Mish Mash Highlights: 2/21/2018

Toby's in Yellowstone with Animals of Montana having an awesome time, if a bit snowy with the trucks going through two-foot drifts. As always this is your weekly photography news, Instagram top picks, photos from space, and more! After a story came out a couple weeks ago about a photography shoot at a craft store Michaels stores are free to shoot, up for a challenge?While Toby does the Live Show for PEN this is your quick peek at what we’re doing behind the scenes. Get this week’s news, our Instagram challenge top picks, and more. But you can always join Photo Enthusiast Network and watch Toby live, find out more at Photorec.tv/pen. For everyone that are already PEN members, thank you for supporting the site!

This Week at Photorec.tv

• • Want to travel with Toby? We've got some great new trips to sign up for, get them while there are spots available! 
    • Return to New Zealand – April & May 2019
    • Oregon Waterfalls and Coast - August 24th-26th  2018
  • Pen Only - Tuesday Tips - Winter Shooting Tips
    • Condensation, batteries, and more... this week PEN is focusing on how to take care of your camera in the elements in an email that went out.
  • Vietnam Photography Adventures – Part One!
    • Views from Vietnam, part one of an awesome tour Toby recently instructed. Check out the vlog and get some travel inspiration.
  • Fujifilm X-H1 Mirrorless Camera – Serious Video Specs!
    • A new release by Fuji, the X-H1 is a X-T2 for video. Including In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) it could be a great fit for the market and some great competition for the GH5/GH5s.
  • IRIX 11mm f/4 – Affordable Ultra Wide & Rear Filters Suck
    • A great fully manual lens with good results for the price. If you are on a budget a wide angle like this or their 15mm version would be great.

Around the Web

We can't cover everything photography news related but we try. For everything else, we've got the best news articles from around the web.Michaels: Yes, You Can Do That Portrait Challenge In Our StoresThe next viral thing is shooting portraits in a craft store full of fake flowers. Originally starting with Hobby Lobby, their chain has pushed back as it's against store policy. Michaels craft stores instead have fully adopted the idea asking people to come in and tag your photos #michaelschallenge. Just give the workers some fair warning, and tag #PRTV so we can see your shots as well!

This is proof you don’t need an amazing location to get amazing portraits done! All photos taken inside a Michael’s store! #makeitwithmichaels #michaelschallenge #dallasphotographer

A post shared by Lexi Rodriguez (@lexirodriphotography) on Feb 19, 2018 at 9:48am PST

Sony Creates Groundbreaking Backlit CMOS Sensor with Global ShutterOne of the complaints about the Sony a7RII was that it suffered from rolling shutter. If something is moving fast enough in the frame the sensor could not keep up with the subject (the sensor scans row by row) and you'd get odd distortions in your photo with parts of the subject. Sony is trying to beat the issue by incorporating a global shutter that captures the entire image at once fixing this issue. Right now their test sensor is just 1.46MP but it's a great start for the next generation of camera sensors.Taking Apart The Sony A7rIII – In Search of Better Weather SealingInterested in the Sony A7rIII but worried about the weatherproofing? Lens Rentals has completely gutted the new camera to see what makes it tick. Check out this article for all the weatherproofing till the very last screw.Other Stories You Might Like:

• Fstoppers Reviews Opal Opacity Plugin for Lightroom
• Tamron announcement tomorrow: 70-210mm f/4 Di VC USD and 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD lenses
• Sony a7R III Weather Sealing Teardown
• This Crypto-art Rose Is the Most Valuable Virtual Art, Sold for $1 Million
• Google Removes ‘View Image’ Button from Image Search to Protect Photos
• Sigma launches its own web magazine, SEIN Online, highlighting the art of photography
• Fujifilm Sales Increased Thanks to Instant Film Cameras, Not Digital
• Millennial Travellers Paying for Proof 'They Were There' Sparks Asian Photography Boom
• Insect Photographer Seeks $2.7 Million for Copyright Violations from Pest Control Company 
• Silence at the White House
• My Worst Day Ever as a Photographer at the Olympics
• First photos taken with the Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics

Featured Photos Weekly Challenge

This Week’s Challenge: #PRTV_negativespace2

Less is more, literally this week with the Negative Space challenge. You guys nailed it with some really great photos so go hit that hashtag linked above to see all the shots. Putting all that focus on your subject can really lead to a great image if you give it the room it needs with that negative space.Next Week's Challenge: #PRTV_DIYEver have a DIY project you wanted to try? Now is the chance, especially with Michaels open for some neat in-store photos. Custom bokeh, vaseline for blurring, a neat backdrop, light flares, or your own DIY ... this week it's a chance to try something different.If you do hit up a Michaels use the tag #MichaelsChallenge as well!

