Alien Pods by Tommy's Surfshack

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Nikon Coolpix P100.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I'm an amateur. I always use scene modes. I've never had the time to try to take photos in the manual mode. I'm pretty sure I used the Macro Mode.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop 3 to get a better quality color... but not too much.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A lotus pod close-up.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I plant these "First Lady Lotus" in a round water tub on my patio each spring. The blooms (12 a year) are around 7-8 inch in diameter. The pods are about 3 inches. I Like taking pics of the different phases of the lotus growth. The bud's to the end.

More wee rocks by Mark Littlejohn

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Pentax K-X, Sigma 10-20mm, Hoya polariser, B&W110, Hitech 0.9 soft grad & Redsnapper Tripod.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/8, ISO 100, 91.6 seconds, focal length - 13 mm.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Silkipix on the RAW file for the white balance and then used ACDSee to make sure it was level and make a very slight crop.

Q4. What is the location?
The location is Ullswater in the Lake District looking towards St Sundays Crag/Heron Pike, England, UK.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The water was quite calm but not completely still. I also noticed that the clouds were moving nicely over Heron Pike. I thought that both factors would make for a nice long exposure. I also decided to leave put the polariser on, as combined with the Hitech it can produce quite pleasing colours at sunrise/sunset.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
You'll notice that the rocks in the foreground are wet - I'd damped them down with my hands which I think worked. The only problem was it was about -5 or -6, and over the next few minutes they froze solid as I'd forgotten my gloves and had nothing to dry them on. I'd only just got them dry when the exposure finished. I then moved the camera at the end of the exposure and the filter fell off into the water - I'd attached the hitch with blutac so I had a wider field of view. Hands got wet (and cold) again.

Infinitely by Carles Viñas

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
My equipment is a Nikon D90 with a Nikkor 18-200 mm VR.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I am varying the adjustments following the capture that wish and based on the idea that the image facing the later edition has when seeing. On this shot the settings were: 200mm, F/6.3, 1/800s, ISO 200.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Lightroom 3.0 and Phosothop CS4

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A low tile roof with the worn away roofing tiles.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I saw that tapeworm possibilities to make a good composition with a bokeh.

Paris Cityscape by Barry O Carroll

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 40D, Sigma EX 24-70 lens, a tripod

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
This is an HDR from 3 images taken at 3 different exposures:
-2 ISO 100 F22 1/100 sec
0 ISO 100 F22 1/25 sec
+2 ISO 100 F22 1/6 sec

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photomatix to blend the 3 images with the strenght set to 70%. I then used a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop to finish the processing.

I darkened the photo in Photoshop using curves and then painted back in using masks the areas of light for a more dramatic and cinematic effect. This is definitely one of those photos where I've pushed the meaning of "what is photography" a little.

Q4. What is the location?
The photo was taken in Paris along Quai de la Tournerlle looking towards the Île de la Cité. Notre Dame de Paris is to the left and the Tour Saint Jaques is just visible to the right of the photo.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The shot and the the style of processing is inspired by 2 French photographers: Stephane Rey Gorrez and Jean Michel Berts.

I love taking photographs in Paris in general. It is a stunningly beautiful city that contains some of the most magnificent architecture and monuments in the world. I love trying to capture the beauty but also mood of the city in my shots. Paris is by far my favourite photography location.

The processing in this photo is meant to portray the dark moodyness that hung over the city that day. There was heavy grey cloud through wich occasional rays of light burst through illumination buildings or sometimes parts of buildings.

Leaf by Marcel Felbor

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 500D, Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS L, a tripod

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
100mm, f/9, ISO 200, 1/200 sec, flash from the side, LED-lamp from above

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS5

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Macro-Leaf

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I made this shot for the weekly theme "strictly textures" in one of the Flickr groups.

Hm...It's too heavy for me! by Quang Thanh

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Sony H50 with Raynox M250

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
24mm, F/7, 1/200 sec, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS2 + Turbo photo

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The ants and the queen larvae

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I wanted to capture images of the ants' life.

Splash by Vlad Solomon

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 400D with the canon 50mm f/1.8 mounted on it, Canon 580 EX II flash, Cactus KF36 flash, Cactus V4 radio triggers, colored gels, tripod and a cable release.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
50mm, F/8, 1/160 shutter speed, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS3

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A martini glass with water and an olive in it, shot at the moment an ice cube is being dropped in.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I had just received this glass as a gift, and i absolutely loved the elegance of it's shape so I knew it would make a great subject for a splash shot like this.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
This is the longest shot I have done so far, took me about 5-6 hours to get what i wanted. It took so much because I had to time pressing the shutter release exactly as the ice cube hit the water and made a splash. I have a lot of shots in which I caught the cube in the air. And of course, after every shot I had to clean up the water from the glass plate under the martini glass.