sky & weather

This month, we feature a number of inspiring photographs from members of our Flickr Pool that dramatically features the sky…in Black & White.

Featuring the work of Diana Susselman, we are inspired and learn how fog can be used as a tool to focus the viewer’s attention in your photographs.

Snow is the topic of this month’s Common Photo Themes and we explore some great photos from our Flickr Group members. Be inspired by the many ways in which snow is featured in each photograph.

Mark Knighton’s photo, Canola Field, shows us the beauty in too much of something and it demonstrates the differences between the left and right brain. Read on to be inspired and learn more about super-saturating your photos with pattern and repetition.

This week, we feature “Over The Hedge” by Mark Boyle in an effort to explore everyone’s favorite subject to view and capture: The Wow Moment. Using Mark’s photo, we will discuss why the Wow is often enough, and we’ll discuss some things to consider when capturing such a moment.

Fireworks are mesmerizing, beautiful and captivating. In celebration of America’s birthday, we visit the fireworks that have been captured by our Flickr group contributors.

What is the one thing that helps us all remember something, be it an image, be it a phrase or what have you?  It’s repetition.  Repetition is cleverly a disguise for one of our favorite building blocks of course:  Pattern.  Pattern doesn’t have to be regular, nor does each element need to snap into a grid or regular defined rows.  It can be aloof, and free flowing and…well, it could be a lot like Stephen Flores‘s photo, Hot Air Balloon Twinkle. The type of pattern that Stephen is exhibiting here is a repetition of shape.  The hot air balloons are each at different elevations and different distances from the lens, and so we see a number of positions and sizes.  But they are all essentially a similar shape, despite the different patterns and colors.  To our eyes and to our mind, this is a playground.  We tend to pull towards the largest balloon, but then we bounce around the different sizes to explore their patterns, or to explore their differences.  Deep down inside, our mine knows and understands the large volume of space that this photo captures.  Though our only clue is the different sizes of the balloons.  Our minds are clever …

Tired of uninteresting pictures during normal sunlight hours? Are the excessively long exposures of late night photography wearing you down? Or do you just want some dramatic lighting for your portrait, landscape and architectural photography? Well, then, I’m about to introduce you to what may become your second – if not the first – most favorite time of day: The Blue Hour. As the little brother of the Golden Hour, the Blue Hour doesn’t get as much hype. But I would say it has the potential to create far more compelling photographs. Read on to learn about the Blue Hour and learn some tips and techniques to help you get started.

Sometimes a photo is made more impressive simply by the way it is handled. It’s the finishing touches, those little flourishes that refine the product, that sets it apart from others. When shooting such a well known subject, the Manhattan Skyline, Geraint Rowland demonstrates how finishing touches really matter.

It rained and weather is otherwise foul. Don’t clam up inside where it’s safe, get out there just like Jon DeBoer did for this week’s featured photo. Read on to see the photo and be inspired.