Stories tagged with photographers

Recently, Zenfolio announced its newest online venture, Photographer Central - an online directory of photographers. This website promises to bring customers in direct contact with local photographers while making the search free and easy to use. Does it live up to its claims? We took the service for a test spin. Read more

A PBS profile of Dorothea Lange, the photographer behind iconic images of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, is set to air later this month. American Masters - Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning will premiere on PBS stations Friday August 29th from 9-11pm. The documentary, directed and narrated by Lange's granddaughter Dyanna Taylor, features newly discovered interviews with the photographer, remembrances from family and friends, as well as a look into her career retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Read more

Photographer Central, a new service from portfolio-hosting site Zenfolio, aims to help professional photographers and clients find each other. Available only in the US, the online directory allows photographers to list their business for a yearly fee. Potential clients can browse photographers in a Yelp-like fashion, with the ability to sort results by price, location and style. Learn more

Pixels.com is a new image licensing marketplace that aims to give photographers more control than competing services. Users can set their own prices for images and manage the type of licenses they want to offer. There is even an option to create custom licenses with your own terms and conditions. Learn more

A few weeks ago we reported on the announcement of 500px 'Prime' a licensing service built into the popular photography website that was designed to allow users to make some cash from their images. Originally, the service was set to offer photographers a 30% cut of image sales at a minimum price per image of $250. A lot of photographers weren't happy with the 70/30 split but now Prime is live, the terms have changed and photographers are being offered 70%, with new 'flat rate $250 pricing. Click through for more details. 

In the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, two photographers have re-purposed city potholes and put them to clever new uses in a slightly surreal photo series aptly titled 'Potholes.' Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca took to the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto, turning ordinary potholes into fishing ponds, diving pools, rabbit holes and more. All photos were staged without interrupting traffic, and all scenes were created with models and props - nothing has been added in Photoshop. Take a look at their photos - they bring a whole new meaning to street photography.

Photo-sharing site 500px has launched 'Prime' a licensing service that it is describing as 'the world's most intelligent marketplace' with fees that start at $250. Interestingly, the company is also claiming that the photographer will get 30% of every fee for a licensed image, no matter 'how it is bought, who buys it, or under what license'. Click through for more details. 

Michael Paul Smith's photos look like snapshots of classic cars. In reality, they're clever creations that use forced perspective to combine miniatures and real-world backdrops in an utterly convincing final product. His miniatures live in a fictional U.S. town called Elgin Park, a place populated with vintage cars and the trappings of everyday life in the 1950's and 1960's. See gallery

Photographer Stéphanie Gonot's food photos aren't the stylized, sexy kind you'd see on the cover of magazines like Bon Appetit. Images in her 'Fad Diets' series are frightening visual documents of some of the weirder diets out there, while also being striking experiments in color and texture. Gonot's work may not make your mouth water, but it's a lot of fun, and might just make you reconsider that crash diet...

From the air, the landscape of Texas' vast feedlots and oil fields is by turns bleak and surreal. Photographer Mishka Henner aimed to capture the contrasts and intense colors of these landscapes in a collection of work titled 'Feedlots.' By stitching together hundreds of satellite images, he created large, detailed prints documenting the dynamism of these locations - earth tones clashing with the violent greens and reds of feedlot waste. Click through to see more of his stirring work.

Reuters photographer Kai Pfaffenbach found himself unexpectedly on the other side of the lens at the IAAF World Championship Men's Shot Put Finals. His photo of Germany's David Storl was used as evidence in a decision that overturned a 'foul' call and awarded the athlete a gold medal. When it was called into question whether Storl stepped outside of the ring in his attempt, Pfaffenbach discovered that his remote camera clearly showed Storl's attempt to be fair. Click through for more.

Photographer Nick Ballon stumbled across the Lloyd Aero Boliviano headquarters on an annual trip to Bolivia. He was captivated by the expansive property and dilapidated buildings he saw, and his curiosity sparked a photo series and collaboration with Bolivian writer Amaru Villanueva Rance. Six months exploring the grounds, talking with employees and researching the long history of the dying airline has resulted in a stunning photo series and a book called Ezekiel 36:36. Click through for a glimpse into the L.A.B. 

