A fluorescent mosquito glowing pink and purple under ultraviolet (UV) light while an entomologist studies it through a microscope.

This fantastic image was taken by Shayanta Chowdhury, a Chemistry PhD student at Notre Dame University, Idaho, and recently won a Scientists at Work photo award from Nature, a major science journal publisher.

While Shayanta’s image is certainly well-crafted, it’s much more than a beautiful composition, capturing both the scientist and the science in the same frame, revealing a world of research few get to see.

“I wanted a photo where the scientist imaging the subject is also in the frame, along with the instrument being used," said Shayanta.

In the shot we see Lee Haines, an entomologist at the same university, analyzing a yellow fever mosquito through a microscope.

Haines is studying how the drug nitisinone can be used to kill blood-feeding insects, and the mosquito has ingested a sugary substance infused with fluorescent dyes, lighting up the dark laboratory.

“The UV illumination created striking colors from both the tiny mosquito and the condensation that formed beneath the cold petri dish: a pink-purple mosquito in a sea of blue, with water droplets reflecting the light in every direction," Shayanta explained.

To capture the image, Shayanta used a Sony A6700 with a Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 lens. His settings were ISO 2000, f/2.8, 1/250sec using the widest 18mm focal length.

“I focused on the mosquito on the screen, but also made sure Lee was in the same plane to have her on focus as well, given the shallow depth of field,” he said.

While Shayanta is a chemist, his work also involves using microscopes and lasers to analyze nanoparticles, giving him a unique appreciation for the beauty hidden within all scientific research.

Shayanta said: “Biological samples are usually also very beautiful under a microscope, because it reveals a world you can't see with your bare eyes."

Beyond the personal gratification, Shayanta hopes that winning the Scientists at Work award and the subsequent coverage will help people engage with science.

"I truly believe that art has the power to bridge the gap between scientists and other communities," he said. “If my image can spark someone's interest in what on Earth is going on, and can inspire them to ask more questions and be curious about science, that would be a big achievement."

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Marine ecologist and diver Robert Harcourt also won a Scientists at Work photo award in 2026. His underwater shot shows a fellow researcher collecting a bacteria sample from a whale shark.

I have to admit, as both a photographer and a tech journalist there are some new product launches that are, well, boring. V-flats are usually one of them, flat pieces of foam core used as both lighting tools and easy backdrops. But lighting giant Westcott has just re-invented the v-flat – and made it not only portable but washable.

The new Westcott V-Flat, announced this week, uses fabric and an aluminum stand with magnetic legs rather than foam core. The design reminds me more of a scrim than a v-flat, but the design looks far more portable and durable than the standard foam core.

A typical v-flat is a large piece of foam core that’s versatile, but unwieldy to pack. The foam also often dents easily, making it a photography staple that tends to need semi-regular replacing.

V-flats are often loved for their versatility, and Wescott has worked to keep that intact as well. The design uses two panels that open to a full 82 by 84 inch / 208 x 213cm surface that can be used both as a lighting tool or a simple backdrop.

The two sides of the v-flat can also tilt from 15 to 80 degrees, allowing photographers to create a wedge wall or intentionally create a small slice of light entering the frame.

The fabric is interchangeable. The black can be used to enhance shadows and help prevent unwanted light from the outside the scene from entering the shot. The white can be used to bounce light and create softer studio lighting.

The fabric on the new Westcott V-Flat can be tossed in the washing machine to clean, and Westcott also offers replacement fabric.

A two-color kit with both fabrics and one frame retails for $299 / £255 / AU$442 / CA$434, while two-stand packs, single packs, and replacement fabric are also available. The new v-flat system is available directly from Wescott, while a number of retailers have already opened pre-orders, including B&H in the US.

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When you're starting your editing journey, getting the look you want for your photos and video can be challenging enough. But navigating endless menus and mouse clicks can be overwhelming, and the whole process feels like trying to edit your images with boxing gloves on.

That's where TourBox's Creative Consoles come into play. Using a keyboard and mouse to edit can feel like misery, but Tourbox's ergonomic devices with physical dials and dedicated buttons literally give you fingertip control over your post-production tools. They instantly unlock the potential of your software, your images and your creativity!

Right now you can save up to $117 / £117 on the entire Tourbox range, with Creative Consoles offering instinctive editing for everyone from beginner through to pro – but if you're just starting your editing journey, take my word for it, investing in a TourBox Lite or TourBox Neo is the surest way to supercharge your skills.

These one-hand editing stations enable you to break free from complex workflows and remove the friction between your brain and your fingers for faster, easier, better post-production.

TourBox conducted a test with a creator using hand-tracking data, and found that using a Creative Console dramatically reduced movements and increased efficiency by 170% – slashing the total time from 219.5 mins to just 79.5 mins!

Whether you're an aspiring content creator or an enthusiast photographer, and whatever you're using from Photoshop and Affinity to DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro – or even just navigating spreadsheets and browsers – cut down the wasted motion and increase your productivity and creativity.

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Photo competitions in the internet age have the power to change lives for aspiring photographers, and that’s what Gunnar Hartmann, an amateur photographer and Biogeoscience student at the University of Koblenz, Germany, hopes will happen.

Hartmann recently won the Scientists at Work photo contest, an annual promotion by science journal publisher Nature, and, following the “unexpected win”, now has his sights set on professional wildlife and conservation photography.

“To be honest, I was not prepared for such a big win and the amount of public attention that came with it,” said Hartmann. “Photography has never been my main goal. But winning this award and receiving so much attention has made me realize that maybe the biggest impact I can have is to tell stories through my camera.”

The shot which has propelled Hartmann into recent wildlife and conservation photography limelight depicts migrating northern bald ibises in flight being guided by researchers from the Waldrappteam conservation program in a light craft. Hartmann used the Canon R7 paired with a Canon EF 70–200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens, and opted for a 1/1000sec shutter speed, f/8 aperture and ISO 200.

Although primarily contracted by Waldrappteam for bald ibis conservation efforts, documenting the project on camera is what Hartmann felt created the most impact. “My main role was not photography, but field work. Photography was only a part of my work besides my other tasks but the one with the most passion! Sometimes so much that I forgot my other tasks and responsibilities.”

Hartmann hopes that the Scientists at Work award will help conservation projects build platforms and gain visibility, but also further his career ambitions. “Winning this award is a great honor for me, especially because I still have such a low profile," he said. “I do not even have a website or a real Instagram presence. I do not have the money or the skills for that yet, but those things may come with time.”

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Bears make for majestic wildlife photo subjects, but get too close and they may just start eyeing you up – either out of self-defence or, worse, as prey, as one photographer recently found out the scary way.

Kai Snyder (kaiseed0), a professional chef and amateur photographer, was out snapping in the Lake Clark National Park Reserve in Alaska when she came across an enormous Alaskan brown bear lapping up water from a river.

After a few moments, the bear’s survival instincts kicked in – it turned its attention to Kai, giving her the most bone-chilling stare. Fortunately for the photographer, the river stood between her and the beast.

Alaskan brown bears weigh anywhere from 200 to over 1,500 pounds (around 90 to 680kg) depending on their sex, the season and their location.

More commonly known as grizzly bears – although not the only type of grizzly bear – they can be found in mainland Alaska, heavily populating the southern coastal regions and the Kodiak Archipelago.

Incidents of Alaskan grizzlies attacking photographers are rare, but have happened.

In 2012, a California hiker was mauled and killed while taking photos of a 600-pound grizzly. Photos recovered from the man’s camera showed that he’d come within 50 yards (45 meters) of the grazing bear, violating park rules that mandate a quarter-mile (402 meter) distance.

While we don’t know how close to the bear Snyder was, we do know that this wasn’t her first encounter with a grizzly. In fact, the Alaska resident has said in other TikTok clips that she’s “so stoked to live in a place where bears walking through the yard is an everyday occurrence.”

I’m glad to see that this latest and viral encounter ended safely for the photographer, and hope to see more of her work soon. There are a couple of shots on her Instagram of grizzly bears that are very nicely composed.

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Camera trap footage may not be the most glamorous form of wildlife photography, but it plays an essential role in modern conservation, especially in monitoring elusive species that are almost never seen by the human eye.

The Amazonian short-eared dog is one of these species. In fact, according to researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) – a global conservation program headquartered in New York City – the canid, which has short legs, small, rounded ears, and a dark coat, is one of the world’s “least-known.”

However, WCS researchers based in Bolivia recently shed new light on this elusive dog, colloquially known as the ‘ghost dog’ in Latin America, by publishing a camera-trap study of the species that lasted 23 years.

For almost a quarter of a century (2001–2024), the researchers ran 34 “intensive” camera-trap surveys across northwestern Bolivia and southeastern Peru, snapping a substantial 4,635 individual images of the Amazonian short-eared dog and documenting 594 independent events.

Above: footage of the elusive short-eared dog captured by WCS trail cams

“Camera-trap surveys provided significant information on the behavior and relative abundance of the short-eared dog, suggesting it is more abundant than previously thought, although it remains a relatively rare medium-sized carnivore,” the researchers noted in the published paper.

According to the scientists, the research also uncovered that the creature has a “strong preference” for intact forest, highlighting the importance of maintaining protected areas and other management units that preserve Amazonian forest coverage.

The researchers also mentioned how the survey is a prime example of how conservation technology and remote sensing (i.e. camera traps) can provide substantial data on one of the Amazon’s least-studied species.

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The winning images from the 13th edition of the Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day were recently announced, with the 2026 victors covering themes from underwater botanical gardens to curious deep-sea creatures.

Organized by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the competition coincided with the UN’s annual World Oceans Day this month, calling on photographers to highlight the “beauty of the ocean” across a range of categories.

New for the 2026 edition was the Connecting Oceans category, with Valentina Cucchiara (Italy) taking the crown. She captured an awe-inspiring shot showing a diver in the Cenote Nariz, a colossal subterranean aquifer in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

Cucchiara explained how the underwater cave system is the primary source of fresh water sustaining the “sprawling jungles, diverse wildlife, and human communities” of the region.

Images taken in Mexico also won the “Big and Small Underwater Faces” and “Underwater Seascapes” categories.

UK photographer Kaushiik Subramaniam came first in the former with a close-up portrait of a semi-submerged gray whale (top image) taken during an “incredibly special encounter” off the coast of Baja, California.

And Ysabela Coll (Dominican Republic) won the latter with a “dream-like” shot of an underwater botanical garden teeming with colorful lilies and small fish (above).

The scene took place in another cenote, with Coll saying that its beauty is a reminder of our responsibility to “protect these hidden ecosystems”.

Bruce Sudweeks (USA) captured the only winning scene from outside Mexico to claim the Above Water Seascapes category. Shot on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, it shows two bear cubs “frolicking” in a river.

In a contrasting frame of endearment and danger, Sudweeks explained how the cubs will “effortlessly select” salmon from the river, denying the fish the chance to reproduce.

You can view this year's winners of the Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day, along with winners from previous competitions, at the World Oceans Day website.

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We’ve quickly got used to AI improving the AF performance of our digital cameras. And now, increasingly, when it comes to further enhancing resultant shots in AI-powered image processing software, including the likes of Evoto AI and Luminar Neo. I’ve recently had a go with the latest iterations of both and one thought struck me.

It feels like cheating.

It also feels like relinquishing control, as the AI tools make visual decisions that – while producing perfectly acceptable-looking results – aren’t necessarily mirroring the decisions I would personally have taken, or the edits I’d have made. Am I happy getting generic results, rather than authentic expressions of my identity?

That said, there’s no denying I can get results a whole lot quicker – and I can imagine professionals, facing an edit of hundreds of images from a portrait or wedding shoot, will be tempted to batch process. It’s not like their clients are going to know that they had help from an AI toolkit.

However, in asking AI to make creative calls on our behalf, do we run the risk of becoming less creative ourselves – and downright lazy?

The tried-and-tested mantra for any jobbing photographer has always been to ‘get it right in camera’, as the primary way to avoid spending hours cleaning up or adjusting images in Photoshop.

If now, with AI, I can get similar-looking – or certainly ‘good enough’ – results in seconds, where’s the motivation to go the extra mile at the outset, or get exposure and depth of field spot-on, while my subject is still in front of my lens?

The counter-argument, of course, is that with such programs promising to speed up our workflow and help us avoid tedious, repetitive tasks, photographers will have more time to devote to the ‘fun’ part of taking the pictures. Or even less fun things, such as filing company accounts with the taxman.

I guess it all comes down to whether we see AI image editing software as a method to maximize our hard-earned skills and take our visual expertise up a notch – after all, it pays to have a decent image to work with in the first place – as well as a timesaver. Or whether we view it as a sticking plaster, or crutch, to make good our own deficiencies or occasional errors.

Perhaps exposure to too much ‘AI slop’ is rewiring our brains and encouraging and excusing our own photographic sloppiness. Or, more positively, is what photographers are wrestling with now more akin to the transition from film to digital, when we potentially ended up with many more ‘keepers’ because we could quickly see the result?

Whether we’re producing images au naturel or aided and abetted by AI, I think what matters most is still our personal judgement. If the result looks great then it’s a keeper, however I’ve reached that stage. If it looks crap, then I’m still reaching for the ‘delete’ button… whatever the robots are suggesting.

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There's a particular jolt that comes from seeing color in old photographs, a feeling that black and white, however beautiful, never quite gives you. It's the difference between knowing the past happened and feeling like you could walk into it. MK Gallery's new exhibition, Jacques Henri Lartigue: Life in Color, provides that jolt in spades. And for photographers who spend their working lives thinking about light, tone and the gap between a record and a memory, it's well worth paying attention.

