Photo by: henrikj.

Found this in the Recent Interesting section of Flickr. It’s such an awesome scenic shot, I couldn’t pass it up. I love the composition, with the body of water in the lower left flowing out into the ocean. And there’s just a hint of a sky and horizon at the end of the picture, the bulk of it being land. Really makes you want to go travel and find some awesome scenes like this. There’s nothing like this in central Jersey…

Photo by: Eirik Solheim.

It’s about to get extra hot here in New Jersey for a few days, so I went looking for a nice, cool picture of winter. I found this in the “Winter” tags on Flickr. It’s a nice shot. Good example of how hard it can be to take pictures of snow, too. The snow on the left side of the river is a little bit overexposed/blown out, but that’s a trade-off you need to make to get the river to come out well exposed. It’s hard to believe just how much light reflects off snow…

Photo by: yangmc.

I chose “Flower” today out of the popular tags on Flickr. Not really sure why. But after some lackluster photos, I came across this one. Not especially awe-inspiring, but nice and technically sound. I really love the depth of field and sharpness here. The subject (the plant in the focus) is really crisp and sharp. The rest of the image is more or less completely blurry and out of focus. When you’re doing macro work like this, you need to have a shallow depth of field; otherwise the subject won’t stand out against the background. That means a quick lens and the ability to focus on a macro level and get in close to the object itself.

Photo by: Simon Ellingworth.

I wasn’t sure what to look for today, so I went to the popular tags and I picked “red.” Didn’t know what to expect. There was a smorgasbord of images – including flowers, cars, and people – but this first really caught my eye. Like I mentioned before, fire is just so cool to watch and fun to photograph. This image does a great job of capturing it. The flames up top have a feeling of fluidness to them, and the glowing embers in the bottom of the frame give the picture some substance. Technically sound, and nice composition.

Photo by: AlanGinsberg.

Found this one browsing through the “Canon” tag on Flickr. There was an odd number of car pictures in the tag, don’t know what that was about. But I thought this was a nifty portrait. The ambient is stopped down far enough that the sky is well exposed, although that leaves the trees in the background really underexposed. There’s clearly some lighting in the foreground, at least a light off to camera right providing a key. I would guess there’s some kind of fill coming from off camera left, cause the lighting is fairly even across the image… kind of curious to see the set up. I like how the light is really bright and warm, though; kind of makes it look like the sun is beating down through a hole in the clouds or something.

Photo by: mark452.

This picture of a sunset in Australia came out of the recent interesting pictures on Flickr. I don’t know why I’m drawn to all these sunset pictures when I browse through the stream… but a nice sunset just grabs your attention. This one is awesome. The colors are great, and the clouds create some interest in the sky. The silhouettes of the trees in the foreground seem kind of eerie. The reflections of the clouds coming off the water make the place seem like a swamp, or a bog. Altogether, it’s one awesome visual effect.

Photo by: D.R.A.C.C.A.R.D.s.

Found this snapshot in the recent uploads section of Flickr. In some ways, not a lot going on to attract attention – it’s basic available light, shot with a point and shoot. But I really like the composition. The wooden beams in the background create some nice visual interest, and the skewed angle at which the picture is taken adds to this. Compare it to some other pictures in the photostream, with a head-on approach and much more simple composition, and you’ll notice the difference. Good example of some fundamentals that are sometimes more important than gear and other techniques.

Photo by: joviano.alves.

Found this picture in the Recent Interesting section of Flickr. Amazing sunset. I blogged about a similar picture a few weeks back, but this one tops it for sure. I love the centeredness of the tree, really helps the composition. And the saturation in the sky, along with the spectrum of colors in the sunset, gives a great effect. Very cool.

Here’s a quick technique you can use in Lightroom to create a subtle effect that enhances the focus on your subject. What we’ve got here is a decent outdoor portrait on a sunny day. The model, Joel, was lit from camera right, but it can be hard to get just the right amount of light on location when it’s extremely sunny – both straining the power on your speedlights and making it tough to look at the LCD and judge the effect of the lights.

I was happy with the image, but I wanted to separate Joel from the background a little bit. This could have been done by adjusting the light and making it a little more powerful, since this wouldn’t have affected the background exposure (the water). Or, since the shoot is over and done with, I can go back and edit it in Lightroom and selectively brighten my subject there. It’s quick and easy. Here’s how. Keep reading…

Photo by: david_shankbone.

I noticed the cameraphone tag on Flickr today, and I thought I’d take a peak. I was curious if there was something good in there – since a lot of what you see taken on a camera phone is blurry and, uhh, no good. I was pleasantly surprised to find this little gem. It might not be a masterpiece, but it’s a nice shot of the photographer and his friends hiking through the forest. Nice composition, the lighting works (thanks to the diffusion added by the leaves), and the colors are good. A little editing to help the contrast and saturation, and this would look pretty good…

Interesting to see what a phone is capable of.