Peter Stackpole was just 21 when he brought his Leica A to the top of the still-under-construction San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It was 1934, and Stackpole had no official authorization to capture images that would eventually land in Vanity Fair. Decades later, photographer Joseph Blum captured yet another bridge project in the bay area. Despite considerably tighter safety restrictions, he made soaring images of the modern construction site. Click through to see samples, then and now.

Google debuted the second iteration of its popular Nexus 7 tablet yesterday at a San Francisco press conference, inciting excitement amongst fans of the Android device and plenty of comparisons to Apple's iPad mini. Of course we're most interested in how this second-gen device might fit into a photographer's workflow. Click through for our opinion on connect.dpreview.com.

Photographers around the world are sharing their favorite photos of summer (and winter, for those in the Southern hemisphere) across various social photography sharing sites. We scoured the web for some of the best shots of the season and are sharing them on connect.dpreview.com. Click through to see our selection, and remember that you can share your own photos on our busy Forums, and via our Galleries system. 

It seems the Chicago Sun-Times is counting on its remaining employees to become mobile photographers. After laying off its entire 28-person photography staff yesterday, the newspaper has announced mandatory training for remaining employees on 'iPhone photography basics'. That's according to media writer Robert Feder. Feder quotes a memo from managing editor Craig Newman: 'In the coming days and weeks, we'll be working with all editorial employees to train and outfit you as much as possible to produce the content we need'. Click through for the full story on connect.dpreview.com. 

The overwhelming majority of photographers, even those who derive income from their images, practice the craft alongside their primary gig. And celebrities are no different. While they certainly have fewer budget constraints than the rest of us and easy access to fellow A-listers, there are quite a few with real talent who take their photography seriously. Here's a look at a few of them. (via PhotographyTalk.com)

An 83-year-old Turkish tailor has become photographer Zoe Spawton's muse for her blog 'What Ali Wore.' The Tumblr blog, styled after the popular fashion photograhy blog, The Sartorialist, features just Ali and his impeccable taste in clothes. In an interview with German website Spiegel.de, the photographer explains how Ali caught her eye as he passed by the cafe where she works wearing a new ensemble every day. Her daily snapshots of his ever-alternating outfits evolved into a full-blown photo project. Click through to see the photos and a link to Zoe's blog. (via Spiegel.de)

Russian photographer Vitaly Raskalov, known on the web for his 'skywalking' exploits in which he scales man-made structures (without authorization) has added Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza to his list of conquests. And, as is his custom he has posted photos taken atop of one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Raskalov and his companions managed to hide from armed guards and climb the pyramid undetected at night. Climbing the Great Pyramid is illegal of course but you can click through to see the images Raskalov captured. (via Daily Mail)

British newspaper The Guardian is known for its editorial photography, but like all working pros, the staff photographers sometimes only get a few minutes to capture their subjects. In an article posted on the Guardian's Photo Blog, several of the paper's photographers share their tips for getting portraits in a hurry. Click through for some pictures, and a link to the article at guardian.co.uk.

Photo District News (PDN) recently released its annual list of 30, 'new and emerging photographers to watch'. The portfolios of these commercial, fashion and editorial photographers from around the world were selected from more than 300 submissions made by industry professionals. Their work will be published in the magazine's April issue, providing valuable exposure in the US for these photographers as they seek to establish careers in print and online media.

Steve McCurry, the award-winning photographer responsible for the iconic 'Afghan Girl' portrait for National Geographic, has given an interview about his work and why, despite his fame, he maintains a blog of his latest images. In the interview, on the official Wordpress blog, McCurry explains how photography as a career has changed over the course of the past few decades, and the vital role now played by the Internet. Click through for extracts and a link to the full interview at blog.wordpress.com, and to Steve's own blog. 

The thing that impresses me most about good architectural photography is its ability to imbue inanimate subjects - buildings and other manmade structures - with a life and soul of their own. Five prof. photographers who specialize in architectural photography kindly agreed to give me interviews.

Poor posing can make people shots appear 'unprofessional'. Yet posing is an often overlooked area in mainstream photographic education. Comprised almost entirely of images, this useful if sometimes cheesy book, aptly subtitled a 'visual sourcebook', provides hundreds of examples of female portraits.