Ponta de São Lourenço is a fascinating place to spend a day (or two) on and I highly recommend going prepared — a good set of hiking or trekking boots and drinking water at the least. We went twice and unfortunately, the light and weather weren’t kind to us, which means I didn’t get the shots I wanted to get but I did get a few panoramas. This is one of them, stitched together from 5 vertical photos. I posted the full resolution (12244 x 7154 px) version on my Flicker, in case you’d like to zoom in a bit.
★ 87 MP Panorama of Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira, 2019 →
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 100. Total of 5 shots.
We dedicated the last two days of our Madeira trip to visiting Ponta de São Lourenço — the peninsula on the eastern tip of the island. This photo was shot on our first reconnaissance hike when I was looking for good spots to photograph the sunrise. Unfortunately, the weather foiled my plans for the next morning and I didn’t get anything really worth showing…
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 640.
Apple is kicking off 2019 by celebrating the most stunning photographs captured on iPhone, the world’s most popular camera, by inviting iPhone users to submit their best shots.
From January 22 to February 7, Apple is looking for outstanding photographs for a Shot on iPhone Challenge. A panel of judges will review worldwide submissions and select 10 winning photos, to be announced in February.
Pete Souza, Barack Obama’s photographer, is one of the judges.
Apple believes strongly that artists should be compensated for their work. Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.
A backlash shouldn’t have been necessary for Apple to include the statement above but I’m glad they came around.
This was my first trip to the beautiful Lake Como in Italy and I had expected the city of Bellagio to be the most picturesque. I was wrong — Varenna easily takes that crown. It reminds me of Scilla and the Cinque Terre region.
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 125.
We had an early morning flight to Italy last week and I was sound asleep, minding my own business, when my wife brutally shook me awake and told me to look out of the window. I checked the flight log and this photo was taken somewhere above or close to the city of Kleinarl in Austria but I am uncertain which exact city is visible in the photo.
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/2, 1/60 s, ISO 1600.
We had just had something to eat and were getting ready to leave the beautiful city of Pizzo in the south of Italy, when we decided to go take a last look at the sunset before setting off for the airport. I had already stowed away my “big” camera and since there was a chilly wind, I did not want to bother going back to the car to get it. I did have my iPhone X on me though…
There was just something about the geometry, depth, gradients, and shadows that spoke to me — I really love this shot.
Shot with iPhone X @ 28 mm: f/1.8, 1/153 s, ISO 20.
Take a look at what the person below saw →
I received a few requests for my iPad wallpaper, so here it is in square format (3208×3208 px), preferably usable on smartphones and tablets. The photo above, on which it is based on, was shot in 2018, when our plane was circling above London, waiting for it’s turn to land.
Shot with Sony A7R II + Zeiss ZF 100 mm f/2 Makro-Planer T*: f/2, 1/60 s, ISO 250.
Vlad Savov, for The Verge:
If you listen closely, you might be able to hear every other phone camera engineer flipping their desk and resigning in disgust. This is just an astonishing improvement. The Pixel 3’s camera is already among the very best low-light performers, so when a scene is so dark that it barely registers anything, you know there’s hardly any light. And yet, with Night Sight on, we actually see a scene that looks like a moderately noisy daytime shot.
These are the kind of shots (the Night Sight ones) that the first smartphones took in pretty decent lighting conditions. Computational photography is obviously the future but I did not expect such stunning results so quickly. I would actually consider getting a Pixel 3 XL if it had a dual camera system because I really enjoy having a 50 mm lens on my iPhone.
For years, I have wanted at least three cameras on the iPhone. A wide-angle lens, around 28 mm or so, a standard 50 mm, and a short telephoto in the 85-135 mm range.
A set of three would make the iPhone a near perfect travel camera to complement my “proper” one.
I was disappointed with The Weather Channel’s forecast for my recent UK trip — it was supposed to be clear skies, sun and warmth. This shot portrays exactly what I got instead — cloudy skies, no sun, and an extremely chilly wind. That prompted me to attach my ND filter and shoot a few long exposures, despite it being noon. This was my favourite one.
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/11, 13 s, ISO 50.
Sebastiaan de With:
iPhone XS has a completely new camera. It’s not just a different sensor, but an entirely new approach to photography that is new to iOS. Since it leans so heavily on merging exposures and computational photography, images may look quite different from those you’ve taken in similar conditions on older iPhones.
But unlike previous cameras, exactly because many of its leaps in quality are based on software, we can expect it to change, and even improve. This is just the first version of iOS 12 and Smart HDR.
