The pose I chose was due to the fact that I’ve spent a lot of time this past year in front of a computer. While this isn’t too uncommon of me, the projects I’ve been on have kept me in front of a PC more than usual. Fortunately, I enjoy what I do, so it doesn’t always seem like work. And as for the couch, I’ve spent many late nights in that exact spot, so I felt the need to include it in the shot.

Here’s to another year.

Round can simple described as a “Circle”. Circles are simple closed curves which divide the plane into two regions, an interior and an exterior.

OK…that’s the technical jargon. We all know what Round is and can identify objects that are round in shape. Your challenge couldn’t be much easier. Locate something that is “Round” and turn it into a creative photograph. We must clearly be able to determine which object you’ve chosen as your round subject.

Yeah, yeah this is pretty basic, but time has not been on my side the past couple of months. I wanted to make the challenge and it was cold outside, so I decided to look for round objects around the house. This was the most obvious.

Exposure:      0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture:     f/25.0
Focal Length:     17 mm
Focal Length:     17.3 mm
ISO Speed:     320
Exposure Bias:     +1/3 EV
Flash:     No Flash

All of these pictures were hand held because I knew the camera would do well with a tripod. The first set of pictures are in Downtown Dallas. I hadn’t been there in a while and didn’t know they completed the park, so I decided to stop and get a couple of shots. They had so many other nighttime shots I wanted to get, but finding a place to park for a few minutes was tough.

The second set of photos were taken in San Antonio. I’ve finally started taking the white balance off Auto and think I may start doing it more often. The camera does a good job of choosing the best setting, but sometimes manual is the way to go.

The third set of photos were taken New Year’s Eve. My wife and I got a chance to go out without the kids for dinner and a movie. After having dinner in Plano, we took a little stroll around the Shops at Legacy. I had my camera and decided to get some shots of the area. It was cold, but nice that night.

For those photo enthusiasts, if you click the view on flickr link, you’ll be able to see the camera settings I used.

A silhouette is a view of a object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. The term has been extended to describe the sight or image of a person, object or scene that is back lit, and appears dark against a lighter background.

Many photographers use the technique of photographing people, objects or landscape elements against the light, to achieve an image in silhouette. The light might be natural, such as a sunset or an open doorway, a technique known as contre-jour or it might be contrived in a studio.

Quite simply, your challenge this time is to take a photo where your main subject is a silhouette with no discernible features visible. It should be black and outlined by the light situated behind it. The subject and post processing is up to each individual.

I think this was one of the firsts challenges that I’d gotten a decent number of votes in. I knew what I needed to do to get a silhouette, but I needed a subject. Well, once again I got my little model to help out.

He had just gotten ready for bed and I asked him to put an ornament on the Christmas tree. While he was busy finding a spot, I shot a couple of photos for the challenge.

I added a black faded border around the picture and played around with the levels to enhance the glow from the lights. I think I got a decent shot. View the image at flickr to see the camera settings.

One photography trick that will help your subject stand out is selective focus. With this technique, we can choose one part of the image to be sharp and in focus, while the rest of the image is kept out of focus.

Using a larger aperture, say 2.8 or 5.0, can leave the background out of focus while keeping the main subject sharp and force the eye to it. Of course the distance between the subject and the background will impact what aperture you use.

For this contest show me selective focus by blurring out the background to draw more attention to the main subject.

While Macro lenses may give some people an unfair advantage in this challenge, I encourage everyone to give it a try even if they don’t own a macro lens….like me.

Any new photo where Selective Focus is achieved is welcome. The subject and the post processing is entirely up to the individual.

It was a last minute idea for me to take this shot. I’d been busy that week and didn’t want to miss another challenge, so I took a picture of the item I use the most. I used my 20mm Kenko Extension Tube and 18-55mm lens.

My son had just recently drawn a picture of a monster in school. He wanted us to put it on the refrigerator, so I used it as the subject of my challenge entry. The only real editing was a crop and a little extra contrast.

Taking indoor, low light photos is always a challenge when you don’t have a good lens, so most of the pictures were doctored up a little. I didn’t break out my external flash, so I used the on-camera one which had to be toned down some in post processing. I also found auto focusing was an issue at times, but the Nikon did pretty good with picking out the right settings in Priority mode.

Here’s the original post I did about the event at theotalks.net.