Photo Of The Week, Community Discussions And Tips, AND WOMBATS!

December is here! And we are sure you'll be taking a lot of amazing photographs around the holidays.

We want to give a special welcome to our newest 100 members, we are sure you'll have a great time in our beloved forums, please introduce yourselves here! Last week we had a packed weekend photography challenge with a lot of participation – thank you so much, everyone, for posting your fantastic images – I encourage you to check them out.

So let's get into what you definitely shouldn't be missing on Light Stalking

Photo Of The Week – December 3, 2018

Photo by Beth

This week our Guest Judge was Robert Apple and here is what Robert had to say:

In my endeavour as the guest judge for this week's POTW photo, there was one photo that jumped out and shook me for the week, and that was Beth's, AKA @loki, Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse.

The leading lines to the subject are everywhere, from the walkway to the horizon, to the clouds with a bright line coming down from the corner on the left to a dark line coming from the right.

Red in a photo is always a draw to the eye, and the roof doesn't disappoint, and it contrasts well with the white of the walls.

The reflective surfaces of the water, walkway, and roof all convey the wetness of the scene and are captured perfectly, and the backdrop of the ominous stormy sky has just the right tone and depth to set the mood, without commanding your attention away from the subject.

The symmetry of the scene is pleasing to the eye as well, and it works perfectly for the centred crop, as well as the perspective looking down the walkway.

The added bonus of the general spooky mood of this scene is its tie to the area where this photo was taken, Roanoke is considered one of the most Haunted areas in the United States- with ties to the vicious Pirate Blackbeard , and the 115 English men, women, and children who settled the coast in 1587, only to vanish without a trace in what became known as the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

Great job Beth, and thanks for posting this wonderful Photo.

And a very big thanks to Robert for being our guest judge this week – and thank you for choosing such a wonderful photograph.

What Are Our Members Up To?

This challenge was actually a busy one, here are some great shots from the participants at the 410th-weekend photography challenge, Busy!

Here's what Federico had to say about these “Busy” shots

Photo by Bobbie

Black and white is a very useful resource when it comes to busy streets. Too many colors colliding together usually result in complex images. This is a fantastic image, thanks for posting Bonnie

Photo by Kent DuFault

The great thing about this image is the isolation Kent managed to achieve of the girl surrounded by all the bustling people on the pier.

Photo by Bruce Gordon

Protests are always a great place to find busy scenes, the trick is to manage to fix in details in order to isolate something meaningful from all the elements. Bruce was able to achieve this here using the single sign to add focus and emphasis to the image

Photo by Click

The composition on this photograph is sublime, all the umbrellas are somehow matching with each other, and they create a beautifully blurred background for the two main subjects placed perfectly on the inferior left third of the frame. Just an amazing capture – thanks so much for sharing it with us Click

Photo by Tersha

This is not the regular photograph of birds flying in the sky, it really has a beautiful quality, almost illustrative or design oriented.

We'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

If you want to be a better photographer, you need to practice and practice, there are no shortcuts.

However, there is something that could give you a little extra push in the act of learning the beautiful craft of photography…and that is critique.

Giving and receiving well-intended critique is one of the most powerful acts anyone can do in the world of photography, so we invite you to participate in a place we call the Shark Tank and don't worry, don't let the name scare you, it is a friendly place.

Please feel free to give your opinion on any (or all) of the photos enlisted above. They all have great potential, and some of them are already extremely well executed in terms of composition and exposure.

Also if you have a photo that is making you proud right now, please share it with us at the Tank.

What You May Have Missed From The Community

Iffat Khan has a very good question, and we hope that we can see more of her images in the following days. She wants to know about which is the best place to upload/showcase/save photographs these days, please, if you have any good recommendation, share it with us here!

As we said before, December is here, and that means Christmas for many people all over the globe. Beth is making Christmas cards, check some of them here! They combine a smart use of clean backgrounds and lovely miniatures placed in a very pleasant composition thanks to the old and classic rule of thirds.

Robert Apple shared with us a short story about a kid that won an international photography award last week, check it out here. He also shared something really strange, a screaming demon he says, but who knows… We aren't still sure what is this thing that he shared with us, but it is very fun to guess.

Kent shared with us a post with a very seductive title, “Breaking the Rules Gets Noticed”, how could that pass unnoticed? It is about the work of a photographer named Bill Hickey, and oh boy, you need to check out his work.

Chris has a very solid point about solitude in big cosmopolitan cities. Here he shares some words and a photograph that illustrates the act of being lonely in a very smart way.

Let's help Bruce, he has some intriguing questions about Lightroom CC, especially about printed outputs.

Last but not least, Capture One 12 is out.

Please join our friendly photography community if you haven't done already, and if you are a member, please check out the latest Weekend Photography Challenge, Lights.