Last year, Nikon celebrated the centenary of the launch of its JOICO microscope, the very first product in what would become the-then Nippon Kogaku’s microscope division, still a vital part of the Nikon Healthcare Business Unit today. Successes such as this are what ultimately paved the way for Nikon’s play into the camera market in 1948 with the Nikon I and beyond.

This year marks the 101st anniversary of the JOICO microscope and Nikon is once again celebrating its precision-optics lineage via a special exhibition at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum called Nikon Small World / Nikon JOICO Award Exhibition: “The Microscopic World – Illuminating the Future of Life”.

The exhibition, which runs until August 23, invites visitors to journey through Nikon’s microscope history, all while being treated to some jaw-dropping imagery courtesy of Nikon Small World (see last year's incredible stills winner above).

This global microscopic image contest celebrates the art of photomicrography, whereby a camera is attached to a microscope and used to capture incredible microscopic images. Nikon Small World includes both stills and video competitions, and features a panel of experienced judges. The 2026 competition is now closed for entries but the winners haven't yet been announced.

The Nikon Small World / Nikon JOICO Award Exhibition runs from July 25 to August 23, 2026. Standard opening hours are from 10:00 to 18:00. General admission costs 700 JPY (approx $4.50/£3.30/AU$6.30), students and 65+ rates are 500 JPY (approx $3.20/£2.40/AU$4.50), along with free admission for high-school students and younger.

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Every photographer who lands in Havana knows the standard shooting checklist. A 1957 Chevy Bel Air against peeling pastel paint. A cigar-smoking abuela on a wrought-iron balcony. The Malecón promenade at golden hour. And the thing is, you're probably going to get a nice picture. It'll be, though, a picture that's been taken roughly nine million times already.

David Saxe went looking for something else: the unposed, unpolished moments most visitors walk straight past. His resulting series Cuba es Vida, built from three separate journeys to the island, has just been named All About Photo's solo exhibition for August 2026 .

It's a monochtome project that leans hard into darkness, blur and atmosphere, favouring feeling over documentation. Rather than tourist landmarks, he went looking for domino games under a portico, a trumpeter perfecting his lines on a seawall at dusk, two sisters doing each other's hair on a crumbling patio. What makes it worthy of attention, though, is not just the subject matter. It's the stubbornness of the visual language.

Grain as a feature

Plenty of travel photographers treat imperfection as something to be corrected in post: sharpen the grain away, lift the shadows, clean up the blur. Saxe does the opposite. His images resist the polished perfection that's become the default setting for travel photography. The press release puts it plainly: shadows soften the edges of memory, movement suggests the pulse of daily life, and imperfect moments become expressions of authenticity rather than mistakes to fix.

That's worth thinking about, next time you're tempted to bin a slightly soft frame because it didn't look "clean" enough. Here, a boy mid-tumble in a Havana street, caught in a blur that a sharpness-obsessed editor might reject, does more to convey the energy of the moment than a tack-sharp version ever could.

Why this matters

Cuba has been photographed relentlessly over the years, and there's a real risk of the island becoming photographic shorthand: a set of visual clichés rather than a place with its own present tense.

Saxe's approach – three trips deep and built around access rather than spectacle – gets past that. He's not interested in the big symbols of history and culture for their own sake. He wants to capture what those symbols sit alongside, which is ordinary Cuban life carrying on regardless.

A long apprenticeship

Saxe, born in Montreal in 1943, cites Robert Frank, Roy DeCarava and Henri Cartier-Bresson as his early influences, and spent four years studying under the Canadian photographer John Max before building a career that's now taken him through decades of exhibitions across Canada and the US.

It's a reminder that this kind of loose, atmospheric documentary style isn't a shortcut or an aesthetic trend; it's the product of a long apprenticeship in looking properly.

For anyone planning a documentary project where the obvious shot is tempting, Cuba es Vida is worth studying closely. The lesson isn't complicated: put the postcard down, wait for the gesture, and let the grain do some of the talking.

Cuba es Vida runs throughout August on All About Photo's Solo Exhibition platform.

There's a photograph of Vivienne Westwood above that I absolutely love. Shot by Jillian Edelstein, it shows the late fashion designer in close-up: flame-orange hair wild against a warm brown background, two small silver horns tucked into her curls, her expression somewhere between mischief and defiance.

It's funny, strange and tells you more about her in a single frame than most interviews managed in an hour. It's also, technically speaking, a celebrity portrait, but it has little in common with what that phrase usually implies.

Most celebrity photography exists to serve a purpose: the album campaign, the magazine cover, the press junket. The subject is presented as the public wants to see them, and the photographer's job is largely to execute that vision as efficiently as possible. Edelstein's work operates on a different plane entirely.

Her portraits of Amy Winehouse, Yoko Ono, Kate Moss, Helena Bonham Carter and Sandra Oh, all included in the forthcoming Stardust exhibition at Hundred Heroines in Gloucestershire, are studies in what happens when a photographer pursues the person behind the persona, rather than the image in front of it.

Surprising results

The results are consistently surprising. Winehouse, in a white crop top and towering beehive, arms folded and gaze averted, looks simultaneously iconic and guarded.

Bonham Carter, shot outdoors in black and white and visibly pregnant, is dressed in a feathered hat, fishnet tights and heels, perched on a garden chair. She appears theatrical and defiant, but shot with the quality of light and intimacy that feels nothing like a standard commission.

Yoko Ono faces the camera with arms crossed and one hand raised, as if conducting something inaudible. Kate Moss, caught in a crowd with a cigarette raised and hair mid-movement, looks as if nobody told her a photograph was being taken.

How Edelstein works

Born in Cape Town, Edelstein began her career as a press photographer before moving to London in the 1980s to study photojournalism. That background is relevant: press photography trains you to read situations quickly, to find the moment within the chaos rather than manufacturing one from scratch. Her portraits carry that quality, a sense of observation rather than construction, even when they're clearly set up.

Her most significant project to date, the book Truth and Lies (2002), documented the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission between 1996 and 2002, and won the John Kobal Book Award.

It's a long way from celebrity portraiture in subject matter, but the underlying approach is the same: find the human truth in the situation, however difficult or complex, and let the image carry it.

"My portraits included here reflect the humanity behind the mask of celebrity, the person behind the persona," she says. "We see them as more than the fame, more than the hype of modern-day fame. They become real and infinitely more moving as a result."

The exhibition

Stardust: 100 years of stage, screen and celebrity runs from September 11 to November 20 at the Hundred Heroines Photo Museum in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, with Edelstein's portraits displayed in the outdoor Art Garden at Mortimer Gardens nearby.

The exhibition also features archive material from Elisabeth Buchmeyer-Lewis, whose images of the music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, including a previously unseen contact sheet and performance photographs of Ian Dury, bring a rawer, more immediate energy alongside Edelstein's formal precision.

Hundred Heroines is the UK's only museum and charity dedicated to women in photography, and Stardust is the inaugural show in its new, larger, single-level gallery space. Entry is free; open Thursday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm.

I had to embark on several minutes of Google sleuthing last week to find out that the bright “star” I was looking at just after sunset was actually Venus – but an upcoming full-frame camera won’t just photograph the stars, but ID and track them too. The ArcBlue C24 is a full-frame astrophotography system that mixes a mirrorless camera with an integrated tracker together with the features of a smart telescope.

Smart telescopes help tell astro-beginners what they are looking at in the night sky, but lack the image prowess of a full-frame camera. The ArcBlue C24 aims to fix that by using a full-frame 24MP Sony sensor combined with a star tracker.

But the ArcBlue C24’s screen that helps not only ID but follow celestial objects across the night sky isn’t the only unusual feature about the camera’s screen. The screen can actually detach from the camera using a magnetic mount system. That allows creators to see the shots and browse the data without bumping the camera as it records – or tying up a smartphone with an app – as well as serving as a wireless remote control.

ArcBlue says that current deepsky setups typically require at least eight different devices and cables for what the C24 accomplishes in four devices and two cables. The camera is built for sitting inside a Pulsar Tri-Axis Harmonic Equatorial Mount – the astrophotography accessory that counteracts the rotation of the Earth for sharp long-exposure shots of the stars. A camera angle adjuster and a counterweight battery complete the setup.

Built-in storage and in-camera HDR stacking also help reduce the number of gadgets required.

The upcoming camera, however, is built for more than simplifying complex astrophotography setups. The 24MP full-frame Sony sensor can also capture in-camera HDR shots that take the sensor from a 14 EV dynamic range to a 29 EV dynamic range.

The camera’s dynamic range speaks to where the idea for the C24 came from. In a blog post, the start-up behind the camera explained that the C42 was built for “the worst lighting test you can give a camera:” a solar eclipse. The camera’s prototype dates back to 2015 and was used to photograph the eclipse in the US in 2017.

The camera’s sensor also has built-in cooling, as long exposures can introduce noise by overheating the sensor. The camera’s equatorial mount is designed to take sharp photos of stars in exposures as long as ten minutes, so cooling is a key feature for cleaner images.

The mirrorless camera is built with an interchangeable face plate system, which means the camera can be modified to support a variety of existing mirrorless lenses and telescopes. The camera will be available in versions to support Sony E, Canon EF, Nikon Z lenses and M68 telescope threads, while standard third-party adapters will open the camera up to lenses from other systems.

The start-up says that the support for existing lenses and telescopes works for ultra-wide astrophotography landscapes to telescope shots of distant celestial objects. While the C24 is designed to use fewer pieces than the standard deep astrophotography setups, the system can also be customized, including skipping the equatorial mount for a lighter nightscape kit.

The ArcBlue C24 was initially teased at the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) in April 2026, but the company is now hinting on social media that the C24 is coming “soon” to Kickstarter.

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3200MP, 500,000+ galaxies and 50,000+ stars: These are the numbers from the latest image coming from the world’s largest camera at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. And yet, researchers say the latest image from the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is just the beginning of what the record-breaking night sky camera could achieve.

The National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab, has released a new image of the COSMOS Field, one of the most observed sections of the sky, thanks to its relatively little interference from the light and dust of the Milky Way.

Captured by the LSST Camera, researchers say the shot offers a relatively clear view beyond the Milky Way, with only a small handful of Milky Way stars in the foreground. The image, researchers say, contains a myriad of different galaxies, from spirals to elliptical to even merging galaxies and distant red galaxies. The image covers about one sixth of the visible night sky in the southern hemisphere.

The photograph is constructed from a series of hundreds of separate views from LSST, which at more than three tons and roughly the size of a small car, is the world’s largest camera. The images were captured between April 2025 and January 2026, when the LSST camera was still in its testing phase.

The LSST’s decade-long survey of the night sky only began earlier this summer, and researchers suggest that the newest image is just a hint of what’s to come. The image was released to celebrate the first phase of Rubin’s Data Preview 2.

“The COSMOS deep image is just the beginning for Rubin in this region,” said Rubin Observatory Director at NSF NoirLab Bob Blum. Repeated visits to the field over the next few years will demonstrate the power of our survey design for discovery by providing our science community with a huge number of transient and variable objects like supernovae and other explosive transients for follow-up and detailed study.”

The LSST camera uses mirrors and three lenses to capture views of the night sky on a 3200MP sensor. NoirLab says that to get the same resolution from a smartphone camera, you’d need about 260 of them. The camera weighs about 6,600 lbs / 3,000 kg – even the filters for the camera are about 90 pounds / 40 kg.

While the LSST’s decade-long survey of the night sky has only just begun, early images are available to explore (and pixel peep) in the Vera C Rubin Skyviewer app.

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When photographer and visual artist Callie Soden (US) crafted the composite scene of her dog praying at an altar, she may well have envisioned the canine pleading with God for her to win the 2026 International Pet Photography Awards.

Well, it seems like these prayers were answered as, over the weekend, Soden was crowned this year’s competition queen.

Announced at the Zoom finalists ceremony on Saturday 01 August, Soden was made International Pet Photographer of the Year 2026 thanks to her series of five doggy depictions, which also included an atmospheric scene of her howling pet on a rocky beach, that won the “Creative” and “Studio” categories.

The eighth installment of the competition – which accepts standard as well as composite imagery, predominantly of dogs, cats, and horses – received a record 4,220 entries from 48 countries spread across 12 categories.

In the “Commissioned Portfolio” category, Canadian photographer Shandess Griffin placed first with her cinematic series of a golden retriever on a scenic stroll in the magnificent British Columbia backcountry.

And German photographer Linda Glomb won the “Action” category for her excellently composed image of a jumping dog almost standing straight in the air, mirroring the stone building support columns in the background.

Laura Brockhoff from Austria won the “Equine Portrait” category with a documentary-style black-and-white scene of a curious horse interacting with an old US police car parked next to its field. Over in the “Feline Portrait” category, Australia’s Belinda Richards took first place with a seemingly mischievous cat poking its cute white head through a hole in the wall.

All category winners took home US$250 (£185 / AU$357), a trophy, certificate, plus a one-year membership to professional photography networks. As the 2026 International Pet Photographer of the Year, Callie Soden won an additional $500 (£370 / AU$715). If I were her, I'd have my dog back at the church altar howling the Lord’s praise in no time.

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Whether you're a seasoned photographer, a beginner just getting started or someone who loves capturing beautiful moments, submitting your images to photo competitions is one of the best ways to gain exposure and recognition.

Entering competitions isn't just about winning – though prizes and publicity are great bonuses! It's also a chance to dive into your archives, rediscover your best images and refine your personal style. Many photographers say competitions were the stepping stone that helped them build a name, grow their audience or land their first big feature.

And with so many open calls across all genres – there's something for everyone. So, here's a list of photography competitions with open calls that are accepting submissions from August 2026 until January 2027. It's a small selection to spark inspiration, but there are countless others out there…

Living with Wildlife Photography Competition

Deadline: August 16

Open to: Photographers of all levels aged 18+

Fee: Free

Categories: Life on the Edge – where people and wildlife meet, Reality Check – the challenges of living with wildlife, Custodians of the Land – community conservation in action

Prizes: Overall winner: $1,000 + $500 community donation + fully funded trip to the awards even in South Africa for winner and one guest. Two runners-up receive $300 each

RMetS Weather Photographer of the Year 2026

Deadline: August 20

Open to: Photographers of all levels

Fee: Free

Categories: Weather Photographer of the Year (most striking weather images in action), Mobile Weather Photographer of the Year (must be captured on a smartphone or tablet), Climate Award (a compelling story about our changing climate)

Special: Public Favourite Award – decided by a global public vote

Prizes: £2,000 prize pool; winning work is showcased by media partners The Royal Meteorological Society, My Modern Met and ITV Weather

Ilminster Arts Centre Photography Open Competition

Deadline: August 29

Open to: Photographers of all levels

Requirement: Photographs must have been taken within the last 24 months in the UK

Fee: £10 Student/Graduate: 2 new pieces + 1 mounted browser work + proof of eligibility, £20: 1 new piece + 1 mounted browser work, £30: 2 new pieces + 2 mounted browser works

Theme: Open to all photography styles and subjects

Prizes: Exclusive exhibition

Brian Black Memorial Award

Note: The Digital Camera World team will join the judging panel

Deadline: August 30

Open to: Photographers of all levels living in the UK

Fee: Free

Theme: "Our Inspiring Seas"

Categories: Adult photo competition, Article competition, Junior photo competition (under 16 years)

Prizes: £3,000 prize pool – Winning article: £1,500 cash prize, publication in Yachting Monthly (print+online), interview on The Sailing Podcast; Adult photo competition: camera equipment worth £750; Junior photo competition: camera equipment worth £500

Charity contribution: The Black Memorial Award donates £500 to Sea-Changers.

Botanical Photographer of the Year

Deadline: September 30

Open to: Photographers of all levels

Fee: Free

Focus: Britain and Ireland's wild plants

Categories: Intrepid: Plants in wild, hard-to-reach, or dramatic landscapes, Inquisitive: Close-up shots highlighting the fascinating and minute features that are often used in ID, Inclusive: People interacting with plants, urban botany, or community recording, Open: For entries that fall outside the above.

Special: Young Botanical Photographer of the Year for an entry into any category, aged 18 or under

Prizes: To be announced

Travel Photographer of the Year

Deadline: October 12

Open to: Photographers of all levels

Fee: From £14, entry is FREE for young photographers aged 18 and under

Portfolio categories: Adventures & Journeys, Cultures, Traditions & Celebrations, Landscapes – Nature & Urban, Wildlife, Sealife, Birdlife

One Shot categories: In Nature, People of the World, Street, Travel in Black & White,

Special Awards: Travel Photographer of the Year, Young Travel Photographer of the Year, Travel Image of the Year, Rising Talent Award, People’s Choice Award

Prizes: Cash prizes from £1,000 to £200, industry portfolio reviews, media exposure, and more

Wellcome Photography Prize

Deadline: October 21

Open to: Photographers of all levels

Fee: Free

Focus: Issues on health, science, and the human experience

Categories: Striking solo photography, A storytelling series, The marvels of scientific and medical imaging

Prize: £10,000 for each Category Winner, 22 entries from across the three categories will be awarded £1,000 each, extensive international media coverage

Insta 360 Global Awards

Deadline: October 30

Fee: Free

Open to: Photographers and videographers of all levels

Requirement: Entries must be shot on Insta360 or Antigravity products

Format: Videos: 30sec-3min MP4/MOV, single image only under 20MB

Categories: Street, Travel, Life, Portrait, Sports, Night

Prizes: $150,000+ prize pool with over 100 winners to be announced

Sony World Photography Awards

Deadline: November 27 (Student), January 5 (Youth + Single Images), January 12 (Series)

Fee: Free

Open to: Photographers of all levels

Competitions: Series (previously Professional competition), Single Image (previously Open competition), Student, Youth

Categories: up to 10 different categories depending on competition

Prizes: Cash prizes up to $25,000, top-tier Sony equipment, and global exhibition opportunities

OPPO Photography Awards

Deadline: December 31

Open to: Photographers and videographers of all levels, shooting with OPPO, OnePlus, or realme devices

Fee: Free

Theme: "Super Every Moment"

Categories: Me, Journey, Video, Zoom, Live, Snap

Prizes: $76,500 prize pool across 38 awards

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Somewhere in the churn of camera forums and social feeds, there's an unspoken belief that a landscape photographer's worth is measured in air miles. New country, new light, new content – the algorithm rewards novelty, and novelty rewards the photographer who's always somewhere else.