Born in Paris, Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) is best known for his black-and-white work: elegant, playful images of Belle Époque Paris, motor racing, aviation and the French Riviera set. He moved in a social circle that included Jean Cocteau, Grace Kelly and Pablo Picasso, and he's widely credited as a pioneer of the unposed, spontaneous snapshot.

What's far less known is that around a third of his preserved images were shot in color, and the bulk of that work, representing nearly 40% of his 100,000-image archive, has barely been seen until now.

This show puts that material front and centre, with over 150 works spanning his earliest experiments as a teenager through to fashion-world commissions in the 1960s and abstract floral studies in the 1970s. And the effect of seeing it together is less academic and more visceral than it sounds.

Startling intimacy

Lartigue first picked up autochrome, an early color process developed by the Lumière brothers, in 1912, and his earliest color pictures of family and friends have a startling, almost contemporary intimacy.

A striped tablecloth, a red and white curtain, a child's headscarf all read as color does today: specific, warm, slightly imperfect. Strip the same scene back to gray tones and it slides instantly into a section of your brain tagged "history". Leave the color in, and it feels closer to a memory you didn't know you had.

At the risk of stating the obvious, color carries information that monochrome discards: the exact pink of a hibiscus floating in a swimming pool, the red and white canopy of a parachute against Mediterranean sky, the warm orange of a sun-faded jacket. Lartigue understood this instinctively, decades before it became fashionable, or even technically straightforward, to think this way.

A lesson in patience

For today's photographers – used to easy, instant color – there's something humbling in remembering what this approach cost Lartigue. Gruelling exposure times running into several seconds, equipment that fought against spontaneity, and a process he eventually abandoned for nearly two decades before color photography became practical enough to suit his way of working. He kept at it anyway, on and off, for over 60 years.

The reward for that persistence is on the walls at MK Gallery now: a body of work that seems less like an archive, more like a window onto past time. If you've ever tried to capture a fleeting moment of family life, a beach afternoon or the specific quality of evening light on a river, you'll recognise exactly what Lartigue was chasing. And you're likely to come away from this show seeing your own color work a little differently.

Jacques Henri Lartigue: Life in Color runs at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK, until 4 October. Admission from free to £15.95.

Nature’s beauty never fails to amaze me, and the British Wildlife Photography Awards certainly captures the best of it. From the cutest of snoring ducks to fairytale woodlands and pond-skating frogs, the crowned images from the 2026 competition were spectacular, to say the least.

Now the awards will display its latest crop of winners in an extended exhibition at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London, England. From July 19 to February 27, you can look upon these beautiful works of art absolutely free of charge.

In total there will be 72 images and videos on display, including overall British Wildlife Photographer of the Year Paul Hobson’s perspective-bending shot of a pond-skating frog (above) – which was also the Black & White category winner.

Alongside this will be Ben Lucas’ frame of a dreaming cygnet snoozing on its sibling’s back, which earned him the title of Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and also snagged the 15-17 Young Photographer category.

“This year’s winners celebrate the wonder, diversity and character of British wildlife in truly exceptional ways,” says Will Nicholls, director of the British Wildlife Photography Awards.

While the panel of expert landscape and wildlife photographers certainly chose deserving overall winners, the standouts for me were the Botanical Britain category winner (a shot of tiny mushrooms enveloped in a water droplet) and the runner-up shot in the Black & White category (of a seemingly larger-than-life fox).

“The portfolio showcases the skill and passion of the photographers behind the lens,” added Nicholls. “Together, they offer a joyful celebration of Britain’s natural world, while also reminding us why these places and species are so deserving of our care and protection.”

As a Brit, it’s great to see my fellow photographers being recognized for their outstanding work – and what an excellent opportunity for enthusiasts to cast an eye over some of the finest nature shots from the past year. Free of charge, too.

Visit the Horniman Museum and Gardens website for more info.

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When Icelandair launched a competition to find "a really bad photographer", you might have rolled your eyes. Another viral marketing stunt, another excuse to mock people. But having looked through the winning pictures from Blanche Mortemard's portfolio, I think we can actually learn something.

Don't get me wrong: these photos are, in technical terms, not great. A harbor at night blurs into a smear of gold streaks because of an unsteady hand. A shot of a seagull is photobombed by a human ear. The Statue of Liberty transforms into a ghostly, smeary mess. These aren't artful mistakes; they're the kind of errors most of us spent our first year with a camera trying to avoid.

And yet none of these shots are boring. And that's the uncomfortable bit for anyone who's invested serious money on kit and serious time on technique.

As the national airline put it when launching its tongue-in-check search: "We want to prove that even the worst photographer can take great photos of Iceland." On the face of it, that's merely a good joke about a beautiful country being forgiving of bad photos. But scratch the surface a little, and it's also a direct challenge to the idea that great images require great photographers.

Look past the technical failures by Mortemard – who was chosen from over 127,000 applicants for her sheer lack of ability – and I argue there's something really interesting going on in her pictures.

The condensation-streaked window overlooking the snowy terrace, sunburst blasting through it, captures something a cleaner shot probably wouldn't: the actual experience of looking out from inside a warm building into blinding Nordic light. The motion blur in the harbor shot turns ordinary boat lights into something closer to brushstrokes. Even the photobombed seagull has a kind of deadpan comic timing to it.

Being present

I'm not arguing, of course, that Mortemard secretly a brilliant photographer. But I do think her shots separate clearly two things photographers tend to bundle together: technical competence and the ability to produce a photo people actually want to look at. She's failed at the first while stumbling, repeatedly, into the second.

And that gap poses an interesting question. Namely: how much of what we call "good" photography is technical skill, and how much is simply being present; pointing a lens at something worth seeing, and pressing the button?

As the campaign suggests, Iceland's landscapes were always going to do a lot of the heavy lifting here. Mountains, fjords and harbor towns are forgiving subjects; they look striking even when smeared, soft or backlit, because the shapes and light are already doing the work. In contrast, the same flaws applied to a dull car park would just look like… flaws.

For anyone who's obsessed over getting every camera setting right, it's a useful, humbling reminder that gear and technique are tools in service of something, not the something itself.

A sense of reality

And here's another thing these shots made me think about. In an era of AI-smoothed, algorithmically "perfect" travel imagery, technical incompetence might have accidentally become a way of making a picture feel real. Mortemard's photos can't be mistaken for generated content, precisely because they're so obviously shoddy. AI can do a lot, but it can't do that.

None of this suggests we should abandon craft, especially if we don't have acesss to such majestic scenery. But it doesn't remind me that – as the late Martin Parr and others have shown us – a seagull, a sunburnt beachgoer or a dropped ice cream can make for a more memorable photo than a beautifully composed but ultimately dull panorama. Mortemard didn't mean to make that point, but Iceland, it turns out, agrees with it anyway.

For the longest time, learning photo editing has gone hand-in-hand with learning photography. But I just came across an interesting statistic hinting that a majority of adults actually prefer unedited photographs.

According to research by Getty Images’ VisualGPS, 65% of adults globally prefer brands that use real, unedited photos in ads.

My first thought: Finally. My second thought: Why am I spending so much time editing when a majority actually prefer an authentic look anyway?

The photographs used to advertise brands have been gradually shifting towards a less edited approach. For example, brands like Aerie have been leaving models unretouched since 2014. Dove launched a campaign using a variety of body types in 2004, banned excessive Photoshop in 2021 and vowed never to use AI models in 2024.

But while the move towards real skin and real people to represent brands has been happening gradually over the last decade, I think AI may be the final push.

The photos that I come across in my feed with too-perfect skin has me immediately suspecting that the photograph isn’t a photograph but an AI-generated image. Too many of them aren’t AI at all, but over-edited photographs.

Yes, AI is getting so good that it will generate skin that actually has texture. But nothing makes me scroll past a portrait faster than one with plastic skin.

The increasing number of adults who prefer non-edited photos caught my attention not just as a photographer, but as the mother to a pre-teen daughter. I’m so glad that I’m starting to see fewer photos of impossible perfection (I’m looking at you, terrible skin-smoothing smartphone filters!)

As a portrait photographer, I prioritize flattering light over intense Photoshop editing. Soft light will make the skin appear smoother while leaving in some natural texture, whereas hard light will overexaggerate pores and texture. I still do a light retouch but, especially in the era of AI, my editing style leans towards a natural look.

Notably the statistic comes from Getty, a stock image platform that has been vocal in its lean towards more authentic imagery. The statistic also focuses on brand photography, and doesn’t necessarily mean that portrait and wedding clients may prefer the same thing.

But between the pushback against AI and the rise of retro film cameras with imperfect but authentic images, I think it’s time for photographers to reevaluate their editing style.

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Sometimes, standard photography gear just doesn’t cut it. To get the shot, some creative technical modifications need to be made.

Robert Harcourt – a marine ecologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and seasoned underwater photographer – proved that with this image, which recently won a Scientists at Work photography award.

Harcourt was diving with fellow marine scientist, Michael Doane, when he photographed Doane collecting a microorganism sample from a humongous whale shark at the Ningaloo Reef, off the coast of Western Australia.

While the composition itself is impressive enough, what’s equally interesting is Robert’s choice of gear. "I shot it with a Nikon Z8 in a Seacam housing (a fabulous housing) using a Nikonos 13mm underwater fisheye lens (20+ year old glass),” he explained.

The Nikonos R-UW AF Fisheye-Nikkor 13mm f/2.8 (often called the RS-13) is a legendary extreme wide-angle lens that is, in fact, closer to 35 years old.

Originally produced for the Nikon Nikonos RS, the world’s first autofocus underwater SLR system, the lens has gained something of a coveted status among underwater photographers.

But for Robert’s fisheye lens to work with his modern Nikon Z8 mirrorless camera, he first had it converted by Seacam. Then he was able to snap the award-winning image, opting for a 1/400 shutter speed, f/7.1, and Auto ISO.

Much like the legendary Nikon lens, Robert has a rich history in diving photography. “I have been taking underwater photographs with various systems since about 1980 when I put an Olympus Trip in an Ikelite housing,” he said.

“I’ve mainly taken photographs for personal interest but also to support marine science and conservation," he added. “Like all my images, I hope this photo enhances people’s appreciation for the magnificence of our underwater world and the need to understand it to protect it.”

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Here's a shocking stat: 65% of photography graduates are women, the overwhelming majority, but only about 20% of professional photographers are female. This is according to Hundred Heroines.

The same is true of artists according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Why could this be? Some sexists will no doubt assume that women aren't as competent at photography as men and can't cut it as pro photographers, but as a female pro portrait shooter, I just don't think that's true.

I've thought of a few alternative reasons. Firstly, photography is usually a solitary business and means being self-employed – and not everyone wants the insecurity of not having a stable employer. This may be a generalisation, but women are often more sensible than men and take fewer risks, especially with our incomes. We hustle less, throw caution to the wind less, and may look at the market and decide that the failure rate isn't worth it. There's too much competition out there and not enough work.

I personally have the financial advantages of a paid-off house and a husband who brings in a regular salary, but not everyone does. I'm willing to admit that I don't have enough photography clients and don't charge enough for my services.

While female graduates may love photography as an art, many will look at the precarious business of self-employment and decide they don't want to have to fret each month about securing enough commissions to pay their energy bills. They might decide to keep photography as a fun and creative evening or weekend hobby and enter a more secure and lucrative profession instead – one in which we don't have to work unsociable hours (as wedding and event photographers often do, which can put a strain on relationships and make childcare difficult).

Then we come to the pains of travelling – getting shoulder strain from lugging a heavy tripod, lighting equipment, two camera bodies and multiple lenses around the country is a slog. But fewer women drive than men, and those who do drive tend to drive fewer miles and feel less confident about their driving abilities, even though we're safer drivers and our insurance premiums reflect that (we have 50% fewer fatal accidents and submit 50% fewer 'at fault' car insurance claims).

In the US, men spend a lot more time on the road, driving up to 50% more miles per year and making up the majority of total time spent behind the wheel, and in some countries driving is even more stacked against women – UK stats from the National Travel Survey tells us that 71% of women possess a full car driving licence compared to 81% of men.

And, speaking as a woman, I can say that being out on the road late at night often feels more risky. Travelling using public transport late at night is doubly worrying for female non-drivers, heaving along a ton of photography equipment, so being slowed down by it. Being solo emphasizes the risk others can pose.

But okay, say we're travelling during the day in a local area that is known to us. I'm a female portrait photographer and I've often been asked to photograph clients in their houses.

Where they're female I feel safer, but even if they're female, I don't know who else is going to be in that house. I feel that refusing and asking them to meet me on location in a public place, or to travel to me instead, is effectively turning down work – but it's also taking a risk to enter someone's house when I've never met them before and don't know the other inhabitants of that property.

Maybe this seems over-cautious, but when one in five women in the United States have experienced completed or attempted rape during their lifetime, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and 81% of American women have undergone some form of sexual harassment or assault (same source), then being extremely careful where you go and who you see is surely wise rather than an overreaction?

I figure that these three reasons are more likely to be behind the fact that 80% of professional photographers are men, rather than them having more creative and technical ability.

I hired a female photographer for our wedding, who did an amazing job – and if you look at my portraits here, I reckon I can hold my own too. But sadly, until the world is a safer and less competitive place, I think we'll continue to see an imbalance between the sexes when it comes to photography.

Photography in Japan has historically been male-dominated, with entrenched cultural norms and strict gender expectations often sidelining women’s contribution to the craft while elevating the work of male photographers.

However, an upcoming exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery in London, England, is set to help change the narrative.

Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now will shed much-needed light on the pioneering women photographers of the mid-20th century to present-day Japan.

