An amazing photograph has captured the moment two RAF Typhoons appear to narrowly miss each other during a practice dogfight.

The picture was taken while the two pilots performed their manoeuvres at up to 18,000ft in the skies over West Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire.

However, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) source said there was “no near miss” and the photograph was an optical illusion caused by the angle of the camera.

A spokesperson for the MoD said: “RAF Fighter aircraft practice air-to-air combat on a regular basis to ensure our pilots have the relevant skills for global combat operations.

“During this type of training, a strict 1,000ft bubble in height or distance between our aircraft is enforced and was observed during this sortie.”

The picture was taken by Anthony Helcoop, a hobby photographer from Spalding, Lincolnshire, at around 5pm on Thursday.

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The photographer said he regularly sees planes from RAF Coningsby practising – but that this incident appeared “quite close for comfort”.

“They did appear to get very near on this occasion,” he said.

“Obviously from the ground due to the angle you can’t tell how near it was for sure – but from my perspective, they certainly looked in close proximity.

“I shared the photos online and people just can’t believe I was so lucky to get that moment on camera.

“I’m not a professionally-trained photographer at all, I just do it as a hobby, so I was just in the right place at the right time really.”

He added: “I love watching the pilots from RAF Coningsby practice combat manoeuvres.

“They are Top Guns. [It] makes you feel secure that these pilots are protecting our skies.”

The photograph is likely to be an incident of forced perspective – a technique that uses optical illusion to make an object appear further away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is.

The technique is famously used by people to allow them to seemingly hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy or pinch the top of the Eiffel Tower in France.

On the first page of Micaiah Carter’s debut photography book, “What’s My Name,” there is a picture of three men in ’70s garb—high-waist slacks, black leather vest, round sunglasses—posing on the checkered floor of a photo studio. One of the men sits on a stool, while the other two are standing, dapping each other up. Carter, who has made a name for himself as one of the most in-demand celebrity and fashion editorial photographers, did not shoot this particular image. It comes from a trove of family pictures he sprinkled throughout his 230-page book, which is being published by Prestel and will be available for purchase on October 3. The tome features images of superstars like Zendaya and Megan Thee Stallion rendered in Carter’s signature artistic style: soft, colorful, and cozy, lending the distinct feeling that you know the subjects personally. In the case of the photo of the three men, Carter knows them better than most: the guy on the right, who’s biting down on a wooden pipe and holding up his fist, is Carter’s father. “That’s an image of him and his friends in Vietnam,” the photographer says. “It’s part of a series of shoots they did at a local portrait shop. My dad had these in his scrapbook and let me use them for my projects while he was alive.”

When Prestel approached Carter to create a book of his photographic works, the photog instantly knew he wanted to include images from his family’s archive. In college, he’d leaf through pictures of his grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles—which reminded Carter that a penchant for style and having a great eye was in his blood. “This series of images guided me,” he adds. “When looking at my family album and my own, I realized there were a lot of subconscious juxtapositions between the two.” Among them: “a viewpoint of where things are today, especially compared to the photos of the past,” he says. “It gave me a real look at my parents’ endurance during the Civil Rights era and into the Black Power movement. Comparing them to my images tells the story of where we are now, and the expression and revolution that still exists since the ’70s.”

An homage to his lineage can even be found in the title of the book, whose foreword was written by Tracee Ellis Ross (she and Carter have been friends since he shot the photographs for her inaugural Pattern campaign). “‘What’s my name’ is a saying that my family uses all the time. It gives a sense of identity to who you are.”

Below, browse through a sampling of the photos in “What’s My Name.”

This year’s nature-photography competition attracted more than 8,000 entries in different categories celebrating the natural world: Animal Behavior, Camera Traps, Landscapes, Small World, The Night Sky, Underwater, Urban Wildlife, Wild Portraits, and an Under-17 award. Organizers at Nature TTL were once more kind enough to share some of the winners and runners-up below. Captions were written by the photographers and lightly edited for style.