So it's worth noting that Robert Canis has just published Elmley: First Light to Last, a 208-page coffee-table book built entirely from one nature reserve, 40 miles southeast of London, that he's been returning to for more than 30 years.

Elmley National Nature Reserve sits on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent; a stretch of grazing marsh, ditches and big skies that isn't obviously glamorous. There's no mountain range, no coastline drama, no volcanic backdrop. What there is, according to Canis, is light: shifting, seasonal, endlessly reworked light that he's chased across the same fields for a generation.

The book distils that obsession into 139 photographs, woven with poetry and his own reflections, tracing a single day's arc through all four seasons. It comes with a foreword from Stephen Dalton, one of the pioneers of high-speed nature photography, and an afterword from Elmley's founder, Philip Merricks MBE.

The unglamorous discipline of staying put

For those of us weaned on bucket lists and destination photography, there's something almost contrary about a book built from one location. Canis didn't need a new continent to find new pictures; he needed to keep showing up to the same gate, the same fenceline, the same stretch of water, until the marsh gave something up that it hadn't offered before.

The images here bear that out. Fog rolling off flooded fields at dawn. A moorhen silhouetted on ice. A redshank landing mid-call in dew-soaked grass. None of this happens on a first visit. It happens on the 200th, or possibly the 2000th.

Depth of knowledge of a single place, its tides, its resident birds, its microclimates, produces images that a passing visitor simply can't get. It's the difference between photographing a location and understanding one.

The other lesson here is what it takes to actually get a book like this into print in 2026. Canis hasn't just made pictures; he's become a publisher, marketer and events organiser in the process, working with editor Keith Wilson and designer Eddie Ephraums on a single, unrepeatable print run produced in Verona, Italy.

There are three editions, from a £60 standard copy to a £225 deluxe version with hand-numbered slipcases and fine art prints, plus a launch at Elmley itself and a talk at the Avenue Theatre in Sittingbourne, Kent. Five per cent of profits go back to the reserve's conservation work.

It's a reminder that finishing the photography is often the easy part; turning 30 years of transparencies and files into a finished, funded, distributed object is its own long apprenticeship, one increasingly familiar to independent photographers who no longer wait for a publisher to come knocking.

Pre-orders for Elmley: First Light to Last close at 7pm on Friday 7 August, after which the print run is fixed for good. Whether or not it tempts you, it's a useful prompt to ask what your own overlooked local patch might yield, if you give it three decades rather just than three weekends.

As a photographer, creating an image that has never been made before is a career-defining moment. For Gonzalo Javier Santile, Valle de la Luna, Universo Triasico Ischigualasto represents exactly that: the first photograph showing a complete Milky Way Arch above Parque Provincial Ischigualasto, known as Valle de la Luna, in San Juan, Argentina.

The landscape is one of the Earth's most significant geological sites, shaped over 200 million years by ancient river systems and preserving the only complete sequence of the Triassic Period visible anywhere on the planet.

Santile's achievement was recognized as his image was selected for Capture the Atlas' 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection, which celebrates exceptional night-sky photography from around the world.

But creating the image required far more than technical skill. Working alongside a local guide, Santile used an astro-modified DSLR, a wide-angle lens and a star tracker to capture the sweeping Milky Way arch above Ischiqualasto's unique landscape.

How 'Valle de la Luna, Universo Triasico Ischigualasto' was photographed

Tech info
Gear: Nikon D750 (astro-modified) + Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2
Accessories: No filters, iOptron SkyGuider Pro
Exposure: Sky: 90s, f/2.8, ISO 2000, foreground: 20s, f/2.8, ISO 6400
Frames: 20-frame panorama
Technique: Ground-based star tracker for sky exposures

The story behind the still
Santile explains, "This photograph captures the first full Milky Way arch ever taken at this location, a site of exceptional scientific and cultural significance.

"Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its geological importance lies in being the only place on Earth where the complete sequence of the Triassic Period can be observed, preserving key fossils from the earliest dinosaurs and earning its place among the most valuable geological heritage sites in the world.

"Located in Valle Fértil, this landscape was shaped more than 200 million years ago by powerful river systems. Today, it continues to attract geologists and paleontologists from around the globe, further highlighting both its importance and its fragility.

"While photographing in the area known as Cancha de Bochas, I felt an unprecedented sense of responsibility. Guided by local experts, accessing the site required extreme care.

"Every movement had to be deliberate to avoid damaging this irreplaceable environment, turning the experience into a challenge that went far beyond the technical aspects of photography.

"In the end, this was not just about capturing an image, but about connecting with the deep past of our planet. Places like this remind us that beyond appreciating them, we also share the responsibility of preserving them.

"This photo is a reminder that magic often hides in the most unexpected places. All it takes is a little patience, planning, and passion."

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Scroll through the coverage of the historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rightsmarch and you'll find plenty of close, urgent pictures. Clenched jaws. Raised placards. Martin Luther King mid-stride at the front of the crowd. James Karales' contribution to that archive, now touring as part of Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder, does something dramatically different.

Rather than focus on faces, Karales stepped back, dropped low and let a vast, roiling thunderhead swallow two-thirds of the frame. The marchers become a ribbon of silhouettes along the bottom edge, faceless, anonymous; their only individual detail a hat brim here or a raised flag there. On paper, it really shouldn't work as well as it does. And that's exactly why it's worth studying.

Karales was on assignment for Look magazine, having trained under W. Eugene Smith at Magnum, and by 1965 he'd already spent years learning to find the quiet, introspective moment inside a chaotic news story rather than reaching for the obvious drama. That instinct is all over this frame.

Ulimately, it lets the Alabama sky do the emotional work: an enormous dark cloud bearing down on a line of people walking toward an uncertain future. The American flags rippling above the crowd read almost as an act of defiance against the weather itself.

It's the kind of picture that photojournalism students are taught to avoid making. No hero shot, no identifiable protagonist, no clean single point of focus. Yet it's arguably the most reproduced, most instantly recognisable image to come out of Selma that isn't a portrait of King himself.

The importance of structure

What makes the picture work is entirely down to structure. Karales shot from a low angle, almost at ground level, which does two things at once. It pushes the marchers' silhouettes up against the sky rather than the landscape behind them, and it exaggerates the scale of the cloud looming above. The horizon line sits low in the frame, roughly a fifth of the way up, leaving the sky to dominate.

That's a brave ratio to commit to on the day. The instinct of most photographers would be to give the subject more room and the sky less. Here, though, the cloud isn't background, it's practically a second subject; a visual stand-in for the pressure and menace the marchers were walking into.

The use of silhouette matters too. By exposing for the sky rather than the crowd, Karales strips away individual identity and turns the marchers into a single mass; a movement rather than a collection of people.

It's a technique documentary photographers still reach for when they want an image to speak for a cause rather than a single participant: think of any wide, backlit shot of a protest march since. Karales was doing it with a 35mm camera and no idea if the shot would work until the black-and-white film came back from the lab.

A lesson in restraint

There's a broader lesson here: sometimes the most truthful picture isn't the one that gets you closest to a face. Karales' choice to hang back and let atmosphere carry the weight produced an image that's outlasted plenty of tighter, more conventional shots from the same march. It's proof that restraint, when well judged, can hit harder than proximity.

Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder, including Karales' Selma to Montgomery March, Alabama, is at the Southampton Arts Center until to September 27, before touring to Sarasota, Charleston and Miami through early 2028.

The brevity of a total solar eclipse makes it unlike any other photographic subject. You can photograph wildlife every weekend, revisit a landscape whenever you want and take hundreds of attempts at deep-sky astrophotography.

A total solar eclipse offers no such luxury. The event is geographically very specific, it unfolds quickly, and the most spectacular phase lasts only a few minutes or even seconds.

That rarity is what makes eclipse photography so compelling. During totality, when the moon completely covers the sun, daylight fades to twilight, the temperature drops, shadows become strangely sharp and the solar corona emerges around the silhouette of the moon.

The challenge is to come home with memorable images without spending the entire brief event staring at the back of a camera. It’s a challenge many fail at because they don’t make decisions or prepare in advance.

Photographing a total solar eclipse: Why it’s so special

If you want to image a total solar eclipse, you must be within the narrow path of totality – the moon’s central shadow – which on 12 August 2026 is about 180 miles wide and will move over eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. Beyond, many other places in the UK, Europe and North America will see a partial solar eclipse.

Once you’re in place, photographing a total solar eclipse requires two very different approaches. During the initial and following partial phases, the sun remains intensely bright and must be photographed through a certified solar filter.

During the brief totality, that filter must be removed because the faint corona is only visible when the sun is completely covered.

The transition between those two states happens remarkably quickly. For most photographers, the challenge is knowing exactly what to do and when to do it, while the clock is ticking.

This isn't about expensive gear. A photographer with modest kit who knows exactly what images they want, has rehearsed in advance and has read Alan Dyer’s brilliant How to Capture the Coming Solar Eclipses book will typically outperform someone with expensive gear they've never tested. Don’t be in that second group!

Photographing a total solar eclipse: Staying safe

Before even thinking about cameras and lenses, it's essential to understand eclipse safety. Whenever any portion of the sun is visible – even 1% – you must use proper solar protection for both your camera and your eyes.

For visual observing, wear eclipse glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 standard. For photography, use a secure front-mounted solar filter designed specifically for solar imaging.

The solar filter must be as close to the sun as possible in any setup. Never look through an optical viewfinder at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun. Use Live View or an electronic viewfinder instead (doing so also helps you manually focus for a sharp image).

When photographing a total solar eclipse, you put a filter on during all partial phases and take it off only during totality. After totality ends, you put the filter back on immediately.

It’s worth noting here that the partial phases on either side are not rare and can be imaged from hundreds of miles away. You’ve traveled to the path of totality to experience and photograph totality – that’s the shot. How you take that shot, and with what, however, is up for grabs.

Photographing a total solar eclipse: Composition

Do you want a close-up of the eclipsed sun or an image of it set against a landscape? One of the biggest mistakes that first-time eclipse photographers make is unthinkingly focusing exclusively on the sun.

They see a beautiful image of the solar corona during totality and want to replicate it. In some ways, it’s classic “Instagram gaze” – a copycat composition that uses an existing image as a template rather than responding freshly to the scene in front of you.

There’s nothing wrong with this, mostly because the eclipsed sun is unique – you’ll likely capture loops of red plasma leaping from the surface of the sun around the silhouette of the moon, sparkling Baily’s beads of sunlight and a tenuous corona that is always unique.

However, it’s more of a science image. Is that what you’re after? If so, go for it. Or you could ask what the place you’re in is actually offering you – and that goes double for the 2026 total solar eclipse.

Close-up images of the corona are spectacular, but the eclipse transforms the entire landscape. Your surroundings, the changing light and the reactions of observers around you tell a more complete story. You can choose one approach – or you can attempt both.

Photographing a total solar eclipse: Equipment

For detailed solar images, a DSLR or mirrorless camera paired with a telephoto lens works best. A camera phone can record the experience, particularly during totality, but it will not give you close-up images of the sun.

Think about your goals before eclipse day. Broadly speaking, there are a handful of approaches:

• Telephoto photography of the partially and totally eclipsed sun and corona on a tripod (400-600mm lens).
• Telephoto photography of the partially and totally eclipsed sun and corona using a solar tracker on a tripod (800mm lens).
• Wide-angle images showing the landscape during totality (wide-angle lens / GoPro / smartphone) on a tripod or handheld.
• Documentary-style handheld photographs capturing people experiencing the event (smartphone)

Many experienced eclipse photographers run two cameras: one with a long lens and one with a wide-angle lens. Consider which type of image will be most meaningful to you.

Photographing a total solar eclipse: Smartphone

Look at the image above, taken from a cruise ship in 2023. It includes the ship, the people on it and the eclipse. It’s a unique image that can never be replicated – and it was taken using an iPhone.

A smartphone can do a lot during an eclipse, capturing documentary-style photographs of people wearing eclipse glasses during the partial phases, as well as a silhouette of a loved one staring skyward during totality.

In the final minutes before totality, search for crescent-shaped projections beneath trees, where gaps in the leaves act like thousands of tiny pinhole cameras.

A good way to use it is to engage the RAW or ProRAW mode, if your phone offers it, and switch off the flash (unless you want to annoy everyone). Just before totality, focus on something in the distance by touching it on your camera, then lock the focus. For polish, take the brightness slider down a touch.

Now you’re ready to take lots of wide-angle images in the first few seconds of totality – before putting your smartphone in your pocket so you can just enjoy the remaining seconds.

If possible, mount the phone on a small tripod and consider using hands-free time-lapse or video modes. Note that the super-wide lens on your smartphone is much less sensitive than the main lens.

Photographing a solar eclipse: Settings

If you’re using a telephoto lens, you need to practice focusing in advance. Autofocus can struggle with a filtered sun, so manual focus is usually the safest option.

Before eclipse day, practice taking images of the sun through your solar filter. That way, you’ve nailed the partial phases before you even get to the path of totality. Focus carefully on the sun’s edge and then leave focus untouched. You could even consider using masking tape to keep the lens in place.

It’s important to practice because solar filters differ in how much light they let through, so exposure lengths vary from around 1/25 sec for Thousand Oaks SolarLite filters (which give the sun an orangey look) and ND 1,000,000 filters, and 1/500-1/1000 sec for Baader AstroSolar filters (which give the sun a whitish look).

Exposure settings vary depending on the filter used, but a useful starting point during the partial and total phases is ISO200 and an aperture of f/8.

Review your images and adjust as needed. The goal is to preserve detail in the solar crescent without clipping highlights. Some photographers take an image of the partially eclipsed sun every five minutes so they can assemble a composite later (above).

Photographing a total solar eclipse: Settings

As a 99.99% partial eclipse transitions to totality, everything changes. Light levels plunge in seconds, a diamond ring hangs around the moon and tiny Baily’s beads of sunlight dance on the limb.

Seconds later, the corona can be seen spraying into space. It spans a huge brightness range, from the brilliant inner corona to faint outer streamers extending far from the sun.

There is no one perfect image of the solar corona – there are dozens of different exposures that will create a different image. Eclipse photographers tend to take hundreds of photos to process, blend and stack to create composite images that try to show as much of the corona as possible.

For that reason, exposure bracketing is highly recommended. If you capture a sequence of images ranging from fast shutter speeds (such as 1/1000 sec) to slower exposures (around 1 second), you’ll have a good chance of recording both fine detail and the outer corona.

For example, 1/1000 sec will get you a nice image of the bright diamond ring, but 0.5-1 seconds is how to get a big corona seconds later. A few minutes later, totality will end with a second diamond ring.

Exposures vary. The above image from Alan Dyer of the end of totality as the second diamond ring emerges is a composite of two images taken seconds apart – a 1/15 sec exposure for the corona and a 1/1000 sec exposure for the prominences and chromosphere.

It was taken with a small refractor telescope and a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera. In this case, a polar-aligned equatorial mount was used so the camera was tracking the sky.

Consider programming an exposure sequence, or using bracketing, so that the camera works for you and makes everything as simple as possible.

When the first bright point of sunlight reappears, totality is over. Replace the solar filter immediately before continuing to photograph the remaining partial phases.

Photographing a total solar eclipse: The best approach

A total solar eclipse is such a dynamic, impressive and otherworldly experience. Instead of obsessing over the perfect image, make a plan that enables you record the event while staying present.

Prepare your equipment, rehearse your workflow and understand exactly when to remove and replace your solar filter. Then, when totality arrives, trust your preparation and take a moment to enjoy what is happening above you.

The best eclipse photograph is often not technically brilliant, but merely the one that forever reminds you of the very short time you had in front of one of nature’s most extraordinary spectacles.

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The email pings, so you go check it. The request is vague, but the budget is "tight". Translation: they're hoping you'll work cheap for exposure that never materializes. Those wonderful exposure dollars that pay for nothing.

More warning signs show up if you're paying attention early on. They may be slow to respond about project details, but demanding about turnaround times. Emailing at odd hours, expecting immediate replies. Copying multiple stakeholders who all have opinions but none have decision-making authority.

These aren't just annoying quirks. They're previews of what working with them will be like.

Watch for scope creep before the contract is even signed (and, yes, you need a contract). "Just a quick headshot session" becomes "actually, can we do team photos, and some product shots, and maybe capture some behind-the-scenes content?"

The project expands but the budget doesn't. If they're already pushing boundaries during negotiations, imagine what happens once you've delivered files. Endless revisions, extended payment dates.

The comparison game is a red flag. "Our nephew has a camera," or "We saw AI can do this now," or "Another photographer quoted less." They're not looking for your specific skills or vision. They're looking for the cheapest option and hoping you'll undercut yourself to win the work.

And then there’s the communication style. They can’t articulate what they actually want but will definitely know it when they see it. Demanding to review full edited galleries before paying. Questioning your process or timeline when they've never shot professionally.

These aren't detail-oriented clients. They're clients who don't trust you and won't suddenly start once the shoot begins.

The financial reality is straightforward: difficult clients cost more than they pay. Every extra revision round eats up your time. Expanded scope without expanded budget kills your margins. Delayed payment disrupts cash flow and wastes time as you have to hunt for it.

