Black and White - Underwater Shark Photography

Tranquility - Leighton Lum (500px)

Up from the Depths - Leighton Lum (500px)

Big Sucker - Thomas Conrad (500px)

Shark Trek - Thomas Conrad (500px)

Loving the Sun - Leighton Lum (500px)

Expert Talk - Chase Jarvis on Timelapse Photography

Photographer Chase Jarvis speaks in this short tutorial on how to shoot timelapse of an iceberg approaching the shore in Iceland.

Film Photography - The Local Landscape

Film photography is one of my passions. Taking pictures and not knowing the result immediately.

A recent series shows grain fields in the local area. Images have been taken using a Hasselblad 500 cm camera with 80mm f2.8 T* Planar lens on Ilford HP5 film.

The two images shown below feature the texture and pattern of local agriculture. A scenery which especially comes out in black and white. The grain of HP5 film gives another texture to these images.

Shooting a 300 Megapixel Photo

The controversy around megapixels in today's photography world is big. And what is better resolution wise? The digital or the good old film technology?

Markus Hofstaetter gives some answers in a recent blog post on petapixel.com.
In this post he describes a photography job where huge resolution did matter. Since the required 300 megapixel resolution was pushing all limits of gear the photographer decided to apply two strategies.

Digital:
Using a Canon 5D Mark III he took a series of pictures which were stitched together in post processing to a huge high resolution image.

Film:
Applying a Linhof Master Technika loaded with Kodak Portra 160 VC film in one shot and professionally scanning that photograph.

The results are both amazing. - See the blog post for more details.
Apparently the customer went for the film version since he did like more the look.

Scenic Places in Black and White - Tutorial by Doug McKinlay

Taking pictures in black and white technically is easy. Especially in today's digital world where post processing offers endless possibilities in tuning and filtering the taken image in the computer.

Canadian photographer Doug McKinlay gives a tutorial on how already at the moment of image capture you need to decide if this picture is going to be presented in color or in black and white.

Influential Photographers - Thomas Marent

Thomas Marent from Switzerland is a nature photographer specialised on tropical rain forests.

His photographic career started at age 16 when he took his first SLR camera out to the local Flachsee in central Switzerland to shoot his first nature images in local wetlands.

In 2006 he released his first book with an international editor which allowed him for the first time to make a living out of photography.

On his website - http://www.thomasmarent.com - he features a series of amazing nature photographs. His portfolio is endless with a very strong focus to image composition and detail.

The job of the nature photographer is heavily driven by the ability of being patient. To get the one perfect shot in nature and wildlife it can take days and weeks of patients, adaptation to the environment, and building the right setup.

To be close to animals can be dangerous, but also extremely rewarding in terms of images and experience.

To get these impressive close shots, such as the gorilla drinking in the river (see below) one needs a whole lot of experience. Experience, not only as a photographer but mainly as somebody who understands nature and wildlife and who can read the behaviour and reaction of wild animals.

Get some stunning poster prints at: all posters.ch

Underwater Videography - The Blue Ocean in RED (Howard Hall)

The Blue Ocean in RED from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

Black and White - Maldives Photography

Tropical Darkness - Michael Rosenwirth (500px)

swimming on heaven - Paulo Penicheiro (500px)

White Rain - Sebastian Lee (500px)

Water Villas - Philip Joseph (500px)

The elements of water - Olesia Prisiazhnaia (500px)

Expert Talk - Eileen Rafferty on Seeing in Black and White

Theme - Droplet

Drops game - Jan Horvat (500px)

Water droplets are a very interesting subject for macro photography.

While being a dynamic object, a fluid changing in shape, form, and behaviour depending on environmental influence they also exhibit spectacular optical properties.

Famous are high speed shots of splashes but also low depth of field shots optically reproduce the scenery behind the shot otherwise being blurred out.

"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy
that makes happiness." - Sandeep M V (500px)

Waterdrops - Jim MacLain (500px)

Capturing the droplets of morning dew can give very interesting still life images knowing that they were only real for a couple of minutes.

The nature of water droplets can only be captured when adapting completely to the scenery as photographer. It is very hard to produce such sceneries artificially. Especially given the fact that it needs a lot of understanding to compose the optical effects which are so interesting to capture through the drops.

Another famous theme are drops on leafs of plants. Most leafs are hydrophobic hence leading to perfect spherical drop formation. The drops almost come out as images in the image showing some details of nature otherwise just being part of the normal structure or texture.

Shooting macro in nature is something which needs a lot of patience for the ambitious photographer. It is around finding the right scenery, finding the right camera setup, and working with light in order to best present the details of nature.

Film Photography - Fuji Medium Format Camera Review

Film Shooters Collective presents a post by HW Kateley reviewing the Fuji GS645S Review | HW Kateley: "HW Kateley reviews the Fuji GS645s"

Scenic Places in Black and White - Cruise on the Lake Lucerne

The lake lucerne in central Switzerland is a go to place for thousands of tourists every month.

Not only the landscape of this winding lake surrounded by high mountains but also the fleet of steam boats cruising on the lake are spectacular to experience.

The fleet of cruise ships has five historical steam boats with one exception cruising the lake for more than 100 years.

Steamboat fleet:
- PS Schiller (1906) as captured on the left
- PS Gallia (1913)
- PS Uri (1901)
- PS Unterwalden (1902)
- PS Stadt Luzern (1928)

Andrew Clegg Littler (500px)

Dani Pfister (500px)

The cruise ship fleet offers a series of round trips around the lake visiting all the historical places of Switzerland's early origin located around the lake.
Best is to spend a day around the lake and hop on and hop off the traditional steam boats










Weather conditions around the lake are often dramatic and quickly ganging. For black and white photographers this offers spectacular light conditions important for monochromatic photography.

