Tree Bark Textures, Pareidolia and Making Money with Photography!

If you reside near a woody area, then there's a chance you've taken tree bark for granted. This beautiful shattering of nature comes with a precious gift for us visual-minded photo enthusiasts; textures! You see, texture is one of the various ingredients we can compose when attempting to tell a story via photography. This week, Dahlia and Tersha challenged us to get outside and look closer to it with some tree bark shots. Up next, you'll find a set of images capable of clearly showing how texture can enhance an already well-composed shot.

Photo of the Week

But before stepping into the abstract realm of texture in photography, we salute our latest winner of the Photo of the Week, Marty!

At first, I thought this was like some kaleidoscopic effect done in post, and then I realised how wonderful this discovery is. It almost feels like it's ready-made! I tend to believe that Nature delights we curious souls with this type of encounter. A really poetic image indeed, a simple place where the living meets the decayed.

It is funny though, Marty shared this image in the aforementioned challenge, and expressed the following about it:

This probably doesn’t count as bark although maybe because it’s a cross-section over time? Not sure what kind of tree.

Not sure either if it counts as bark, but positive it does for being the photo of the week!

Congrats Marty!

Weekly Photography Challenge Digest

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

Marty gave us a nice selection of tree-barks, and it was hard just picking one from them all!

Look at the metallic quality of this clean close-up!

“The paper thin bark of the ‘Paper Birch'”.

Interesting approach towards bark yet a valid one!

Magical!

This is a bit different. The is a handmade paper impression of the bark of a Sitka Spruce tree done by my wife Jane Ingram Allen during her artist residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Lincoln, Oregon in 2014. I took this photo and of her residencies around the world. If you want to know more about what she does, go to https://janeingramallen.wordpress.com

OK… I've bent the rules on this one as the bark is a little out of focus…

Sometimes looking closely at tree bark yields surprise forms of sculpted art. This was a naturally occuring “burl” and it looked like an animal to me. Do you see it? (This is locust tree bark).

When looking for nature's best, don't forget watching down!

I read about rainbow eucalyptus & with a little research I found one outside the entrance of the San Diego Zoo I visited in California. Very striking colors.

Bark from a Redwood Tree

The BB in the Bark
Or is it an Eyeball
Click it if you Dare

A Damp day in the woods

For more tree bark textures, check out the 682st challenge post.

A Highlight of the Latest Activity at our Community

This week we had a new proposal for a throwdown – Marty made it fun via the quirkiness of pareidolia. Here, a few of the images shared during this week. But first, for those unaware of this phenomena:

Pareidolia is the perception of a recognizable image or meaningful pattern where none exists or is intended, as the perception of a face in the surface features of the moon.

A deer with antlers, or maybe a reindeer! 🦌

LightandShadow captured a monster emerging from the deep!

For more throwdown action, take a swing at the one on color red 🔴

Are you curious about how much money you can make off of photography? Well, Beth shared some neat insights with us, along her latest print:

bucweeet went ice-fishing 🥶

And david shared a couple of frames on a little trip to Norway 🇳🇴

Are you interested in this effect? Well, it is called “miniature effect“, and is achieved in-camera by using some special lenses better known as “Tilt-Shifts“. The peculiarity of these lenses reside in the ability they have for rotating the lens plane relative to the image plane, also known as “tilting”. And also moving the lens parallel to the image plane, also called “shifting”.

And remember, we've decided to make things more interesting at our place. Get all there's to know about the “New Light Stalking Monthly Contest with $250 Cash Prize” in the following link, and don't forget to vote!

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 well-intended photographers, but you'll also have the chance of commenting 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 better 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!