Then there’s the time spent managing unrealistic expectations. Time better spent finding better clients or doing better work.

The complication in smaller markets is that you'll encounter them again. You can't burn bridges carelessly. But you can decline professionally. Be honest about capacity constraints. Suggest alternatives who might be better suited. Price yourself out rather than outright refusing. The goal is to say no without making enemies.

Learn to trust your gut. When something feels off in initial conversations, it usually is. The money you save by not taking bad jobs isn't just the fee you don't earn. It's the opportunity cost of having your schedule blocked by nightmare projects instead of available for clients who value your work.

Even if you’re an amateur who's taking occasional work, don’t be taken advantage of. If they didn’t think there was value to the work, they wouldn’t approach you.

Saying no is professional. It protects your time, your rates, and your reputation. The confidence to walk away changes how you negotiate. You set proper boundaries because you know you don't need every job that comes through.

Some work just isn't worth doing, at any price.

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When you don't have a studio but love using light, you go through a whole series of gear changes before landing on something that actually works. For the self-taught photographer, that usually means progressing through the ‘strobist’ journey, learning off-camera flash with small speedlights before gradually realizing their limitations.

Your typical early setup might include three speedlights, a few lightweight stands, some white shoot-through umbrellas and maybe a snoot. It's compact, accessible and barely takes up any room. I definitely went through this phase, with additional radio transmitters and receivers back before they were built into flashes.

The trouble starts outdoors on a bright day. You're at full power with all three flashes zoomed into one umbrella – and it's still not enough to balance against the daylight.

Worse, you're shooting at f/22 just to keep your shutter speed below 1/250 sec – the dreaded sync speed. Go above that and the flash doesn't cover the whole frame. Bare flash almost cuts it, but it's not flattering and everything is in focus.

So you investigate higher-power lights and the modifiers to go with them. I went to the Elinchrom Quadra pack-and-head system – a 400Ws setup that I still have in boxes around the studio – but these are long out of vogue and there are far more options available now.

You discover high speed sync for creamy, shallow-focus portraits or start using neutral density filters to the same end. Both techniques eat into your power budget, pushing you into 400-600Ws territory. You need heavier light stands and, because you're still working on location, you need modifiers that pack down compactly.

So where does that leave things now?

I run two location setups: one very compact kit for indoors and a main system for most commercial jobs. Both are built around a three-light configuration: key light, fill / separation and background.

The compact kit started with three Godox V850II speedlights, but I've since moved to using two Godox AD100 Pros for more power in a smaller package. The key modifier here is the SMDV Flip 32, a wonderful octabox that opens in seconds, has a built-in stand adapter, and can be angled to suit your shot – similar in concept to the Profoto Clic system.

The stands are Manfrotto Nanos. A specific ring locks the AD100 in place on the Flip 32, though equivalent rings are available for V850-style speedlights. Depending on the shoot I might bring additional modifiers – a Godox snoot and a SmallRig FS30120 strip softbox (a 30x120cm box, hence the numbers!).

These are shared with the main system, mounted via Godox S2 brackets for Bowens-mount compatibility. The SmallRig in particular uses a quick setup and release system unlike anything else I've used. If I need additional light, I use one of the V850IIs I still have.

The main system is built around the Godox AD600BM (also sold as the rebranded Pixapro Citi600). These take Bowens modifiers directly and are more compact than the Elinchrom ELX 500s I use in the studio.

Alongside the FS30120 strips shared with the compact kit, I use the LA-90 Octa, which has a similar fast-assembly system. Stands are Neewer air-cushioned. Usually I travel with two lights, but I do have a third as backup, and sometimes I want a three-light setup (coupled with an additional FS30120.

I also use a version where I have the octa in front with an eye-lighter and a Lastolite (now Manfrotto) Hilite. Both systems are triggered by the Godox X3 – a compact touchscreen unit that handles the whole setup cleanly.

The weak point is transport. The main system currently splits across two Neewer bags – one for stands and umbrellas, one for lights and softboxes – which works for easy trunk storage but isn't ideal, no wheels for getting to the location from the car being the main issue.

The plan is to consolidate into a Think Tank Production Manager 40 rolling case, once I've confirmed the fit with the trunk of the car.

For a today version of this, you could reasonably use the AD100Pro II versions for the compact setup and the AD600Pro II for the main system – or even the AD400Pro II if you want a smaller size for about two-thirds lower power.

Best of all, you can use all the lights I’ve listed together, for those shots where you need more control or practicals on set. I’m not really sure I need eight lights on set, but you never know!

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Color photography got its start from an unusually bland source: Potatoes. The first attempts at color photography date all the way back to 1861, but while the very first color photograph sparked an interest in capturing color, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that an easily repeatable, beginner-friendly form of color photography would emerge – and from a basic vegetable no less.

In 1861, the color-obsessed researcher James Clerk Maxwell proved that mixing red, green and blue light would allow the human eye to see a full color photograph. But early attempts to capture color in photographs were complex and impractical.

The French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière took the idea of using red, green and blue dots to create a full-color photograph and started looking for the materials to create a transparent color filter. The material needed to have uniform, microscopic round particles, but it also needed to be relatively easy (and affordable) to find – and that’s where the potato comes in.

Potato starch has microscopic round particles. The Lumière brothers found that adding dye to potato starch in separate batches of red, green, and violet and then mixing the solution together and painting over a sticky glass plate created a color filter. Charcoal powder was used to fill in any gaps and help create contrast. Light went through the tri-colored dyed potato starch coating on one side of the glass to hit the light-sensitive chemicals on the other side of the glass plate.

The result was a glass photograph like many of the glass-based images of the era – only these photographs were in color. Better yet, the Autochrome Lumière plates worked with existing cameras.

The Autochrome overcame a number of hurdles that earlier color photography attempts did not, making a process that was easy enough and affordable enough to create a sellable photography process. But, the Autochrome wasn’t without its challenges. The glass plates needed to be held up to light to view, with the best way to see the glass images through a diascope stand with a mirror. Autochromes also tend to fade when exposed to too much UV light, so these photographs weren’t something that could just be hung on a wall.

Autochromes were known for having a rather startling dreamlike feel to them. In fact, one article from the Photographic News in 1908 described the process this way: “Witchcraft would have been but a feeble, almost complimentary term, for anything so realistic and startling.”

While the autochrome is considered the first commercially successful form of color photography, the plates were more expensive than monochrome ones and required a much longer exposure time – even a sunny day would have still required a one-second exposure, longer on a cloudy day.

Multi-layer color films eventually replaced the fragile glass plates. But the autochrome also helped prove a concept that is still in use today: that dots of red, green, and blue can create a full color image.

Digital camera sensors use a similar idea. A colored filter array arranged with tiny green, red, and blue filters is what allows a camera sensor to see colors – without this arrangement of red, green, and blue, the camera sensor would be black-and-white.

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Once in a while you see an image that just stops you in your tracks. It makes you put on the brakes, drop whatever it is you were doing and just look. This image of a solitary mangrove tree silhouetted against the glistening Milky Way night sky while being reflected in the shallow tidal water is one of those.

It must have had a similar effect on the judges at the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards – a competition that draws attention to these vital marine ecosystems and their conservation – as it won first place in the Landscapes – On The Ground category.

For me, everything about this image – taken in Indonesia by Japanese photographer Ryuhei Suguri – is spot on. The mangrove is placed perfectly in the center, with just enough space dedicated to its reflection in the water while leaving ample space to masterfully juxtapose the tree against the star-abundant expanse above.

“Although small against the vast scale of the universe, mangrove forests play a critical role in protecting coastlines and supporting biodiversity,” Suguri told the competition organizers.

“By placing the tree beneath the Milky Way, I wanted to express a sense of connection between the ancient rhythms of the cosmos and the fragile ecosystems along Earth's shores.”

Surprisingly, Suguri didn't take the overall competition crown with this shot. He faced stiff competition at the 2026 edition of the awards, with the title of Mangrove Photographer of the Year going to Gaurav Patil. His frame of a UV light-illuminated “ghost fishing” net caught on a mangrove embodied a strong composition and conservation narrative.

Still, Suguri's photo is second to none in my eyes – and it can't have been easy for the judges when choosing who to crown as the overall winner for 2026.

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As a professional photographer, I’ve seen a lot of stunning photographs – but there’s one image in particular that stopped me in my tracks this week: a “fire-breathing dragon of clouds.”

What keeps drawing me back to Maximilien Lamy’s photograph taken along the shore of France’s Lake Lacanau isn’t just the dramatic cloud rising off the Gironde wildfire, but the beachgoers calmly sitting in the sand, relaxing under an umbrella.

The beachgoers are a dramatic contrast to the crisis unfolding in the distance. The eerie contrast feels as if it carries a message, heavy with the reality that with the wildfires raging since mid-July, life continues amid the state of emergency. The contrast also speaks to the cause of the wildfires as the beachgoers cool off amid record temperatures.

This week, wildfires caused France’s first pyrocumulonimbus cloud – wildfire clouds that are hot enough to cause their own thunderstorm. NASA describes the rare weather phenomenon as a “fire-breathing dragon of clouds.”

According to the photograph’s metadata, the image was taken with a Huawei smartphone, a reminder that the right composition can create a powerful image regardless of what gear was used.

Lamy’s photograph may have stopped me in my tracks, but that’s not the only incredible image that I’ve seen coming from photojournalists this week.

Sheltering at a metro station in Kyiv

When I first saw this image by Oleksii Flippov, I had to look closer to grasp what I was really looking at: people taking shelter in a metro station during a missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The unusual angle taken from the top of an escalator both draws my eye deeper into the photograph and illustrates just how crowded the station was, as the floor of the station is so full there’s even someone resting at the very bottom of the escalator itself.

The photograph, taken on July 30, is a sobering reminder of the continuing conflict in Ukraine.

A funeral from a dramatic angle

The circular shape and architecture in this photograph by Getty’s Kenny Holston immediately drew my eye to the funeral unfolding in the center of the frame. The image comes from the funeral of late US Senator Lindsey Graham on July 28.

The photograph uses the iconic architecture of the Rotunda in the US Capitol to draw the eye to the flag-draped coffin in the center of the frame. Holston used the Nikon Z9 and the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S ultra-wide to fit the scene and architecture into the frame.

A dramatic drone shot of a wildfire’s aftermath

This drone shot by Oscar Del Pozo shows the reality of what residents face after a wildfire. In the photo taken on a farm west of Madrid, Spain, goats dot the scorched earth after a wildfire went through the farm.

The shot was taken with a DJI drone. The unusual angle draws attention to not just the goats but the animals' shadows. Another reason that I find the image striking is that the goats seem to match the color palette of the scorched earth.

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Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), the iconic 20th century French street photographer, is best known for his famous humanist approach to documenting everyday Parisian moments.

In later years, though, he’s arguably become just as well known for something he said to Australian photographer and photography historian Peter Adams in 1987.

Adams was interviewing Doisneau as part of a monumental 39-year pursuit to photograph the most famous living photographers from the past century, when the Frenchman said:

“You must let the person looking at the photograph go some way to finishing it. You should offer them a seed that will grow and open up their minds.”

But what did Doisneau mean by this, and how do you do this with your photos?

While certainly open to interpretation, I’m sure many of us would agree that the central idea the late street photographer was getting at was that a good photo doesn’t tell the beginning, middle and end of a scene.

It leaves a gap for the viewer to decide, in some way, how the narrative should unfold. A philosophy that the following image, taken fairly recently (and, fittingly, in Paris) by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Turnley, perfectly encapsulates.

At first, it may seem like the image tells the entire story. Inside the cafe, we see the subject: a woman with a coffee and a half-eaten pain au chocolat. And reflected in the window we see what she sees: a man riding by on a bicycle and the Parisian cityscape.

But it’s the woman’s pondering, perhaps concerned, expression that enables us to write the end of this script, despite the fact that Turnley gives us a complete understanding of her surroundings.

What is she thinking? Is she concerned or is she just in deep thought? Maybe she’s simply posing, hoping that Turnley captures her best angle.

To me, it’s this. I don’t know the story behind the image, but the way the woman eloquently rests her head on her clasped hands makes me think she noticed the camera in time to position herself.

Interestingly Doisneau himself didn’t always follow his own philosophy, so well-embodied by Turnley’s frame. Ironically, his most famous shot – a staged scene called Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville – doesn’t leave much to the imagination, at least not in my view.

Although maybe this is just as important a takeaway: that a philosophy should guide your photography, not be a strict rule to follow at all times.

But the idea of planting a seed in the mind of the viewer for them to sow into an idea was certainly of utmost importance to Doisneau – who, in much of his work, found ways to infuse intrigue, mystery, and imagination into everyday scenes of life on Paris’ streets.

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August 2026 is one of the most event-packed months of the year for astrophotographers — and perhaps the busiest for years. On August 12, it not only delivers a rare total solar eclipse across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but also a partial solar eclipse that’s deep across Europe and shallow in parts of North America. Just hours later, overnight on 12-13 August, comes the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, the best display of “shooting stars” in 2026. Add Venus, which in mid-month begins to shrink to a crescent as it approaches Earth — getting brighter as it does — and a partial lunar eclipse late in the month, and August becomes a showcase of multiple types of astronomical targets.

Here’s everything you need to know about astrophotography in August 2026:

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

Wednesday, August 12: Total solar eclipse

The standout astrophotography event of 2026 is a total solar eclipse that sweeps across eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. For those within the 180-mile-wide path of totality, this is a rare opportunity to photograph one of nature’s most dramatic spectacles.

Outside the path, a deep partial solar eclipse will be seen shortly before sunset across Europe. In North America, northeastern U.S. states and Canada will see a small eclipse in mid-afternoon.

Preparation is everything. You must use a solar filter for all partial phases, removing it only during totality itself if you’re in the path. A focal length of 400-800mm will capture the sun’s corona in detail, though wider lenses can be used for landscape compositions showing the darkened sky and horizon glow. Exposure bracketing is critical, as the corona spans a huge range of brightness. Practise beforehand — this is not an event to improvise.

Read: Start planning for the next solar eclipse – the must-photograph astro event of 2026

August 12-13: Perseid meteor shower

The Perseids peak on the night after the eclipse — a coincidence that effectively guarantees a moonless night sky perfect for meteor photography. Under dark skies, rates can reach 80–100 meteors per hour. As always with attempts to capture fleeting meteors, the best strategy is “set and forget.” Use a wide-angle lens (14-24mm), a fast aperture (f/2-f/2.8), ISO 800-1600 and exposures of 20-30 seconds. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. Shoot continuously for several hours, and you’ve got a great chance of catching a few streaking through a frame.

Read: How to photograph the stunning Perseid meteor shower

August 15: Dark sky window

The last quarter moon — rising late at night — on August 6 kicks off a dark-sky period ideal for deep-sky imaging. With no moonlight to interfere, this is one of the final opportunities of the year to photograph the Milky Way’s core in the evening sky.

Look south after dark to capture the dense star clouds and dust lanes of the Milky Way flowing through the vast Summer Triangle asterism. Use a wide-angle lens and exposures of 10-20 seconds at ISO 800-3200, taking care to keep stars sharp. For greater detail, use a star tracker to extend exposure times. This is also a good time to experiment with panoramas or vertical compositions — but also think about composition, making sure there’s more in your image than just the Milky Way.

Read: The best star tracker camera mounts

August 15: Venus at greatest elongation

Venus reaches its greatest eastern elongation, shining brilliantly in the western sky after sunset. At nearly 48 degrees from the sun, it will be prominent as the “Evening Star.” It also becomes an ideal target for a close-up because it is now half-lit (as an inner planet, it has phases like the moon) and is becoming more of a crescent each night, even as its disk grows larger as it gets closer to Earth. This kind of image demands a refractor or Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope — ideally with a high focal length of about 1,000mm — and high magnification. Because of its brightness, Venus can be captured even before the sky fully darkens, allowing for more creative foreground work.

Read: The best cameras for astrophotography

August 27-28: Partial lunar eclipse

A solar eclipse also comes with a lunar eclipse in tow — sometimes before, sometimes after. This deep partial lunar eclipse will see 96% of the full moon enter Earth’s shadow, with cameras capturing a rusty, reddish color on the lunar surface near the peak. North and South America will get the best views, while Europe will see the peak of the eclipse in the hours before sunrise. A telephoto lens (300-600mm) will reveal detail, while shorter focal lengths can be used for creative compositions. Unlike a total lunar eclipse, part of the moon will remain brightly lit, so exposure balancing is important. Shoot in RAW and bracket exposures to retain both the shadowed and illuminated regions.

Read: How to photograph the Blood Moon

Astrophotography shot of the month: Milky Way and Perseids under a dark sky

While the total solar eclipse is the headline event, the Perseid meteor shower offers the most accessible and repeatable opportunity for astrophotographers. With a new moon ensuring dark skies, this year’s display is perfectly timed not only to catch meteors, but to do so with the Milky Way in the background. Find a location far from light pollution, point the camera south and use continuous shooting to keep it running for hours. The more frames you capture, the higher your chances of recording multiple meteors. However, always add a foreground element — a tree, a building or a landscape feature — to create interest, scouting a location in daylight if you can.

Read more:

• Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

• The best lenses for astrophotography

• The best star tracker camera mounts

I have photographed solar eclipses seven times over the last 47 years, and in the first part of this series I described my first efforts in the pre-internet era – and the hard lessons that you learn when chasing the shadow of an eclipse. The most important one is that even with the best planning, you can never to be certain to avoid clouds obliterating your view!

In this second installment, we head to Vizcaíno Desert and the Caribbean for my next experiences of photographing solar eclipses…

My third solar eclipse: May 10, 1994

We again made the trek from south-west Canada to Mexico’s Baja (where I had seen my second total solar eclipse in 1991) peninsula by car. This time it was for an annular eclipse.