The exhibition will cover an array of themes, from identity and nature to motherhood and everyday life, highlighting the work of renowned as well as lesser-known women photographers who’ve helped shape Japan’s photographic history.

Among the better-known names whose work is featured is Ishiuchi Miyako, whose intensely personal black-and-white and color photography explores the intersection of political history, memory and the human body.

As one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary photographers, Miyako has won many accolades. Perhaps the most pioneering, however, is the Kimura Ihei Award.

This is Japan’s most prestigious recognition of emerging photographers, but one which, in its first 25 years of running, was awarded to just three women photographers.

New-wave Japanese photography from the 1990s features heavily in the upcoming exhibition, too, with work from photographers such as Hiromix on display.

Hiromix was a driver of the everyday photography that came to the forefront in Japan toward the end of the last century, but which was dismissed by some of the older male generations simply as “girls’ photography”.

Ironically “girl photography” is perhaps one of the pillars of modern portraiture, which often takes a more provocative approach to the everyday.

Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now runs at The Photographers' Gallery, London, from June 24 to September 27. Standard tickets cost £12 (£9 concessions) or £10 if booked in advance online (£7.50 concessions), while gallery members enter for free.

For more information, visit the exhibition page on The Photographers' Gallery website.

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How do you photograph history that people would rather forget, or grief that has no shape? Two Japanese photographers give very different answers.

The world’s leading digital photography magazine, Digital Camera launched in 2002 and has been helping photographers of all skill levels to improve their images ever since.

Every issue is packed with technique tips, tutorials, inspiring images and expert buying advice, plus the latest news and equipment reviews, as well as a selection of bonus gifts (see below).

A compelling landscape photograph rarely relies solely on spectacle, says leading pro Karolina Konsur – beyond the location and the light, what shapes a powerful image is an underlying structure.

That's the theme of this month's cover feature. Join Karolina as she shows you how to organise elements so the frame appears consistent, purposeful and complete.

Don’t forget that you can subscribe to Digital Camera magazine and get the magazine delivered to your door every month. Choose between a print or digital subscription, or a bundle of the two.

All print subscribers to Digital Camera magazine can now access digital back issues dating from 2009 (when using iOS) or 2012 (when using the Pocketmags Magazine Newsstand app or the Pocketmags website).

Starting on page 41, our Photo Skills projects section will help you become a better photographer.

July's raft of creative assignments includes learning how to photograph a waterfall in the middle of the day, how to take photos on a waterborne wildlife safari, and incorporating trees in astrophotography images.

You'll also learn how to capture the thrills and spills of beach volleyball, and get some insights on photographing brutalist architecture – and more!

Plus, photographer and music lover Alan Donaldson tells us all about his new photo zine, in which he pays homage to the vibrant jazz scene in Glasgow, Scotland.

Other highlights in July's Digital Camera

For this month's Digital Camera Apprentice reader challenge, we're on location with commercial photographer and educator Nick Church.

Nick is mentoring Adrian Robinson, who wants to learn how to shoot interiors for a side hustle. See how Adrian gets on – and what successful interiors photography consists of – by turning to page 8.

Photographing bugs is a great test of your camera skills, and whether in your garden or at the park, they're easy subjects to find.

Camera Clinic is an insect photography masterclass, with expert pointers from pro photographer and imaging writer Will Cheung.

Learn all about framing, focusing and lighting, plus advanced techniques like focus stacking, from page 80.

Hotshots showcases the category winners from the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2026 awards.

One of the world’s most respected photography competitions and exhibitions, IGPOTY embraces the word 'garden' in its broadest sense. See what wowed the judges, from page 76.

This month's interview is all about horseback pageantry, as we get the inside story on a new book titled Trusted Guardians: Inside the Mounted Regiment.

It's based on a long-term project documenting the everyday life of the British Army's most senior regiment, seen through the lenses of Norwegian photographer Glenn Røkeberg. Go behind the scenes with Glenn, from page 118.

Digital Darkroom editing tutorials for July explore a range of creative techniques for Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity and DxO PhotoLab 9.

Fundamentals (pictured, above) shows you how to use Adobe Lightroom Classic to rescue holiday photos that haven't turned out as well as expected.

Get the Look (pictured, above) shows you how to generate a range of creative effects using Blending modes with Adjustment Layers in Photoshop.

Also in Digital Darkroom this month, learn how to enhance your raw files with Affinity, and join us as we continue our new series exploring PhotoLab 9, DxO's flagship image editor.

Accompanying this tutorial series, Digital Camera World users can get 15% off all DxO software until December 31, 2026. Find out more on page 105.

July's camera and lens reviews start with the Lumix ZS300/TZ300, a compact 'travel zoom' camera with a 20.1-megapixel 1-inch sensor.

With a 15x zoom (24-360mm full-frame equivalent) and 5-axis hybrid stabilisation, this could be the ideal solution for on-the-go shooters looking to keep things small and light while on vacation.

Also on test is the Canon RF 45mm F1.2 STM, a new prime that delivers a super-fast aperture for less than $500/£500.

That eye-catching price has got a lot of people talking about this lens – find out what we make of it in our real-world testing, from page 114.

Another distinctive lens being reviewed this month is the OM System 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25X Pro, for the Micro Four Thirds system.

This means it offers wildlife and action photographers up to 1000mm of focal reach when used with the built-in 1.25x teleconverter.

We tried it out on birds in flight – see the results on page 116.

The latest issue of Digital Camera comes with an unrivaled selection of digital gifts 

July's bonus gifts include nine photo tips cards, 32 minutes of video tutorials and 33 software extras for Lightroom and Photoshop.

Here's the full list of the bonus gifts bundled with issue 309 of Digital Camera:

• Nine new photo tips cards covering landscapes, wildlife, astro – and more!
• 32 minutes of video tutorials for Lightroom, Photoshop and more
• 33 bonus software extras (Actions, presets, LUTs and lens flares)
• 250-plus-page Camera Buyer’s Guide e-book full of buying advice

Subscribe now

Every issue of Digital Camera magazine is packed with tips, techniques, pro advice, reviews, news and inspiration.

Don’t forget that you can subscribe to Digital Camera magazine and get the magazine delivered to your door every month. Choose between a print or digital subscription, or a bundle of the two.

All subscribers to Digital Camera magazine can now access digital back issues dating from 2009 (when using iOS) or 2012 (when using the Pocketmags Magazine Newsstand app or the Pocketmags website).

You can buy limited back issues of Digital Camera magazine in print at our Magazines Direct secure store.

Alternatively, there is a range of different digital options available, including:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)
• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)
• PocketMags (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)
• Readly (digital magazine subscription service)

Photoshop can now rename and organize layers, resize projects, or swap out a background with a simple text prompt. On June 18, Adobe launched an AI agent across several Creative Cloud apps, including Photoshop and Premiere, allowing the long-standing editing programs to carry out multi-step processes with a text prompt.

The AI Assistant inside Photoshop and Premiere is rolling out beginning today, June 18, in public beta after Adobe previously teased that the feature was coming back in October during Adobe Max.

Photoshop’s AI Assistant was previously only available as a beta feature in Photoshop Web, the browser-based photo editor with a more limited number of tools. I tested the AI Assistant on Photoshop Web, and at times it felt like an overenthusiastic intern, but the experience left me with the impression that the AI assistant could perhaps one day handle the more boring photo editing tasks.

That’s exactly what Adobe is trying to do with the public beta rollout of AI Assistant across several Creative Cloud apps. Inside Photoshop, for example, the AI Assistant can carry out the process of resizing photos for different formats and platforms and even rename and organize layers.

In a demonstration, Adobe showed how the AI Assistant could also proofread graphic designs inside Photoshop, looking for more than spelling but factual inaccuracies as well.

Inside Premiere, the AI Assistant can help video editors organize assets into bins, batch rename clips based on their content, and add markers. Creators working with multiple camera angles of the same scene can also ask the AI to sync the time codes on those files and stack them inside the timeline.

When I tried the earlier beta version inside Photoshop Web, the potential to let the AI carry out more tedious, repetitive tasks felt like a modern AI take on Actions, the Photoshop tool that records your editing steps so that it can repeat them on another image – only the AI doesn’t need you to manually carry out the steps first.

But, the other feature that struck me about the Photoshop Web version of the AI Assistant is that it could also be used as a learning tool. When I asked the chatbot how to do something, it showed me the steps and where the tools were located – the AI Assistant doesn’t necessarily have to carry out the full edit for you.

When I tried that early AI Assistant back in March, the AI had some flaws and limitations. When I asked it for help editing flyaway hairs, for example, the chatbot removed the entire person – but at least apologized for doing so.

As a public beta, I suspect there are still some refinements left to do on Photoshop’s AI Assistant. But, one of my chief complaints was that using the AI bot was often slow – I’m hoping the rollout to the fully fledged Photoshop that isn’t 100 percent reliant on an internet connection will help create a faster experience.

Photo and video editors will be able to test out the AI Assistant as the feature rolls out on public beta.

The June 18 announcements also include news that Adobe is bringing its Creative Agent into Google Gemini. Like the tool already inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot, the upcoming change will allow Gemini users to ask the AI to carry out a task using Adobe software, such as doing simple photo edits.

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More than 5,200 photographers entered. Just 48 made the cut. That's a success rate of less than one per cent. Which makes getting a place in the Royal Photographic Society's International Photography Exhibition feel more like getting into an Ivy League university than entering a photography content.

But IPE167, which opens at London's Saatchi Gallery on August 7 and runs until September 11, is far more than a competition. Now in its 167th consecutive year, it's the world's longest-running photography exhibition, and it's as vital as ever.

The 113 selected prints span everything from 19th-century wet-plate collodion processes to motion picture film and thermal imaging, and the themes running through the work are anything but comfortable.

The show lands at a moment when photography's social and political power feels particularly charged. So it's no surprise that this is an exhibition about the world as it actually is, made by people paying very close attention.

Female perspectives

The two award recipients this year are both women whose work tackles the female experience head-on, but in very different registers.

Marcy Palmer, a US-based artist, receives the IPE Award for Seeds of Strength and Resilience, a series that uses botanical photography to explore the history and contested future of reproductive rights.

The plants she photographs, printed on delicate Japanese Kozo paper and highlighted with gold leaf, are historical herbal abortifacients; plants women have used for centuries when other options were unavailable to them. The gold leaf carries a double meaning: hope, and a reference to kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken objects with gold to make the repair part of the beauty.

The Under 30s Award goes to Léa Chen, a Taiwanese artist currently based in London, for The Stars That Don't Look Back. This series weaves together family archive photos, historical events and Taiwanese literature to document the private memories shared by three generations of women navigating colonial trauma and everyday life.

The images range from a close-up of white hair, shot so tight it becomes almost abstract, to a grainy, spotted black-and-white snapshot of women playing outdoors: fragile, precious, irreplaceable. Chen's ambition is to help viewers find inner peace in the safety net women have woven through history.

Worlds of water

Beyond these two winners, the range of photographic approaches on display is quite staggering. Take Abbey Hepner's portrait of Jane, a third-generation resident of the erased Colorado uranium town of Uravan, made using wet-plate collodion. That's a process more commonly associated with the 1850s, and brilliantly, the plates were washed with water from the river that still flows through the buried town.

That approach is subtly echoed by Siân Cann, a visually impaired photographer, who created her Retinopathy Forest series by decaying Polaroid photographs in saltwater and post-surgical eye drops. The resulting images mirror the visual disturbances of her own condition.

Elsewhere, Attilio Fiumarella's Swimmers gathers more than 100 people in the drained pool of Birmingham's Grade II*-listed Moseley Road Baths to protest its threatened closure. And Thomas Mandl's 5 Superheroes depicts kids displaced from eastern Ukraine, wearing homemade superhero costumes, standing in the rubble of a roofless ruin during a project trip with NGO ArtHelps. The costumes are improvised and the setting is bleak, but the impulse behind the image, that growing up amid war requires a particular kind of heroism, lands with real force.

Why this matters

In an era when everyone with a phone thinks they're a photographer, and images are produced and discarded at a near-incomprehensible rate, a show that selects 113 prints from more than 5,200 submissions, anonymously, with a panel that argues about what matters, is doing something worthwhile. IPE167 is a reminder that photography isn't just documentation. Done well, it's one of the sharpest languages we have for saying what needs to be said.

Last year's show at Saatchi Gallery attracted over 65,000 visitors, and this edition returns to the same venue, so the work will reach a larger audience than most art photography ever does. After London, the exhibition will tour to Taunton Museum (October 2026 to January 2027) and the Royal Geographical Society (April 2027).

RPS International Photography Exhibition 167 is at Saatchi Gallery, London, 7 August – 11 September 2026. Free entry. Details at rps.org.

As much as I love chasing the northern lights, I haven’t yet attempted to see the southern lights. But NASA astronaut Jessica Meir arguably had one of the best views of the early June 2026 phenomenon, snapping swirling greens and reds 271 miles above the Indian Ocean aboard the International Space Station.

NASA shared the stunning photograph on June 16, but Meir captured the photo of the Australia Borealis on June 5 as the ISS passed south of Perth, Australia.

The photograph mixes both the arch of the lights with the curve of the Earth and swirling clouds. That means Meir and other ISS astronauts likely had one of the few viewing spots for the June 5 southern lights, as cloud cover will obstruct the views of the night sky phenomenon from Earth.

Meir took the photo with the Nikon Z9, which is one of the first mirrorless cameras ever to make the trek to space. As space cameras need to be thoroughly tested to withstand the rigours of space, using older DSLRs is more common – like aboard the recent Artemis II mission – but the Z9 is one of the first mirrorless cameras to be tested in space.

