This month’s Picture This! assignment was the “Power of B&W” and we were thrilled by the many and varied images we received. Clearly there is a love and appreciation of monochrome photography, and we saw images that ranged from portraits to abstracts to intense studies of line, form, and tonality. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of black and white is the ability to interpret the image through contrast and tonal manipulations (even constrained HDR) without verging into the kinds of tricks to which color seems more prone, all while maintaining a certain photographic “credibility.”

Jeff Cable is one of many photographers these days discovering the glories of shooting aerial video and images with remote-controlled imaging drones. Cable recently turned his good buddy and Apple Computer legend Steve "Woz" Wozniak on to how easy and fun it is to fly these drones and shot a short video of the experience.

Tamron recently added the SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD (A011 for Nikon mount) and the 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD macro (B016 for Canon and Nikon mount) to the lens profile for aberration correction offered for Adobe’s Photoshop CC, Camera Raw and Lightroom 5. The lens profile will be bundled with the Camera Raw 8.5 update and Lightroom 5.5. Customers who use these lenses will be able to utilize the software for easy correction of lens distortion, chromatic aberration and peripheral light fall-off based on design data.

Last year, I decided to take on a challenge focusing on the unique natural beauty associated with wildfires in a Florida scrub ecosystem, one of the most rare ecosystems in the state. Florida is no stranger to wildfires. Nationwide, Florida has the second highest number of wildfires annually. In 2011, it was estimated that 300,000 acres of land was burned due to over 4800 wildfires. My project was centered at Indrio Savannahs Preserve, where a 120-acre wildfire was ignited by lightning in March of 2013.