Webshots Blog

Our celebration of spring continues with a focus on the tender, new life that surrounds us. This week’s challenge will be to capture heart-felt images of babies of all species: human, flora and fauna. As a special treat, the winner of this challenge will be featured on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10). Celebrate the little ones around you and submit your tender images in this week’s Creative Challenge.

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES
To officially enter the Creative Challenge, you must tag your three submissions with creative-challenge-babies. You can then view them and everyone else’s submissions on the DISPLAY PAGE (it updates about every hour). To find out more about this, read the Using Tags on Creative Challenges post.

Submission Guidelines
1. Our editors look for sharp, clear horizontal images that are at a minimum resolution of 800×600 (submissions can have larger resolutions than this). Currently, vertical images cannot fit in the homepage template. Therefore, we cannot publish vertical or narrow panoramic images.

2. Images with added text or images, including watermarks, logos, copyright symbols, graphic borders, frames and time stamps, will not be considered. Collages, however, are acceptable. Images submitted should be your own.

3. Please do not submit pictures that have already been featured on the homepage.

4. The Creative Challenge runs from 12:01 a.m. on April 29 to 12:00 p.m. on May 4 (all times EST).

5. 3 pictures per person (regardless of how many member accounts you have) tagged exactly (including hyphens) with: creative-challenge-babies

*Note:Images that don’t meet the exact guidelines can be submitted and viewed for everyone to enjoy, but please understand that we cannot publish images that don’t meet minimum guidelines on the homepage. Also, now that you’re tagging your entries, you don’t need to post links in the comments section anymore.

NEXT CHALLENGE THEME: HDR (High Dynamic Range)
We’re truly challenging you next week! Using HDR is a technique that many Webshots photographers have been experimenting with. This set of techniques allows the opportunity for a greater dynamic range of exposures through digital imaging. The processing of HDR captures everything from dark shadows to bright highlights and combines it into a single image. Be sure to read the Pro Tip from Kevin McNeal to help you with this challenge. We’re starting this challenge a day early (5/5) to give you even more time to practice!

This week was another especially difficult challenge to judge because, once again, you all submitted excellent entries for the Creative Challenge: Showers, Storms and Wild Weather. It was difficult to pick just three images as the “winners”! Here’s some good news for you challengers too: we’re working out a way for the members to be able to vote or judge the challenges! It may not happen for a few months, but we do want to get you involved in the selection/judging process To view this week’s entries visit the creative challenge display page.

#1. “Rainbow Over Santiago” by pablovieira1980 Congratulations! This photo will be featured on the Webshots homepage tomorrow!

#2. “Hurricane Wilma” by rthomson88

#3. “The Great Storm” by lincebranco

Thanks to everyone who entered the Challenge and shared their photos with us. We really enjoyed viewing all the entries and hope you had fun as well!

Photo walks, a popular activity among photo-sharing communities, let us all be a part of something no matter where we are in the world. By taking a walk this weekend and sharing the pictures with us, you’re contributing to a global mural of life.

So put on your walking shoes, grab your camera and go for a walk. You’ll be surprised at the photographic opportunities that present themselves. We’d love to see all of your photos as you can submit as many as you like!

Please tag your photos with Weekend Photo Walk 74 and then post your links in the comment section. Your entries won’t be judged—this is just for the fun of it!

Sunday, April 26th is Worldwide Pinhole Photography day and we thought it’d be fun to talk about this rustic, hands-on method of making photographic images! You can make a low tech pinhole camera using old coffee cans, oatmeal boxes (just about anything, really!), modify your digital SLR, or combine the two methods to make creative and often unexpected images. Creating your camera will take some time to set up before you can go shooting. You might not get the instant gratification of a digital image, but this technique is sure to have you creating images from an entirely new perspective.

If you’re up for a change from your regular digital camera here’s your chance to play with photography in a new way. Be sure to add links to your pinhole experiments and comments below – we’d all love to see what you capture!

As they say: April Showers bring May Flowers. Wild springtime weather abounds with wind, rain, thunder, lightning, sleet and sometimes snow. This week’s challenge will focus on capturing wild weather! Grab your umbrella and rain gear in preparation, and submit your wild weather shots for this week’s Creative Challenge.

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES
To officially enter the Creative Challenge, you must tag your three submissions with creative-challenge-weather. You can then view them and everyone else’s submissions on the DISPLAY PAGE (it updates about every hour). To find out more about this, read the Using Tags on Creative Challenges post.

Submission Guidelines
1. Our editors look for sharp, clear horizontal images that are at a minimum resolution of 800×600 (submissions can have larger resolutions than this). Currently, vertical images cannot fit in the homepage template. Therefore, we cannot publish vertical or narrow panoramic images.

2. Images with added text or images, including watermarks, logos, copyright symbols, graphic borders, frames and time stamps, will not be considered. Collages, however, are acceptable. Images submitted should be your own.

