The transition from imitating to innovating is a critical step in a photographer’s journey towards capturing stronger, more meaningful photographs. This progression is not just about mastering the technical aspects of photography, but also about developing a unique creative voice.

Coming to you from The Photographic Eye, this great video delves into the transformative process of finding your original creative voice. Narrator Alex Kilbee shares his own experience, starting from the basics of learning how to use a camera to exploring the works of influential photographers like George Hurrell and Ed Weston. This journey of imitation, as described, involves replicating the works of these masters to understand the intricacies of lighting, composition, and technique. For photographers, this process is essential; it lays the foundation for technical proficiency and opens the door to creative exploration. It’s not just about copying what has been done but understanding the why behind it, which propels one’s photography forward.

Kilbee also emphasizes the importance of analyzing and recreating the works of various photographers. This practice not only hones technical skills but also nurtures a deeper appreciation and understanding of different styles and approaches in photography. By doing so, photographers can gradually develop their unique style, moving from mere replication to genuine innovation. The video highlights how influential photographers like Vincent Peters have imitated the styles of predecessors like Hurrell, only to innovate and create something distinctly their own. It’s an excellent route to finding your unique voice. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Kilbee. 

Close-up Photographer of the Year is an annual competition that aims to reveal the hidden wonder of the world through close-up, macro and micro photography.

This year’s overall winner is titled ‘The Bird of the Forest’. The incredible shot of a soaring Eurasian nuthatch was taken by Csaba Daroczi from inside a hollowed-out tree stump.

Close-up Photographer of the Year – meet the winners

The Bird of the Forest | Csaba Daroczi – OVERALL WINNER

“In the winter of 2023, I took a lot of photographs in a forest close to my home in Hungary. I found something new to photograph almost every week, and I spent several days exploring ideas and perfecting techniques. Staying curious and open-minded led me to this hollowed out tree stump, which measured around half a metre in diameter. I carefully positioned my GoPro 11 camera inside the trunk and took a few shots. I was amazed by the results. After a few days, however, I decided the composition might be improved if I included an animal in the frame. So, I returned to the spot and placed a sunflower near the hole, which the mice and birds soon found.” Csaba Daroczi.

Beach Grass | Gerhard Vlcek

“This image shows a 30μm cross-section of beach grass (Ammophila arenaria) stained with Auramin O and Safranin and viewed under fluorescence blue excitation. The grass came from a friend’s garden in Vienna. For the best results I had to slice the sample as thinly as possible. First, I fixed some stems in warm liquid polyethylene glycol. As it cools down, it turns solid, and the embedded stems were placed in a microtome and sliced with a sharp blade. Staining and preparing the sample was very tricky. I had to use the tiniest brush to manipulate the less than 1mm parts in different staining and chemical solutions before positioning the stems on the slide. After that, taking the photograph was the easy part!” Gerhard Vlcek.

Dreamtime | Simon Theuma

“Like an intricate tapestry of the marine ecosystem, this image captures the relationship between a commensal shrimp and a mosaic sea star. Dreamtime Aboriginal art reminds us of the delicate balance that exists in the grand tapestry of our natural world – this ancient wisdom serves as an important reminder to preserve what we have. To capture this image, I needed to use a snooted strobe, which was set at an acute angle to the subject. This set-up accentuated the depth and beautiful texture of the two organisms. Additionally, I enhanced magnification by using a 15 wet lens dioptre.” Simon Theuma.

Undertow | Csaba Daroczi

“In the first days of May, I always return to a small canal near Izsak, Hungary, where the water violet (Hottonia palustris) blooms in huge numbers. Unfortunately, flowering was delayed this year and only the leaves were still underwater. I was about to go home when I saw a tree had fallen over the canal and under its reflection the plants were clearly visible. I found it a very exciting subject and played with it for a while.” Csaba Daroczi.

The Wedding Guest | Csaba Daroczi

“I was photographing a wedding in a forest clearing in the beautiful surroundings of Uzsa, Hungary. The hall lights attracted a lot of insects to rest on the windows. At one point, I saw some guests taking pictures with their phones next to one of the red lights. As I moved closer, I noticed an oak peacock moth (Antheraea yamamai) had taken up residence on the window. I waited until everyone had finished their pictures, and then it was my turn.” Csaba Daroczi.

