Group: Sunday Challenge

We got some great participation on Sunday with a wide range of interesting photos.

This week's challenge is: Something Wicked This Way Comes. This challenge encompasses the week of Halloween. For those not familiar with the holiday, it sprang from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. Submit a photo that is spooky or eerie. Reenact your favorite slasher film scene, use shadow to create a mood, visit a cemetery, light a bonfire or use abstract light to simulate a ghostly apparition - whatever fits the theme as you see it.

Next week's challenge will be a bit more difficult. Environmental photos. Take a photograph of someone, using their environment to put them in context and to tell a story. Photograph a shopkeeper, a street musician, a craft person a fair worker, or really anyone with work or a hobby. For examples, see fstoppers.com/lifestyle/how-master-environmental-portrait-photography-695906, www.lifepixel.com/photo-tutorials/how-to-capture-awesome-environmental-portraits, and wesley.substack.com/p/process-006-how-to-take-environmental.

Most people will be flattered to have their picture taken if you tell them that you are working on a project to improve your photography skills and that no commercial use will be made of the photo . However, if you feel uncomfortable asking a subject for permission, you can try the bellycam method of street photography. Hold the camera at your stomach area with your lens at its smallest millimeter setting and discretely, without looking in the viewfinder or screen, take a general area picture that includes the person who is the subject of your photograph. It is very likely that your photograph will be tilted with the subject appearing too small. You can fix this in post processing. You may have to take more than one photo to get the image that you are seeking.