What is a border? A limit, a beginning, but also an end. A constantly moving (in)visible line that demarcates a “this way”, which we know well, and a “that way”, which is other than us and doesn’t belong to us. Characterizing this term has always been its changeable nature. This is how, over time, it has extended to many fields of human experience, changing form and substance. Just think how, each time the border concept has crossed spheres of creativity, it has achieved ever different shades of meaning. An evolution that in some ways would seem to be similar to that of mankind, and perhaps the reason is because it ideally represents that window through which we can observe our actions, that window that offers us the opportunity to get to know ourselves better. Consequently, every time we talk about it, we are talking about ourselves. Here, the shots of Viktoria Andreeva, Loc Boyle, Alessio Bucciero, Sara Camporesi and Gaia Caramellino investigate the elusive nature of the boundary concept from different perspectives.

The Bulgarian photographer Viktoria Andreeva explores in her series Relay the most primordial of boundaries, that of our skin. The project delves into the complex relationship between individuals, exploring themes such as identity, human duality and metamorphosis. Within each composition, the absolute protagonist is the body, which becomes the instrument to give life to a series of contradictions. In her photographs, the subjects can appear close and intimate and at the same time shy and distant. This is because Andreeva intentionally depersonalizes them, capturing their curves in an abstract and surreal way and hiding and revealing parts of their bodies each time. By distorting the figures, the photographer aims to cross the boundary between reality and illusion and, in doing so, makes us realize how this concept depends entirely on our perception and is therefore subjective and undefined, hence abstract. 

The distortion of perception adopted by Andreeva returns in Loc Boyle‘s photography. In this case, the Australian photographer imagines new forms of the body and experiments with a different kind of boundary: the ability of a man to “be art”, framing bodies as if they were monolithic sculptures. They are covered in paint, trapped in lycra, stretched and sometimes even folded in on themselves; all the while holding abstract, dramatic or simply bizarre poses. The result is images full of contrasts: powerful, delicate, still, moving, abstract, human. Images that, at the same time, are able to intrigue and confuse the observer, who, stunned, asks himself “Is this a work of art, a sculpture or the essence of something as yet unknown?”.

For Alessio Bucciero, the border should not be understood as a synonym for separation, “For me it means getting closer to something”, says the Italian photographer. This is evident from the first glance in the photo of the two lovers caught in an embrace, which Bucciero makes appear as if they were two parts of a single identity. Here, that threshold that distinguishes – as was said at the beginning of this text – a “this way” and a “that way” is no longer posed as a line of inclusion/exclusion, but becomes increasingly rarefied until it disappears, creating something that has never existed and that must be explored. And so, unintentionally, we forget that ancestral need to feel protected within a delimited space, overcoming the more traditional definition of a border once and for all. 

While Andreeva, Boyle and Bucciero investigate the concept of boundary in the body dimension exclusively, Sara Camporesi‘s research focuses on the definition of “presence” that the body occupies in its surroundings. So what the Italian photographer examines is the space that is created between the body and architecture, between fullness and emptiness. “The moment in which everything is still suspended, in which we are and are not, in which we hold something elusive, something that precedes us and without which nothing could begin,” says Camporesi. In the shot taken in the Metaphysical City of Tresigallo, in the plain of Ferrara, we see that border become the beginning of a shared journey to discover a new and unimaginable elsewhere. An elsewhere in which to immerse ourselves and be amazed by what it is able to reveal: something of us that we didn’t know existed, that helps us (re)know or rediscover.

Different, but in some ways similar to Camporesi’s, is the border understood by Gaia Caramellino. In her photographs, this concept suddenly takes shape, becoming that place where you can find yourself again and again. Therefore, it is not an unknown space, but one of which one has experience. A cradle or rather “a safe place, crystallized in time, in which one can be weak, open to blows, to falls. A kind of waiting room aimed at nowhere, a no-man’s land where you arbitrate on an equal footing with your own history”, says the photographer. In front of her shots, the observer therefore finds himself staring at a boundary that does not belong to him. 

In the research of the five photographers examined, we have realized that the concept of a boundary is subjective and abstract. However much we try to delimit its perimeter, the result will never be definitive because it is nothing more than an idea that does not exist. An idea that we have constructed, with the sole purpose of narrating it. 

There are a few things that make life as a photographer much easier. Here are some simple changes I made that you might consider adopting to help you capture the shot.

As I gain more experience as a photographer, things I discover change my approach to photoshoots. Furthermore, technology has advanced too, so once-necessary accessories have become redundant. Occasionally, new inventions get added to our kit, and the best of those are usually simple ideas.

