Picture This

Light is a dancer. Given an opportunity to bounce around, it will. Given a surface, it will play upon it. Given the right time of day, it will glance around corners and capture scenes that would otherwise be unseen. The subject of our Picture This! for this month was reflections, and readers responded with some of the most fascinating photographs we've seen for quite a...

When subjects fall within their own shadows, when an overcast sky makes color dull, or when we need to add a slight kick of light to more brightly illuminate what's before us, fill flash comes to the rescue. It's called "fill" because it is a supplementary light source, but we like the nickname "sunshine synchro" even better. Call it what you...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was panoramas, and readers responded with a host of images made with panoramic cameras, cropped large format and a goodly number of stitched images, multiple shots made with film and digital cameras brought together with various software programs. It strikes us that the panoramic "genre" is back with more power and grace than...

Judging from the amazing images we received from readers this month the art of the wall mural is alive and well and thriving in the US and abroad. The creativity of the artists, and the unique way in which the wall murals were photographed, is a great source of inspiration. We especially liked it when readers submitted images that included the context of the mural, or some ironic...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was "made in the shade"; pictures made under overcast sky, dark forest canopies, or anywhere the bright sun doesn't shine. Ask a wedding photographer, for example, his or her preference for a wedding day's shoot and generally they'll tell you one with a good cloud cover, even though the bride and groom might be...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was Sunrise/Sunset and we received a year's worth of risings and settings from our very talented readers. The images showed a wide range of subjects and locations, from Alaska to the coast of Maine, with rainbows and the dazzling light as it moved in and around everything from peaceful harbors to the great cities of our land.

Our Picture This! assignment this month was Silhouettes, and we could have published the Big Book of Silhouettes with all the great images we received. From what we saw we can say that readers have mastered this image technique, with a great mix of people, nature, and architecture. Clearly, silhouettes are a photographic effect that can only be seen with a...