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Of the thousands of photo apps available to us, the panorama apps category seems to be growing fairly quickly.  Panorama shots are difficult to achieve through normal means – you need a lens for that – and even more difficult to achieve on the tiny camera found on our iPhones and Androids. Sometimes simply turning your phone to landscape mode still doesn’t capture the view you desire.  For super-wide shots, or panorama photographs, you’ll need an app capable of stitching together multiple pictures together to form a solid, well-compiled shot.

My favorite? Autostich . I don’t take that many panorama shots, and you don’t either, I’m sure. This app stays on my iPhone just in case I need it. After visiting a friend’s horrifically messy dorm room, I felt the need to capture the entire scene in all of it’s glory, so I launched the app. The result?

The resulting panorama clocks in at around 4200 pixels wide. Shrunken down to fit on this website, the results are not as mystifying, but the message is clear. You have to be careful to keep your camera at the same angle as you shoot, or you might experience some slightly disorienting “bending” (look at the bed above.)

On the plus side, the app takes absolutely no time to get a hang of, which is one of the reasons I recommend it. Ease-of-use is key. Panorama shots seem prevalent in travelers’ portfolios; the need to capture the entire scene of somewhere new and exciting demands an app that we can open up, click a button, and get to work.

Pretty simple, no?

There are three buttons on the home screen, two of which get the most use from me. “Shoot Panorama” takes you right to the camera. With Autostitch, you don’t really care to see your pictures after you take them. You’re encouraged to leave about a 30% overlap between pictures, but besides that simple rule, just shoot, turn, shoot, turn, and repeat until you’ve taken enough pictures of your scene.

Click “Stitch” and your shots are lined up, rendered, and stitched together in a relatively slow process (be patient.) Thankfully, we get to watch our panorama be stitched together right before our eyes, and it’s safe to say – the results are always astounding.

Before saving, you need to crop your picture into a huge, long rectangle. The stitching process often leaves the edges aligned improperly (we’re stitching pictures together here, people!) Even this is made easy, as the app has an “auto-crop” feature that chops off just enough of the awkward edges to form a nice, wide, rectangular shot. Naturally, the app can save to your camera roll or upload to various social networks. There’s also a neat feature where you can send the panorama directly to another app for further editing (such as my previously-reviewed TiltShift Gen.)

Also on the home page is an option for selecting previous-taked photos to be stitched together, an option present in just about every photo app out there, and a “My Panoramas” button, which takes you to a page with saved copies of previously stitched panoramas, in case you’ve lost your saved copies or just need to come back to old photos for further stitching or editing. This feature also comes in handy if you’re reviewing the app and need to resave every panorama you’ve ever taken!

Besides the occasional use for extreme-cases, I see Autostitch being a best buy before a long hiking trip or an over-the-mountain type of adventure. This app will prove to be a sure-fire way to impress your friends by going above and beyond a simple landscape-mode shot of that beautiful sunset. This app can capture the entirety of just about any scene you’ll stumble upon and will do it quickly and easily. As far as panorama apps go, Autostitch receives my approval.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a forest to trim.

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Other Links:

"Rain" by juredolzan

"Let The Rain Pour Down" by appleplusskeleton

"Bokeh Rain" by casheefoo

"Umbrella And Rain" by buthy-13

"Rain Of Light" by moth-called-marigold

"Heavy Rain" by stamatisgr

"A Train In The Rain" by josemelim

"Sunset Rain I" by bep-art

"Dark Rain" by jay-cougar-prints

"Rain City" by elasias

Each Friday we will post a Weekend Photo Focus (also hash tagged on Twitter as #weekendphotofocus) on a certain subject, something to spark your creativity. An empty weekend for a photographer, is like an empty canvas, we could always use something to do when we have nothing planned right? So with this in mind we created this series, one that will get you out doing what you love. The premise is simple: snap some photos over the weekend dealing with the weekends focus, and if you send them to us, or Tweet them to us, we will post them for others to see. Having a focus will help us as artists & photographers see things that we might not always see, make us take a shot at something we might otherwise have not. In seeing other photogs chase after the same focus, it can only breed even more creativity in our own work.

At the weekends close, we will follow up our weekend focus, with what we found on the Web (including some of the photos sent from you) that falls in line with our focus. We hope you join in the fun and help us spread the creativity.