The first in my list fits into that last category. It is that curious-looking piece of wood in the image above. Like all great inventions, it is a simple idea. But it makes a big difference to me.

It is a patented Ergonomic Lens Rest. Carved from solid oak wood, the rest attaches to the tripod mount foot of my large telephoto lens. I bought it on the recommendation of Tesni Ward, a fellow OM System Ambassador, and a hugely experienced and brilliant wildlife photographer. I had a WhatsApp conversation with her after I bought my new OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25X IS PRO lens, which I reviewed recently. Beforehand, I turned the lens’ tripod mount around by 180 degrees and was using my camera by holding the lens barrel. However, attaching this to the Arca Swiss-style foot makes the lens easier to handhold. The foot now sits comfortably in the palm of my hand, and I can still reach to adjust the focus zoom rings and operate the switches with my thumb.

Made in the UK by a business called The Secret Sign Writer, the Ergonomic Lens Rest cost me £52.98, approximately $65. Sadly, it’s currently only available for the following OM System cameras: 40-150 f2.8 PRO, 100-400 f5-6.3, 300 f4 Pro, and the 150-400 f4.5 Pro. Because it’s a small-scale operation, Edward, who makes them, doesn’t have a website. However, I am happy to pass on the email address if you direct message me.

2. The Reason to Love Beans

During the early to mid-naughties, photographers raved about carrying a beanbag as a camera rest. But, with improved image stabilization and small, light, and reasonably priced tripods now available, the beanbag’s popularity seems to have waned. Nevertheless, they are still handy for photographers, as you can use them to support your lens or camera on a wall, rock, or the ground without damaging it.

My beanbag was made for me by my wife; she is a dab hand with her sewing machine. The cloth she used was some rescued micro-fleece recovered from an old jacket, and it is approximately half-filled with mung beans.

If you travel to many poorer countries, beans are a staple food and cost next to nothing. Consequently, a small drawstring or zipped bag that you can fill on arrival will save you the weight when flying. Furthermore, you are not carrying foodstuffs, possibly infected with parasites, fungi, or plant diseases over national borders. Nor will you have it split open by contraband enforcement officers wondering what is inside.

3. Sit On It

That’s a catchphrase that those of us of a certain age will remember. However, in this case, it isn’t an insult.

I used to use a piece of foam sleeping mat I bought for camping. But, after experimenting with several options, including bubble wrap, I discovered that a carrier bag in my pocket a good option. A lot of my photography is shooting at a low level, and it stopped me from getting a wet bum when sitting on the sand at the beach. However, I now avoid single-use plastic as much as is practicable and I rarely have a plastic bag. It’s also windy where I live much of the time, and the last thing I want is the bag or bubble wrap blowing out to sea.

Here in the UK, we have many charity shops selling second-hand clothing. The items that are in too poor condition to sell get given to “the rag man,” who sorts and sells them for recycling. Sometimes those shops get donated old waterproof coats that cannot be sold. So, I buy one of those for the equivalent of one dollar, cut a square from the back, and it makes an ideal sitting or kneeling cloth that will fold up and fit in my pocket.

4. It All Happens in a Flash

One of the things that is a temptation for photographers comes from advertising. Ads push us into buying the latest, highly specified gizmos that perform in ways we don’t need and never use. So the fourth thing on my list is something I could not work without, but also have resisted the temptation to upgrade. That is my flash lightmeter. I have an old and very basic Sekonic L-308S. It has since been superseded by the Sekonic L-308X-U Flashmate.

Many complex light meters on the market do all sorts of jiggery-pokery. They do tempt me. However, I always found that my old flash meter does everything I need from it. It advises me on the light levels I need for shooting portraits or products for clients. If you want to know why a flash meter is useful, this excellent video by Gavin Hoey explains all.

5. Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, Or Not

Number five is something that I have stopped using altogether: a camera backpack.

When I started shooting digital photographs with a DSLR, I had excessive enthusiasm for all my gear. I feared missing the shot because I didn’t have the right lens with me. Consequently, on every photoshoot, I carried all my lenses, lots of spare batteries and memory cards, a filter kit, and everything I could fit into my camera bag. The bag cost me a small fortune.

