Colby Brown

Welcome to Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

This week, we’re pretty excited to bring you the work of travel, landscape, and humanitarian photographer Colby Brown.

Colby is based out of Denver, Colorado, but for the last eight years or so, he’s blended his love for travel and adventure with his passion for photography. From Australia, to the Himalayas, to Hawaii, New Zealand, and back, Colby has played multiple roles centered around his photography. He has led workshops for National Geographic, worked as a freelance photojournalist, and collaborated with multiple NGOs on humanitarian projects. (more…)

Steve Simon in Africa

Welcome to Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

On this week’s Photo Finds, we take a look at the work of editorial and commercial photographer Steve Simon.

This Montreal-born and New York-based photographer is no stranger to those of you who follow the This Week in Photo podcast. Steve is a regular guest there, in addition to being a prolific writer and instructor. He’s the author of “The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Towards Become Great,” a book that has gotten rave reviews and has helped many photographers bridge the gap between the photos that they think they got, and what they actually captured.

Steve’s curriculum vitae makes for some impressive reading. From covering Winter Olympics, to Presidential elections, to shooting at the very edge of the American-Canadian border, Steve Simon’s photography encompasses an impressive and powerful spectrum. It ranges from soaring images taken at the height of political drama, to gritty, even uncomfortable images from the fringes of society. (more…)

Nicole S. Young

Here’s the test I always apply to food photography: does it make me hungry? If the answer is “no,” chances are, the photographer isn’t doing something right. The issues are typically minor; the lighting is off, or the food isn’t styled properly, or the angle doesn’t flatter the dish. Either way, the photo is missing that essential spark that makes you go, “Mmmmm…”

It’s therefore a supreme compliment to photographer Nicole S. Young that her food photography invariably makes me hungry. This is a photographer who made clams look good to me – a hard thing to do, since I don’t like seafood. Exquisitely styled, meticulously prepared, and perfectly shot, her images jump off the screen and have, more than once, made my stomach growl. (more…)

Alex Koloskov

Welcome to Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

This week, we bring you the work of another photographer who was born and raised in the former Soviet Union. Kiev-born Alex Koloskov first came to my attention when BorrowLenses.com alum Josh Norem pointed his website out to me. Since then, I’ve followed his work on his website, AKEL Studio, as well as on Google+.

Milk and chocolate, frozen in mid-air

Alex is one of those photographers whose work immediately makes you go, “Hey, how’d he do that?” The first image I ever saw of his was a shot he did of Godiva’s Chocolate Liquer, where two intersecting streams of liquid – one made of milk, the other of chocolate – were frozen in midair and wrapped around the bottle of liquor. My first thought was, “it’s CG.”

Turns out, it is a composite, but the frozen mid-air liquid? That’s real. There’s a behind the scenes shot of him actually tossing chocolate milk into the air and photographing it on his blog.

That made me groan. My girlfriend would never let me try something like that at home.

The cool thing is, Alex is very open about his tools and techniques. Take a look at the video below, on how he created a beauty shot with a model and a frozen ball of water, as an example.

His website and his Vimeo channel are full of examples like this one, and if you want to go really in-depth, you can check out his Masterclass on Mastering Splash, or one of his ebooks and video tutorials.

Alex is also very active on Google+. That’s where I found out that he’s also passionate about HDR photography, and even has a book on it, called “Realistic HDR for Landscape and Architectural Photographers.” To me, that’s the best kind of HDR, where, rather than crazy halos and impossible skies, you bring out the natural dynamic range that your eyes truly see. There’s also a really neat before/after tool for HDR images on his website that you should check out.

Alex is also going to be published in an upcoming issue of Scott Kelby’s Light It! magazine, where he shows off some of his techniques behind a new image. To find out more about him, visit his Google+ profile, which has links to the everything he’s working on right now.

Park Pobedy Station, Study 1

NEW UPDATE! The winners of the free copies have been picked! Congratulations to Laura Michna and Kyle Reynolds! You’ll get an email shortly with details on how to download your copy.

UPDATE: We’re giving away two free copies of the Plus One Collection’s eBook version, which has the combined work of all 500+ photographers that contributed to the book. 

To win, leave a comment on this post and tell us why you want a copy. We’ll pick two comments at random as winners on Friday, March 30, 2012.

Welcome to Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

This week on Photo Finds, we have a photographer and a fantastic bit of collaborative work that he was instrumental in creating.

Some of you may already know Ivan Makarov, especially if you’re a photographer who spends any amount of time on Google+. His work on the Plus One collection (more on that in a second) has brought together a huge number of photographers from the Google+ community to contribute their photographs for a book that is being sold for charity. Ivan’s own work is featured in this book, and with good reason; his photography speaks to a lot of folks. (more…)

Jay and Varina Patel

Welcome to Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

This week, we bring you a husband and wife team of landscape photographers whose work has been spreading like wildfire around the community on Google+. Meet Jay and Varina Patel.

Their work is equal parts inspirational and frustrating. Inspiring, because it’s quite simply fantastic in its scope and majesty, but frustrating because it makes you want to yell at your camera and ask why it won’t produce similar results.

The answer, however, is pretty obvious – these are photographers that have worked hard at their craft, and it shows. (more…)

Welcome to Monday Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

This week on Photo Finds, it’s all about Dubai – more specifically, about the Gulf Photo Pro expo in Dubai, where some of the industry’s biggest names congregate for a week of education, networking, and fun in what is quickly being referred to as the “City of Gold.”

David Hobby writes about the GPP shoutout

The Shootout

Each year, GPP ends with a photo shootout between three photographers. Three photographers have 20 minutes to come up with an idea for a shot, then shoot it and process it into a final image. The photo is based on a subject provided by the conference organizers.

David Hobby, of Strobist fame, has been a regular at these shootouts, and photographers Joey L and Zack Arias have also been past shootout participants. Last year, one of the titans of the industry, Gregory Heisler, went from being the official heckler in the audience, to doing an impromptu shoot. This year, he participated in the shootout as one of the three photographers. David Hobby and Martin Prihoda completed the triumvirate. (more…)