 2TB NVMe SSD options offering up to 2,400MB/sec read and up to 1,800MB/sec write. Both the 1TB and 2TB flavours of the Plugable NVMe SSD claim read speeds of up to 2,400MB/sec and write speeds of up to 1,800MB/sec using 40Bbps Thunderbolt 3 technology....

Microsoft recently announced its iCloud for Windows app, which connects your iCloud to the Photos app on your PC. However, it seems to be leaking your photos, sending them to the computers of total strangers, iCloud users have noticed a glitch while downloading and uploading their photos. They would end up with someone else’s images when attempting to download their own. Similarly, when they wanted to upload their stuff onto the cloud, it ended up being sent to someone else....

Advertisements Michael Johnson of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA)explains for phys.org what the image of a black hole looks like. He says that it actually contains a “nested series of rings.” A team made of observational astronomers, theoretical physicists, and astrophysicists has come up with a new method of capturing the black hole image. It relies on a “photon ring” that surrounds it. This photon ring comes from the particles of light (photons) that circle the black hole....

When Conny told me about the brand new Retouching Toolkit 3.0, it almost felt too good to be true. Can you imagine having a more modular version of Photoshop? I wish it was like this out of the box. Since it isn’t, Conny had to go and make it and thank goodness he did. It’s a software that allows you to make your own modular panels so that they can be used in Photoshop!...

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new high-end shotgun mic from Rode. It’s 11 years since they launched the flagship Rode NTG-3, one of the most reputable microphones out there at its price point. Today, though, Rode has announced the next generation of broadcast shotgun microphones with the new Rode NTG-5. Rode says the NTG-5 represents the culmination of 28 years of research and development of microphones for broadcast and movie use....

Have you already bought your Christmas presents or do you wait until the last minute to do it? I belong to the second group, and believe it or not – I haven’t bought any Christmas presents yet. If you’re anything like me, this video is perfect for you. Sidney Diongzon has come up with a list of seven gifts that will cost you less than $100. These gifts are great for filmmakers, but from my experience – most of these will also make photographers very happy....

Street Photography is hard to do well. Really hard. Even if you are great, most of your shots will not be. The internet is filled with boring street photography. The biggest problem is people thinking any photo taken on the street is now Street Photography. There is so much more to Street Photography than that so how do you capture more in your Street Photography? One way to strive for great Street Photography is by avoiding some of the habits of boring Street Photography....

One of my goals as a photographer is to always improve. Regardless of how well others may think my work is I am always trying to learn and grow as a creative. There are several things you can do to fine tune and/or continue to grow. You can take a workshop, read a blog, or watch videos of how others do it. However, for me, nothing replaces actually getting out the gear and shooting something....

Most of us have heard (or owned) lenses from Helios 44 series. But photographer and filmmaker Mathieu Stern has found an ultra-rare Soviet lens with extraordinary bokeh. He got himself a Helios-65 50mm f/2, a lens so rare that there’s no adapter on the market for it. So, he 3D-printed his own adapter and put this vintage lens to a test. Helios 44 series is known for its swirly bokeh....

Facebook’s takeover of Instagram becomes more apparent by the day. We’ve seen ads, selective algorithm driven feeds, business pages and other features. Some good, some bad. Now, we get online shopping, too. We already have ads popping up in our feeds as we browse. Now we’ll start seeing them inside the posts themselves. Facebook’s own “marketplace” seems to have completely taken control over the iOS app. I’m constantly being told about tat that people have for sale in various groups with no way to shut it off....

Well, this is a surprise and not an unwelcome one. Few people seem to realise that as well as being a leading 3rd party lens manufacturer, Sigma also make cameras. I have actually had the pleasure of playing with a Sigma sd Quattro for the past few weeks, and it’s pretty impressive if a little on the slow side. The Foveon sensor does produce some truly beautiful results. That lack of speed, though, has put off many potential Sigma camera owners....

Well, it looks like the rumour mill got it wrong this time. It was indeed correct about Sigma announcing the new 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports lens today – a lens that Sigma says is “the world’s first and only” 10x ultra-telephoto zoom lens on the market designed specifically for mirrorless cameras. It appears it was a little off, though, about Sigma’s introduction of Z-Mount into their lens lineup....