A Guest Contribution by Steve Berardi from PhotoNaturalist.

Dragonflies are among the most photogenic insects. They usually have bright contrasting colors that make them really stand out in their natural environment, and their large size makes them easy to photograph with a standard telephoto lens.

However, there are a few difficulties with photographing them too: they get scared easily and sometimes it seems like they just never land somewhere and take a break so you can photograph them!

So, here are a few things to keep in mind when photographing these amazing insects:

1. Look for them near ponds and streams

Most dragonflies hang out very close to bodies of fresh water: lakes, ponds, and streams. So, when you’re scouting out places to photograph them, make sure it’s a place where you can walk

…

You can put this image collection down into the slightly silly category but I just spent a fun hour looking at portraits that feature people with freckles.

I’m not sure why I ended up on this quest – perhaps it’s some subconscious therapeutic activity from growing up as the red headed kid with freckles – but I love some of these shots.

While the freckles in many of these shots have been highlighted a little with some post production – hopefully they provide some of you fellow freckle faced photographers with some inspiration

Click the images to be taken to the photographers Flickr page to learn more about them and the images …

In Part One of  the Light Painting Tutorial I went over how to do the photography part: equipment, camera settings, set up, lighting, potential pitfalls, and step by step instruction on how to do light painting shots.  In this article Part Two, we’re going to take a look at how to combine multiple exposures in Photoshop.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS TUTORIAL

• how to create one big layered file of all your images
• what layer settings to use to “turn the lights on” with each added image
• how to get rid of any unwanted areas of each image
• how to easily “dim the lights” on any shots that were too bright
• saving your final combined image as a masterpiece

Combining images in Photoshop is surprisingly

…

When it comes to famous images the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the most recognized in the world.

When I visited the Lourve in Paris a couple of years ago I was stunned by the crowds of people gathering around this small image, pushing and shoving to get close and to take a picture of it (I got some great shots of the crowd).

The Mona Lisa has been at the center of much debate and speculation over the years but why is it an image that intrigues people so much and what can we learn from it as photographers today?

While we live in a different time (the Mona Lisa was painted in the 1500′s) and use different technology – is there something in this famous image that we can be inspired by as image makers today?

Lessons from the Mona Lisa for Photographers

Today I want to explore some of the different aspect of the Mona Lisa and point out some things that Leonardo did in painting this image that I think we could take away as portrait photographers today.

It has been a couple of years since we did a complete overhaul of the design of dPS so over the coming months we’ve commissioned a team of designers and developers to give our site a once over – and we’d LOVE your feedback!

So now is your chance to tell us what features and design elements you’d love to see on the newly designed dPS.

Is there something missing that you’d like to see added? Is there a feature on another site that you’d love to see here?

You’re welcome to give feedback upon the blog area, the forum area or even our social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc).

Feel free to tell us what you honestly think (as long as you’re constructive that is) – we’ll keep this post open for comment for a day or two before …