Like most people switching careers, photographer Grace Chon found herself miserable. She was a stressed-out art director at a large advertising agency. Like someone in wet clothing stuck out in the cold, she needed a change while still being authentically herself. “…I ultimately decided to return to my childhood love of photography and bought an entry-level DSLR,” Grace tells the Phoblographer in an interview. “I started volunteering with a dog rescue by taking headshots of the dogs to help them get adopted, which turned into a side hustle pet photography business. After about 9 months of juggling my full-time job art director gig and the photography side hustle, I went all in on photography and never looked back.” Unlike the myth of Orpheus, she succeeded — clearly.

All images by Grace Chon. Used with permission. For more, please visit her website, Instagram @thegracechon, podcast and Hey Retriever

How Dog Photographer Grace Chon Gets Her Moments

These days, Grace shoots with the Canon R5 — she loves the autofocus and the high ISO output. She mates it with the 16-35mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm lenses. These help her cover everything she needs. “Each lens tells a different story and I love choosing the lens for the story I want to tell,” Chon states. “If the environment is a big part of the story – like I’m outdoors in an epic spot – 16-35 is my go-to so I can capture more of the scene. It’s also so fun to use for wide angle portraits on pets.” She uses the 24-70mm lens to capture candids of animals and their humans while the 70-200mm is better for action shots. When she needs to shoot really nice portraits, she reaches for her 50mm f1.2.

Dogs look so cute and hilarious when their heads look huge in a portrait!

Grace Chon

The Moment of the Best Dog Smiles

Obviously, Grace’s background has helped her with making compelling images. She learned while working in advertising that it’s all about a great idea and execution both working together. “Crafting a great idea is excellent creative problem solving – You have an idea you want to communicate, and you have to make sure you’re showing the idea in the strongest way possible,” she says. “I like to look at an idea from all angles and think a lot about how to push ideas to be even better, considering if there is a more interesting or entertaining way to tell the story. This definitely comes from years of training and working as an art director in advertising, because the goal is always effective communication told in the most interesting way possible.” This essentially is the idea of always keeping your technical and artistic brain connected. But what it also entails is staying in tune with your own emotions to capture moments that are perfectly picturesque.

She’s photographed some of the most famous dogs in the world, but the ones that impact her the most are the rescues. She worked on a job for LA Animal Services a while back on a rebrand and had quite the experience. “The dogs I photographed were so sweet and loving, and it was really sad to know that many were likely never going to make it out of the shelter system,” she tells us. “So many beautiful, hopeful faces that end up being euthanized. I wish I could have brought them all home with me.”

Thoughts on AI Imagery

Anyone can go to an AI image making platform and find images of dogs. She thinks AI is a tool, and ultimately it’s up to the artists to make something with it.

“It’s the same thing with a camera –  it’s a tool that can create mundane things that look like generic stock photography, or incredible things that make people feel something. I think a lot of AI projects out there can be really boring and mediocre (akin to generic stock photos), and then there are some AI projects out there that blow your mind in the idea and execution of it.

Grace Chon

What she’s most concerned about is how AI models are trained and infringement. She hopes companies will move toward training models with proper licensing, compensation, and artist consent. 

AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT

The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.

Today, we are all driven by technological advancements. With this in mind, the needs of individuals have also shifted – especially when it comes to the capabilities they look for in a smartphone.

In this digital age, content has become king – it acts as a hobby for some, a form of income for others and entertainment for almost every generation. Almost everyone is a content creator these days – and they understand the importance of having high-quality visuals to complement the message or story they’re putting out to their following.

The features of the smartphone they ideally choose can make all the difference when it comes to standing out in a crowd – and that’s where the HONOR Magic6 Pro comes in.

In response to the rising significance of artificial intelligence and the increasing popularity of sportography, a term used to define the act of capturing fast moving objects such as athletes or wildlife, smartphone manufacturers have devoted considerable efforts to improving capture speed and image clarity on their upcoming flagship devices.

But HONOR, a global leader in smart devices, which takes first spot in the AI race, has already taken proactive steps to lead the industry in camera innovation by integrating HONOR-patented AI technology into its Magic6 Pro – improving both the hardware and software.

With groundbreaking developments achieved over the past two years – the brand’s latest flagship from the Magic Series allows users to unleash their inner content creator – capturing the most exhilarating moments with exceptional clarity and preserving those fleeting moments in stunning detail.