Aken Kriko (500px)

Pierre Meunier (500px)

The cruise ships as well as infrastructure around the lake offers endless opportunities for interesting detail shots.




Specially interesting are the manoeuvres when boats are landing and passengers get on and off the boat.










In very rare cases it is possible to capture more than one steamboat of the fleet in one shot.

Influential Photographers - Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is most famous for her portrait photography of celebrities.

She started her career as staff photographer at the music magazine Rolling Stone.
One of the most famous images is the portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono which was a cover image of the magazine.










Another iconic portrait is the one of of Leonardo di Caprio right after release of Titanic. It shows Leonardo holding a white swan.




Impressive among Annie Leibovitz' work is the fact that he is able to come up with celebrities in unique and unusual poses. Obviously she has the ability of winning trust of her subjects and generating an atmosphere which allows to shoot these exceptional portrait pictures.

Another example is ski sports star Lindsey Vonn standing in downhill racing pose on top of a coffee table in a boutique living room dressed in a haut couture silk dress.

The image transports a surreal atmosphere. The contradiction between athletic action and static fashion beauty. The downhill racing dynamics of fluttering dress by blowing wind from the front.

This is what Annie is famous about. Unique portraits in intimate location with elaborate setups and requisite.

Another famous picture is the one of family Obama. Barak and Michelle Obama with their two daughters in relaxed family atmosphere.

While you can find her images in the internet it is hard to find out what gear Annie is using.
From several images one can see that she is using all kinds of cameras. Most likely chosen by the envisaged use of the final image.

"When friends ask famed photographer Annie Leibovitz what camera they should buy, she suggests the iPhone."

Underwater Videography - Maldives Expedition

Maldives Expedition Aug 2013 from Eunjae Im on Vimeo.

Black and White - Technology Photography

eight - Shigehiro Ono (500px)

Electronics - Jawad Ali (500px)

Usb - Victor Velasco (500px)

old school clock - Daniel Pachnis (500px)

tech support - Sean Gladwell (500px)

Expert Talk - Mark Wallace on the Zone System for Black and White Photography

Theme: The Lighted Tent

Arctic Dream - Paul Zizka (500px)

A common theme in landscape photography at night is the lighted tent.

This motif gives interesting images. The lighted, and most of the examples warmly coloured, tent in contrast to the cold colours of the nightly landscape.

These pictures are perfect examples of transporting the scenery experienced with all human senses into a static image.

The cosy warmth of the protective tent combined with:

- the cold of the night

- the ambient light landscape

- the starry sky

- the milky way

- northern light phenomena

- or just the dark blue sky of a longtime exposure

Sahale Arm Milky Way - Jason Groepper (500px)

Some of these shots need a little bit of planning. Planning in terms of the right framing of the landscape, the right light conditions, the right weather conditions.

For a milky way scenery some more techniques are needed.
Find a tutorial to learn about the right exposure at: link



But not only milky way sceneries are interesting night shots. Some star trails can make a nice background for the lighted tent too.

Fragment 8 - Gabi Matei (500px)

Photography Tutorial: Street Photography

Street photography is a photographic discipline taking pictures in the street mostly not being noticed by subjects, or composing captures out of situation.

An interesting tutorial by photography Matt Stuart can be found on techradar.com

Or one by Drew Hopper at petapixel.com

The tree main messages are:

- Get close to subjects:
Getting close to subjects, right into the scenery using a wide-angle lens is key in capturing the unique moment. Using this technique gives the viewer the feeling being right in the middle of the scene.

- Image quality isn't everything:
In any photography image composition should have higher priority than technical image quality. In street photography capturing the moment this is even more important.

- Learn to work fast:
To capture the dynamics and feeling of street life you need to be quick. Intervention with the situation and the subjects shall be minimal. In order to achieve this you need to be quick. Quicker than subjects to react to the fact you taking their picture.

Scenic Places in Black and White - ...

Bern WB - Farhad Salami (500px)

The old town of Bern, Switzerland is part of the UNESCO world heritage.

For photographers there are a lot of interesting spots in the old city of Bern with opportunities of beautiful capture of old architecture.

The old town is built on a peninsula surrounded by the river Aare. The river as part of photographs either gives interesting line and perspective, or natural framing of the urban scenery.

Panorama Bern - Dennis van Silfhout (500px)

In black and white the texture of buildings, storefront of buildings, roof tops comes out very well.

The old town offers a lot of more spots with architectural details hidden behind the arcaded sidewalks. The ambitious photographer only has to find them.

Memory - Marc Fan (500px)

Influential Photographers - Tatsuo Suzuki

Tatsuo Suzuki is a Tokyo based photographer shooting mainly black and white urban street sceneries.

A characteristics of Tatsuo's photography is wide angle portrait shots of people in the streets of Japan.

Images are taken mostly right in the moment when the main subject of the photography right notices the picture being taken. This exact timing adds a lot of feeling to the images and makes them unique.

Underwater Videography - Galapagos

Galapagos from Darek Sepiolo on Vimeo.

Black and White - Canoe Photography

A long winter's night - Bill W (500px)

Canoe & Paddle (bw) II - Shawn Grenninger (500px)

The union makes us strong - Jacques Funke (500px)

The canoes... - Jef Salmon (500px)

Sunken canoe #2 - Roy Tuck (500px)