When the Earth is closest to the sun and the moon is farthest from the Earth, the Moon is not visually big enough to block the sun. Thus you get an annular eclipse or the “Ring of Fire”, a bright ring of sunlight visible around the Moon.

Again, we made no particular plans, or preparations (other than to take the camera gear). With stops in Oregon, California, as well as at Ensenada and Guerro Negro in the Baja. We simply pickup up motels as we got to the end of each day’s drive.

On the morning of the eclipse, we drove south, into the desert, hoping to go to El Arco, which was on the centre line. But the road was closed and so we decided to stop, near the turnoff, where we found two chaps from Ontario, California all set up and ready. Because we were off the center line, but still in the path, the moon was not centred over the sun and the ring was lopsided. But the seeing was good, even if the day was unbearably hot.

My fourth solar eclipse: February 26, 1998

I’d previously been to Venezuela twice, and before Hugo Chavez it was a wonderful country. The ‘98 Eclipse was going to go through Maracaibo, in western Venezuela, so it seemed like the reasonable destination. After talking about my plans with one of my customers, he offered that his wife was from Maracaibo, and that he’d bring her in for a chat about the town. She told me that there you judged a hotel not by its facilities, but by the number of locks on doors and the quality of the bars of the windows. She pointed out that the area was rife with gangs, and tourists in rented cars were prime targets. I changed my plans.

In the end, I booked a Caribbean cruise. The cruise line had two meteorologists on board, and as with land eclipses, mobility is the key. Thus, our ship sailed all night to find a hole in the clouds. It worked, and we had a fabulous view from somewhere near Curaçao. That said, I’m not sure I’d do it again. The ten-day cruise was lovely and we got to visit much of the Caribbean. The viewing from the stern was terrific, but photography from aboard ship, even with the shorter, 500mm lens was not as satisfactory as one would hope. Even in calm seas and with the stabilizers out, the ship moves constantly. With an f/8 aperture and Kodachrome 64 slide film, shutter speeds were limited, so my photos were all a bit blurry.

One fun thing was the discovery that the holes in my wife’s straw sun-hat made great pinhole lenses, casting lovely images of the partial phases on her neck and the deck. If you’ve not got a wife with a straw hat, an old colander will do.

If you’ve ever experienced the air at minus 45, you know that if it’s not overcast the seeing is startlingly clear. The eclipse on March 9 the year before had been visible in Siberia, when it was still winter. One chap aboard ship had been there and “Eclipse Chic” is to wear a T-shirt from your previous eclipse... but in Siberia he’d not been able to buy one. So he’d had one made up, which simply read: “I was in Siberia for the last one. I earned this one!’

Remember, never get so involved in your photography, that you forget to look up. It’s what you come for. Blurry photos or not, I don’t regret a single penny spent on that trip. The cruise was worth it, and the eclipse was the icing on the cake.

The internet was beginning to influence eclipse chaser’s behavior, but aboard ship, it was irrelevant.

Four Eclipses down, three to go…

The final installment of David Young's 47-year diary of a solar eclipse photographer will be published soon

Start planning for the August 2026 solar eclipse - and don't remember to buy a solar filter for your camera

Back in 2022, researchers in Papua New Guinea, with the vital help of the local community, made an important rediscovery for wildlife conservation. Through the use of camera traps, they recorded footage of a black-naped pheasant-pigeon. Known locally as Auwo, this bird species that hadn't been seen by humans since its first discovery in 1882, some 140 years earlier.

Now, footage showing the moment of rediscovery, recorded by the researchers themselves, has gone viral four years later. The heartwarming video, captured by study co-lead Jordan Boersma of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, shows the ecstatic scene of his colleague, local biologist Doka Nason, jumping for joy at what the trail camera had picked up.

In the video, you can hear both Boersma and Nason repeatedly saying the name “Auwo” in disbelief, with Boersma later recalling he felt like he'd been “confronted by an image of a mythical creature.”

The black-naped pheasant-pigeon (Otidiphaps insularis) is a rare, quirky ground-dwelling bird native to Fergusson Island in Papua New Guinea. While classified in the pigeon and dove family, it looks and behaves like a pheasant.

It features a mix of iridescent green, bronze, and black plumage with a distinctive solid black nape on the back of its neck, and has a flattened, bobbing tail and long legs adapted for walking.

The researchers, also co-led by John C. Mittermeier, director of the American Bird Conservancy's Search for Lost Birds Program, had already been on Fergusson Island for a month, making the rediscovery just two days before the expedition was due to end. Mittermeier later described the event as “the kind of moment you dream about your entire life as a conservationist and birdwatcher.”

While an incredible story of conservation. And the endearing footage of Nason over the moon at the continued existence of the black-naped pheasant-pigeon is also a testament to how important endemic wildlife species are to Indigenous communities.

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John C Miitermeir and the Search for Lost Birds was also involved in a 2026 re-discovery of the blue-fronted lorikeet, a small endemic parrot found only on the island of Buru, Indonesia, not seen in 100 years.

In 1936, Dorothea Lange approached Florence Owens Thompson – a 32-year-old sheltering with her children at a California pea-pickers' camp – and took one of the most recognizable photographs in history.

Migrant Mother portrays her with two children pressed against her shoulders, staring into the middle distance with an expression that seems to contain the entire weight of the Great Depression.

It's the kind of image that stops conversations and changes minds. Lange made dozens of them.

Now a major retrospective of her work, titled simply Dorothea Lange, is opening in Italy. And it's a great opportunity to see one of photography's most important bodies of work, at the scale it deserves.

An artist by instinct

Lange's career is extraordinary, both for its quality and its scope. She began as a portrait photographer in San Francisco before the Depression drew her out into the streets and fields of California.

Commissioned by the Farm Security Administration, she documented the lives of migrant workers, Dust Bowl refugees and rural poor with an unflinching but deeply empathetic eye.

In his curator statement for her 1966 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, John Szarkowski described her as "by choice a social observer and by instinct an artist"; neatly capturing the tension that makes her work so compelling.

It's simultaneously rigorous documentary and deeply felt portraiture, and the images here span the full range of that work.

Shown at the top of this page, Migratory cotton picker (1940) is a close-up portrait of a man resting his weathered hands across his face against a flat sky. Shot in Coolidge, Arizona, it's as formally precise as anything from a studio photographer.

Toward Los Angeles (1937) shows two men walking along a California highway, their backs to camera, a Southern Pacific railroad billboard reading "Next time try the train" visible in the distance behind them.

It's a composition of cruel irony, built from nothing more than available light, a well-chosen moment and a strong instinct for what the frame contains.

Lange's Japanese-American internment work is less well known, but no less powerful. This was another dark chapter in 20th century American history.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing more than 100,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps for the duration of the war. Lange documented the process with characteristic moral clarity.

Nisei girl with baggage (1942) shows a young girl, identification tag pinned to her coat, standing exhausted among piled luggage, her eyes downcast.

I am an American (1942) is a street photograph of an Oakland grocery store whose owner, a University of California graduate, placed the sign in his window on December 08 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. By March 1942, when Lange photographed it, the store had been shuttered.

Why Lange matters

What makes Lange's work essential study is the precision of her decisions under difficult conditions. She wasn't working in a studio or with controlled light: she was in the field, often approaching strangers in states of distress, working quickly and with a clear sense of what she was trying to say.

Her images are never gratuitous and never sentimental. They work because she understood composition, light, timing and human psychology simultaneously, and because she knew that a photograph's power comes both from what it includes and what it leaves out.

Dorothea Lange runs from July 30 to November 01 at the Centro Internazionale di Fotografia Scavi Scaligeri, Cortile Mercato Vecchio 8, Verona, Italy. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 19:00. Entry is €10 full price (approximately $11 / £9 / AU$16) or €7 concessions ($8 / £7 / 11)). Tickets are available online at vivaticket.it.

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See where Lange ranks among the 50 best photographers ever.

I recently came across Life At The Edge, a photobook on the rugged Caithness coastline in northeastern Scotland, by local resident Ken Crossan.

After delving a little deeper into his work, I found out that Ken’s photos, which typically depict the flora and fauna of his home county, have also been recognized in competitions on both the national and international stage.

In fact, Ken recently snagged a 2025 Scottish Nature Photography Award (SNPA), has been recognized by the British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA), and gained an honorable mention in none other than the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards.

As humble as they come, Ken would consider himself a natural historian well before an award-winning photographer. However, his photographic accolades are impressive, and I couldn't resist reaching out for his tips and tricks.

Ken's equipment

Ken is a Nikon shooter through and through. His go-to camera body is the Nikon Z8 and his lenses include:

• Nikkor 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3
• Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 105mm f/2.8

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here are our our expertly-curated lists of the best cameras for landscape photography and the best cameras for wildlife photography.

The portrait is deceptively simple. Charli xcx leans back against a pale wall in a white crop top and dark jeans, her voluminous dark hair caught mid-movement, her gaze directed downward and slightly away from the camera. There's no performance, no direct address, no obvious glamour. Just an intimacy and a slight vulnerability; the feeling of catching someone in a private moment rather than a staged one. For a photograph of one of the world's most recognisable pop stars, it's an unconventional choice.

Which is why I applaud the fact it's now hanging in Room 33 of London's National Portrait Gallery. Taken in 2024 by British photographer and director Harley Weir, the portrait has entered the NPG's permanent collection through Collecting the Now, the gallery's contemporary acquisitions fund supported by a £1 million gift from the Bukhman Foundation. It's on display in the History Makers space, which celebrates figures who have shaped contemporary culture and public life.

Charli certainly fits into that category. Born Charlotte Emma Aitchison in Cambridge in 1992, she's spent more than a decade as one of pop's most restlessly inventive figures. In 2024, her album Brat became a global phenomenon, spawning its own aesthetic, its own colour (a specific shade of acid green) and its own philosophy, "Brat Summer"; a shorthand for unfiltered self-expression that spread through culture and politics like wildfire.

Her next release, a soundtrack album accompanying the 2026 movie of Wuthering Heights, topped the UK chart in February. Her latest album, Music, Fashion, Film, was released on 24 July to five-star reviews. The gallery's acquisition places her in the permanent record at exactly the moment her cultural reach is at its widest.

Why it works

The technical approach here is worth examining closely. The image has the warm, slightly faded palette and shallow depth of field associated with medium-format film, giving it a tactile quality at odds with the hyper-sharpness of most contemporary portraiture. It feels closer in spirit to a 1970s music press photograph than a modern album campaign image, which is presumably exactly what Weir intended.

That quality is characteristic of Weir's practice. London-born and now in her late thirties, she built her reputation shooting for fashion houses including Balenciaga, Celine and Gucci, but her work consistently pushes against the glossiness those clients might imply.

Her visual language draws on documentary and fine art photography as much as fashion; she shows regularly with London galleries Hannah Barry and Michael Hoppen alongside her commercial work. The NPG's senior curator of photographs Brandei Estes describes it as combining "intimacy with a powerful sense of presence," which the Charli xcx portrait demonstrates neatly.

Why it matters

The acquisition speaks to something broader about how cultural institutions are thinking about photography. Collecting the Now, launched in March 2025, has already brought in works by Barbara Walker, Linder and Sonia Boyce, building a collection of contemporary portraiture that takes photography seriously as a fine art medium rather than a secondary category.

For me, the best thing about this portrait is that Weir didn't reach for the obvious. Given a subject at the peak of her fame, she made something quiet, personal and slightly resistant; an image that works as fine art portraiture precisely because it avoids the cliches of the promotional photograph.

There's a photograph in Keith Armstrong's newly discovered archive that stops you in your tracks. A man in a wheelchair grins defiantly, surrounded by Metropolitan Police officers. A red London bus looms behind him, its destination board reading Trafalgar Square. It's the kind of image that could have run on the front page of a national newspaper.

Actually though, it didn't; because Armstrong (1950-2017) wasn't a press photographer filing for an agency. He was a disability rights activist, shooting from his wheelchair, from inside the demonstration, for the movement itself.

Born in South Africa then raised in England, Armstrong spent the 1980s and 1990s documenting the campaign for disabled people's civil rights in Britain: the bus blockades, the protests outside Parliament, the pickets and direct actions that eventually helped bring about the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995.

He did it with an Olympus camera, film, and the kind of access no photojournalist on assignment could ever have bought – because he was one of them. Shooting at wheelchair height gave his images a ground-level intimacy that places you inside the crowd, rather than observing it from a distance.

Uncovering the archive

His archive was discovered after his death, when members of his estate contacted Shape Arts, the disability-led arts organisation. What looked like boxes of unsorted negatives turned out to be something extraordinary: more than 500 images documenting one of modern Britain's most significant and least-photographed civil rights movements.

The collection has now been digitised and made publicly available through the National Disability Movement Archive and Collection at ndmac.org. And here's the best part: it's entirely free to use for exhibitions, publications, social media and more, with a simple credit to Armstrong and NDMAC.

Why they work

What makes Armstrong's work remarkable isn't just its historical significance; it's the vantage point. Photojournalism of protest tends to work from the edges: the telephoto lens compressing a crowd, the wide-angle from a press pen, the elevated position that gives context but sacrifices proximity. Armstrong had none of those options, and the results are more powerful for it.

His images are close, chaotic and alive. Protesters hold handwritten cardboard signs reading "No more begging, we want rights now!" and "Disabled people arrested trying to catch a bus! Why?" Police officers loom large in the frame. There's wit in some of the placards, fury in others.

One image shows a woman in a wheelchair smiling serenely between two officers as a London sightseeing bus fills the background. The composition is almost classically street-photographic; the kind of accidental perfection that experienced documentary photographers spend careers chasing.

Another image, shot on New Oxford Street, in central London, shows Armstrong himself crouched low, Olympus raised, recording a police van and an officer from below eye level. It's a reminder that the disability rights movement produced its own visual culture, its own recorders, its own history, largely invisible to the mainstream photographic press at the time.

Intimate storytelling

"Keith wasn't just photographing disabled people and their allies," says David Hevey, chief executive of Shape Arts. "He was photographing from within the movement. His images place you alongside the activists. They completely change how we see this history."

That reframing is significant. As interest grows in overlooked and alternative histories of Britain, Armstrong's archive fills an important gap: a body of work that is activist and artistic simultaneously, documentary and intimate, historically vital and visually compelling.

The Photography & Video Show is heading back to London for 2027 – returning to the London ExCel exhibition center for four days from Saturday, March 13 to Tuesday, March 16. The show will be open from 10:00 to 17:00 every day.

The Photography & Video Show is the must-attend UK event for anyone with an interest in photography or filmmaking, from complete beginners to working professionals: the biggest players in the industry show off all their latest kit – often for the very first time; there are inspiring talks from famous content creators; and don't miss the famous show deals where you can pick up the gear you've been lusting after at a knockdown price.

The show launched in 2014 a at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. The show now alternates between Birmingham and the British capital every other year, with the 2028 event scheduled to be back at the NEC

• SIGN UP TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO SHOW

Students of photography, film or related subjects (ID required) will get free entry on Monday and Tuesday if they book in advance, and professionals will also be entitled to free entry on any of the days (subject to verification). Sign up to be notified when registration and ticket sales open later in the year.

More than 150 of the biggest brands in the business will be exhibiting at the show, enabling you to chat to industry experts, watch kit demonstrations, and try out the latest gear for yourself. The full line-up of speakers and exhibitors will be revealed as they are confirmed later in the year.

And just as important as all the big names, there will be plenty of smaller exhibitors in attendance, with many new and innovative products waiting to be discovered as you explore the show floor.

The Photography & Video Show 2027: What's on show

If it's related to the world of photography, videography and imaging, expect to see it somewhere on the show floor!

Digital cameras, analog cameras, vintage cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, bags, straps, holsters, clothing, memory cards, microphones, speed lights, studio lights, modifiers, reflectors, printers, printing services, photobooks, magazines, film, film scanners, photoshoot props, editing software, tablets… it's all here.

The Photography & Video Show 2027 will also feature its usual highly anticipated stages and educational program – offering hundreds of free talks from top photographers, and demonstrations on photo technique, video skills, and editing.

The Photography & Video Show 2027: The stages

All Things Analogue
A celebration of the art of traditional film photography and the darkroom, this is the place to learn about a variety of analog techniques and processes, (both stills and cine), with insights into projects about non-digital applications, along with interactive demos.

Photo Live
This live-action, tethered-shooting stage will have practical demos on subjects such as lighting, posing, working with models, and capturing movement.

Editing & Post-Production Suite
This is the place to learn about all aspects of image editing and post-production, with a series of seminars covering workflow tips and techniques for both stills and video, across a variety of software applications.

Behind the Lens Theatre
This stage, sponsored by Hahnemühle Fine Art, offers insight into the techniques and stories behind images and projects, as well as inspirational sessions from world-class imaging educators in a series of talks and interviews.

In Motion Studio
A theatre for all things moving image, this is designed to offer insight into producing engaging content, storytelling, and creating projects using different video and filmmaking techniques, no matter what your level.

Creator Stage
This program is dedicated to online content creation on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and more. Aimed both at existing and budding creators, as well as photo and video pros looking to boost their business via social channels, this stage will have talks on everything from online community building to getting started in vlogging.

Creator Playground
With a series of sets and studios, this is the place to have fun, let your imagination run riot, and create your own content!

How do you get to the show?

Getting to ExCeL couldn’t be easier nowadays, thanks to the Elizabeth Line which runs right across the centre of London from Reading and Heathrow, with stops at Liverpool Street and Paddington stations. Travel to Custom House station which is right at the entrance of the Excel exhibition center – allowing you to be in the show within five minutes of arriving. It is also on the DLR line.

The exhibition centre is also right by City Airport.

Check here for more travel options.

Of course, there is plenty else to see and do in London - and our free guide to London for photographers will give you some ideas that may encourage you to make a weekend visit…

What if I can't make it to the show?