The HONOR Magic6 Pro has been named the ultimate camera smartphone with a Gold DXOMMARK score of 158 points. It comes equipped with an AI Falcon Camera – aptly named for its ability to capture every little detail, introduces a 180MP Periscope Telephoto Camera Lens and a range of industry-first features that make this device the ultimate smartphone for aspiring content creators.

Capturing every detail.

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The upgraded AI motion sensing algorithm led to huge advancements in the HONOR Magic6 Pro compared to its predecessor, the HONOR Magic5 Pro. While the old version relied on 270 000 images to train the AI on actions like jumping, walking and running, the upgraded version uses a vast training dataset of 8 000 000 images across 10 scenarios, resulting in even smarter AI capabilities.

The camera can now capture a diverse range of sports and activities that extend beyond the realms of stretching, walking, running and jogging, covering 10 kinds of mainstream sports – perfect for the sports and health vloggers or influencers.

HONOR Magic6 Pro boasts the Sport Portrait Algorithm.

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The all-new HONOR Magic6 Pro boasts the Sport Portrait Algorithm, allowing photographers to effortlessly capture portrait shots with natural bokeh effects, even in fast-moving scenarios. Utilising fast, accurate focus and motion detection, the algorithm captures the frame of the moving portrait with clear detail.

When it comes to high-quality content, professional photographers widely prefer telephoto lenses due to their ability to provide a close-up perspective that is crucial for capturing impactful shots.

To make these sportography capabilities accessible on smartphones, HONOR has taken significant strides in enhancing its telephoto lens.

HONOR Magic6 Pro provides a 400% enhancement in light sensing ability compared to the flagship products from other market players, ensuring clear captures of faraway objects with excellent fidelity.

In addition, the telephoto lens supports 2.5 optical zoom, and up to 100X digital zoom. Users can capture subjects up close or at a distance with unparalleled precision, preserving exceptional sharpness, clarity and depth in every image.

In addition, HONOR Magic6 Pro boasts advancements in dynamic range, light sensitivity and long-range vision. With a remarkable 210% enhancement in dynamic range, HONOR Magic6 Pro ensures accurate colour reproduction even in bright settings, offering photographers an unparalleled experience to effortlessly capture fleeting moments.

With the best combination of industry-leading hardware and software solutions such as the AI Falcon Camera, HONOR’s commitment to pushing technological boundaries and embracing emerging innovations sets new benchmarks in the industry.

The HONOR Magic6 Pro is available for purchase in black and Epi green for the recommended retail price of R27 999, available at selected retailers.

Documentary photography captures moments from everyday lives that not only show how people around the world live but can also serve as a reminder of events in our own lives. By reflecting on the past, bygone moments are brought back to life and reflected in our memories. This is particularly true when the images document aspects of childhood. 

“These boys had just finished school and were fooling around before heading home,” Rico explains. “Watching them reminded me of my own childhood memories. Most days, I would drag out the time from finishing school to getting home, messing around with friends.” 

The most interesting images are the ones that allow the viewer to interpret the scene. In this photo, the focus is on the interaction between multiple subjects, creating a sense of intrigue in the viewer. “In this case, it was important for me to include the boys who were watching. You have one boy watching me and another boy watching them, while I am watching them all.” This gives the picture a narrative level.

“When composing this image, I needed to get everything proportionally in the frame – and especially the two boys watching,” Rico explains. To do so, he paid particular attention to the framing of the image in post-processing. 

“It was all about the corners. I cropped the image in post-processing and converted it to black-and-white. I felt that their skin tone against the school uniform would really make the image pop.”

Rico, a first-generation black Caribbean from Grenada, was raised in South-East London. From the tender age of two-and-a-half, he knew he was destined to be a pilot, and today, he has achieved his dreams and is soaring high in his career. Rico’s passion for photography and capturing moments has always been his forte, and he has now established himself as a “self-proclaimed” documentary photographer.

Tech details

Camera: Nikon D850
Lens: Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.8G ED
Aperture: f/9
Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
ISO: 1600

You might be interested in the best cameras for black and white photography, along with the best lenses for street photography. 