Likewise, us developers need to update apps to take full advantage of the new iPhone XS and XS Max’s very capable sensor. Since it is such a different animal, simply treating it as any other iPhone will yield subpar results. We’re almost done doing our first take at it and we’ll no doubt have to work more on it in the future.
Sebatiaan also notes a few specific RAW quirks with the XS:
As it stands today, if you shoot RAW with an iPhone XS, you need to go manual and under-expose. Otherwise you’ll end up with RAWs worse than Smart HDR JPEGs. All third-party camera apps are affected. Bizarrely, RAW files from the iPhone X are better than those from the iPhone XS.
I’m going to test Halide’s Smart RAW function, which should allow to extract the maximum quality out of the camera.
I rarely get the chance to capture a nice shot during takeoff or landing — I’m usually lucky enough to be seated on the wrong side of the aeroplane, or the weather’s bad, or it’s pitch black, or the light is terrible. I made sure to pick the right seat this time but the weather and timing weren’t perfect — it was a bit misty (or smoggy) and just a bit too early in the day. Still, I tried to make the most of it.
As to what you can see in the shot… That’s the Thames in the middle, with the London Eye on the left of the frame. Big Ben and The Palace of Westminster are just on the other side of the river. That blob of light to the right of the London Eye is Waterloo Station. That black line crossing the Thames, more or less in the middle of the shot, is Millennium Bridge, which was destroyed by Death Eaters in one of the Harry Potter books/movies — it leads to St Paul’s Cathedral. The City of London is the part which is lit most north of the river and the rightmost bridge is Tower Bridge. That’s the one from the Sherlock Holmes movie, where it was still being built and where the villain met his demise (it’s often mistaken as London Bridge).
Shot with Sony A7R II + Zeiss ZF 100 mm f/2 Makro-Planer T*: f/2.8, 1/60 s, ISO 5000.
I went out shooting with the iPhone XS today and was not only surprised by this here peacock sneaking up on me, but also at the result of Portrait Mode and its bokeh. It has a much more natural, analogue look to it, reminiscent of what SLR lenses are capable of producing. It’s not there yet but I like what I see.
Shot with iPhone X @ 52 mm: f/2.4 (simulated f/1.4 by Portrait Mode), 1/122 s, ISO 32.
Scilla is a truly beautiful city. We spent two days there in 2017 and I still fondly recall the amazing views. I already posted a photo from our second day there — it was cold but sunny. The weather wasn’t as kind to us on our first visit however. It was raining heavily, the streets turned into small rivers, but the colour of the sea rewarded our perseverance. This panorama was stitched in Lightroom from a few (handheld) photos to get the field of view I wanted and was shot from Castello Ruffo (see photo below) — a small castle towering over both sides of the city.
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/5.6, 1/60 s, ISO 160.
See a shot of Castello Ruffo below →
I was walking down Lower Thames Street the other day, on my way to a meeting, passing by The Walrus and The Carpenter, when I looked up Lovat Lane and saw 20 Fenchurch Street towering over me… I love contrasts like this one, between the old and the new, especially when they seem so natural.
Shot with iPhone X @ 28 mm: f/1.8, 1/100 s, ISO 25.
I stayed in a small hotel in a tiny village not far from Le Mont Saint-Michel during my 2010 trip. On the second or third evening of my stay, I took an alternate route on the way down to the castle and stumbled upon this beautiful mill.
Shot with Nikon D700 + Zeiss ZF 100 mm f/2 Makro-Planer T*: f/2, 1/1000 s, ISO 200.
My 2011 trip to New York City was much too short, but I did cram a lot of sightseeing into those 3 or 4 days. While the weather was doing me no favours on my last day, when I went to see the Brooklyn Bridge, the foreboding atmosphere did make things interesting.
Shot with Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8G: f/8, 1/1000, ISO 200 @ 14 mm.
The trip to Mont Saint-Michel from Paris took longer than I expected — I planned to arrive an hour or so before sunset, to get some shots before checking into my hotel. Unfortunately, traffic was horrible and I was two hours late but had no complaints — the view was breathtaking.
Shot with Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50 mm f/1.4G: f/8, 15 s, ISO 200.
See Mont Saint-Michel at sunrise→
I love visiting Greece for a number of reasons — the excellent cuisine, austere landscapes, and not much commerce. This was my first trip to Corfu and I can genuinly recommend going there. It’s not overcrowded, nature likes to show-off often, and… did I mention the delicious food? Just get a car or scooter and drive up and down the whole island — it’s not that big.
Shot with Canon 50D + Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8L — f/8, 30 s, ISO 100 @ 35 mm.
Our trip to Norway in 2015 started in Bergen, where we took a one-day cruise down the surrounding fjords, where I took this shot. The towering magnificence of the fjord’s wall dwarfed the ship we were on and I was so awed, that I almost missed the sleek waterfall — just look at how tall the trees on top are. While it was fun and took half a day, do make sure to reserve a full day for the Norway in a Nutshell trip, which is even better.
Shot with Fuji X100T: f/8, 1/90 s, ISO 400.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was completed in 2007 and can hold over 41 thousand people at the same time. It truly is an amazing architectural sight to behold, so if you’re in or around Abu Dhabi (a layover perhaps — you’ll need at least 4 hours to get there and back in time for your next flight) make sure to visit it. This shot (here’s another) was taken on our way back from our trip to the Seychelles, and since we had close to 7 hours at our disposal…
This amazing timelapse from photographer Tyler Fairbank was shot over 8 days. He took over 38K RAW stills which were then combined into 300 timelapse clips, which together created the video. Tyler used DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Lightroom.
I took this shot back in 2009 when visiting in Las Vegas for NAB from the top of Paris Las Vegas. It’s one of many shots, but this was the moment that I had been waiting for — the sky filled out beautifully with what was left of the sunset, while being pushed out by the impending night.
Shot with Canon 50D + Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8L — f/5.6, 1/10, ISO 800 @ 16 mm.
Austin Mann, on his blog:
Twenty years ago today (May 6, 1998), my dad walked into my classroom on the last day of school holding an inkjet print. He handed it me and said, “You’re going to want one of these!” On this piece of paper was the just-announced Bondi Blue iMac […]
Today, after a few months with the iMac Pro, I can say in many ways it stays true to its original ancestor. It packs a powerful punch and continues to deliver on its promise to be a simple yet powerful tool that unlocks creative potential in people.
Screw the iMac Pro review (just kidding, don’t) and look at his shots from Antarctica!
Royal Łazienki Park in Warsaw is not only one of the most beautiful parks in Europe, it is also home to many squirrels and peacocks.
Shot with Canon 10D + EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS: f/2.8, 1/125 s, ISO 100 @ 200 mm.
Taking this shot at sunrise turned out to be a bad idea. I quickly found that most of the beaches in the Seychelles have sand flies, to which I am slightly allergic. They’re mostly active at sunrise and sunset, and they seemed to have a taken a liking to my smell/blood, which meant that I returned with over 20 bites. The itching started a few hours later and it was torture — much worse than a typical european mosquito
Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/8, 1/400 s, ISO 100.
I took this photo on the day we arrived in Agra, a day before we went to see the fantastic Taj Mahal — we caught a taxi at the train station and asked him to take us to our hotel, which was around 1.5 km away from the aforementioned landmark. Unfortunately, the driver had no clue where our hotel was and as it turned out, it wasn’t where Google said it was. We found it half an hour later, not more than 300 metres from the Taj Mahal entrance gate, in an electric-vehicle-only zone. As we walked to check in to the hotel (calling it that is a stretch), I saw a rickshaw driver taking a nap under a tree — he struck my emotions, obviously exhausted from working in the heat of the day.
Shot with Nikon D700 + Nikkor 35 mm f/2D: f/2, 1/4000, ISO 200.
Michael Zhang, on PetaPixel:
World Press Photo announced the 2018 winners of its prestigious photojournalism contest last week, and most of the winning photos (97 of 129) were accompanied by details of the cameras they were shot with. This year, Nikon took the lead from Canon.
Quite frankly, I’m more interested in the people who took those photos than the cameras themselves. You don’t rank pots and pans (to the best of my knowledge) when chefs take part in a contest — you interview the people behind the recipes. Realistically, the camera is just a tool and I’m sure the photographers would have gotten as near as indistinguishable results whatever gear they used.
My winter trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp located in Oświęcim, Poland was a spontaneous one. It was also my first visit there and 13 years later I can still remember everything that I felt. Just a few minutes in, I was overcome by the depth of the tragic events that occurred there, as if the people felled on the grounds of the camp were still watching and making sure such events never take place in the world again. It was an acutely sobering experience.
Shot with Canon 10D + EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L: f/8, 1/640 s, ISO 100 @ 70 mm.
View more of my photos from Auschwitz →
