kottke.org posts about photography
Yesterday, Ollie and I hiked up to Delta Lake (via Lupine Meadows Access) in Grand Teton National Park. It was perhaps a bit aggressive given my current lack of fitness, my non-acclimation to the altitude (we topped out at 9000’), and the rock scrambling we had to do near the top, but we were rewarded with one of the best views I’ve ever seen.
That’s the Grand Teton (13,775’) in the background. The lake was so enchantingly blue…the photos don’t do it justice. I shared a few more photos from the hike on Instagram.
For his project Windows, Dave Krugman took photos of hundreds of NYC apartment windows at night and stitched them together into ever-shifting typologies. What’s going on in each of those apartments?
Ok, this is incredible: this person on Reddit discovered that if you take a bunch of the sequential photos of the Earth captured by the Artemis II crew and animate them, you can see that some of what appear to be stars are actually satellites, buzzing around the Earth like flies. You can see them really clearly in Seán Doran’s remastered animation. Totally totally gobsmacking. Literally awesome.
An amazing capture of galaxy Messier 104, aka the Sombrero Galaxy, by the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera mounted on a Chilean observatory.
The Sombrero galaxy (Messier 104) is a galactic masterpiece that captivates scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike. Its intricate system of globular star clusters lends insight into stellar populations, and astronomers are intrigued by the supermassive black hole at its center. Its distinctive visual features and relative brightness make it a favorite among amateur astronomers. The fascinating story of its discovery, involving three esteemed astronomers, has earned it a spot on one of the most important lists of deep sky objects. Today, it stands as one of the most iconic galaxies in the night sky.
If you want the full image, you can download the 725 MB file from the project’s site. (via petapixel)
I’ve never seen anything like these photos before. In October 2024, Rachel Moore had a close encounter with a humpback whale in French Polynesia and took these photos of the whale’s eye. Moore wrote of the experience:
This moment of eye contact was beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve never encountered a whale like this one, and it was the most profoundly beautiful experience of my life.
Tragically, just a few days later, the whale was dead; she drowned after being struck by a boat. Moore’s photos and experience galvanized an effort to regulate a slow zone for large boats in French Polynesia during whale migration season, which became law late last year:
French Polynesia has just passed new speed regulations to better protect humpbacks during their migration. Vessels over 12 meters must now travel at 10 knots (12 knots max) within 1 nautical mile of the islands, helping prevent the kind of tragedy we never want to see again.
(via moss & fog)
I got the chance to go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with friends recently and it was magical, otherworldly, lovely. I think we hit peak blossom down to the second. It was cold and gray and windy, which kept the crowds down, provided the perfect photographic contrast, and made for an enchanting petal-fall.
The Bodega Cats of New York project documents the working cats of NYC’s delis, bodegas, and corner stores.
The cat at the local deli wasn’t a pet. She knew the regulars. She kept the mice out. She gave people a reason to walk an extra block. And she was technically a violation of city health code.
That was six years ago. Since then, the project has documented over 150 shops, collected 13,500 petition signatures, and helped introduce the first legislation in New York City history to classify bodega cats as working animals.
Available soon in book form.
NASA has made available more than a dozen mobile wallpapers of photos taken during the Artemis II mission for free download. Basic Apple Guy has made some wallpapers of his own (that are slightly larger than NASA’s and better for iPhones). I have also made a few of my own: Earth Rising Over the Moon With the Orion Capsule in the Foreground, A Sliver of Earth Over the Moon, and Kubrickian Earth.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Interstitial tip: if you’re using an iPhone with iOS 26, tap the Spatial Scene button when you’re editing your wallpaper and the phone will turn any of these images into a 3D-ish scene that moves when you move your phone. Works best with images containing multiple objects (like the Earthrises). Makes you feel a little bit more like you’re there. (This is also an amazing setup.)
These are all real photos, cropped from the originals shared by NASA on Flickr and their website.