Although there's no substitute for being at the show itself, you can stay up to date with what's going on by following the official Facebook, Instagram and X (or Twitter, as most of us still call it) channels of The Photography & Video Show.

Digital Camera World will also be there live every day to bring you all the photo news, so make sure to keep this page bookmarked, and stay up to date by liking our Facebook page, following us on X (Twitter) and by signing up to our daily newsletter.

The Photography & Video Show is presented by Future Plc, which is also the parent company of Digital Camera World.

Ever wonder what the ocean looks like from a shark's perspective? New research on whale sharks is disrupting what science understands about the 20-ton giants – and creating mesmerizing footage in the process.

Whale sharks – filter-feeding sharks that get their name from their whale-like size – have largely been observed from the surface, but researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Murdoch University asked a key question: what do whale sharks do when no one is watching?

Electronic tags have long been used to study animal behavior, but for this study, researchers used tags with a small camera built in. The tags were designed to fall off after 24 hours, so the researchers could then locate the tag’s signal and retrieve the footage.

The group attached the small tags to the dorsal fin (the top fin) of five juvenile whale sharks near the Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia.

Combining the footage with previous observations, the team built what they’re calling the largest catalog of the shark’s behavior to date – particularly on the animals' feeding patterns.

One of the key findings that the cameras uncovered is that whale sharks don’t predominantly feed near the surface as first thought. Cameras showed the creatures sinking with open mouths to catch a snack, as well as feeding towards the surface.

The cameras also demonstrated that whale sharks actually have a wide variety of approaches to feeding. During the 24 hours the researchers watched the whales, they spent most of their time in what the researchers called “low-effort” feeding behaviors before switching to more active feeding when locating a larger swarm of krill. Researchers described the behavior as akin to humans snacking while trying to decide what to cook for dinner.

The data is opening up insight into why whale sharks are able to survive in tropical areas where prey can sometimes be inconsistent. Researchers are hopeful that further similar studies using cameras could shed additional light on the ocean’s gentle giants.

The research was published in the journal Marine Biology.

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British holidaymakers now consider taking photos the second most important element of their trip, trumped only by enjoying a good meal in a fancy restaurant.

That's according to a new study conducted by MPB – the photography equipment resale platform – which recently surveyed 1,000 British adult holidaymakers who said they take photos “most days” or “every day” during their trips.

According to the data, which was collected earlier this month, nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents deemed “taking photos” an important part of their holiday, pipped only by “dining at a nice restaurant” (66% of respondents).

While enjoying a fancy meal is the favorite pastime for Brits abroad, according to the data, photography has usurped other traditional holiday itinerary activities, with visiting cultural sites (63%), shopping (63%), and sightseeing (63%) now the third, fourth and fifth most-important, respectively.

In fact, a further 22% of British holidaymakers said that taking photos is an “essential part” of their trip, with the average person now shooting 256 images, and 1 in 10 coming home with over 500 frames.

But it’s not just snapping frames, it's the quality of them too. According to the data, almost every respondent (95%) had spent extra money to get better photos, with the average British holidaymaker now willing to part with more than £136 ($181 / AU$259) for better photos.

What’s more, over a quarter of respondents (27%) said they're willing to spend between £200–£500 ($266–$666 / AU$380–AU$951) to be upgraded to a more photogenic room. While 1 in 8 Brits abroad will even hire a professional photographer for their holiday snaps.

In truth, I’m not sure how representative this survey truly is, considering it didn't include respondents who don’t take photos at least “most days” during their trips. However, I have no doubt that photography has become way more important to British holidaymakers in recent years due to smartphone convenience and the pressure to impress on social media.

I have to say though, even as a photographer, it's a toss up for me between getting a nice sunset shot and treating myself to a seafood paella. God I love decent Spanish paella…

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Stunning lakes, rugged mountains, and quaint villages – this is the UK’s most photographed national park.

Ask most photographers today what you need for unguarded, intimate documentary work and they'll say something small, quiet and fast. A rangefinder, a compact, anything you can raise and lower before a subject has time to arrange their face.

To say that Chris Killip went in a different direction would be something of an understatement. He mainly used a large-format field camera on a tripod, the sort of set-up that takes a minute or more to compose, focus and load before you can even think about pressing the shutter.

By any conventional logic, this is entirely the wrong tool for catching a family unguarded on a doorstep, or children mid-scramble over a wall. And yet North, the new Thames & Hudson edition of Killip's work in north-east England and Ireland between 1975 and 1986, is packed with exactly these kind of moments.

The book, edited by Mark Holborn, brings together 224 images from the period, nearly half of them previously unpublished. We get to see shipbreaking yards, the Skinningrove fishing community, and the "seacoal" campers who scraped a living gathering coal washed up on the Northumberland shore.

This is a heavyweight object in both the literal and metaphorical senses of the word. But it's also an unexpected manual in a slower, less obvious kind of documentary practice.

The trick, if it can be called that, wasn't speed at all: it was time. Killip spent extended periods actually living within the communities he photographed, most famously more than a year at the Lynemouth seacoal camp.

By the time the camera came out, his subjects had stopped performing for it long before, which meant a slow, deliberate large-format process didn't spook anyone; it simply became part of the routine of a man who was already there, day after day.

The stillness required by the camera stopped being a barrier to intimacy and became, almost accidentally, a form of respect: nobody gets photographed by someone they don't trust holding a field camera on a tripod for a full minute.

There was a technical upside to this approach too, and it's visible the moment you look closely at the prints. Large-format negatives resolve an extraordinary amount of fine detail and tonal range, which is exactly why the demolition scene at Wallsend, cranes looming over half-collapsed terrace houses, holds up at a size and clarity that a 35mm frame from the same era simply couldn't match.

Killip wasn't choosing the format for nostalgia or a particular grain; he was choosing it because it could carry the weight of what he was documenting, printed large, for decades.

The lesson for photographers today

For those of a certain age with a nostalgic outlook, it's tempting to focus on the subject matter here: deindustrializing Britain, the Miners' Strike. But I think a wider and more durable lesson, for anyone shooting portraits or documentary work today, is about the relationship between equipment and access.

A slow camera doesn't have to mean a stiff or staged picture; it just changes what kind of trust you need to build before you can use it. Killip built that trust first, for months at a time, and only then did he bring out the tripod.

Chris Killip: North, edited by Mark Holborn, is published by Thames & Hudson on September 3 in the UK, priced £75, and in the US on October 6 for $95.

Many of the biggest achievements in photography’s history came from photographers and chemists, but the invention of color photographs wasn’t initiated by a photographer at all but a physicist obsessed with the science of colors.

James Clerk Maxwell was a mid-1800s physicist credited for early work in electromagnetism, but one of Maxwell’s key interests was color. Maxwell's research focused on unearthing how people see colors and different color combinations, but his work led to a theory on how photographers could create color images by mixing light.

Maxwell built an eight-foot-long box that allowed him to mix light and test his theory that mixing the three primary colors of light would create other colors. As a biography noted, the oversized box “excited the wonder of his neighbours, who thought him mad to spend so many hours staring into a coffin.”

In 1855, Maxwell theorized that a color photograph could be possible by using three black-and-white slides, each with a different color filter, and projecting the three images together. Maxwell wouldn’t put the theory to the test until 1861, when he commissioned the help of photographer Thomas Sutton.

Unlike Maxwell, Sutton was both an inventor and a photographer – he literally wrote the Dictionary of Photography in 1856 and invented both the first panoramic camera and the first single-lens reflex camera.

To test Maxwell’s theory, Sutton took three photos of a tartan-patterned ribbon, each with a different color filter. Maxwell later projected those three images together onto a screen while giving a lecture in London.

The photography isn’t exactly a color image by modern standards – the image was, after all, projected by combining three photos together – but the research was key in the development of true color photography down the road. Maxwell’s theory on mixing colors to create a full-color image held water – in fact, even modern computer and TV screens still use the concept of mixing red, green, and blue light in each pixel.

But while the theory held, the actual photograph shouldn’t have worked at all. The chemicals on the glass plates that Sutton worked with were not sensitive to green, yellow or red – so the images taken with the red- and green-filtered photos shouldn’t have rendered a photograph.

The answer as to why the black-and-white chemicals were able to render some color in the 1861 photograph didn’t come until a researcher at Kodak revisited the process a century later. Kodak’s Raph Evans, working with similar chemicals, realized that the red filter image was picking up ultraviolet light, and that’s what led to the first color image.

While Maxwell’s first image to test the theory worked almost by accident, the theory itself held and led to further research into chemicals that could record those colors.

Maxwell’s idea that mixing red, blue, and green light could create other colors is still used today. Modern color camera sensors use red, green, and blue filters arranged in a pattern over the sensor that allow the sensor to “see” in color.

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There's a photograph in an upcoming exhibition of two farmers in old overcoats, both gripping the same length of rope, hauling a sick ram across a muddy field in a battered tin bath. A small flock watches from the hedge bank behind, utterly unbothered.

It's James Ravilious at his best: no drama, no staging, just a moment of rural ingenuity caught because he happened to be standing in the right field with a Leica camera and the patience to wait for it.

To me, that patience is really what A Photographic Friendship: James Ravilious and Chris Chapman is about.

The show – opening at The Burton in Bideford, England, on August 01 – pairs work by the two photographers across 15 curated dialogs. And it's pleasing to know that decades of quiet, unglamorous documentary work can still count for anything in an industry obsessed with the next shot.

Because that's really the story here. Two men, working the same corner of south-west England for the best part of 50 years between them, never once treating each other as competition.

Why the work has lasted

Ravilious moved to Devon in 1972 to shoot for Beaford Arts' archive project, eventually amassing more than 80,000 negatives of a rural way of life he could see disappearing.

Chapman settled a few miles away in Throwleigh, in 1976, and turned his camera on Dartmoor instead: farms, chapels, foot and mouth, village halls.

Both men were documenting the same broad subject, in the same region, at the same time. Yet rather than treat that as a threat, they seem to have treated it as company.

For pro photographers now trained to think in terms of niches, personal brands and first-mover advantage, that might seem quaintly odd. But it's also, arguably, why both archives have lasted.

Neither man was chasing an angle nobody else had. They were, in fact, chasing depth on an angle everybody could see – which takes far longer and is much harder to fake.

The importance of trust

Ravilious shot on a Leica rangefinder camera, often with older, uncoated lenses, and used a compensating development process that gave his negatives their distinctive silvery quality. It's a nice technical footnote, but it's not really why the pictures work.

They work because a subject like Mary Wedlake – laughing mid-toast at her own wedding party with a pint in hand – clearly isn't performing for the camera. That's not a lens choice; that's years of a small photographer being a familiar, unthreatening presence at village halls and farm gates.

Chapman's picture of a woman cradling a bandaged terrier at a Moretonhampstead vet's surgery has a similar quality. To put it bluntly, nobody in either archive looks like they've been asked to hold still.

Why this matters

It's tempting to label this show 'nostalgia': black-and-white Devon, thatched roundhouses, a bygone rural England. But I think there's a deeper lesson here for anyone shooting documentary or portrait work today.

Neither photographer was parachuting in for a story. They lived among their subjects, returned to the same farms and families for years, and allowed the pictures to accumulate rather than forcing a set in an afternoon.

That's a harder sell to an editor or publisher than a single striking image (believe me, I know). But it's also the only way that anyone ends up with an archive people are still putting up on walls, 50 years later.

A Photographic Friendship: James Ravilious and Chris Chapman runs at The Burton at Bideford, Devon, England from August 01 to October 04. Entry is free.

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A fascinating squid with an incredible ability to dazzle predators by glowing in the dark has been photographed in the wild for the first time by marine biologists.

Scientists aboard a joint expedition cruise vessel spotted the mature female Arctic bobtail squid within Northeast Greenland National Park, using an M2 S Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) equipped with an additional GoPro Hero 13.

ABOVE: Watch the the rainbow-colored Arctic bobtail squid, which was spotted at depths up to 87m in sub-zero waters as low as 29.1°F / -1.6°C

Some 70 species of bobtail squid are known to inhabit oceans across the planet, including warmer regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, along with the sub-zero underwater regions of the Arctic.

When these squids hunt at night, moonlight from above would normally cast a dark shadow to predators swimming below.

However, bioluminescent bacteria housed in a special organ emit a blue-green light that matches the exact brightness of the moon – effectively making the squids invisible to other predators in a process called “counter-illuminated camouflage.”

The research crew, led by Dr Paige Maroni from The University of Western Australia’s School of Biological Sciences, recorded the adult bobtail squid at depths between 37-87m, also spotting a trio of egg clusters attached to a rocky substrate.

These egg clusters were recorded at a depth of 50m, where the water temperature had reached a cool 29.1°F / -1.6°C, highlighting what Dr Maroni called the “resilience of marine life in one of Earth’s most extreme environments.”

According to Dr Maroni, who co-authored the research paper recently published following the expedition, cephalopods – the class of marine animals to which squids belong – play “vital ecological roles” in Arctic waters.

However, the researchers stated that more work is needed to establish biodiversity baselines in this under-documented aquatic region.

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You don't need a haunted house to make a photograph feel haunted. That's the lesson buried inside Dark Tales: British Documentary Photography and the Gothic, a new exhibition opening at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, England, on September 17 and running until December 20.

Curator Isaac Blease has pulled together more than 80 years of British documentary work, much of it drawn from the Foundation's own archive of over 5,000 prints.

It includes images by Kjell-Åke Andersson, Bill Brandt, Anna Fox, Robert Frank, Don McCullin, Lee Miller, John Myers, Akihiko Okamura, Sue Packer, Charlie Philips, Sarah Pickering, Alice Poyzer, Jo Spence, Janine Wiedel and Donovan Wylie among others.

All this material makes the case, quite brilliantly, that unease has been baked into the genre from the start. And for anyone who shoots documentary or street photography, that's something worth thinking about.

No body, no blood

Here's just one example. John Myers' The Bed (1976) is, on paper, a photograph of an unmade bed with a dark, wave-patterned throw. There's no body, no blood, no drama. Yet it reads like a crime scene waiting to happen, purely through composition, tonal weight and the photographer's refusal to explain himself.

That restraint is the whole trick, and it's one worth studying rather than admiring from a distance. It's a topic that, quite frankly, couldn't be more timely.

"Interest in the Gothic resurfaces during times of uncertainty," Blease points out. "And documentary photography itself is in a dark moment, with its purpose and role in question, public distrust of 'photographers', and the existential threat posed by AI."

Split into four chapters (The Castle, Domestic Bliss, Double Take and Night Creatures), the show leans hard on the idea that horror lives closest to home.

For instance, Janine Wiedel and Kjell-Åke Andersson's images of British heavy industry, molten iron pouring in the dark in Shelter from the Heat / Molten Iron, Shelton Bar, don't need staging to feel gothic; the subject matter does the work.

Anna Fox's Pete's Food and Flowers, meanwhile, turns a plate of grilled tomatoes into something closer to a wound, using nothing more than color and a floral border plate to suggest the domestic aftermath of trauma.

What's striking is how little of this depends on technical trickery. It's about editing choices: cropping tight, holding back context, letting a caption (or its absence) do heavy lifting.

For example, Sarah Pickering's Boots – an eerily-lit, empty former shop interior shot for her series Incident – works because it withholds narrative rather than supplying one.

This all teaches us something, too, about genre snobbery. Documentary photography likes to think of itself as sober and evidentiary, while gothic imagery gets filed under fiction and excess.

But as this exhibition shows, they're more alike than you might think. Peter Mitchell's abandoned Leeds villa, Don McCullin's industrial landscapes, Donovan Wylie's clinical prison cells at the Maze… none of this is supernatural. Yet all of it unsettles.

For anyone wondering how to make your subjects feel charged with meaning, without resorting to gimmicks, this is close to a syllabus. Look at what you're leaving out of frame. Trust low light and stillness over spectacle. And above all remember: the most disquieting image in the room might simply be a wardrobe, a kettle or a bed.

Dark Tales: British Documentary Photography and the Gothic runs at Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, from September 17 to December 20, 2026. Entry is free.

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Four years after documenting one of Sri Lanka's most heartbreaking conservation tragedies, photographer Easa Lebbe Muhammed Jamsith (Muhammed) has once again been recognized on the international stage.

His photograph of a female Asian elephant dying after consuming plastic waste at a garbage dump received an honorable mention in the Last Wild Places category of the Patagonia Photo Contest. For Muhammed, however, this latest accolade is bittersweet.

"I kept pursuing this path because I believed this level of recognition could create real impact and eventually lead to a solution. That's why, even now, I continue to put this image forward,” he said.

“But it remains a deep sorrow to me that while the photograph itself continues to be recognized again and again, no actual solution has come from it.”

His photograph has already become one of Sri Lanka's most internationally recognized conservation images, in 2022 winning the Grand Prize at the Environmental Photography Award and coming runner-up in the Earth.org Photography Competition. Yet the environmental disaster it documents remains an ongoing reality.

Open garbage dumps are a deadly hazard for Sri Lanka's wildlife. Attracted by rotting food, elephants and other animals consume plastic bags, food packaging and hazardous waste, which can cause bowel obstructions, toxic poisoning and, ultimately, death.

Dogs, cats, birds and other wildlife are also regularly affected, but Asian elephants have become one of the crisis' most visible victims.

The photograph traces back to the morning of January 05 2022, when Muhammed rushed to a garbage dump on the edge of the forest in Oluvil (a village on Sri Lanka's eastern coast) after hearing reports that an elephant was dying there.

He had intended to help the stricken animal, bringing his camera only in case it was needed. Instead, he found himself documenting what would become one of the defining conservation photographs of his career.

“When I arrived and saw the scale of what she was suffering, and the scale of the dump around her,” said Muhammed. “I felt this had to be documented not as art, but as evidence of something that needed to be seen.”