Asymmetrical Threads | Elizabeth Kazda

“I enjoy pushing the limits of my camera’s capabilities and experimenting with new techniques to capture ordinary objects. My collection of art supplies includes numerous spools of coloured thread from previous projects. I wanted to photograph this thread in a unique way and came up with the idea of wrapping coloured strands around an open picture frame. I placed the frame on a motorised rotating platform and set my camera to multiple-exposure mode. I captured 64 photos of the thread at 64 equidistant positions as I rotated the platform. Since I didn’t complete a 360° rotation, the design is asymmetrical. This is a meticulous process that requires patience. For this image, I used an in-camera multiple exposure of 64 frames to output a single Raw file.” Elizabeth Kazda.

The Ice Crown | Barry Webb

“This 1mm tall slime mould (Didymium squamulosum) was found in leaf litter on a Buckinghamshire woodland floor in January. Attracted by the way the frost had formed a crown shape on top of the fruiting body, I had to be very careful not to breathe on it. During a previous attempt with another slime mould, my breath had melted the ice when I inadvertently got too close.” Barry Webb.

Small Wanders | Carlos Perez Naval

“In the wall of some houses in Calamocha – the village in Spain where I live – it’s possible to find pyrolusites. These magnesium minerals create stunning formations, which look just like petrified trees, but they are so small that they’re tricky to spot. One day, I was lucky enough to find a Moorish gecko (Tarentola mauritanica) very close to the pyrolusite’s wall, so I tried to make the most of the encounter. I wanted to capture a gecko in the ‘petrified forest’ for a long time, but they only recently appeared in my village (probably carried in fruit baskets from hotter areas). Due to climate change they can now survive here.” Carlos Perez Nava.

Wood Ants Firing Acid Secretion | Rene Krekels Wood

“I had been studying the lifestyle of wood ants in the Netherlands for work when I noticed the defending ants of a very large ant’s nest seemed eager to scare me off by spraying acid towards me. Luckily it wasn’t that destructive, and it provided me with a great opportunity to photograph them defending the nest.’’ Rene Krekels.

Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) was founded in 2018 by Tracy and Dan Calder. CUPOTY is an annual competition celebrating close-up, macro and micro photography through an annual competition, themed challenge and newsletter.

View more incredible images from the natural world:

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STAUNTON — With a baby on her hip and and a camera by his side, the husband and wife team behind Millpond Photography is on a mission to visual capturing the stories of Shenandoah Valley farm and family lifestyles and grow their network to include as many folks as possible.

Jonathan and Samantha Shover’s lives together started at Millpond Stock Farm in Augusta County. It’s where she learned how to ride a four-wheeler and pet cows, it’s where proposed, it’s where he proposed, it’s where the two exchanged vows on their wedding day and now it’s the namesake for a photography business and self-published magazine that reflects on big moments and important milestones in the lives of others.

“It’s not about the pretty picture,” Jonathan Shover said, “it’s the story that’s behind it.”

In 2017, the Shover’s kickstarted their small business after being commissioned to shoot a real estate listing for a family member and starting photographing full-time two years later.

While both of them are primarily self-taught in the arts of photography and videography, Jonathan Shover is no stranger to the agricultural pursuits of the Shenandoah Valley. His grandfather was a veterinarian and beef cattle farmer in the Staunton area, so Jonathan Shover thought he was destined to become a veterinarian too. When he couldn’t quite make the cut to get into vet school, he picked up the camera and starting taking pictures of livestock instead.

“In the Valley,” Samantha Shover related, “word of mouth really is how you meet [the right] people.”

In addition to shooting homes, seniors, engagements, weddings, births and more for their wide array of clients, Millpond Photography has been publishing their own magazine highlighting local businesses, farmers and artists through words and photos. Top articles have included farm-to-table experiences in and around Staunton and a Christmas tree farm which stands as a testament to time-honored tradition.

And there’s no telling what unique headlines will be included in Millpond Collective’s next issue — its 10th published edition.

“We’ve gone so many places and met so many great people just because we had a camera in our hand,” Jonathan Shover remarked.

