This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Weekly Assignment

First things first, we finished the Five Senses Assignment this week. There were a lot of really great pictures that went beyond sight and helped bring out the sense of taste, smell, hearing, and touch. We still managed to pick a few that we really liked though. Our winner was alex168 for his picture of the storm where he says he could not only see the storm, but feel the pressure of it as it was about to break. Our first runner up was Shutterbugdeb for her picture of Spock, her dog, enjoying the smell of popcorn. You can almost see the twitching of his nose before he quickly made that popcorn “disappear”. Our last runner up was muddy250 for the picture of his hand taken with a rear curtain flash to capture the movement associated with reaching out and touching the table. We really liked the clear motion that the picture showed. Great job everyone!

>We started a new assignment this week too, and it is From the Hip. What we’re looking for are pictures that are taken without looking through the viewfinder. This may mean holding the camera above your head, holding it down on the ground, or shooting from the hip. Show us what you can accomplish when you’re not looking through that viewfinder. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest, your photograph needs to have been taken between 21 May – 4 June 2008, the EXIF must be intact, and your post must include “Assignment: From the Hip” in order to show you want you picture included in the contest. Next week’s assignment will be Clashing Colours (or complimentary colours depending on what you want to call it). So pull out those colour wheels and shoot colours that are across from each other on the wheel!

Weekly Poll

Well, it was a pretty overwhelming result for this week’s poll where we asked if you stored your camera lens on or lens off. Nearly everyone picked lens on, and the next highest result was that the lens doesn’t come off. It looks like everyone wants to be ready to grab their camera in case that perfect shot comes along!

corry said “i always have a lens on, never know when there might be a deer in the driveway or the kids being goofy. usually sits on the counter or my desk too LOL Because you just have to be ready for anything.

And Nathan deGargoyle said “I can’t think of a good reason to take the lens off to put a body cap on.”

This week, update us on whether or not you have a photography site.

Hot Threads

• Please make me an “Idea Generator”: Every feel like you’re running short of ideas? You’ve been to tons of blogs and you’re still running dry? What about an idea generator? Check out this thread for some discussion and a link to a website that lets you do just that.
• Is this your next camera?: We all need a little humour now and again, so all I can say is that if you’re in the mood for a laugh come check out what you may want for your next camera.
• Having Trouble with ‘Less is More’: So, you’re starting to look at composition and ways to compose your shots. You’ve heard that you don’t want distractions in your photograph, but how do you know when less is more, or when less is just, well, less. This discussion looks at finding that balance between the two and working out how to get an even better shot by using the idea of ‘less is more’.
• For landscape photographers – free sunrise and sunset position chart: So, you like to shoot at sunrise and sunset, but you don’t know where the sun actually sets where you live? Or even better when it sets? Check out this discussion for some links to help you find when and where the sun will be setting so you can be there for that perfect sunrise or sunset.
• Need some ideas for improving ‘detail pics’: Lots of old buildings have very interesting details to them, but how do you take those interesting details and photograph them in a way that they still look interesting? This thread looks at how you can create a context and still show off the details that you find so interesting.

Other Threads to Note

While it’s not only time for another What Would You Do thread, it’s also the first WWYD thread of year 2! We’ve had so many great edits and entries in the past year, and I doubt if this year will be any different. The goal of the WWYD threads is to use the picture provided in the first post and edit it how you would like. This gives us all a change topractice our post-processing skills and also lets people see their own pictures as something new they may never have expected. Finally, take a trip back musically with our Classic Rock Challenge where your goal this week is to interpret a song title (in pictures) from Van Halen’s debut album, Van Halen.

Until next week, happy shooting!