A veterinarian later examined the female elephant and discovered her esophagus was blocked by plastic wrapped around food scraps she had eaten. Although she was still alive when Muhammed arrived, her condition was beyond saving.

“I went closer, and in that moment she looked directly at me with tears in her eyes,” he recalled. “I remember feeling helpless. I had come hoping there was something I could do, but all I could do was be present and document her suffering.”

Three days later, despite receiving veterinary treatment, the elephant died, becoming one of around 20 elephants known to have died in Sri Lanka after consuming plastic at garbage dumps between 2016 and 2022.

Photographically, Muhammed chose to document the scene with a Canon EOS 80D paired with a Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, 18mm).

By opting for a wide-angle perspective, he emphasized the overwhelming scale of the garbage surrounding the elephant, allowing the composition itself to communicate the imbalance between wildlife and human waste.

“That contrast – a living, suffering animal dwarfed by waste – became the composition without me consciously designing it,” he said.

Now, four years after it was taken, the photograph continues to resonate with judges around the world. Yet for Muhammed, the image's repeated recognition means little unless it ultimately contributes to meaningful action.

“If this photograph and its recognition can push authorities and communities toward better waste management near these habitats, then it will have done its job. More than anything, I hope that this, at last, brings about a lasting solution to this crisis – one that has taken far too many lives already.”

As the image continues to collect international awards, the crisis it depicts remains unresolved. For Muhammed, it was never meant to be remembered simply as an award-winning photograph but as evidence of a preventable tragedy – and a call for action that he still hopes will one day be answered.

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Alan Schaller has spent the best part of two decades training viewers to see cities differently: as arrangements of light, shadow and geometry rather than streets and buildings.

His first monograph, Metropolis, applied that eye to architecture. His second, Street Safari, turns it towards something warmer and more unpredictable: the animals that share our streets, harbors and skylines.

This says a lot about where Schaller's photography has been heading. Anyone who's followed his work on Leica cameras over the years will know the hallmarks: hard contrast, graphic framing, a willingness to wait for the decisive moment rather than force it.

Street Safari keeps these instincts intact but points them at subjects with their own agency and, frequently, their own sense of comic timing.

It's the inaugural release from Irys Publishing – the new imprint Schaller has launched alongside Irys, his photography-first app. It's a direct-to-reader model built around fairer economics for the photographer, a departure from the traditional publisher route that most photobooks still travel.

Shot on instinct

What's striking about what's inside is the range.

A hyena is captured at dusk in Berlin, mid-shake, water flung into a burst of highlights against the dark.

A fur seal turns up on a Cape Town harbor wall, backlit and glistening.

A Jaipur elephant, in contrast, is quieter and more tender; its trunk curled around its human handler's raised arm.

Add to that a crow lifting off against the glass flank of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, along with similarly enigmatic stops in London, Tel Aviv, New York and Berlin, and the pattern becomes clear.

Every image is built on the same principle: find the geometry first, then wait for the animal to complete it.

The biggest lesson

That patience is the real lesson here. Schaller isn't working with long lenses and hides; he's working the way he always has, on foot, in real time, letting backlighting and negative space do as much storytelling as the subject itself.

A goose breaking the surface of black water, a heron dropping its legs mid-flight, two swans on opposite banks of light and dark: these are compositions built on restraint, not proximity.

Schaller has called Street Safari a joy to shoot, and hopes it passes on his appreciation for the animals living alongside us.

That sentiment sits well with the book itself, which never tips into whimsy despite its subject matter. The humor is there, but it's earned through composition rather than cuteness.

For photographers, Street Safari is worth studying as much for its production as its content. It's a first-edition hardback, printed in Italy to the standard that Schaller's work demands, and available only directly from Irys Publishing rather than through general retail.

That's as deliberate a statement as anything inside its covers: a photographer taking control of how his work reaches his audience.

Street Safari by Alan Schaller is out now, priced $102 / £75 / AU$146, available exclusively via Irys Publishing

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A polar bear is caught mid-leap between ice floes, its legs still tucked beneath it, doubled perfectly in the still water below. The whole frame reads as a single graphic shape before it registers as an animal at all. It's in color, and it needs to be, because the cold blue of that water is doing half the work.

That choice points to something interesting about the press shots from Midnight Sun, the debut book from Sue Flood OBE and Ian Dawson.

Look through the images on this page and you'll find Adélie penguins, Scott's hut at Cape Evans and a pair of emperor penguins dwarfed by an ice shelf, all rendered in black-and-white. Meanwhile, the bear, the crabeater seals and the portraits of the photographers themselves arrive in full color.

That's not an accident or a printing quirk: it's a deliberate editorial decision. And it's the sort of decision every photographer should pay attention to.

Color is a decision, not a default

In these images, color earns its place in each case because it's doing something, whether that's the pale blue of Antarctic ice against dark water or the warmth of a human moment. Strip color away from that seal image, for instance, and the pale blue ice would flatten into just another grey shape.

Compare that with the images below of an Adélie penguin walking alone across the ice, and a blizzard scouring Captain Scott's hut. Those images are about form, contrast and weather – not hue – and color would only clutter them.

It's a reminder that monochrome conversion isn't a fallback for a disappointing sky; it's a creative tool that suits texture-heavy, high-contrast scenes far better than a flat color palette ever could.

The importance of access

The exhibition also makes a point about access. A hunter with a rifle slung across a denim jacket in Kinngait, three crabeater seals hauled out on a single ice floe, a bear guard doing his actual job rather than posing for one.

These aren't images grabbed on a passing cruise. They're the product of years of return visits, local relationships and enough patience to wait for a moment rather than manufacture one.

For anyone planning their own trip north or south with a camera bag, the takeaway is clear. Good glass helps, but it's the third or fourth expedition, not the first, that tends to produce the picture worth printing at gallery scale.

Midnight Sun goes on show at the Royal Geographical Society gallery in London, England, from October 06-30 – 10:00-17:00 on weekdays, free to view with no booking required. They're drawn from the 132 images in the book itself.

The launch night on October 06, hosted by Sir Michael Palin in the Ondaatje Theatre, gives Flood and Dawson a proper stage to explain their thinking. Tickets for the launch talk start at £15 (about $20 / $AU29), rising to £295 ($393 / AU$563) for a collector's edition of the book with signed prints included.

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If you know one name in the history of London night photography, it's probably Bill Brandt, whose A Night in London (1938) is a fixture on any decent photobook shelf.

What's had almost very little airtime in comparison is the man who beat him to it by 14 years: a jobbing postcard photographer from Hastings, East Sussex, called Fred Judge, who solved the era's toughest technical problem with a piece of DIY kit – and, it turns out, a well-placed lamp post.

In 1924, Judge self-published Camera Pictures of London at Night, one of the earliest sustained photographic studies of a city after dark, at a point when photography was still largely a daylight medium. It sold in small numbers, drifted out of print and vanished from the conversation.

Foxed Editions, a new imprint dedicated to overlooked photobooks, is reissuing it this month as a facsimile, with a new introduction by Isaac Blease, archivist at the Martin Parr Foundation.

Blease's foreword digs out exactly how Judge pulled this off, and it's the sort of detail that'll make any photographer wince and grin at the same time.

The camera he built himself

To his contemporaries, Judge wasn't an artist. He ran Judges Ltd, one of Britain's biggest postcard publishing firms; a business built on cheerful, reliable, entirely daylit views of seaside towns.

But he was also a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and in a 1929 lecture to its Pictorial Group, he traced his interest in night work back to Paul Martin's London by Gaslight, shown at the RPS in 1896.

Getting a usable exposure after dark in the 1920s meant fighting slow glass plates with whatever aperture you could find.

Judge's answer was to fashion a camera setup around a cinema lens capable of opening to f/1.9 – startlingly fast for the period – then shoot mostly without a tripod, bracing the rig against a lamp post or other fixed object for steadiness while exposing 60 x 45mm plates.

It's a proper bit of period lash-up ingenuity; closer to a street photographer's improvisation than a studio operator's careful set-up.

Judge himself wasn't precious about the results. He called the camera "a very feeble instrument" for capturing what he was after.

That undersells it, though: leaning on lamp posts and pushing a lens to its limit gave the pictures their soft bleed of gaslight and blurred, drifting figures. It's an aesthetic built from constraint rather than in spite of it.

Why it's still relevant

Every photographer who's ever pushed a sensor to a ridiculous ISO to grab a handheld shot after dark is, whether they know it or not, working in a tradition that Judge helped open up; just with a lamp post instead of in-body image stabilization.

There's a nice bookend to the story, too: in 2024, exactly a century after the book's release, Martin Parr bought a copy for his foundation's library, at the same time he was experimenting with what modern mirrorless cameras and camera phone sensors could do in low light.

A hundred years apart, two photographers were chasing the same problem with wildly different tools.

The facsimile keeps the scale and sequencing of the original photogravures rather than smoothing them into something more modern.

Given how rarely surviving copies turn up outside institutional collections, this is likely the most accessible route that most photographers will ever get to seeing how Judge actually made these pictures work.

Camera Pictures of London at Night by Fred Judge is published by Foxed Editions in July 2026, priced £24 (approximately $32 / AU$46) on pre-order with an RRP of £28 ($37 / AU$53).

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There will be tons of articles on where to see and how to photograph a solar eclipse, with the next one due on August 12. I have been chasing solar eclipses for 47 years, so I thought I'd write about what has changed over that time.

A solar eclipse is the closest thing I can think of to what some people call a “religious experience”. The sky goes dark in the middle of the day. The birds go to roost, while cows head back to their barns. The winds die down and there is a remarkable hush.

If you’re in the path of totality, you’ll get to see the sun’s corona, which is visible to us only during the few seconds or minutes of a total solar eclipse. If you’re in the path, and on high ground, you can watch the shadow of the moon race towards you, across open fields or open water, at 1,500 miles per hour.

Observers within the Moon's umbra (the darkest part of the shadow) see a total solar eclipse, while those in the penumbra see a partial solar eclipse. If the Moon is slightly farther from Earth and appears too small to cover the Sun completely, an annular eclipse occurs, leaving a bright ring of sunlight visible around the Moon.

It’s a sight like no other. I should know. I’ve now watched and photographed seven of them.

Eclipses only happen due to a quirk of nature. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, but the sun is also almost exactly 400 times further away. When things line up just right, during a new moon when the sun, moon and Earth are in nearly a straight line, the moon's shadow falls on the face of the Earth.

If the moon is closer on its orbit (its perigee), it casts a bigger shadow and the eclipse lasts longer. If it is further from the Earth (its apogee), its shadow is smaller and the eclipse is shorter.

A total solar eclipse occurs about once every 18 months, but most are over water, or Siberia in winter, or over the Arctic or Antarctic or similarly hard or expensive places to get to.

Eclipses that occur over land that you can affordably get to are that not common. If you don’t want to travel, one happens over any given spot on earth every 350 to 400 years. So, all you need to do is wait… and then remember to go outside when it happens!

My first eclipse: February 26 1979

My first eclipse happened rather spontaneously. We’re talking decades before the advent of the internet, when only readers of astronomy magazines had any inkling that it was coming.

So, a week before, my then brother-in-law suggested I join a small group of 'keeners', who were going to Toppenish, Washington. I checked with my photo dealer, rented a Celestron C-90 with a solar filter and an adapter to my camera, and away we went!

We arrived in the small town of Ellensburg, Washington, late the day before, popped into a local motel and booked a room with no trouble. We dined at a local cafe that night and the waitress told us she couldn’t understand why there were so many people in town!

Mobility is key, then or now, for eclipse viewing. The morning of the eclipse, my brother-in-law and myself were racing down gravel section roads looking for holes in the cloud. We got to an intersection and stopped to consult the clouds. I chose right, while he went left. Totality was to start in less than ten minutes. I saw the eclipse, he did not.

Back then I had no idea how to use the telescope, and my tripod was not sturdy enough for it, so my photos were blurry. Totality was just 2 minutes 25 seconds. But I was hooked.

In the aftermath, I learned something rather important. Cheap Mylar filters have a blueish cast and the photos look awful. Spend a little extra coin and get filters with a golden tone. It’s not the real color, either, but it's much more pleasing.

I had a pair of electronics stores to run, and thus neither the time nor budget to gallivant around the world after eclipses. So I had to wait 12 years.

My second solar eclipse: July 11 1991

After a 12-year wait, we drove from southern British Columbia to San Jose Del Cabo, in Mexico’s Baja – a 5,000-mile round trip.

This was “The Big One”, the longest totality for some 300 years, either side of now. At its maximum eclipse, some distance further south, totality was a full 6 minutes 53 seconds, of which we got to see 6 minutes and 47 seconds from San Jose del Cabo.

A couple of evenings prior to the eclipse, we met a lady in the lobby of our hotel who taught English and wanted to chat – most likely to improve her own English. The Mexican government had worried about people damaging their eyes, watching the eclipse without proper eye protection.

So they were setting up solar filter-equipped TV cameras all along the path, and would broadcast it live over and over, as the shadow moved down the coast.

I asked her if she was going to watch the eclipse on TV, but she told me that she was going to watch it in the time-honored Mexican way. “And what is that?” I asked. “From under the bed!” she replied.

On the morning of the eclipse was 100% cloud cover. Many folks opted to drive an hour north, to Santiago, hoping they’d gain an extra seven seconds of totality, and that the skies it would be clearer inland.

We opted to set up on the grounds of a condo where some of our group were staying. We were really roughing it, as we had to suffer being on a cool, manicured lawn, 20 feet from the whirlpool, 30 feet from the swimming pool, 50 feet from the ocean and 100 feet from the bar. And we had lots of company!

The best bit was that roughly 30 minutes before totality, the clouds vanished and everyone had a spectacular view. Still we suffered through with only 6 minutes and 45 seconds of umbral time. Life was rough!

In contrast, many Americans flew to Hawaii, as it was also on the center-line. But Hawaii had severe clouds and – unless you were one of the exalted few allowed above the clouds, on the grounds of the telescopes atop Mauna Kea – nobody saw a thing!

A PBS documentary of the Hawaiian version of the 1991 eclipse interviewed one family who could not find accommodation, so flew into Honolulu, stayed awake for 36 hours and flew home. All without seeing the eclipse! Getting clouded out is a risk that all eclipse chasers take.

What surprised me more than anything else was that, after totality ended, even though the partial phases still had an hour or more to go, within minutes the people cleared out and the town was empty. You could have shot a cannon down the main street and not hit a soul. Absolutely amazing!

So, two eclipses down and five to go. In 1998 the internet was in its infancy, with dial-up modems and slow connections, having very little influence on people’s lives. Cellphones would not become mainstream for another three to five years. But before long, the internet would take hold of the world – and everything would change…

The next installment of David Young's 47-year diary of a solar eclipse photographer will be published soon

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Ask a room full of photographers to define photography and you'll get a room full of arguments.

Indeed, as This is Photography: The First 200 Years recounts, in 2010 the artist Mishka Henner compiled 3,000 different sentences attempting to pin down what the medium actually is, pulled from critics, philosophers and photographers who'd each convinced themselves they'd cracked it.

In 2024, someone did it again with 3,500 sentences. Neither project settled anything.

Recounting this conundrum is a fitting way to open this new book from Thames & Hudson, timed to land in October to coincide with the 200th birthday of Nicéphore Niépce's first-ever permanent photograph.

Editor Nathalie Herschdorfer clearly knows better than to attempt a tidy definition of photography herself. Instead the book shows you, year by year, what photography has actually done since a Frenchman pointed a camera obscura at his courtyard and waited eight hours for something to happen.

The big anniversary

That anniversary is going to be inescapable this year, and rightly so. France has already announced a year-long bicentenary programme running from this September through to September 2027.

As we reported back in January, the centerpiece exhibition will open at the Grand Palais in Paris this autumn, and Herschdorfer's book arrives as a companion of sorts. It's just that this is a single-volume history you can actually hold, rather than an itinerary of exhibitions you'd need a year to visit.

For me, the structure is the best and most interesting thing about this book. Rather than grouping work by genre or geography, it runs strictly chronologically, from 1826 through to 2026, pairing key photographs and objects with short contextual entries.

Longer thematic essays are woven in-between, contributed by writers including David Campany, William A Ewing and Darius Himes, covering everything from the birth of photojournalism to the rise of the photobook as its own art form.

And that timeline approach does something that a genre-based book can't: it enables you to watch photography argue with itself in real time.

Eadweard Muybridge's motion studies sit in the same continuum as Rosalind Franklin's DNA imaging; Man Ray's darkroom experiments and Cindy Sherman's constructed selves become part of one long, unbroken conversation rather than separate exhibits in separate rooms.

With 1.9 trillion photographs now taken every year, according to the publisher's figures, that continuity is worth being reminded of. That Niépce's single, eight-hour exposure and this morning's Instagram selfie are, basically, the same act.

Why the timing matters

This shouldn't, in a sense, be so surprising. After all, Herschdorfer directs Photo Elysée in Lausanne and curates for the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, so she's spent a career watching institutions wrestle with exactly the question this book sidesteps:

What actually belongs in the photographic canon, and who gets to decide?

Her answer here, running Zanele Muholi and Barbara Kruger alongside Nadar and Edward Steichen, is refreshingly unbothered by hierarchy. Everything gets its year, its context, its place in the line.

For anyone covering, teaching or simply obsessing over photography, this may well become the reference you reach for when a client, student or editor asks, "Where did this actually come from?" And with Paris about to spend a year celebrating the answer, its timing couldn't be better.

This is Photography: The First 200 Years, edited by Nathalie Herschdorfer, is published by Thames & Hudson in the US on October 06 2026, priced $55, and in the UK for £40 on August 27.

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Best known for his 44-year collaboration with David Bowie, including the iconic Heroes album cover shoot, Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita has created some of the most recognizable images in music history.