A total solar eclipse swept across North America from Mexico on Monday (April 8). The moon completely covered the sun, darkening the sky and revealing our star’s hidden outer atmosphere. While people in Ireland and Scotland may have had a glimpse of a brief partial eclipse, those in the rest of Europe didn’t get to see anything at all. In fact, Europeans will not see a full eclipse before 2026.

But for Americans, the event turned out to be a rich experience, with plenty of impressive footage that will surely serve the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which asked members of the public to send their observations in, as part of NASA’s Eclipse Soundscapes Project.

While some observers managed to capture the path of totality, other eclipse enthusiasts were able to take stunning photographs of different phases of the sun and the moon.

A total solar eclipse swept across North America yesterday, and footage captured on the day was spectacular

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Image credits: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

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Image credits: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Naturally, stars observing the stars was a fitting part of the whole event, with celebrities including Jimmy Kimmel and Guillermo Rodriguez, Danny Trejo and his son Gilbert, as well as one-half of the Selling Sunset Oppenheim twins, Jason Oppenheim, sharing their own experiences observing the eclipse on social media.

More than 30 million people were able to see the eclipse’s path of totality, making it a pretty unique eclipse, Mashable reported. Those on the path of totality were mainly in the US states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine.

However, eclipse viewers near Torreón, Mexico, experienced totality for the longest, with the impressive phase lasting four minutes and 28 seconds, CBS News reported.

While some people managed to capture the path of totality, other eclipse enthusiasts were able to take stunning photographs of different phases

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Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Image credits: Liao Pan/Getty Images

Most places along the centerline of the path of totality saw a totality duration between 3.5 and 4 minutes long, according to NASA.

The 2024 total solar eclipse will be the last one for a while in North America, as per Eclipse 2024. There will be several other total solar eclipses scattered between April 8, 2024, and August 12, 2045. However, the 2045 solar eclipse will be the next one visible across most of the contiguous United States, according to NationalEclipse.com.

As a result, thousands of people traveled to get a glimpse of the jaw-dropping phenomenon, with many eclipse chasers waiting for the event, as the last eclipse of that magnitude was observed on the continent on August 21, 2017.

30 million people were able to see the eclipse’s path of totality in Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine

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Image credits: Danny Lawson/Getty Images

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Image credits: Jesus Verdugo/Getty Images

This year’s eclipse was unique due to the totality phase lasting a little longer than in 2017 as a result of the Moon lining up a little closer to the Earth during totality, appearing just a bit larger in the sky.

Scientists in several parts of the US are now conducting studies to better understand how yesterday’s total solar eclipse affected the planet, The Independent reported.

Space Physicist Darci Snowden from Central Washington University sent up balloons to capture data and better understand how the weather changed during the eclipse.

Eclipse viewers near Torreón, Mexico, experienced totality for the longest, with the impressive phase lasting four minutes and 28 seconds

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Image credits: NASA

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Image credits: InspireMore

Weather balloons capable of flying up to 33 km (20 m) were flown into the stratosphere, carrying battery-powered instruments for collecting data on temperature, humidity, pressure, as well as wind direction and speed, as per the British newspaper.

Additionally, a NASA team also launched data-collecting jets above Earth’s atmosphere to learn more about the structure and temperature of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

Colleen Hartman, director of the Space Studies Board of the National Academies, said: “The total solar eclipse is a really exciting way to engage the public in science while at the same time advancing our knowledge of the sun and its impacts on us here on Earth.”

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Image credits: Kristopher Stetson

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Image credits: officialdannytrejo

Moreover, scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory are reportedly studying how the solar eclipse affected the topmost layers of the atmosphere, including its outermost ionosphere layer, where many satellites orbit.

They hope to study how the ionosphere (the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth) responds before, during, and after the eclipse as the Sun’s radiation suddenly dips, The Independent reported.

Researchers also observed how animal behaviors changed when the eclipse passed over North America.

Jimmy Kimmel and Guillermo Rodriguez, Danny Trejo and his son Gilbert, as well as Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim, observed the eclipse

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Image credits: jimmykimmel

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Image credits: jasonoppenheim

As the eclipse neared totality, many animals in the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, including sloth bears, red pandas, reindeer, and ostriches, reportedly went to sleep as if it was nighttime.

Shannon Borders, curator of the zoo’s Heart of Africa exhibit, told The Columbus Dispatch: “About seven minutes afterward, it started to lighten back up a little bit and they all stood up and they started grooming as though they were preparing for the day.”

