Photo copyright Ric Mensch, LVPC Member

I added the water in ACDSee Pro v3 with their preset special effects and had the water start at the bottom of the door. I also enhanced the color vibrance by 20% with the same program.

I then selected just the house, including in the water, in Photoshop CS3 and upped the saturation just in that area by 25%. I then selected the entire image and upped the Saturation by another 25%. Then I selected the Brightness/Contrast in Photoshop CS3 and upped the Contrast by 50% and reduced the Brightness by 40%.

Congratulations, Ric!

Background – do you want the insect to appear against a solid color background (could be as simple as a piece of paper) or in its natural surroundings.  Of course, how successful you are will depend on how quickly the insect moves.  If using a solid background, you may want to pick a slower moving insect or put the insect in a container (like a white cup) to give you a reasonable chance of getting the shot.

Finally, don’t be afraid to do some research on your own.  Google “How to photograph insects” and “Macro photography” for some great tips.  I will also put a post on the forums where members can post links to good articles.

And the number one tip – have fun!!!
Judy Zabrecky

Photo copyright Amber Clausi, LVPC Member

This picture was captured in my front yard.  It was a beautiful day and the tulips were just calling to be photographed.  I thought it would fit the theme of the monthly assignment well, although getting the framing of the shot was quite difficult without being able to see through the viewfinder.  I’m sure my neighbors were wondering what I was doing!  Of the ones I captured that day, this was my favorite.

No software?  Think creatively…what can you do without software?  How about downloading one of the many free trial of Nik or other software and experimenting with it.  Please remember to keep notes on what you did to the picture because if you win, we would like you to share your techniques.

Click here to download the full-size image.

Upload your modified photo before May 31 at 7pm.  Good luck and have fun!

I rarely have time to take pictures of sunrises, so I am still learning how to shoot them. I am sure I did everything all wrong, but I really like this picture. A few things that I know I did correctly was to use a tripod, my camera remote so I didn’t shake my camera, and a lens hood. (I know there was still some lens flare on the rocks, but I couldn’t figure out how to avoid this). I also thought carefully about my composition and what I wanted to include in my picture keeping in mind the “elements” theme. I changed my angle several times before choosing it. I was hoping to get spectacular colors as the sun came up, but instead it was a soft, muted color.

Tony and I rented a hotel room in Ocean City, MD where we could walk right out our patio door onto the boardwalk. I decided to take advantage of this and get up early in the morning. I checked the time for the sunrise, set my alarm, and made sure I had everything ready before going to bed. In the morning, all I had to do was set up the tripod and wait for a beautiful sunrise. Tony and I really enjoyed our trip to see the wild horses on Assateague Island. We also enjoyed walking up and down the boardwalk. In addition, we had a great meal at a restaurant called the Dough Roller and visited Berlin, MD where The Runaway Bride was filmed. I would recommend this trip to everyone.

• Nikon D50
• Focal Length 70.0 mm
• Exposure Aperature Priority 1/25
• White Balance Cloudy
• 3/20/2010 – 6:46:07 a.m.
• JPEG

Sometimes we worry so much about our settings – what ISO should I use? What f stop? – that we forget that changing the angle of our camera can make a powerful difference to a picture. So this month, get out of your comfort zone, get down on the ground and see what you can shoot.
Rules – Here are the only rules that apply:

1. The picture must be taken between April 1, 2010 and April 30, 2010.
2. The camera must be as low to the ground as you can get it. Don’t forget, you don’t necessarily need to look through the viewfinder (oh, now that is getting you out of your comfort zone, isn’t it?)
3. Post process as needed to create your “vision” but no photoshopping the photo to make it look like the camera was close to the ground – it actually has to be there.
4. HAVE FUN!!!

This was taken with my Sony A200 using my Sony 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 lens – F5 – 400 – 0.8. Post work consisted of cropping and converting to b/w.

The willing model is my eldest son Nevin. He was a good sounding board when I first approached him with my original idea and readily agreed to be my model. He made the cross for me out of scrap wood from his home remodeling project. Lighting was a simple work light behind the cross to get the bold shadow on the wall behind him. I sat across the table and took 10 photos. This was the first of the ten photos and my favorite. (Nevin’s too!)

Oh, and the bottle and glass were actually filled with black coffee.

We always keep a basket of fruit on our kitchen counter. This is a simple picture of the fruit. I placed the camera on the counter to take the photo. No additional lighting was used. I did, however, modify the lighting on the basket in lightroom using the brush tool, painting a lighter exposure on areas of the basket to bring out the “woody” look.

Thank you for selecting my shot.

This was taken at Hawk Mountain’s north lookout on one of the weekends during prime migration season, which also happened to be a fairly prime weekend for the foliage in the area. We were sitting on one of the rocks farthest out and right at the edge so that we had a good view of any birds that came through, but none really came close enough to get a decent shot at.

This fellow came hiking up the trail and stretched out on the rock below us. I saw the photo and nearly fell off my rock trying to get my second body (with the 10-22mm) out of my backpack. I shot probably 12 frames at various focal lengths, orientations, and apertures, and this one was the best of the bunch. (1/25s, f/8 @14mm, ISO 100) If memory serves, I also had a circular polarizer on at the time.