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photojojo:

50 Quick Photography Tips in Less Than 15 Minutes

Kai over at DigitalRev put together this video that offers photography advice in burst mode: 50 (or 49) short and sweet tips in less than 15 minutes. If you take yourself too seriously, be warned: the tips are presented in Kai’s trademark “infotainment” style.

If you’d rather not watch the 13 minute video, here are the tips in text form thanks to Reddit user blufox4900:

1. UV filters are a waste of time [wrong]
2. Lens hoods aren’t a necessity [wrong]
3. If you’re not using the hood, put it away [wrong]
4. Don’t treat your DSLR like it’s your baby
5. Stop hating on others
6. Get cheap lens caps [wrong]
7. Pack light
8. Use a zoom for convenience
9. Prime will make you think more
10. The 35mm is the most practical one lens setup (on the 1.5 crop)
11. The 50mm looks better
12. Better cameras don’t make better photos
13. Know how your camera works before you go out to shoot
14. Always be ready for the shot
15. P-mode isn’t just for beginners [aperture priority erry time]
16. Bump the ISO if needed
17. Auto ISO is your best friend [debatable but ok with it]
18. Rely on the Rule of Thirds [wrong]
19. Take lots of shots [depends]
20. Don’t take photos of any old sh*t
21. “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” — Robert Capa
22. Contemplate your shot
23. The best equipment doesn’t help if you’re not standing in the right spot
24. Sharpness is overrated [depends on the subject]
25. Concept is king
26. Don’t look like a wrongun (i.e. a creep)
27. Don’t drink and shoot
28. Shoot when you’re full of energy
29. Sometimes it feels great to wake up really early and shoot
30. Think about what light you want
31. Emulate the style of the greats to get started
32. …but don’t keep doing it [wrong]
33. Photography is as much a reflection of the person taking the photo
34. Shoot to please no one apart from yourself
35. Discreet or direct — it isn’t all that important
36. Setting themes keeps you focused
37. Change things every once in a while to keep things fresh
38. Everyone has creative blocks
39. Be critical of yourself
40. “Seeing is not enough, you have to feel what you photograph” — Andre Kertesz
41. You need to be there with the camera
42. The relationship is about you and the subject, not you and the camera
43. Stop chimping
44. Be brutal when it comes to deleting awful photos [wrong]
45. Show only your best work
46. Changing photos to B&W doesn’t make an uninteresting shot interesting [wrong]
47. Look at other people’s work
48. Post your work online, let others critique your work
49. There is no easy way
50. ???

via anythingphotography; DigitalRev; Reddit

I wish people like this would stop coming up with all these dogmatic ideas about how you should take photos. I have gone through and highlighted the ones here to not always pay attention too. Example, a hood is great when shooting to protect your lens if there are lots of tight spaces, and is necessary for some lenses in the sun. Get smart people, look past the broscience and get a book like the camera by Ansel Adams. I’m out. Any questions ask.

(Source: bobbycaputo)

the-star-stuff:

NASA’s 10 Greatest Science Missions

10. Pioneer

Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, launched in 1972 and 1973, respectively, were the first spacecraft to visit the solar system’s most photogenic gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Pioneer 10 was the first probe to travel through the solar system’s asteroid belt, a field of orbiting rocks between Mars and Jupiter. 

9. Voyager

Shortly after the Pioneers made their flybys, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes followed. They made many important discoveries about Jupiter and Saturn, including rings around Jupiter and the presence of volcanism on Jupiter’s moon, Io. Voyager went on to make the first flybys of Uranus, where it discovered 10 new moons, and Neptune, where it found that Neptune actually weighs less than astronomers thought.

8. WMAP

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), launched in 2001, may not be as well-known, but it measures with unprecedented accuracy the temperature of the radiation left over from the Big Bang.

7. Spitzer

Another spacecraft with a profound effect on cosmology and astrophysics is the Spitzer Space Telescope, which observed the heavens through infrared light. This light, which has a longer wavelength than visual light, is mostly blocked by Earth’s atmosphere.

6.Spirit & Opportunity

Intended for just a 90-day mission, these workhorse Mars rovers have far outdone themselves, and are still chugging away on the red planet more than five years after landing. Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, landed on opposite sides of the planet in January 2004. 

5. Cassini-Huygens

This joint NASA/ESA spacecraft, launched in 1997, reached its destination, Saturn, in 2004. Since then it has been in orbit around the ringed world, taking one stunning snapshot after another of the planets rings, moons and weather.

4. Chandra

Since 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been scanning the skies in X-ray light, looking at some of the most distant and bizarre astronomical events. Because Earth’s pesky atmosphere blocks out most X-rays, astronomers couldn’t view the universe in this high-energy, short-wavelength light until they sent Chandra up to space. 

3. Viking

When NASA’s Viking 1 probe touched-down on Mars in July 1976, it was the first time a man-made object had soft-landed on the red planet. (Though the Soviet Mars 2 and 3 probes did land on the surface, they failed upon landing). The Viking 1 lander also holds the title of longest-running Mars surface mission, with a total duration of 6 years and 116 days. The spacecraft also sent the first color pictures back from the Martian surface, showing us what that mysterious red dot looks like from the ground for the first time.

2. Hubble

The most-loved of all NASA spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope has name recognition around the world. Its photos have changed the way everyday people figure themselves into the cosmos. The observatory has also radically changed science, making breakthroughs on astronomical issues too numerous to count. 

1. Apollo

NASA’s best space science mission? The one humans got to tag along on, of course! Not only was sending a man to the moon monumental for human history, but the Apollo trips were the first to bring celestial stuff back to Earth and greatly advanced our scientific understanding of the moon. 

(via n-a-s-a)

(via will-dunc)