Rachael Hale Mckenna is the woman behind some of the most adorable pet pictures you’ll ever see. For the past 21 years, she’s been taking unique images of our four legged friends. She doesn’t just take pictures of animals, however, she’s also gifted at photographing babies and families. In her animal photos, I love how she uses props like roller skates, hearts and teddy bears. They elevate her pet photography to a new cute and quirky level.
What exactly are you looking at? It’s one of the most incredible thunderstorm photos you’ll ever see. Pilot and photographer Santiago Borja was circling around the thunderstorm at 37,000 feet altitude en route to South America when he captured this spectacular sight. The clouds are lit up because the photo was shot at the moment of a lightning flash.
“Storms are tricky because the lightning is so fast, there is no tripod and there is a lot of reflection from inside lights,” Borja told The Washington Post in an email.
“I like this photo so much because you can feel the amazing size of the storm and its power,” Borja said. “But at the same time it’s wonderful how peacefully you can fly around it in still air without touching it.”
Borja is a pilot for LATAM Ecuador Airlines. The photo was taken south of Panama on a Boeing 767-300 with his Nikon D750 camera.
The pilot states that he primarily likes nature, landscape and cityscape photography. He carries his camera with him everywhere he goes, and, since his job requires him to be up in the air, he often shoots storm photos. Lucky for us and him, he’s combined two of his biggest passions, flying and photography, into creating one unforgettable image.
via [Colossal]
Photographer and mom Katherine Heise takes timeless photos of her two children, who she endearingly refers to as “fox” and “lamb.” Dressed in vintage clothes or in unique pieces found on Etsy, the two kids have their lives chronicled by their incredibly talented mother. Australia-based Heise started her first 365 day project in 2013 with the intention of capturing the transition from a one to two child family. She first started taking pictures around her 21st birthday, and though she has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography, it wasn’t until she had children of her own that her love of photography turned into a passion. As she states, “The stark realization of the transience of childhood brought on by parenthood drove me to record every tiny detail.”
What I love most about her photos are her interesting compositions. She finds different angles to shoot from and her photos each tell a simple but sweet story.
What does she try to convey in her photos? As she told Artifact Uprising, “I am a storyteller, telling the story of a very small event in one particular day. I try to relate the wonder of childhood, I suppose, and the small, seemingly inconsequential details of life, which actually become significant memories for most adults when they reflect back on their own childhood.
“The visual elements of childhood cut across all cultures and times so there is a timelessness in capturing the particular history of my family.”
I’d love to be able to take photos of my own two kids like this. Heise is able to create clean and crisp shots while also incorporating a timeless feel. To me, they have that feeling of fine art.
What does a photographer do when he first moves to a new city? Well, if you’re Skander Khlif you head to your local museums and take photos of those engrossed in art. In his new series called The Silence of Munich, he shoots photos of people surrounding by sweeping architecture or in front of beautiful masterpieces. I love how he mostly has one or just two people in his shots. It goes to show that less is more when it comes to street photography such as this.
Here’s what Khlif stated about this body of work. “I just moved to Munich. And on the first Sunday I had to present my self to my new city and in the same time get to know ‘Her’ better! The heart of every city is the museum area and there I went! Alte Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne! What a beautiful silent Sunday!”
How I’d love to try and do this at the recently opened Los Angeles museum, The Broad.
Photographer Adrian C. Murray has a brand new book he’d like to get published through Kickstarter called The Last Art of Childhood. His magical photos speak for themselves. Murray takes photos of his own children with their dog and teddy bear in ways that evoke the spirit of childhood. 500px recently featured him on their blog and was able to interview him about his project. Here we learn the concept behind the book: “The lost art of childhood has a double meaning to me,” he states. “First and foremost, the viewers of the book will typically be adults. Adults who, over time, have lost their sense of childlike wonder and amazement. It’s a natural progression of life, as we come to understand more about the world and take on greater amounts of responsibilities. This starts to whittle down our own perception of the world into the narrow boxes we deal with in the day to day. Taxes, mortgages, the nine to five grind. These activities and worries consume our ability to look at the world in amazement and wonder. It takes a conscious effort for us to get back to our younger selves, and remember what it was like to look at the world with a young set of eyes. To view life as the masterful piece of art that it is. Childhood becomes lost.”