I also went back and looked at some of the images from the Artemis I mission, which sent an Orion capsule around the Moon without a human crew. Here are a few wallpapers made from photos from that mission: Earth Moon Capsule, Lens Flare Trio, and Lunar Surface.
Again, these three are from the Artemis I mission in late 2022. The first one works especially well with the Spatial Scene mode on iOS 26.
This shot from Artemis II of the Moon eclipsing the Sun is one of the most breathtaking astronomical photos I’ve ever seen. Holy shit.
Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth.
Thanks to KDO reader Scott for pointing me to NASA’s Flickr account, which is possibly the easiest way to look at photos taken by the Artemis II mission. Like this one:
And this one — then maybe I’ll stop (maybe):
P.S. If you need some Artemis II wallpapers for your phone, right this way.
In a period of four years, Belgian photographer Barbara Iweins took a photo of every single thing in her house, “from my daughters torn sock to my sons Lego, but also my vibrator, my anxiolytics… absolutely everything. 12,795 photos of 12,795 objects.” You can explore the entire archive here, indexed and classified by color, material, frequency of use, room, and “what I would save in a fire”. (via @steveportigal.bsky.social)
The commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission to the Moon, Reid Wiseman, took this photo of the Earth as the spacecraft speeds away our planet.
There are two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.
That is so cool. Worth clicking through to see the high-resolution image.
Photographer and drone pilot Pio Andrea Peri captured this overhead photo of a Sicilian city called Centuripe. Perched atop hilltops, the city looks like a person from above — even on Google Maps. (via daily overview)
Oh wow, I love these photographs of “big tusker” elephants by Johan Siggesson.
I didn’t even know big tuskers were a thing — and they may not be for much longer:
The term “Big Tusker” refers to an elephant with tusks so large they scrape the floor. Unfortunately, the opportunities for witnessing a big tusker in its natural habitat are slim. As of today, there are approximately 25 individuals left in the world, most of which reside in the Tsavo Conservation Area. It is vital that we make every effort to protect what is arguably the last viable gene pool of “Big Tuskers” remaining.
You can see just how large these elephants’ tusks are compared to those of other elephants in this photo. A great find via Colossal.
Siggesson’s Instagram is worth a look as well…the starkness of the stripes in this zebra photo!
The Library of Congress houses an online collection of 48 color photographs of Rome taken in the 1890s. The prints were created using the photochrom process:
The prints look deceptively like color photographs. But when viewed with a magnifying glass the small dots that comprise the ink-based photomechanical image are visible. The photomechanical process permitted mass production of the vivid color prints. Each color in the final print required a separate asphalt-coated lithographic stone, usually a minimum of six stones and often more than ten stones.
If you look at the individual items from the collection (like the shot of the Colosseum), you’ll notice that the photographers were uncredited:
The names of individual photographers are rarely identified on the photochrom prints. Initials on the original negatives and entries in the Detroit Publishing Company ledgers at the Colorado Historical Society sometimes reveal the image creator.
(via open culture)
During the recent annular solar eclipse on February 17, the ESA’s PROBA-2 satellite captured this great shot of the Moon passing in front of the Sun. Cue up the Johnny Cash.
Alan Taylor has shared a bunch of photos of the just-concluded Winter Olympics “featuring infrared imaging, vintage cameras, optical filters, digital composites, unusual angles, unexpected subjects, and more”. Two of my favorites:
The first photo is of a curling match taken by Ryan Pierse with a vintage camera. Taylor:
Images in this series were captured using vintage Graflex cameras, paying tribute to the type of camera that would have been used 70 years ago when Cortina previously hosted the games in 1956. In a modern twist, these cameras have been adapted to record images on smartphones, enabling live transmission of the content captured.
The second is a composite image of the women’s snowboard halfpipe final by Hector Vivas, a technique popularized in recent years by Pelle Cass.
See also photos of the Winter Olympics using thermal imaging cameras.
During her time aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara took a series of photos of the Earth from directly overhead. Seán Doran has stitched those images together into a gorgeous 4K video of a journey across North America, from San Diego to cloud-covered Quebec.
