Here's Your Weekly Update On What's Happening In The Light Stalking Community

Here it is, your long-awaited weekly wrap up! Here we got your back in case you missed something relevant that happened this past week at our place. Before starting I want to give a special shout out to all the people that have been encouraging us to continue with this fantastic project.

Today we are bringing you a curated selection of photos that grabbed our attention the most from Tersha's challenge – Black! A very interesting challenge indeed, especially for someone with dark humor like me.

We also bring you highlights from the forum and photos that deserve your attention and feedback from our beloved Shark Tank. We are really into sharing every single bit of photography knowledge we have with all of you, so thank you again for your kind words and support, we really appreciate them.

Photo Of The Week – May 13, 2019

Photo by Tom M

OMG, what a wonderful photograph from Tom and a very deserving Photo of the Week. Words are failing me, it is visually so beautiful and the composition is on point. Here's what Kent DuFault had to say about this wonderful Photo of the Week:

BOY! It was a tough week at the old POTW judging table this week. Honestly! You Light Stalkers are putting up some amazing work. Our winning photograph was created by Tom M. This photograph is so visually beautiful that it is hard to pull your eyes away from it. I really hope Tom prints this and hangs it up, because it deserves to be seen.

I have two runner-ups this week. “Ladies Knot” by Falxy and “Foggy Morning…” by bucweeet (Paul).

Falxy's photograph appeals to me on so many levels. I love photographs such as this, that display human behavior in the most candid moments. To me, this is truly what photography is all about.

bucweeet's photograph of a foggy morning takes me back to my earliest days of photography. It's a testament to capturing mood and tone in a black and white photograph.

Let's stop for a moment and give @tojomor “Tom M” a round of applause for his fantastic and memorable photograph that has won the POTW for May 13, 2019.

Definitely a very big congratulations to Tom for this stunning photograph.

And please take a look at the runners up below:

Ladies Knot – Photo by Falxy

Foggy Morning – Photo by bucweeet

Weekend Photography Challenge 433 – Black!

Once again Tersha came up with an extremely interesting challenge with Black! Here are some fantastic shots from our wonderful weekend photography challenge #433

Photo by Andre P

There is something quite dark about cathedrals with Gothic architecture of course. Here we have a beautiful dance of tones that swap between lit shades of grey to rich zones almost totally black.

Photo by LeanneC

It is amazing how photography allows us to reach such subtle levels of communication via form and shape. We all know what this is about, and we need nothing more in this low-key composition.

Photo by Click

This composition reminds me a lot of the famous Rorschach tests. The symmetry of the tunnel has been enhanced by darkening certain sections of the composition, and it looks truly amazing.

Photo by Robert Apple

It is amazing how darkness seems to be so bright and charming in this long exposure shot.

Here Are Discussions You May Have Missed From The Forums

Jim shared with us a very interesting and beautiful piece of art, more precisely, a sculpture. This piece is from Zimbabwe, and it looks amazing. I think that this particular shot could have been inside the Black challenge from the Weekend Photography Challenge, especially if Jim would have made some black and white post-production.

Dave has been trying to capture some deer in the forest, but he had some troubles with focusing the creatures. Rob Eyers told him a very insightful fact, it is hard to achieve what we truly desire via autofocus since the camera selects things that are conveniently placed rather than knowing what we really want (so far). He told him about focus peaking, and I want to invite you fellows to share your thoughts on this fantastic feature which is more popular in mirrorless camera systems.

Dave Watkins shared what is to me a very poetic image in which he wonders about what a butterfly might be thinking.

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 out into becoming a better photographer at 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 criticism 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 critiques 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, critiques are 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.

Stretch yourselves and participate in the newest challenge published by Tersha on a very interesting topic titled “Inspired By“! Please remember to join our friendly photography community if you haven't done already!