Samantha Shover added that, “we are there for people in all different seasons of their story — which is really fun.”

Having watched their business grow so much in just a few short years, the Shover’s hope to continue that momentum as they wait for the opportunity to buy Millpond Farm — which is still being farmed by Jonathan Shover’s now 84-year-old grandfather — and raise their family there.

Both Jonathan and Samantha Shover also agree that the importance of agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley is in preserving it for future generations and in by capturing farmers in their element and sharing their connection with the community, Millpond is in some small way helping to do just that.

“One thing we really love about our magazine is how it’s allowed us to focus on these stories,” Jonathan Shover said. “We photograph a lot of farms, but it’s the magazine that has enabled us to tell the stories that nobody knows. When you go to the store or the farmer’s market you don’t see how hard a family worked to produce that crop or that animal. If [the consumer] gets an idea of what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why they’re doing it, I feel like that’s the best thing we can do. The Shenandoah Valley is just such an amazing place for diverse agriculture.”

To connect with Jonathan and Samantha Shover about their work both indoors and on the farm, find Millpond Photography online at millpondphotography.com.

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Mahalia Taje Giotto’s upcoming monograph, Existential Boner, uses text, collage, and photography to convey the artist’s experience of transition

Wave goodbye to the selfie stick and say hello to the future of travel photography: the HOVERAir X1. Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, this AI-powered drone is revolutionizing how tourists capture their precious travel memories. Unlike traditional methods of photography, the HOVERAir X1 takes the reins, following users around and snapping pictures, all without the need for a selfie stick.

The Dawn of Gesture-Controlled Photography

No longer are travelers confined by the constraints of their arms’ length or the angle of a stick. The HOVERAir X1 operates hands-free, its ‘Gesture Control’ feature allowing for seamless direction through simple arm movements. This lightweight device is an embodiment of technological advancement, offering high-definition video and audio recording capabilities from a height of up to 50ft in the air. Whether hovering, following, or providing a bird’s eye view, this drone can chase its users at speeds of up to 15mph, ensuring no moment goes uncaptured.

Versatility Meets High Cost

With versatility at its core, the HOVERAir X1 functions both indoors and outdoors, and in a broad spectrum of temperatures—from freezing to 40C. Yet, this cutting-edge technology comes with a sizable price tag. At £419 for the basic package, it significantly outpaces the approximate £10 cost of a traditional selfie stick.

Impact on Tourism and Public Safety

The selfie stick’s contentious reputation, leading to bans at various cultural events and attractions, positions the HOVERAir X1 as a potential game-changer in the travel photography domain. Its introduction is predicted to win popularity amongst influencers and other travelers seeking professional-grade vacation photos without the need for a photographer. This innovation emerges amidst rising concerns about the dangers associated with selfie-taking. An academic study has recently labeled the obsession with selfies a ‘public health problem’, citing nearly 400 reported injuries or deaths since 2008. With the HOVERAir X1, the future of safer and more immersive travel photography is within reach.

Brides and grooms are hiring content creators to film, edit footage and produce Instagram and TikTok posts with music, transitions and behind-the-scenes moments.

Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.

Barbara Boissevain’s photographs have been compared to the work of American painter Mark Rothko, for their blocks of deep reds, oranges, pinks and greens. But these shades are not mixed on a palette, they are unfiltered snapshots of San Francisco Bay’s salt ponds.

Taken over more than a decade, the images document the restoration of the area, from a center for commercial salt extraction back to its natural state of tidal marsh, mudflats and other wetland habitats. The ongoing South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, which launched in 2003 after acquiring land from global food corporation Cargill, aims to restore more than 15,000 acres of salt ponds – an area roughly the size of Manhattan.

The rich, unnatural colors in Boissevain’s early photos are a result of the water’s salinity. She explains that Dunaliella salina, an alga that produces beta-carotene, a red-orange pigment present in carrots and pumpkins, thrives in salty environments. So do rosy-colored halobacteria, and then there are the brine shrimp that eat the algae and amplify the vibrant tones.