The footage is a simulation, converting an image sequence into video footage using image processing and animation. In reality this journey from California to Quebec took 11 minutes to traverse. In order to better appreciate the view this film slows that speed by a factor of 4.
Along the way, we’re treated to views of Joshua Tree National Park, the Grand Canyon, and the Rocky Mountains. Even the clouds are mesmerizing.
A New Winter is a project from Colombian-American photographer Sofia Jaramillo that seeks to
This project revisits the early depictions of skiing, which often portrayed Eurocentric ideals and a narrow vision of who belongs on the slopes. By reimagining the first images of skiing in the United States, A New Winter challenges the stereotypes and exclusive culture perpetuated by these initial depictions, inviting us to expand our understanding of winter sports and celebrate its evolving culture. It seeks to disrupt traditional narratives, challenge stereotypes and promote representation in winter sports by placing people of color at the center of these images.
Several of the images were featured in Outside magazine, where Jaramillo says, “I’m doing this for all the young Black and brown girls and boys out there who don’t see themselves when they walk into a ski resort.”
For his project called Homo Mobilis, Martin Roemers travelled the globe and photographed people with their cars, bikes, scooters, etc. You can see a selection of the photos on Roemers’ website, at The Guardian, or in his forthcoming book, Homo Mobilis (Amazon). (via @steveportigal.bsky.social)
This week, the Earth was hit with one of the strongest geomagnetic storms in recent years, which made for some gobsmacking displays of the northern lights, even as far south as California. Cruising in a 787 at 37,000 feet on his route from Calgary to London (UK), airline pilot Matt Melnyk had perhaps the best view in the world of the aurora and captured some fantastic shots. He told space.com that “This was the most incredible display of aurora I’ve ever seen in my 20 years of flying!”
These photos by Chu Weimin show the mind-boggling scale of China’s green energy buildout.
Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second.
The massive buildout is happening across the country, from crowded eastern cities increasingly topped by rooftop solar panels to remote western deserts where colossal wind farms sprawl across the landscape.
Suzanne Saroff makes unusual photographic sculptures, including these dynamic olive oil shapes.
In the late 70s and early 80s, photographer Charles H. Traub roamed the streets of Chicago, New York, and Europe to take photos of people during the lunch hour.
Colorful and direct, animated and intimate, the portraits are shot close to the subjects, composed seemingly off-the-cuff, focusing on just their heads and shoulders. Each subject reveals something of himself or herself to the camera: the woman who takes the opportunity to pose in dignified profile or the one who purses her lips in an exaggerated pout, even the somewhat less-fortunate subjects caught adjusting their glasses or blinking.
I love these photos of Rama Duwaji by Szilveszter Mako — a perfect combination of photographer and subject. Duwaji is an artist, illustrator, New Yorker, and second-generation Syrian-American. She is also married to Zohran Mamdani, who is the mayor-elect of NYC.
Using thousands of photos taken by NASA astronauts Butch Wilmor and Don Pettit earlier this year from the International Space Station, Seán Doran made this incredible timelapse called Light Fantastic.
21,837 images across 18 time-lapse sequences photographed by NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore on January 1st, 4th, 5th and February 1st of 2025 are repaired, remastered and retimed to create 3x real time video footage. A method called frame interpolation is used to calculate the extra video frames required to re-create the smooth motion of ISS orbiting Earth. A real-time version of the film would be 4 hours 9 minutes and 30 seconds long.
The video captures incredible auroras, moonsets, nighttime city views, sunrises, and even more auroras, all set to the music of Chris Zabriskie.
Earlier this week, Vanity Fair published a two-part story about the Trump regime’s “inner circle”, including extensive interviews with his chief of staff, who was openly critical of the people that she works with, from Trump on down. The story caused a stir and so did the photos that accompanied the piece, taken by Christopher Anderson.
