There are 7 principles of design in photography. Can you name them all? We bet Hideki Anbo can!

https://gls.photo/CPVIBP

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Nikon 35mm f/1.2 S Hands-On First Impressions: Optical Excellence https://petapixel.com/2025/02/04/nikon-35mm-f-1-2-s-hands-on-first-impressions-optical-excellence/ #environmentalportraiture #environmentalportraits #nikonnikkor35mmf12lens #lowlightphotography #weddingphotography #cameradocumentary #streetphotography #firstimpressions #nikkorz35mmf12s #documentary #nikonzmount #Equipment #Reviews #handson #review #zmount #nikon

I have also been a wedding photographer for the last 15 years now.

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Photographing the 2021 Navy Football Uniform on an Aircraft Carrier

Photographer James Quantz Jr. was commissioned by the United States Naval Academy to photograph its 2021 football team uniform on an active aircraft carrier ahead of the annual Army-Navy game.

Quantz Jr. previously worked with the Naval Academy in 2020 to help produce the images for last year's Army-Navy football game and also recently worked with the school on a special Marines-themed uniform that was worn against Air Force on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

"Each year, [the Naval Academy has] a theme for the uniform that will represent a specific aspect of the U.S. Navy," Quantz tells PetaPixel.

"This year’s theme was 'Fly Navy' spotlighting Naval Aviation and the F/A-18 Super Hornet that is known as the most utilized, multirole fighter jet in aircraft carrier aviation. With that being said, the grand plan was to spend several days on an active carrier with a F/A-18 fighter squadron and capture content with the uniform in that setting."

As can be imagined, coordinating a photoshoot on an active military aircraft carrier is a complicated matter.

"Luckily the coordination aspect was handled by our fearless, creative lead, Molly McManus with the Naval Academy," Quantz Jr. explains. "I can only imagine the sleepless nights and nail-biting days that were spent trying to make this happen. I know there were all kinds of legal details, background checks, health screenings, etc. to overcome getting our crew on board for this project.

"One of the other major aspects you might not even think about is just being in that environment with everything going on and not allowing yourself to be swept away in the moment and instead actually focusing on what you are there to do. It’s pretty easy to get awestruck in an environment with fighter jets taking off and landing right in front of you!"

Even though the set coordination was handled by the Naval Academy, Quantz Jr. was still responsible for how the photos were going to be captured.

"There are always the staple aspects of commercial photoshoots with gear, locations, and concepts but this one was definitely unique with many of those aspects," he says. "The plan was for a four-day shoot with approximately two days on the ship and two days at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. We were limited with the gear we could take on the ship since we only had a certain amount of cargo space on the plane that would be flying us back to Virginia."

The final timeline for the shoot wasn't nailed down until about two weeks beforehand, as the availability of the fighter jet squadron was a determining factor.

"That was a bit of a moving target," Quantz Jr. says. "Knowing this would be a special shoot, I just had to make sure I cleared my calendar with plenty of days so there wouldn’t be a conflict with another job. Even after boarding the ship, we were pretty much at the mercy of the crew and ship’s schedule when it came down to having access to capture our content. This was on a fully active carrier, so we had to dance around their flight operation times and stay ready with short notice -- so it was pretty a 'much grab your camera and go' type of thing without having time to worry with lighting and other gear."

Speaking of lighting, due to the circumstances, Quantz Jr. did not have the ability to control it like he usually does. Instead, he relied on natural light while on the carrier.

"We were really fortunate with the weather while on the ship so that also played a large part in the results," he says.

"Back at the Naval base, I once again used natural light for a portion of the shoot out on the tarmac since the setting was so vast for a lot of what we were capturing. We then moved into one of the aircraft hangers for a full lighted set up to catch the details of the uniform in a controlled environment. For that setup, I used a single light for a portion and then a seven-strobe setup you can see in the video to capture some of those images and portraits."

Quantz says that looking back on it, it's hard to put to words the experience.

"If you watch the video you can see I struggle with trying to actually put words together to describe this photo shoot. Really, at the end of the day, for me it is just amazing the places that a camera can take you. None of this would have been possible for me without that tool or key as I like to refer to it since it opens so many doors of opportunity. Having said that I want to encourage other photographers to get out there and make things happen for themselves because shoots like these are out there for the taking. With everything we’ve all been through over the past few years, I just think I’m taking more time to be thankful and reflective on these types of things."