Example of a tweet to us:

@fuelphotography Here’s my submission for this week’s #weekendphotofocus, New Life & Spring: http://bit.ly/aY1oC7

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Each Monday, we’ll highlight one indie photographer whose body of work deserves special recognition. Please enjoy their photography here, and make it a point to enjoy the rest of their work on their website.

This week’s Indie Spotlight features Nick Gatens from Louisville, Kentucky in the United States. Nick is a macro photographer at heart who gives us a very different and pleasing perspective on things that we see everyday but rarely take time to stop and appreciate their beauty.

Kit:

Nick currently shoots with a Canon Digital Rebel T2i, he owns three lenses – a100mm f/2.8 macro, the 50mm f/1.8, and the 18-55mm kit lens. Nick’s favorite lens is his 100mm f/2.8 macro, and it is particularly suited to his style of photography. Macro photography was the main reason Nick wanted to become a photographer; macro photography mirrors his lifestyle as his modus is to take the time to appreciate the little things in life – and it’s the exact same when he has his macro lens in his hands.

Workflow:

Nick takes on the difficult task of  shooting the majority of his macro shots handheld, using natural light. he shoots using full manual settings on his camera except for sometimes utilizing auto focus.  Nick avoids carrying a tripod or a huge backpack full of gear, so he has  adapted his shooting style accordingly.  Nick prefers the control that the manual settings afford him; he finds that shooting in manual mode forces him to slow down and put more thought into composition.  Like most experienced photographers he also shoots in RAW.  In his post production flow, Nick strictly use Lightroom for any adjustments, starting with a handful of presets.  Having these self-customized presets allows Nick to determine  where he might be able to take an image, after this determination he then starts at the top of the develop module and drags almost every single slider to both extremes to see what effect they have on the image. Though Nick often has a preconceived idea of where he wants to go with an image at the time of capture, he sometimes stumbles into better results by letting the process take him somewhere that he didn’t consider.

Tips, Tricks and Techniques:

While shooting macros, Nick often will first focus his lens on his subject, be it auto or manual focus, and then physically move himself and his camera to achieve his final focus and composition, naturally this is another reason while a tripod does not work in his particular style of shooting, but his style of shooting requires the care of a surgeon and nerves of steel.  In composing his image Nick often moves  toward or away from the subject, crouches down or raises up. This is particularly difficult because slightest movement can entirely change a macro shot but Nick likes the ability to have  more control over his results, rather than trying to keep his camera in a single spot and focusing only with the lens itself.

Lessons Learned:

Nick learned to shoot ‘through’ things with his  macro lens.  Prior a breakthrough, Nick used to make his macro subject the most prominent part of his foreground (and would often remove items in front of his subject for that reason).   As Nick says “For the longest time, it never occurred to me that using a very shallow depth of field would throw the foreground out of focus just as much as the background; as soon as I realized how to use this to my advantage, I began to use it often to add even greater depth to a photograph.”

Inspiration:

As will all great photographers, Nick finds inspiration in the work of other photographers.  The first of two of the photographers that Nick most admires is Steve Shaluta who is the person responsible for Nick picking up a camera; before Nick even owned a camera Steve encouraged him, answered his questions and taught Nick the ins and outs of working as a photographer. Fleur Olby is the second of Nick’s inspirational sources he gains great inspiration from her work photographing flora.   Nick is so impressed with Fleur that he says “”her work never fails to inspire me. She is able to show me things I haven’t seen in plants that I’ve photographed countless times myself.”

What’s Next:

Nick’s love of photography encourages him to want to shoot any and everywhere but his current project is one in which he is attempting to shoot in all 50 states of the United States before moving on to Canada.  In Nick’s macro photography he always finds something unexpected to shoot at any location, he revels in capturing exquisite detail at any location be it flora/fauna or architecture.  While this doesn’t necessarily mean macro in the traditional sense that most people think of.  Nick’s often uses his macro lens to capture detail in a larger scene that may be beyond the capability of less pristine lenses. Nick also has a strong desire to dive into street photography.  As we photographers know this takes particular courage to overcome fear of rejection and being rebuffed, but like many of us Nick is in the process of getting over his fear in order to meet this goal.  Nick has also current is engaged in  a very special project that he hopes will open doors for him during the course of the year.

Links:

You can keep up-to-date with Nick’s macro photography and special projects  online on his Google+ page or at his website.

