Now this is something you may never see again in your life.

Back on January 3rd, wildlife photographer Jason Miller posted the incredibly rare scene of a jaguar on his trail camera in the Huachuca Mountains near Tucson, Arizona. Yes, a jaguar

He said into the camera on the YouTube video:

“Five years ago, I started running trail cameras for wildlife footage here in southern Arizona, hoping one day maybe I’d get a jaguar. I was fortunate enough to get an ocelot the last several years.

Just north of the Mexico border in a deep canyon, on December 30th, I was hiking up checking some cameras. I set up some cameras overlooking this mountain lion scrape, hoping to get a lion. Well, I got lots of wildlife, including my first jaguar.”

The jaguar was caught on camera back on December 20th, and to make it picture perfect, the creature was showing its teeth right back towards the camera.

According to CBS, a five-person team from the Arizona Game and Fish Department inspected the footage, and came to the realization that this is the first time this creature has ever been documented on camera. By studying its pattern, they were able to determine that it is unlike any jaguar they’ve seen in the States before, meaning it traveled up from Mexico for the first time. Insert obligatory border joke…

Miller’s discovery marks only the eighth known jaguar to step foot in the U.S. since 1996 before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the species as endangered.

Russ McSpadden, a southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said:

“I’m certain this is a new jaguar, previously unknown to the United States. After being nearly wiped out, these majestic felines continue to reestablish previously occupied territory despite border wall construction, new mines, and other threats to their habitat.”

Jaguars were once found in the United States and recently, there’s been a push to reintroduce them in places like Arizona and New Mexico. However, some don’t want more big cats roaming the United States. Jaguars are the 3rd largest cats in the world, behind only lions and tigers… sure don’t wanna come across one of them when you’re checking out the Grand Canyon.

Nevertheless, a pretty damn cool sighting.

In an era where image quality no longer serves as the sole differentiator among photographers due to advancing technology, having the latest and greatest gear no longer gives photographers a drastic upper hand.

This is partially because recent gear is all very good, and there are limitations regarding output and viewing. There still isn’t a monitor that can cater to the amount of megapixels in the files we produce, nor are there many printers and print methods widely available to reproduce such files. With questions on image quality taken away, the focus on what makes a photographer stand out will shift towards the significance of a recognizable style of work, ultimately decided by what they choose to shoot. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the elements that will help you as a photographer create images that stand out beyond just technical specifications.

Shoot With Presence of Light

First of all, I think we can all agree that images can only happen with the presence of light. If there is no light, there is no photograph. Therefore, it is only logical that we place a strong emphasis on light. Light in photography specifically refers to the quality of light for the subject matter. Good and interesting light can highlight ordinary subjects, adding depth and dimensionality to your photograph. This is because light brings out shadow, and shadow is what provides spatial cues, depth, and contrast in a photograph. When speaking about light and shadow, we should also pay attention to image exposure. As exposure controls what we see or don’t see in the scene, it ultimately also affects the composition and outlook of the entire image. So, the next time before you shoot, keep an eye on interesting light and frame it accordingly; it never fails to make a good image.

Choosing an Interesting Subject

For this part, it is primarily divided into two major parts: subject identification and subject isolation. Firstly, you as a photographer must be able to identify the subject of your interest to photograph. This is because a frame with no clear subject presents no context for the photographer to isolate and make it stand out in the frame, hence causing visual confusion for the viewers to interpret. Just like the importance of light presence in an image, the presence of a subject is also crucially important as it is what a photograph is all about, and the ability to isolate them is equally important.

There are three common ways a photographer can utilize to isolate the subject: luminance contrast from the presence of light and shadow, color contrast with complementary colors, and depth of field. For example, a well-isolated subject will have light shining on the subject you want to highlight and shadow hiding the rest of the image. Or the color of your subject is different enough to stand out compared to the background color. Or the background of your image is blurry enough to make the subject pop. With the right combination of these isolating methods, photographers can easily isolate the subject to produce a decent image with a strong focal point. It is also important to point out that distractions can also be easily removed by applying the same isolation method in reverse.

The One Rule of Composition

While it might be extremely cliché to say you should ignore all the typical rules in composition like the rule of thirds, golden ratio, diagonal lines, etc., these rules are still good to serve as guidelines to achieve balance in your framing. Contrary to choosing an interesting subject to include in your photograph, personally, the one rule in the art of composition lies in the power of consciously choosing what to exclude in your framing while still retaining enough context for the viewer to understand your image. The composition can also be known as the ability to present the subject in a way that is aesthetically pleasing in achieving balance among the chosen elements. Simply put, if an image is balanced, then the viewer’s attention will go straight to the intended area of the frame. If it isn’t balanced, then the photographer can consider moving the position of the camera or changing the subject distance to create better subject isolation and perspective to achieve visual balance. All in all, balance and aesthetics are subjective, and we as photographers should also be daring enough to allow creative freedom to take the front seat in pursuing a greater image output.

