Rust. It's the product of metal oxidation, which we interpret as everything from a ruined car to a highly sought antique patina. And for this week's Shooting Challenge, you'll capture the beauty (or horror) of rust.

The Challenge

Photograph rust.

The Technique

Now I'm biased, but I think rust will make a remarkable subject this week. It allows you to go out and capture scenes of urban decay—architecture and rotting infrastructure. But it also opens the doors for textural macros and gorgeous abstractions. Rust is one of those fantastic themes that, once you set your mind to, can scale to any size you'd like to shoot.

The Example

Our lead image is from jesiehart, and it's a perfect example of finding a beautiful moment amidst what was probably a rotting, stinking old drain pipe. It's an oddly organic industrial scene, in which water has clearly left its mark, much like lines on a tree.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, June 24 at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Primary" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameRust.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameRustWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Red, yellow and blue. They're the most famous set of primary colors. And for this week's Shooting Challenge, you're going to capture them—all three of them—in one photo.

The Challenge

Photograph a scene with red, yellow and blue as its primary (no pun intended) focus.

The Technique

This is a tough challenge in that, while anyone can take a photo of three crayons, how do you spot the real life serendipity that will make a good shot great? I have no advice for that. But I can say, if you're going the route of a more staged photographic approach, a black or white backdrop will allow the primary colors to pop. (Plus, if you inject other colors, it will actually clash with the color relationship at play.)

The Example

Our lead image is from deanfotos66. I like that it's an abstraction of what appears to be paint, or some other setup that could have yielded a very typical shot. So I guess if all else fails, consider that approach.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, June 17 at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Primary" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnamePrimary.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnamePrimaryWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

WINNER: There's More Future Than Past

This shot was taken at the Neon Boneyard in Downtown Las Vegas. I used a canon T2i with a kit lens. It was taken in Raw and touched up in Lightroom. There are so many neon signs in Las Vegas but I pass this one everyday and always wanted a picture of it and this contest got me out there.

- Ryan Floyd

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Dizzy Duffy's

This revolving sign belongs to a hamburger joint near where I live. I thought it might be fun to experiment with long exposures. The revolving portion of the sign reads "Duffy's" and is colored red on one side and blue on the other. Once I was satisfied with the exposure, it took me several tries to time the shutter's release to the point in the sign's revolution that produced the most desirable color pattern. I finally settled on a 10 second exposure, f/36, and an ISO of 200. It was shot on a Canon 60D.

- Levi Jansen

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Coffee

Another Second Saturday surrendered to the Wynwood Art District of Miami. In this up and coming Art Hub which has not yet fully defined its persona, multitudes of people flock every second Saturday of the month to check out the latest exhibits in a very unlikely part of town. Overtown—a place which is undergoing gentrification and is now dubbed Wynwood. Bordering soup shelters and homeless in cardboard boxes, art, artists, hipsters, and posers congregate to gawk and scoff at all sorts of art from street performers to bonafide sculptors, painters, and a photographer or two; not unlike yours truly. In this scene, you can take in a typical street-side view of Panther Coffee, one of the better known chill-out spots with its ubiquitous logo done-up in Neon. While the assignment called for a sign, I felt that the most accurate way to portray it is with the crowd that it draws beneath it. The image was taken hand held in aperture priority at 1/50 sec f/1.8 ISO 1250 on a 50mm (75 equiv) Nikon D5000. It was processed in Lightroom 4.

