The folks at Toad Hollow Photography are back at it after a few weeks away with a fresh new list of tutorials, special features and great photography for everyone to enjoy. This weeks list is full of great pictures and articles from contemporary photographers and writers all over the world. We really hope you enjoy checking out this weeks list as much as the Toad did in bringing it to you.
TUTORIALS
How to Portray Motion in Your Photographs Using The Panning Technique – learning how to master panning with your camera is a very satisfying skill that can produce truly stunning shots that portray a strong sense of motion juxtaposed against a crisp and clear subject. This brief tutorial covers the key points that are required with this technique to really get the most out of your shots.
How to Control Your Portrait Backgrounds With a 70-200mm Telephoto Lens – often when it comes to shooting portraits most of us do not consider using a telephoto lens. This tutorial shows us just why this particular lens selection can make for powerful portraits. A great video feature is included in this tutorial to walk us through the concept.
10 Tips on How to Improve Your Photography Game in the Next Year – as the year draws to an end it is a perfect time to reflect on our experiences of the past year and look forward to continuing with our photography passion in the new year ahead. This article covers a set of tips that can help you achieve your goals next year and is accompanied by some stellar shots captured during this past year.
Tips from a Tokyo street photographer: an insider’s guide to people-watching, and where to eat and drink – street photography is a terrific genre of photography that poses challenges that are unique to this particular style, and having someone with great insight who shares tips and tricks can be very helpful for those looking to capture their own street scenes. This article covers this topic in good detail and includes a handful of amazing shots.
Frequency Separation to remove Chromatic Abberation and Color Fringes – this tutorial includes a video segment that is just over 6 minutes in length and shows us how to use frequency separation to fix chromatic aberrations and color fringes. The video walks us through the process in a timely manner with great insights on how to apply this technique.
Essential tips for winter landscape photography – this article covers a terrific set of tips and tricks for landscape photography during the winter months. Each of the points discussed includes a great sample shot to show us how the process can deliver stunning images.
5 Guides To Great Light For Your Photography – we often hear how light is the most important element to great photography. This short article includes a set of great shots that illustrate the topic covered here on lighting.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Coast Guard training in massive surf captured in stunning photos – check out this set of amazing shots that show a Coast Guard boat in training as it traverses incredible pounding surf. At times only the masts of the boat are visible through the roiling waters, leaving everyone to wonder who in their right mind would head into conditions like that on purpose.
Young & Wild: 16-Year-Old Wildlife Photographer on How to Capture Awesome Images of Animals – this article features an interview and series of shots from a budding wildlife photographer who has a distinct vision and set of skills that bring her subjects to life. It is truly wonderful to see young people like this with a strong passion to continue the work of greats who came before her.
These are the best bird photographs of 2018 – as promised this article shares an awesome set of photographs that feature various birds in their natural habitats. The photographs selected and posted here include tight portrait style shots as well as wider compositions that include some great context.
Steve McCurry's illustrious 40-year career, in pictures – Steve’s body of work is definitely one that I am endlessly fascinated by as his compositions bring to life far reaching places and people as seen by him over the course of an extensive and successful career. Many of the shots are quite candid, revealing images that are full of rich artistic tension that leaves the viewer yearning for more.
Photographer Audun Lie Dahl Captures Stunning Arctic Wildlife – as the far reaching northern parts of our world continue to go through drastic changes, collections of photographs like this serve as haunting reminders of what we could lose in the near future. This series is absolutely amazing, featuring native wildlife of the region in their natural habitat.
GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY
Singapore city-state – Manjik photography shares a wide panoramic format shot of a city skyline in Singapore during the blue hour, visually exploring all the rich inherent drama found in this contemporary view. The terrific details of the modern architecture blend with all the other key elements in this shot to deliver something truly unique.
St. Peter's Anglican Church . . . – Vancouver Island based photographer ƊƦคƓ๏ƝŦlץƊгєคɱʂ88 visits one of our favorite local spots in the Cowichan Valley, St. Peter’s Anglican Church. This composition features a wonderful bench in the foreground as the beautiful church sits in the background. Our gallery at Toad Hollow featuring this heritage church can be found here at “The Anglican Parish of St. Peter, Quamichan”.