His era-defining portraits of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Joe Strummer and many more artists helped shape the visual identity of generations of musicians.

Sukita has now been announced as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Abbey Road Music Photography Awards, delivered by DHL – a prestigious honor celebrating a lifetime of influence in music photography.

Born in 1938 in a small coal-mining town in northern Kyushu, Japan, Sukita's creative journey was shaped by early memories of his father taking photographs before his death on the front line in China during World War II, as well as cinema trips with his uncle.

Those experiences inspired a lifelong fascination with storytelling through images, eventually placing some of the world's most iconic musicians in front of his lens.

The making of a music photography legend

In the early 1970s, Sukita immersed himself in the creative energy of New York and London, drawn to the connections between art, film and music.

In New York he photographed Jimi Hendrix in the months before his death, while in London he captured the rise of artists including Marc Bolan and T Rex.

His career changed forever in 1972 when he first met David Bowie, after being drawn to a concert poster before even hearing his music.

A portrait session followed that summer, beginning a remarkable 44-year collaboration between the two artists. In 1977, Sukita created his most famous image of Bowie: the iconic cover photograph for the Heroes album.

Beyond Bowie, Sukita photographed generations of influential musicians including Yellow Magic Orchestra and The Sex Pistols, while continuing his work across fashion and advertising.

His photographs have been exhibited around the world, including the record-breaking David Bowie Is exhibition at London's V&A museum, cementing his legacy as one of music photography's defining figures.

A lifetime capturing music history

"Masayoshi Sukita is one of the true visionaries of music photography," explains Abbey Road’s director of marketing & creative, Mark Robertson. "His images have not only documented some of the most influential artists of our time, they have helped define how we see them.

"Sukita created photographs that have become part of cultural history, with work that is timeless, intimate and instantly recognisable, demonstrating the power of photography to shape the identity of artists and entire eras. His influence and legacy continue to inspire across music, fashion and visual culture."

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ISO is a complicated subject that’s often contorted into an overly simple solution: keep it as low as possible.

But many mirrorless camera sensors feature something called dual-gain, dual-native or dual-base ISO – and if that doesn’t sound particularly familiar, it could change the way you shoot forever.

How low can you go? The ISO myth

I personally think that photography journalists (*ahem* like me…) are to blame for the oversimplification of ISO.

Back in print publishing’s heyday, landscape photography was the magic sauce. Stick a stunning vista on the front cover of a magazine with a tasty landscape-themed coverline and the issue would sell like hotcakes.

As such, a lot of beginner photography techniques are biased toward landscape photography. And when you’re set up on a tripod it makes absolute sense to keep your ISO as low as possible, because you’re less bothered about your shutter speed.

But if you’re capturing street snaps or fast-moving wildlife, suddenly a low ISO becomes impractical.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve judged over a hundred photography competitions, and the number one mistake that I see again and again is soft images from photographers who evidently think that noise is more egregious than camera shake. It’s not.

Dual-native ISO

There’s another reason why you shouldn’t fear raising your ISO. Many modern mirrorless cameras feature dual ISO technologies, often referred to as dual gain, dual native or dual base. Let’s get some jargon out of the way first…

• Native ISO: A camera’s ISO range in which the analog signal is boosted.
• Expanded ISO: Sits either side of the native ISO range, expanding the signal digitally beyond analog means, making noise much more apparent.
• Base ISO: At the bottom value of the native ISO range, this is an unboosted ISO value that creates the cleanest images. In a dual or triple-base ISO setting, it acts as a baseline in which to provide the best image quality possible but will still be amplified to a degree.

A conventional camera features one analog circuit, which is boosted to increase light sensitivity. Dual-native ISO features two analog circuits. The idea behind this is that it allows for two base ISOs. For example, you might have a base ISO at ISO64 and ISO800.

This can even mean that shooting at the second base ISO will provide better image clarity than some lower ISOs. For example, if you’re shooting at ISO640, you might as well bump it up to ISO800 so you can benefit from a faster shutter speed and still end up with no noticeable drop in image quality – and possibly end up with even better results.

Different cameras have different circuits and can even differ from stills to video or between video formats. For example, the Nikon Z9 has base ISOs of ISO64 and ISO500 for stills, and ISO800 and ISO4000 for video when shooting in N-Log.

Some manufacturers aren’t particularly good at promoting their cameras’ dual-native ISO capabilities – and Nikon is one such manufacturer. A recent article on Nikon Rumors highlights this. I was well aware of the Nikon Z9, Nikon Z8, Nikon Z6 III and Nikon Zf, but had no idea that the Nikon Z6 II, Nikon Z7 II, Nikon Z7 and Nikon Z6 had dual-gain sensors.

This is likely because the technology is much more prevalent within the video sphere, which makes sense.

Videographers are more exposed when it comes to noise-reduction techniques. Photographers can capture long exposures, exposure stack to capture more dynamic range, implement flash, and noise-reduction is much easier for photographers.

Not to be confused with DGO

There’s another technology called Dual Gain Output [DGO], but this operates differently to dual-gain or dual-native ISO by essentially using the dual circuit simultaneously.

This means that the camera captures two images, one on the low-gain circuit and one on the high-gain circuit, before blending them into one image. The theory is that by using the low-gain circuit to capture the highlights and the high-gain circuit to capture the shadows, you end up with better image quality.

And that’s not all; the Canon EOS C400 cinema camera introduced the world to triple-base ISO, which works exactly like the aforementioned dual-base ISO, but features three analog circuits for even greater noise-reducing capabilities.

So, as always, for besty results you need to really familiarize yourself with your camera and its capabilities. Look up what your sensor can actually do and you might be astonished at how you can use it in the real world, not just abiding by "old magazine logic"!

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Carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases are invisible, but photographers are capturing the effects of a warming planet in a way that’s impossible to ignore. As several regions struggle with record-breaking heat, drought, and wildfires, photojournalists are turning their lenses to document the very visible effects of a global issue with an invisible cause.

I’m a photographer and a journalist, and as I was looking through the top news photos of this week, I couldn’t help but notice a pattern. Photojournalists are capturing the effects of a warming planet in a way that turns an invisible cause into a very tangible photograph – and it echoes the top photos from last week as wildfire smoke created eerie photographs with an apocalyptic feel.

These are the best photos from photojournalists that I’ve spotted this week.

A striking image of a melting glacier

This photograph by Sean Gallup shows two researchers walking across the sediment left by a melting glacier, the Isunnguata Sermija in Greenland. A group of researchers began a six-week campout where the scientists will document the changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The photograph is an excellent example of powerful framing that tells a story. The low angle highlights the sediment with the glacier misted in the background. Including two researchers in the photo rather than just an empty but changing landscape gives the photograph a human element.

Firefighters silhouetted by a wildfire in France

This photograph by Romain Perrocheau stopped me in my tracks. I can’t see the firefighter’s faces, but I can feel the exhaustion radiating off them in their stance alone.

The photograph is a powerful example of what a minimal, tightly-framed photograph can do. The pattern of the bright orange smoke instantly conveys the subject, yet leaves space for the eye to go immediately to the firefighter’s stance in the middle of the composition.

An empty river bed

In this photograph by Nikolay Doychinov, boats and a bridge lie in the dry river bed of the Danube River between Bulgaria and Romania.

The aerial view of the river helps demonstrate the scale of the issue, as record temperatures had led to low water levels. But it’s color that creates a strong composition here. All three boats have the same blue that helps them stand out against the dull colors of the dried riverbed.

A perfectly-framed shot of rain in NYC

According to the United Nations, climate change is exacerbating water-related crises like both drought and flooding. This photograph was taken while New York and New Jersey were under a flood watch. The image is a color shot (as evidenced by the red in the clothing and the yellow sign on the rocks), but the weather and moody exposure make this image feel nearly like a black-and-white photograph.

Photographer Spencer Platt could teach a class on composition with just this image. The archway uses the frame-within-a-frame technique that immediately draws the eye to the subject. Placing the couple holding umbrellas against the gray skyline rather than a dark background helps the subject stand out. Then, there are even leading lines as the Brooklyn Bridge further draws the eye into the photo.

A striking night shot

There are three light sources in this image – manmade lights, stars, and a wildfire. The photograph by Thibaut Durand of Abaca Press depicts the historic Horloge des Hermes clock tower and the lights of the town of L'Argentière-la-Bessée, France, as a wildfire burns on the French Alps in the background.

As a photographer, I know just how difficult it is to capture astrophotography mixed with manmade lights, as artificial lights tend to wash out the stars. Not only did Durand capture both, but a wildfire as well. The sparks coming from the wildfire almost feel like additional stars.

Photographs have power, and these five photos demonstrate how a good photograph can draw attention to key global issues.

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The word “amateur” is often treated as an insult in photography. It is used to suggest inexperience, poor technique or someone who has yet to reach the supposedly higher level of becoming a professional.

But I think we have it entirely backward. Being an amateur photographer might be the most creatively freeing position you can ever find yourself in.

There is no client waiting for a particular image, no editor expecting a certain style and no deadline rapidly approaching while you desperately check whether you managed to get the shot. Instead, the photographic world is your oyster – and you can explore it in any way you choose.

You can photograph landscapes one weekend, portraits the next and then suddenly decide that you want to spend the following month photographing nothing but shadows falling across buildings.

You can buy an old film camera, experiment with intentional camera movement, try street photography or spend an entire afternoon attempting to make an interesting photograph of something completely ordinary. Nobody is waiting to tell you that it does not fit your portfolio.

More importantly, nobody on Instagram is demanding that you bring back the “old you”. That might sound slightly ridiculous, but photographers can quickly become trapped by the work for which they are known.

Once people begin following you for a particular look, subject or editing style, it becomes increasingly difficult to change direction without attracting questions about why you have stopped photographing landscapes, started shooting black-and-white, changed cameras or allowed your work to look different.

As an amateur photographer, you do not have to answer any of those questions. You can change direction simply because you feel like it – and your photography does not need a clear brand identity, a content strategy or a recognizable visual formula. It only needs to interest you, which is an incredibly powerful place from which to create.

Photography also remains what it was probably meant to be when you first picked up a camera: a hobby that you enjoy enormously.

I was incredibly fortunate that my hobby became my full-time career for many years. Photography paid my bills, gave me access to extraordinary places and enabled me to build a life around something I genuinely loved doing – and I will always be grateful for that.

However, when your hobby becomes your nine-to-five job, your relationship with it inevitably changes. That does not mean you stop loving photography, but there is suddenly far more riding on the outcome.

You are no longer taking photographs purely because you find something interesting. You are taking them because somebody needs them, because a publication is expecting them or because a client has paid you to deliver them, and that places a responsibility on every press of the shutter.

Looking back, there were many creative ideas I could have explored – but professional photography rarely gave me the freedom to push those ideas particularly far.

I had to get the shot and it had to be sharp, properly exposed, correctly framed and ready to be sent out. There was very little room for failure, because failure could mean missing the defining moment or returning without the image that somebody had commissioned.

When I worked as a professional sports photographer, I could not decide halfway through an event that I wanted to experiment with slow shutter speeds or unusual compositions if doing so might cost me the photograph that mattered.

The creative idea might have been exciting, but the safe photograph was the one that would be published, satisfy the client and ultimately pay the bills.

Professional photography teaches you consistency, reliability and discipline, and those are enormously valuable skills. However, they can also make you cautious.

Because when your reputation and income depend on producing usable images, experimentation can begin to feel like an unnecessary risk rather than an essential part of the creative process.

An amateur photographer has no such limitation and can afford to take that risk. You can deliberately overexpose a frame, miss focus, use the wrong lens, choose an awkward composition or try a technique that you do not fully understand.

You can return home with an entire memory card of photographs that did not work, and absolutely nothing terrible will happen because you can simply learn from the experience and try again next time.

That lack of consequence makes failure useful again. Instead of seeing a failed photograph as a missed deadline or a disappointed client, you can see it as part of the process. You can work out what went wrong, make an adjustment and continue experimenting without worrying about whether the result is commercially viable.

Occasionally, everything comes together. The light works, the composition feels right, and the idea that had been living inside your head suddenly appears on the back of the camera.

Because there was no guarantee of success and no pressure to deliver it, that moment feels even more rewarding because you created the photograph entirely for yourself.

I also think that amateur photographers often put far more effort into their work than the label suggests. They wake up before sunrise, drive for hours to reach a location, spend evenings learning new techniques and carefully edit their photographs after finishing a completely unrelated day job.

They are not doing it because they have been commissioned; they are doing it because they care deeply about the images they are trying to create.

That enthusiasm is incredibly difficult to manufacture, because it comes from curiosity rather than obligation – and curiosity is often where the most interesting photography begins.

An amateur photographer is free to become completely obsessed with an obscure subject that may never attract a large audience – and there is something wonderfully pure about that.

They can spend years documenting their local coastline, photographing family life, recording changes within their community or perfecting a photographic process that very few other people understand. The work does not have to be commercially viable, satisfy an algorithm or even be shown to anyone else for it to carry meaning and value.

In fact, some of the most meaningful photographs are created without any expectation that they will be sold, published or celebrated. They exist because the photographer felt compelled to make them – and perhaps that is the real meaning of being an amateur photographer.

The word comes with assumptions about ability, but it should really describe somebody who practices photography out of love – and there is nothing inferior about that.

Professional photographers deserve enormous respect. They work under pressure, solve problems quickly and consistently produce images regardless of the conditions. I know firsthand how much skill, preparation and resilience that requires, but professionalism is not the only measure of photographic success.

You do not need to earn money from your camera to justify owning it – and you do not need thousands of followers to prove that your images matter. You do not need to specialize, build a brand or turn every creative interest into a business opportunity, because sometimes photography can simply remain photography.

Being an amateur photographer means that you can put maximum effort into an image while accepting that it might fail. You can push the boundaries because there is nobody standing behind you demanding the safer version. And you can follow your curiosity wherever it leads while changing direction whenever you please.

You might be disappointed when an experiment does not work, but you are not professionally damaged by it. When it does work, you can be completely ecstatic because the success belongs entirely to you – and that freedom is something many professional photographers spend years trying to rediscover.

Perhaps being an amateur photographer is not simply the stage before becoming a professional. Perhaps it is its own destination – and, for many photographers, the most creatively rewarding destination of all.

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This image of a luminous fishing net engulfing a mangrove in the dead of night is more than just an eerie yet interesting composition; it sheds light on the growing problem of “ghost gear,” discarded fishing equipment that’s polluting marine ecosystems and threatening wildlife.

Captured by Indian photographer Gaurav Patil, the image was taken near Nandgaon village, Maharashtra, south of Mumbai, and has just been announced the overall winner of this year’s Mangrove Photography Awards. Patil takes home the $1,000 (approximately £750 / AU$1,400) prize but, on a grander scale, has played a role in raising awareness of mangrove conservation.

“I have been watching ghost nets getting trapped in mangroves for the last several years, and I wanted to document it in an artistic manner to grab the attention of the viewers,” Patil told the Mangrove Action Project, the competition organizers.

Mangroves are critical coastal ecosystems that protect shorelines from extreme weather and erosion and serve as essential nurseries for marine life, but are facing a severe and growing threat from ghost nets.

These abandoned fishing nets physically entangle wildlife, alter local hydrology, and can break down into microplastics, which animals consume.

The photography competition aims to draw attention to these essential waterborne ecosystems, which experts say are at risk of collapse by 2050.

The organizers invite photographers to submit entries across a range of categories, including the relationship between locals and mangroves, stories of their conservation, and how they support wildlife.

Notable category winners at the 2026 awards included Lucas Gonçalves' aerial depiction of the Tejipió River in Recife (Brazil) separating shrimp ponds forming a natural tapestry from a vast mangrove forest.

There was also Ryuhei Suguri’s (Indonesia) mesmerizing long exposure of a single mangrove below the star-filled night sky.

The 12th edition of the Mangrove Photography Awards saw over 5,000 entries from 87 countries, and you can see the entire winners gallery here.

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Internationally established photographer Sølve Sundsbø has photographed some of fashion's biggest names, but when it came to the Pirelli Calendar 2027, he believed one photographer alone couldn't tell India's story.

Having shot last year's Pirelli Calendar, Sølve Sundsbø approached the 2027 edition with a different mindset. He embraced a collaboration with Indian photography legend Raghu Rai (who sadly died in April) – later completed by his daughter, Avani Rai – believing the country's richness demanded multiple perspectives.

In an exclusive interview, Sølve Sundsbø explains why he felt he had "no right" to photograph India on his own, how working with natural light transformed the project, and why the people he met became the calendar's lasting memory.

"No right to do that on my own"

The 2027 Pirelli Calendar marks the first time the publication has been created through more than one photographic voice. For Sølve Sundsbø, that collaboration was essential.

"If I was going to be involved, it was important that it was someone else as well, because I have, in so many ways, no right to do that on my own, being who I am and where I'm from," he says.

Working alongside Raghu Rai – and later Avani Rai – allowed the project to present India through contrasting perspectives.

"I've concentrated on portraits whilst Rai went into the streets," Sølve Sundsbø explains.

"This fact made it more multifaceted. Coming from two completely different vantage points – with my background, and Raghu's background and Avani's background – it gives us a better chance of creating a more multi-dimensional picture of what India is."

"Like doing it again for the first time"

Having created the 2026 Pirelli Calendar, Sølve Sundsbø admits he approached his second edition with a different mindset.

"It was different this time," he says. "Last time, it was just me, my ideas in collaboration with the talent I was photographing."

"This time it was a whole different approach. It was less conceptual, more real photography. It was on location. It was natural light. It was a very different approach on every level."

Sølve Sundsbø explains that it felt like doing it for the first time, but without the pressure.

