With Ken Collins–one of the last living pilots of the SR-71 Blackbird plane–as his subject, McNally knew that he had to use the Blackbird in the shot. He had Collins stand boldly on the needle-sharp nose of the plane, with the sun setting and a blue sky behind him. While this would have made a good shot in natural light alone, McNally used an easy lighting trick to make it a great shot.
John Stanmeyer was walking along the beach in Djibouti City when he spotted a handful of men raising their phones to the full moon. He turned to his translator and asked what they were doing. These are Somalian refugees, his translator explained, with Somalian SIM cards, trying to catch a signal from back home.
Waterfalls have been a compelling subject for photographers since the the birth of the art form; they represent Mother Nature at her most powerful and beautiful. How, then, do we keep making interesting photos of something so often captured? In this video, Bryan Peterson demonstrates how, by combining the glory of nature with a bit of artistic intervention, you can do just that:
Finally, to light up the ornate doorway behind his subject, McNally adds one more warm-gelled flash and places it on the floor. He cleverly balances it on a Manfrotto 175F1 Spring Grip Justin Clamp with a cold shoe and sets it right on the ground, pointing upwards. Symmetry is fundamental, and framing his subject right between the doorway works to create a look of real heroism.
In a recent article titled Lasting Impressions: How to Create Memorable Travel Photographs, PictureCorrect provided detailed coverage of a lecture by Luke Ballard, an esteemed travel photographer who has successfully combined his two great passions—photography and globetrotting—into a successful career.
In the striking image below, photographer, Markus Grunau, captured the Charles Bridge under a most impressive and colorful sky as the sun began to make its appearance over Prague. The bridge, a historical landmark and main point of interest for tourists to the Czech Republic, is typically bustling with people all throughout the day.
Magyar made three films with his creation, each in a different metropolis: one in Tokyo’s Shinjuku station, one at Grand Central Station in New York City, and one at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. He filmed from a train window as the train pulled into the station, capturing city dwellers in great detail at an unexpected moment.