- Diego Barrera

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Backside

My cousin Alicia and I had been riding around for a couple of hours looking for an old sign. We first went to a location that was a known speakeasy during prohibition, which had an interesting neon arrow that read "Whiskey". When we found out it was turned off, we started our journey to find a replacement. Finally, on the way back through town, Alicia noticed that there was a little diner with a bunch of signs turned inward. Although they were all fairly modern and of mainstream brands, she though it would make for an interesting shot when shot from the rear, so I set my tiny tripod on top of their meat smoker, and snapped a few shots. I liked this one because of the amount of light leaking through the tube.As you said... it's a lost art, and I like the hidden details behind how things are made. Sony DSC-WX150 Focal Length: 4.45mm Exposure Time: 0.0769s (1/13) f/3.3 ISO 800

- Carlos Felix

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Takeout

I used a nikon D7100 with the Zeiss 135mm F2.0 lens. I actually put the camera in P mode and let it pick the settings except that I had set the aperture at 2.0. I drove around my small town last night, really not sure if I would find a lot of neon signs or not since most times I think that they are really "background" noise to what I normally see. But, since I wanted to enter this challenge, I took the time to look for signs and surprisingly found several interesting signs besides the ones that merely said"open". I figured that would be too common place. So I found two I liked a lot, one which was a salon sign with nothing but the neon in a dark window, but I chose the below sign since it was interesting to have both the neon in the window and then the backdrop of the Chinese menu on the wall in an out of focus fashion behind the neon.

- John Cecilian

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No(rwalk) Attractions

I don't have a nice camera, but I do have a kick-ass neon sign. This is the Norwalk Theatre, in Norwalk, Ohio, which my wife and I bought last July. It's a 1941 Art Deco theatre (one of the last of its kind), and it has the largest marquee in Ohio. I've spent the last several months bringing this sign back to life with several new neon transformers, chaser motor repair, and 500+ new light bulbs. I hope you like it, because this old lady deserves some attention! Date/Time of Image: 6/8/2013, 9:00 PM File Name (970px wide): JoeCerriNeon.jpg File Size (970px wide):148KB Dimensions (970px wide): 970 x 724 File Name (2560px wide): JoeCerriNeonWallpaper.jpg File Size (970px wide): 733KB Dimensions (970px wide): 2560 x 1912 Camera Brand: Apple Camera Model: iPhone4 Lens & other details: as-supplied Flash: No

- Joe Cerri

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Sweet Tooth

This weekend was the annual carnival near our local shopping center. I went at night to get some long exposures of the the ferris wheel and various other rides. I was surprised to find that there is very little neon at carnivals. Luckily, I did come across this snack stand with the required neon letters. I like the effect from the lens zoom. Tech info: 0.8 second exposure, f/22, 18mm, ISO 400

- Matthew Johnson

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Naked Neon

As soon as the contest was announced I knew I had to take a picture of Portland's iconic neon sign. To the great timing of the contest Portland had an iconic event happening that went right in front of the sign, being the World Naked Bike Ride. The bike ride went on for over an hour and a half, which gave me more than enough time to try a lot of camera settings. I didn't want to have crisp pictures of the riders (didn't want to feel like the creep taking pictures of the naked people, though that was unavoidable). And this is what I got to commemorate "Icons of Portland". Canon T4i, 55mm, ISO 200, 1/8 s.

- Andy Lindblom

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This is It

In Austin, South Congress St. and South 1st St. are lined with shops and restaurants, giving them a very retro feeling at night. It was the first place I thought to go when I saw this challenge. I had one restaurant sign in particular I wanted to shoot, but on my way there, I happened to drive by an old house converted into a small art gallery of sorts that was full of old neon signs. This is only a small sample of what was on display. Because it was late and the gallery wasn't open, it was difficult to find a good angle through the windows, but that didn't stop me from creeping around the building trying to get the best shot. Canon Rebel T4i Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II f/5.6 w/ 1/15 shutter speed ISO 100. [This is the work of Todd Sanders of Roadhouse Relics, an Austin, Texas based neon artist.]

