Daylight on the left. Evening on the right. Being a member of a photo club or photo group can have great rewards when you're pushed to try something new. That's exactly what happened here.
 
The Calvert Photo Club's January assignment/challenge was the term "motion". I've wanted to experiment with capturing motion in the car for quite a while but never got around to it. Having to produce something for the monthly challenge finally kicked my butt in gear. Keep reading to see how this image was created.

In the quest to improve my photography skills (does that ever end?), I've been looking at the work of others I admire. I've been looking at portraits in particular and one of the techniques I've been interested in learning is how to create gritty, dark, black and white portraits. I figured that before I try this with photos of anyone else, I better experiment on my own photo first. What follows is a detailed step-by-step on exactly how I created this self-portrait.

A compilation of photos from the last two years I've taken in the morning, evening, and night. Music is titled "Stars Collide" by Josh Woodward.

Bulb ramping is the ideal technique for shooting time lapse segments, but you can do more with the resulting photos than just animating them. Stacking them together allows you to simulate extremely long exposures without the use of filters, and helps preserve the original contrasts and colors of the scene.

If you were upright and breathing during the mid 1990s, you probably remember the pop culture phenomenon and oft-quoted “Soup Nazi” from the show “Seinfeld”. His signature "no soup for you!" just flew in the face of the old saying "the customer is always right".
However, when the worlds of art and business cross paths, sometimes the artist has to make artistic choices that can be misunderstood as not putting the customer first. Providing prints in any and every aspect ratio under the sun is just one of those rules. Read more about why this matters and how it can help you become a better photographer.

There's something missing from this photo included with Windows 7. Do you recognize what it is?
I've yet to upgrade to Windows 8 and probably never will. However, with each Windows launch  (Windows "Blue" is on the horizon) comes a new batch of built in desktop wallpapers. What are they and who are the photographers who get their images selected? I went back and looked at the Windows 7 wallpapers and found something surprising...

Our cameras all number the photos in sequential order. And when it gets high enough the number just starts back over at #1. Ever wonder what you ended up shooting at the numbers 1000, 2000, or even 9999?

Taking long exposures is one of my favorite techniques. I don't go anywhere without my B+W 1.7 and 3.0 filters and being able to slow things down, even in full sunlight in the middle of the day, can help create some unique situations.
 
But sometimes the long exposures make it difficult to use GND filters, so here's a simple digital technique to simulate them.

This post is not a political post, this is a digital editing and forensics post. My commentary here should not be confused with an endorsement of any candidate for the US Presidency (and yes, there are more than two candidates to choose from). But this is what happens when you put high profile photography in the hands of an amatuer...

How was the moving image created? You start by taking a series of photos using burst mode. Then use a little bit of Photoshop power and a few plugins with the technique I describe here to create your own moving photographs.

Just like life itself, macro photography teaches me that the deeper you look, the more you see. This month's Calvert Photography Club meeting included a presentation by Robert Tinari on close-up and macro photography. Although I've been dabbling in macro photography off and on for a few years, I learned some things and Robert presented some great images during his slideshow. Being inspired when you walk out of a room is a great feeling.