The Idea

A solid idea ultimately forms the foundation and objective of an image. That itself explains the importance of having a solid idea of what you would like to portray in your image. The idea, better known as concept, should be both the starting point and goal of an image for you to build your image upon. This way, you can ensure that the subject matter and visual elements chosen to be photographed will be aligned with the intended message while leaving out everything that is irrelevant. Having the ability to pre-visualize the final output in the process of photographing will vastly improve your composition and enhance the overall impact of an image. That being said, the best ideas are clear enough to be understood by a wide variety of audiences yet still leave enough room for slight audience interpretation to keep the idea of the image continuously growing. That is the magical area for creatives and their work. 

In conclusion, advanced photography tools are pretty much accessible to everyone these days, removing the barrier of entry to obtaining great image quality. Shifting the focus in photography nowadays to improving the art of photography and not merely chasing better image quality. The uniqueness in the art of photography is interpreted from a strong personal style, such as a recognizable approach to lighting, composition, subject selection, and core idea, which will pretty much guarantee success for photographers in producing a solid body of work that conveys stories, evokes emotions, and captivates a diverse range of audiences.

Denver Broncos running back Jaleel McLaughlin (38), cornerback Riley Moss (37), cornerback Tremon Smith (1) and wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. (19) run out of the tunnel before the Broncos’ Week 18 game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 7, 2024. Photo by Ben Swanson / Denver Broncos

Professional photographer Stephen Wilkes has a multi-decade career that melds artistic and commercial photography and has taken him around the world. He’s worked with National Geographic, Apple, and Netflix, among others.

Speaking at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City, Wilkes offered a packed-house audience an overview of his career and dropped a number of gems for aspiring photographers. PetaPixel rounded up several pieces of advice that anyone can take from Wilkes, especially those looking to break into the field.

1. Practice with Film

“If you master your craft in the early years using film and then you move to digital, you’re wired differently,” Wilkes tells the crowd.

It’s common advice, but it bears repeating. Film, of course, forces the photographer to slow down and think carefully about each shot. But Wilkes reveals other ways it made him more meticulous. For example, he would never shoot a project entirely on one roll, lest it get damaged and he would lose everything. He would have his assistants stop him from shooting while he was in the middle of a roll to change out for another.

“That’s how paranoid I was about the idea of losing an image because of processing errors or some failure. And so that was the mentality. And so digital took away all that,” Wilkes tells PetaPixel.

Though his point that digital removed these hurdles, it should be noted, is a positive and part of why he eventually made the change. Still, it proves his point that mastering film wires a photographer differently.

2. Take Advantage of Your Phone

Lest anyone think Wilkes believes film is the only way to get started in photography, he highly encourages people to take advantage of phone photography.

“It’s not necessarily about what process you use, but it’s developing your eye and continually finding a way to be alive visually, to be conscious, to be present,” Wilkes tells PetaPixel.

It’s almost passé advice to carry a camera around all the time, but Wilkes suggests looking at the camera many already have in their pockets. Speaking at Apple, it’s little surprise that the professional touted the abilities of the tech company’s latest iPhone 15 Pro Max. Still, the new smartphone really does pack in a number of improvements for anyone taking photos and videos.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max sports a 48-megapixel main camera, 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a 12MP 2x telephoto camera. Wilkes, who used film well into the digital camera revolution, emphasized how undeniably far the technology in digital cameras has come. Specifically, Wilkes says it was when digital photography became capable of shooting at night, even on a phone, was a turning point for him.

And he doesn’t just mean DSLR and mirrorless models. In fact, Wilkes’ “Tapestries” project is taken entirely on iPhone. There’s no editing either. Instead, he uses a double exposure app that pulls everything together without any layers in post.

“When you’re present and you’re always looking, that’s when you discover things,” Wilkes remarks.

3. Pay Attention to Detail

One throughline in Wilkes’ work is the impeccable attention to detail. As noted, one key reason he made the switch to digital was the advancements made in resolution. Wilkes uses this constantly, always making sure even the finest details help shape the story. His “Day and Night” project, which combines photographs taken at a single location over an entire day to create an time-lapsed ombre effect in a single image provides a wealth of examples.

One image, taken on in New York City on Thanksgiving shows the famous parade put on by Macy’s on left-hand side of the image, which depicts the morning hours. Over to the right, viewers can glimpse a family having their Thanksgiving meal together through the window. It’s a tiny detail when zooming out to look at the entire image at once, but it makes taking a closer look all the more worth it, creating the sense that every pixel is used to tell the story.

“The power of observation is an incredible gift.”

