31 Of The Coolest Photography Links Of The Week

Yet another great week has passed us by in the world of photography as we find Toad Hollow Photography searching all over the internet for links to tutorials, special features and great photography to share with everyone. This weeks list is composed of a very wide variety of topics and interest, with something here for enthusiasts of all types. We really hope you enjoy checking out this list as much as the Toad did himself in bringing it to you.

TUTORIALS

Give Your Photographs a Cine Look With the Dutch Angle – this is a very interesting article, posted right here on Light Stalking, that talks about the concept of using a Dutch Angle in your photography compositions. A great sample shot is included in this article, along with the details on how to apply it yourself.

Shoot Beautiful Hand-Held Portraits at Home with This Simple Window Light Setup – the ages old adage that you don’t need a boatload of expensive gear to capture stunning shots pops to life in this terrific tutorial. In just under 5 minutes this video feature takes you through setting up a room in your house and then using natural light from the window to illuminate your subject and get amazing shots.

Learn to light portraits by photographing vegetables – learning how to properly manage light when shooting portraits is a skill that requires practice over time. This video shows us how you can use your favorite pepper or tomato as a subject, giving you the practice and tools you need to take this to your portraiture practice. The other benefit, of course, is that your average pepper tends to stand quite still for an extended period of time; perfect for photography!

An Intro to Panning Your Camera for a Blurry Feeling of Speed – panning while photographing a moving subject can create powerful and dynamic looking images, and there is quite the technique behind doing this well. This article talks about some of the fundamentals to this concept, and includes a great set of awesome shots to illustrate.

How to make yourself invisible in light painting photos – light painting is a wonderful form of photographic expression as it creates mystical settings for people and other subjects that transcend normal imagery. This brief video tutorial shows you how best to do this while keeping yourself out of the frame for maximum impact.

Three Helpful Techniques for Better Black and White Conversions – processing images as a black-and-white is full of options for us photographers, and there are as many opinions out there as to which way is best. This video is just over 18 minutes in length and covers several powerful methods of doing this with be the best results.

5 interior photography tips learned from watching the pros – for those who shoot interiors, either professionally or just for your own personal enjoyment, check out this great list of 5 tips and tricks that will help you step up your photographs. These are simple yet useful tips that are sure to be of help to anyone working in this genre.

SPECIAL FEATURES

66 Striking Images Of Black And White Mountains That Will Astound You – Images of black and white mountains are arguably in photography's DNA. Ever since the masterful photographs of Ansel Adams, photographers have flocked to emulate his dramatic black and white photographs of mountains. Take a look at these for inspiration.

Serena Williams at the US Open: A Photographer's Favorite Shots – this is a great collection of shots captured over a 20 year period that focus on tennis great Serena Williams. This set includes some of Al Bello’s favorite shots he has taken over the years and serves as a great timeline of the progression of her storied career.

Amazing Photos from the Inside of a Cello – I can’t even begin to imagine how someone would conceive of and execute a photography project like this, but here we have it. These shots are all taken inside the body of old instruments, taking advantage of light effects and the textures and shapes created by seeing inside something you wouldn’t ordinarily get to see.

Stunning Travel Landscape Photography by Andreas Sofus Christensen – check out this amazing collection of shots from the portfolio of Andreas Sofus Christensen. Each shot can easily stand on its own merits, but when viewed as an entire set they come together in a cohesive exhibit.

Amazing Timelapse Captures Crazy Lightning Storm Near Tokyo – timelapse presentations can be a very powerful way of compressing time, and they can create amazing videos that reveal certain aspects of nature in a way you wouldn’t otherwise see them. This mesmerizing video is just over 30 seconds long and features a 30 minute window of time where a very dramatic lightning storm was raging near the city of Tokyo.

GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY

Alone on the Li river – this region of China is well-known for being home to Cormorant fisherman who have been handed down their skills from the generations that preceded them. The setting makes for incredible photographs, as we see here in this shot from Daniel Metz that is full of rich artistic tension found in the incredible landscapes and the lonely fisherman floating on the still waters of the river.