For more from James Quantz Jr., make sure to check out his Instagram and website, or subscribe to his YouTube Channel.

_Image credits: All photos by James Quantz Jr. and published with permission. _

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James Chororos Slows Down to Create Amazing Environmental Portraits

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Striking Portrait ‘Solitude’ Wins International Portrait Photo of the Year

The International Portrait Photographer of the Year 2021 has announced its winners across multiple categories with top honors going to Australian photographer Forough Yavari for her incredible image titled "Solitude."

The competition is in its debut year and follows a similar philosophy to the organization's eight-year strong International Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards. The competition requires that all entries have been shot within the last year.

Editor 's Note: Warning, some images below may be considered NSFW.

"Our judging process has been developed over several decades of competition experience. Once the first round of judging is completed, we have a score for each entry out of 300, expressed as a percentage. We then take the top 10 scoring entries from each of the four categories and ask the judges to confirm their choice of 1st, 2nd and 3rd," the competition writes, explaining how photos are judged. "When the initial score out of 100 is given, the judges are scoring against a standard of excellence, but when it comes to the final top 10, they are comparing the entries against each other and so this is an important part of a fair process. And finally, the four category winners are presented and the judges choose the overall International Portrait Photographer of the Year."

Yavari -- an already accomplished award-winning portrait and fine art photographer based in Brisbane, Australia -- took multiple categories in this year's competition which has a shared prize pool of $10,000. The overall first prize is $3000, each category's first prize is awarded $1000 and each category's second and third place received $500 and $250 respectively. There are therefore three winners in four categories: The Portrait Story, The Family Sitting, The Environmental Portrait, and The Character Study.

In addition to winning the top overall photo of the competition, "Solitude" also won "The Portrait Story" category, while Yavari also took second place in that category as well as second place in "The Character Study" category.

Below are all the other winning photos in each of the remaining categories.

Character Study

Character Study, First Place | Tribal Identity , Zay Yar Lin Chara

"A young Suri boy paints his face with white clay, surrounded by Suri women decorating their hands with bronze bracelets. Suri tribe in the Omo Valley. Ethiopia maintains important symbols of tribal identity, such as face and body painting. The shapes and colors convey a strong bond and meaning amongst them."

Character Study, Second Place | I Have a Dream , Farough Yavari |

"Referring to the speech "I Have a Dream", a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the march on Washington for Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism."

Character Study, Third Place | Asking the Question, Brian Cassey

Environmental Portraiture

Environmental Portrait, First Place | The Mundari Cattle Herder, Josef Bürgi Environmental Portrait, Second Place | Cat and Verandah, Karen Waller Environmental Portrait, Third Place | The Man of Golden Fibers, Azim Khan Ronnie

"Workers appear to be wearing large golden wigs as they carry a heavy bundle of jute fiber. Their bodies are enveloped with the heavy natural fibers, with only their faces visible as they each carry around 50kg of jute on their shoulders."

Family Sitting

Family Sitting, First Place | Maiden of the Suri Tribe, Zay Yar Lin

"She is 25 years old, not yet married, and still guarded by her family. She is still waiting for her husband. A man in the Suri Tribe can only marry a girl when he has sixty cattle which are presented to the girl's family as the price of marriage."

Family Sitting, Second Place | Horde of the Suri Tribe, Jatenipat Ketpradit

"I took this picture when I was in Ethiopia to visit the Suri tribe who have lived in the Ethio-Sudan border area for many generations. This picture shows the whole family of their clan in their habitat."

Family Sitting, Third Place | A Quiet Connection, Nancy Flammea

Portrait Story

Portrait Story, Second Place | The Loneliness of Grief, Forough Yavari Portrait Story, Third Place | The Boxer, Nancy Flammea

The organization says that while there are the above winners, there are 101 total photos that the judges considered to be worthy of recognition. Those photos along with the above winners can be seen in a hard-cover book that has been printed by Momento Pro. A digital copy can be seen here and a published version will be available to order on the organization's website.

Image credits: Header image by Forough Yavari. All photos individually credited and provided courtesy of The International Portrait Photographer of the Year 2021.

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