Although Yelp is perhaps best known for its crowd-sourced reviews of restaurants, the website also allows its users to review a wide range of businesses — including professional photographers. As wedding season ramps up, Yelp has revealed its list of America’s top 100 wedding photographers in 2024.

Yelp explains that January through March is the busiest time for Americans to plan their weddings. Accordingly, during those three months, users search for wedding photographers at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the year. Picking the perfect photographer is crucial as couples seek to preserve the best and most beautiful moments from their wedding, so it’s no surprise that one way to do that is to scour the internet for reviews and opinions.

Yelp’s top 100 list has been built using multiple factors, and it’s not simply the top 100 highest-rated wedding photographers across the United States. Ensuring a level of geographic diversity played a role, as photography businesses in nearly every state — sorry, Alaska and the Dakotas — are on the list.

The crowd-sourcing site also considered the total volume of reviews over multiple years, ranging from January 2019 through December 2023. To dial in the final list, Yelp worked alongside its “community experts.”

The number one wedding photographer of the year, per Yelp, is IMF Visions in Honolulu, Hawaii. The company has 119 reviews, with all but one rating the business five stars.

Nearly every company on the list has a five-star average rating, with the rest sporting 4.5 stars.

Tips for Choosing a Wedding Photographer

Couples should look beyond just ratings when choosing a wedding photographer, of course, as they also need to ensure that the overall aesthetic they want is something a business can deliver. For couples, the most important thing is finding the best wedding photographer for them, not necessarily the “best overall.”

Deciding if they want photos or photos and videos is also a key factor. Not every wedding photographer offers video services, and it may be that the best solution is to hire photo and video businesses separately.

For a bit of extra inspiration, looking at the winners of wedding photography contests is a surefire way to find exceptionally talented people. Wedding photography is undoubtedly a specialized skillset, and it is well worth spending the time and effort to locate the perfect match for one’s budget and preferences.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.

iPhone Photography

Snap Pro Camera, the innovative iPhone camera app, is proud to announce the release of its creative modes, inviting users to step into a world of creativity

DOVER, DE, USA, February 28, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Snap Pro Camera, the innovative iPhone camera app, announces the release of Long Exposure Photography modes, inviting users into a world of creativity through their iPhones.

The Motion Blur mode in Snap Pro Camera opens artistic possibilities for crafting smooth, dreamy images of waterfalls or celestial nightscapes. This user-friendly feature allows exploration of slow shutter speeds, transforming dynamic scenes into breathtaking visual art. With an extended exposure capability of up to 30 seconds, users can capture subtle details or mesmerizing light trails with precision.

The app provides full control over the iPhone’s camera settings, offering a DSLR-like photography experience. Users can adjust settings such as ISO, white balance, and focus to capture the perfect photo. Snap Pro Camera’s advanced manual controls empower users to customize photos to exact specifications, allowing for a high-end camera-like experience.

Erkan Yigiter, CTO at Snap Pro Camera, states, “It can transform your iPhone into a camera rivaling professional DSLRs. With manual controls for focus, ISO, shutter speed, and more, you can fine-tune each shot for perfection, capturing scenes with the precision and quality of a high-end camera.”

Snap Pro Camera also provides helpful tools such as Histogram, Grids, Tiltmeter, Focus Peaking, and Zebra Stripes, enhancing the overall photography experience. The app supports RAW images for professionals seeking maximum flexibility in post-processing.

Explore unique features that set the app apart:

Advanced Manual Control: Manually adjust ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and more
Intuitive Interface: Easily switch between camera modes and access advanced features
Live Filters: Preview and apply filters in real-time
Tiltmeter: Achieve level photos effortlessly
Grid: Compose shots perfectly with the grid overlay feature
Histogram: Assess exposure accurately with the built-in histogram display
Focus Peaking: Attain perfectly focused photos
Zebra Stripes: Highlight overexposed areas of photos
ProRAW, RAW, JPG, TIFF: Capture photos in the preferred format
Preset List: Save preferred settings for future use
Photo Sharing: Share photos directly from the app to social media platforms
Multi-Language: Switch between multiple languages with built-in language settings
MIOPS plans to launch additional features, including Crowd Removal, Portrait mode for Bokeh effects, Timelapse, Panorama, and more. These enhancements solidify Snap Pro Camera as the go-to app for iPhone photographers looking to push the boundaries of their creativity.

Explore the possibilities of long exposure iPhone photography with Snap Pro Camera. The app is available now, and more information can be found at the SNAP Web Page

Images from the Snap Pro Camera App are available in the Press Kit, please visit SNAP Press Kit

Download the SNAP Pro Camera app from the SNAP Download Link

About Snap Pro Camera:
Snap Pro Camera is a feature-rich camera app for iPhones, offering users an unparalleled photography experience with advanced manual controls, creative modes, and a range of powerful tools. Transform your iPhone into a professional-grade camera and capture stunning images with Snap Pro Camera.