- Dan Pino

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Vertigo

This shot is of the Homeslice Pizza man who represents Homeslice Pizza and More Homeslice Pizza, two bustling pizza shops on South Congress Avenue in Austin, TX. I shot a lot of the wonderful signs in town, but I really liked the contrast between the festive pizza maker sign and the blank traffic light pole extending into nothingness. It put the sign into its own context and helped me to see it is a separate entity, rather than as part of the colorful mixture that makes Congress Avenue such a vibrant place to be. I've included technical information below. Best, Brady Nash June 6, 2013 Canon 60D 18-55mm 800 ISO f3/5 1/60 18mm

- Brady Nash

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The Pie King

I shot this entry in Austin, TX. I was shooting with a friend and noticed that many of the signs in south Austin have beautiful reflections on the big back windows of the SUVs that are often parked just outside of the businesses. Looking into the windows gives one the feeling of peering into an alternate world with only neon signs. I shot it with a 60D Canon DSLR and a 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 lens. It's at ISO 800, 1/25, f/3.5.

- Elise Chevalier

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Homeslice

The Story.. Well if nothing becomes of this entry at least I now have a beautiful gallery of illuminated imagery. My husband and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather. So we started on the Neon journey driving around town looking for the perfect sign. What I didn't expect was to find Neon signs everywhere. Every road we turned down and in every store front some sort of Neon. From one sign to another we were hoping to not get harassed by police or security, the risk of getting caught.. And then we landed on the "DOORS" sign. With a door being the symbol of many things in life, an opening to a new beginning or a close to something ending. It just seemed to be the perfect one. Taken By: Stefanie Graham On June 8th 2013 Taken with: Canon 5D Mark III Lens: EF24-105mm f/4L ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/200th of a second, at f/4.0

- Stefanie Graham

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La Puerta

Old Route 66 runs right through the heart of Albuquerque as Central Avenue. In the downtown area the businesses the same names you see in any city, but the further you go either east or west from downtown, the further you go back in time and the more it captures the imagination. Shot with Nikon D7000 at 135mm 25 second exposure at f/32

- Terry LaMantia

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Anchored

Camera Info: Canon EOS 40D Canon 28-135 F4-5.6 Image info: Shot on tripod, F6.3 1/20s exposure (2) second timer to reduce chance of image blur. Image story: This is the sign for one of my favorite drinking establishments in Wichita. I have often looked up at the neon sign out front featuring a mermaid perched on an anchor and thought I should come shoot it sometime. This shooting challenge gave me a reason to finally venture out for a photo session. While shooting, it was funny that the patrons didn't seem to notice my camera was pointed up at the sign and not at their shenanigans to get my attention. Cheers!

- Matthew Chesebrough

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Typography

Where's the Citgo sign when you need it? This is San Pedro Square Market in San Jose, CA. Canon T2i, 10mm.

- Diego Jimenez

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At Least Somebody's Happy

My absolute favorite bar in the Lower East Side, Max Fish, always has great artwork on display. This neon by George Horner is part of their "End of Days" event, which is the last collection of artwork to be shown there before the bar unfortunately relocates to Williamsburg. Fujifilm X-E1, 35mm at f/1.4, 1/750 sec, ISO 800, unprocessed JPEG.

- Tom Gannon

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Hot Light

Canon 60D — 38mm — 1/100" — F8 — ISO 100 One of the trickiest parts of this challenge was actually finding an old fashioned Neon sign. Fortunately, my sister suggested the local doughnut shop. Not only did I get a sign picture, I also got doughnuts!

- Mike Case

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Cyclops

This photo was shot with my Sony NEX-5R. ISO 1600, 18mm (Sony 10-18mm lens), f/4.0, 1/100 sec. Th photo has very little processing done in LR4. All I did was center it, lightly sharpen, and apply a bit of noise reduction. Nothing else was adjusted. To get this shot I placed my camera on a fully extended tripod, set it to a 10 second timer, and repeatedly held the camera over my head so that it was level with the sign, which was approximately 12 ft from the ground. I had to take numerous shots since there were a couple factors at work. First, it wasn't easy holding the tripod steady over my head. A lot of the shots had motion blur. Second, the sign was blinking on and off so out of the few shots that came out reasonably sharp, half didn't have the eye lit up or were crocked, off center, etc. This is the sign for a restaurant in Seattle called Cyclops. Pretty cool.

