This is a case of photographer photographs photographer, the following photographs were taken by photographer Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon, Arizona and the descriptions are his own.

The identity of the photographer IN the photos is unknown.

I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock IN the Grand Canyon.

The canyon’s depth is 900 meters here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe.

Watching this guy in his thong sandals, with a camera and a tripod, I asked myself 3 questions:

1. How did he climb that rock?
2. Why not take that sunset picture on that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?
3. How will he get back?

This is the point of no return.

After the sun set behind the canyon’s horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available) and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes.

At that point he had the full attention of the crowd.

After that, he jumped on his thong sandals. The canyon’s depth is 900 meters here.

Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep, and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.

We’ve come to the end of this little story. Look carefully at the photographer.

He has a camera, a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand.

Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem.

He lands low on his flip flops, both his right hand and right foot slip away…
At that moment I take this shot.

He pushes his body against the rock.

He waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs and walks away.

This folks, is TRUE dedication, or just plain insanity..

*P.S. This is actually staged, you too can do it if you dare*

Shutter Asia (SA) was set-up in March 2007 by a group of like-minded friends who were interested in photography and travel, the idea was for the site to become a friendly community for photography enthusiasts and travelers around Asia and other areas, for asking questions, sharing photographs & techniques, discussing travel and locations and learning in a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.

It officially launched a little while ago, so do join up and contribute.

http://www.shutterasia.com

There is a lot of information on the Internet regarding photography and especially equipment and technical terms (Aperture, Shutter, White Balance etc) but it can be very daunting for a new user or even confusing for an intermediate user. We wanted to get away from the bad attitudes, gear talk, cliques and flaming of other sites and communities and create a relaxed, but knowledgeable user base that will eventually fill our forum wonderful information and images.

We also have a Flickr group you can join here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/shutterasia/

And an active Shoutbox for real-time chat:

http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/shoutbox.php (Members only)

If you have any feedback, let us know. Do introduce yourself and start posting pictures!

Feel free to invite your friends, colleagues, relatives and anyone else who might be interested.

Cheers!

I have to say I’ve been waiting for this since I joined Flickr about 2 years ago, I always missed the sub-set or grouping feature my old Coppermine gallery used to have.

Flickr only had one level of sets, so you couldn’t group them which led to a very messy layout. Pbase, Smugmug and all the others already had this…so thankfully, Flickr has listened to it’s members and launched what they called “Collections”.

Today we launched what’s probably the most requested feature over the last few years: a way to categorize and organize your photo sets! In the past this feature has been referred to as “sets of sets” or “subsets”. After today, we’ll know it as “collections”.

What are collections, you ask? A collection is a container into which you can place either sets or other collections, allowing you to create a hierarchy as deep as 5 collections. You can place as many of your sets into a collection as you like, and a set can be in as many different collections as you like.

Even more of a reason to use Flickr now, I’m loving it!

Source: Flickr Blog

Submit a favorite photo of your own on any topic of your choosing for possible publication in an upcoming issue of National Geographic. Selections will appear in both the print and online magazines.

Before you begin the submission process, please make sure your photograph meets the following requirements:

* JPG or JPEG file format (ex. YourImage.jpg or YourImage.jpeg)
* At least 1,600 pixels wide (if a horizontal image) or 1,600 pixels tall (if a vertical image)
* Total file size must be under 2 megabytes (MB) (2048 kilobytes [KB])

Entering is easy! The rules for entry can be found here.

National Geographic invites interested parties to submit a digital photograph for possible publication in National Geographic magazine and on ngm.com. To submit a photograph on a topic of your choosing for possible publication in an upcoming issue of National Geographic, click Submit Your Photo and follow the step-by-step directions on that page. We will accept submissions beginning on the 15th of every month. No more than 5,000 submissions will be accepted per submission period. Limit one photograph submission per person. One or two images will be published in the print magazine and an additional three images will be chosen for publication online. You must be 18 years of age or older to submit a photograph.

You can submit your photography to Natgeo here:

Your Shot Entry Submission

FAQ is here.

The photographic set FS-122 is designed for amateurs and professionals to take close-up pictures of distant subjects on a colour or black-and-white film: animals, birds and plants in natural environment, sports actions, architectural shots.

It’s pretty cool eh, sniper fitting for your camera!

The photographic set FS-122 comprises Zenit-122S SLR camera with TAIR-3S telephoto lens, MC Helios-44M-6 interchangeable lens and accessories.

More info here:

Zenit PhotoSniper