Erkan Yigiter
MIOPS
erkan@miops.com

• The two whales approached the photographers, who caught them in the act
• Scientists have never photographed humpback whale sexual behavior before
• The photos raise questions about whether both whales desired the encounter
• READ MORE: A chemical in whale vomit can make male rats want to have sex

By Peter Hess For Dailymail.Com

Published: 12:47 EST, 28 February 2024 | Updated: 13:46 EST, 28 February 2024

A set of never-before-seen photos has exposed the hidden world of humpback whales, in more ways than one. 

For the first time ever, scientists have photos of humpback whales mating.

And in another first, the scientists said the two ocean giants appear to be males. 

Despite the fact that scientists have closely studied humpback whales for decades, reports of their sexual behaviors are extremely rare and have never been captured on film.

And never before have scientists known that male humpback whales engaged in same-sex recreational activities.

Injury may have played a role, though, as the male whale on the bottom appeared to be in poor health and unable to escape the grasp of the one on top. 

Such behavior is widespread throughout the animal kingdom, though, and it has been documented in dolphins, bonobo chimpanzees, Japanese macaques, lions, giraffes, bison, antelopes, walruses, and some bird species.

Despite being large and well-studied animals, it’s easy for them to stay out of sight of humans while they mate, so humpback whales’ sexual behaviors have long been something of a mystery to scientists.

The images were captured by Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano, wildlife photographers who were out on a recreational trip in Maui, Hawaii, when they saw the extraordinary behavior.

One day back in January 2022, the whales approached Krannichfeld and Romano’s 26-foot boat off the western coast of Maui.

This stretch of water is a popular location for spotting whales in the winter months, when they migrate there to mate and give birth.

The two whales came slowly toward their boat, which had its engines off and in neutral. The two ocean giants were at and just below the water’s surface.

One whale (dubbed Whale A) was closer to the boat as the two came near, followed by Whale B.

Krannichfeld and Romano could tell right away that something was off with Whale A: Its skin was unusually brown.

They wanted to investigate further, so they grabbed their cameras.

It is illegal in the United States to approach humpback whales in the water, so they dangled their cameras over the edge of the boat and began snapping away.

They watched as the two circled the boat about six times.

At some point they noticed that Whale B had its penis extended – male whales and dolphins have a penis like other mammals, but when they are not using it for mating, they normally keep it concealed inside their genital slit. 

‘Whale B repeatedly approached from the rear of Whale A and penetrated the second whale,’ they reported in the journal article that described the encounter.

Each penetration was shallow, they wrote, with Whale B’s penis only appearing to enter Whale A’s genital slit ‘a few centimeters.’

And each penetration was relatively quick, lasting less than two minutes.

‘After the final penetration, Whale B dove and did not reappear,’ they wrote. Whale A stuck around for a few minutes before it, too, dove out of sight. 

The whole affair lasted about 30 minutes. 

After Krannichfeld and Romano captured their photos, they approached whale researcher Stephanie Stack, a biologist with the Pacific Whale Foundation. 

Together, they analyzed the encounter and released their observations Wednesday in the journal Marine Mammal Science. 

Throughout the encounter, the photographers saw that Whale B seemed to be holding onto Whale A with its pectoral fins – the animal’s large front flippers.

From the very few historical observations of whale mating on record, it seems important that male whales ‘grasp’ the female like this during sex.

Some details raise questions about whether the encounter was enjoyable or consensual for both whales, though. 

‘Whale A was visibly emaciated and covered in whale lice (Cyamus boopis) a species of ectoparasite that lives on the skin of humpback whales and can proliferate on whales that are injured and have reduced mobility, leading to the perceived skin discoloration as described earlier,’ the team wrote.

Additionally, Whale A seemed to have an injured jaw, which they suspect would make it hard for the whale to eat and could lead to it being weak and unhealthy.

Throughout the half-hour session, Whale A seemed to be trying to get away from Whale B. 

In fact, from the moment they approached the boat, the photographers wondered whether Whale A was using it as an obstacle to help it escape Whale B’s grasp, they wrote.

‘However, if so, Whale A was moving too slowly to be effective at evading the other animal.’

A jaw injury like the one that this whale showed could happen from being hit by a boat, the team wrote.

Such strikes can be fatal, but they can also lead to an animal slowly declining and eventually dying as it struggles to feed and care for itself. 

Sadly, that may have been the case for this whale, they wrote.