During restoration, the man-made levees built to trap water for harvesting salt are gradually removed, allowing the tidal systems to infiltrate once more. With this the colors fade, as shown in the photos. “Those dramatic oranges, reds, purples, slowly evolve into greens, deep blues, and brown,” she tells CNN, adding that “green ribbons of life” seep back into the ponds.

Although perhaps less photogenic, the shift is a positive sign, says Dave Halsing, executive project manager of the South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project. “Our goal is to get rid of those bright colors, as they are remnants of the hypersaline waters left from the salt making days,” he says.

By doing so, the hope is that wildlife will come flooding back to the area, from endangered salt marsh harvest mice to migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, or fish such as leopard sharks and steelhead.

Salt and silicon

The Bay Area’s history of salt making dates back to the Ohlone, Native American people who collected salt from naturally occurring tidal pools. After the arrival of European colonizers in the 1800s, the process was industrialized, starting with a number of small-scale operations and then giants such as Cargill taking over. At its peak, salt ponds covered around 36,000 acres throughout the Bay. Today, Cargill still operates 12,000 acres of salt ponds, capable of crystallizing half a million tons of sea salt each year.

Boissevain grew up in the area, and still lives there today with her two daughters. She remembers visiting the salt ponds for the first time during a science class in third grade. It was only years later, in 2010, when she was flying over them in a helicopter on the way to another photo project that she saw how they looked from above.

“It was visually spectacular,” she says, and at that moment she decided to track the bay’s restoration over a long period. She started by going up in the air once a year to photograph the salt ponds. Then Covid-19 hit, and unable to take a flight, she began to experiment with shooting from ground level and even underwater.

Her recent book, “Salt of the Earth: A Visual Odyssey of a Transforming Landscape,” compiles all these different perspectives, allowing the viewer to see the extent of the damage to the landscape, and the beginnings of its transformation.

The restoration of the area is particularly poignant when juxtaposed with the mass development of Silicon Valley that surrounds it. In Boissevain’s photos of Ravenswood salt ponds, on the edge of Menlo Park, the headquarters of Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) loom large on the horizon. It looks almost dystopian, she says, and reflects the dissonance between man and nature.

However, today wildlife is reclaiming the space. The restored ponds and man-made nesting islands provide shallow water habitat that attracts hundreds of foraging shorebirds and ducks.

The number of birds is astonishing, says Boissevain: “They’re screeching and partying out there. I chose to dedicate the book to shorebirds, because they’re so fabulous and seem really happy to have this habitat back.”

Revival

Situated along a migratory route known as the Pacific Flyway, the Bay Area provides a critical stopover for birds as they travel between breeding and wintering grounds, as well as year-round habitat for shorebirds. Halsing notes that Ridgway’s rail, a species classified as a “near-threatened,” has moved in and is nesting in the area. Populations of native estuarine fish have also increased, he says.

Aside from wildlife bouncing back, the conversion of former salt ponds to tidal marsh will bring other benefits, such as flood defense as sea levels rise. “Marshes absorb and disperse water and energy from high tides, storm surges, wind waves,” he says. “They also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and help reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”

Another upside is for those living in the surrounding area, like Boissevain. “Since I was a small child, the population (of the area) has increased dramatically. It’s so much denser,” she says. “Giving people places to enjoy natural spaces is extremely important for mental and physical health.”

The public can access the area via a network of trails and viewing platforms. By bringing people in contact with nature they are more likely to realize its value. However, Halsing urges visitors to respect wildlife and not trespass into sensitive habitats for endangered species. The restoration project’s website notes that some areas have become popular selfie spots, causing people to invade nesting areas for Western snowy plovers, while others fly drones that disturb wildlife.

Raising awareness of the need to preserve our natural spaces was a key motivation for Boissevain. She recalls her photography professor David Maisel at San Jose State University, who spoke about the “apocalyptic sublime” and the goal of drawing people into a photograph with beauty and then shocking them with the reality of what they’re looking at.

With the striking images of the salt ponds, this is what she is trying to do. “As a photographer, visually we’re competing with a lot of saturation of images. The average viewer is inundated with images on their social media, on the sides of buses, everywhere around them. And so you’re always looking for ways to startle people and bring their attention to something important,” she says.

“This was why this was an opportunity. Because they were so visually striking, it did cause people to notice.”