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Rain; it makes you soggy, uncomfortable and causes ridiculous amounts of traffic. It always appears on your bad days, making them into terrible days. Only a handful of people say they like rain, and even then it is only enjoyable when you have the time to actually go out and get soaked and look like a wet dog… if you are on your way to work for an eight hour shift, or off to meet a date, rain is always unwelcome. For this weekends focus, however, we are asking you to make some time (if it rains!) to go outside and have fun in the rain. Make sure to protect yourself and your equipment! (Obviously, this weekends focus is relying on the weather, so if there is no rain then feel free to experiment with water. Think outside the box, can you make interesting rain-like effects with a hose pipe, for example?)

"The Rain" by ojosverde

"Rain" by iamfragile

"It's In The Rain" by forbiddensorrow

"November Rain" by onechristina

"After The Rain" by kelvinlu

"The Rain" by menoevil

"Rain" by kle-m

"Rain" by skippiethebush

"The Rain Rain Rain Came Down" by littlemisslove

Each Friday we will post a Weekend Photo Focus (also hash tagged on Twitter as #weekendphotofocus) on a certain subject; something to spark your creativity. An empty weekend for a photographer is like an empty canvas – we could always use something to do when we have nothing planned, right?

The premise is simple; snap some photographs over the weekend dealing with the weekend’s focus, and if you send them to us (or Tweet them to us) we will post them up in the follow-up article. Having a focus will help us as artists and photographers to see things that we might not always see, and make us take a shot at something we might otherwise have not.

At the weekends close, we will follow up our weekend focus,  with what we found on the Web, and your submissions, that fall in line with our focus. We hope you join in the fun and help us spread the creativity.

example of a tweet to us:

@fuelphotography Here’s my subm

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Hello Readers:

What a busy time it has been in the photography world, the purchase of Instagram, the redesign of Google +, and a raft of new cameras being released from many manufacturers. Are you ready for a busy shooting season Summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere on June 21, in the Southern Hemisphere, however, it marks the start of Winter.

If you have any questions abour preparing your equipment for the season or want to get tips on shooting a particular type of scene/setup be sure to read our Ask The Coach series here at FYP, in addition to all the great advice our professional photographer Dawn post from user submitted questions, you can also ask her questions of your own by emailing her at coach@fuelyourphotography.com, she’ll be happy to respond to any of your questions and answers are posted monthly on the third Thursday of each month.  I encourage you to make use of this great resource!

If you’ve had your equipment stored for a while, now is the best time to check your equipment to make sure that it is in good working order.  It can be rather disheartening when you pick up your equipment for a shoot only to find that you are unable to use it because it is not working at its capability or is broken.  I know this part is hindsight but the manner you store your equipment is very important, neither heat nor cold are your cameras friends.  Heat will not only cause your camera rubber to become sticky but extreme heat will also cause the glue in your lenses to soften and therefore may make them render a soft focus even when you don’t intend to do so.

For this reason you should also never leave your camera in an parked automobile.  Cold is also an enemy to your camera, if you are shooting in a situation where it is 50 degrees or lower outdoors you should place your camera in a sealed plastic bag before returning indoors so condensation forms on the plastic bag rather than the internals of your camera and lenses, leave it in the bag for at least 15 minutes.  When storing your equipement you should make use of those little silicia packets that you find in the boxes when you purchase new shoes and hard drives etc.  The keep humidity down when you have your equipment in its bag and prevent mildew on the lenses.  All that done, GREAT now lets move on to what you are really here for.

This month we have a great line up for you as always.  In addtion to our Indie Spotlight that showcases new and inspirational photographers each Monday we also have the Weekend Photo Focus on Friday to challenge you to get out with your camera at the weekend and shoot the images in the challenge and see your images posted in the Weekend Photo Find every Monday right here at FYP.  This month we have an app review by Conor, Andrew assist us in choose the right photography blog, Hugh show your more tricks in Lightroom you can explore the series here, Dominic shows you some advanced Photoshop tricks with the Firefly series, Brooke gives us an insightful article about kids and photography. in addition to our monthly FYP Photography Contest that features phoneography this month.

We are also looking for a few writers to contribute a monthly article if you like to write and want to share your experiences with others and get exposure for your work drop me an email editor@fuelyourphotography.com, lets talk about how you can fit into our FYP family.  If there are topics you’d love to see us cover feel free to drop me a line I’m sure one of our capable writers would be more than happy to cover your suggested topic, you can email me at editor@fuelyourphotography.com.  Also let me know what you’ve been shooting or intend to shoot, we all have a bucket list, one of mine is to shoot in Africa, Lebanon and the Greek Islands, what are yours?

