Picture This

Our Favorite Reader Photos from the "Winter Wonder" Assignment

Staff  |  May 19, 2015

 

Snow Horse
Mary Ann Wamboldt shot this poignant photo after a severe ice storm hit her area the day before Christmas Eve. “The storm left behind unspeakable beauty, crystallizing everything in a thick layer of ice,” Wamboldt says. “I took this photo at sunset at a farm located behind my home.”
© Mary Ann Wamboldt

For this month’s assignment, we asked you to think outside the box about winter photography. While photos of snowmen and sledding are nice, we were looking for images that captured the true splendor of the season’s power and beauty. We wanted to see photos of winter with a sense of wonder and you delivered. Here are our nine favorite images of winter from Shutterbug readers.

Christmas Week
Rob Wiener shot this striking winter image with a Pentax K200D and a Tamron 10-24mm lens at ISO 100, 1/4 sec at f/16.
© Rob Wiener

From The Top
Marco Rocca captured this spectacular shot in the Dolomites in Italy. He shot it with a Nikon Df and a Nikkor 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G lens at 80mm, f/11, 1/500 sec, at ISO 200. He later converted it to black and white with Silver Efex Pro.
© Marco Rocca

The Golden Cold
David Blanchard photographed this beautiful image near the famous Sand Harbor area on the east side of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, as the sun quickly started to set. He shot it with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi and a Canon 24-105mm L-series lens at ISO 100.
© David Blanchard

Half Dome
“One of the best known and most photographed icons of our National Park system, Half Dome was in rare form on this very cold afternoon in December,” Douglas Croft says about this iconic image. “The snow and frost from the previous night’s storm was still hanging in the trees and clouds were gathering around Half Dome’s summit as we watched from the valley floor.” He shot it with a Nikon D7000 and a Nikkor 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at ISO 200, 1/200 sec at f/5.6.
© Douglas Croft

Winter Wonderland
This image by Sean P. Carson is “a view of the Wemindji River in the James Bay Region of Northern Quebec after the first winter storm on October 31, 2014.” Shot in one frame with a Nikon Df and an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens, Carson also used various stacked circular polarizer and neutral density filters. He handled the post-processing in Phase One’s Capture One Pro.
© Sean P. Carson

A Warm Place
“I took this photo after a very rare, for the Dallas area, 14-inch snow,” Lynn Cromer says. “I took five bracketed shots and processed them in Photomatix and Photoshop using Exposure Fusion not tone mapped. The camera was a Nikon D300 with a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 lens at 12mm, ISO 400.”
© Lynn Cromer

Blizzard
These starkly beautiful horses were photographed during a winter storm by Earl Raglin with a Sony A77 at 360mm, f/20, using spot metering and Shutter Priority mode at 1/200 sec.
© Earl Raglin

The Snow Tree
“Last November I wanted to play a bit in the snow,” Yvonne Baur says about this artistically geometrical snow shot. “Bryce Canyon National Park was a winter wonderland with at least two feet of fresh fallen snow. Almost all viewpoints and the park road were closed but I was able to snowshoe the Queens Garden Trail. It was fantastic! I took only a few shots because I couldn’t see anything. But the shots of all the tiny little details and all the snow-packed trees were worth heading to the park.”
© Yvonne Baur

Picture This! – Our Next Assignment
Gorgeous Landscapes
Our next assignment is deceptively simple: show us your best landscape photos. Yes, many of our readers have posted some amazing landscapes in our image galleries on Shutterbug.com over the years but the challenge is to show us something that is both beautiful and original. Go!

Arizona Hills
I shot this image while we were taking a break during a long drive to the Grand Canyon. We parked the car at a rest stop, got out, and this is what we saw from the parking in front of us: pure gorgeousness as far as the eye could see. I captured it with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and an EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens at f/9, 1/320 sec at ISO 200, and then converted it into black and white using Silver Efex Pro.
© Dan Havlik

How To Submit Online
1. Go to www.shutterbug.com and register. Scroll down the page and on the right side you will see a box for entering your username and your password. If you have already registered and/or submitted images for the Galleries you can skip this step. Respond to the activation e-mail. Registration is free. You will use your username and password whenever you visit or, with some systems, it will automatically load for you when you visit www.shutterbug.com.

2. Check the assignment and closing dates in the magazine. When the magazine is printed we will create an appropriate gallery for your images. The limit is two images per assignment.

3. Select and prepare your images. We only accept files at a maximum 5MB size, JPEG format. Save the JPEG at a quality level of 10 or higher. Note that file size in your image folder directory will determine upload size, not the “opened” file size, as JPEG compresses at 1:4 at higher quality ratings. If your images do not load it probably means you have exceeded the file size or have not used JPEG format.

4. Click on the Galleries tab on the homepage. In the Category section use the drop-down menu to select the Picture This! assignment. Note that images are simultaneously loaded into the assignment category as well as your own personal gallery. When the Picture This! assignment deadline date has lapsed the assignment gallery will be removed, but your images will still reside in your own gallery.

5. In the Description box add title, camera, lens, exposure information, and your full name. Also add any other comments or anecdotes you think relevant. We reserve the right to edit comments as needed.

6. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page. This uploads the image.

7. You retain copyright on the image.

8. We will choose the images after close of the due date.

9. Please feel free to comment on images submitted by other readers.

Please Note: If the photograph includes a minor or a recognizable individual or group you are guaranteeing that you have a signed model release form, and especially a parental or guardian release form for minors. You should keep a copy of that release in your files. Scan that release and keep it handy. If an image is chosen for publication, failure to provide a form when requested will eliminate the image from consideration. You can find release forms at http://asmp.org/tutorials/model-release-minor-child.html and other resources on the Internet. By uploading images you attest that the model release form is valid, that any depiction of a person is with their consent, that you have a model release form available on request, and that all images you submit have been made by you.

Scorecard
Deadline For Submission: May 1, 2015.
Images will appear in our August 2015 issue.

Our next topic: Great Lighting
Deadline: June 1, 2015
Publication Date: September 2015

Please Note: By submitting you agree to give us the right to show the image(s) on the web and for publication. You give us publication rights in the magazine and on the website(s) of Source Interlink Media.

Want to see images selected for past picture this! Assignments? Go to www.shutterbug.com and click on picture this! In the “more articles…” box on the homepage.

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