Observers in Fort Worth Zoo, Texas, said some animals displayed curiosity and vigilance during the eclipse.

People flocked to social media to share their amazement at the scene

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Daniela Bedoya doesn’t fear the risks of blacking out, going home with a concussion, or any of the other things that could go wrong during a game of underwater rugby.

Sure, the anticipation of World Cup games might threaten to get the best of her, she admits, but there’s one thing that’s far more nerve-wracking than playing the physical and sometimes blatantly brutal sport – putting her Sony A7 III camera in the water to take pictures of it.

“When I was first training with the underwater case, even though I tested it three times and it didn’t leak, I was so nervous to put my camera in and dunk it,” Bedoya ’25 (SFA) says. “I’m scared even today, and I’ve spent about a year in the water with it.”

Bedoya comes from a family of swimmers. Her father is a swimming coach who played underwater rugby in his home country of Colombia and introduced his daughters to it when they were old enough. Bedoya herself started swimming competitively at 7, always with the 100 and 200 butterfly on her mind, and picked up underwater rugby in high school.

While the family has played part in advancing the popularity of the little-known sport in the United States – there are only a dozen teams in the country, according to the sport’s national organization – Bedoya has joined an even more elite group, that of photographers who get in the pool alongside players.

As an art and art history major concentrating in photography and video, she married her two loves into a single project thanks to a scholarship from the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network that allowed her to purchase gear, spend last summer in the pool, and interview professional female sports photographers who’ve jockeyed their way onto the sidelines.

Family friend and Connecticut photographer David Lopez became Bedoya’s mentor years ago, as she watched him work with her underwater rugby team, she says.

“He would take videos and pictures and let me see what he was doing and explain why,” she explains. “Once I got to UConn, I was fortunate and very blessed to win the BOLD scholarship to merge my two favorite things, but even before then, in all my art projects whether it was ceramics, painting, or drawing, I tried to focus on underwater rugby because I’m so passionate about it.”

Underwater rugby is a sport that’s played in three dimensions, Bedoya says, because players can move in all directions – above, below, beside, around – other players. A weighted ball is carried between two goals that look like metal trash bins in an attempt to score.

Players wear ear padding for protection, masks over their faces, fins on their feet, and a snorkel. They stay underwater, moving much like minnows in an aquarium, for lengths of time as they move the ball from one end of the pool to the other, coming to the surface long enough to only blow out the water in their snorkel and suck in a deep breath of air.

The sport shares only a name with the game of land rugby, although the two do involve a similar sort of physicality. In underwater rugby, though, spectators watch the game on video monitors because all the action happens beneath the surface.

The Connecticut Makos boasts both men’s and women’s teams, although neither are currently training, Bedoya says, because finding a suitable pool has proved difficult. In the interim, if she and her teammates want to play, they join the Newark Sea Lions in New Jersey on weekends.

“I’ve gotten concussions before, and I’ve blacked out twice because you’re holding your breath so long. Now that I say it, it is a pretty dangerous sport. But I’ve always been in the water, so I do really enjoy it,” she says.

Bedoya’s BOLD project, “Women in Sports: Behind the Lens,” was born from her love for photography and lifetime as an athlete, she says, and started with her interviewing nine female photographers who either serve as team photographers in national leagues or otherwise focus their work in athletics.

That included NHL photographer Sophia Price, Miami Heat team photographer Cristina Sullivan, freelance photographers Laura Wolff and Jody Hou, and NHL photographer China Wong.

“My biggest takeaway from talking to all of them to use one word, I’d say determination,” Bedoya says. “You need to be determined in your work, you need to be professional, and you need to make sure those around you know you’re in the position you’re in for a reason.”

She learned from the professionals that female sports photographers sometimes aren’t issued accurate credentials to get them into games. Sometimes their work isn’t credited. Sometimes they’re told to step away from the action, so they don’t get hurt.

That’s unfair, she says.

With all of that in mind, Bedoya says she looked for a place to practice her sports photography, quickly deciding the sidelines of underwater rugby games was where she wanted to be.

It was a good place to start, she says, because she was familiar with the sport, even as other photographers might find it strange to jump in a pool, snorkel on mask, fins on feet.

