*really* sorry about that!

This weeks challenge is trees so ignore any alerts you got about any other challenge subjects!

Move along, there’s nothing to see here…

Take a picture of trees, woodland, forest or jungle. Most of our members seem to live in towns and cities in the UK so perhaps the Amazon Rainforest is a bit much to hope for, but there’s a lot of interesting pictures that you [...]]]> This week it’s a simpler theme rather than a challenge.

Take a picture of trees, woodland, forest or jungle. Most of our members seem to live in towns and cities in the UK so perhaps the Amazon Rainforest is a bit much to hope for, but there’s a lot of interesting pictures that you can make out of a tree. A quick look at Google confirms this!

Be adventurous, try different angles. Try wide angles, including the sky. Look at small details and explore the texture of bark.

I’ll be away next Tuesday so I’ll leave you in Paul’s capable hands to publish the results of this Challenge and set the next one. Please send in your tree pictures to the usual place by noon on Tuesday 22^nd May.

It seems to have been a popular week for HDR photography, and I’m glad that the Challenge proved to be a useful [...]]]> Well done to everyone who entered the Photo Challenge this week. It was a good week for new people with entries from Paul Hurley (that’s enough Pauls now, surely?!) and HH Photography all the way from Germany.

It seems to have been a popular week for HDR photography, and I’m glad that the Challenge proved to be a useful inspiration for trying a new technique.

Next week I will be away on holiday so I’ll leave you in Paul’s capable hands to set this week’s Challenge, publish the results and then set next week’s Challenge too.

For other [...]]]> This week’s Challenge was suggested ages ago by Kate, and we’ve been saving it for a rainy day (literally). We’re looking for pictures of stormy skies, the more dramatic the better! The forecast for most of England is rain and cloud all week, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

For other people taking part in Europe, perhaps you will get a taste of the grey English weather. However, I’m aware that some of our members send in photos from Argentina and other far-flung places. If you don’t have rainclouds this week, you can send in a picture of the sky with a different sort of weather.

Taking good pictures of the sky can be hard, but there is lots of help on the web. I thought this article about how to photograph clouds included lots of useful advice and some example pictures. Otherwise, just Google it!

Please send your stormy skies photos in by noon on Tuesday 15^th May.

Well done to everyone who sent in a picture of a vehicle this week. [...]]]> Sorry for the minor delay in getting the results posted today – we had a power cut in the office. And in an IT office, there’s not much you can do without electricity, so we went for ice cream!

Well done to everyone who sent in a picture of a vehicle this week. Please welcome Newland who has joined us for the first time.

It’s usually easy to find interesting cars to point your camera at. If you happen to own an interesting car you could drive it to an interesting location. For the rest of us who will either [...]]]> This week the Challenge is suggested by Andrea: he suggested taking pictures of vehicles old, new and sport.

It’s usually easy to find interesting cars to point your camera at. If you happen to own an interesting car you could drive it to an interesting location. For the rest of us who will either have to photograph someone else’s car, or make do with an ordinary car, there are still some things you can do to ensure an interesting picture. Look at this guide, read the tips and look at the examples.

I really want everyone to put some effort into this picture. It’s easy to take any old picture of the first car you see, but you can achieve really good results just by standing back and thinking for a minute or two, and trying to apply some of the tips in the article.

If you’re a fan of motorsport, it would be a great opportunity to take your camera along to a local event.

Also note that the title of the Challenge is “vehicles”, so your chosen vehicle doesn’t have to be a car, although it should be motorised

Please send your entries in by noon on Tuesday 8^th May. Have fun!

Like last time, this isn’t a “theme” based challenge, but is an exercise that you can do in the comfort of your own home which should allow you to come up with some nice abstract images.

You will need:

It’s really important to see these covers in their natural portrait orientation, so click on the covers and [...]]]> Well done to everyone who played the role of photographer and graphic designer this week, by taking a picture and making it into a magazine cover. I hope this was a bit of fun for everyone.

It’s really important to see these covers in their natural portrait orientation, so click on the covers and use the arrow keys to move between them.

There is a new email address for submitting your pictures. Now Paul is also running the Photo Challenge, please [...]]]> We’re making a couple of changes to the way entries are submitted to the Photo Challenge. I’ve incorporated them into the usual rules but I’ve also posted them here so everyone sees them.

Email

There is a new email address for submitting your pictures. Now Paul is also running the Photo Challenge, please send your entries to entries@photo-challenge.co.uk. They will arrive in both my mailbox and Paul’s, so we will both be able to access the pictures.

Please don’t send any pictures to any address ending in jonathangazeley.com, because Paul won’t get them! If any entries land in my personal mailbox, I’ll reply and remind you to use the new email address.

Online

Many people enter the Photo Challenge by uploading their pictures to their personal website, Flickr, Photobucket, Lightbox, Facebook or other sites like these. This is fine, but I want to make a few points:

• Do double-check that your published photo can be seen by everyone, and not just friends in your social network. We’ve run into this snag a few times recently!
• Don’t send your entry to me by posting it on my Facebook wall. It’s too easy for me to miss, and Paul can’t see it at all (he doesn’t use Facebook).
• Do post a link to your entry in the comments of the Challenge page on this website, and then both Paul and I can see it and accept your entry.
• Do make sure your photo is large enough – many social networks only publish a small version of the photo. On the Photo Challenge we usually publish photos that are 1024×768 in size. Please make sure your entry is this size or larger, otherwise it will seem smaller than everyone else’s when we publish the results. Facebook seems to be the worst culprit for showing tiny photos.

If you have any questions about any of these things, please give us a shout using the comment box below!