- Andre Ciceran

Generally, after seeing a few dozen photographers tackle the same topic, I'm full. But this has only left me wanting to see more of these old (and new!) neon signs, which is a testament to the breadth of your submissions. Thanks for participating. Find the big shots on flickr.

Neon signs are like looking at the future through the eyes of the past. They're incredible, often custom cultural artifacts all around us. And for this week's Shooting Challenge, photography an incredible neon sign.

The Challenge

Photograph a neon sign at night (or dusk). Basically, we want it on, not rotting away all depressingly in the sunshine.

The Technique

Truth be told, with modern camera equipment, this challenge is pretty simple. Neon is its own light source, meaning it's the easiest night photograph you could take. Even still, there are a few rules of thumb you'll want to follow, like not making your shutter speed too fast (it'll make the neon spotty). Read this tutorial and this one for aperture/shutter speed info. All of that will shift, depending if you want an isolated image on black or a glowing ambient sign. Both are great approaches. You may just want to bring a tripod and have the flexibility to shoot the sign several ways.

The Example

Our lead image is from donireewalker. I love the character of the sign, the fact that you can see its history of repair (that E and L are fantastic). And given the sign's age, it actually works that the photography isn't perfectly sharp with its subject on an isolated black backdrop. But, you know, don't be afraid to photograph your sign razor-sharp.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, June 10 at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Neon" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameNeon.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameNeonWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Where were you last Monday? You know, Memorial Day? Some of you were kind enough to pull out your cameras and share the view.

Patriots In Boxers

We spent the weekend skiing at Snowbird Resort in Utah. As part of their end-of-season festivities, They open the resort for a huge party Memorial day weekend. Everyone shows up dressed in costumes - from patriotic to ridiculous. We decided to take a few runs at the end of the day before the partying got too wild for us to ski safely any further. I snapped this pic of a friend who decided to have a little fun after a few beers, and right before he wiped out on a massive jump. Camera info: Canon T3i, 1/30, f/11 iso 200

- Austin Parker

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Strawberry Pie

My sister gave me this pie to celebrate both of our birthdays. Mine is on May 20th and her's the 28th. I received my first DSLR camera for my birthday this year from my in-laws. After taking some great photos of the wife and dogs I pretty much gave up trying to find a Memorial Day submission for this contest. So I cut a piece of pie and sat down to watch something on the DVR. I built a Windows Media Center HTPC using a Ceton quad tuner card. The blue/purplish reflection on the fork is from the tv connected to the HTPC. Camera Model Canon EOS REBEL T3i Shooting Date/Time 5/27/2013 3:37:49 PM Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/100 Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0 Metering Mode Evaluative Metering Exposure Compensation +1/3 ISO Speed 800 Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Focal Length 27.0mm Image Size 5184x3456 Image Quality Fine White Balance Mode Daylight AF Mode One-Shot AF AF area select mode Manual selection

- Casey Mills

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Too Far, Fanboys. Too Far.

The shot was taken with a Canon EOS 7D equipped with the 24-105mm f/4L Lens. ISO 100, 32mm, f/4, 1/1600s. I recently left my job and found something creative to do with the uniform to make the picture Memorial Day themed. All editing was done in Aperture. Happy Memorial Day!

- Nicholas Scala

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Fireball

Memorial day weekend doubled as a goodbye party for Justine. After serving several years in the Guard, she was going to leave for the Marines Tuesday. I've shot her breathing fire several times and wanted to try something different this last time. So she let loose one last time in front of a crowd of friends and family as I laid down in front of her. Used a Nikon D800 at 2000th of a second at F10.

- Mike Machian

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Lone Soldier

For this weeks challenge I captured the American Flag. I used a Lilac bush in the foreground to frame my shot. I used with my Canon T1i at f/4.2, 1/640 sec with a focal length of 75mm. All of the editing was done in Light Room which consisted of a little color tweaking.

