Here' What You Missed This Week From The Community

Composition is the soul of a photograph, and isolating a subject is the best way of simplifying things down in order to get effective and striking photographs.

Last week we had a pretty crowded challenge based around isolation. Check the collection of photographs uploaded by our members. And speaking of members, we got bigger this last week, we want to give a special shout-out to the newest 100 members that joined our family!

Feel free to roam everywhere in the main site and the forums and share both your questions and wisdom with us.

Photo Of The Week – November 19, 2018

Photo of the Week by Tom M

ixg a l sasomcu cjsvvaq kg t — Photo of the week by Tom M

A wonderful Autumn photo was this week's photo of the week. Here are Kent's thoughts on Tom's photograph

Although we had a Weekend Photography Challenge that brought in many wonderful images of autumn leaves, I felt that Tom M's shot of the barn really embodies the spirit of Fall. It looks like one of those scenes that could be from a classic painting. Tom captured it from a nice angle, with beautiful light, and a heartwarming array of warmish tones, which display just the right amount of color saturation without going overboard. There is a sense of mystery to it as well, which adds to the story.

Congratulations Tom on your POTW award.

Photography Challenges!

A very big thanks to Tersha, who once again challenged us with this great topic. This challenge was pretty packed, here are some great shots from the participants at the 408th-weekend photography challenge, Isolation! See below for Federico's thoughts

Photo by Dave W.

Flowers are always a great subject in photography. Here we have a very good example of how well isolation works when there is some generous bokeh involved.

Photo by Tersha

Tersha has used the rule of thirds and some neutral space to great effect – what a beautiful photograph to sit and ponder!

Photo by Graham Hart

This is one of the most interesting compositions we've ever seen in a challenge. It isn't quite perfect but it has the aesthetic quality that makes you contemplate it for a long time. Great photo from Graham

Photo by Karenhy

Another great example of how isolation gets achieved with some really nice and creamy bokeh.

Photo by Simon Parks

This is a really striking photograph. The composition is well thought out and the leading lines of the pier draw you through the photograph. Just stunning

Photo by Pamela Winter

This one is hard and we want to share Pamela's thoughts: “Nothing says “isolation” to me more than a single headstone marker in an overgrown field of wildflowers. Who was this person? There are no dates, no first name, no other familial designations – just a single headstone marker.”

Photo by Ann Wheatley

In this portrait of New Zealand's piwakawaka (fantail), Ann used shallow DOF to isolate the bird from the surrounding foliage, with the help of an 85 mm f2 Jupiter 9 lens (170 mm on the Olympus).

Photo by Andre P.

Chrisomela varians – again we see great use of a shallow depth of field. Color plays a great role in this composition as well – the yellows and bright greens from the grass contrast the blue/blacks in the beetle.

Photo by Dave W.

A wild turkey snacking on grass seeds in an overgrown pasture. What a great shot! I get the feeling that Dave must have known that the turkey would, at some point, stick its neck out!

Photo by Bruce Gordon

There are never enough photos of ducks! Nice capture from Bruce and from a composition perspective, using color is a great way to isolate your subject. Here Bruce has effectively used all the browns from the river to ensure the green and yellow of the duck comes to the fore.

Photo by Robert Apple

A really splendid action shot depicting a talented cowboy. I get the impression that living on and working the land can be isolating.

Phoo by ElinL

This is a very beautiful photograph of an autumn horse. The lighting here is stunning and the cold, dry field seems to isolate the horse even more

Photo by Laura Kneedler

We are glad Laura shared this image. There is an amazing sense of rhythm in this image and its colors are so bright that it can't be missed. Again composing with color is a great skill to master and Laura nailed it.

Photo by Tersha

This shot almost looks like an illustration or a painting. It has a beautiful atmosphere and a great composition value as well. It really sums up isolation, there is great story-telling in this image, as well as lovely light and composition. A brilliant capture all round.

Discussions you may have missed on the forum

Last week I raised a question about reliable photography sources that share knowledge and content beyond gear. It seems to me that this is a very hard thing to find these days because the responses were very little. Rob shared with us his source, Thomas Heaton, which focus on Landscape Photography.

We knew it, this was going to get filled with a lot of good stuff. Jim posted a very good question about how to obtain bigger size projections. A lot of answers were collected there and several pieces of valuable information as well. Check it out in order to find valuable insights. Apparently, one doesn't simply resize a photograph.

One of our latest participants, c r i s, uploaded a really beautiful photo seeking some insightful comments. If you are reading this c r i s, you have some skills, please feel free to share more of your images with us at the Shark Tank!

Thanks to Tobie I discovered the existence of the Diederik Cuckoo, a really great looking bird. He says in his post that this particular feathery fellow is shy and elusive, therefore it took some skills to get photographed. Please take a look at it, it is so beautiful!

ey ocl mywtoqjthxar m zqn c z — Diederik Cuckoo by Tobie

Graham got nostalgic and shared with us some really good looking vintage shots back from the 70's. He restored some old slides via software. Now he is uncertain about shooting more digital photos or restoring more old slides. I say a little of both.

We'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

We believe that photographers enhance their abilities whenever they get insightful and well-intended (yet solid) critique on their work. We keep a separate forum called the Shark Tank, where you can both give and receive critique. Here are some of the images posted this week, so feel free to comment on them in order to help all these great photographers become even better!