Picture This

Our Picture This! assignment this month was Macro World, and readers responded with a dazzling host of images that revealed a colorful, delightful, and often surprising look at a world most folks do not take the time to observe. Photography is a reminder of the moments we often pass by in the rush of daily events, and nowhere is that more evident than when viewing these looks at a close-up world.

Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Backlight,” and readers responded with images that spoke of the wonders of light in this, perhaps the most challenging but many times the most rewarding, lighting condition. Many of the images brought back the words of the filmmaker Werner Herzog, who I will paraphrase here, when he said that images are our way of bearing witness to the...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Interiors.” We asked readers to submit images that show the unique ways in which we arrange the space between four walls. The response brought all sorts of images, ranging from the grandiose to the humble, from a painter’s studio to the grand churches and temples of the world. What is perhaps most interesting about these shots is the...

Photographers have a keen eye, and part of that is noticing moments when people, places, and things converge in extraordinary fashion. Our Picture This! assignment this month asked readers to submit images that caught those “comings together” that held those odd coincidences in a single image. Readers used long lenses to compress space and bring disparate subjects closer, and wide...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was Sacred Spaces, places that inspire us to consider the less material and more spiritual side of life. Readers responded with many images of awe-inspiring landscapes with special meaning, places of worship, of pure light and color, and, in some cases, of places that have special meaning for the photographer. All this could go to prove that the divine can...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was "On the Beach," images made where the land meets the sea. Readers responded with images from around the world showing a sense of color and design that the areas inspired. Quality of light, form, and line and shadow all play their parts in these locales, and images showed the grand and macro, the simple and complex, and most of...

The power of suggestion is very strong in forming our perceptions. Think alligator, for example, even in a big northern city, and soon you might begin to see forms and objects that bring that reptile to mind. Our Picture This! assignment this month was just that--seeing the forms of letters of the alphabet in everyday objects and scenes. Readers responded with images that...