The Washington Post interviewed Anderson about the photos. The interview is interesting throughout but Anderson’s answer to the final question is…I don’t even know how to describe it; read it for yourself:
Q: Were there moments that you missed? Anything that happened that’s on the cutting room floor?
A: I don’t think there’s anything I missed that I wish I’d gotten. I’ll give you a little anecdote: Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, “Should I smile or not smile?” and I said, “How would you want to be portrayed?” We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” And I looked at him and I said, “You know, you do, too.”
In some sort of bizarro version of our world, where people somehow aren’t themselves, Miller may have reflected on Anderson’s comment, may have thought about all the pain, anguish, and death caused by the exercise of his power, may have felt some regret, a chink in the armor that would grow over time, leading to a softening of his perspective and approach. But we live in the real world; Miller knows exactly what he’s doing and does not want to be kind. He wants to be unkind, to rip mother from child. I’m reminded of A.R. Moxon’s thoughts on hypocrisy:
It’s best to understand that fascists see hypocrisy as a virtue. It’s how they signal that the things they are doing to people were never meant to be equally applied.
It’s not an inconsistency. It’s very consistent to the only true fascist value, which is domination.
It’s very important to understand, fascists don’t just see hypocrisy as a necessary evil or an unintended side-effect.
It’s the purpose. The ability to enjoy yourself the thing you’re able to deny others, because you dominate, is the whole point.
Kindness for me and not for thee.
Nature magazine has chosen its favorite science images of the year. I’ve featured a few of these on the site already — Skydiving the Sun, red sprites in the New Zealand sky — so I picked a couple of other favorites to share:
The first was taken by Francisco Negroni of the Villarrica volcano in Chile (check out his site for more amazing photos of volcanos & lightning). The second is by 13-year-old Grayson Bell of two green frogs fighting; Bell named his photo “Baptism of the Unwilling Convert”.
I first posted about Nick Veasey’s work back in 2005 and thought it was worth another look. Veasey uses x-ray photography to get inside views of familiar objects, sometimes on a large scale.
And here’s a peek behind-the-scenes at his process, which includes, critically, a “bespoke concrete chamber” to keep the radiation at bay.
See also Bone Music: Forbidden Soviet Records Made From Used X-Ray Films.
This video by Ian Lauer is an excellent accessible explanation of the basics of astrophotography as he runs through the process of how he captures a long-exposure image of the Andromeda galaxy.
This picture is still black and white — and no, the galaxy is not devoid of color. There’s actually color in there, and we’ll get to color in a second. But first, let’s look at what happens when I zoom in on this image.
You can see there’s some graininess in this image, which we call noise. And we hate it because it prevents you from seeing more detail in your image. To combat the noise, we can take multiple images of that same target — so, one after the other — and stack them together using software to average out all of that background noise.
Take a look at what happens when we do that. This image isn’t just a single 1-minute image but 10 1-minute images stacked on top of each other. Look how how much better, how much cleaner, it looks when compared to the single 1-minute image.
There are a bunch more videos on Lauer’s channel to check out, including Shooting the Milky Way from Every Light Pollution Level and The BEST Telescope for Beginners (he recommends the Seestar S50 Astronomical All-in-one Smart Telescope, which many other people recommended on social media instead of anything on this list). Oh, and I’m gonna watch this one about astrophotography with the iPhone 17 Pro right now. (via the kid should see this)
From photographer and videographer Jan Erik Waider, a trio of videos that features the black sand beaches of Iceland from a drone’s vantage point.
Captured on Iceland’s south coast where a glacial river meets the Atlantic Ocean. The camera observes the slow interplay of water, sand, and silt — an abstract rhythm shaped by tides and sediment flow. Amid these shifting textures, a few seals drift, rest, and return to the current, blending seamlessly into the landscape. A quiet study of movement and stillness, captured from above.
The colors are amazing: the rich yellow of the river’s waters & the turquoise of the ocean against the black sand. You can find many more of his videos on YouTube, including this one of mesmerizing lava flows. (via moss & fog)
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