"Natural light is the most beautiful light"

Unlike the previous calendar, the 2027 edition relied almost entirely on natural light.

"We worked with daylight, almost exclusively; there was just one picture where we added a bit of light, as it was a difficult location."

The team carefully planned the photo shoot around the sun.

"You kind of go, 'At four o'clock we're going to do that picture because the sun will then give us the light we want."

Large diffusion screens softened the sunlight while preserving its natural quality, "but no filters, no nothing, just natural light," Sølve Sundsbø explains.

He adds, "Natural light is the most beautiful light."

"I shot it with a Fujifilm GFX with a huge resolution. It's got great light sensitivity, so you can work in lower-light situations without any problems", Sølve Sundsbø says.

The people became the story

For Sølve Sundsbø, every portrait began with a conversation.

"It's really important that there's a collaboration with the person you photograph, because you don't want to put somebody into a scenario they don't want to do," he explains.

Those conversations often shaped the final image.

"Padma was very happy to be in a lake with lotus flowers because 'Padma' in Sanskrit means lotus flower."

"With Anushka, she loved the monsoon, so we did rain. Every person has a different connection to the picture."

What Sølve Sundsbø will remember most

Asked what moment from the project he will still remember in ten years, Sølve Sundsbø finds it impossible to choose just one.

"It's a bit like choosing a favorite child. It's impossible," he says.

"What I'll take away from it is all the amazing people we worked with. Not only the people in the pictures, but the people around us – the helpers," adds Sølve Sundsbø. "They were great and we had a fantastic time."

Photographer Avani Rai knows the weight of following in a legendary photographer's footsteps. As the daughter of Indian photographer master Raghu Rai, who died in April, she faced the unique challenge of completing her father's work for the Pirelli Calendar 2027 – a project that became both a creative collaboration and a personal journey.

Known for her distinctive approach to photography, Avani Rai found herself in a project shaped by her father's decades-long relationship with India. Rather than attempting to recreate his perspective, she discovered a new way to connect with his vision, honored to step in and realize her father’s intentions for the series.

In an exclusive interview, Avani Rai explains what it was like to photograph India alongside her father's vision, why she believes "imitation would make you a lesser version," and how stepping into his gaze made her discover another way of seeing.

Three pairs of eyes on India

For the first time in the Cal™’s history, the Pirelli Calendar 2027 brings together multiple photographic voices, featuring Sølve Sundsbø and Raghu Rai. However, three pairs of eyes ultimately shaped the project as Avani Rai stepped in to complete her father's work.

"India is so vast that no amount of eyes are enough, because in the same space things happen all at once," she explains.

"It's very interesting to have three pairs of eyes on India, because there's an interaction, and then a dialogue begins. Everyone's storytelling ways are so different, and the dialogue becomes interesting – especially as I was interacting with my father."

The Pirelli Calendar 2027 is a collection shaped by different perspectives, capturing the many sides of India.

"I would see another world"

When asked what she discovered about the way Raghu Rai saw India, Avani Rai reflected on photographing alongside him and looking through his camera.

"I would quickly take his camera and see what he photographed, then look at my own work. I've seen another world," she says.

"What was exciting was that we're all capable of accessing that other world."

For Avani Rai, honoring her father's vision did not mean recreating his photographs. His work was shaped by his own relationship with people and places, and she realized that the only way to continue that connection was by approaching India through her own perspective.

"It's not like I'm trying to photograph like him, because in order to photograph like him, I have to be who I was being – me – and I was interacting with him."

She adds: "Imitation would make you a lesser version of something already done."

"I felt very close to my father"

Looking back at the project, Avani Rai describes the experience as both a responsibility and a deeply personal connection.

"It's a lot of responsibility on my shoulders," she says.

"But I felt very close to my father doing this. Connected with him. That's the feeling."

That connection became one of the defining parts of the project, allowing Avani Rai to continue a conversation with her father through photography.

"The work my father created for Pirelli was a tribute to India – bringing together his lifelong vision with a more contemporary expression of its people and diversity, something he was always deeply drawn to."

"I cannot bear the thought of it remaining unrealised. Bringing it to life feels deeply personal, as if I am stepping into his gaze and the way he saw India through his camera."

Avani Rai adds, "Photography was his gift to me – not just as a craft, but as a way of seeing – and in that we found a quiet, profound connection.

"Carrying this forward feels like a way of staying close to him, of keeping a part of him alive within me."

Waiting for the image

For Avani Rai, photography is built around patience – allowing moments to develop rather than forcing them to happen.

"When you are waiting for the image, I feel like in that moment when you take a picture, you think you have taken it, and yet there is more," she says.

"There's always more. It depends on how much you're ready to wait."

Through the Pirelli Calendar 2027, Avani Rai continues her father's photographic journey, honoring Raghu Rai's way of seeing, while following her own.

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The career of Marilyn Stafford (1923-2025) began in an unusual way. In 1948, friends making a film about the famous scientist Albert Einstein needed someone to photograph him, and Stafford, despite having no professional background, was the one who picked up the camera.

What followed was three decades documenting refugees, slum communities, fashion houses and heads of state, guided early on by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris. She became one of only a handful of women working in London's Fleet Street newspaper district, at a time when that wasn't a small thing to be.

This September, that legacy gets a proper weekend. POST, Brighton and Hove's new photography centre, is hosting three days marking the tenth anniversary of the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award, the prize set up in her name to support women telling documentary stories through photography.

Organized by FotoDocument and backed by Nikon, the event runs from September 18-20 and brings together past winners, jury members and some of the most respected names in the field.

For anyone shooting documentary work, or simply trying to build a career in an industry that still skews heavily male, this is worth a visit.

It's less a single exhibition, more a working weekend: retrospectives to study, panels to peruse, and a portfolio day with actual feedback attached.

Friday evening opens with the launch of When the Earth Gives Birth, the new body of work from Johanna Alarcón, this year's award winner.

It sits alongside a retrospective pulling highlights from a full decade of winning projects, giving visitors a rare chance to trace how the award's documentary style has shifted since it launched.

A parallel display of Stafford's own photographs and books runs throughout, including work from her time covering Algerian refugees in Tunisia and her portraits of Indira Gandhi during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

There's also a first look at a forthcoming documentary about Stafford's life, with a trailer screening and a Q&A with director Ellie Emptage of Tara Films.

It's a rare bit of moving-image context for a photographer whose stills have mostly had to speak for themselves.

Veterans and industry access

The panels are where this weekend earns its keep for anyone in the trade.

Natalya Saprunova, the 2022 award winner, joins jury members and veteran documentary photographers Andrea Bruce and Donna DeCesare for a broader discussion on where women stand in contemporary documentary photography today, alongside Laura El-Tantawy and Neo Ntsoma. Carol Allen-Storey adds a book talk and signing with GOST Books, useful for anyone weighing up self-publishing versus a small press.

Sunday closes the weekend with something very practical: Nikon-run workshops and one-to-one portfolio reviews for students and recent graduates, hosted by Nikon ambassador Carolyn Mendelsohn. It's the kind of access that's hard to come by outside a festival setting, and worth booking early given the format.

Nina Emett, director of FotoDocument and co-director of POST, says the weekend is as much a tribute to Stafford's adopted hometown as to her career.

Given how much of that career was spent working around (and often against) the industry's usual gatekeeping, a weekend built on access rather than spectacle feels like the right way to mark it.

The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award tenth anniversary weekend runs at POST, Brighton and Hove, from September 18-20. Tickets are available now.

As a photographer I'm always striving to level up my images, but researchers are warning bird photographers that one way to "improve" a bird photo may actually end up contaminating valuable citizen scientist databases with misleading data.

In a recent op-ed from the journal Nature, researchers from citizen science databases including iNaturalist and the Macaulay Library told a startling story of a Red-Winged Blackbird found well outside its usual range in Brazil.

The problem? The bird was actually a common Epaulet Oriole but, when the photographer asked an AI platform to "improve this photo", AI removed the bird's yellow coloring, making it look like an entirely different species.

While fake wildlife images are already littering social media platforms, the altered images' existence inside these so-called citizen scientist platforms could have serious implications, as researchers will use the sightings reported from hobbyist birders to monitor a species' habitat and patterns.

The image that the researchers used as an example wasn’t from an internet trickster, but rather from a birder who didn’t realize the implications of asking an AI platform to "improve this photo".

GenAI platforms often don't edit a photo in the traditional sense, like improving contrast, exposure and color. Instead, some GenAI photo editors regenerate, turning a real photograph into a generated image. In the world of birding, the AI can introduce subtle 'enhancements' that actually change the identification of the bird entirely.

"AI image processing tools are now ubiquitous, and there is a pressing need to educate contributors of the problems that image manipulation can cause for the scientific record," the researchers wrote.

A growing number of photo editing apps can now use AI to help novices edit photos without the usual know-how. But the apps don’t always make it clear when AI is editing and when it is regenerating pixels – and many don’t come with an option to turn the AI features off.

The researchers call for the citizen scientist platforms to integrate AI detection algorithms – some of which have already been implemented, such as recent changes to iNaturalist. But the large number of different GenAI platforms can make detection challenging.

For birders, the message is clear: don't use GenAI to share wildlife sightings on community platforms for sharing sightings.

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The Spanish national football team’s well-deserved second FIFA World Cup victory has been somewhat overshadowed by the Argentinian team’s conduct before and after the final whistle, drawing criticism regarding the defending champions' behaviour. But another incident has dominated headlines: footage of US President Donald Trump appearing to overstay his welcome during the sacred lifting of the trophy.

And now, some outlets are reporting that the US President has been intentionally cropped out of official photographs of the historic moment, including an image posted on the official FIFA World Cup X account (formerly Twitter) .

What happened?

The POTUS was given the honor, alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino, of handing out medals to both teams as well as presenting the fabled trophy to Spain captain Rodri, during the ceremony at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. Rodri appears to gently guide the US President to one side, but he stalls right on the edge of the crowd as the team prepares to lift the trophy.

Even Infantino appears to coax Trump further away, but the beaming President faces the cameras and claps the victors as Rodri launches the trophy into the sky amidst a hail of golden confetti. Only then does Trump head off.

Of course, plenty of photographers were on hand to immortalize the moment, intent on capturing that initial burst of jubilation. However, an official photograph posted on the FIFA World Cup X account (above) depicting the initial celebration features an extremely tight 4:5 crop, which only includes what appears to be a very slim portion of the President’s suit. The news comes following a hot-mic moment during the broadcast when Australian commentator Claudio Fabiano could be heard saying: “They can edit him out of that,” seemingly referring to Trump.

Was the crop intentional?

I can only comment on the situation as a photography expert. And firstly, I should address a few things. I’ve seen the word ‘edited’ thrown around a lot, which can conjure images of subject removal, cloning, etc, but from the images I’ve seen, it simply looks like they don’t extend far enough to include Trump.

Now, there’s two ways to crop, the photographer can either crop in-camera by altering the framing, or you can crop in post-production, by using a cropping tool to physically reduce the borders of the image. It’s therefore entirely possible that some of the images being shown were not cropped, but simply never framed the President in the first place.

Still, the image on FIFA’s X account is so tightly framed, my best guess is that it was cropped in post-production (although I cannot be sure). This isn’t necessarily a political move, however. In the world of photography, it’s rather common to crop out distractions that detract from the main subject of the image. And while Trump is very often the main subject, he stood to one side and was therefore secondary to the subject matter, the Spanish national team’s hard-fought victory.

While politicians come and go, this was a very specific moment to be immortalized in the annals of football history. Looking at the bigger picture, it certainly makes sense from a narrative and compositional perspective, to crop out any distractions beyond the team itself, whether that be Trump, Infantino or anyone or anything else.

This contrasts sharply with a very similar situation that happened a year ago, when Donald Trump also stayed put during Chelsea’s FIFA Club World Cup trophy lift at the same stadium. Rather than stand to one side, he found himself right between captain Reece James and goalkeeper Robert Sánchez for the brunt of the celebration. In this instance, the script is flipped, the situation is so unusual and Trump is so integral to the composition that he becomes the subject matter and from a photographer’s standpoint that only adds to the interest and intrigue of the imagery.

So, do I think Donald Trump was intentionally cropped out of the image? Yes, and if I was editing it, I would have done the same because his presence detracts from the subject matter. However, if I’d been photographing Chelsea’s FIFA Club World Cup victory, I’d have been frantically capturing image after image of the President among the players, knowing I was photographing a bizarre yet historic moment in its own right.

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Bob Carlos Clarke spent a career being filed under a single word: provocative. That's accurate in one sense, but it's also the kind of shorthand that lets people skip past the actual work. As a new retrospective opens in London, it's a good opportunity to look past the hype and take a closer look at his actual process, because for photographers there's more craft here than the headlines suggest.

The Last Dolls, opening at Atlas Gallery on 5 September and curated by Brandei Estes, marks 20 years since the Irish photographer died in 2006 and is the first Carlos Clarke show in London for a decade. It brings together signed edition prints, rare unique prints, one-of-a-kind collages and pieces from his celebrated Love Dolls Never Die series.

Ben Burdett, founder of Atlas Gallery, has described Carlos Clarke as "the William Burroughs of photography": transgressive, dark and permanently close to taboo. Fair enough. But it's important to understand that the images that made his name weren't snatched moments. They were built.

Highly constructed

Often labelled Britain's answer to Helmut Newton, Carlos Clarke worked across celebrity portraiture, photojournalism and advertising. But it was his highly constructed, carefully composed studio images, women and rubber chief among his recurring subjects, that sealed his reputation.

Estes, senior curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery and former head of photographs at Sotheby's, believes the comparison to Newton only goes so far. In his view, Carlos Clarke's work carries a sharper psychological edge; more cerebral in how it handles desire and control.

According to his long-time agent Ghislain Pascal, Clarke chose his models carefully, often outside the usual agency system, and built collaborations that sometimes ran for years.

These weren't commissioned jobs shot in an afternoon. They were meticulously planned projects, with models active participants, rather than props in front of a lens.

That distinction matters. A photograph built on true collaboration reads differently to one that isn't, whatever the content. And it's a large part of why these images hold their tension: composed and glamorous on the surface, but with a sense that the subject retains full command of the frame.

As Estes puts it, they're less invitations to look, more declarations that looking is as far as it goes.

British photography expert Philippe Garner's often-quoted line about Carlos Clarke – that he was photographing either what he desired or what he feared, and probably both – gets at why the pictures still unsettle. But the unsettling part was engineered: the lighting, the styling, the studio control, all deliberate.

Nothing in these prints happened by accident, which is precisely what separates constructed provocation from the merely shocking.

Carlos Clarke's six books, from The Illustrated Delta of Venus in 1979 to Love Dolls Never Die in 2004, chart a career that never settled for the easy version of an image. A new limited edition book, The Last Dolls, was published on March 26, the exact anniversary of his death, and is available through Atlas Gallery, The Little Black Gallery and The Photographers' Gallery.

The Last Dolls exhibition, meanwhile, will run at Atlas Gallery, 49 Dorset Street, London W1U 7NF, from September 5-26. For photographers inclined to dismiss Clarke's work as shock value, it's worth a look. The shock, it turns out, was the easy part.

Some portfolios document a moment. Box of Pin-Ups, you might say, built one. When the British photographer David Bailey released a boxed set of 36 portraits in 1965, he wasn't just shooting the people who mattered in London (Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Michael Caine, the Kray twins). He was making the argument, novel at the time, that musicians, models, fashion designers and even criminals belonged in the same visual category as the era's screen idols.

Sixty years on, that argument still holds, which is why art publisher and gallery HENI's new release deserves attention.

The Pin-Ups Contact Sheets, running at HENI Gallery in Soho until July 31, is the first time Bailey's original contact sheets from the project have ever been offered for sale. For a portfolio this heavily reproduced, that's a significant gap being filled: the chance to see the Kodak Tri-X frames either side of the ones that made the cut, the crossing-outs, the grease-pencil circles, the handwritten notes to a printer deciding which face would represent an era.

The release sits across several formats. Alongside the 36 original silver gelatin contact sheets, HENI is offering a first edition of the original Box of Pin-Ups clamshell, a run of Bailey's photographic prints from 1990 to 2009, and two new limited-edition series produced with HENI Editions: four XL archival prints with screenprint detailing, and three smaller screenprints priced at $1,250 each. Everything is by application only, closing at 17:00 BST on July 31.

What they show

For photographers specifically, the value here is less in the finished portraits, more in the process laid bare. A contact sheet, you understand, doesn't lie about how a photographer thinks.

You can see Bailey and his medium-format camera circling back to the same expression on Jagger across a dozen near-identical frames, testing how little a fur hood needs to move before a picture stops being a snapshot and becomes an icon. The Michael Caine sheet, glasses pushed up, cigarette mid-frame, shows the same discipline: shoot the gesture until it's inevitable, then stop.

That's a masterclass in editing as much as shooting, and it's rarely available to study this directly from a photographer of Bailey's stature.

Box of Pin-Ups is also worth revisiting for what it left out. Of the 36 sitters, only four were women, a decision the original text defended bluntly. In the age of Mick Jagger, it argued, it was the boys who'd become the pin-ups.

Whatever you make of that framing six decades on, it's a useful reminder that Bailey wasn't shooting celebrity as a neutral fact. He was shooting a specific, contestable idea of who counted as glamorous in 1965, and doing it with enough conviction that the portfolio became a document of the argument itself, not just its subjects.

Bailey, now 88, discovered photography while serving in the RAF in Singapore, inspired by a single Cartier-Bresson print. That the same eye went on to define an entire decade's visual identity, and that its working notes are only now becoming public, makes this one of the more excitingly rare opportunities on this year's collecting calendar.

David Bailey: The Pin-Ups Contact Sheets runs at HENI Gallery, 6–10 Lexington Street, London, until 31 July. Admission is free; works are available by application.