Beautiful Macro Photography & Close Up Shots

Hi guys, in the last half-hour, I've been searching the Internet for beautiful Macro photography shots. I came across some beautiful and the most inspiring macro photographs that I want to share with you on my blog. I will provide some links, to what I think, are the most amazing macro photographs ever taken. The Internet is a large place, and there is a huge amount of macro photographs on the Internet. Some of the macro images are on image sharing sites, some on that specific macro photography websites and others are and special magazines, dedicated to arts and photography. Some of the Macro photographs (the ones I love the most), I will post here. Let's start!

Smashing Magazine 25 Beautiful Marco Photography Shots

Let's start with the first article, which I found on smashing Magazine, and it's called '25 beautiful macro photography shots'. Not every day you come across some of the most amazing and beautiful macro photography examples. Smashing Magazine is one of my favorite design websites. In this article is fabricated with 25 beautiful macro photography images, taken probably by professional macro photographers. The images are taken from various sites like: Flickr.com, wired.com,1x.com, eyefetch.com, and others. So here we must give the credit to smashing Magazine.com, for collecting some amazing macro photography shots, great work!

Lasius Flavius

waterdrops

Nightclub Photography Tips & Guides

Today I have decided to spend some time, and read about nightclub photography. It seems that both nightclub and nightlife photography, exists side-by-side on Internet. However, I will write today about nightclub photography, and on later post, we will write about sites dedicated to nightlife photography.

So what exactly is nightclub photography?
Today on the Internet, there are many websites, which are dedicated to clubs, bars, parties and nightlife photography. Those websites usually have a lot of image galleries with photographs taken inside music and dance clubs around the world. Usually the owner of the website hires professional photographers, and those photographers take pictures of people, celebrating inside those clubs. So nightclub photography is all about bringing the excitement and atmosphere of people having fun in nightclubs.

Photo Answers Website Review

I came into a new website today called Photo Answers at PhotoAnswers.co.uk. Photo answers covers many aspects of digital photography. We will start their review by X. for my name photo answers homepage. Photo answers have various categories that you can see on the top part of the homepage. You can find videos and advices related to digital photography, photography gear reviews, forum, gallery, news and headlines, locations full photographers, photo pages and the shop.

The target of photo answers is to enrich the knowledge of every photographer in every skill level. We are actually more interested in reviewing the photography gear reviews, and we will be getting to it in just a few moments. So let's take a look at the videos and advice section, where you can find some videos that will teach you new skills and tips, written by experts. There are three sections in the videos and advice full photographers: videos about camera skills and imaging skills, CD and DVDs that you can buy online and advices written by professional photographers and also a PhotoPedia.

Sigma DP2 - Foveon X3 Compact Camera Review

Sigma DP2 Camera

I must admit that after seeing photographs taken with both Sigma SD14 and Sigma DP2, I was amazed to see the quality of photographs taken with Foveon sensor. The Foveon sensor also called X3 sensor, was announced on Pre-PMA 2002. For those of you who don't know what Foveon is, I will briefly explain about this new technology and then will you continue to review Sigma DP2 camera with the Foveon sensor.

Canon EOS 7D HD Video Sample

I was astonished by the quality of HD videos taken with the Canon EOS 7D SLR camera. I watched some videos on vimeo.com and also on YouTube, and I was really amazed to see the high quality that Canon EOS 7D can produce. These days, as the Internet enables streaming of high-quality 720p high-definition videos to almost every Internet user with high-bandwidth Internet connection, it became possible to enjoy filming videos again.

Canon EOS 7D - Shoot 1080p HD Videos in 24 or 30 fps!

I love taking still photographs, but editing the ability to shoot video with my SLR camera, it's something that should not be ignored. Today, more and more YouTube users, upload high quality videos and share them with others. And I think people prefer to watch high quality videos than the low quality once. Canon EOS 7D camera, gives you the option to shoot 1080p videos in 24 or 30 fps, and also shoot HD 720p videos in 50 or 60 frames per second, absolutely amazing!

Point-and-Shoot or SLR Camera - What Should I Buy?

When you come to buy your first SLR camera, you can become very jumbled because there are so many digital SLR cameras on the market. Both Nikon and Canon strove to control the market and provide photographers with professional digital SLR cameras and photography equipment that will make them come back for more. For the professional photographer it's very likely very easy to choose, it is either Nikon or Canon and that's it, even some professional photographers choose Olympus SLR cameras and gear.

