Vancouver Moonrise by Lloyd Barnes

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera, Olympus 50-200 mm zoom lens, tripod

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
For the city scene: focal length 50 mm, 8 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100. I used the self timer to take the photo without touching the camera during the exposure to avoid motion blur.

For the moon: focal length 200 mm, 1/125 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Lightroom 3.3 and Photoshop CS4

Q4. What is the location?
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I wanted to combine the beautiful cityscape with the fresh snow on the background mountains and the full moon. The settings for the moon exposure were very different than the settings for the cityscape, so I took the photos separately and combined them in Photoshop. I thought it would look more interesting if the moon was rising over the mountains. Later, I converted the photo to black and white in Lightroom and loved the results!

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
This is the first shoot that I did with my new Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera and I was very happy with the results!

Merry Christmas Everybody by Terry Grealey

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Sony Alpha A350 for the shot. This was the last shot I took with this camera, as I upgraded to the A380.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exp = 1.6 seconds
Apeture = f5.6
Focal length = 45mm
ISO = 100
The shot was taken with a manual focus.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
The original shot was taken in RAW and because Photoshop doesn't recognise Sony raw files, I had to convert the file to jpeg using Sony Image Suite. Then I did my usual tweeking (saturation, sharpness, etc) using Photoshop CS4.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject was centred around the unusual Christmas tree baubles that depicted the countries of the world, in an attempt to show the global message of Christmas (Peace on earth kinda thing).

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Again my initial thought was, how great would it be to incorporate the image to depict peace on earth. The depth of field was provided by the lights on my Christmas tree.

Meltwater by Matthew Howarth

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
This was one of my last shots on my Canon 300D, with my 24-105mm L lens. I had a 9 stop ND filter (Lightcraftworkshop ND500) on, and, unsurprisingly, a tripod and cable release. I was really tempted to get rid of the filter for a shot, but knew how I wanted it to look and took the risk to keep it on.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I metered for the water before putting the ND filter on, then, as the light suddenly changed, was guesstimating the exposures and checking on the LCD for feedback. It was taken from a footbridge, so as people walked over I had the opportunity for test shots at higher ISO. When I got a break I dropped the ISO back down to 100 and shot - I got only a handful of opportunities, so things were a little tense with the light only a brief moment.

This shot ended up being; 55 seconds ¦ ISO 100 ¦ f/11.0 ¦ 24mm, shot in RAW.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Lightroom 3 was used first to create three versions of the shot. I applied a lens correction in each case, as well as some noise reduction. The water and sky versions were practically identical, with a slight drop in clarity, slight desaturation and a boost to the brightness. The snow was very blue and underexposed, so that had a stop of exposure added and massive desaturation to the blue channel.

I dropped the three images into Photoshop 7.0 and manually blended them using a tablet. Curves and the hue/saturation sliders were used on the snow layer to try to blend it in naturally - not entirely successfully!

Q4. What is the location?
It's the footbridge near the entrance to the Rickmansworth Aquadrome, a local nature reserve in the UK - a ribbon of lakes sandwiched between a couple of rivers and a canal.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
It was at the end of a long day shooting only somewhat successfully in the heavy snow, and I was trudging back home. When I got to the bridge, the snow on the trees along the river was so striking that I thought I'd take an extra ten minutes to have a play with a recently acquired ND filter.

The initial shots were fine, but uninspiring, experiments with a grey winter sky. Suddenly the sky lit up to the East and swept round into frame. The main decision was whether to keep the filter on and take fewer shots, or to take it off and lose the blur to the river.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
First off I had a kingfisher flying around to the right of the frame, daring me to abandon this one, but I figured I couldn't get a decent shot of it with the kit I had in the low light.

The main frustration was the passersby, all of whom slowed down, very kindly, to minimise shake to the camera, whilst I wish they'd just run across and given me more time with no one walking over.

Christmas by Jill Maguire

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Nikon D700 and a 50mm F/1.4 lens that my husband gave me for Christmas (I had just opened it and put it on the camera before I took this shot).

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Aperture priority set to f/1.4 (there were two overhead lights but the room was still pretty dark), 1/100 shutter, ISO 2500. For indoor shots I always use manual focus point and I aim for the eyes. I also set the ISO to whatever will give me at least a 1/60s shutter speed.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Lightroom 3 using a built-in preset.

Q4. Who is the model?
My dog Brady.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I was taking pictures of Brady tearing up wrapping paper and I knew I wanted Christmas tree bokeh in the background. I picked this shot because it looks like he's exhaling bokeh dots.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
While in this position, Brady looked at me and burped, which I also caught on camera. That shot is in the comments of the main shot uploaded on Flickr.

Light my way by Fabien Bravin

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Canon 7D and Sigma 180mm macro lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Shot in the evening light, the settings for this pic were: ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/200 sec, no flash

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used LR2 to develope the raw file and adjust the levels and tones and then CS5 to reduce noise, resize and convert to SRGB profile.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
It's a praying mantis larva (less than 2 cm long) born in May and shot in June

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I'm fond of macro photography and spend a lot of time in the meadows and in my garden with my camera looking for insects and any other tiny creatures that live in a micro world. :)

p i l a r by Martin Andersson

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Nikon D90 with the 18-105mm lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/5.6, 1/400 sec, 66 mm, ISO 200 and Exposure +1,7 step because of the snow

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS4 and Nik SilverFx to turn the picture B&W.

Q4. What is the location?
The photo is taken in Skåne (Scania), South Sweden.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I was out driving and looking for trees to capture with my camera. When I was driving on a small quiet winter road I saw the tree line of Pilar (pilträd in swedish). I parked the car and went out in the snow to capture the beautiful scene. I was really happy with this shot.

Blue Alley by David Butali

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 500D + Canon 24-105 f4L

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
1/500 sec, f/4, 45mm, ISO 200, -1EV

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Lightroom

Q4. What is the location?
The garden facing the Castle in Arezzo, Arezzo, Italy. The alley is leading to the castle entrance.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The light was so amazing and the snow was so heavy...

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
The snow was falling on my lens and I had not an umbrella, so I cleaned it very often as it was very difficult to focus.