30 Fantastic Links From The World Of Photography

Join us as we explore some of the latest news and photographs being produced and shared online by the global photography community with this weeks list of links from Toad Hollow Photography. In this post, we find a hand-selected list of tutorials, special features and great photography with features and images here for enthusiasts of all genres. We really hope you enjoy checking out these links as much as the Toad did in bringing them to you.

Tutorials

5 Tips That Will Take Your Fall Photography To A New Level – fall is definitely upon us here in the northern hemisphere, so this article that talks about how to get the most out of the time-of-year with photography is quite timely. Each of the points covered in this great article is accompanied by great examples, showing you how to take full advantage of the season in the short time it presents itself.

Shooting Professional Ink-in-Water Product Photos on a Budget – compositing watches and ink that naturally flows in a water environment can create stunning product photos that are totally unique. This tutorial takes you through every step of the process, and once you realize how simple the setup, shoot and post-production is, you’ll be heading out to collect the required items to try this yourself.

5 Tips for Composing Landscape Photos with Depth, Scale & Unity for More Powerful Images – the team at Shutterbug delivers a great article and video tutorial that shows us how to apply 5 easy to follow tips that help to create stunning landscape shots. Sample shots are included to wonderfully illustrate the points discussed, making for a must-read article for those who love to shoot this genre.

High Key Photography: What Is It and How to Get Started – the concept of high or low key photography is a broad topic that actually covers quite a bit of ground from an image perspective. This terrific article talks about high key photography and its origins and goes into great depth on how to achieve this specific look through careful planning and execution.

Photography Cheat Sheet: The Right Shutter Speed for Every Situation – the exposure triangle is something key all photographers really need to understand to ensure that you are getting great exposures every time. This brief article shares a pictograph that gives you some basic insight into how to control shutter speed to achieve a desired photographic outcome. Small sample shots are included to help you visualize the concept.

The Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Wacom Tablet for Photo Editing – many photographers are embracing tablets as a powerful tool for post-processing photos. This video takes you through the entire process of setting up and configuring the Wacom tablet for maximum benefit and reveals a few tips and tricks from the video host that are sure to help you get the most from this gear.

6 Effective Tips for Gorgeous Flower Photography – many of us love to shoot close-up and macro, focusing on some of the finer things that can be found in nature. This post covers flowers specifically and includes some beautiful sample shots.

A 10-Minute Guide to Getting Started in Astrophotography – the entire spectrum of night photography of stars is covered in this brief 10-minute video tutorial from one of the leaders in the field today. This video is full of tips that go far beyond the typical gear list, taking you deep into the night skies as you capture stunning images of the universe we find ourselves in.

Photography Cheat Sheet: Shooting Long Exposures of Night City Scenes – this great article includes a sheet that you can print and bring with you as you are out in the city shooting long exposure shots. The various tips included in this post are all sure-fire methods that will always deliver the very best long exposure shots in a thriving city possible.

Special Features

Seven Photographers Who Are Rewriting Street Photography's Rigid Rules – there are countless ways to express yourself as a street photographer, and in many ways, this particular genre has been one of the types of photography that has lived under stringent rules. Check out this article that highlights the work of several photographers who are breaking the typical boundaries, with terrific work to show for it.

Nikon Small World contest reveals unseen microscopic world all around us – sometimes a deeper understanding of how our world works can be found by taking a very close look at the microscopic building blocks of everything around us. Photography is a fantastic medium for this, allowing anyone with an interest to see things that are usually only witnessed by scientists and technicians working actively in a specific field. This post features a stunning collection of microscopic creatures and elements in terrific detail.

9 Ways You Can Create Better Black and White Photography– the very best black-and-white shots are not typically color shots that have been converted with a filter in post-production, rather they are preconceived outcomes of careful planning and consideration. This video tutorial takes us through some key steps that you can utilize in your work to start seeing in this particular medium, allowing you to take full control of what is captured and exhibited.

Photographer Turns Symphony Hall into the World’s Largest Darkroom – talk about creative! Check out this story that covers how a photographer turned an entire hall into a huge darkroom where he developed a terrific tintype portrait in front of a live audience. The resulting image is great and well worth the time to read this short article.

IET photo competition winners show the diversity of the engineering and tech industries – this is a very interesting collection of photographs coming from all corners of the world and expressing all sorts of types and themes of photography. Some of the shots included in this set are absolutely stunning, making it well worth the time to spend a few moments perusing the featured images here.

