The Canon EOS 5D Mark III took the top honor in Popular Photography's "Camera of the Year" contest. The publication says it is the best low light DSLR it has ever tested and has stunning video capability that eclipses technology from even just a year ago. The 22.3MP camera can capture 6 frames per second and has dual card slots. One strike called against it was the lack of a pop-up flash on the $3,500 EOS.

Snapseed has long been a favorite image editing app among photo enthusiasts for the iPhone. It might have been the best $4.99 I've spent at the App store. Now the app is free, even better,  and available for both Android & iOS.

Instagram is easy, but often I find the results disappointing. Nearly every image I share via Instagram or otherwise goes through Snapseed for tweaking - be it major or minor.

There a several enhancements in the scrolling tool bar including a crop tool, color adjustments, focus effects, and much more.  Once you select a tool, menus are accessed by swiping up and down over the image. Adjustments are made by swiping left and right.

Photos can be saved to your image library or shared via email, Facebook, twitter and Google+.

Chris Morgan would have been right at home at the very first N.C. State Fair in 1853.

Morgan practices wet plate collodion photography, a photographic process introduced in the early 1850s and made famous from the 1860s work of Civil War photographers like Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner. The process requires a tintype or glass to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed before the plate dries -- in about ten minutes. Then washed, fixed, dried and varnished.

Each image produced is a unique work of art.

Morgan, who lives in Pine Level and works in the Exceptional Children Program in Johnston County Schools, has been doing wet plate photography for about 11 years.

"I tried to recreate the look from old tintype photography with film and digital," he said. "But I couldn't get that original look and feel I wanted."

Popular Photography recently compiled its list of the 25 best places in the world to photograph. They've put a slight spin on the list. Rather than a roundup of the usual suspects, the list names destinations that may be lesser-known, but are just as breathtaking.

This could be the coolest video you'll see today. This stop motion video was created from paring down 25,000 images to 4,500 images captured over 5 days and 2 nights. The team used tilt-shift photography on a Cannon 55OD to get the miniaturized perspective.

MiniLook Kiev from threeshot on Vimeo.

Despite the flowers and tasty gelatin, hospitals don't generally top of the list of favorite destinations. But hospitals are using virtual tour technology to reach out to patients and diffuse the unease for when the time for a visit comes.

Rex hopes to prove that hospitals don't have to be a drag with …well… a click and drag experience.

If you want to see what a smartphone camera can do check out photojournalist Travis Long's gallery  of iPhone 4 images the State Fair. He used Hipstamatic for iPhone, an application that simulates the look of vintage and exotic films.

I should have done this earlier in the year, but I put together a gallery of lightning images for you shutterbugs. Keep an eye on the weather and have have a tripod handy. Clouds and landmarks can add dramatic interest, but being in the right place at the right time is important. Getting too close to lightning is not only dangerous, but often does not help the photo. Use common sense.

Imagine taking a photograph with no vision, capturing an image you'll never see.

While the Mexico City-based Ojos Que Sienten, or Eyes That Feel, says its main goal is to help teach the blind they can achieve things considered impossible, the results show that creative vision does not require sight.

You can read more here on how they learn to use their other senses in their creative pursuit. and check out the gallery.

It took over 350,000 Post-its and the creative labor of 25 animators to make this stop motion video on the facade of the Galeria Melissa, in São Paulo, Brazil. Visitors left more than 30,000 messages on the notes.

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