- Andrew VandenHuevel

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Vietnam Memorial

SONY DSC-WX150 Focal Length - 4.45mm Exposure Time- 0.008s (1.125) f/8 ISO 100 The fact that the Kentucky Vietnam Memorial is minutes from my home made for a convenient, albeit reflective shoot. I try to make it there twice a year to pay my respects and hope have the honor of speaking with some veterans, and hearing their stories. This time I spoke with a couple of Korean War veterans- mainly in regards to how no one comes to pay their respects anymore. That we've basically forgotten them. I was shocked when I was thanked by THEM for coming to the memorial. The memorial is actually a giant sundial, and the tip of the shadow casts upon each veteran at the anniversary of their death. I took this an hour or two before sunset, freehand, with my Sony point and shoot. I don't have the knowledge or equipment to take truly breathtaking shots, but I like to think I have an eye for capturing those great moments when real photographers left their camera at home.

- Carlos Felix

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Misty Eyed

I went to the San Francisco National Cemetery where they put a flag at each tomb stone, and they were preparing for a big presentation. I was unsure if it would be insensitive to be taking pictures at the cemetery so I kind of went to the way back where I'd be out of the way. It was really misty and a lot of my shots were ruined because I did not realize that water droplets formed on my lens, but I did get a few OK shots. I used my macro lens, the iso was 100, shutter speed 1/320, and aperture 3.0

- Matthew Singleton

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Vertigo

I enjoy doing night photography and being that the moon was full and bright i decided to head out and start my nightly endeavors. I remember hearing about how the local veterans memorial has volunteers set up flags at the headstones as they do at Arlington. With the amount of rain we had that morning i was surprised to see the volunteers had actually got all 20,000 flags down. Having two older brothers in the military, one a disabled vet and one active duty, and being in the military myself. Its an honor to be among those who have served and are serving. Not just in the U.S military but all military's globally. HDR edited Camera : Nikon D7000 Lens: 8MM Rokinon Fisheye Lens F-stop: 7.1 Exposure: 47.6sec ISO:400

- Jason Houck

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Lantern Floating

"Lantern Floating Hawaii is a ceremony where all can come together for a personal and collective moment of remembrance, reflection, and offering gratitude to those who have gone before us. Held annually on Memorial Day on Oʻahu’s south shore, it brings together over 40,000 people on the beach, joined by thousands around the world via live streaming and telecast for an evening of honoring loved ones and generating collective hope toward the future." —lanternfloatinghawaii.com I was lucky to get this shot of this particular lantern. There were literally thousands of lanterns floating in the ocean. It is amazing how an occasion like this can be incredibly grand yet deeply personal at the same time. In the dark I really couldn't tell what's written on the lanterns. When I found what I have captured later at home, I thought, I had to submit this one. Because these words, more so than my image, so precisely captures what Memorial Day is all about. Canon 5D Mark III with EF24-105mm f/4L IS @ 65mm 1/200, f/4, ISO 1000

- Lin Dunsmore

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POW-MIA

My town puts one flag for every branch of the military and a POW-MIA flag on that flagpole every year for Memorial Day. I thought it would be great to get a shot from below looking straight up at all the flags flapping together. The only problem was when I went to get the shot there was zero wind. And on the rare occasion the wind came, it only was enough to get the big American flag going. So I had to rethink the situation. I walked around for a bit until I saw that all the telephone poles also had different flags on them. The POW-MIA flag juxtaposed with the American flag I think is the best example of Memorial Day because today we remember the sacrifices that these people gave for our country. Canon 7D, 28mm, ISO 800, f/8, 1/1000

- Mike Stuchlak

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He Reluctantly Agreed

Camera: Canon Rebel XS Lens: 17-85mm ISO: 400 F-stop: f/5.6 I was with my some friends Sunday afternoon riding on Foothills Parkway in east Tennessee, and we came across this gentleman. He was alone next to a motorcycle gang. I asked my friend to stop so I could take his picture. He reluctantly agreed to let me take his picture. He already set the scene with his handle bar stache, big truck, no shirt, and the American flag behind him.