Great Photography

Bannack State Park Montana ~ A Real Wild West Story – this is really a great photo-story that depicts a ghost town in the United States that holds a very interesting history. A.D.Wheeler Photography brings us this feature story and accompanies it with wonderful shots of the wooden buildings and some vignettes of the location, showcasing rich textures and years of weather and wear that bring out a deep sense of questioning and artistic tension.

Coastline sunset – David Dai delivers a picture-perfect shot of the Portland Lighthouse as dusk approaches with incredible colors in the sky highlighting the overall romance of the location. The red colors found in the lighthouse itself find great harmony with the widely captured landscape around it and the dynamic sky that lingers overhead.

Coquille Point – Bandon, Oregon – Len Saltiel shares a great shot of the Oregon coast that includes a wood viewing structure that looks out over the grasses that line the shore out to the ocean where incredible natural rock formations stand for countless centuries as silent sentinels. A thin mist from the rolling ocean covers the landscape, adding a terrific ethereal feel to this amazing spot.

Sunset above the lake – it really is hard to beat the joy a great sunburst can add to a strong landscape composition. Peter Zajfrid shares a great rendition of this classic by sharing a vista that overlooks a beautiful lake and rolling hills in the distance.

Old Town Malaga – Edith Levy takes us into the heart of what is described as one of the oldest city on earth where she shares a stunning night shot that features the city’s architecture along with people milling about and enjoying the evening. Edith finishes off this great shot by highlighting incredible clarity in the details which does a great job of drawing your eye into the frame.

A dream come true – the incredible vantages offered by drones is truly second to none as we see here in this stunning elevated shot of Le Mont-Saint-Michel in France. Luca Micheli captures this scene as the tides are out, revealing the amazing structure and it’s scale against a backdrop that has incredible depth.

Southern Elephant Seal – Ron Niebrugge delivers a pair of terrific portraits of the Southern Elephant Seal in their natural habitat. The first shot is a great one that showcases the hilarious personality of this creature who really appears to be hamming it up for the camera, and the second shot is a great portrait.

Staircase… – perfect lines frame an amazing architectural design that is full of ornate details and beautiful finishing touches in this photograph by Herbert A. Franke. A slightly cinematic approach was used to process this shot, giving a bit of a vintage look that is highly sympathetic to the subject.

La Última Estancia – this shot comes to us from O. R.G. who captures this picture in a crypt with incredible natural light streaming in through architecturally fascinating window openings into a cold, lifeless place. The photographer includes some prolific prose with this shot that adds texture to the image with a strong sense of the darkness the image portrays.

Silhouette – Necdet Yasar shares a powerful shot from Turkey that is processed as a black-and-white to bring out the silhouettes and industrial details of the scene. The sharp contrasts explored in this shot shows us how engaging silhouettes can be in terms of creating an emotional response when viewing great images.

i’m fine, how are you? – I love how Diane Schuller intertwines some rather poignant thoughts with her terrific photography. This post makes us all think a little about how we respond to the question posed in the article’s title, peppered with some really terrific knitting-themed vignette shots that are great in their expression through a shallow depth-of-focus.

~Dubai Moments ~ – David Gomes captures this cityscape shot in the wee hours of the morning, just as the sky is emerging from the night adding great color to the overall scene. The shot is processed to bring out the neon colors of the contemporary architecture of the city, and the lines created by the bridge in the right part of the frame add a strong leading line.

Downy Woodpecker – Wayne Beauregard shares a delightful close-up portrait of this woodpecker as it sits on the side of its tree awaiting another turn at the seed feeder. Wayne’s shot features some great details in the bird's plumage, creating a well-defined portrait of these rather beautiful little birds.

Cruise Ship in front of Iceberg in Antarctica – the incredible icebergs found in Antarctica are juxtaposed by a cruise ship that sits in front of them, adding a perfect element of scale to the shot. This shot from Jason Row was shot and processed with perfect exposure, ensuring all the texture and detail in this largely white environment is visible.

Double Orange on Orange, Minnesota – a pair of beautiful butterflies play with a vibrant orange colored flower in this great shot from Mark Paulson. Mark uses a very shallow depth-of-focus with this shot to really help these tiny insects pop right out of the frame and come to life on our screens.

Kiso valley – Daniel Kordan takes our eye down a cobblestone path in Japan that is flanked by the beautiful homes and buildings that are distinctly architected for the region. In the distance we see a valley lead out, with layers of rolling hills that create a great sense of depth to the landscape beyond the inhabited area.