What’s your first thought when you think of rats? Filthy? Contagious? Dangerous? Well, there is a lot beyond that, and these rodents hide a lot of wonderful traits behind the stereotypes we have about them. French photographer Diane Özdamar dedicated years of her life to break this negative image. She captured many rats in a photo series that will melt your heart and make you realize how sweet these creatures can be....

My photography peers thought I was mad. I thought I was mad, taking just a 50mm lens and one camera to the south island of New Zealand for a week. The rules were simple. Attempt to make compelling photographs with a 50mm lens using any creative methods I could conjure up. Panos, single frames, cropping in post, long exposures and filters were used, but only one lens. My itinerary included Queenstown and the surrounding grand mountain-scapes followed by Milford Sound with its utter incredible, king of the world, spectacular life changing scenery....

It looks like Panasonic is about to make some MFT shooters happy with its upcoming lens. The company is reportedly launching a Leica 9mm f/1.7 MFT lens, and it could be released within just days from now. However, as it often happens, some photos and specs have already leaked. So, let’s see what we can expect from the upcoming lens. According to 43rumors, the announcement was supposed to happen weeks from now, but it could actually only be days....

While we refer to poor Photoshop job as “Photoshop fail,” it never fails to make us chuckle. Recently, a subject of a major Photoshop fail was Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. In his official portrait, he was given a pair of shiny new sneakers – but they were both left. Morrison was photographed for his official website with his family in a pretty causal setting. But I guess that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet thought that his old sneakers were a bit too casual....

PIXEO is a new crowdsourcing app designed to help you find the perfect locations. Whether on vacation or planning a trip specifically for photography, PIXEO wants to be your one-stop shop for finding where to take your camera. At the moment, it’s limited to iPhone users, and it has quite a small community. At the moment, the website says it has 480+ users. But those users have uploaded more than 13,000 photos of over 10,780 locations around the world....

If you haven’t heard of Platypod before, they’re the company that makes that little flat kind-of-tripod of the same name to provide you with a stable platform on which to place your camera on rough terrain. You can stick just about any kind of tripod head on top of it you like, but regular tripod heads for photography generally have one big problem. You can’t easily pan them and keep your scene level....

As more and more of our clients are becoming familiar with being in front of the camera (Thanks, Facebook!), people today tend to present themselves the way they want the world to see them, rather than as the people they actually are. In this video, photographer Sean Tucker talks about the difference between simply taking somebody’s picture, and making a portrait, as well as some tips on how to get it....

The Raspberry Pi Foundation have today announced that they are introducing a new 8MP camera board to replace their popular 5MP OmniVision based camera board. The new camera, based around a Sony IMX219 8MP sensor, is available at the same low price of $25 in both regular colour as well as infrared versions. With the previous OmniVision OV5647 sensor being end-of-lifed at the end of 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation acquired a large stockpile of sensors, allowing them to keep producing camera boards, while a new source was found....

iPhone 7 Plus was the first phone to incorporate “Portrait mode” that adds artificial background blur to your portraits. According to recent reports, Apple is about to apply the same feature to videos very soon, too. The upcoming iPhone 13 will reportedly allow you to shoot videos with artificial background blur. But there are even more video improvements to come, so let’s see what we can expect. A report from Bloomberg reads that iPhone 13 will have “at least three” major camera improvements....

The DJI Phantom line of drones are probably the most recognised drones around the world. But reports and circumstantial evidence suggests that the DJI Phantom’s time has come to an end. DJI representatives have even suggested the same, although DJI has officially denied this. The websites of large retailers from around the world are reporting that they are out of stock of the current model Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. B&H lists the product as being discontinued....

On Sunday, Reuters leaked several photos from the rehearsal of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. As a result, their photographers and reporters got banned from the opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea. The rehearsal was conducted late Sunday at the Olympic Main Stadium in PyeongChang. Reportedly, Reuters leaked several photos of the Olympic cauldron being lit up with fire. After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the PyeongChang organizing committee protested, Reuters pulled the images....

