Awesome Photography

If you attach different-weight objects to a string and hang them over a bar, the lighter object can prevent the heavier one from hitting the ground when dropped. As this happens, the rope spirals around the bar. Science teacher Bruce Yeany attached LEDs to the objects and captured long-exposure photos of this fascinating looping pendulum action.

The Insta360 X4 dual-lens action camera can take 360° videos at up to 8K at 30fps. Combine this with all of its user-friendly features, such as the selfie stick remover, image stabilization, and HDR mode, and you get a truly versatile outdoor shooter. It can also act as a 4K camera that can capture angles you simply cannot take on single lens cameras.

Filmmaker Thomas Blanchard was inspired to make this short film after seeing the nuclear reaction effects in the movie Oppenheimer. The images you see here weren’t created with CGI, but with alcohol inks, gold powder, magic candles, an electric screwdriver, paper clips, and a laboratory shaker. Most of the sequences were filmed in his kitchen, other than the fire.

This backpack from Coalax is ideal for photographers who need to carry a lot of gear. Its exoskeleton design allows for modules to be attached and detached, including an optional 335Wh power pack. Its main compartment has dividers for cameras and lenses, and outside, you’ll find an extendable and adjustable selfie stick for hands-free shooting or lighting.

As part of the SKYGLOW project, filmmaker Gavin Heffernan captured this time-lapse footage in and around California’s Joshua Tree National Park. As the sun set over the desert, clouds rolled in, and the stars peeped out, creating an awe-inspiring light show during the recent Wolf Moon.

Felix from BerlinLapse captured this wild 360º hyperlapse video of the Fernsehturm, one of Europe’s tallest free-standing structures. To shoot the footage, he mapped out a walking route around the tower and snapped photos along the way. He then color-graded the photos in Lightroom and used After Effects to track the tower’s position, size, and rotation.

Leica’s follow-up to its SL2 camera is smaller, lighter, and has a much larger hand grip, making it more comfortable for extended use. The SL3 also has a new, hand-built full metal housing rated IP54 for water and dust resistance. The 60MP hybrid autofocus shooter also debuts Leica’s clearer and more intuitive touchscreen user interface.

Photographer Darius Twin is an expert at creating long-exposure images and animations like this one. In this 2-minute tutorial, he shows how to make your own light paintings using manual exposures, a shutter remote, and a focused light source. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel for more of his work.

Stanley Kubrick created cinematic masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange. Before his work in motion pictures, he was a staff photographer for Look magazine. Taschen’s coffee table book Through a Different Lens showcases nearly 300 of his black-and-white stills, which he started shooting in New York City at age 17.

Edelkrone’s smart tripod is as technologically advanced as it gets. It packs high-torque motors, a gyroscope and accelerometer, and can self-level on uneven surfaces. Connect your camera to its trigger port, and the tripod can change heights over time while shooting time-lapses. It adjusts from 13.4″ to 58.3″ high, lifts up to 44 lb, and offers app remote control.

The Arsenal 2 helps capture the best photos with a DSLR or mirrorless camera. It connects to your camera and uses AI tech to adjust settings based on 22 parameters, going far beyond standard auto-exposure functions. Its companion app can enhance colors from RAW images, stack photos, create multi-photo panoramas, and shoot night photos with ease.

Some skiers shoot first-person video using action cameras, but for a third-person view, you need a camera operator on skis. Alexander Rydén is a professional action sports photographer who follows his subjects down the slopes at speeds up to 117 km/h. In this video, he talks about some of the gimbals and rigs he uses to capture the perfect shot.

Artist Danny Huynh is known for his amazing custom-built animatronics. In this clip, he put an articulated Batman figure inside of an R/C vehicle and raced it around his neighborhood. The bat’s-eye-view footage of The Dark Knight in a drift truck is awesome. Also, he couldn’t resist racing the mailman.

With the holidays upon us, the fragrance of pine is in the air. After buying some pine cones from the market, Boxlapse plucked and planted one of their seeds to see if it would grow into a tree. This captivating time-lapse footage condenses 300 days of growth to about two minutes. Perhaps it’ll be big enough to use as a Christmas tree in a few years.

Director of photography Nikita Khatsarevich captured this amazing tracking shot for the video for Mata’s track M. Shooting the sequence involved connecting a drone to a handle that could be grabbed in mid-air, handed off to a passenger in a car, and then attached to its trunk. Watch the behind-the-scenes video to see exactly how it was done.

This wallet-size card improves your smartphone photography, adding a bright and smooth field of light whenever you need it. It attaches wirelessly to Android phones and iPhones with MagSafe backs and can pull power via USB-C or wirelessly from phones that support power sharing. Add-ons include a stand, a diffuser, and an external battery pack.

Photographer Luke Edwin shows off a bunch of neat tricks for capturing amazing video shots on a shoestring budget. From using a cheap camera gimbal as a motion-control rig to pulling an action camera through scenes using an ultra-long selfie stick and string, each creative technique produces dramatic and professional-looking results.

Do you love the image quality of your old 35 MM camera? This gadget lets you take advantage of analog optics but captures images digitally. The I’m Back Film adds a Sony digital image sensor in the light path of 35 MM cameras and snaps in where a film cartridge usually goes. An electronics and battery pack attaches to the bottom of the camera.

Add an extra scare factor to your Halloween decorations this year by filling your picture frames with some creepy compositions of your own. The photo experts at COOPH are here with a series of tricks you can pull off with simple props and some basic Photoshop skills.

Found most often in book readers like the Amazon Kindle, electronic paper or E Ink displays are known for their low power consumption and ease on the eyes. Posy gets up close with some e-paper displays to explain how they work and shares some fascinating super-macro footage of their electrostatically-charged dots.

The Polaroid I-2 represents a major leap over prior instant cameras. It’s Polaroid’s first analog camera with manual controls. The camera has shutter speeds from 1/250 to 30 seconds and apertures from f/8 to f/64, plus a long-exposure bulb mode. It’s also got automatic and multiple exposure modes and a sharp 98mm f/8 lens with LiDAR autofocusing.

Anyone can grow their own crystals with just a few household chemicals. Photographer Jens Heidler connected a Sony mirrorless camera to a Motic Panthera microscope and recorded a number of fascinating time-lapse sequences showing how crystals grow. He grew the colorful crystals using a combination of beta-alanine, vitamin C, water, and isopropyl alcohol.

Lomography’s lo-fi analog camera captures 35mm panoramas with a creamy, dreamy aesthetic. Its unique lens can be injected with water-based liquids to create a variety of in-camera effects. It includes four interchangeable aperture plates and exposes panoramic images all the way onto the film’s sprockets.