- Morgan R. Miller

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to enter this week's challenge—on a holiday, no less! I was particularly taken by our winner because, even though we've all seen shots framed like this before, the white blowout in the sky actually blends into a white backdrop perfectly, invoking the feel of infinity. And if you'd like any of these photos in high resolution, head to flickr.

We used to call them "self-portraits," and they were one of the best known tropes of fine art. Now we call 'em "selfies" and people get super judgmental. Either way, here are your selfies portraits.

RB67

Shooting summary: Camera - Mamiya RB67 Lens - 127mm f/3.5 (62mm equivalent in 35mm terms) Film - Portra 400 Aperture - f.3.5 Shutter Speed - 1/500th Story behind the shot: While a classic "looking through the camera" selfie, this image is one of my favorite random self-portraits I've ever taken. I was just walking around my parent's back yard at the time and noticed my reflection in the garage door window. Once I looked through the waist-level viewfinder, I noticed how it captured my reflection, the junk in the garage (they had just moved), as well as what was behind me. I composed the shot carefully, as I've come accustomed to doing as a film photographer, I metered for my skin (with a handheld meter), and snapped the photo. The roll sat in my desk drawer for quite some time before I had it developed, but once I received the scans back from Richard Photo Lab, I was amazed at how incredible this shot turned out. When you combine the reflections, the junk in the garage, and the subtle light leak (from myself accidentally dropping it taking it out of the RB67), it looks as though it was a multiple exposure shot, when it was just one shot as a reflection.

- Gannon Burgett

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Anniversary

This is from the anniversary of my mom kicking cancer's ass. I love this picture because it reminds me that our family will always have hope, just on the horizon.

- Jack Staples

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Best Guess Focusing

I shot this more as a test to see if the automatic setting on my Pentax Spotmatic ES-II (from 1975) was metering properly and selecting the correct shutter speed. I set it up on a tripod and did my best guessing on the focusing. The lighting was provided by an old LCD monitor with the LCD part removed. (Asahi) Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic ES-II SMC Takumar 1:1.4/50mm lens Automatic Setting (Shutter Priority) Ilford HP5+ iso400 film Developed with Ilfosol3

- Rob Lennox

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Unemployment

I was sitting in my living room watching TV and browsing Gizmodo (Another day unemployed as a Performer in New York City) when I noticed the sun setting over the city and I decided to run up on the roof and try my luck at a self portrait. I set up my Nikon D5100 with a Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm lens on a tripod with the interval timer set to take a picture every second. This equaled dozens of pictures of me running to and from the camera and mistimed dance moves. I finally got the hang of the timing and got this picture. Dance is a huge part of who I am and a huge part of my career so it only seemed natural to include it in my self portrait. Exposure 1/250, f/8.

- Alex Pepper

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Disneyland, Paris

Equipment- Canon Rebel t3i with Stock 18-55 Lens f/4 - 1/8th Sec - 25mm - ISO3200. Self Shot accomplished via placing the camera on the curb and angling it via some scarves under the barrel. Myself and my Fiancee wanted one last awesome shot of our trip to Disneyland Paris. Waiting until we were the last people in the park I had a Cast Member (Disney Employee) take a photo and I just wasn't happy with it. Her photo was great, just not what I was looking for. I tried placing the camera on a banister but it just wasn't working for me balance-wise. I thought to myself "The curb is way too low, but then an idea struck, a couple of scarves later and we had a nice angled shot lined up. Took about 3 tries to get what I wanted but here is the end result, no post processing done so its got some rough patches, but i feel that a selfie should be rough.

- Ben Adler

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Gaze

I bought myself a new camera (and, at a friend's suggestion, a copy of Lightroom) for my birthday and I've decided to attempt a 52-week project to improve my photography. I image there will be more than a few self-portraits involved, and when I saw the Giz challenge this week, I figured why not start with myself. I've fairly familiar with Photoshop, but I know next to nothing of Lightroom. I hope to learn quite a bit from this. The picture was taken on a Nikon D7100, 24mm, f/3.8, ISO 100. I shot in RAW and applied a slight exposure adjustment, a couple of skin touch-ups, and cropped the image in Lightroom. I used Photoshop only to resize the image for submission.

