Welcome to Michael Andrew’s Blog!

I found this photo series on Pulptastic that shows the sheer strength and power of trees growing their roots. In the series one tree after the next is shown forcing it's roots through solid concrete. Curving and weaving their way through the solid rock when necessary. The images not only display the incredible strength of trees, they're also quite beautiful. Check them out below.

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MIT is known for being one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the world. They started a program called OpenCourseWare making education and training available to everyone online. “The idea is simple: to publish all of our course materials online and make them widely available to everyone.” Dick K.P. Yue, Professor, MIT School of Engineering If you've ever been interested in photojournalism they are offering a FREE introductory course online. You can check it out here. Course materials are downloaded from the site as well. This is a truly incredible opportunity and if you are interested in photography, especially photojournalism, this is an amazing opportunity.

When you're millions of miles away, it's a heck of a lot more complicated to snap image than here on Earth.The little robot Curiosity has been hanging out on the Red Planet Mars since August of 2012. Since then it has sent hundreds of picture back to us to marvel at. So how exactly does Curiosity do this? How long does it take? If you’ve ever wondered, check out this article. While you're there you can also check out a slideshow of some of Curiosity’s images from Mars.

Lisa Elmaleh is a photographer born in Miami but currently living in New York City. In her newest project she spent time in West Virginia photographing the folk musicians of Appalachia. For her work on the project she’s calling ‘American Folk’ she chose to use the tintype process for making her photos. She was drawn to the process because of it’s history. The tintype process was the first type of photography that working class people could afford. She felt the process was conducive to the style and type of photographs she was taking. She made a portable darkroom in her truck so she could develop her photos on site. Tintypes require development while still wet. The beautiful photographs look they could be from another time. Even the style and clothing of her subjects would suggest the images were taken long ago. However, they are contemporary and quite fascinating. You can check out her entire portfolio here.

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I have to say this is one of the most beautifully detailed photos I have never seen of a hummingbird. Photographer Chris Morgan got this shot at a nature preserve in Costa Rica. According to his Flickr profile he lives in the highlands of Scotland and runs a catering business. He uses Canon camera and lenses. You can see his gear list if you follow the link to his profile. If you’re a bird watcher you’ll love Chris’ Flickr album 'Birds'. You can check it out here.

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Instagram has proven over and over again to be an extremely powerful business building tool for all types of businesses -- especially photographers. Photoshelter.com is offering a pretty awesome and fairly comprehensive little guide on how to utilize the very best of Instagram to build your photography business and gain followers. It's called the "Photographer's Guide to Instagram". You have to submit your email address and they'll send you a copy. It's a great read. You can sign up and check it out here.

Its been a busy couple of weeks, but I was finally able to figure out how to "hack-around" the Sony a7s to get full 4K HDMI recorded. It was not easy and there are still a lot of problems getting the footage, but suffice it to say the A7s 4K is simply stunning. I was also able to figure out how to get 10 Bit 4K video out of the Panasonic GH4, which is also impressive, but I can see more artifacts and noise with higher ISOs. A HUGE thank you to B&H Photo for sponsoring the tests and comparisons I have coming shortly. This test was done at an ISO of 800, and you will see many mistakes I made but it should still give you a ballpark idea of how the two compare. We have also already completed the beginners training course for the GH4: GH4 Crash Course Tutorial Training Video We hope to have the A7s Tutorial Training DVD done by the end of August.

Based in Sydney, Australia photographer Brendan Fitzpatrick is a commercial photographer who has a portfolio of travel, lifestyle, portrait, and landscape photos. He has another unorthodox project called ‘Invisible Light’. The project consists of X-ray images of various objects and creatures. One such series is X-ray images of children’s toys. Seeing the inner intricacy of the little gadgets is completely fascinating. They also really do stand alone as abstract works of art. Brendan’s bold colorization of the toys really plays up the imaginative and whimsical expression of the entire series. If you’d like to check out more by Brendan you can do so here.

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A "drone" enthusiast in New York was arrested after flying his DJI Phantom 15 feet outside hospital windows. This alarmed patients who were being examined on the other side of the windows. The police report is labeling it Unlawful Surveillance in the Second Degree and he was arrested. He has since been released but is now facing felony charges. According to his Facebook Page he was excited about the new medical facility. He was happy to see the previously abandoned building being put to good use. When he took his mom there for a doctors appointment he wanted to get some footage of the facility. He admits he did not ask for permission before taking the footage. He says never expected to be arrested. You can read his entire post about it here. You can check out the Yahoo article and read the police report here.

In a sad yet heartwarming story a father took to Reddit with a simple request. His infant daughter had spent her short life entirely in the hospital. Always covered with tubing and machinery. After she lost her battle the couple didn't have a single picture of their baby girl without the distracting hospital equipment. The Ohio father asked if anyone would be able to edit the equipment out so they'd have at least one picture of her free of those constraints. The outpouring of love and support was overwhelming. Retouchers from around the globe submitted their interpretation of the picture and their compassion gave the couple at least some moments of joy during their tragedy.

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