I’m looking forward to hearing from you, take care!

- Jeremy

Editor-in-Chief

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I have a simple hypothesis.

“Parents often condition their kids to begrudge photography”.

Have you ever found yourself in the following scenario?
Your photography sensor goes off inside you and you must get a picture. Either your kids are doing something adorable or you’re having a great time at some memorable event.
You grab the camera, eager to capture the amazing images already playing around in your head.
But wait!
Your kids aren’t doing exactly what the images in your head portray…
Let’s direct them instead!
“Suzy! Suzy!” Several pitches and cheerful calls later you have her brief attention.
“Look over here!” “Turn around!” “Stand like this!”
“Smile!”
“Stand a little closer to your brother!”
The orders are innocent. And I’ve repeated this scene in real life a million times. But here’s what happens:

Kids don’t like orders.

And as the parent, we likely already give a lot of orders throughout the day. The camera begins to be associated with more rules and commands, and it often times interrupts the flow of what was already a great shot before we got all involved in trying to create perfection. Is it any wonder that some kids despair when they see the camera coming out of the bag?
But how do you achieve the pictures you have in mind without coaching?

1. Drop the instructions and let things happen naturally.

Not only can we capture some meaningful imagery when we step back, but we also condition our kids to not mind the camera being present–when it’s not just a tool that comes with commands or interruptions. How wonderful if they hardly knew it was even there!

2. Learn to be okay with photos not looking at the camera.

Often times the strongest storytelling images are a result of something happening and catching an uninterrupted moment. Do we remember to look for those or do we often barge in with the perfect photo concept to execute?

3. Quietly integrate the camera into your activities.

Not every picture needs to have a person in it! By beginning to focus on some of the small details of an activity together, you can quietly integrate the camera into a setting without drawing attention before turning the camera on your kids. The more natural the camera presence becomes, the less inhibited our subjects will be.

4. Join in the fun and let your real life INTERACTION bring the REACTION that you are hoping for.

Rather than asking for smiles, use the opportunity to be playful. Making your interaction something the kids eagerly anticipate and enjoy will bring authentic smiles, laughter, and emotion. Most importantly, we begin conditioning our kids to have a more positive response to the camera.

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Weekend Photo Focus Submissions:

"Song 1" by vpickering

Other Links:

"Into The Nightstreet" by fogke

"It Was A Snowy Night" by strany

"Surfers Paradise Christmas Eve" by drewyboy

"The Shadow Of Steigtind" by sindreahn

"Niagara Falls At Night" by kla91

"White Night" by strany

"Urban Marina" by sunnydayze

"Silent Beauty" by dgxxl

"Night" by odpium

Each Friday we will post a Weekend Photo Focus (also hash tagged on Twitter as #weekendphotofocus) on a certain subject, something to spark your creativity. An empty weekend for a photographer, is like an empty canvas, we could always use something to do when we have nothing planned right? So with this in mind we created this series, one that will get you out doing what you love. The premise is simple: snap some photos over the weekend dealing with the weekends focus, and if you send them to us, or Tweet them to us, we will post them for others to see. Having a focus will help us as artists & photographers see things that we might not always see, make us take a shot at something we might otherwise have not. In seeing other photogs chase after the same focus, it can only breed even more creativity in our own work.

At the weekends close, we will follow up our weekend focus, with what we found on the Web (including some of the photos sent from you) that falls in line with our focus. We hope you join in the fun and help us spread the creativity.

Example of a tweet to us:

@fuelphotography Here’s my submission for this week’s #weekendphotofocus, New Life & Spring: http://bit.ly/aY1oC7

Advertise here via BSA

Each Monday, we’ll highlight one indie photographer whose body of work deserves special recognition. Please enjoy their photography here, and make it a point to enjoy the rest of their work on their website

"The key to a pleasant artistic or realistic HDR image is to remember that using HDR processing software is just the beginning." -- Hamish Carpenter.

This week’s Indie Spotlight features a talented photographer from West Bloomfield, MI, USA. Hamish Carpenter’s style is a bit different than any other High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos we’ve seen. His style of photography tends to deviate towards capturing eye-popping colors to help draw the eye into the scene — sometimes bordering on fantasy-like. This is usually achieved by using HDR technique to combine multiple over and under exposed photos of the same scene as he prefers them to be have more artistic feel, although there are some exceptions to the rule; especially in wildlife photography where a more natural shots are desitred.

