So the Season of Photography sort of fizzled. Sometimes life just gets in the way; but it also served up a fantastic idea! I can’t believe I didn’t come up with this sooner. I honestly have Crunchy TV Mommy to thank for this idea; she came up with the idea for us to collaborate on the weekly photography sessions, but her job as a Mommy is giving me a fantastic time to tweak the photography challenge.
The “Season of Photography” is going to start challenging our photography skills and you’ll have a lot longer to take on each photography challenge. This will still be a link up challenge and I’ve created a NEW Flickr group too. You have three options:
1. Link up to this post
2. Upload to Flickr
3. Upload to Flickr and then link up to this post 
The “first” photography challenge theme is Rule of Thirds
As I understand it, by following the Rule of Thirds we’ll hear “great composition” when people compliment our photos. This is why I don’t center my images – I think it just looks more interesting. It’s not to say that a centered image can’t be interesting, but for this photography challenge, let’s line up our subject with the lines. You may have to imagine these lines (I do).
The most important elements of your shot should line up with the vertical (up & down) lines below.
If you imagine a grid over this image, Rodrigo’s left eye is the focal point of the image. What I could have done to better follow the Rule of Thirds is to shift him to the right a little. I would go right, because I like to leave room on the image to reflect his eye line. He’s looking off in the distance (he’s actually looking at our cat, Jaffrey) and I wouldn’t want to cut his eye line. You can’t see what he’s looking at, but the room stokes your imagination.
This shot is a fantastic example of the Rule of Thirds. The flower in the foreground is the star of the shot. And by selecting an aperture* that keeps the foreground in focus while the background is out of focus keeps the viewer’s eye on the right flower.
*the small numbers like 2.8, 3.5, 4 = wide open lens = more light & shallow depth of field)
This lesson doesn’t have a close date, but I will close the link up on Thursday 10/13 at 5pm PST. You can upload to the Flickr group any time. You don’t have to have a DSLR camera. These challenges are for photography enthusiasts regardless of your experience or gear. So go for it!
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.kimberlygauthier.com" title="Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier"><img src="http://www.kimberlygauthier.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/flower.jpg" alt="Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
and 
10/07/2011 at 2:28 pm
New follower here from the Friday Blog hop over at Tips from the Heart, hope you can stop by and follow me back, too.
http://babyfeetandpuppybreath.blogspot.com/
Kelly K. recently posted..My Review of Jasminedirectory.com: A business web directory
10/07/2011 at 4:51 pm
Thanks for stopping by , Kelly! I’m a huge fan of puppy breath!
10/07/2011 at 3:49 pm
Uh-oh! I may have commented on the wrong post earlier. Oh well…I came back to link up one of my Flickr shots. Hope that’s okay. Have a great weekend, Kimberly.
Kristi, Live and Love Out Loud
@TweetingMama
Kristi {at} Live and Love Out Loud recently posted..Green {Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge}
10/07/2011 at 4:52 pm
I’m excited to see what you linked up and I’m heading over to check out your Shades of Autumn now!
10/07/2011 at 5:23 pm
The photo I just submitted is overlooking Lake Erie from a park in Bay Village, Ohio. The Canadian shoreline is about 60 miles away.
This is an interesting subject. Looking back at my photos, it looks like I do it at times, and it’s very effective when I do. I’m going to try to concentrate a little more on it now.
Deej recently posted..The Snowflakes of August