Photography

Rainforest renders itself to a tough photography environment, not just because of the denseness of the forest, but since huge rays of light penetrates through the woods making it difficult to capture the subject in an even light. Moreover, heavy rains and the presence of wild animals toughen the task of photographers. Whatever the challenges, it should not take away from the opportunities that rainforest photography throws open to the explorer.

Rainforest photography needs more post-processing work than probably any other form of photography. The thick canopy and variations of light are major challenges that a photographer has to put up with. The light is precariously low and you can never be too sure whether to hand-hold the camera as it may cause automatic flashes to fire.

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Great people inspire us. From Leonardo to Shakespeare, great people instil wonderment and a sense of awe in us, which in turn inspires us to attain our own greatness. The world of photography has its own legends like Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon and Bresson Cartier, just to name a few. What is great about them that capture your imagination and attention? What traits do good photographers posses? The following tips will help you improve your photography so that you can produce more high quality photos.

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Aside from being smart, phones nowadays prove how they can also be “all-around.” Now, you can treat your phone as an electronic wallet through online banking applications, watch and stream the latest TV shows and movies, and best of all, take pictures anywhere at any given time.

Smart phones are equipped with cameras that are optimized for users to take high-definition photos and download applications for instant editing. With such innovations, it’s not impossible that smart phones can eventually replace digital cameras.

Here are twleve cool photos taken by the latest smart phones. See for yourself if there is still a difference with photos taken from digital cameras.

iPhone 4/4S

Those that top our list are pictures taken from iPhone 4 and 4S. Apple boasts of the stellar camera qualities of the iPhone 4S, enabling users to create almost professional-looking photos. Some photos featured here are not digitally-enhanced. You can observe the remarkable vibrancy of the photos, which most will not expect to come out of a mobile phone. The other ones are instantly edited through downloadable apps. Even so, the pictures displayed minimal noise, as if they were edited from a digital camera photo.

The first photo made it on top as it was not edited in any manner, but it was able to capture the pink light from the sunset and how it reflected on the white flowers. Furthermore, the background was blurred, which helped the viewers to focus on the subject. Capture amazing photos using a 20 MP Samsung camera.

Photos by: Sam Biddle courtesy of Gizmodo.com

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Our life is full of surprises and special many days and times.  Actually each day brings new beginnings and opportunities.  And each with new person that we meet we have an opportunity for progress in some way. The special memories of our lifetime are part of what make us who we are.  Those most important people and moments in pressure us in ways that are indescribable.

At the same time as its clearly a good thing for people to be able to take as many photographs as they like, it does make it something of a problem in terms of storage. Almost every moment of every holiday can now be impressed, for example or each detail of a family party and get together, and what this means is that there are literally hundreds of photos which required be storing, saving and looking after.

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Cocktails, as defined in 1806, are spirited beverages that are mixed with sugar, water and bitters. Martini is the first cocktail that was invented in 1862 but cocktails were popularized in 1920, when intoxicating drinks were banned by the National Prohibition Act. Despite this said Act, a huge American population continued to manufacture, sell and drink liquors by disguising the spirited drinks as colorful beverages. As intriguing as its history, appearance and taste, cocktails are also exciting subjects to photograph because of their vibrant hues and creative appearances.

(“Cocktails”) Chelsea Schroeder

One of the challenges of cocktail photography (and food photography in general) is achieving proper lighting to bring out the colorful shades of drinks. Food and travel photographer Sara Remington said in an interview (with cocktails expert Doug Winship) that it is best to use natural light when taking pictures of cocktails.

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A lot of us love Pop Art. The Pop Art movement has been ever-evolving, perpetually bridging the different styles and themes of art on its way. It has traveled through interesting styles to reach today’s more contemporary forms. Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, and Jasper Johns – these are a few names that stand out in the Pop Art world. The styles of these Pop Artists are highly varied and their works continue to inspire Pop Art artists even today. Here is a listing of some of the most famous classic and modern Pop Art artists and their styles.