3. Please do not submit pictures that have already been featured on the homepage.

4. The Creative Challenge runs from 12:01 a.m. on April 22 to 12:00 p.m. on April 27 (all times EST).

5. 3 pictures per person (regardless of how many member accounts you have) tagged exactly (including hyphens) with: creative-challenge-weather

*Note:Images that don’t meet the exact guidelines can be submitted and viewed for everyone to enjoy, but please understand that we cannot publish images that don’t meet minimum guidelines on the homepage. Also, now that you’re tagging your entries, you don’t need to post links in the comments section anymore.

NEXT CHALLENGE THEME: Babies
Our celebration of spring continues with a focus on the new life that surrounds us. Next week’s challenge will be to capture babies of all species: human, flora and fauna. As a special treat, the winner of this challenge will be featured on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10)

It might be hard to believe, but Earth Day (4/22) and Arbor Day (4/24) are just around the corner. The timing was perfect for an often suggested challenge: the single or lone tree. The winner of this week’s Creative Challenge: A Single Tree will be featured on the homepage on Arbor Day! So many fantastic entries were submitted that we will include several of them in an upcoming editor’s collection devoted to single trees. To view this week’s entries visit the creative challenge display page.

#1. “Lost” by lorrainemx Congratulations! This photo will be featured on the Webshots homepage Friday, April 24 (Arbor Day)

#2. “Palm at Ko’Olina” by evanreese

#3. “Desert Sunset” by pixelated

Thanks to everyone who entered the Challenge and shared their photos with us. We really enjoyed viewing all the entries and hope you had fun as well!

Photo walks, a popular activity among photo-sharing communities, let us all be a part of something no matter where we are in the world. By taking a walk this weekend and sharing the pictures with us, you’re contributing to a global mural of life.

So put on your walking shoes, grab your camera and go for a walk. You’ll be surprised at the photographic opportunities that present themselves. We’d love to see all of your photos as you can submit as many as you like!

Please tag your photos with Weekend Photo Walk 73 and then post your links in the comment section. Your entries won’t be judged—this is just for the fun of it!

It might be hard to believe, but Earth Day (4/22) and Arbor Day (4/24) are just around the corner. The timing is perfect for an often suggested challenge: the single or lone tree. The winner of this week’s challenge will be featured on the homepage on Arbor Day! Celebrate the trees around you and submit your vision for this Creative Challenge.

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES
To officially enter the Creative Challenge, you must tag your three submissions with creative-challenge-tree. You can then view them and everyone else’s submissions on the DISPLAY PAGE (it updates about every hour). To find out more about this, read the Using Tags on Creative Challenges post.

Submission Guidelines
1. Our editors look for sharp, clear horizontal images that are at a minimum resolution of 800×600 (submissions can have larger resolutions than this). Currently, vertical images cannot fit in the homepage template. Therefore, we cannot publish vertical or narrow panoramic images.

2. Images with added text or images, including watermarks, logos, copyright symbols, graphic borders, frames and time stamps, will not be considered. Collages, however, are acceptable. Images submitted should be your own.

3. Please do not submit pictures that have already been featured on the homepage.

4. The Creative Challenge runs from 12:01 a.m. on April 15 to 12:00 p.m. on April 20 (all times EST).

5. 3 pictures per person (regardless of how many member accounts you have) tagged exactly (including hyphens) with: creative-challenge-tree

*Note:Images that don’t meet the exact guidelines can be submitted and viewed for everyone to enjoy, but please understand that we cannot publish images that don’t meet minimum guidelines on the homepage. Also, now that you’re tagging your entries, you don’t need to post links in the comments section anymore.

NEXT CHALLENGE THEME: Showers, Storms and Wild Weather
As they say: April Showers bring May Flowers. Wild springtime weather abounds with wind, rain, thunder, lightning, sleet and sometimes snow. Next week’s challenge will focus on capturing wild weather!

Spring is here, and we’re celebrating the season with a bouquet of new features! You’ll see signs of spring all over the site, from our new spring header on all pages to our Pro Shots Spring Photo Collection that features professional photos of flowers, baby animals and landscapes. Download them all now for an instant sign of spring on your desktop!

We’re also adding a new color option for spring—a soft, cheery green! To change your color option, hover over the “change color” box in the Webshots header and select “spring green.” This will be released on Thursday, so you should see the new color by this Friday. Click the image below to enlarge.

Our editors have gathered up a wonderful collection of Spring Flowers from the Webshots community. You can download all these photos using the free Webshots Desktop software—there’s no limit to downloading community photos, so add them all to brighten up your day!

Do you have new spring photos and albums to share with us? Post a link to them in the comments section and let us know what your favorite part of spring is!

It was so lovely to wander through the Spring Flowers Challenge this week. The brisk weather over the last few weeks makes it difficult to imagine that Spring is here and Summer’s on the way, but your photos certainly brought brightness and cheer to our day! These top photos are excellent examples of the diverse beauty of spring blossoms.

1. “Tulip…” by grosnounours10 . Congratulations to grosnounours10 we’ll feature your photo on the homepage tomorrow!

2. “Sunny Daffodil Trio” by tracyrenata.

3. “The ‘Grate’ Escape” by DANMMYERS.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Challenge and shared their photos with us. We really enjoyed viewing all the entries and hope you had fun as well. To see all the entries in the Creative Challenge: Spring Flowers, visit the DISPLAY PAGE.