Bedoya did not use an oxygen tank because she’s not certified for one, so she did what she does during games: She held her breath, and can do so, while moving, for up to 90 seconds, or roughly three laps around the pool.

“I knew the outcome would be great and that I’d bring something to the project that the average photographer wouldn’t because they don’t know the game,” she says.

The hardest part was putting the camera, despite its waterproof case, in the water. The next hardest was keeping it underwater because it kept wanting to float. The third hardest was accounting for the bubbles caused by the players’ movements that dotted almost to obscurity the final images.

“Sometimes I’d see a player with a ball and their teammate was on the other side of the pool, and think to myself, ‘I could just put my camera down and help,’” she says. “I needed to manage my headspace. I was there to shoot, not as a player, and needed to get into my zone and start photographing.”

That resulted in a series of photographs depicting images of determined individuals, powerful in their stance, fierce in their eyes, yet oftentimes graceful in their underwater rhythms. The exhibition was on display in the Art Building in early February.

Those who didn’t see the show will be able to catch the next, on display in April during the art and art history department’s annual spring BFA art show. As a senior, who will finish classes in December, Bedoya will be one of dozens showing off their work in the Art Building.

“It was hard for me to say I’m done with this project let me move onto another one my senior year,” she says. “My advisor told me to do what makes me happy and excited, because no one wants to work on something they’re not inspired by. I’ve learned a lot since last summer and have put those new techniques to work.”

Even as recently as early this month, she traveled to New Jersey for a game.

She also notched another new experience in her hoped-for profession when she was asked recently to photograph a UConn men’s hockey game.

“I was like, ‘Of course!’ Do I know a lot about hockey? Absolutely not. Have I ever shot a game? No. Would it be a great experience? For sure. I think that was something I got out of my interviews last summer,” she says. “Even if you don’t feel 100% prepared, don’t limit yourself. Just push through and remember that you were asked for a reason. Maybe someone sees something in me that I don’t see. Just have that confidence to say, ‘Yes, I can do that,’ and then show up with confidence and show you can do it.”

A travel agent has beaten thousands of photographers from around the world to win a prestigious award after capturing a shot in Brazil.

Ian Ford, who owns Select Travel in Horsham, West Sussex, is the winner of the ‘Natural World and Wildlife’ category at this year’s Sony World Photography Awards.

More than 395,000 images were submitted, but the 59-year-old’s photo, ‘Caiman Crunch’, of a jaguar striking an alligator on a river bank in Brazil, wowed the judges.

Ian and his partner Naina Mehta, who is also co-owner of Select Travel, went to Brazil’s Pantanal region last year for a mix of work and holiday as it is one of the best areas to spot jaguars.

He said: “It is always easier to sell a country once you have visited it and we had been getting many enquiries about the region, it seemed advisable to visit and see for ourselves how wonderful a country it is. I had a British Airways companion voucher for the transatlantic flights and also had some good trade rates on many of the properties on this occasion.”

Describing how he captured the winning shot, the self-taught photographer said he left his hotel on the São Lourenço River at dawn to scout for jaguars on his last day in the region “We were about to return to the hotel when we received a call about a sighting,” he said. “My boat immediately headed over there and upon arrival observed a female jaguar stalking along the edge of the river, then she climbed onto the river bank. Suddenly without any warning the jaguar pounced on an unsuspecting caiman.

“Fortunately, my boat was in a good position and I had my camera ready and was able to shoot images of the drama.”

Ian and Naina have owned Select Travel since 1995, and he said his extensive travels have provided many opportunities to delve into wildlife photography.

“I have gone on fam trips in the past, invariably they have been occupied with hotel visits. I haven’t been on any that have been wildlife-based and therefore haven’t had the chance to further my skills on one. I’m sure they exist, I just haven’t been invited to one, yet!”

Ian’s upcoming trips include visiting Svalbard in June with Albatros Expeditions and the Himalayas in December with Indus Experiences to photograph red pandas and snow leopards.

On winning the award, Ian added: “I  really was delighted to win, it is a very prestigious worldwide award. I knew as soon as I checked my camera that I had a good image, but to have it placed first in the Natural World and Wildlife category is amazing.”

Ian’s prize was digital imaging equipment from Sony and he will now compete for the title of ‘Open Photographer of the Year’ which will be announced at the opening of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at London’s Somerset House on 18 April.