The Hasselblad 907X is a unique camera that stands out for its distinct features and the creative freedom it offers. This fun video takes a look at why its users love it. 

Coming to you from Andrew Lanxon Photography, this insightful video explores the fascinating quirks and capabilities of the Hasselblad 907X. Lanxon begins by discussing his approach to shooting panoramic images using the camera’s XPan crop mode. This feature allows you to shoot in a panoramic format directly in-camera, applying the crop if you shoot in JPEG, but leaving the full image intact if you shoot in raw. This duality provides flexibility, enabling you to decide on the final composition during post-processing.

In the video, Lanxon showcases various shooting scenarios, such as capturing the vibrant reflections of pastel-toned houses in a bay using a 90mm lens. He further demonstrates the camera’s capabilities by exploring a harbor scene filled with lobster pots, ropes, and buoys. By switching to a wide-angle lens and employing a 15-stop ND filter, he attempts a 17-minute long exposure to blur the water’s motion and create a striking image of a zigzagging wave barrier. The process is meticulous, involving careful exposure calculations and adjustments, illustrating the patience and precision required in long-exposure photography.

Moving beyond technical aspects, Lanxon shares his experiences shooting in various locations, including the Scottish island of Cana and the coastal town of Pitobell. The XPan crop mode proves to be particularly effective in capturing sweeping landscapes and seascapes, demonstrating the camera’s versatility in different environments. Despite its many strengths, Lanxon candidly addresses the camera’s shortcomings. The slow autofocus, lack of stabilization, and high price point are notable drawbacks. Additionally, the camera’s design, which exposes the sensor to the elements when changing lenses, poses a challenge in maintaining cleanliness and avoiding dust spots. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Lanxon.

Trigger‘s passion for the camera developed at a young age, hand in hand with his love of automobiles. At 16, he made the bold decision to leave school to pursue a career aligned with his interests – the smart thing, as he calls it. Finding his place at Calvert Studios, his affinity for cars and photography blossomed into the foundation of a promising career.

After initially focusing on learning the intricacies of studio craft and assisting influential photographers in the automotive world, a breakthrough came when Trigger started shooting on location for Jaguar Land Rover, earning recognition from several leading creative directors who recognised his talent and enthusiasm.

Trigger’s style emerged from the convergence of his passions. His ability to fuse technical expertise with creative flair sets him apart, using his mastery of the craft and a storytelling approach to bring the essence of each product to life.

Trigger’s clients include Bentley, Jaguar, KIA, Land Rover, McLaren, Rolls Royce, Sealine Yachts, Toyota and Triumph Motorcycles.

Anissa Payne, EP @NM Productions said, “We’re really proud to be partnering with Trigger this year, his talent and skill as an automotive photographer speaks for itself. The unique way that he blends technical expertise with creative flair is what makes him a master of the craft, we’re excited to see where his venture into motion takes him!”

Trigger, photographer @NM Talent said,  “Really looking forward to teaming up with Anissa Payne and her fantastic team at NM! They’ve got such an impressive line-up of collaborators. NM may be a young company, but they’ve got this incredible energy about them. Anissa’s drive to innovate and explore new approaches really sets them apart, and it definitely shows in their work. Can’t wait to see what’s next!”

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By Carole Keily | Photos by Tavan Smith

You’ve probably seen Tavan Smith’s photos here on Prince William Living’s website and in the print magazine. He has covered a number of events, including awards ceremonies, a spelling bee, local festivals, and even the White House Christmas Tree lighting. He’s also taken photos of local landmarks.

A local student in a national spelling bee (photo credit: Tavan Smith)

Tavan got started as a photographer when he was in high school. He’s always been interested in photography, and his grandmother gave him a camera for Christmas one year. “Yes, it was long enough ago that it was a film camera!” Tavan said. One of his first assignments was with his high school yearbook.

“I’m a sports guy,” Tavan said, and some of his early work included covering sports for InsideNova. In addition to photographing the players in a game, he took sideline photos and provided news coverage.

A native of the Bahamas, Tavan lived for a time in Fairfax County before moving to Prince William County. He said he likes being involved in the community.

And that community involvement carries over to his professional position, on a finance team in the County’s Department of Transportation. At any given time, the team is working on projects relating to roadwork, road widenings, and streetlights, among others.

Tavan is available to photograph events such as birthday parties and graduations. Learn more about him and see his work at tsmithphotography.com.

Carole Keily is Prince William Living‘s Online Editor.

Honor CEO, George Zhao, took to the stage at VivaTech in Paris this morning to talk about the brand’s ambitions with on-device AI. Surprisingly, this talk also went into some detail about the complex lighting and post-processing workflow of Studio Harcourt, the world’s most famous portrait studio. Yes, an Honor and Studio Harcourt collaboration is on the cards.

During the presentation, Zhao revealed that Honor’s 200 series phones, which launch next month, have a new portrait mode developed in tandem with the studio. We’ve seen smartphone manufacturers co-branding their camera systems for a while now, think of the OnePlus phones with Hasselblad lenses, or the Xiaomi phones with Leica lenses, but opting for a photography studio is something new.

Details are thin on the ground at the moment, but it appears that the Honor 200 series phones can recreate Studio Harcourt’s legendary black and white headshots using AI image manipulation. So rather than flying to Paris and handing over a massive sum, you can just snap a quick selfie on your upper mid-range smartphone instead.

The rest of the speech centered around the AI features that debuted with the Honor Magic 6 Pro, like Magic Portal and Magic Ring, which try to predict your intention to serve up useful shortcuts between apps. I’ve been hooked on Magic Portal, which I mostly use as a Circle to Search with Google alternative. It’s capable of many things, but it lets you drag any image into Google and quickly reverse-image search, and I find that super handy.

The good news is that MagicOS 8.0, and its brilliant Magic Portal, are making their way to the Magic V2 and Honor 90 later this month. No specific date was shared, but George Zhao said May, and there’s not much of that left.

The aforementioned Honor 200 and Honor 200 Pro launch on June 12, and they’re expected to bring some serious photographic prowess at a relatively affordable price point. Most of the specs are still under wraps, but Honor’s Chinese website already offers a glimpse at the striking design. I’m looking forward to learning more, but in the meantime, you can take your portraits to the next level with our guide to the best selfie sticks.