A former dentist, Murray recently transitioned to becoming a full time photographer. He doesn’t post process in Photoshop, rather, he uses Lightroom for all of his edits. Most photos were taken in his hometown of Kentucky, at local parks near his home. He’s also photographed in Idaho where his wife is from and in California, where he was raised. “From swinging above a creek, to eating with deer, there are some of my most recognizable images taken in California. I had an amazing childhood there myself and each time we visit I want to give my kids a taste of what I had growing up.”
Murray reminds me of Elena Shumilova in that they both are to capture what it was like to be a child; the imagination and curiosity that come with it. Their photos also have a similar feel to them, appearing timeless and classic. (Here’s an old post I wrote about Murray’s adorable teddy bear shots.)
The 12″ x 12″ cloth bound hardcover book has over 60 color images across 120 pages with accompanying quotations. On Kickstarter, his goal is to raise $30,000. Let’s help him!
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, especially when you’re dealing with photography. What should I shoot? Is there something I should concentrate on? Over on Pinterest, I found this great list of “prompts” or themes that give you an idea of what you could be shooting. It was created by Stephanie Clark from the blog Behind the Camera and Dreaming.
“As part of supporting and encouraging our 365 group my co-hosts and I thought it would be a good idea to have a weekly (optional) prompt or inspiration to help us stay creative in our photography and boost us out of our funks! We proposed the idea to the group and made a list of 52 prompts! I decided that we should make our prompts pretty, so here is a list of prompts by week and an inspiration printable for inspiring your photography.”
Currently, we’re in week 24, so this week it’s all about dad! I like how the list incorporates holidays. For instance, the first week of the year is “resolution” for New Year’s and the last week of the year is “joy, hope and peace” for Christmas.
In my daily shooting, I hope to incorporate these prompts. You’ll see a hint of them in my weekly wrap up posts, Life Unfolding, which are up on Fridays. You can download a printable 8×10 of this sheet, here.
Winners of the 2016 Fine Art Photography Awards (FAFA) were recently announced and David Tortora and Jaime Travezan won in the overall Professional category with their series Flora. A celebration of nature, it shows a nude woman surrounding by a sea of vibrant flowers. The Awards received more than 3,994 submissions from 83 countries around the world and winners were selected by a highly acclaimed panel of international judges including one of my favorites, Kilian Schönberger. (He photographed that beautiful blue forest in Belgium.) The FAPA mission is to celebrate Fine Art photography and to discover emerging talent from around the world.
In the Flora series, three out of the five pictures were NSFW. You can see it in its entirety here.
You may remember the name Grace Chon. She’s the photographer behind the viral series Jasper and Zoey where she paired her adorable young son next to their rescue dog. It turns out that Grace is a pet photographer by trade, she shoots photos of dogs, cats and more and has a large portfolio of work to show for it. On her website, one of the sections I accidentally stumbled across is called Funny Bones. Why did she create this separate section? “Dogs are inherently really funny creatures,” she said. “Aside from the obvious things like they smell each other’s butts to say hi and they have no problem eating poop, dogs are just funny. They’re like furry preschoolers that never throw tantrums. And like kids, each and every dog has their own very funny characteristics and quirks. As an animal photographer I strive to capture emotion – whether it’s a soulful look, a poignant moment between human and animal, or a hilarious unscripted moment from a dog. Funny Bones is a compilation of the funny stuff.”
Out of the 30 or so photos in the section, I picked out seven of my favorites. These images spotlight smartly dressed dogs who are overflowing with personality. More than anything, these funny photos show the hilarious side of the pet owner, the dog itself, and, of course, the photographer.