Buy an Affordable SLR Entry Level Camera
If you are a new photographer and don't understand that much about photography and SLR equipment, it can be very hard to make a selection. Most of the entry-level photographers don't choose to buy the full frame SLR cameras as their primary camera. If you decide to go to the Nikon you have the possibility to choose between the Nikon D90 SLR or D40. The Nikon D40 is the most low-priced SLR camera for new photographers, which are coming from Point-and-Shoot consumer digital cameras. If you choose the Canon path, you can go and buy the affordable entry-level SLR camera, the Canon 450D or Canon 500D.

Nikon D40 - Affordable Entry Level SLR Camera for Beginners

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Short Review

If there is one lens that's really pick up my attention recently, it was Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM. I have a friend, which currently owns the older version one, the Canon 70-200mm f/4L non-IS. The older version was a really great telephoto zoom lens, but was missing the image stabilization feature. Many of you probably had the chance to take telephoto zoom lens outdoors and try shooting with it in the afternoon or even indoors. Because it is 'only' f/4, we had a little problem shooting with it on low light conditions and take indoors photos with it. This time Canon is upgraded this already wonderful lens, optimized it optics and added an image stabilization.

If you've read Ken Rockwell's review on the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens, you will know that this lens is one of the sharpest zoom lenses ever created, and not just for Canon. There are a lot of recommendations on this new lens from Canon. If you have a chance to shoot photographs with and without image stabilization (IS) feature, you know that in some conditions an image stabilization is a must. I had times that only one of four images that were taken in 200mm, were sharp enough and without blur. This image stabilization uses a new technology which compensates handshakes up to four stops, like the VR II on Nikon's side.

Panasonic DMC-GF1 LUMIX Camera Review

Panasonic DMC-GF1 Camera Review
Today many people do a shift from prosumer cameras to digital SLR cameras. Many companies like Panasonic have realized that there are many consumers in this niche, and they should target making specific cameras with specific qualities, which we offer everything that the consumer needs in this type of niche. The reason why people decide to buy a DSLR camera over consumer cameras, is usually because of the image quality. The bigger the sensor, the higher image quality is. Of course many photographers like the ability to be more creative and enjoy taking images with shallow depth of field.

Panasonic has recently released a new Lumix G Micro system camera, called Panasonic DMC-GF1. The Panasonic DMC-GF1 is based on the micro 4/3 system standard. Using the micro four thirds CCD, manufacturers of digital cameras, are able to build smaller interchangeable lenses cameras also called SLR cameras, and all with high quality images in a small compact design. The Panasonic GF1 is World's smallest and lightest DSLR body. Using the 4/3 standard, Panasonic created a new generation of digital cameras with interchangeable lenses. Using the 4/3 CCD, Panasonic could bring DSLR quality images with high speed shooting inside those small and compact cameras, almost the same size of a regular consumer camera.

Entry Level SLR and Enthusiast SLR Cameras - Image Quality

Many new photographers want to know the differences in image quality, between entry-level DSLR cameras and enthusiast SLR cameras. When you hear the phrase 'entry-level SLR cameras', it doesn't mean anyway that the image quality is low or poor. In this discussion, I want to separate this post between a full frame SLR cameras and cropped frame ASP-C SLR cameras. When you compare an entry-level ASP-C cameras and enthusiasts ASP-C SLR cameras, of course there are differences between them, but in terms of the image quality, there are usually very close to each other.

Entry Level DSLR vs. Enthusiast Level DSLR
Entry-level DSLR cameras were created in order to make the transaction from digital cameras to SLR cameras, more convenient for new photographers. If you had a chance to look on our professional SLR camera looks like, you should probably have noticed that there are many buttons and many options to choose from. If you're a new photographer, which only had experience with simple digital cameras, take a professional DSLR camera in his hand, he or she will probably be very scared in what they see. Entry-level SLR cameras have few buttons if you are options to choose from. The camera itself does most of the work for the photographer. The main target is to output a beautifully rendered JPEG image, that you can easily transfer to your computer and share those images with other people and your family.

Nikon D300 Entry Level Digital SLR Camera

Leica Factory Tour in Germany

For those of you who are interested in taking a look inside Leica Solms factory in Germany, and see what is going on inside it? - Phil Askey from dpreview.com will give you a short an interesting tour in Leica Solms Factory, where the Leica M9 full-frame rangefinder and the new X1 ASP-C camera and the S2 Medium format SLR are being assembled.

