See What The Community Has Been Up To This Week

Another week has passed and more than 300 new members joined our photo community!

I'm a photography enthusiast myself and this made me really proud. We've been working hard to deliver high-quality content in a digestible way and our active community is the tangible proof that we are doing great.

In this post, we covered the highlights from the last week – from the most popular photos in our weekend challenge on abstract photography to the best images posted in the Shark Tank forum.

I have also noticed that images posted in our forums have become better in terms of composition and narrative structure.

Photo Of The Week – January 28, 2019

Photo by Bruce Gordon

This week our Guest Judge was Beth a.k.a. @loki

Here is what Beth said about this image:

“I've chosen one of Bruce Gordon's photos from his series Sunset Tonight! as this week's Photo of the Week. Bruce did a great job capturing the red light rimming the rocks while maintaining the shadow details in what must have been constantly changing light conditions.

There are several compositional elements in the second photo in Bruce's series that led me to pick that photo over the other two. There is a nice S curve in the foreground that adds compositional interest without being overly distracting. And I really like how the diagonal cloud seems to point down to the lit edges of rock on the right. Both of these compositional elements keep the viewer's eye moving from left to right through Bruce's image without taking away from the subject, the beautiful light on red rock.

Well done Bruce and congrats on winning the Photo of the Week!

The runner-ups were the second image in Bruce Gordon's series Sunrise This Morning, and John Thompson's Windmill with Millers House.”

Photography Challenges

These were our favorite shots from the 418th photo challenge on abstract photography:

Photo by Click

Here we have an interesting aerial shot retrieved from Google Maps. This may look like cheating, but it's definitely not – we live in a digital era and this kind of imagery has already become our second nature. This is a visually pleasant shot taken by Google's powerful gear, but Click definitely had fun while browsing the globe in order to find something abstract that feels unusual.

Photo by LeanneC

This is a really powerful and bold abstract image of a tulip. The real deal about abstraction is the ability to make reductions that are still able to represent the whole. This is almost the opposite of the Gestalt principles.

Photo by Bobbie

I still can't decode what is going on in this shot, but it is definitely an alluring abstract photograph.

Photo by Preston

You can literally feel the passage of time while looking at rough textures and interesting patterns in the bark of this tree.

Discussions You Shouldn't Have Missed

Beth was having fun with her new toy, the GFX-50R, and she shared an image of this amazing camera in her post – it looks truly magnificent! Beth has also asked if anyone uses breakthrough filters because she needs help to figure them out.

Bruce was having some issues with his photos. When he printed one of them directly from Lightroom CC (without any edits) it all went well, but when he adjusted the image in CC or in Photoshop, the image appeared muted (like a regular RAW file). Please take a look at his question and help him out if you can. Also, he shared a breathtaking shot from the eclipse we had last week.

Graham made a good point in his thread – if you still don't believe global warming is real, you should see this or even better move to Adelaide!

Besides images of flowers, Chris shared a great video reel in this post. Canon 5D is a powerful piece of gear for sure!

And last but not least, Happy Australia Day! Thanks, David.

We'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

One of the hardest things in photography is the very act of learning, especially after many years have passed by. We've realized that constructive criticism (after practising!) is the best way to become a better photographer. By giving criticism we can build a more informed attitude (which then translates to the shots we take), and by receiving criticism we can spot the flaws we weren't able to notice by ourselves.

We have a separate forum dedicated exclusively to constructive criticism and it's called the Shark Tank. Don't worry about the name – it's not a deadly place! Here you can share your images and your opinions as long as they aren't related to gear.

Here are some of the most interesting shots shared in the Tank last week: