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In This Issue

Cover Story: 
December | Issue #12

2011 Pop Awards: The Best Photo Gear of the Year

By Shoraczek on January 23, 2012

We honor this year's very best, most influential and all-around coolest gear

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Tips From a Pro: Infrared Photography

Professional photographer Arthur Drooker shares the tips and tenchniques he employed in his newest book, 'Lost Worlds: Ruins in the Americas'

  • By Interview by Dan Richards on January 18, 2012

Ancient ruins take on a ghostly, otherworldly look in the photographs of Arthur Drooker, who used infrared capture for the images in his just-published book, Lost Worlds: Ruins of the Americas. Here's what he has to say about his technique and travels:How did you take up photographing ruins?

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Camera Test: Sony NEX-7 ILC

Sony seriously shakes up the camera game. Again

  • By Philip Ryan on December 5, 2011

Sony has a tendency to develop certain technologies, then apply them wherever it can—often to good effect. Last month, we saw the latest iteration of its transmissive mirror technology paired with a new 24.3MP CMOS sensor and a lovely OLED electronic viewfinder in the Alpha 77. Now Sony’s taken those two new features and paired them with a completely revamped NEX body for the most impressive ILC we’ve seen to date, the NEX-7 ($1,200, street, body only; $1,350 with 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 lens).

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Lens Test: Sigma 18-50 f/2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM

Sigma's 'something extra'

  • By Julia Silber on January 23, 2012

Introduced in 2008, this lens is a step up from a kit zoom but still has much in common with the kit glass from Canon and Nikon. Like the big guys, the Sigma offers image stabilization, a near-silent HSM focusing motor, and a street price of around $200.Sigma’s 18–50mm does them better, however, on several fronts: It’s faster, with top-drawer glass (three aspheric and two low-dispersion elements), a stationary barrel, and metal lensmount. It scales up to a 29–80mm equivalent on our test Canon, to 27–75mm on other APS-C bodies.

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Lens Test: Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 ZE

A pedigreed lens that can open doors

  • By Julia Silber on January 23, 2012

The fastest Zeiss wide-angle for today’s DSLRs, the full-frame 35mm f/1.4 Distagon T* ZE is in the Canon EF mount ($1,843, street) and is similar in most respects to the ZF.2-mount lens for Nikons; both have been on shelves for about 18 months and are garnering impressive word of mouth from professionals and serious hobbyists. Together with the equally impressive 50mm and 85mm f/1.4s, it makes up a troika of unusually fast, unusually sharp manual-focus tanks from Zeiss.

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Tips from a Pro: A New Perspective on Nature Photography

Get more intimate with your subjects

  • By Peter Kolonia on January 23, 2012

We always say it helps to get close to your subject, and Erik van Hannen of the Netherlands did just that while vacationing in Råda, Sweden. To take the shot shown here, he firmly braced his Pentax K20D against the trunk by throwing his arms around and hugging his subject. You can’t get much closer than that. “I don’t recommend doing this when there’s anyone around who can see you,” van Hannen advises.

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I, Photographer: Aerial Shooter

Dave Tunge documents work sites and landscapes from high above

  • By Kathleen Davis on November 22, 2011

Why aerial photography?I’ve been involved in aviation for more than 40 years, from flight instruction to charter to corporate flying. I always carried a camera, mostly a point- and-shoot, and took pictures from the air. When I was 60, I decided to get quality equipment and start working on it more seriously to make it into a paying hobby, and now it’s turned into a business.How did you build your business?

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My Project: Tokyo Double Exposures

John Neitzel Explores the many dimensions of Japan's largest city

  • By Lori Fredrickson on December 14, 2011

Though he lives in New York, John Neitzel’s photography is rooted in Japan. “I lived there for two years in high school, and it's also where I first taught myself photography,” he says. “I have a personal understanding of the culture that’s very different from my understanding of New York.”

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How To: Emulate a Filter By Tweaking White Balance

Glass or gel filters aren’t the only way to change the tone of an image

  • By Peter Kolonia on December 27, 2011

The character of a landscape is conveyed, in part, by tonality. Rosy-hued sunsets, for instance, suggest an inviting world of warmth and intimacy. As Portland, OR, pro photographer Mike Vraneza discovered along the banks of the Potomac in Washington, DC, a cool blue scene communicates something else.

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