Meir took the shot through a window at the ISS – parts of the space station are visible at the top and bottom of the frame. A slow 1/4 shutter speed, bright f/1.8 aperture, and ISO8000 helped the camera gather enough light from the dark scene.

Meir is scheduled to remain at the ISS as the spacecraft commander through September 2026. Meir’s background is in studying life in the most extreme environments, from expeditions to study penguins in Antarctica while studying for her Ph.D. to her current role conducting biology experiments in space. Meir was also among the first all-female spacewalks alongside Christina Koch in 2019.

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VSCO is best known for its mobile editing app with film-inspired presets, but the mobile photo editing powerhouse will soon have its own desktop app for pro-grade photo editing. On Wednesday, June 17, VSCO launched Studio Pro on iOS, with a desktop version of the photo editor set to arrive before the end of the year.

While VSCO Studio Pro is available to download beginning today on iPhone, the app will eventually lead to a desktop photo software by the same name, which VSCO expects to launch for macOS sometime in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The new software comes alongside news that VSCO is working on an all-in-one subscription that mixes editing software with client gallery delivery and online portfolio tools for pros, a result of the company’s acquisition of Tave and subsequent launch of VSCO Workspace.

VSCO Studio Pro carries on several of the tools that VSCO is known for, including its film-inspired presets. But unlike the well-loved VSCO, Studio Pro is designed for editing entire photo shoots.

The new app can edit as many as 100 photos at once using one-tap batch edits based on VSCO’s popular film-inspired presets.

Photographers will also have a handful of traditional tools for adjusting the photograph, such as sliders for exposure, contrast, tone, and white balance. Like the presets, these tools can also be synced across multiple images in batch editing.

The app will also introduce a tool called Style Match, which takes a reference photo – such as one the photographer has edited previously – and matches the new photo to that style.

When editing is finished, photographers will be able to share to VSCO Galleries with one tap.

The original VSCO can work with large numbers of photos by copying and pasting edits or saving recipes, but the new software is designed to move through large sets of images faster, while maintaining visual consistency.

The young software, however, has a handful of notable tools missing, including crops and curves, but has plans to add additional tools down the road.

That list includes tools like aspect ratio, crops, auto leveling, clarity, bloom, halation, and curves. Support for RAW file formats and directly importing from a camera’s SD cards are also forthcoming options, along with the ability to cull photos by assigning each one a star rating.

While the mobile app, as it stands now, feels like a VSCO tailored towards large photo shoots, if the company does add pro must-haves like RAW support, direct memory card import, culling, and advanced editing tools, the new program could eventually become a competitor to key photo editors such as Adobe Lightroom and Capture One.

VSCO says that it is intentionally sharing the iOS app without those features in order to gather early feedback from photographers as it builds up the mobile app and eventually expands the app to desktop devices.

Like the original VSCO, VSCO Studio Pro appears to take on a free-mium price point, allowing users to download and use several tools for free, while a $13 / £13 / AU$20 / CA$18 monthly or $60 / £60 / AU$100 / CA$80 annual subscription unlocks more options. The app is available now for iOS from the App Store.

The VSCO Studio Pro will be part of VSCO’s upcoming suite of tools that packs several commonly used pro tools into one annual subscription. VSCO Studio One will include the editing software as well as VSCO Workspace, a tool for pro photographers to organize and book clients, VSCO Galleries, and AI Lab, among others.

VSCO One will include everything from editing to invoices and galleries to business education resources. Set to launch in late June 2026, VSCO One is expected to have a $499 annual subscription cost. International pricing has not yet been announced, but that converts to about £372 / AU$705 / CA$700.

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There's a quote in the new Taschen monograph, Arnold, that every portrait photographer needs to read.

Reflecting on the experience of being shot for film campaigns and magazine features, Schwarzenegger says: "They always shoot up, so the camera is right there in front of you, making you taller, more impressive, and the results are always terrific.

"You might go in your trailer, look in the mirror, and say, 'I look like shit,' but it doesn't matter. The way they shoot, you will always look like a stud."

It's a line delivered with his characteristic chutzpah, but it also contains a genuine insight: camera angle is everything – and the right photographer with the right perspective can make any subject look extraordinary.

That insight runs through this remarkable book, which lands on July 14 and is edited by Dian Hanson for Taschen's XL format.

At 528 pages and $150 / £125 (Australian pricing to be confirmed), it's a serious investment, but what you're getting is one of the most comprehensively photographed lives in modern history.

Schwarzenegger didn't just happen to be photographed well; he understood, instinctively and early, that the relationship between subject and photographer was a collaborative one, and he brought the same competitive intensity to a studio session that he brought to the stage at Mr Olympia.

The book traces his story from an impoverished childhood in Thal, Austria, through his rise as a young bodybuilder, his conquest of Hollywood and, eventually, the California Governor's office.

Along the way, an extraordinary cast of photographers found in him a subject who was, quite simply, unlike anyone else they'd worked with: a body that defied credibility, a face that was simultaneously strange and magnetic, and a personality that filled a room.

The results, gathered here across seven decades, amount to one of the great photographic records of any single human being.

The Pumping Iron effect

The turning point, photographically, came with the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron, which introduced Schwarzenegger to an audience far beyond the bodybuilding world – and, crucially, to a new generation of photographers and artists who found in him something they hadn't anticipated.

As he recalls in the book: "Pumping Iron brought the photographers and painters: Elliott Erwitt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesco Scavullo, Jamie Wyeth, Andy Warhol, Leroy Neiman; one after the other they photographed and painted me."

That's a roll call worth thinking about. Erwitt, one of the great humanist documentary photographers; Mapplethorpe, whose formal rigor and interest in the male body made him a natural fit; Scavullo, the defining portrait photographer of celebrity in that era; Warhol, who understood better than anyone how to transform a person into an icon.

Each brought their own language to the same subject. And the contrast between their approaches, all visible in this collection, is itself a masterclass in how differently the same body can be read by different eyes and lenses.

It was also where a long professional relationship began with Annie Leibovitz. "At the time, we thought she was super cool and kind of a hippie photographer that was game for anything," Schwarzenegger recalls.

She would, of course, go on to become the definitive chronicler of US celebrity, and her sessions with Arnold across the decades form some of the book's most compelling material.

A subject who understood the craft

What separates the photography in Arnold from a standard celeb retrospective is the sense that the subject was never passive.

Look at the early images shot on Austrian hillsides: a young man in blue trunks against a sky of improbable blue, relaxed in his body in a way that reads as complete self-knowledge.

These weren't candids, they were collaborations – and they show a subject who understood intuitively how to give a photographer what they needed.

The later studio work, particularly Herb Ritts' stark black-and-white portraits and the monumental Sante D'Orazio images, demonstrates what happens when an exceptional photographer meets a subject with no inhibitions and no bad angles to avoid.

The low-angle shot that Schwarzenegger describes isn't just a trick of perspective; it's a recognition that the camera can reveal what the eye misses, that the right position transforms.

For photographers, this is ultimately what makes Arnold worth the investment. It's not a celebrity biography with pictures, but a genuine record of photographic collaboration across half a century.

The range of approaches, from intimate personal snapshots to monumental studio productions, from grainy documentary to the precise glamour of a Mapplethorpe formal study, covers almost every mode of portrait photography.

The subject changes across those decades, and so does the photography around him. Together they tell a story about how a face and a body can be read differently in each era, by each new pair of eyes behind a lens.

Arnold XL by Dian Hanson is published by Taschen on July 14, priced $150 / £125.

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A UK zoo is set to trial a night vision camera system powered by artificial intelligence in the hopes that it will reveal health issues in animals more quickly.

Marwell Zoo, located just outside the city of Southampton, Hampshire, is set to implement the system this month, which will keep track of animals’ nighttime activity and put AI to work interpreting footage and flagging any unusual behavioral patterns.

The system – which has received over £340,000 (approximately $450,000 / AU$645,000) in UK government funding – is being developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Surrey and will be trialled on giraffes and red river hogs before a wider rollout to other species in the zoo.

“We are delighted to be working with the staff at Marwell Zoo on this exciting AI project that will deliver the first AI health and monitoring system focused on zoo animals,” said Professor Kevin Wells, professor of AI in human and veterinary healthcare at the University of Surrey, in a statement.

“It’s a great example of how academia and conservation organizations can come together to develop technologies that support conservation efforts.”

By monitoring animals’ nighttime activities, the zoo and researchers hope that the system will highlight earlier minor health issues that could potentially develop into more threatening conditions.

They’re also hoping that the AI will provide insight into how lighting, heating, or feeding times influence behavior.

Marwell Zoo has previously used technology-driven systems. In 2018, it collaborated with IBM to test enclosure smart heaters and, since 2021, has worked with the University of Southampton on a project where drones identify and track wildlife.

Laura Read, chief executive of Marwell Wildlife, said that the latest project could "strengthen animal welfare further" by "highlighting those extra details that can be difficult to spot with the human eye".

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Taking photos in a downpour is a major challenge – not to mention potentially dangerous to the camera gear. But I’ve just stumbled across a set of photos that perfectly illustrate why sometimes the best photographs are the most challenging ones.

Patrick Smith (@patricksmithphotos), a sports photographer working with Getty Images, turned a recent “torrential downpour” into an opportunity for dazzling mid-game portraits of the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles.

Last month, when the Tigers traveled to Baltimore, the skies opened up in what Smith describes as a “downpour.” Instead of trying to shield his lens from the droplets, Smith appears to have embraced the rain, taking shots from a low angle that allowed the rain to gather on his lens.

The stadium lights hitting those droplets turned the rain into a dramatic flare and dotted the images with bokeh. Rather than wiping off his lens, Smith turned towards where players waited on deck, creating striking photos that were taken in the middle of a professional baseball game, yet felt more like creative portraits than sports photography.

According to the photo’s metadata, Smith took the shots with the Canon EOS R1 – a mirrorless camera that is, thankfully, weather-sealed. However, Smith also used the Canon RF 16mm f/2.8 STM, a budget wide-angle that isn’t weather-sealed and typically needs extra protection to work in the rain.

But, that ultra-wide perspective allowed the photographer to surround the players in a sea of rain-created bokeh and flare.

Smith used a mix of different settings for the shots. In shots dotted with shaped bokeh, he used a narrower f/13 aperture to help define the shape of the bokeh and turn the stadium lights into starbursts.

In another shot with more abstract-shaped lens flare, he used an f/2.8 aperture and ISO 2000 in order to freeze the rain in the background into droplets at 1/2000th of a second shutter speed.

The game wasn’t the first time Smith had turned bad weather into a golden opportunity for unusual sports photography. I previously came across Smith’s work while browsing through photos of the 2026 Winter Olympics, where Smith turned snow into a dramatic framing tool, along with using techniques like shutter drag.

I’m impressed both by the way Smith has managed to turn challenging weather into a framing tool – and the fact that he shot what look like portraits in the middle of an MLB game.

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Having traveled extensively in Mexico and swam in cenotes (natural deep-water sinkholes), I can tell you firsthand just how incredibly picturesque they are.

The lilies that grow in these Mexican subterranean waterways are incredibly vibrant – but diver and underwater photographer Ysabela Coll doesn't just tell you, she also proves it in this stunning photograph.

Coll took the image while diving in a cenote, and it recently won the Underwater Seascapes category of the Photo Competition for United Nations (UN) World Oceans Day.

A wider part of the UN’s annual World Oceans Day campaign, the competition celebrates photographers that draw attention to oceans and the environmental challenges they face.

"Emerging from the darkness of a Mexican cenote, we entered this underwater garden teeming with colorful water lilies and small fish," said Coll.

"The sudden contrast transformed the scene into a dreamlike world, where light, color and life replaced the silence of the cave."

Coll was diving with a decade-old Nikon D500 in an underwater housing, using a Tokina AT-X 107 DX 10-17mm f/3.5 fisheye lens. She used a 1/160 sec shutter speed at ISO640, along with an f/10 aperture and focal length of 10mm (a 15mm equivalent, on Nikon's former flagship APS-C body).

I love how sharply the entire scene is focused, but also how the wide-angle field of view packs in so many exotically colored lilies.

Alongside her stepfather and equal ocean apasionado, José Alejandro Alvarez, Coll co-founded Álvarez+Coll – a fine art and conservation photography business focusing on the beauty of (and threats to) marine ecosystems around the world.

“Cenotes are vital freshwater reservoirs that sustain biodiversity and surrounding communities, yet pollution and climate change increasingly threaten their fragile balance,” said Coll.

This year's competition winners were announced during the UN World Oceans Day event on June 08 in New York.

You can view the 2026 winners online at the competition website, with four winning photos due to be printed for exhibitions around the world.

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Does a tattoo inspired by a photograph have the same look and feel as the original? That question is at the heart of a longstanding copyright test that could be called into question in an unusual “en banc” hearing between photographer Jeffery Sedilk and celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D or Katherine von Drachenberg.

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered an en banc hearing of Jeffery B. Sedlik v. Katherine von Drachenberg, aka Kat Von D. An en banc hearing is a rare trial that includes the entire bench of judges, rather than a small panel.

The case stems from a photograph that Sedlik took in 1989 of singer Miles Davis, a black-and-white image with the jazz icon’s finger pressed to his lips. Sedilk claims that Kat Von D, a tattoo artist perhaps best known for her appearances on the TV shows LA Ink and Miami Ink, violated copyright when she copied the photograph onto an upper-arm tattoo.

In behind-the-scenes photos of the tattoo process shared on social media, Von D is seen using Sadlik’s photograph as a reference. The tattoo artist was done for a friend free of charge, one of Von D’s lawyers' arguments that using the image was fair use, along with differences in the lighting and background.