There was often a degree of snobbery when it came to camera bags. I heard someone exclaim that good photographers would only ever have A-brand bags. Similarly, they declared that you must buy B-brand tripods and only C-brand filters. Furthermore, D-brand cameras were worth owning, and nothing else would do. Although, at the time, all four of those brands did make good gear, the situation has changed. There is far greater competition with great alternatives from other manufacturers, and two of those brands now have serious quality issues they need to address; I’ll let you work out which two.

Times change. So too did my level of experience. Now, I carefully plan my photoshoots because I know I will get much better photos that way. Part of that planning process is working out what equipment I need. I’ve also realized that I can usually carry everything by hand or in my pockets. My camera is either slung over my shoulder or attached to my tripod. Moreover, because of my camera’s outstanding image stabilization, I rarely need a tripod.

Therefore, I no longer lug extra lenses around with me. I might take one spare battery. However, the one time I needed to change it was at an all-day wedding shoot; battery technology has come a long, long way over the last few years. If I am taking a filter, it will be in my top pocket. That means I no longer suffer from a bad back lugging all that gear around.

There are also two other good reasons for not using a camera bag. Firstly, they scream that you carry lots of expensive equipment worth robbing. Secondly, they never seem to be designed to carry a packed lunch and thermos flask.

Consequently, I never carry a camera backpack on a photoshoot. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t own one. For transporting my camera and lens in my car, Peak Design Cubes are great for protection and better for access. But hidden in the trunk (or boot as we call it in the UK) is where they stay.

What Do You Think?

Those are five simple things that simplify my shooting. Are there any of those you would adopt? If there is one other thing you do or don’t use to make your photography easier, please tell us in the comments.

Analog photography remains extremely compelling to many shooters, carving out a relatively small but passionate niche in the photo space. Alongside the resurgence in film photography in recent years, digital platforms have become increasingly crucial for photographers at large.

However, the film photography community is fragmented, and popular digital platforms are not built with sharing analog imagery in mind. A new app and platform, Newgrain, aims to solve both these issues.

Dubbed “a digital space for analog photographers,” Newgrain promises to “make analog photography thrive in the digital age” through three primary features and goals for the platform. Newgrain gives photographers the “space they deserve” to share their photos and creates a unified place for the film community; it promises to be the best online resource for information about film stocks, cameras, and film labs; and the app includes a digital standard for analog shots, ensuring that film photos have important metadata, like digital image files.

The Newgrain app is designed to look and feel like an art gallery. Unlike Instagram, Newgrain does not include any ads or feature videos.

“We’ve removed distractions and metrics such as likes and followers, so that the focus is truly on the photographers’ work. In other words, ‘Quality over quantity’ was our philosophy behind the creation of Newgrain,” explains the Newgrain team.

Speaking of the team, Newgrain was founded by Tim Issenmann, a passionate film photographer from France who built the prototypes of Newgrain during COVID lockdowns while studying in England. Issenmann is Newgrain’s CEO. Arish Tripathi is the company’s CTO and a highly skilled software developer from Kolkata, India. Tripathi joined Newgrain in early 2023 while studying in England.

The Newgrain app launched in August and quickly passed 10,000 shared photos. It now includes more than 6,000 registered users.

The app’s catalog of film stocks includes more than 300 films, and users can learn about each of them across different characteristics, including grain profile, exposure latitude, and contrast. The film stock index is constantly growing as the community adds more information and sample shots for each film.

Any social media platform worth its salt must have some sort of feed. Newgrain’s customizable chronological feed shows users the latest photos shared by the community, ensuring that everyone has the chance to have their work seen by others. “You’ve put care and effort into making a beautiful photo. It deserves more recognition than what algorithms will give it,” says Newgrain. Users can also customize the feed to see the most recent shots created with specific analog technology and film formats.

When new users sign up for Newgrain, they can pick out a unique URL, enabling them to share their profile and portfolio directly with others. Work that someone uploads is kept on their profile, which includes a short bio field.

“Ever wonder how a photographer achieved certain results?” Newgrain asks. The app promises to solve these mysteries quickly. Any post can be tagged by its creator with information such as film stock used, camera, lens, format, push/pull, film lab, film expiry date, scanner, and much more.

Rounding out the app’s key features is its Community tab. This section of the app features curated “Newgrain Picks” that showcase the best photos from the community.

Pricing and Availability

Newgrain is completely free to download and use. It is available only on iOS, although an Android map is on the roadmap. iOS was prioritized due to the small scale of the team and its experiences working with the platform.