Tom Wesselmann

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The Eiffel Tower has become not only one of the most cultural significant symbols in France, but also one of the most enduring structural arts in the world. The tower was built for the purpose of simply being the entrance arch at the World’s Fair in 1889 acknowledging the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Upon completing its construction, the Eiffel Tower  was panned by French critics for its unorthodox appearance. However, the tower has inherent value after all – it helped France oversee the dispatchment of Parisian taxis during the First Battle of the Marne during WWI in 1914.

Since then, the French has started to appreciate the Eiffel Tower for the same reasons that made them dislike it in the first place; its brazen architecture and historical importance has continued to attract tourists from all over the world.

In our way of appreciating the Eiffel Tower, below are photograph of the tower in different angles and moods, showing the iconic French structure in a new light.

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First photography went digital and now it has gone Twitter. Twitter is great for getting your information and getting it fast and under 140 words. Here are 8 photography Twitter handles you should start following now, snap to it!

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Photo-blogs are getting more and more popular these days, owing to those cameras in phones that are better than an average DSLR camera and quite a lot of apps that let you post your images to the blogs directly from the smartphone. In most cases, when we are looking to capture a moment, there are two primary motives, either we’re capturinga moment to be able to cherish it in the days to come, or we are looking to share something of interest with our friends and loved ones, and Internet provides a perfect platform for people looking to share photographs. There are platforms like Snapfish or Mixbookor you can set up your own blog on an independent domain, if you are serious about taking your hobby to the next level, and making some money, or gain some recognition for your work.

Why is it important to come up with a specific theme?

Deciding a theme and trying to post only relevant photos might sound a little difficult. It’s true that a general photo-blog can give you the convenience of posting anything at any time. However, just like it is the case with text blogs, deciding a theme will let you attract and develop a more loyal following. Following are some ideas for the most common and popular themes for photo-blogs and how you can make the most of these blogs. Remember, you don’t necessarily need to use photos captured by yourself, you can always get in touch with other artists, and use their photographs, while giving proper credits.

1. Travel & Landscape:

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HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, a photography technique that includes a larger dynamic range of exposures. In other words, the HDR technique captures dark and light in a single image, so you’d get dark shadows as well as bright lights all in one image.

HDR photos are great because you’d get to capture both dark and light elements in an image. Digital cameras these days are more advanced than before but they are capable of only capturing latitudes of four to six stops. As such, in a scene with contrasting brightness, only the shadows or the highlights will be exposed by the in-camera meter. You’d definitely want both elements in your photos, so processing the image through HDR will give you the full magnitude of the scene.

So just how do you shoot HDR photos? Here are the few main steps:

1. Set your camera on a tripod

A tripod ensures that your camera doesn’t move between shots and that every image you take in the sequence is the exact same. If you can’t use a tripod, then you will have to hold your camera rock solid still!

2. Set your ISO setting to the lowest

This means ISO setting of 100 or 200 depending on your camera. With such a low ISO setting, the resulting shutter speed might is going to be a long one, but since you are using a tripod, so this should not be an issue. Lowest ISO setting eliminates noise in the photos.

3. Set your camera to aperture priority mode

Aperture priority ensures that the depth of field will not change and you will not get blurry photos.

4. Take 3 shots with different exposures

I recommend taking 3 shots, each at different exposures. Shoot one at standard exposure, then under expose a shot, and finally over expose another shot. That gives you three shots of the same image with different exposures.

5. Merge the photos

Photoshop is the best tool to combine the photos. You might have taken a shot of a building against a beautiful sun-setting sky. Look through your images and determine which one of the shots has the right exposure for the building and which has the correct exposure for the sky. Merge the building and sky from both shots, as well as the shot with the standard exposure and there you have it, a High Dynamic Range image.

Let’s take a look at a collection of the best HDR images various photographers have taken with the steps above, in no particular order:

Mountain boarding

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Interview with two brothers from the UK specializing in wildlife photography. Enjoy!

1. Please tell us a few words about you guys!

Hi, we’re Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas, two wildlife photographer brothers from the UK. We’ve been taking photographs for about 6 or 7 years. We try to come up with innovative ways to photograph our subjects and often travel abroad to do so. Teamwork is a large part of our success, and many of our favourite shots wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t been working together. We have a popular website and blog at www.burrard-lucas.com. (more…)