The case was initiated in 2021, but earlier this year, a court of appeals sided with the lower courts in agreeing that the tattoo did not infringe on the photograph.

However, the previous cases sided with the tattoo artist using a copyright test known as the “intrinsic test.” The intrinsic test, which has been used for nearly fifty years by the Ninth Circuit court, asks if an ordinary person would consider the two works in question to have the same “total concept and feel.”

While the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals did not side with the photographer in a January 2026 decision, two of the three judges on the panel questioned the intrinsic test precedent, and one judge suggested that the court should reconsider using the intrinsic test.

The intrinsic test has been previously criticized for relying on an “average observer” opinion on the look and feel of a work. The subjective nature of the rule can lead to juries ruling that cases with a strong extrinsic test similarities – an objective test that looks at whether or not the works are substantially similar – have a substantially different feel and, as a result, are not a violation of copyright.

While the court ordering an en banc hearing does not mean that the “intrinsic test” will be thrown out, it does mean that the Ninth Circuit court thought the case was controversial enough to be considered by an 11-judge panel instead of three.

As the American Society of Media Photographers notes, out of the 625 cases submitted for a potential en banc hearing, only nine court cases were heard by the full panel in 2024. An en banc hearing isn’t a common occurrence, so the ruling could be one for photographers – and all artists – to watch.

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The Sony World Photo Awards are known for being one of the largest photography competitions, attracting close to half a million entrants each year, but also for serving up some lucrative cash sums to winners.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the competition, with the 2027 awards offering $25,000 (£18,600 / AU$35,340) to the overall Photographer of the Year as well as $5,000 (£3,700 / AU$7,000) to the Single Image Competition and Sustainability Prize winners.

While the 2027 awards bring changes to two of the competition names – the Professional competition has rebranded as the Series competition, and the Open competition is now the Single Image competition – the structure, prizes, and recognition remain the same as in previous years.

Last year’s overall winner was Citlali Fabián for the series Bilha, Stories of my Sisters. Fabián, a London-based visual artist, hails from the Yalalteca Indigenous community in Mexico and, through her lens, explores themes of identity, migration, and connection.

She was chosen as the Photographer of the Year from over 430,000 entries across all the award’s competitions and, along with the cash prize, will showcase her winning work at this year’s awards exhibition.

Along with the Single Image and Series competitions, there’s also the Student Competition – for photography students – and the Youth competition – for entrants 19 years of age and under. However, instead of money, the winners of the latter three competitions snag Sony gear.

The Sony World Photo Awards 2027 is now open for submissions and is free to enter for all competitions. These awards are extensive and there are different closing dates for the different competitions, as well as various categories you can enter within each. Head to the awards website for more information.

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In May 1962, Lawrence Schiller was 25 and on assignment for Paris Match when Marilyn Monroe, wearing only a flesh-coloured two-piece that amounted to a bra and panties, climbed into a pool on the set of her last film, Something's Got to Give, and proceeded to remove it.

Schiller had two motorized Nikon SLR cameras around his neck. One sporting a 180mm lens and loaded with Tri-X black and white film; the other a 105mm and high-speed Ektachrome color slide film. He shot 16 rolls of black and white and three rolls of color in a session that lasted two hours.

Within weeks, those images had appeared on the cover of Life and the front pages of publications across the world. They earned Schiller and his shooting partner Billy Woodfield the biggest payday any photographer had received to that date.

Marilyn & Me, re-released by TASCHEN to mark what would have been Monroe's 100th birthday, is the memoir Schiller wrote about his time photographing her across 1960 and 1962. It's a remarkable book, and not only for the photographs. It's also one of the most lucid and unsentimental accounts of how magazine photography actually worked in its golden age.

Granular honesty

What makes Schiller's account so valuable for photographers is his granular honesty about the mechanics of the job. He describes adjusting his cameras constantly throughout the pool sequence, checking exposure, checking shutter speed, moving to keep the key lights producing the right highlights. He explains exactly what film stocks he used and why.

He recounts his decision to show Monroe the proof sheets on enlarged 16x20 prints rather than standard contact sheets, because she had poor eyesight and sometimes crossed out images simply because she couldn't see them clearly.

He describes how Monroe herself understood light better than most photographers he'd worked with: on their first encounter in 1960, during the filming of Let's Make Love, she spotted that he wasn't closing his left eye as he shot and asked why. He told her he was blind in it. She'd noticed something about his technique no subject had mentioned before.

Subject as collaborator

One of the persistent revelations of the book is how actively Monroe participated in the making of her own photographs. She had final approval on all images, and she exercised it with a precise understanding of what worked and what didn't.

She told Schiller she wasn't interested in the best angle for her face in isolation; she wanted to know how the whole picture looked. On the pool sequence, she approved all but one of his black-and-white images, rejecting a shot where the muscles in her legs were too prominent. Of the color frames, she reviewed them by holding strips up to a streetlamp, cutting the ones she didn't want with pinking shears, and approved 38 out of roughly 108.

She also understood the commercial logic of exclusivity better than some of the agents and editors Schiller was dealing with. When he told her his plan to control the worldwide release of the pictures, she backed him up, insisting that no magazine could run them before Life. When he suggested that having Elizabeth Taylor in the same issue would diminish the impact, she made it a condition of approval.

What the images reveal

The pool sequence that Schiller describes is the heart of the book, but the images that linger are the quieter ones. Monroe in her dressing room, relaxed and unguarded; Monroe with her acting coach Paula Strasberg, who sits just inside the frame in her habitual black cape; Monroe in the golden fur cap she wore for her final scenes, looking, as Schiller writes, as if she were breathing in a little more air.

That last image became the cover of Life's memorial issue after Monroe died on August 5, 1962, three months after Schiller last saw her. He didn't know it would be the last time.

The final photograph Schiller took of Monroe alive was on the morning of August 4, the day before her death. She was in the front garden of her Brentwood home, on her knees, doing something with the flowers, her hair uncombed, no makeup, wearing light-colored slacks.

He'd driven over to return some prints and to hear from her directly whether the Playboy deal she'd apparently declined was really off. She wasn't very friendly, he says. She seemed impatient. He handed her an envelope and left. The next morning, Billy Woodfield called him before 7am.

Lawrence Schiller. Marilyn & Me is published by TASCHEN, costing $80 / £60.

Maria has Down syndrome, autism and six fingers. She uses them to flash the heavy metal sign at the camera on a beach, sunglasses on, entirely unbothered. That image, taken by documentary photographer Carol Allen-Storey, conveys something vital about Defying the Myth, the book she's spent more than a decade making. It's not a record of suffering. It's a record of people living, in all the complicated, joyful, exhausting fullness that entails.

Allen-Storey is an award-winning photographer who has spent her career documenting complex humanitarian and social issues. Appointed a UNICEF ambassador for photography in 2009, her previous projects include work on rape as a weapon of war and healing after genocide. She is not a photographer who tackles easy subjects, or takes easy pictures.  

What distinguishes Defying the Myth from her earlier work, though, is the depth of the relationship she built with her subjects, and the way that relationship shaped the photography itself. 

Allen-Storey was on assignment for Save the Children when she photographed Shoulana, a single mother raising a son, Mekhye, living with severe disabilities. What she found shocked her. A year after the assignment ended, she went back. 

Shoulana introduced her to other families, the project grew, and over time it became something harder to categorise than a photographic project: a community, a collaboration, in some respects a family. The book, which will be published by GOST this July, is the result.

Intimate distance

The technical approach is documentary in the classic sense: black and white, available light, shot close. Allen-Storey works at the intimate distance that trust allows, and you can feel it in the images. 

There's a photograph of Shoulana dancing in her kitchen, arms raised, one leg lifted mid-step, the whole frame filled with unselfconscious movement. There's Kallan, Nicola's son, wearing a dinosaur mask at the Natural History Museum, reflected in a glass case beside a dinosaur skeleton, the composition so exact it looks designed. There's the beach image that leads this piece: Maria in white-framed sunglasses, hand raised, utterly at ease with the camera and the world.

These aren't pictures taken of people. They're pictures taken with people, and the distinction matters. 

Allen-Storey's long relationship with these families shows in the quality of access she has: the bathing routines, the hospital appointments, the epilepsy medication plans pinned to the fridge, the bedroom doors. The moments of absolute exhaustion and the moments of absolute joy. She photographs both with the same directness.

The book also contains drawings, collages, poems and written testimonies by the mothers and children themselves, which changes the dynamic considerably. This isn't a photographer's view of other people's lives; it's a collaboration in which the subjects have their own voice and their own visual language.

Technical lessons

For photographers, the technical lessons here are worth considering. Allen-Storey works consistently in black and white, which strips the images of the distraction that colour can introduce in complex domestic environments and puts the focus squarely on light, form and relationship.

Her framing is tight without being claustrophobic, and she handles low light with confidence, letting grain work for rather than against her. The hospital sequences in particular show what a long-term relationship with subjects makes possible: she's in the room, close, without the images ever feeling intrusive.

All of the proceeds that Allen-Storey receives from the sale of the book go directly to the three families. It's a small detail, but it says something about the kind of photographer she is, and the kind of project this has been.

Defying the Myth by Carol Allen-Storey is published by GOST Books, ISBN 978-1-80598-028-5, 104 pages. It's currently available for pre-order for $50/£40.

Sometimes, the best images create warring emotions – and that's certainly the case with a photograph that recently won the “Connecting Oceans” category of the Photo Competition for United Nations (UN) World Oceans Day.

Created by Valentina Cucchiara (Italy), the frame depicts a diver seemingly suspended in the water while navigating what looks like a bottomless cave. This is, in fact, Cenote Nariz, a huge subterranean aquifer located on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

From the terrifying composition to the inspiring messaging behind it, in my eyes, the scene is certainly a deserved winner.

The way in which the diver looks like nothing more than a bright speck among the sheer darkness is what has my heart beating faster than normal.

Cucchiara has emphasized the darkness with the diver's light and smart post-processing, but, regardless, I’m sure being in the underwater cave was a lot more intimidating than the image reveals.

Cucchiara used a Sony A1 paired with a Canon 8-15mm f/4L USM fisheye lens (via an EF-to-E mount adapter). She opted for a 15mm focal length, capturing the dark expanses of the cenote, a 1/60 shutter speed, and an f/6.3 aperture, along with an ISO 2500.

While I’m mostly gripped by the slightly scary composition, I’m also inspired by it.

Cenotes are a primary source of fresh water in Mexico’s southernmost state, but they are under threat from industrial megaprojects like the Maya Train, mass tourism, and land mismanagement, which directly pollute the water and damage the porous limestone caverns.

Commenting on her winning image, Cucchiara said these aquifers represent an “interconnected ancestral legacy that has nurtured life across countless generations,” and that it’s our responsibility to protect them.

The Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day is a free annual contest. Each year, the event explores thematic categories encouraging photographers to creatively highlight environmental issues affecting marine ecosystems.

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Faster masks, film grain special effects and refreshed captions dot the list of updates to Adobe’s most advanced video editor.

Adobe released the latest edition of Premiere, updating the popular video editor with a handful of new tools that the company says are “built around how editors actually work.”

The June 2026 update adds new features and minor tweaks across the popular video editor, while Adobe’s After Effects also gains a handful of new features.

Adobe Premiere's summer update brings a handful of new tools without dramatically changing the way that editors work inside the software's beloved workspace, starting with the option to build in natural textures from the timeline.

A new Noise FX tool enables creators to add a film-like grain to footage. Located inside the Effect Controls panel, the tool can dial in grain with an intensity slider, along with functions for working the effect into the shadows, midtones and highlights.

Also in the Effect Controls panel, editors can now work with gradients, including a list of tools to feather, mirror, repeat and make other adjustments. Channel Blur is another new effect arriving in the update.

Video editors also now have the option to use single-word captioning, which shows one word at a time. Like the other June updates, the new captions are designed to fit in with existing tools and arrive by selecting the Single Word layout in the existing caption process.

Adobe says that Object Masks have been refined to improve both speed and accuracy. Masks can also now be regenerated without starting over if the connection to the media is lost.

The update also introduces some new panels and tools. Stock can now be licensed without leaving Premiere inside the new Stock Panel Checkout. Meanwhile, Adobe says the new Sequence Index Panel is designed for long-form editing with more controls.

A new A/V Display Mode will show the video and audio waveforms both in the Source Monitor for easier navigation. Meanwhile, video editors can mute all the existing clips with a press of the global audio mute button.

Markers – Premiere’s way to flag a certain part of the video for easy recall – are also now searchable by color and name.

Adobe also added a 3D Spinback and Slide option into the transition options.

The new Premiere tools come alongside a refresh to After Effects, which adds four AI-powered selection tools to replace the Roto Brush. A new list of tools also come to 3D effect editors, while imported SVG files are now editable inside After Effects.

The updates are rolling out now.

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Adobe Lightroom can now turn photos into videos using generative AI. The feature, coming as part of a long list in the June 2026 update, gives photographers who forgot to capture video an option to generate B-roll-like footage. However, the tool is only the second Lightroom tool to require generative credits – and the first native Adobe tool in Lightroom to use the credit system.

The update is part of a long list of Creative Cloud June 2026 updates across Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as video tools Premiere and After Effects. Among the photo features, Lightroom’s assisted culling leaves beta, and Photoshop gains the reflection removal tool from Adobe Camera RAW.

Lightroom desktop: generate video from photos

Inside Lightroom on desktop devices, the new Generate Video option will generate an AI video using either Adobe Firefly or Google Veo, using the photo as a starting point. The option is located by navigating to the top menu and selecting Photo, then Generate Video.

That brings up a pop-up that suggests a prompt like “add subtle motion” or “slow pan,” as well as a text field for typing a custom prompt. A drop-down menu allows users to choose from a four, six, or eight-second video.

While Generate Video is far from the first generative AI tool to come to Lightroom, the update is only the second Lightroom feature to use generative credits and the first native Adobe tool to do so. Previously, only the Topaz Gigapixel Generative Upscale used Generative Credits inside Lightroom; Adobe tools like Generative Remove do not currently consume credits in Lightroom.

Some generative credits are included with certain subscriptions, but after that requires purchasing additional credits. The Creative Cloud Photography Plan 20GB includes 100 credits a month, the Lightroom Plan 250, and the 1TB photography plan 1,000 credits a month.

The pop-up generative video box will show creators how many credits the process will consume and what the remaining balance is. That credit amount changes as the different options are adjusted – shorter videos, for example, will consume fewer credits.

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom: Assisted Culling

Lightroom previously gained Assisted Culling, a beta tool that helps photographers weed out the bad shots with tools like checking for focus and ensuring that both eyes are open. Now, that feature is migrating out of Early Access, which is Adobe’s term for a beta feature. The feature is rolling out to both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic.

The Assisted Culling tool will also now recognize faces and give each face a score as to whether or not the eyes are open and sharply focused, a tool designed to help go through photos with more than one person.

The update also offers more filters to give photographers more control over how they want the photos sorted and how strict the culling process is.

The Library module in Lightroom Classic will also allow users to filter photos that use generative AI or need AI settings to be updated, similar to the program’s ability to sort photos by things like shutter speed or what camera took the photo.

Select Subject has improved with a detail slider, which allows creators to refine the masks’ edges to improve accuracy around fine details like hair.

Lightroom updates also include AI sharpening using Topaz Labs’ Noise Aware and support for RAW files from the Sony A7R VI.

Adobe Photoshop: Reflection Removal

Adobe’s reflection removal tool from Adobe Camera RAW is now moving into Photoshop territory. Like the feature in ACR, the AI-based tool detects and removes reflections in photos shot through glass.

Unlike in ACR, Photoshop’s version of Reflection Removal will make the adjustment as a layer, allowing creators to go back and fine-tune later on, which creates a non-destructive edit.

Photoshop’s Remove Tool can now use on-device generative AI, allowing the tool to work without an internet connection.

The updates rolled out on June 15 across Adobe’s photo tools, alongside updates to Premiere, After Effects, and Illustrator.

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The Scientist at Work photo competition, hosted by scientific journal Nature, is an annual contest that encourages scientists across all disciplines to share images to celebrate and showcase the “interesting, challenging, striking and colorful” projects that scientists undertake around the world.

Now in its seventh year, the 2026 competition saw five winning images – with Gunnar Hartmann, an undergraduate student in BioGeoSciences at the University of Koblenz in Germany, taking the overall crown.

Hartmann’s winning shot (top image) captured a pair of paragliding researchers guiding a flock of migrating northern bald ibises above the fields and olive groves of Jaén, southern Spain.

Hartmann photographed the scene while working with the Waldrappteam, an Austrian conservation and research group supporting the reintroduction of the ibises into Europe.

These birds once populated the lower reaches of the northern Alps, but human hunting and climate change drove them to extinction in central Europe.

In the image, we see two Waldrappteam scientists guiding the ibises on their northbound route by singing a rhythmic German tune.

Other above-land winning shots came from PhD students Haolun ‘Allen’ Tian and Shayanta Chowdhury. Tian, studying at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, used a drone to snap his colleague in a small boat passing through a toxic-looking layer of algae to collect water samples from Dog Lake, Ontario.

Chowdhury, gunning for his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, captured an entomologist analyzing a yellow fever mosquito under a vibrant ultraviolet light. While Chowdhury is a chemistry student, the scientist in the frame is studying how the drug nitisinone can be used to kill blood-feeding insects.

Two underwater shots also made the winning cut. Marine ecologist Robert Harcourt captured marine biologist Michael Doane carefully collecting a skin sample from a whale shark at Ningaloo Reef, off the coast of western Australia.

And marine biologist Uli Kunz from Germany photographed two divers in the Saudi Arabaian Red Sea installing an incubation chamber over part of a coral reef, a vital underwater ecosystem in the region.

All scientists making no more than 25% of their income from photography can enter the Scientist at Work competition, with the winners judged by a panel of Nature staff.

The winning images are featured in a Nature issue in print and online, receive a year’s personal print and online subscription to the publication, and £500 or equivalent in a different currency (approximately $670 / AU$950).

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Sir Don McCullin has been given one of Britain's highest civilian honors in a list of new awards released to celebrate King Charles III's birthday. The celebrated photojournalist, who is now 90 years old, has been named a Companion of Honour for services to photography.

The Order of the Companions of Honour was initiated by King George V in 1917 and is one of the rarest honours in the United Kingdom, as it is only held by a maximum of 65 people at one time.

Nowadays, the honour is awarded to those who have made a "major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time". Other living holders of the title include Sir David Attenborough, Sir Elton John, and Dame Anna Wintour. The actress Helen Mirren was named alongside Don McCullin as the 389th and 380th people to ever have received the title. A further vacancy in the Order was created with the recent death of the artist David Hockney.

Don McCullin was knighted back in 2017 and is best known for his harrowing images of confilct and famine around the world, which he shot for the Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s and 1970s.

Last week, it was announced that a new book of his photographs of the Vietnam war, including many that have never been published before, will be published later this year.

When Diane Keaton died last October, I wrote about the immense photographic legacy that ran alongside her acting career. Her nine books, her rescued archives, her decades of work with a Rolleiflex that most people never knew about. Now, with the results in from Bonhams' four-part auction of her estate, it's clear that collectors understood something critics are still catching up to.

The sale totalled $4.2 million, with 100% of 700-plus lots sold, but some of the most telling results came not from the sale of her Annie Hall script or her Ralph Lauren wardrobe, but from her photographs.

Five strips of black and white photobooth prints from the 1970s, taken by Keaton, sold for $14,080: more than 70 times their estimate. Three photobooth photographs she also took herself went for $23,040, more than 57 times estimate. Three mixed media collages she made sold for $14,080, more than 28 times estimate.

And let me be clear. These weren't celebrity ephemera inflated by sentiment. They were photographs, valued as photographs, by bidders who registered from 39 countries.

Photobooth as photographic tool

Look at the photobooth strips above and you understand immediately why. Across five vertical strips, Keaton poses with a pair of high-top sneakers, moving through a sequence of gestures: holding them up, turning them, extending her hand toward the lens, pulling back.

Each frame is slightly different. Each column of four frames reads almost like a contact sheet. The whole thing is composed with an understanding of sequence and movement that feels less like someone mucking about in a photobooth and more like someone who'd absorbed the lessons of Warhol, of Muybridge, of anyone who'd ever thought seriously about time and repetition in a still image.

Indeed, there's a useful parallel here with artist David Hockney's joiners, which I wrote about last week upon the artist's passing. Both Keaton and Hockney were drawn to photography's limitations as much as its possibilities: the frozen moment, the single frame, the fixed perspective.

Hockney's response was to physically collage his way out of the problem. Keaton's photobooth work suggests a simpler, more instinctive solution: let the machine do the sequencing, and then work within that constraint. The strips impose their own rhythm: four frames, fixed interval, fixed focal length. And Keaton choreographs herself within that rhythm, rather than fighting it.

This was always her approach. Her waist-level Rolleiflex shooting forced slowness and deliberation. Her curatorial projects, the rescued hotel interiors, the county coroner's car crash photographs, the 20,000 negatives by an unknown Fort Worth commercial photographer; all showed someone who was interested in what the photographic process itself reveals when you strip away the intention to make art.

The photobooth strips belong to the same instinct: a machine takes the pictures, and what's left is pure performance and timing.

What the auction tells us

The rest of the photographic results from the auction reinforce this narrative. Four black and white photographs of Keaton sold for $56,320, more than 112 times estimate, the highest multiplier in the entire sale. Two colour photographs by Ruvén Afanador went for $20,480, more than 25 times estimate. An Annie Leibovitz print from her Pilgrimage series sold for $32,000, more than 10 times the estimate.

But this wasn't just an auction where anything with a famous name attached gets inflated. The photographic works consistently outperformed the fashion pieces on multiplier terms. And consider that the hat Abraham Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated, also in the collection, sold for $32,000: under two-thirds of the $51,200 total raised by Keaton's own creative work.

Why? Because bidders were making judgments about specific objects, not just buying proximity to a famous life. Keaton always resisted the notion that photography was a secondary activity for her, something she merely did between films. The Bonhams results suggest the market agrees.

What's most striking to me about the photobooth strips particularly is their modesty. They cost a few coins to make, they were printed on the standard paper that comes out of the machine, and they show a woman with some sneakers and a curtain backdrop.

There's no pretension, no expensive equipment, no studio lighting. Just someone who understood framing, sequence and timing well enough to make something genuinely interesting, in the least promising circumstances imaginable. That's not a celebrity's hobby. That's a photographer's eye.

A great food photo is more than just a thoughtful composition of a well-presented meal; it captures the smell, taste and, sometimes, atmosphere of the location, while leaving your mouth watering.

The photo we're looking at here captures all these elements, presenting an excellent understanding of food psychology and travel photojournalism. It was shot by food and travel blogger Zaeem Jafri, and recently won the Food category of the National Geographic Traveller (UK) Photography Awards.

“I’d been told the best food in Korea is wherever you see a crowd of Ajummas [Korean term for a married or middle-aged woman] gathering, so when I spotted a large group pressing around a tiny stall in Namdaemun Market [Seoul], I was drawn in,” said Zaeem.

“What caught my eye first wasn't the food but the rhythm: a fresh batch of kimchi-mandu [traditional Korean dumplings] would emerge from the steamer, triggering a chaotic few minutes as people grabbed box after box, and then calm… until the next batch arrived,” he added.

With a Nikon Z6 and Tamron f/2.8 28-75mm in hand, Zaeem joined the queue, lifting his camera over the people in front to snap the frame at the moment a fresh tray brought a “rush of steam that engulfed the entire stall, and everyone’s eyes became completely fixated on the dumplings.”

Zaeem opted for a 1/160 shutter speed and an f/4 aperture, which perfectly rendered the crowd (which was “closing in”) slightly out of focus, and the wafting steam as it rose.

Shooting in aperture priority with auto ISO, the camera selected a sensitivity of 160 – and it looks like Zaeem used a little bit of creativity in post-production to dodge and burn, drawing attention to the woman holding the tray of fresh treats.

“It felt like a miniature stage show coordinated by the vendor in the photograph,” said Zaeem. “Those dumplings go from steamer to mouth in seconds, and I love how this photograph captures the energy of the moment.”

What I love is the journalistic storytelling of Zaeem’s creation and also how much it makes me want to explore this Seoul market and try the kimchi-mandu dumplings. But I’m going to stop looking at the photo because I’m getting hungry.

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Filled with gleaming red classic cars, Haynes Motor Museum's iconic Red Room will provide a dramatic backdrop this September as part of the LCE Photo Show 2026 – a major new photography and videography event taking place in Somerset, England.

The one-day celebration of photography, video and content creation brings together leading brands, industry experts and hands-on demos of the latest gear.

Affordable early access is on offer, with the event taking place on September 12 2026 at the larger Somerset venue following the success of last year's South West show in Exeter. Earlybird tickets are £5, with £10 tickets available on the door – both can be put towards purchases made at the show.

LCE Photo Show 2026

A packed programme of learning and live experience includes hands-on demos, opportunities to try the latest cameras, lenses and filmmaking gear with brand specialists, plus expert seminars, roundtable discussions and practical demonstrations covering lighting and portraiture.

Confirmed industry speakers include leading creators Gavin Hoey and Amy Shore, with further names to be announced ahead of the event.

Major camera brands will be on site, including Fujifilm, Canon, Nikon, Sony, OM System, Sigma and Tamron, offering direct access to the latest equipment, show-only deals and hands-on opportunities for photographers and filmmakers.

For more information and £5 early bird tickets, visit the LCE Photo Show website.

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I remember a few years ago seeing a picture of a terrifyingly ugly shark that went viral. It had this protruding mouth packed with razor-sharp teeth and a long pointed head.

It turns out that this was a goblin shark, which quickly gained the reputation of the world's “ugliest” sea creature. Now researchers have captured footage of these less-than-stellar-looking fish in their natural habitats for the first time.

Australian scientists from the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre video the fish during a research project in the Tonga Trench – the second-deepest marine trench in the world – in 2024.

In 2019, in another region of the Pacific Ocean, researchers from the University of Hawaii observed the sharks near Jarvis Island.

The two sightings of this elusive species, which happened some 1,500 miles apart, have been published together in the Journal of Fish Biology.

“We actually know virtually nothing about them [goblin sharks],” Professor Alan Jamieson, director of the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, told the Guardian.

ABOVE: Footage of the goblin shark spotted in the Tonga Trench

While the species was first discovered in 1898, there have been few sightings of them alive. The sharks typically remain at a depth of around 3,000 feet (approximately 915 meters), with Jamieson explaining that any previous sightings were usually because of accidental fishing.

The 2024 video lasts just over 20 seconds and the individual recorded in the Tonga Trench was captured at a depth of 6,500 feet (approximately 2,000 meters).

Jamieson said the result was only possible due to the sheer amount of footage collected during the expedition, which included over 50 days of continuous filming.

“They [goblin sharks] are ridiculously horrendous to look at,” said Professor Culum Brown, a fish expert at Macquarie University. “Not even their mother would love their faces.”

Brown explained how the sharks are like “something out of a horror movie”, using their long snouts to detect prey and then shooting out their protrusible jaws to snag them.

