Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

police commissioner raymond kelly

Other people can see your posts, y'know? How a gun dealer undid himself on Instagram

Using Instagram as a storefront for goods that you're selling is growing in popularity (especially in Kuwait), being a free and easy way to advertise items. A few clever hashtags and a group of loyal followers later gives you an instant marketplace. It works a treat for vintage products and handmade crafty items. Announcing that you've a hoard of guns for sale and gloating over the money that you've made from them via Instagram probably isn't the smartest move imaginable, though. Somehow, this disconnect between bright idea and 'Hmm, that's illegal and I could probably be prosecuted for arms dealing,' didn't occur to New York rapper Matthew Best.

Best's candid Instagram shots showing guns and bundles of money were initially spotted by narcotics investigators; from there, a single undercover officer tracked and broke a cross-state gun-running ring comprising at least 19 people and brought in a haul of 254 frearms. Best and his mate Omole Adedji were buying guns from Walter Walker of Sanford, North Carolina, and Earl Campbell of Rock Hill, South Carolina; the guns were brought into New York on cheap bus rides, and then sold for three times what Best and Adedji paid for them via a network of runners.

A rather chuffed Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced the swoop and displayed the seized weapons at a press conference in New York yesterday. The lone officer who bought up every gun Best and his crew put up for sale to prevent them from hitting the streets didn't put in appearance; he has work to do.

I'm not sure that anyone would try to sell a stolen gun on a bus (at least, that's something I'm yet to encounter on a London bus, and I have seen a few odd shenanigans there), so why do it on Instagram?

(Headsup to The Verge)