Royalty Cinema, England – years of neglect are impossible to ignore in old buildings that sit long unused, as we see here in these shots taken inside a grand cinema that was designed and built in the early 1900’s and today stands empty as a reminder of a bygone era. Incredible architectural flourishes are accented here by various art-deco touches as voices of ages past reach across the membrane of time to touch us today.

Winter Magic – grab your parkas and your winter boots before clicking on this link that takes into the depth of winter in what looks to me to be Iceland. This shot from Daniel Fleischhacker showcases the beauty of the frozen landscape as a dramatic waterfall pours into the valley below, captured using a long exposure to bring out all the magic of this amazing location.

Male Northern Cardinal – Ron Niebrugge captures a perfect shot of this amazingly colored bird as it sits perched surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers. The extremely shallow depth-of-focus Ron used to take this shot does a perfect job of totally isolating the beautiful bird from it’s backdrop, making it pop right out of our screens dramatically.

Cecil Brewer Staircase – a wonderful helical staircase creates natural leading lines and geometry that takes the viewer right through the frame upwards to the roof of this building in London. Herbert A. Franke’s shot features incredible details in the architectural styling of the staircase, adding to the strong vanishing point found as you look towards the heavens themselves.

Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building – architectural photography enthusiasts will appreciate the stark lines and details in this post from Mark Summerfield. This grand building reveals a flat-sided facade that reveals the true drama of this design.

Tower of Light – I love lighthouse photographs for the romance that the buildings can create in seaside settings, as we see here in this great shot from Alexander Riek. This shot features a very dramatic lighthouse found on the shores of Brittany, France, captured with a long exposure to turn the roiling waters into a silky surface.

A Rare December Day – Laurie MacBride captures an iconic shot of west coast living in the middle of winter as blue skies and waters intercept each other as snow-capped mountain peaks in the distance stand dramatically tall and proud. A ferry boat glides across the channel in the distance, creating a sense of scale and context for the immense size of the scene captured in this frame.

Antelope glow – the Antelope canyons in the United States are a favorite for photographers worldwide to visit, and in this stunning image from Serge Ramelli we can see a great example of why. This shot takes advantage of the abstract lines and shadows the natural rock formations create as light streams in from above through an opening.

Uttakleiv aural 4 – green lights dance across the night sky in this amazing aurora borealis image from Juan Pablo de Miguel. Natural rock formations embedded in the shores of the foreground of this composition mimic the lines created by the northern lights, finishing off this picture perfectly.

Boone Hall – Michael Criswell composes a great frame by using a row of trees planted in the mid 1700’s as a leading line, creating a naturally formed pattern that reveals the true majesty of this location in South Carolina. It’s amazing to see when you consider these trees are somewhat uniform in shape and appearance, given they were planted some 250 years previous.

Bavarian Alps – Kilian Schönberger delivers a striking monochromatic landscape shot with this image that reveals a dramatic mountain range with snow-capped peaks in the distance. The lands at the foot of the mountains are draped in a veil of fog, adding to the wonderful drama of the scene as a whole.

Point Cabrillo Light – Mendocino, California – lighthouses make terrific photography subjects as they are often old and architected with tons of character. Len Saltiel shares a great shot of a lighthouse on the west coast of the United States that is a great example of this.

Butterfly – the pure and delicate nature of a perched butterfly finds lovely harmony with the color palette captured and expressed in this great image from Mevludin Sejmenovic. Pastels in the body of the butterfly pop out against a peach colored backdrop creating a stunning example of nature themed photography.

Those gorgeous Italian sunsets – Jim Nix delivers a stunning sunset shot, captured on the coast of Italy at just the right time. This shot features beautiful colors in the sky as the sun sets for the day, and terrific outlines of mountains and cliffs on the coast that lead out to the distance.

Advancing Dawn – the Milky Way comes to life on our screens with this great starry night shot from Christopher Wray captured in Colorado at night. Some of the very mysteries of our universe can be clearly seen in this incredible photograph that is a great example of this type of imagery.

St Peter's basilica – Manjik photography creates and shared a stunning image taken inside this world famous cathedral, capturing and exposing the awesome architectural features found here. A vertical format is used to finish this shot captured from a low perspective, bringing all the inherent drama of the facility to life.