As 2011 comes to an end, here’s a look back at 10 of our most popular articles from the past year:

1. Portraits of Dogs as They Shake Off Water
2. Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin-Up Poses
3. How to Transfer a Photograph Onto a Block of Wood
4. Large Objects Shot as Miniatures Using a Giant Coin and Tilt-Shift Effects
5. Eagle Owl Attacking Camera at 1000fps
6. First Ever Photograph of a Human Being
7. Flamethrower Versus Fire Extinguisher at 1000 Frames per Second
8. Monkey Hijacks Photographer’s Camera and Shoots Self-Portraits
9. Stop-Motion Music Video Shot Over Two Years with 288,000 Jelly Beans
10. Trippy Multidirectional Face Illusions

Image credit: Fireworks by Verpletterend

Here’s something to add to your bucket list of things to photograph: daytime fireworks. Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang created the amazing display seen in the video above using timed detonations and clusters of smoke clouds. The demonstration was held at a museum in Qatar, but hopefully the concept will start spreading soon — maybe to a place near you!

(via Gizmodo)

Want to create a photography-related costume this halloween? Here are some fun costume ideas to give you some ideas. The above is a standard Canon point-and-shoot that has a tiny camera in the lens.

An old school Kodak Brownie:

Turn yourself into a Polaroid picture:

A realistic screen adds to the effect:

And last but not least, Tyler Card‘s fully functional Nikon DSLR that we featured earlier this week:

If you make a costume this Halloween that tops these, be sure to send us a picture of it!

Image credits: working camera costume. by mattlogelin, 2010.03.12 I’m a camera by Wendy Rueter, Polaroid Costume by krizsa, digital camera costume by ap., and Fully Functional Nikon DSLR by Tyler Card

Kodak’s website has a “Create” section stocked with all kinds of different photo projects for various purposes and occasions, from things for the home to gifts for the holidays.

Create [Kodak]

Artist Jonathan Keller Keller first started taking a self-portrait of himself every day starting in 2000, and later created a time-lapse video showing eight years of his life passing in less than two minutes (similar to Noah Kalina’s famous everyday video). What’s neat is that Keller maintains a directory of other similar photo projects out there. All the projects either deal with the passage of time or the obsessive documentation of something.

Examples include the Golberg’s yearly family portrait project done since 1976, the Brown sisters photographed every year for 25 years, and Ellie Harrison’s documentation of everything she ate during an entire year.

Related Photo Projects [Jonathan Keller Keller]

tokyo camera style by John Sypal (see our interview with him) is a popular website documenting the analog camera culture in Tokyo, Japan by sharing photographs of cameras being used on the streets — it’s like The Sartorialist except for cameras instead of fashion. If you’re a fan of the site and love browsing photos of old school cameras people use, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a number of similar websites for other cities and places around the world.

Here’s a running list of places with similar sites inspired by tokyo camera style:

• Amsterdam
• Bangkok
• Bucharest
• Buenos Aires
• Hawaii
• Hong Kong
• Houston
• Indonesia
• Jakarta
• Kuala Lumpur
• London
• Los Angeles
• Manila
• Melbourne
• Mexico
• New York
• Newcastle
• Oslo
• Ottawa
• Paris
• Perth
• Portugal
• Sao Paulo
• Seoul
• Singapore
• Stockholm
• Taiwan
• Toronto [2]

If you know of any others, leave a comment and we’ll update the list! You can also easily start one for your city by starting a website (perhaps using tumblr) and then photographing cameras you see while walking the streets.

(via tokyo camera style)

Forbes released its list of 100 most reputable companies in the world earlier this month, and a number of camera makers made the cut. Sony placed 6th, Canon 8th, Panasonic 13th, Kodak 41st, Samsung 43rd, and Fujifilm 47th. The Reputation Institute conducted the study with 48,000 consumers:

Each company earned a “Global RepTrak Pulse” score of zero to 100, representing an average measure of people’s feelings for it. The scores were statistically derived from calculations of four emotional indicators: trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling.

The Institute also analyzed what it calls the seven dimensions of corporate reputation. It found that perceptions of the enterprise (workplace, governance and citizenship) trumped product perceptions (products and services plus innovation) and performance (financial performance and leadership) in driving reputation. [#]

What we found strange is that Kodak — a company struggling to find its place in the photo industry — placed relatively high on the list (41st), while Nikon — a dominant player — failed to even make the cut. What’s with that?

The World’s Most Reputable Companies (via PhotoWeeklyOnline)

Image credit: brand loyalist – moi? by only alice

Have you been running low on creative juices lately? Fill up again with these 29 simple ways to stay creative.

You can also check out the list of 13 tips for staying motivated in photography we shared a while back.

(via Laughing Squid)

CNBC just their list of America’s 10 most stressful jobs for 2011, and “photojournalist” comes in at #4.

Much like newscasters, photojournalists are expected to be on the front lines, with a job description that requires them to enter some of the most dangerous, remote or volatile places on earth. Many are on call 24 hours a day. And when news breaks, the photojournalists may have to mobilize with extremely short notice and stay on assignment for extended periods of time.

They also report that the average salary of a photojournalist in the US is $43,270.

America’s Most Stressful Jobs 2011 (via Discarted)

Image credit: Kwon Chol by Jim O’Connell

As 2010 comes to an end, here’s a look back at 10 of our most popular articles from the past year:

1. Scientific Curiosity Captured in Photos
2. Apollo 11 Launch at 500 Frames per Second
3. Flamethrower Versus Fire Extinguisher at 1000 Frames per Second
4. House Season Finale Filmed Entirely with Canon 5D Mark II
5. 7 Steps to Taking Clone Photographs
6. First Ever Photograph of a Human Being
7. Dogs Filmed at 1000 Frames Per Second
8. People Magazine Uses Photo without Permission, Receives Cake Invoice
9. 4 Creative Projects that Bend the Reality of Street Scenes
10. Ansel Adams Garage Sale Mystery Apparently Solved

Image credit: Happy New Year !!! by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton