Outdoor photography can be a demanding business, a constant battle against wind, rain, flying insects and temperature extremes in the search for just the right light and composition. However, some photographers — usually those who pursue their trade with little beneath them but thin air — must add the force of gravity to this list of everyday hardships.

To get their unimpeded bird's-eye views, aerial photographers George Steinmetz, Adriel Heisey and Lindsay Hebberd use some relatively unconventional aircraft: a motorized paraglider, a self-built plane and a blimp, respectively.

"If I fly in rain, I get wet. If I fly into a swarm of insects, I get bugs in my teeth. If I fly through smoke, I get choked up," says the Arizona-based Heisey about shooting from his open-cockpit...

For much of the last century, photojournalists have enjoyed a host of options for disseminating their images to the world. After World War II, several cooperative news agencies, such as Magnum Photos and Black Star, thrived and competed to promote the idea of presenting news through multi-layered photo stories.

As the millennium drew near, however, the number of agency choices shrank dramatically as a series of mergers and acquisitions whittled the photojournalism industry down to a handful of major players. Although the big three — the Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) — still dominated the world of global news-gathering cooperatives, Internet giants Corbis and Getty Images gained a stranglehold on the stock and news photography businesses by gobbling up vast photo collections.

Then a few small independent agencies, run by former photographers and photo editors, began to make an appearance on the grid of global news networks. One of the first was ZUMA Press, founded in 1995 by Scott Mc Kiernan in Laguna Beach, Calif., which recently relocated to larger offices in the nearby seaside town of Dana Point. Six years later in Manhattan, J.P. Pappis opened Polaris Images and Seamus Conlan launched World Picture Network (WPN).

All three approach the wire..

Hy Peskin, sports photographer and philanthropist, died of kidney disease June 3 at the age of 89.

Peskin, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., first entered the world of journalism by selling newspapers as a boy. He later became a sportswriter for the New York Daily Mirror.

After a stint in the Marines from 1943 to 1944, Peskin became interested in stop-action color photography...

James G. Lott, a longtime Seattle Times photographer, died in early July of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 52. Lott's award-winning work was marked by a compassion and empathy for the less fortunate, and his coworkers have created the Jimi Lott Scholarship through the National Press Photographers Foundation in his honor.

Co-workers remember Lott for his keen eye, boundless energy, willingness to experiment, and ability to capture moments and images that spoke to the heart.

For four consecutive years (1985-1988), he won the Reid Blackburn Memorial Award for outstanding...

The International Photographic Council, a nongovernmental organization of the United Nations, recognized the recipients of its 7th Annual Professional Photographer Leadership Awards at its International Professional Photographers Month luncheon at the U.N. in New York City on May 11.

The five award winners were...

Steve Broback defends the JPEG format, providing tips on adjusting optimal settings.

Today, much debate surrounds the two main file formats that digital photographers have at their disposal. Serious photographers are hearing from various camps about the respective advantages of JPEG and RAW, resulting in a lot of confusion. 

I have been following this debate closely for some time, and have been asked by several photographers for guidance regarding which format they should be using...

Patricio Robles Gil has been named 2006 Outstanding Photographer of the Year by the North American Nature Photography Association. Gil is known for his passion for conservation and the use of photography in protection efforts in his home country of Mexico. The award will be presented at NANPA's 12th Annual Summit, to be held Feb. 9-12, 2006, in Denver.

Other honors being presented at the summit include...

A collection of searing images from photographers who came to New Orleans and the Mississippi coast from across the country to document the catastrophe and recovery of the stricken region.

They thought that they had dodged a bullet. As the winds died down on Monday, Aug. 29, the thousands of remaining New Orleanians who had weathered the storm in their homes and in shelters learned that the eye wall of Hurricane Katrina, one of the strongest storms ever to hit the United States, had shifted slightly east. While Katrina destroyed most properties on the Mississippi coast, New Orleans, at first, looked battered but safe...

Gary Shenk and Mark Sherman have been promoted to senior vice president positions at Corbis, while two other senior vice presidents, Jennifer Hurshell and Joe Barrett, have left the company.

As senior vice president, images, Shenk will supervise Corbis' image-licensing business. Previously he was a founder and general manager of FlixMix, a Universal Studios subsidiary.

Sherman has been named...

Six students from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., recently returned from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they spent five weeks creating photo documentaries about life, culture and politics in that country. The students are Al Cuizon, Antonio Franco, Nick Mantzel, Jacqueline Mata, Brandon Nightingale and David Sowers.

Their exhibit opened Oct. 1 at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara. In addition to the exhibit, the students will produce a book and a CD of their images.