Image credits: Photographs by Stephen Wilkes

The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in association with the Royal Observatory Greenwich and supported by Liberty Specialty Markets has officially opened its doors for the sixteenth consecutive year. In collaboration with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, the annual competition seeks to uncover the most captivating images of our cosmos, welcoming participants of all ages and skill levels from around the world.

Astronomy enthusiasts and photographers alike can submit their celestial masterpieces to the competition up until midday on March 5.  Entrants can showcase their talents in up to ten images across various categories including skyscapes, aurorae, people and space, our sun, our moon, planets, comets and asteroids, stars and nebulae and galaxies. 

• The best telescopes for astrophotography will help you glimpse even deeper into space and capture jaw-dropping images

Two special prizes, The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer which celebrates amateur photographers who have recently embraced astrophotographer and The Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation which recognizes the best photo processed with pre-existing open-source data combines the realms of art and astronomy making the event even more exciting.

Each year, the breathtaking results captured on some of the best cameras for astrophotography continue to astound us with their intricacy and beauty. The results of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 16 competition, including the winners, runners-up, and highly commended entries, will be on display in a compelling exhibition at the National Maritime Museum from September 2024. 

The top prize from the 15 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition was awarded to a trio made up of Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Stottner and Yann Sainty for their image, Andromeda Unexpected. It shows a gigantic plasma arc adjacent to the Andromeda Galaxy which is our recent spiral neighbor making it a frequent subject for astrophotographers. They described winning as “an enormous honor for our team to receive this important award, and we are grateful for all the support, friendship, and encouragement we have received along our journey.”

To view last year’s winning images, and find out more information on how to enter or to submit your images, head to the APOTY website and be in with a chance to have your out-of-this-world image grace the walls of the National Maritime Museum in London. 

Find out which light pollution filters for night photography will help you take the clearest image

Understandably, Josh Anon wondered if he was wasting his time. 

The photographer had taken three weeks off from his full-time gig, caught a once-a-week flight from San Francisco to the Falkland Islands, then traveled nearly 900 miles by ship over two days to reach South Georgia Island, a 100-mile-long spit of land in the South Atlantic that “for a few months of the year has the densest concentration of wildlife on the planet,” Anon says. Fur seals, elephant seals, king penguins and more go there to breed. 

On this morning in 2015, a break in the weather promised a glimpse of sunrise. So Anon woke at 2:30 a.m., put on a GoreTex heavy jacket, waterproof pants and Arctic muck boots, and hauled his cameras and gear to the sandy shoreline of St. Andrew’s Bay. The stage was set — but where were the penguins? 

“They just weren’t showing up. I’m thinking, ‘Am I wasting a morning? Should I move somewhere else?’” recalls Anon ’03. “And then it was like somebody called central casting and said, ‘Hey, send in the penguins. Yeah, just send them all. Keep them coming.’ And for maybe an hour or two I had March of the Penguins right in front of me. … It was just an utterly spectacular morning.” 

St. Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia Island. “Sometimes the best photography involves a bit of discomfort!” Anon says. In this case, Anon knelt and lay in the ice-cold surf to capture a shot of king penguins reflected in the wet sand against the mountains.

Anon has had his share of awe-inspiring encounters — with penguins, polar bears, walruses and more. Raised in Erie, Pa., in a family of photographers — “we always had a fridge full of film in our garage” — he got his first camera at age 4, bought his first digital SLR camera with savings from his campus job at Northwestern, and has been photographing wildlife and landscapes for more than two decades, co-authoring eight photography books with his mother, Ellen, along the way. 

Driven to capture rare and unexpected images of fragile landscapes, he started traveling to remote places — Iceland, Norway, the Falkland Islands. In 2014 he ended up in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the high Arctic, “and the polar virus bit me. … I really got into chasing polar bears,” he says. “I love the scenery in the Arctic. Every time of year it’s completely different. In the winter it’s white on white with gorgeous light all the time. In the summer there’s [a huge amount] of wildlife.” 

When the pandemic halted travel, Anon looked for opportunities closer to home. He went storm chasing with friends and ventured to Yellowstone National Park in the winter, which “made me miss polar bears.” In Los Angeles, where he’s lived for six years, he shot star trails — images that capture the arcs of light that the stars paint across the sky as the Earth turns — above iconic landmarks. 

Anon had discovered a way to manipulate digital photography to capture star trails in urban environments, where light pollution often obscures the stars. “It’s a [huge] amount of work,” he says, “but suddenly I was motivated to photograph all these landscapes that a million people are shooting every day — because I can do something totally different [and provide] a perspective that nobody has seen before.”  

Anon also became interested in abstract expressionism, especially color field painting, a style of art characterized by large swaths of solid color. To achieve similar results with photography, “I started going into the ocean around sunset, using … different combinations of lenses and [camera] settings,” he says. “I got some neat color field minimalist surf photographs — while periodically going for washing machine rides in the waves.”  