Mountain lake – this shot of a rugged landscape scene is dominated by blue tones, adding to the cinematic feel of the beautiful setting. Maxim K’s shot also features a small water pool in the foreground which creates muted reflections of the mountains in the backdrop for further interest.
The Church of The Baron, Romania – Obsidian Urbex Photography takes us on a haunting exploration of a long abandoned and desecrated church in Romania. Years of neglect and vandalism have taken their toll, and only a skeleton of the original building remains as an eerie link to the past and those who built this place.
Nordsternhaus / Hamburg – a beautiful winding staircase leads us upwards as repeating shapes and geometry play with our visual senses in this great architectural study of the abstract in this shot from Herbert A. Franke. Part way up we see a person looking back at the camera, adding a touch of context and scale to this great photograph.
Lines of Palouse – the Palouse region in the northwest area of the United States is a photographer’s dream. In this shot by Michael Criswell, the rolling hills create abstract lines and shapes that draw you into the frame looking for some of the great details that reveal themselves if you spend time looking.
Dawn on Matterhorn – incredibly jagged mountains jut out from the horizon in the distance in this wonderful shot from Daniel Metz. As the snow capped mountains sit in a pool of warm light in the backdrop, a small pond of water sits in the foreground creating a soft reflection of the setting that finishes off the scene just perfectly.
Dartford Library – built in the early 1900’s this red bricked single story library is a classic example of great architecture from the period. This post features a set of shots from this storied location as captured and shared here by Mark Summerfield.
Millennium – Brett Gasser uses a wide angle lens to capture this shot from under a concrete bridge, forming a perfect leading line across the river where the city comes out from under the horizon line. This shot is full of rich and crisp details, both in the bridge and in the buildings in the backdrop.
the emerging light of dawn – Frank King captures and early morning look of a pedestrian bridge as the colors of dawn cover the space in beautiful tones. The waters in the foreground of this shot benefit from the long exposure time as the colors and lights leave reflected streaks.
Sunset on the Ancient Deck – a highly stylized shot from ITG photography is presented here that accents a strong color palette that creates a certain feel in this shot that highlights a pier that leads out to the water. The people on the pier are all metered and processed to be silhouettes, adding a great touch of artistic tension to the picture.
By the Sea – Lisa Gordon shares a wonderful set of shots captured on the shores of the sea in 2018. This set covers a wide range of visual topics ranging from vignettes to wide shots that show the epic beauty of these water-side locations.
In the water – this shot uses reflections in the water as primary compositional elements by reflecting the outlines and details of trees that live in the water, isolating the trees from the surroundings to create something that elicits a strong feeling. Tiger Seo finds this scene draped in a thick fog which removes the backdrop beyond the trees, creating the overall ethereal feel of the frame as a whole.
Subway – Andy Hooker (LensScaper) captures a great black-and-white shot captured in the monochromatic subway station that is full of great leading lines and shapes. In this shot we find a solitary man walking away from the camera, creating a perfect mood for the overall scene.
Tigre De Sibérie – this beautiful portrait of a Siberian Tiger is framed very tightly, revealing the character and spirit of this gorgeous cat at is lounges about in the snow enjoying its habitat. Andre Villeneuve captures this creature at a moment of serenity, yet still we find that the frame reveals the underlying nature of the tiger as it ponders its next adventure.
Dawn At The End Of The Pier – Jason Row uses a drone to capture this shot of a seashore in England with an amusement park perched at the end of the pier as a large city emerges in the distance in a thick layer of fog. The terrific perspective afforded by getting the camera airborne adds so much context to the image, giving us all a sense of how truly big the overall setting is.
More aGlow – Tim Stanley visits a small local store that specializes in selling objects that utilize Honeycomb Calcite which went lit create great mood lighting reminiscent of candlelight. This quaint composition takes advantage of this great lighting, sharing a still life type shot full of peaceful and ethereal feelings.
Tulip Staircase – a white staircase that winds its way upwards leads our eye into the frame where blue wrought iron railings punctuate the clean scene with splashes of color. As our eyes follow David Abbs’ composition upwards we find a great vanishing point that is accented by a flourishing detail in the ceiling.
1 Comment
Thanks for featuring my photos from Church of the Baron 🙂