Cool photos by other photographers

This page is a collection of photo ideas by other photographers.

5/3/12
On the front of today's New York Times is a nicely framed photo from Cairo by photojournalist Max Becherer. Becherer has been a war photographer in Iraq and Afghanistan and wrote this powerful essay about his memories from Iraq.

4/30/12
This is the coolest photo I've seen today, part of a project by California photographer Nate Bolt. He and friends aspire to create a giant jumbotron using iPads.

4/12/12
We're talking about portraits, and how the most important part of a portrait is catching some essence of the person you photograph. This photo by Jacko Vassilev hung on my wall for years, cut out of a calendar. It's titled Man from Racovitca, 1993. Vassilev, from Bulgaria, is apparently now working in the U.S.

3/27/12

For me, the best Street photography has a WTF?! moment to it. As in, what in the world is that person doing upside down and why is no one noticing?! This is a good example of the humor and decisive moment that you see in a lot of street photography. The photo is by Matt Stuart, who says "I am not sure which came first, being nosey or an interest in ‘street photography’, but a fascination with people and the way they live their lives is why I enjoy the business so much."

3/14/12
I am fascinated by this photo by Meridith Kohut in today's New York Times. Kohut is a photojournalist based in Caracas, Venezuela. There are so many layers to this image, but despite the complexity there is still a sense of visual order.

2/29/12
Today I saw an ad for an exhibit with this image by Frank Herfort on it. Made me want to see the show. Herfort is a young German photographer who often photographs in Russia.

This photo from the New York Times (10/27/11), by Sim Chi Yin, is striking but not complicated to do. Directional light, from any source, can make a photo more interesting. I'd never heard of her before - but check out this interview and her website.

 I admit, I am a sucker for photos with a mix of lit subjects and silhouettes. This photo by New York photographer Sandy Albert is part of her series Ghosts Who Now Dance.

Jim Brandenburg is a nature photographer extraordinaire. This photo is from his North Woods Journal article he did for National Geographic in 1997, which later became the book Chased by the Light. I saw this photo almost 15 years ago and always remembered its beauty and simplicity. The clean graphic composition conveys the idea of a birch bark so well, it opened my eyes to noticing the details of nature around me.

What a great perspective! Photo by Luciano Candisani, a Brazilian photographer who specializes in wildlife photography. (This is a manatee in a marine mammal research center, Itamaraca Island, Pernambuco, Brazil.)

Wisconsin photojournalist Andy Manis shot this half-underwater photo by putting his camera in a fishtank and lowering the whole thing into a cranberry bog. More of Andy's photos here: www.manisphoto.com.
When I've tried this idea I discovered you need really clear water to make it work well. You also need to be quite close to the underwater subject.

Kendrick Brinson shot a whole series of collage portraits using a Polaroid camera and film. See more of the series here and other work here: http://blog.luceoimages.com/photographers/kendrick-brinson/.

Scott Strazzante is a photographer for the Chicago Tribune. He put his camera on the curb during the 2010 Chicago Marathon and used a very long exposure to convey the motion of the runners. He has a photo blog here: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/shooting-from-the-hip/ .

Here's the technical data from Scott:
"I used a 17-35 zoom with 0.3 second exposure at f/22. I prefocused on the line of people on the other side of the street, set my camera down on the curb and laid on the shutter button. I guess the runners' feet are on the ground long enough to be captured at that shutter speed as their bodies moved forward. No flash."