The tour inside Leica Factory is followed by photographs taken from inside the Leica factory itself. You can see photo of Leica's assembly room for the M-series and S2 camera, and see how they are assembled by hand and fuly tested before they are being shipped to the stores. There are even exhibitions of old Leica's cameras in the factory.

Most of the article discusses about the testing that each camera is going through, until it is ready for shipment. A great tour, that everyone should have a look.

to see the tour on dpreview, click here

Pentax DSLR Marketshare - Holding on quite well

On our latest post, we wrote about Pentax K-x new DSLR camera. At the moment, of writing the news, a thought pass my mind. Many of you probably know that the leaders in DSLR market share are Canon, Nikon and Sony. These are the top three leading companies of DSLR cameras in 2008 reports. In terms of technology and finance, it's not hard to understand, that in order to develop new technologies and keep up with the pace of your competition, you have to invest a lot of money. When I think about Pentax, and as far as the market share reports, Pentax is in 5th place after Olympus in digital SLR camera market share.

I'm wondering how can a company with probably a lower budget, can keep producing very sophisticated cameras, and allow itself to stay in the competition over many years, without losing larger market share. When I heard about Pentax K-x new DSLR cameras and I've read K-x specifications, I was surprised to see that Pentax has implemented almost any of the latest features like Canon and Nikon, have implemented into their entry-level cameras. It seems that there are many photographers, which held Pentax equipment in the past, and they are fans of Pentax cameras. Because if you think about it, there is actually no reason for photographers to buy Pentax equipment and not Nikon's. Saying that, there are some advantages of using Pentax DSLR cameras over to competition, like an inner image stabilization function, which as you know, neither Nikon nor Canon implemented this feature in their bodies.

Recommended DSLR camera in many reviews, Pentax Flagship K-7

Pentax K-x Announced - Entry level DSLR

Pentax K-x New Entry Level DSLR, Comes in Different Colors

Pentax Imaging company has announced today on a new Pentax K-x Digital SLR camera, which joins its entry level lineup. Pentax K-x camera will be available (surprisingly)  in Black, White and also Navy and Red! colors.

Pentax K-x contains a 12.4MP CMOS sensor and the camera incorporates an image stabilization and video capture up to 4 stops. K-x SLR camera enables the photographer to the 720p HD videos with 24 FPS. Another coo feature is that Pentax K-x can capture true HDR images automatically using 3 bracketed images and combine it to a single picture.

Pentax K-x had 4.7 FPS burst continuous shooting and 11 point auto-focus system. Pentax K-x has a 2.7" TFT color LCD with 230,000 dots on the back side.

Pentax K-x Hands-On Preview - dpreview.com

Buy a camera now or wait for new cameras ?

If you are in a situation, that currently you have no photography gear, and you want to buy a new DSLR camera, this is the best time to do so. Many will tell you that there is no such thing "best time to buy camera", and the best time to buy camera is when you need. However, actually I think that if you are so close to the time, when you cameras are being shipped, it's probably a good time to wait a few weeks and by your new DSLR camera at that time. There are two possible reasons to do so. The first reason is because you can buy a new version of the DSLR camera that you wish to purchase. The second reason is that you can buy the same camera, the older version, for a lower priced.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens

Many of you who were lucky to enjoy Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G  IF-ED VR lens, knows that this is one of Nikon's best telephoto zoom lens. Even though, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G lens has a glitch, and it's about the sharpness of the image borders. Even though, the center of the image is absolutely perfect. This lens was announced in 2002, and it was the first choice for Nikon photographers who search for sharp in high contrast telephoto zoom lens from Nikon.

The New Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G VRII

On 2009 Nikon has introduced a replacement for the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G  IF-ED VR lens, with the new AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8 ED VR II. so you can only tell the difference between the two by the 'VR II' name. Nikon engineers were working very hard in order to provide photographers with the ultimate telephoto zoom lens. As told by Nikon engineers, the new AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 ED VRII was completely re-engineered, in order to correct some of the flaws that were in the older lens, to allow it to provide much better image quality and to be smaller in size as well.

Olympus E-P1 Pen Series - Micro Four Thirds Ultra Compact Camera

There are many photographers were new to the digital photography field. Even some amateur photographers haven't become familiar with Olympus Pen camera series. The first generation of Olympus Pen camera appeared in 1959. Olympus has sold over 17 million cameras from the pan serious. The second-generation of Pen series called Olympus PenEE was announced in 1961, off the that came the Olympus PenEES (1962), Olympus PenD (1962),PenF (1963), PenEM (1965), and PenFT (1966) camera. These half-frame format cameras were very successful and sold very well.

Olympus Pen EP-1 (2009) - Ultra-Compact Micro Four-Thirds Format

The Luminous Landscape website Review

The website that you are reviewing today is called the luminous landscape found at luminous-landscape.com. This website by Michael Reichmann was already selected as the Top 101 most incredibly useful sites by PC Magazine. This is one of the websites that almost every photography knows, or newbie photographers who have search information about digital photography on Internet, and found the luminous landscape on the search results in leading search engines. The website itself needs a little bit of polishing in terms of design. Nevertheless, this digital photography related website, is full of content and useful information for just everybody.

The luminous landscape website contains different sections: what's new, store, discussion forum, luminous landscape video Journal, luminous landscape video Journal downloads, tutorial downloads, editor columns, product reviews and techniques and so on. The Main page of the luminous landscape website, you can find a lot of text and video tutorials that will teach you many aspects digital photography. The luminous landscape has what called ' the understanding series', which you can see links to those tutorials and guides on the lower section of the luminous landscape website. Articles about density filters, working with the raw files, understanding how to read histograms and many more.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 Released

Adobe has released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 image editing software for windows, which is available to download on Adobe website. The are several updates like support for Nikon D300s, Nikon D3000, OLYMPUS E-P1, Panasonic DMC-FZ35 and Panasonic DMC-GF1 digital cameras.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 also incorporates Camera Raw 5.5 version. The Camera Raw plug-in provides simple access within Photoshop to the raw image formats, currently available in almost every prosumer and professional digital cameras. It includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms for cameras using the Bayer sensor. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 is available in Japanese, English, French, German in multiple languages version on Adobe website. Of course, Lightroom 2.5 is available for download to both Macintosh and Windows, and Adobe Camera Raw 5.5 is also available for Macintosh and Windows versions.

PSDTuts+ Advanced Photoshop Tutorials

As you probably know there are many photography contests on the Internet, like on dpreview for example. Some of the contests are open for edited photograph artworks. I know that many times new photographers who have no experience in working with photo editing software, ask themselves, how it is possible to make such gorgeous photographs. Let's just things straight and let you know, that many of those gorgeous photographs are edited using Adobe Photoshop.

Cool digital photography tutorials, techniques and effects

I have been reading Speckyboy's design magazine for a long time now. However, today I want to emphasize a new post which was written on August 28, 2009. This article is about 25 cool digital photography tutorials, techniques and effects. In this post, you can see a list of very cool digital photography techniques and tutorials that will teach you, up to apply special effects and take amazing of unique photographs by yourself. Some of the tutorials that you can find are about infrared photography, high-speed photography, tilt shifting photography, cinematic portrait effect, tutorial about coloring the black-and-white image and many others. You can really get inspired just by looking on the images that were posted in this magazine post.

I recommend everyone who wants to get inspired and learn new techniques related to digital photography, give yourself 15 minutes break and just watch and read this amazing post. I'm sure that afterward, you will continue reading it in order to get inspired. Speckyboy, thanks for this great article. Click Here for the article.

Phase One 645 Camera with P65+ Back Tops the Competition

In the past, professional photographers have been using full frame film SLR cameras, in order to revive their creativity and deliver high-quality imaging artistic works. Today technologies have been given professional photographers the ability to take photographs in situations that before these times also possible, or at least, was very hard to achieve. In this demanding world where professional photographers can take advantage of every type of photography equipment that is thrown at them, there is always a place for high-end devices in the professional photographer bag.

In today's review who will cover and discuss Phase One 645 medium format camera. Phase One 645 is actually a MAMIYA 645AFD III Camera with a new name. Because of that Phase One 645 accepts the Mamiya 645 lenses and backs.  Phase One company has strive to bring image quality to surpass the most advanced DSLR cameras and medium format cameras available on the market today. In order to achieve this kind of high quality results, Phase One developed its own digital camera backs, camera bodies, lenses and software for the best integration.

Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 18mm F3.5 Lens for Canon

A new Carl Zeiss Distagon lens has been announced and priced. The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE is a new wide-angle lens with EF bayonet mount for Canon DSLR cameras. Announced in OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 14.09.2009, Carl Zeiss continue to supply DSLR camera manufacturers new lenses for high demanding photographers.

Every Canon EOS camera owner, especially Full-Frame Canon SLR owners, can enjoy an ultra-wide angle superb optical quality lens. The Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE was first shown at the Photo Imaging Expo in Tokyo on March this year. It is a compact lens despite the fact that this is a ultra-wide angle lens, which delivers a very high quality image, using unparalleled optics. Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE will help you achieve  razor sharp image in almost under any condition and aperture settings.

SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Cards up to 64GB

SanDisk New memory Cards - SanDisk released new Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory cards with 90MB/s UDMA 6 super-fast cards. The fastest high-capacity cards from SanDisk enables photographers to take advantage of today's high fast shooting DSLR cameras demands.
Starting from 16GB version, and also offers 32GB and 64GB capacity cards.

If you search for a professional grade memory cards, SanDisk supplies the World's fastest cards for professional photographers with an increase of capacity for today's high resolution digital SLR cameras. You can also take advantage of current high capacity cards to shoot HD videos with the latest DSLR cameras which offer video recording, such as the Nikon D300s and Canon EOS 7D.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro series cards have Shock protection and RTV silicon coating added for protection against moisture and humidity for the most harsh environments.

The prices are $811.99 for the 64GB version, $507.99 for the 32GB and $304.00 for the 16GB Extreme® Pro™ CompactFlash® Card. More information can be found on dpreview.

Guide to iStockPhoto Stock Photography Website

Basic Guide to iStockPhoto Website


iStockPhoto.com is one of the largest if not the largest stock photography site on the Internet. On iStockPhoto, you can search through millions of royalty-free images and photos. I have myself been using iStockPhoto to download many beautiful images, illustrations, flash animations and videos to decorate my blogs and websites. iStockPhoto stock photography website, enables photographers from all around the world to sell their artistic creations online on iStockPhoto.

The above image was bought through iStockPhoto
More high quality photo are waiting for you on iStockPhoto.

On the Main page of iStockPhoto, you can find a search engine, which gives you the option to search the whole site for photos, illustrations, flash animations, high quality videos and audio files. You can pay and download them directly to your computer.

The Person Behind The Camera

Share Your Story - Why You Love Photography?
What's was triggered my love for photography was a single event in the past, which changes the course of my life forever. I personally have a lot of interests. First of all, I love the Internet a lot, I love computers and interested in creating and programming websites and creative web applications and share them with others. That exactly why open this blog. However, on this post I want to hear what triggered your passion to photography?. I can tell you when I first encounter the photography world. As you know many of us love to watch family pictures and even other members' pictures on the Internet. However, by watching images on Internet didn't trigger anything inside me that let me want to learn photography. It is all started with one photograph that my father has taken in London. The photographs were taken with my brother is the main subject, sitting on a bench in the middle of the street and the background was all blurred. From that point on I knew, that something changed, something inside me told me that in the future I will want to learn more about photography. Of course it was a long time ago, at the days of film photography.

Understanding Depth Of Field - DOF Tutorials

What is 'Depth of Field' (DOF)? - Definition
There are many beginner photographers and even more experienced ones that still don't quite understand what the meaning of the term 'depth of field' or DOF. I want to provide you a reference from some of the most professional articles ever written on depth of field. In general, the zone of acceptable sharpness is referred to as the depth of field. Many of you probably know that if the aperture decreases , the zone which is out of our focus subject gets shallow depth of field or more blurred and vice versa. So here are some links to many of my favorite articles about depth of field, which I'm sure that you find very interesting. And in the future, when someone asks you about the term depth of field, you will know what it is and can easily explain it to him.

Beginner's Guide to Photography by Bernie

This time I want to show you a beginner's guide to photography on BernieCode.com website. This is a long professional use printed article, that will teach you about digital photography. It is actually called Bernie's better beginners guide to photography for computer geeks who want to be digital artists (pretty cool title - laughing out loud). However, let's forget about joking for a moment, this is one of the more professionally written articles that explains about photography. Beginners may find it a little over extensive, but believe me this is by far the most informative article that I've read for long time.

Essential Tutorials To Get Started With Digital Photography

A minute ago I came across a page with 34 essential tutorials that will help you get started with digital photography. This page is actually presenting links to different digital photography tutorials pages on other sites. However, because it did a great job in arranging order of those materials in one page and in easy-to-read and understand manner. I have decided to let you know about this page and provided to you as a learning tool. As I said, I have opened this blog in order to help you photographers find the information they need, in order to start and enjoy their camera and start learning everything about digital photography.