I’m certainly glad I’ll never encounter one of these terrifying creatures on a wildlife shoot, but it is amazing to see footage of them in their native habitats for the first time ever.

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Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, British photojournalist Sir Don McCullin documented practically every major conflict around the world, first for the Observer and later the Sunday Times.

But of all these, perhaps the most devastating was the Vietnam War, where he witnessed untold death and destruction.

Now, as the famed war photographer approaches his 91st birthday, he’s created what he’s described as his “last ever book,” revisiting the conflict where several of his iconic images were shot and revealing many previously unseen photos taken during it.

In Vietnam, McCullin takes us on a frightful journey through his stints in the war-torn country over three distinct periods: 1965-1967, 1968 and 1972.

Featuring some 100 black-and-white images and over 20 color frames, of which almost half have never made it into the public eye until now, we see the “devastation, shame, violence, bloodshed and extreme trauma” of the conflict.

Images selected from around 30 rolls of film McCullin used up on each trip to the war paint a visceral picture of what it was like, including some of his better-known images of US marines to “piles of human and mechanical detritus”.

Having recently read McCullin's autobiography, Unreasonable Behaviour, I’m particularly interested in seeing more of the images he created during the Battle of Huế in 1968.

McCullin spent 12 days on the ground with the 5th Marine Regiment here and, in his autobiography, recalls harrowing experiences of coming under shellfire while out in "no man's land" ahead of the advancing US soldiers.

During the ferocious battle, McCullin snapped arguably his most iconic photo, of a shell-shocked US Marine, which I imagine has overshadowed many other gripping frames captured during the ordeal.

Don McCullin's new book Vietnam will be published in October by Gost Books, priced £80 / $95 (AU$152), but preorders are open now.

Three special print editions are also available, all signed by McCullin, for £2,500 ($3,350 / AU$4,760). One is printed by McCullin himself in his darkroom, with two more printed by celebrated photographic printer Brian Dowling.

Finally, a Portfolio Edition (which looks to collate all three signed prints) is available for £6,250 ($8,390 / AU$11,900).

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A new photography competition is offering photographers the chance to win one of Sony's most capable APS-C cameras – the A6700 – along with magazine and online publications.

The Decanter Wine Photography Competition 2026 is now open for entries, inviting you to explore the world of wine.

But this isn't just about vineyard landscapes or neatly arranged bottles – the brief is much broader, covering lifestyle moments, creative compositions and abstract interpretations.

How to enter to win exposure and gear

Deadline
Entries must be submitted online, between June 01 and August 31 2026

Open to
Open only to UK and US residents with one entry per category permitted

Categories
- Wine landscapes
- The enjoyment of wine
- Wine in the bottle, and/or glass
- Abstract/creative

Enter now
Decanter Wine Photography Competition 2026 – Entry form

A winner and two runners-up will be selected in each category, with one overall winner chosen from the category winners by a panel of expert judges.

Selected images will also be featured in Decanter magazine and online, giving you the chance to gain both exposure and recognition alongside prizes.

Top Prizes

The headline prize is a Sony A6700 camera kit, including the E PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS II lens, worth $1,598 / £1,449.

We rated the A6700 as one of the best hybrid cameras for travel photographers and content creators, thanks to its 26MP APS-C sensor, advanced AI-powered autofocus and strong 4K video performance. It's a compact rangefinder-style camera – with a viewfinder!

Lightweight and compact, it's designed for creators who want professional features in a portable body – making it especially appealing for anyone shooting both stills and video on the move.

Alongside the camera kit, winners also receive wine-related prizes, magazine subscriptions, and premium access to Decanter content and events.

Find more information on the Decanter website.

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Dramatic weather, shifting atmospheres and rare celestial events offer some of the most powerful and visually striking opportunities you can capture – when you're willing to embrace the elements and leave the house.

While shooting in these conditions isn't always comfortable – or predictable – they reward preparation and adaptability.

Understanding when and where to shoot, how to protect yourself and your gear, and which camera settings to use can make all the difference between a missed opportunity and portfolio-worth shots.

With the right approach, even the most challenging environments become your creative playground. Here's how to safely photograph thunderstorms, harness the mood of mist and fog, and plan for awe-inspiring celestial events.

Thunderstorms

Best shooting times: Most frequent in spring and summer, especially on hot and humid summer afternoons and evenings.

Safety precautions: Always photograph from inside a building or a car to dissipate any potential energy from lightning strikes.

Camera settings: Focus the camera lens on infinity, use a low ISO of about 100-500, aim for a medium aperture of f/8, and lengthen your shutter speed to 5 to 20 seconds.

Tips: To effectively convey the size of the lightning flashes, consider incorporating landscapes or cityscapes into the composition rather than solely focusing on the thunderstorm. This approach accentuates the dramatic impact of the storm.

Additionally, creating a series of images showcasing the lightning flashes enables you to merge frames in post-processing, enhancing the photograph’s overall dramatic effect. Don’t forget to secure your camera on a tripod to facilitate a seamless merge process during editing.

Mist & Fog

Best shooting times: Mostly common in the early morning hours or evening hours.

Safety precautions: Humidity, condensation and water in the air can ruin non-water-sealed gear and create the conditions for fungus to grow. When you are back home, dry your kit to maintain its quality and longevity.

Camera settings: Use a lens of 70-200mm or even 100-400mm to compress the distance and heighten the effect of the mist.

Tips: Most common near the shores or water. Getting on a high viewpoint and shooting down is an effective way to showcase the mist or fog. Photographing in a dense forest is also great for showcasing both, especially when changing the perspective and shooting straight upwards into tree crowns, which mystically become enveloped by the conditions.

Celestial events

Best shooting times: Apps such as PhotoPills can help you find specific dates.

Safety precautions: Visit the location beforehand to get familiar with the surroundings. On the day, ensure you’re in place before it gets dark. Take a head torch to help you see in the dark environment.

Camera settings: Mount the camera on a tripod, focus the lens to infinity, use an open aperture and a shutter speed of approximately 1/4sec, push the ISO higher if needed, and use the self-timer shutter option.

Tips: To showcase the night sky, stars or other phenomena with a clear approach, light pollution is your biggest enemy. It is caused by surrounding light sources and is a common problem in urban areas. Aim to visit places that are far away from the city and check the light pollution intensity online. These maps determine the intensity of light pollution, using the Bortle Scale on a measure from one (dark sky) to nine (severely light-polluted).

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Duane Michals, who died on June 09 in New York aged 94, was the kind of photographer who makes people uneasy. He wrote directly on his prints. He blurred things deliberately. He arranged images like comic strips and called them art.

When the street photographer Garry Winogrand saw Michals' first sequence show in the 1960s, he reportedly said: "What is this? This isn't photography." Michals would have taken that as a compliment.

In an era dominated by Henri Cartier-Bresson's idea of the "decisive moment" – the belief that a photographer's job was to catch the world at its most vivid and true – Michals did something wildly different. He staged scenes, faked ghosts, cast his grandmother as an old lady visited by Death and asked his father to play the Grim Reaper.

He wasn't capturing reality. He was insisting that reality wasn't the point. "To photograph reality," he once said, "is to photograph nothing."

Documentary to drama

Michals was born in 1932 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a working-class steel town near Pittsburgh. He trained as a graphic designer and was working in New York publishing when, in 1958, he borrowed a friend's camera for a trip to the Soviet Union. He came back with portraits of sailors and circus performers, and a new direction in life.

His early work was straightforward documentary. His series Empty New York (1964-65) showed the city's streets and subway cars depopulated, in a style influenced by the French photographer Eugène Atget. It was Atget, too, who led him toward the Surrealists, including René Magritte and Giorgio De Chirico.

From there, Michals abandoned documentary work entirely and started building his signature sequences: linked sets of small black-and-white photographs that unfolded like short films.

Typically subjects were mortality, desire, the afterlife and the strangeness of ordinary moments. The spirit leaves the body (1968) used double exposures to show a man's ghost rising from his body. Chance meeting (1970) broke down a loaded exchange of glances between two strangers in a New York alley.

Grandpa goes to heaven (1989) showed an elderly man ascending through a window with angel's wings, waving cheerfully to his grandson. Death, in Michals' hands, was never grim for long.

Not knowing the rules

By the 1970s, Michals had started writing directly on his prints: titles, poems and handwritten notes. Purists were appalled. A teacher told him the word was that his photos were so bad, he needed words to explain them. Michals replied that within five years everyone would be writing on photographs.

His belief was as much practical as artistic. Photographs have real limits: they can't tell you what was said, what the room smelled like, or what happened next. "When I write," he said, "it's to give voice to the silence of the photograph."

Michals supported himself with commercial portraiture and editorial commissions for decades, shooting celebrities and corporate clients while making his more personal work on the side.

He published more than 40 books, had major retrospectives at the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Morgan Library in New York, and was highly influential, particularly on photographers working with narrative and text. All this, despite having no studio and no formal photography training.

Rather than holding him back, though, he saw the benefits of being, metaphorically speaking, in the dark. "I didn't know you weren't supposed to write on a photograph," he pointed out. "I didn't have to unlearn the rules."

Michals lived to 94, a full life. He said he had no regrets and had done everything he'd wanted to do. And given the breadth and originality work he left behind, who could disagree with that?

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A sea turtle with a human handprint. A koala hit by a car. The 2026 Environmental Photography Award recognized some of the most heartbreaking wildlife images of the year – and now those images are going on an international tour.

The Environmental Photography Awards presented by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation were packed with fantastic compositions that not only demonstrated an eye for creativity and storytelling but also environmental custodianship.

Inaugurating the ceremony was Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose foundation launched the annual awards in 2021 to recognize photographers raising awareness of environmental protection.

The 36 winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions are now part of an international exhibition that will allow art aficionados, wildlife lovers, and conservationists alike to see the photographs in person, beginning with an open-air gallery on the Promenade du Larvotto in Monaco until July 30.

The exhibition will be traveling internationally; additional locations have not yet been announced. A book of the winning images is expected to follow.

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German photographer Britta Jaschinski took the overall Environmental Photographer 2026 Award as well as the Changemakers category for her image Handprint on Sea Turtle.

Snapped under ultraviolet light, it reveals a handprint left on a sea turtle's shell by an unsuccessful poacher. Jaschinski captured the shot while “on the hunt” for smugglers with wildlife forensic experts aiming to disrupt illegal wildlife trading.

“The photographs presented at Larvotto bear witness both to the fragile beauty of the living world and to the urgency of the challenges to which we must collectively respond,” said Romain Ciarlet, vice-chairman and CEO of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

Fernando Faciole, whose image Born for the Ocean, Fated to the Flames captured the Humanity versus Nature category award, was the only other winning photographer in attendance.

Like Jaschinski’s shot, his depiction of shark fins confiscated from illegal shipments in Brazil being incinerated is a stark reminder of the human impact on marine ecosystems.

Three other photographers from the 2026 selection were also congratulated by Prince Albert II.

This included Luca Eberle, runner-up in the Forests category; Lucas Bustamante, runner-up in the Polar Regions category and honorable mention in the Forests category; and Estebane Rezkallah, honorable mention in the Polar Regions category.

Some 10,000 entries are made to the Environmental Photography Awards each year, with an international jury of professional photographers selecting the overall winner, five category winners, a Public Award, and a Students’ Choice Award.

The 2026 finalist images will be exhibited in an open-air gallery on the Promenade du Larvotto in Monaco until July 30.

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Throughout my lifetime, I've seen David Hockney described as the "world's greatest living painter". Sadly, that no longer applies: the artist born in Bradford, England in 1937 died yesterday, one month short of his 89th birthday. Most tributes will focus on his famous paintings: his swimming pools, his Yorkshire landscapes, his double portraits. But I think there's an added reason to celebrate his life: his photography work genuinely pushed things forward.

This innovation was born of personal frustration with what a camera could achieve. "Photography is all right if you don't mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralysed Cyclops, for a split second," he once said, pithily. But rather than letting that limitation put him off the medium, he burned with the desire to push it forward.

Defining the problem

It was 1967 when Hockney bought his first 35mm and started using photographs as reference material for paintings. But the thing that frustrated him was this. A photograph freezes a scene from a single fixed point, at a single moment in time, through a single lens. Yet that's not how human beings see.

We scan, we glance, we move. We look at something for ten seconds and register far more information than any shutter could ever capture. With the latter, he told the Smithsonian in 1984: "You have a fixed point, you have no movement; in short, you are not there really." For a painter who'd spent years studying Cubism and who understood, intuitively, that art needed to account for the experience of looking, this was a serious challenge.

The solution arrived accidentally. In the early 1980s, working on a painting of a room in LA, Hockney stuck some Polaroids together as a kind of mood board. Looking at the result, he realized he'd created something new: a sense of moving through the space, of time passing within a single image.

Once he'd had this eureka moment, he burst into creative life. Working with curator Alain Sayag, Hockney threw himself into what became known as his "joiners": collages made from dozens or hundreds of individual photographs, arranged to build a larger scene. He produced 150 composite Polaroid works in a matter of months, and held his first photography exhibition, Drawing with a Camera, at New York's André Emmerich Gallery in 1982.

These weren't just random collages, but philosophical statements about the nature of time, space and the act of looking. To take just one example: his joiner of Bradford, Yorkshire, shot in the summer of 1985, shows a woman in a beige jacket appear multiple times across the image as she walks past. Hockney was tracking her path with his camera, moving from left to right, so she appears again and again as she walks through the scene.

Because we see her in several positions, we know exactly how long she took to pass by: the duration of her walk is written into the structure of the image. And the point was: no single photograph can do that.