I got to ask Grace what she’s learned about shooting dogs over the years and here’s what she told me. “I’ve learned to go with the flow. I like to say that I’m not making the dogs work for me, because we are working together. I don’t make dogs do things they don’t want to do. If something isn’t working, owners oftentimes want to keep making the dog try but I just like to move onto the shot. It keeps the dog happy and makes the shoot more about a collaboration between the dog and I. When the dog is unhappy or uncomfortable, believe me, it shows in the shot. The dogs I photograph look happy and look like they’re having fun because they are!”
Finally, how does she catch dogs showing such funny expressions? “I really just go with the flow and let the present unfold in front of me,” she said. “I am really relaxed when I shoot and capture what I can without forcing moments.”
(The first and last photo are my favorites.)
“In this technological era we are surrounded almost constantly by photographic imagery, so if we want our images to stand out from the crowd they often have to be unique in some way. Consequently there is a strong pressure imposed on photographers for originality in their imagery. Beware, though, as there is an obvious danger here if the photographer simply tries to be different for its own sake. Simply being different doesn’t make an image good. Invariably, we will end up putting our own stamp onto our images anyway as we develop our personal vision and style, which will give them some degree of uniqueness in itself. To close this brief discourse on the role of the mindset, remember that to free our creative juices we need to remove the filters that a stressed, distracted mind would impose on our work and develop an ability to focus intently on what we are doing, to be totally calm and present, as we go about it. Take time to get ‘into the zone.’ Engage the subject with a sense of awe and wonder, opening up all your senses to relish the experience.”
– Richard Garvey-Williams in Mastering Composition: The Definitive Guide for Photographers
I found the photographer Luke Liable through a Huffington Post article called These 25 Photos Are Not Your Average Engagement Pics. Junebug Weddings just announced the winners of their annual engagement photo contest and Luke was one of them. His shot, above, was the cover photo on the Huffington Post article. Isn’t it scorching hot? “The 2016 collection is compelling, breathtaking, and undeniably sexy,” editor-in-chief Carrie Crooks of Junebug Weddings said in a press release.
Some of Luke’s photos have that Max Wanger negative space vibe going on (which I love). Luke is able to capture magical moments that make you wish you had taken that photo. It’s when everything comes together perfectly, the backdrop, the subjects, the light and you know it’s something you won’t ever be able to replicate. These 12 photos were of engagements or weddings. The one commonality is that they’re all taken in front of breathtaking backdrops. Whether that means snowy hills or the vast ocean, the photos show how nature is the most beautiful backdrop of all.
Here’s a bit about Luke:
Born and raised in Saskatchewan, I am a Vancouver based lifestyle & Editorial photographer. While I have spent most of my life fascinated by human nature and interested in stories that come from even the simplest interactions, My goal and passion is to capture moments and collect them into photos that tell a story or spark a memory. Whether it be a big or a small story, these are the moments that form the lives in front of us and leave a legacy beyond what we could hope for or imagine.
Hello, I’m Alice Yoo! I’m founder and CEO of Skylar Yoo, a company dedicated to inspiring and empowering women to be bold. We sell apparel, art prints and accessories to the modern feminist.
In my former life, I was editor-in-chief of the art and culture blog My Modern Met, which I founded back in 2007. I curated and wrote about art, design and photography for more than seven years. (In fact, I published over 7,000 articles which were seen by millions of people worldwide.) I’m also co-author of a book called For Love: 25 Heartwarming Celebrations of Humanity, which is on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
I live in southern California along with my husband and my two toddler boys.
This blog is about what I love, the tough experiences that I’ve learned from, and my journey as a second time entrepreneur. Right now, I’m in the midst of a 365 day challenge, to read one book a day. If you share my passions or want to learn some cool new facts, come along for the ride. I hope to inspire, educate and entertain you!
