Cute Bird Photo and Other Things You May Have Missed on Light Stalking This Week

The ever increasing activity in our blossoming photography community, coupled with the frequent publishing of articles, makes it easy to miss important updates on Light Stalking.  Since the number of people visiting Light Stalking is now approaching a whopping million per month, we figured it would be a good idea to sum it all up for you each week.  Here are the best articles, weekly contests and photographs uploaded to Light Stalking for the past 7 days.

Photo of the Week

Congratulations to Mikell Herrick for this rather cute photo of the week!  Mikell can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.  You can comment on this photo here.

The Most Popular Stories from the Last 7 Days

•6 Photography Rules You Shouldn't Feel Guilty About Breaking – With most activities, for example driving, we are pretty much forced to learn and use the rules before we are given free reign to do it.  Those of us who have been practicing photography for some time likely learned the rules of photography in the beginning as well.  Yes, these rules are good to know and can help us take better photos.  However, they can also stifle creativity and take the art out of photography at times.  Sometimes sheer emotional impact is going to be the goal, and the so-called rules won't always apply.  Sometimes, knowing a rule and then intentionally doing the exact opposite will have the most impact.  In the old days of film photography, experimentation was a lot more expensive.  Now, we are only limited by how much space we have on our memory cards.  Perhaps deliberately breaking the rules will fire up your passion and creativity.

•Amazing Photography Links to Read With a Coffee (Or Three) – It's been yet another busy week in the world of online photography.  Toad Hollow Photography has been busy culling the internet for the best photography links, blogs, tutorials, great images, reviews and more!  This week's tutorials include rules for perfect lighting, how to photograph lightning, how camera angle effects body shape and top 10 digital photography tips.  Special features this week feature a collection of photos of a baby bison , a truly amazing 360 ° panorama of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the 45 most powerful photos of 2012.  Also, view some great photo blogs, a handful of image collections and photos which were hand-collected by Toad Hollow Photography for your viewing pleasure.

•9 Simple Steps to Make a Double Exposure Photograph in Photoshop – Double exposure photography has been around for as long as cameras have existed.  However, with the rise of digital photography double exposure photography fell to obscurity.  These days, due to the rise in popularity of “toy cameras”, double exposure photography is enjoying a level of resurgence.  If you don't have a film camera to make real double exposure photos, you can make them in Photoshop.  This easy tutorial will get you started.

•How to Use Content Aware Fill in Photoshop –Getting it right in-camera is nearly always the goal, but there are going to be times when this just isn't possible.  Sometimes there is an unwanted object in the photo that just couldn't be helped.  Other times, you might have a photo manipulation idea in mind and want to replace one element in an image for another.  The content aware fill tool, which first appeared in Photoshop CS5, is a wonderful way to remove unwanted elements from a photo and/or fill in missing parts of a photo after straightening a crooked horizon.  This quick guide will walk you step-by-step through a few scenarios in which the content aware tool might come in handy.

What You Missed in the Light Stalking Community

Submit your photo to this week’s photography challenge – Indoors! Rain or shine (depending on your geographic location), we all spend at least some time indoors.  Show us what you have that was taken indoors!

We have had some great responses to our last few photography challenges on the forum.  Last week’s photography challenge was Who Knew? – Do you have any photos to share with us that taught you something new?  It doesn't matter if it taught you how to use your tripod, long exposure night photography or something more complicated like studio lighting.  We are all at different levels in our photography and have different interests so please don't be shy about sharing with us.

Also, check out the Architecture! challenge from the week before.  Small interesting details or structures as a whole, show us your architecture shots.

We’d love to chat with you! Add your opinions here:

•Macro Photos

•What’s Your “Irrational” Dislike in the Photography Lexicon?

•THROWDOWN: Webs

•What Do You Do When You Cannot Sleep?

•A Cup of Toads

What Are Our Members Up To?

We have some amazing members here at Light Stalking that run the gamut from career professional photographers through to beginner enthusiast. Here’s what a few of them are up to in photography.

Great Shots Uploaded to the Light Stalking Community

Photo by lgal.  lgal can also be found on Flickr.

Photo by Ed Aldridge.  Ed can also be found on his website, blog and Flickr.

Photo by David Chesterfield.  David can also be found on his website and Flickr.

Photo by Don Sack.  Don can also be found on his website, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

If you’re not already part of the Light Stalking community then come and join the fun. We promise not to bite!