Kit:

Hamish owns 2 Canon cameras, a Canon 7D DSLR and a great premium compact Canon Powershot S95 but most of the time, you’ll find him shooting away with the Canon 7D fitted withCanon EF 24-105mm F4L IS USM standard zoom lens. The lens is an extremely versatile lens which allows him to shoot from a fairly wide to an adequate telephoto range. He prefers to use natural light most of the time but he’ll use a speedlight depending on the situation.

“The fact that the lens has a constant aperture of F4 throughout allows me to shoot in all but the most poorly lit environment.”

Workflow:

The majority of his editing work begins with Adobe Lightroom before being sent to Photomatix for HDR processing. He moves on to Adobe Photoshop for general cleanup as well as masking, before doing the final touch up using his favourite tool from Nik Software Suite, Color Efex Pro 4 together with Topaz Adjust. All of his final HDR images are usually completed with a conservative vignette.

“These programs are amazing at adding final effects to an image to make it truly standout.”

Tips, Tricks and Techniques:

Hamish believes that the key to a pleasant artistic or realistic HDR image is to remember that using HDR processing software is just the beginning. When processing HDR, depending on the subject, the tonemapped image rarely looks complete. There may be area of ghosting, color shifts, halos, etc so his ideal method of correcting these problems is by using layers in Adobe Photoshop. Once the tonemapped image is processed, he will import it along with the original 5, 7 or 9 exposures into Adobe Photoshop on seperate layers. He will then use masks to reveal the best parts of each image, combining them all into a well balanced and toned composite image.

“Using layers and masks, local adjustments can be made rather than global adjustments to the entire image.”

Local adjustments are then applied to correct color balances, ghosting (if necessary) and definitely halos which are usually seen in areas of high contrast where dark and light colors meet (this is usually seen in clear blue skies). His method in fixing unsightly halos is to mask in those troublesome areas from other images. He uses a couple of third-party plugins (such as NIK, Topaz, etc) at the end of his post-processing to give the image that extra punch.

“When using third party plugins as final effects for photos, it is best to apply these effects selectively so they only affect certain parts of the image to achieve the best results.”

Lessons Learned:

Hamish recently discovered a special technique while he was photographing some trees in a park surrounded by greenish-yellow grass. Due to the lack of lights, he was forced to use low shutter speed and it turns out that moving the camera up and down while the shutter is open, creates an interesting effect. As he reviewed the image, he noticed a rather beautiful abstract rendition of color caused by the blurring of the brown tree trunks, combined with the greenish-yellow grass. The technique is far from perfect but he will continue practicing it. ”During daylight, an ND filter is ideal to produce the slower shutter speed needed to produce this effect while moving the camera.” After doing some research, he founds out that the technique can be applied to many different scenes and objects in order to produce an abstract, artistic result.

Inspiration:

Hamish has a long list of photographers whom he admires for their captivating and inspiring shots but 2 of them is on top of the list, Trey Ratcliff and Scott Kelby.

Trey Ratcliff has been known as the master of HDR photography. Hamish admires the fact that not only does Trey takes beautiful images but also enjoys educating fellow photographers with some of his tricks and techniques and always reminds everyone that beauty is in all around us and it’s just a matter of searching our cities to find objects and scenes to photograph.

Scott Kelby has been a household name for many of us for a long time. It’s still a mystery to Hamish as to how Scott accomplishes everything he does in a single day. “Scott is also an amazing educator, arguably the best out there today amongst a bevy of talented photographers.” Scott has created a training medium known as Kelby Training, where he provides video tutorials from the world’s best photographers in their respective fields — from Macro Photography, Wedding, Automative to Sports Photography and it has become Hamish’s main source for all of his photography learning needs. “I cannot recommend Kelby Training enough for anyone beginning to learn photography.”

What’s Next:

Hamish has been a sports aficionado, having played several sports throughout high school and college. He has taken a couple of shots at some golf tournaments during practice rounds but if given the chance, he would relish the opportunity to photograph world’s best golf players on the PGA Tour during a major tournament. “The combination of the lush landscape and natural surroundings along with the world class talent could lead to a plethora of tremendous photo opportunities.”

There seems to be a common approach in regards to photographing strangers — from afar. He admires those who can take a 35mm lens and approach a stranger to take their photos and would someday take up the courage to approach a random stranger on the street to photograph them and capture their essential uniqueness which separates us all from one another.

