Natural Shadows, Macros, Monochromes – The Weekly Community Roundup

Welcome to our weekly community wrap-up. It's been an amazing week on the Light Stalking forums with great photography by the community and the discussions in the forums have been engaging and very inspiring in the recent weeks. We've have more members joining the community each week, making the forum experience even more exciting.

Here is the Photo Of The Week that is judged by Federico every week. This week's photo of the week is by Tersha. Read more about it here – Photo of the Week—February 13th

And our admin Rob has won a special mention in a photography contest by the Australian Photography Magazine. Read about it here.

The weekend photography challenge from last week was “Natural Shadows” and members came up with their creative interpretation of the theme by capturing very interesting shots – some of them are shared below.

This week, we have a new challenge that has some very beautiful submissions already. Join the challenge here – Urban Silhouettes

Here are some “Natural Shadows” photographs from the past week's challenge that we thought were great and should be included here:

Also some more interesting submissions in the Aerial Perspectives challenge!

And the Shadow Play challenge:

Here are photos shared by members in other forums like General Photo Chit Chat, Landscape Photography, Macro Photography, Astrophotography, etc.

And the colour version if you like:

Interesting Threads in the Forums:

Our members have started some very interesting threads so you can follow and get inspired and some where you can also post your own photos. These are great ways to learn more in terms of photography and the natural world we live in.

Moments Through a Dirty Windshield – Started by Retired Grunt, who will be posting photos from the project weekly. These are moments of life that he captures while he drives although some are taken while parked.

Mono mood – A series of interesting photos in monochrome by Patrick

Porch Photography / Multi Weekly Photos – Robert Apple has started a new thread where he will be posting photos from his back porch and captured on his Motorola G5.

Patrick started a thread late 2024 – “Community Inspired Photo Story Challenge” – capture a story in 3 to 6 photos that hold personal significance and post them with a brief description. While that thread was started to be completed within a week, it has been open with ongoing submissions for the past year and is still open where members can post their stories.

Retired Grunt shared the story below:

Decided to head down to the St. Lawrence River again today.

I was snowmobile hunting and saw zero snowmobilers.

And Moocher, just because I did take him for a ride the day before

Interesting Topics And Discussions:

Storage and Organization – a discussion on storage and organisation of digital images, started by Stefanie Markham.
Gone Bananas – a discussion on Nano Banana Pro, started by Rob Eyers
Insufferable Bores – Check out this thread started by Rob about pseudo-intellectual gatekeepers in photography.
This is Disruption – Patrick shared this interesting podcast – worth a listen and follow if you like podcast or anything creative
A Win Against AI – Check out the news! Also some interesting discussions happening in this thread!
How long have you been Practicing – Patrick started this discussion and is just curious in a general way how long the members have been doing photography.
I have been in photography for… – Rob started this discussion – Have you guys ever noticed that somebody who leads with how long they have been doing Photography is usually about to say something to offend somebody else?
How do you improve? – Rob started a very interesting discussion on how photographers may fall into a few different groups. Join it here.

If you are someone who captures images with your smartphone, we have a Mobile Photography Challenge where you can post your mobile photos and also check out the works by other photographers. The images must be captured and edited on a smartphone. Join to submit the photos over here.

There are also some members' picks that are featured. These can be chosen by any of the members and are put in a whole new thread of their own and called out as being a great addition and shot for the forums. Check out those stunning captures here.

Here are some throwdowns to follow and post your own photos, or you can start your own throwdown too.

Square Crop Land / Seascapes – Started by Robert Apple – Small, Large, Macro / Seascapes, just make the crop Square.

Hi-key Throwdown – started by Tersha – Show us your hi-key shots …

Let’s see your favorite soccer photos – Started by Derek Robertson

Water and Stone – Essential Elements in the Make up of our Planet, post what you got! Started by Robert Apple

Fade To Black – Monochrome Throwdown – Started by Patrick – Feel free to share your Black and White monochrome below – No Rules Except B&W only.

Negative Space Photos – Started by Retired Grunt – Negative Space is basically your subject surrounded by nothing but a single color or texture. All sky, all water, all sand, can be utilized strongly. The intent is to isolate the subject and keep the viewers focus on the subject.

Photographing Natures Textures – Started by Robert Apple – Pano, Macro, or anything in between. Only Rule, Nothing Man-Made, natures effect on man made objects is OK.

Wildlife Throwdown – Patrick started this throwdown as we have quite a few new members in the forum who are interested in wildlife photography. Please feel free to post anything wildlife , whatever you love your choice from tiny beast to to kings of the wild.