Encroaching Cities, Visual Torque and Spirals on the Wild!

Resilience, and violent counter attacks came to my mind after reading the theme of this week's challenge… Climate change strikes harder each year, and I believe some of the efforts made around it will have a positive effect. Hopefully, nature might congratulate the spirit behind each effort; and just maybe we could get some slack. Personally, my faith was given to mycelium after knowing that fungi-based solutions have been proven effective for degrading carbon pollutants.

But then I kept on reading, and noticed the word “encroaching”.

Gratefully, this meant stepping away from the apocalyptic vibe triggered on my brain after scanning “Urban vs Nature” on the title. To encroach is a rather antique concept, and it can be understood in a nourishing or even sheltering way. Basically, we could think of cities as fostering and upbringing; thus imply keeping things cool with nature. After all, it always finds a way through; so for those interested in contributing more to this encroaching approach, take the following into account.

Any city would encroach when gradually taking over surrounding areas; especially natural habitats. So, we could encroach our visual quests by aiming our cameras towards the ground. From there on, just look for life sprouting from beneath the urban realm. In our endeavor for documenting ways in which nature is reclaiming your city, we can look for Greenery pushing its way through cracks in the pavement. Or maybe just birds, insects and even small mammals coexisting with you. And while doing so, mind composition, exposure, and framing!

Photo of the Week

This is the half-part of a series of images shared by Elin Laxdal; the best part indeed! Look at how the line bends in a flawless curve bringing a whole lot of tension from one end to the other of the frame. It's overwhelming to recognize how much torque a single line of tightly arrayed pixels can give to an image.

There is a wonderful salmon river that runs through our city. Protecting it from urban planners and a very unwise city council is a demanding and relentless struggle for caretakers and interest organisations. This shot was taken on the opening day of this season, last Thursday. It is always a day of celebration where the person who is chosen the Reykjavik citizen of the year is invited to fish the first salmon.

This image was shared in the aforementioned challenge, and is a very honest example of how cities should strive with nature. Visually, green takes about 95% of the frame; unfortunately, this reference is not true for many urban areas around the globe…

Weekly Photography Challenge Digest

Thanks, Tersha and Dahlia for pushing our creative boundaries one step forward every week!

This is more a “blending” of urban and nature. The church is rising out of the rock.

I just took two pictures last night that might fit here. Sunset from the hills of Alcalá. Alcalá’s hills are a large natural area close to the city, and from its tallest hill (Ecce Homo), you can see how nature gives way to the urban landscape.

The Encroaching City

This is a well known landmark in Belfast called Cave Hill, also known as Napoleon’s nose.

For more visual examples of decay and resilience, check out the 701st original challenge post!

A Highlight on the Latest Activity at our Community

Along with the following words, Patrick shared a very inspiring video on keeping up with daily inspiration:

I like these short videos, mostly stuff we are already aware of doing and thinking about but dipping in and out of these short videos always makes me want to grab my camera and head out or at least gets me motivated enough to set a day to go shoot no matter the weather.

Spirals happen naturally yet they are hard to see them used as compositional tools. Here, a superb example by beth:

4 sec, f/8, iso 1250 with a 10 stop nd filter. i took a few single shots to see what the best shutter speed was to capture the spinning pool and ended up around 4 seconds. the 10 stop was a bit much and i couldn’t get the aperture to f/14 without increasing my iso further, so i’ve ordered the 6 stop filter.

And remember, if you want to make the most of your LightStalking user account, make sure to check the latest posts. Also, don't forget to swim the Mobile Monday Challenge!

Before moving on, there are only a few days for the contest left – get your entries in!

We'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

Our Feedback Forum is a fine place for all those people wanting to grow fast as photographers. Here, you'll get your work reviewed by friendly photographers, but you'll also have the chance to comment on the work of others. We believe in the power of feedback, and here are the latest shots shared in the pool:

The Shark Tank is a great place to learn and to discuss, but please read the instructions in order to get a good 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. Remember all comments are given to the photographs; not the photographers.

Also, don't forget to participate in our upcoming challenge!!!