Atwitter In The Summer; A Star-Spangled Web Page 2

www.3cameras.com
Readers Mike Zale and Dave Erickson created this unique photoblog. Every two weeks or so they assign themselves a theme and select one of the other’s images to display along with some brief caption information. This idea is so cool that I wish they would expand the captions, giving viewers more information on their thought processes and techniques. Zale and Erickson also have a guest photographer show up from time to time to display images made using random ideas. The blog lets you view each photographer’s images separately or together and the images range from fun to extraordinary.

© 2010, Dave Erickson and Mike Zale, All Rights Reserved

While both gentlemen clearly have talent, as seen by the assignments, bop on over to their dedicated websites for a wider view of their skills. Erickson’s site (http://lightboximages.net) shows he likes to photograph people and sports, in addition to photographing the cityscapes and urban scenes hinted at on the 3Cameras site. You don’t get to see many rowing photographs (at least I don’t) and Erickson attacks it with a long lens and an interesting sense of composition. There’s also a link to his images at the Pentax Image Gallery (www.pentaxphotogallery.com). Zale’s site (www.wix.com/mzeyes/Zale) was created via Wix.com and his photographs are arranged by “Color,” “Black and White,” and “Colorize,” but his strengths clearly lie in the crisply focused monochrome landscape images. What I liked most about this collection of sites is how two friends use the power of the Internet to not only display their images but also create a forum that encourages and challenges them to improve.

www.photovenom.com
Daniel Milchev is a Vail, Colorado-based shooter who specializes in photographing action, sports, and lifestyle photography. He told me that he “got into photography about a year and a half ago” but you would never know that from the images on his website. His portfolio contains images collected in “Action,” “Lifestyle,” and “Scenic” galleries. In “Action” Milchev shows he has that whole winter sport thing under control with dramatically composed, dynamic wide-angle images of flying snowboarders balanced against long lens shots of powdered skiers. He doesn’t just shoot in the snow, and the Vail Valley can be a delightful place to be in the summer as seen by his extreme mountain biking and skateboarding shots, one of which, shot at night using flash, is a standout.

© 2010, Daniel Milchev, All Rights Reserved

Milchev’s site design includes the ability to pan as well as zoom in and out on these already large images so you can appreciate the crispness and overall design of his exciting photographs. But when the action slows down, Milchev’s talent doesn’t, as can be seen in the carefully crafted and composed photographs of people in the “Lifestyle” section, proving that not only can he work with people but he’s not just a one-note sports shooter. The “Scenic” collection contains a potpourri of images that some might consider “scenic” but is really a collection of non-sport, non-people images that doesn’t easily fit in his other categories. Milchev tells me that he has “been studying like crazy.” I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this talented young man.

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