Links:

Hamish Carpenter’s work can be found online via his personal website as well as his Flicker account. You can also follow him on twitter @hcarp.

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What is a Supermoon you ask, it is the incidence of a full moon in conjunction with a particularly close orbit  to the earth.  A Supermoon is 30% brighter and more than 10% larger than a usual full  moon.

Get your tripods and remote releases out and capture this unique event this weekend, it should be noted that while the event is being promoted in popular media as happening on Saturday the moon will actually reach its peak on Sunday at 3:36AM.  If you miss it the remaining opportunities this year  will be on June 4th, November 13th and December 13th.

Share your captures with us in the comments section below.

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The chosen theme for this weekends focus will be: night time. During the night, a lot goes on that most of us usually miss out on, because night time is for sleeping… or is it? Why not stay up past your bedtime one night when you have some free time, and see if you can catch anything that you would not usually find during the waking hours.

"The Shortest Night Of The Year" by obishon

"Night Light In Iceland" by autumn-ethereal

"Walk In The Night" by ferice

"Night Is The New Day" by autumn-ethereal

"Into The Night" by antikersg-p-photo

"Bruxelles By Night" by zardo

"Night" by psiheya

"Still Of The Night" by since91

"Night Life" by closer-to-heaven

Each Friday we will post a Weekend Photo Focus (also hash tagged on Twitter as #weekendphotofocus) on a certain subject; something to spark your creativity. An empty weekend for a photographer is like an empty canvas – we could always use something to do when we have nothing planned, right?

The premise is simple; snap some photographs over the weekend dealing with the weekend’s focus, and if you send them to us (or Tweet them to us) we will post them up in the follow-up article. Having a focus will help us as artists and photographers to see things that we might not always see, and make us take a shot at something we might otherwise have not.

At the weekends close, we will follow up our weekend focus,  with what we found on the Web, and your submissions, that fall in line with our focus. We hope you join in the fun and help us spread the creativity.

example of a tweet to us:

@fuelphotography Here’s my submission for this week’s #weekendphotofocus, New Life & Spring: http://bit.ly/aY1oC7

Advertise here via BSA

The work of photographers is every bit as visual as that of designers, sculptors and others in similar fields — but if you look around at the websites of 100 random photographers, you might be surprised to see how few have a really strong logo designed by someone with the skills and expertise to create a memorable brand.

Every business needs a great logo, but photographers perhaps need one even more than most — as potential customers are going to want to get visually strong results from you, you need to look sharp from every angle. Here are 50 photography logos that might inspire you and help you figure out what direction you’d like to go before you start the commissioning process.

Hunter Sprague

Ruben Parra

Photo Carrier

Louis Renoh

Lion Photos

Mamoko

Hand Snap

Konstantin Dori

Ezra Millstein

ocean

Peter Ivancak

Photocloud

Say Cheese

Holly Nicholson

Michael Jin

DreamArt

David Corbera

Hanna Monika

Five Shot

I cherish you

DGTL

Gayla Elizabeth

Russian landscape

Apelsin Photo

Bookever

Desiree Nickole

Olga Shulezhko

Carnivore Photo

The Property photography

Fisheye

Happy Booth

Flask Photography

picshooter

Russian Photo Contest

Desiree Dillard

Photomonkee

Nadya Kulagina

Soren Rask

Weddin Photographers

Flick Shooter

Flashwire

everti

Millie Holloman

Glorydays Design

Abshire Photography

flutterpics

Giancini

Yummy

Typophotography

fotoox

Looking for a logo?

Find photo logo designs and service logo designs at BrandCrowd.

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"Green car" by denkyo

"Bright Colours" by kassie-x

"White As Snow" by xkimjoanne

"Curasao Blue" by zzaarr

"High Contrast Ideas" by onixa

"Zebra Contrast" by retrofuzz

"Yellow" by j-adree

Each Friday we will post a Weekend Photo Focus (also hash tagged on Twitter as #weekendphotofocus) on a certain subject, something to spark your creativity. An empty weekend for a photographer, is like an empty canvas, we could always use something to do when we have nothing planned right? So with this in mind we created this series, one that will get you out doing what you love. The premise is simple: snap some photos over the weekend dealing with the weekends focus, and if you send them to us, or Tweet them to us, we will post them for others to see. Having a focus will help us as artists & photographers see things that we might not always see, make us take a shot at something we might otherwise have not. In seeing other photogs chase after the same focus, it can only breed even more creativity in our own work.

