Photo Of The Week, Forum Discussions And Hugo - Here's Your Light Stalking Community Update

We want to thank all those wonderful photography lovers that have been sending us messages about how much they appreciate the community and articles! We know you all have busy lives and it can be hard for you to keep it up with our forum; but don't worry, we got you covered.

This week you'll find here a selection of photos that grabbed our attention the most from Tersha's challenge on Yellow and Blue. This was a great challenge as these two colors are a natural contrast, creating impressive composition, so you can expect some striking photos here.

We also bring you some highlights from the forum and some photos that deserve your attention and feedback from our one and only, The Shark Tank!

We love sharing every single bit of photography knowledge we have with you folks, so thank you again for your kind words and support, we really appreciate it.

Photo Of The Week – April 29, 2019

Bubble – Photo by David Chesterfield

This week's Photo of the Week is a doozy. Kent chose this wonderful image from David Chesterfield. Frankly, David is a light specialist. His amazing light orbs, steel wool photography, light painting, astrophotography, and water drop photography is all out of this world.

In fact, David wrote a wonderful article here on Light Stalking showing you how to take images of soap bubbles just like this yourself. It is worthwhile following David on Instagram to see his visually stunning images.

Here is what Kent had to say about David's brilliant, other-worldly, photo of the week:

My POTW selection narrowed down to three shots. Each one had some significant merit. In the end, I chose “Bubble” by David Chesterfield.

This photograph is exquisitely produced from a technical standard. However, what makes it special in my mind is how David chose to present it. His unusual crop creates a visual conundrum. The soap bubble looks like a planet!

I know it's a soap bubble. But, I can't get past the thought that it is also a planet. I expect to see the Star Trek ship “Enterprise” cruise around the horizon. (Gene Roddenberry would have been very happy with this.)

Showing a common subject in an uncommon manner is always POTW material in my book.

As per usual, and because the field of photographs is so strong, Kent chose a couple of runners up:

First Spring Landscape – Photo by ElinL

“First spring landscape” by Elinl is a stunning visual of a place most of us can only dream of. It's a beautiful landscape photograph that deserves to be seen.

(John) Adams' Apple – Photo by Click

“(John) Adams' Apple” is a clever play on words, an unusual camera perspective, and a dramatic color combination. It's also worthy of your time.

As always, thank you so much to the exceptional Kent DuFault for choosing our Photo of The Week and congratulations to David, Elin and Click for their wonderful photos.

Challenge #431 – Yellow And Blue

Once again the very creative and talented Tersha set us a brilliant challenge. Here are just a few of our favorite shots from the 431st Weekend Photography Challenge!!!

Photo by Click

This isn't the first time I've seen this image by our prolific member Click, nevertheless, it still manages to amuse me. The evident contrast between the two colors selected by Tersha here is increased by the fact that this is a natural find.

Photo by Dave Watkins

Photography is really handy for these sort of finds, quite hilarious indeed, and fits in the challenge.

Photo by Graham Hart

“The Crabbers” is a wonderful photograph thanks to the way the sky is gradually being desaturated and the scattered clouds above give it a rich texture. I really like the yellow tone on the sand, it makes a perfect combination and contrast.

A Few Discussions You May Have Missed On The Forum

Leanne shared with us some photos of past Easters and (until her kids find out about the tricksters behind this game) she'll have to keep mixing things up. Thanks for sharing these moments of yours with us!

Jim posted a fair question about online storage for his photos. As photographers living in the digital age, I think this is a question that we all have to ask ourselves, and it also has to be part of our workflow. It is just insane to have photos without backups these days. David Chesterfield made a great contribution to this post, and the information is priceless.

And speaking of David, he also shared something very interesting (and very informative too) on Low Level Landscape Lighting, huh? Read it, you'll be very impressed with this technique. David is the master of light painting indeed.

Chris Pook always makes very powerful contributions – this week he shared a really interesting video, and a couple of frankly stunning portraits as well.

Knowing how to expose correctly has always been a huge concern for entry-level photographers. Here Dorothy shared her take on advice Rob gave us a few days ago. I agree with her, I do set my ISO first since it is the value that changes less in my photographs, then I select the aperture value in accordance with the amount of light I want to capture, and finally, the shutter speed is decided upon these two.

Erik Fransman lit things up with a post about Storytelling, and there is a lot of great stuff to find in this heated debate!

We'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

We know it is hard for you to believe something like this, but it is actually true. We certainly can help you become a better photographer in a reasonable amount of time. We don't have a magical potion of course, but we do offer something that helps photographers, and it isn't a magical spell but a mindset that can be built with consistency, practice and especially good disposition. We believe in the power of critique and feedback, and we promote it via The Shark Tank. Don't worry about the name, it is a friendly place.

By working around this idea, people are able to nurture their own photographic knowledge when they give out elaborated critiques that go way beyond a simple emoji based reactions or “nice shot” comments. Not to mention the “what camera are you using?” ones. By receiving helpful critique we can find out flaws that weren't easy to spot for us before hearing an objective opinion upon our work.

Here are some of the most interesting shot shared during last week on the Tank:

The Shark Tank is a great place to learn and to discuss, so please read the instructions in order the get a better critique experience. Share your comments, opinions and doubts on any or all of the images above. We also will be delighted to see some of your own images. Don't be shy, critique is given to photographs and not photographers, so don't be afraid of sharing.

We and many other members will be more than pleased to help you out; after all, we all are in love with photography. Tilt yourselves and participate in the newest challenge published by Tersha on Perspective! Please remember to join our friendly photography community if you haven't done already!

This Week We Leave You With…HUGO!

Ok, so this week is turning into a bit of a David Chesterfield “love-fest”! David looks after our Mobile Monday Challenge. Here, week-in-week-out, people post great photos taken on their mobile phones. Here at Light Stalking, we are a little bit obsessed about cats and this week we just love David's photos of the simply gorgeous HUGO!