Top 10 Photography Links of the Week

by Alex W.

Click and Learn Photography aims to bring you a wide range of tutorials, news, and reviews on a regular basis, but we’re well aware there are a lot of other fantastic photography resources out there.

We’re constantly scouring the internet for the very best photography content out there, and every week we’ll give you a roundup of our favourite links of the past week!

We’ve been on a bit of a Youtube binge this week, so we’ve got a fair few videos featuring on this week’s list!

Up Close and Personal with the Lagoon Nebula

We kick things off this week with another stunning release from NASA. The world famous Hubble Space Telescope has been in action for 28 years this week, so to celebrate we were treated with this short video that slowly zooms into deep space.

What’s shown is the Lagoon Nebula, located a mere 4,000 light years away and displaying a raucous blend of UV radiation and stellar winds that create these incomprehensible mountains of interstellar gas and dust.

As PetaPixel report, you can actually see the Lagoon Nebula from Earth with binoculars, although it is rendered as a bright smudge in the sky rather than the incredible photos NASA have brought us.

Toys in the Wild

From insanely large and distant nebula to the tiny world of toys now. DIY Photography report on a rather interesting photographer recently featured by SmugMug.

Jerry Business uses only his iPhone to create thoughtful and sometimes amusing scenes using toy figurines as his models and the open world as his shooting location. This can lead to some great forced perspective shots, and Jerry has his technique down to an artform!

Get Creative in the Kitchen

If Jerry’s original ideas have got you feeling inspired, what better place to test it out than the kitchen? Ana Mireles, writing for Digital Photography School, likes to exercise her creativity by making well thought out composition in her kitchen.

This is a great exercise for all of you photographers who feel stuck in a rut but can’t find the time to get out doing your normal style of photography. Everybody can spare an hour around the house, so take a read and reignite that photography fire!

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Nikon Enters the Mirrorless Market

It’s been a long time coming, but Nikon and Canon finally seem to be coming round to the idea of mirrorless cameras. Canon announced their intentions to release some new models a couple of weeks ago, and Nikon have now come out and said they expect to release a full frame mirrorless camera within the next year!

Have they entered the race too late? Can Nikon and Canon, even with their huge brand recognition, dislodge the likes of Fuji and Sony from the mirrorless camera throne?

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How to Photograph Starbursts

Light Stalking bring us another fascinating tutorial, as Sheen Watkins gives us her thoughts on using starbursts in your photography.

Most photographers know about starbursts, and many will have overused or misused them in their time. I know I have!

But Sheen, as well as walking us through the technique used to create magical starbursts, also gives us some hints on when exactly to make use of this phenomenon of light refraction and in what situations it works particularly well in.

PETA Take a Beating in Court

This has to be one of my favourite stories of the week by far. It’s a controversial saga that stretches back almost three years, but it seems that common sense has finally come out on top!

Animal rights activist group PETA sued wildlife photographer David Slater back in 2015, claiming his iconic ‘Monkey Selfie’ photograph breached copyright. The monkey actually pressed the shutter on Slater’s camera, and so PETA argued that the monkey was, in fact, the copyright holder. Slater was deemed in breach of copyright by making money off his image, and the ensuing court case all but bankrupted the talented wildlife photographer.

A US Court has hopefully brought an end to this farce this week though, ruling in Slater’s favour and also heavily criticising PETA for using Naruto (the aforementioned monkey) as a ‘pawn in its ideological goals’.

PETA have long been known for their rather extravagant PR stunts, but this one in particular almost destroyed a man’s career and lifelong passion, and thankfully it has backfired badly. You can support David Slater, the rightful copyright holder of the Monkey Selfie, here. I urge you to do so!

Free Ebooks from Light Stalking

If you’ve already read through our very own free ebook, make sure to head over to Light Stalking and check out their repertoire of resources.

This week they bring you not one, but six free ebooks, all of which are aimed at helping you improve your photography composition. They cover a wide range of topics such as inspiration, street photography, choosing the right subjects, and making extraordinary images from ordinary subjects.

There really is nothing to lose, so make sure to check them out!

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How NOT to Fly a Drone

Drone users get a lot of bad rep, and while some of it is genuine the vast majority is a result of poor experiences with the rare drone pilot who thinks they’re above courtesy and law.

Improve Photography agree with these sentiments, and outline exactly how you can become one of those maligned drone photographers whom everybody curses under their breath.

Of course, this is meant as a tutorial on how not to fly your drone, and Andy Perkins covers that in a humorous fashion here. If you’re thinking about getting a drone make sure to have a read of this, although you weren’t planning on flying your drone near any aircraft, were you?

World’s Fastest 75mm Lens

Time for your weekly dose of gear envy! Meyer-Optik Goerlitz has just announced their latest new releast – A 75mm f/0.95 lens. Yes, f/0.95!

It’s designed for a range of full-frame mirrorless camera bodies, with Leica M, Sony FE, and Fuji X mounts all set to benefit. As you can imagine, it doesn’t come cheap though. It’s planned for release in May this year, and will set you back around $4,200. Just think of the bokeh you can get with that though!

Five Budget Portrait Photography Hacks

Say, hypothetically of course, that you’d just emptied your bank account on a 75mm f/0.95 portrait lens. Hypothetically… Of course. Even so, now you can’t afford your studio setup to use such a beautiful lens.

If that’s the case, head over to Digital Photography School, where Jackie Lamas gives us five fantastic money saving hacks for portrait photography. She covers everything from homemade reflectors and diffusers to simply using what you have with you.

Everyone loves a good money saving hack, so this is definitely one to check out!

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