At the weekends close, we will follow up our weekend focus, with what we found on the Web (including some of the photos sent from you) that falls in line with our focus. We hope you join in the fun and help us spread the creativity.

Example of a tweet to us:

@fuelphotography Here’s my submission for this week’s #weekendphotofocus, New Life & Spring: http://bit.ly/aY1oC7

Advertise here via BSA

Hello folks and welcome to the May 2012 contest!  We are happy to partner with 500px.com and they are awarding an annual account to the first prize winner each month in this series of the contest. The winner will also be featured in the Indie Spotlight at FuelYourPhotography.com.

April Contest Winners

The competition in the FYP/500px Contest is always robust and this month we have another surprise for you.    With such vigorous competition in April’s Beautiful Color theme, congratulations are in order for the winners; Boris Frković – first place,  Lori Myers – second place and Deidre Mayers – third place. Boris has copped the top spot in the contest for the second time.  The top three photographs are featured in this article.  Special thanks also to our judges for the February contest, Former FYP Editor-in-Chief – Ron Heerkens Jr.,  FYP Indie Spotlight writers – Hafez Kamal and Wendy Wagner, FYP writer - Andrew Iles and Amber Fife.

This Months Contest

This months theme is “On the move”, we all have cameras in our mobile device but how often do we use them? This month your challenge is to use your mobile device to take your image for submission to the contest, you are allowed to post process the image if you wish but it MUST originate on a mobile device and can be any subject you wish.  Remember to watermark your images with your email address and your 500px.com account!

Below is a brief highlight of the rules to get you started, however, a full copy of the rules including the judging criteria can be found as a document on the Facebook Group Page.

Boris Frković - 1st Place

• The Contest is open to both amateur and professional photographers from around the world.
• You certify that you are the legal owner of the work submitted.
• Entries are accepted up to midnight United States Eastern Standard Time on the 21st of the corresponding month.

The No-Holds-Barred Rule

Feel free to express your creative vision by any means: any type of camera or lens, subject, light, composition, perspective, processing techniques, and anything else you can think of to create a meaningful, impactful, and beautiful work is perfectly acceptable. Submitted images may be from any date and not necessarily limited to the contest period.

Lori Myers - 2nd Place

• All images must be submitted in JPEG format and should be clearly watermarked with your email address AND your  active 500px.com site (IE http://500px.com/YOURNAMEHERE) at which you can be notified should you be the lucky winner.
• Images are to be submitted (in  high resolution if available) by joining the “FYP Photography Contest” Facebook group page, and then uploading to the folder for the corresponding folder IE this month’s folder is “May 2012 contest”.
• Maximum of 2 Images to be submitted per person (submitting more may result in disqualification of all images).
• Photographs will be judged on: Impact, composition, technique, presentation, originality and viewer input (comments/likes)

The No-Rights-Grab Rule

By entering this contest, Fuel Your Photography to post your submitted image(s) on our respective sites and blogs, along with your name. You also agree to provide your name and mailing information in order to facilitate delivery of the prizes. You retain all other rights.

Deirdre K Mayers - 3rd Place

Judging Period

Judging starts on the 22nd of the month and winners are announced in the article posting the new theme on the 1st of the following month.

The Judges’ decision is FINAL

I’m looking forward to seeing some fantastic entries from you, good luck!

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Each Monday, we’ll highlight one indie photographer whose body of work deserves special recognition. Please enjoy their photography here, and make it a point to enjoy the rest of their work on their website

This week’s Indie Spotlight shines on our March’s Minimalist themed contest winner, Paul Hayes (aka DJ Hazy). He travels a bit all over, but he mainly resides in Australia. Paul describes his style as schizophrenic to say the least.

Kit:

Inside Paul’s camera bag, you will find a Canon 500d (Rebel Xti), which he has had for over three years now. Though he keeps meaning to upgrade, it is serving his purpose for now. His heart is set on the new Cannon 5D Mark III, but he needs to save up for that one. Paul started with several point and shoots, but he kept losing them.

He has two lenses: a Canon L series 24-105 f4 and the EF-S 10-22 . Even though he thinks the 24-105 looks sexier with the red ring, he finds the wide angle is very rarely off his camera; it suits his shooting style.