Toby’s Features:

Love the wide mouth - the perfectly centered seagull and that flat gray.

So sharp, so perfectly blue and so close to the edge of the frame- look at all that negative space!

Little duck - big pond - love the space, the ripples- well done!

Roy’s Features:

This is great with all the focus on the bridge, you lucked out on the weather.

A great closeup and that bokeh really singles out the flower.

Lots of space using this hole as a way to peep through and simplify your shot with a bit of framing.

For more info, the schedule, and past top picks go check out photorec.tv/prtv. Try out some of Toby's Instagram Tips. For everything else Instagram, tag those shots #PRTV and #penlive for our daily photo features.

Photos from Space

The Opportunity Rovers 5,000th Day on Mars

Sunrise on Mars: Our Opportunity rover was built to last 90 sols, or Martian days. The intrepid rover has survived to see 5,000 sols of exploration and counting. A sol lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Here we see sunrise as a new day breaks over the Red Planet on sol 4,999, Feb. 15, 2018. This view looking across Endeavour Crater was taken with Opportunity’s Panoramic Camera (Pancam), yielding this processed, approximately true-color scene. This view combines three separate exposures taken and was processed to correct for some of the oversaturation and glare, though it still includes some artifacts from pointing a camera with a dusty lens at the Sun. Opportunity has driven a little over 28.02 miles (45.1 km) since it landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars in January 2004. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ./Texas A&M #sunrise #science #space #Mars #martian #NASA #JPL #MER #robots #omgrobots #technology #sun #opportunity #planet #newday

A post shared by NASA (@nasa) on Feb 17, 2018 at 8:40am PST

Also: He Took a Picture of a Supernova While Setting Up His New CameraPick up a "Major Tom" spaceman LED light for your computer today. Part of Toby's Photos from space segment and it helps support the site. Click here to buy your own Major Tom on Amazon.Want to keep up with things happening this year? Sync your calendar with the solar system

That's all folks! We'll be back next week with even more of your photo news and a live show. If you guy's like the highlights leave us comments on the social media posts and we'll keep this going! For Pen members, Toby will be back on air March 28th.

New Way to Upload to Instagram (and Not Get Shadow Banned)

We get asked a lot how to upload to Instagram, I even covered it a couple years back. The problem is that most of the older methods have fallen to the dreaded "Shadow Ban". If banned Instagram hides your hashtags so you don't gain followers, but stealthily so you don't notice. With that in mind, Felix Sun used a recent mobile trick to make a mini Instagram program that lets you upload via Mac or PC for free.Recently Instagram allowed mobile uploads, using the browser on your phone you can upload to Instagram without having the app installed. Using this trick you can tell your desktop's browser to pretend it's a mobile device and upload away. But it's a bit of a clumsy trick that is more advanced. Felix's program is a mini version of chrome already set to mobile, just log in the first time and upload. A dialog box will pop up to add a file then the rest is like normal.Head over to windowed.io and check it out. Upload an easy way, or at least until they ban this as well. Our official and Instagram friendly uploader of choice is Later.com. You can check it out in Toby's video here and it lets you schedule posts.If you were wondering how to do it in a browser anyway:In Safari

• Enable the Develop Menu. Click Safari, Preferences, then Advanced. Check 'Show Develop menu in menu bar'.
• Now while on Instagram.com. Click the new Develop button in your menu, user agent, then iPad. You may have to refresh the page.

In Chrome

• You can install User-Agent Switcher, the new button in the top right when clicked lets you tell Instagram you are a mobile device. Just remember to turn it off when you leave Instagram.
• Without using an extension, press F12 for Developer Tools. Click the phone icon at the top left of the new panel or press Ctrl+Shift+M. The top left option to the left of dimensions lets you choose iPad, then reload the page.