The Ricoh GR series cameras have become extremely popular amongst street photographers over the last few years and have picked up a very loyal following. Those who have them love them and swear by them. The Ricoh GR III feels like it’s built specifically for street photography and when you look at some of the images they can make, it’s easy to see why. Well, now, Ricoh has announced a new limited edition Ricoh GR III “Street Edition” kit which, as well as the camera includes a viewfinder module, a leather wrist strap and a rather obvious bright orange ring around the lens....

Imaging Resource recently published their interview with Ricoh execs at the CP+ trade show in Tokyo. They spoke about Ricoh’s plans for Pentax. But in amongst the conversation was Ricoh’s thoughts on the whole mirrorless vs DSLR debate. And, apparently, they think that the people who have switched to mirrorless will switch back to DSLRs within a couple of years. It’s an interesting conversation, and I sort of see where he’s coming from, but it sounds to me like the folks at Ricoh just haven’t really tried any recent mirrorless cameras, or really sat down and compared them in the real world....

It seems that with every new smartphone release, DxO has to offer up a new standard. It’s not surprising, though, really. Mobile phone camera technology is advancing at a pretty ridiculous pace. So, it makes sense that with each new flagship phone release, things get better and better. But it’s happening with alarming frequency. Less than 6 months ago, the iPhone 8 Plus achieved the highest DxOMark score ever of 94....

Flexible screens have been quite the hot topic over the last couple of years. People want ultra-thin displays that they can just fold away. And it’s not just phones that have driven this desire, either. Both the concept and proof-of-concept for flexible displays have been around for a number of years now. But it’s never really made it into a mainstream product. Until now… Along with the new Galaxy S10, Samsung has announced the new Galaxy Fold, with a giant 7....

Samyang has today announced the new Samyang 14mm f/2.8 RF Autofocus lens. Designed specifically for mirrorless cameras, it’s technically the same Samyang 14mm f/2.8 autofocus lens that’s been out for Sony E for a while now, but with a Canon RF mount. The lens offers a 113.9° ultra-wide-angle field of view, and what Samyang describes as “excellent optical performance”. The Canon RF version comes in at a hair heavier than the 505g Sony E Mount version and shares the same rear gel filter arrangement, rather than a screw-on filter on the front....

People make a big deal about the AD600 (now AD600 Pro) and AD200 strobes when it comes to Godox. They offer a lot of power in a nice easily portable package. But they offer so many more strobes than just these two. While those mentioned above, along with the AD360II are fantastic for shooters looking to get light on location, there are quite a few photographers who never take their lights out of the studio....

Corridor Digital are known for their viral cinematic short videos, with plenty of awesome effects. But when they’re not busy creating these, they like to get a bit goofy on their sister channel Sam and Niko. This is where they recently published a video of shooting a GoPro 5 out of a custom made air cannon. After stabilizing the footage, they got some quite interesting results. Before this, the guys tried shooting GoPro on an arrow....

American private equity firm, Apollo Global Management LLC (AGM), has agreed to acquire photo printing platforms Shutterfly and Snapfish. According to Reuters, AGM is set to purchase Shutterfly Inc for $2.7 billion, including $900 million in debt. AGM also announced intentions to purchase Snapfish LLC, another Internet-based retailer of photography products. And, apparently, they plan to merge them together.Advertisements Shutterfly is based in Redwood City, California and sells personalised consumer photography products such as photo books, greetings cards, stationery, calendars and the like....

Most of us are familiar with the name Sigma. Their photographic and video line lenses have become synonymous with affordable yet high-quality optics. But you may be less familiar with their Classic Prime line of lenses. DIYP talk to Sigma’s Jan-Willem Verschuuren to find out more. In fact, Sigma has just launched the FF 65mm T2.5 cinema lens as part of the Classic Art Prime line lens range and the FF 65mm T1....