Workflow:

Paul’s workflow varies from picture to picture, depending upon the result he is aiming towards. He tends to work at a bit of a frenetic pace and does things on instinct. Quite often, he will get to the end result and think it is nice, but then he can not even remember how he reached it. However, a typical routine starts by opening in raw and making just basic adjustments: exposure, a bit of contrast, small bit of clarity and vibrance. He then pulls down the noise a little, if it needs it, and adds a tiny bit of capture sharpening.

In Photoshop, he then runs another noise program over it again, even if it does not seem to need it. Nik Software DFine is Paul’s plugin of choice. He also uses Noiseware, if the noise is particularly savage. He then tweaks the levels and curves a little bit more to give it more drama. Where he goes from here depends on the picture. If he is looking for something really punchy and a little extreme, he finds Topaz Adjust 5 is his go to product. He can get some amazing results with it, but he is learning that less is more when it comes to Topaz Adjust. For slightly more subtle effects, he mainly uses Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Once the picture is looking how Paul wants, he normally does some localised dodging and burning, adds a vignette and then runs over some last minute sharpening – either Hi-pass, his preferred, or smart sharpen/unsharp mask. He adds a border to the finished product, and it is good to go. He is just starting to experiment with Fractalius, which he loves; although he feels it is a bit unwieldy.

Tips, Tricks and Techniques:

Paul seems to embrace every new photo fad that comes along (HDR, tilt-shift, etc.) to varying degrees of success. He has really enjoyed getting back to basics with black and white, though, especially split toning.

He enjoyed pushing Topaz Adjust and moving his photography towards more art than photo. He especially likes blending elements of the original shot back into an extremely altered image. Paul says purists hate it, but we live in a digital world now and the only thing that matters to him is the end result.

Lesson’s Learned:

He is not sure there are any effects he has stumbled upon by accident. Although, the first time someone let him borrow their ND filter to enable shooting long shutter speeds, he was instantly hooked.

Inspiration:

Don McCullin was the first photographer that really moved Paul. Don McCullin is internationally known for his photography of war and urban poverty. Paul first came across his work in his late teens, and his images haunt him a little bit even to this day, so he can not imagine how it is for him. He has heard that Don suffers from many sleepless nights. Don’s work is so raw and personal, and it is from back when there were no such digital luxuries as there are today. It is because of Don that Paul is keen to try and move into reportage.

The other photographer of inspiration would be David Burnett. Paul first saw his work at a World Press Photo exhibition in Barcelona. It was tilt-shift work of the Olympic Games, and he was totally baffled as to how on earth he had made everything look so minature. Now he is a bit wiser, but his images still wig Paul out a little. His work on the aftermath of Hurricaine Katrina is also very moving to Paul.

What’s Next:

Paul would love to get into infrared photography. He loves the dream like and surreal images that can be produced.

India is at the top of Paul’s photography wish list. He thinks any photographer worth their salt dreams of India. He wants to spend some time there focussing on life and death, shooting along those themes in funeral pyres in the Ganges, newborn babies in Calcutta, etc. He also wants to move into more reportage/photojournalism, so he would like places where the action is, such as in Burma, Mexico, Caucasus and Iran. He has a bit of a hold on his imagnination too.

Links:

500px

P.Haze Photos

Twitter: @hazy_shots

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For this weekends focus, we are focusing on the attraction between opposites. There is a huge bright colour trend in fashion at the moment, and we will be exploring this trend in our photography, so this weekend, the focus is: contrasting colours. “In Your World” by jacqui-kate”Red Berry” by blaumohn”Forever Alive” by biszkopciik”Contrasting Colours” by xkimjoanne”Destiny” by baspunk”As Ice” by ntscha”Contrast” by cecilla”Hot Cold Contrast” by floriandra”Colour Contrast” by raindaisy”Nine Inch Snail” by baspunk Each Friday we will post a Weekend Photo Focus (also hash tagged on Twitter as #weekendphotofocus) on a certain subject; something to spark your creativity. An empty weekend for a photographer is like an empty canvas – we could always use something to do when we have nothing planned, right? The premise is simple; snap some photographs over the weekend dealing with the weekend’s focus, and if you send them to us (or Tweet them to us) we will post them up in the follow-up article. Having a focus will help us as artists and photographers to see things that we might not always see, and make us take a shot at something we might otherwise have not. At the weekends close, we will follow up our weekend focus,  with what we found on the Web, and your submissions, that fall in line with our focus. We hope you join in the fun and help us spread the creativity. example of a tweet to us: @fuelphotography Here’s my submission for this week’s #weekendphotofocus, New Life & Spring: http://bit.ly/aY1oC7