Cameras and Cubism

Much of this was inspired by Hockney's relationship with Cubism, a style of art that shows an object or scene from several angles at once, instead of from one fixed viewpoint. His joiners were his attempt to bring that thinking into photography, to make a photograph that worked the way a painting by Picasso worked. Canal and Road, Kyoto (1983) is a clear example, its fragmented, interlocking panels producing a sense of architectural depth that no single exposure could achieve.

A standard 55mm lens on a 35mm camera sees roughly 45 degrees. A wide-angle extends that to around 75 degrees without obvious distortion. Human vision, with normal eye movement, spans about 180 degrees. Hockney's joiners were reaching for that full human field of view; perhaps messily, but certainly meaningfully.

Long before smartphones made panoramic photography a tap-and-sweep gesture, before computational photography began automatically stitching images together, Hockney was doing this by hand; thinking through the problems of field of view, perspective and time that programmers would later build into software algorithms.

The digital years

Hockney never stopped pushing. In later years he moved through iPhone photography, iPad drawing and multi-camera video installations. The thinking behind all of it, though, can be traced back to those Polaroid experiments.

His 2001 book Secret Knowledge, for example, took the notion that the old masters had used optical devices such as the camera obscura and camera lucida to achieve hyper-realistic effects, and extended the same argument back through art history. The basic point was characteristically Hockney: that the relationship between the manufactured image and the human eye has always been complicated, contested, and well worth arguing about.

To photographers today, Hockney's legacy is more practical than it might first appear. His central insight, that a photograph is always a reduction of experience, is worth thinking about every time you raise a viewfinder.

The question isn't how to capture a scene; it's how to capture the experience of being in that scene. Sometimes a single frame does it perfectly. Often, it doesn't. What you do with that information is up to you.

After scooping a Highly Commended honor in the major Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, 15-year-old Parham Pourahmad continues his award-winning rise in wildlife photography.

Parham was named the Youth winner in the prestigious Audubon Photography Awards for an image that freezes a Long-eared Owl in mid-air, wings fully extended. The jury says the image stood out for its "rich golden hues" with the "owl and the background complementing each other magically."

The young wildlife photographer based in Northern California shot both award-winning images exclusively with Nikon gear. His recent success was captured with one of the best DSLRs for beginners and a third-party lens – also found in his kitbag, the Nikon Z8.

Youth Winner

Shot info
Species: Long-eared Owl
Location: Fremont, California, United States

Tech details
Camera: Nikon D3500 + Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C
Exposure: 1/1000 secs, f/6.3, ISO 1800

Story behind the shot
Parham explains, "When I heard of a rare Long-eared Owl sighting at Coyote Hills Regional Park, I went to check it out. When I arrived before sunrise, I saw the owl looking for rodents in the park’s grasslands and marshes.

"It hunted on and off for the next hour, giving me ample time to take photos. The sun rose, shining beautiful colors all over the marsh.

"When the owl flew by, I framed it with its habitat to demonstrate the connection between the owl and its home.

"I appreciated the warm lighting and how the owl stood out despite appearing small in the frame."

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Imagine coming face to face with perhaps the ocean’s scariest predator and, instead of swimming for your life, staying put and reaching for your underwater camera.

Well, that’s exactly what a group of divers did recently when they unexpectedly crossed paths with a great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea, creating what is believed to be the first-ever footage of the species in these waters.

The video shows the shark come within a tantalizing three meters of the divers, who were clearing abandoned fishing nets from a sunken vessel in the Strait of Sicily, a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea between the Italian island of Sicily and Tunisia on the African mainland.

Divers from the Healthy Seas Foundation, Ghost Diving, and the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites (SDSS) saw the predator, with Derk Remmers, head of Ghost Diving’s German branch, recording the beast.

Above" Derk Remmers talks about his encounter with the great white in the Mediterranean

“We were all a bit shocked – and amazed,” Remmers told Euronews Earth. “My fingers were trembling, that’s for sure – it was a big animal and we didn’t expect this at all.”

Remmers was incredibly lucky to have captured the video of the shark. While great whites have historically been sighted in these waters, their numbers are dwindling due to overfishing.

International law protects the species from fishing, but research carried out by US scientists and UK charity Blue Marine Foundation has found that the sharks are being illegally sold in North African fish markets. At least 40 individuals were estimated to have been killed off the Mediterranean coast of North Africa in 2025 alone.

“He swam by and then he turned around and faced us and came back. It seemed clear that he was curious and not aggressive – he was really laid back, like he had the attitude of being the boss down there. “And when we started releasing a few bubbles from our mouths, he started speeding up a little bit and vanished into the blue,” Remmers added.

Some 640,000 fishing nets are discarded by the fishing industry every year, with many of these ‘ghost nets’ killing marine life that gets entangled in them. Divers like Remmers will continue to recover these sunken death traps, until international authorities bolster efforts to protect great whites from illegal fishing.

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A Savanna Hawk waiting beside a raging wildfire to hunt animals fleeing the flames has won a major photography award. The image captures a rarely seen example of how wildlife adapts to extreme environmental conditions.

Taken in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, Colombia, Luis Alberto Peña photographed the bird of prey positioned just metres from a wall of fire. He observed that it was waiting for rodents, snakes, and other animals disoriented by the blaze.

The shot earned the top prize in the Conservation category at the Audubon Photography Awards. It was captured on a bridge camera released in 2015, famous for its 83x optical zoom (24-2000mm equivalent).

Winner: Conservation

Image info
Species: Savanna Hawk
Image Location: Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, Colombia

Tech details
Gear: Nikon Coolpix P900 with fixed 24-2000mm f/2.8-6.5 lens
Exposure: 1/500 second at f/5.6; ISO 200

The story behind the shot
Peña explains, "I was photographing birds in a rural area when I came across this fire, which started as a controlled burn to clear rice crop residues but got out of hand.

"For many people who grow rice in this area, fires are a necessary practice for subsistence. However, these burns can also harm air quality and habitat, especially if they aren’t controlled.

"As I watched the flames, I noticed a Savanna Hawk. Attentive and patient, this bird never strayed from the dense smoke and heat; in fact, it returned again and again hoping to hunt disoriented animals fleeing the flames.

"I, on the other hand, eventually had to retreat. Before I left, I captured this visual testimony to one of the many ways that wildlife survives and adapts in the face of extreme environmental conditions."

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Sports photographers have to be constantly on guard and ready to move at a moment's notice if a play gets out-of-bounds, but one camera operator narrowly missed an unexpected threat from above: a camera suspended on a cable.

During a match between Hungary and Kazakhstan on June 09, a cable camera – the TV cameras suspended above the field for a bird’s eye view of the game – started smoking. The cable then broke, sending the camera falling from more than 20 meters / 65.6 feet.

According to the BBC, the camera landed only about two meters from a camera operator on the sidelines at the Nagyerdei Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary.

No injuries were reported, and the teams took a water break as the camera debris was cleaned up.

The cause of the incident hasn’t been verified, but the smoke shown in viral videos of the incident seems to hint that overheating may have compromised the camera’s cable.

As a camera lover, I had to admit, the video is hard to watch. I’ve had to jump out of the way on more than one occasion back in my sports photography days, but I never would have expected danger from above. The camera operator in the video seems to react with calm professionalism, taking a step back and then, naturally, turning the lens to the smoldering wreckage.

A camera smoking is devastating enough, but then it has to fall from about the same distance as throwing a camera out of a five or six-story window. I have to admit I winced watching the video.

It’s unclear from the reports what type of suspension system and camera were used for the match, but broadcast cameras plus the cost of a robotic camera system like those from Spidercam or Skycam aren’t cheap.

As the World Cup kicks off on June 11, fans and photographers alike will no doubt be treated to more viral soccer photos and videos in the coming weeks as the tournament unfolds across North America.

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The camera falling from the sky isn't the only viral hit ahead of the World Cup – I think this viral image by David Yarrow may be the best World Cup team photo yet.

As a photographer who got my start at a small town newspaper, I’ve had my fair share of photographing sports teams.

You probably know the sort, the ones with two or three rows of players all looking at the camera. The quick and dirty sports photo that happens when you have to take two dozen team photos in the span of an hour.

But after coming across a viral photo of Norway’s World Cup-bound team, I will never look at a team photo the same way again. In the photograph by David Yarrow, Norway’s World Cup soccer team doesn’t look bound for a major sports match; it looks like Viking warriors.

Yarrow’s photograph of the team quickly went viral on social media, with some even calling the image “the best team photo ever.”

Yarrow’s photograph of Norway’s national FIFA team doesn’t look at all like many of the FIFA team photos floating around social media ahead of the World Cup. As Yarrow himself commented, “We’ve seen a lot of pictures of airliner steps this week.”

Norway’s journey to take what could easily be the best team photo ahead of this year's World Cup started around six months ago, when the Norwegian Football Federation decided it wanted to do something different for the team photo.

Yarrow’s name came up, a recommendation by striker Erling Haaland, who Yarrow had previously photographed as a Viking, and golfer Victor Hovland, who was part of Yarrow’s iconic photograph of the European Ryder Cup team under the Manhattan bridge.

Yarrow’s decision to photograph the Norway team as Vikings was in part a nod to the country’s past, but the photographer said he also wanted to create a sense of a journey.

The team’s World Cup appearance is both a physical journey to where the tournament will unfold in the US, Canada and Mexico, but also an expedition to qualify for the competition – the first time Norway has done so in 28 years.

Perhaps Yarrow himself describes his style best: “I like to take people outside of how they are normally photographed.”

I’ve always been taught that a good team photo has all the players clear and sharp in the image. Despite the costumes, all the players are clearly visible in the photo – including one who couldn’t make the photoshoot date, but later made the trip to the same beach to be composited into the image.

Anyone with a few camera skills and some patience can take a clear team photo, however. Yarrow’s image elevates the team photo to one that speaks of a journey and a shared history.

The athletes may all be wearing different garb, but the photograph leaves Team Norway looking far more like a cohesive team than shots with matching jerseys.

The team is lit with harsh lighting from above. This creates shadows that are often considered undesirable for more classic portraits, but I think the lighting works here. The soft lighting of glamour portraits would feel as out of place on Vikings as smiles.

Yarrow took the photograph at a secluded beach in Oslo, where he not only arranged for period-accurate customs but also had the wooden jetty running down the middle of the shot built. He later traveled to a fjord in Viking Valley to photograph the boats and pieces of the background.

Yarrow created the unique team photo in a time when many viewers question unusual images as AI, so Yarrow’s team recorded the process behind the scenes.

“If you do it in a half-hearted way or in a studio, it can fall flat, but we really went for it. We got the boats in, got everyone dressed in proper Viking gear and not pantomime stuff,” Yarrow said of the process.

If you ask this former sports photographer, I think Yarrow’s team photo could be one of the best team photos yet. Fans will undoubtedly be treated to more legendary sports photographs as the World Cup matches kick off today.

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A charming close-up of a ring-necked parakeet has been judged the overall winner in a photographic competition aimed at London cyclists. Celeste Katz image was shot with the wide-angle lens of her iPhone 14 - and will be one of the images to be displayed at South Kensington tube station, in the UK capital.

Londoners were invited to take photos of city’s wildlife encountered across the capital while out on their bikes, using Santander Cycles’ two new nature-inspired Side Quest routes. The themed routes are designed to encourage people to discover lesser know parts of London's boroughs.

The new competition produced a varied collection of photographs showcasing wildlife living on the capital’s streets, parks and waterways. A panel of judges from Transport for London (TfL), Santander Cycles, and the Natural History Museum selected the five winning photographers. Each will receive an annual subscription to Santander Cycles self-service bike hire scheme worth £120, plus entrance to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

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Photographs from the lens of artists like Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, and Nan Goldin have helped both document and shape New York City’s history, so it only seems fitting that a new gallery and home for a longstanding New York-based photography organization will open with an exhibition of those images.

Aperture, a New York nonprofit known for its magazine, books, galleries, prints, and programs, is moving to a new home this fall – and it's bringing an inaugural exhibition celebrating iconic New York artists with it.

The longstanding publisher and nonprofit, founded in 1952, will open a new location on September 18 in New York City’s Upper West Side. The location at 380 Columbus Ave. and the intersection of 78th Street puts the multi-purpose building directly across from the Museum of Natural History, as well as close to the New York Historical and Central Park.

But the move isn’t just a home for Aperture staff working on the nonprofit's books, magazines, and prints. The space will house a gallery, which will open with Aperture Loves New York, an exhibition featuring a collection of photographers who have helped shape New York’s history.

While Apeture's current location on West 28th Street in Chelsea also had a gallery and store (now closed ahead of the move), the change will create a space with ground-floor visibility near some of NYC's most popular destinations.

The gallery exhibition will feature artists like Diane Arbus, Tina Barney, Dawoud Bey, Awol Erizku, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Deana Lawson, Stephen Shore, Coreen Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems.

The move will also house an event space for artist talks and public events, as well as a retail store with books and collectibles.

Aperture Executive Director Sarah Meister, who is also curating the gallery opening, says that the move focuses on “creating an open, dynamic space for encountering photography—one that invites dialogue, fosters discovery, and brings us into closer engagement with our community.”

The new space is inside a 10,000 square foot building originally built in 1886. Aperture says that the building has been “thoughtfully adapted” for its new purpose while honoring the building’s historic character.

“Aperture is a publisher, but it is also a cultural platform with a legacy that spans more than seventy years. This new space enables us to build upon this history and expand our audiences and activities while remaining committed to nurturing a vibrant culture around photography,” said Aperture board chair Cathy M. Kaplan.

Aperture will continue to rotate galleries after the inaugural New York exhibition. Additional public events are also being planned for the September opening.

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