Epic Edits

36 selected photos from the Epic Edits PhotoDump Flickr pool. This time there are 23 new members, 1 new discussion, and 483 new photos in the group.

In my opinion, portraits can be the most interesting photos and they seem to naturally draw our attention. Why? I think we’re programmed to enjoy looking at photos of other people. In fact, I’ve often thought that the most important element of a photo is the Human element. As a photographer, you may already know that portraits are also one of the most difficult photos to pull off. The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography is a collection of stand-alone lessons on various aspects of portrait photography.

Before reading this book, I hadn’t really thought about one of the things that separates us from all other species: we celebrate! Birth, birthday, graduation, victory, rite of passage, holiday, and many other events are celebrated by people all over the world each and every day. Some celebrations are very public gatherings, while others are private among friends and family. But whatever the reason, almost every culture celebrates something at some point. Read on for a full review and a chance to win a free copy of the book!

Last week, when I posted the review of Polar Obsession, I also mentioned that we had two copies of the book to give away. In order to win a book, you had to post a photo or a Flickr Gallery having to do with the polar regions. We had a few entries in each category, [...]

I posted an article a few hours back and I saw that it was acting funny (and not “haha” funny) — signs of spyware and/or malware causing images to not load correctly, malware warnings from Google, CSS not loading, and the page redirecting to a cruddy site (not going to post the link because it [...]

Links this week include articles on Flickr exploration, lighting, contests, light painting, camera phones, China, lens guts, Flickr groups, Photoshop actions, b/w, art, panoramas, and night photography.

36 selected photos from the Epic Edits PhotoDump Flickr pool. This time there are 20 new members, 1 new discussion, and 480 new photos in the group.

Last week, I did a review of FotoTV and promised a few free subscriptions. And thanks to some magical randomness from the Internet, the winners are Genaro Orengo and JDUBJ! Congrats! And if either of these two can’t accept the prize for some reason, I’ll choose another to fill the spot. For the rest of [...]

In the world of artistic photography, double exposures can result in some very interesting stuff. Some can be well thought out compositions with shapes and exposures meant to compliment the other frame. Others can be happy accidents that exhibit a magic mixture of luck and randomness. In either case (and any case in between), a good double exposure catches the viewer’s attention and presents a distorted reality that would not be possible to see without a camera. Here are some double exposure tips and 12 example photos.

Nature and wildlife photos are generally pleasing to the eye and viewed with great interest from the masses. The interest is even greater when the photos show remote locations and/or elusive animals that we typically don’t see in real life or in photos. Earth’s polar regions are perfect examples of such imagery. Polar Obsession, by Paul Nicklen, is a stunning collection of photos from the northern and southern polar regions. But these are more than just pretty pictures of the landscape or some distant shots of animals through a 500mm lens — these are up close and intimate views of the animals, their behaviors, and the delicate environment they live in.