Ironically, when travel resumed after the pandemic, Anon celebrated with a weeklong trip to a remote cabin in an isolated part of northwest Iceland to photograph arctic foxes. And this January he is headed to the steppes of Mongolia to shoot the elusive Pallas’s cat, which has rarely been photographed in its natural habitat. The species is considered near-threatened due to habitat degradation. That’s exactly why Anon is seeking them out.  

In his two decades as a landscape photographer, Anon has witnessed real and dramatic effects of climate change. When he visited Svalbard in April 2023 for the first time four years, the high temperatures were above freezing. That’s unusually warm for Svalbard, where the normal high for that time of year is around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The nearby town Longyearbyen, Norway, traditionally doesn’t get much snow because it’s often just too cold, Anon says. (Most heavy snowfalls occur at or above 15 degrees Fahrenheit.) Avalanches used to be rare. But in the past 10 years, average temperatures have risen dramatically and the town has experienced several major avalanches. The town has had to put up retaining walls in response, says Anon, and relocate buildings as melting permafrost makes the ground unstable.   

“These places are suffering more from climate change than anywhere else,” he says. “I appreciate that I’m able to bring back images and share those experiences while those environments still exist.” 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A Louisville man is scheduled to be sentenced after he pleaded guilty to the shooting that killed a photographer during the 2020 summer protests for Breonna Taylor.

Steven Lopez is accused of firing a gun on a group of protestors at Jefferson Square Park one Saturday morning in June, killing 27-year-old Tyler Gerth, who was active in the social justice protests of that year. Gerth died before he could be taken to the hospital.

Video surveillance shows Lopez shooting a firearm into a large crowd of people at the park.

Lopez and arrested and charged with murder and 21 counts of wanton endangerment. The murder charge was later amended down to manslaughter, giving a total of 30 years to serve with the wanton endangerment counts. A guilty plea to the charges was entered on January 3.

Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13.

Gerth’s family released the following statement in response:

“While nothing will ever bring Tyler back and we will never truly have justice for him being taken from us, it’s an important step for Mr. Lopez to take responsibility for his actions and plead guilty to his crimes. We remain focused on carrying on Tyler’s memory through the works of Building Equal Bridges, the Tyler Gerth Foundation, by continuing in his legacy of compassion and generosity.”

The Tyler Gerth Foundation provides scholarships and grants to individuals and organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters through fundraisers. To sign up or get more information, click here.

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Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 298g / 0.66lb and measuring 82.0mm / 3.23inch in length, the Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro is much lighter and smaller than any of its main rivals, which include the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN MACRO Art and the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2:1 Ultra Macro APO.

It’s compact size makes it feel very well balanced on a mid-sized camera body like the Lumix S5 IIX body that we tested it with, as shown in the product photos.

Build quality is very good. The Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro feels solid in your hand, even if it is mostly made out of plastic, with a metal lens mount.

It’s also weather-proof, being both dust and splash resistant and working all the way down to -10 degrees. We successfully used it in a heavy shower with no adverse effects.

There is no built-in Image Stabilisation, though, with the lens instead relying on the camera body’s stabilisation system (if it has one).

The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 lens has a generously wide focus ring with a ridged, rubberised grip band.

There are no hard stops at both ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity.

Polariser users should be pleased that the 67mm filter thread doesn’t rotate on focus.

In terms of controls, there are just two switches in addition to the focusing ring.

Firstly, there’s a focus mode switch with the standard AF/MF settings.

Secondly, there’s a focus range limiter switch that helps prevent the lens from hunting through the entire focusing range. There are three options – Full, infinity to 0.5m, and 0.204 to 0.5m.

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Lumix S 100mm F2.8 is a quick performer for a macro lens, taking around 0.10 seconds to lock onto the subject when mounted on the Panasonic S5 IIX camera that we tested it with.

We didn’t experience too much “hunting”, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing virtually all of the time in the single AF-S mode.

The Dual Phase Linear Motor focusing mechanism is very quiet, in fact virtually silent, making this lens well-suited to video recording as well as candid stills photography.

In terms of accessories, this lens is supplied with a good quality circular plastic round lens hood which locks into place when fully engaged.

Focal Range

The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro’s focal length of 100mm provides an angle of view of 24°.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were not that apparent in our test shots, only appearing in very high contrast areas.

Vignetting

With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/2.8, there is some obvious light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 2 f-stops to prevent it.

Distortion

There’s some very slight barrel distortion evident in the RAW files – the S5 IIX camera automatically and successfully applies corrections to the JPEG files.

Macro

The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro offers a very useful minimum focusing distance of just 20.4cm / 8.03″, with a maximum magnification of 1.0x.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the S 100mm F2.8 Macro lens, Panasonic have employed an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades, which has resulted in very nice bokeh in our view.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we’ve included lots of examples below for your perusal.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.