Image credits: Newgrain

In our social society, the newest trend is social media and the aesthetics of creating artsy videos and having the best photos to post. It’s almost a new form of art just being uploaded to social media platforms by creative minds. Some people post for the views, and others post for the aesthetic. It is not a bad way to spend your time on social media instead of endlessly scrolling. Use social media to be creative and post interesting photos. But the real question is, how do you get to that artistic level?

Okay, let’s start by saying you’re in a class and get assigned a photo project when it is not a photo class. The first thing that goes to your mind is (1) this is not a photography class, (2) I don’t have a camera, (3) and I am totally not good at taking photographs. Yeah… that happens, especially if you’re in college for a BA. Just pretend like you’re taking Instagram-worthy photos.

It is okay if you have no experience– you just need an eye for beauty. Everyone sees beauty in their own way.

Photography is a modern form of art. While this art form isn’t made with materials like paint, it is about finding the perfect shot. Photography is finding art in reality and using a camera to secure it. Pictures capture emotions, create works of art, and point out the beauty in the world. People post social media photos without even realizing they took the perfect shot.

“Anyone can take a picture, right?” Yes, of course, but finding the perfect shot is what really matters. If you have a subject, you can capture the scene with the emotions in it to create a powerful image. One face can have a thousand words. A picture with a subject can leave the viewer’s mind wandering, which is one of the cool things about photography– interpretation. Audiences take photos, paintings, films, social media, etc., and interpret whatever they want.

College can be a stressful time balancing social life and your education; not even TikTok can help you get out of a funk. So, my go-to when I feel lost is to remember how beautiful the world is. Nature has so much beauty, and if you don’t stop and take it all in, you may never notice it. Go outside or to the nearest town, day or night, and start taking pictures of things that catch your eye. I bet you will impress yourself. 

The final outcomes of pictures are pleasing and something to be proud of. Show your work. Let people see that you can take our reality and highlight the best parts of it.

Here are some tips for while taking causal photos:

• Go on Pinterest to find inspiration.
• Use your phone or rent a camera.
• Use a subject if you don’t know where to start.
• Take a picture of what is aesthetically pleasing to you.

Run From Mummies is a top-down 2D action-adventure game about getting lost in ancient pyramids, snapping pics, and escaping scores of bandaged bad guys with a bee in their bonnet. Equipped with your trusty camera, you’ll put your photography skills to the test while out-pacing each tomb’s hostile natives who are, let’s say, less than pleased by your presence.  

With flashes of Spelunky, Hollow Knight, and uber-stylish roguelikes such as Hades, Run From Mummies recently smashed its Kickstarter target, and can be wishlisted right now on Steam. There, you’ll also find a free demo with more than an hour of gameplay, including some terrifying mummy escape action.

With a combination of light-touch puzzle elements and a variety of enemies, traps, and its  titular enemy type, Run From Mummies spans 120 unique levels across six distinct regions that’ll put even the hardiest adventurers to the test. Each region includes four five-tier dungeons, each of which introduces a new unit, trap or mechanic; with each region also boasting a handful of intense boss battles – from Pharaoh to the Sphinx and the Gods themselves – designed to let players master each new game mechanic in turn. 

To combat all of that, you’ll choose from a roster of more than 12 diverse and interesting tourists to lead into every tomb, each with their own quirks, idiosyncrasies and unique abilities. With a rich narrative inspired by Egyptian mythology, your trusty camera will guide the way in both solo play and up to four-player local co-op. 

As a keen photographer, you’ll use your camera as a tool for interacting with the world around you, unlocking secrets and fending off certain enemies. When the mummies come, though, your camera can only stun – but with a wide array of dangerous traps filling each crypt, you might choose to lure your prey to their untimely death. With that, running for your life while juggling so many moving parts on screen at once lends Run From Mummies a horror game feel, underscored by the intensity of any top-down 2D action-adventure game worth its salt.  

Add a library of game modes that layer directly into its core campaign – from increased difficulty runs, to a time attack mode, and a ‘Fun House’ that’s essentially an arcade game within the game itself – and it’s clear that Run From Mummies’ scope for replayability is through the roof. 

Want to discover that for yourself? Wishlist Run From Mummies on Steam right now, and check out its free demo. Photography isn’t just encouraged – it’s a matter of life and death.