- Robert Lee

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Wood Grain

I kinda liked how it turned out. What with all the low light noise and the accidental sepia. I felt like one of those wooden face things on the Game of Thrones opening sequence. Camera: HTC Incredible S front camera (1.3MP) Focal length: 2mm? Photoshop: Only for size. Next challenge I wanna sign up for: Duck Face.

- Theresa Teng

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Vertigo

Nikon D3200 Nikon AF-S DX 35mm F/1.8 ISO1600 F/1.8 1/30 Sec. On a night-time open tour of the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, while others used dowsing rods and EMF scanners in search of ghosts, we hunted photos with flashlights, a flash and a camera. I met no apparitions, but seized the opportunity to capture this ghastly reflection of myself in a guards office mirror.

- Matthew Hamilton

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"Smile!"

Camera: Canon T3i, Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm (55mm), ISO: 100, Aperture: f/7.1, Shutter Speed: 1/200. I had finally purchased a second flash and thought it would be cool to hold them for the selfie challenge. I used a Canon Speedlite and a Yongnuo for my two flashes in conjunction with my cowboy studio triggers. I set the camera and flashes to manual and adjusted the settings until I was happy with the exposure. Post-processing was done in Lightroom.

- Chris Medlar

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From Above

Sony NEX-5N with a Sigma 19mm prime. 1/400th at f/8.0 with ISO at 400. This is a pic of my wife and I while we were on a shoot. We fly a radio controlled hexacopter with a camera and gimbal hanging underneath. Just as we were coming in to land I thought it might be fun to hit up a quick selfie for the contest. She is looking at a video downlink to frame the shots and I'm flying the hex. Here's a link to the video we shot while we were out:

- Thomas Brown

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True Selfie

Selfie taken in the outer island of Burano in Venice. Used my trusty G12.

- Nathan Corn

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Chupaca-bro

I went to Houston this weekend to run a 5k called El Chupacabra de Houston. The chupacabra is a folklore creature that is found primarily in the Americas. It's rumored to be a small beast that drinks the blood of livestock. (Chupacabra translates roughly to "goat sucker" in Spanish.) As with most legendary creatures, chupacabra are difficult to spot. Before we started getting ready for the race, I decided to channel my inner chupacabra and took this selfie in the woods. This picture was taken using a 5D Mark iii and the Canon 50 f/1.8 II. The shot itself was taken at f/1.8 with a shutter speed of 1/800 second. ISO 2500 was used. I took the shot using the ten-second timer and a tripod.

- Josh Weiss

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Little Alice in Wonderland

That title was given to me by a lovely friend whom, by the way, was the one who pursue me to participate in this challenge, so, this is my first time, How exciting!!! I love the way the natural light changes pictures in a magical way. I have a huge window in my bedroom and I have the fortune to see the sunlight everyday. That morning the light was lovely so, in my pijamas and no makeup I started to take self portraits just for fun and ended up having my favorites selfies with no "duckfaces". I hope you like it too. It was so simple, I used my ipod and a filter from the instragram app.

- Holda Medina Ledo

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Spiffy

This self-portrait was shot with my Canon T2i and 50mm f/1.8 lens with these settings: f/5.6; ¼ sec; ISO 800. The setup was the camera on a tripod, window light for lighting, and a plain white wall as a back drop. On the editing side, I just did a little touch up in Photoshop. I call this one “Bow Tie and Pencil Mustache.” I had been growing my mustache for the last couple weeks and my wife hates it! I love it of course, and I wanted to document it while I still had it. I came across this contest and I was inspired by the awesome mustache of the guy in the example. So I trimmed mine down to a neat pencil mustache and took this picture. I enjoyed how it turned out and thought I would share.

- Dewey JT

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Melons...Wait...Yeah, Melons

Had you announced the challenge one week ago, you would see a "winter me": sketchy, untrimmed beard and longish, not absolutely clean hair. But that is past, the summer is near, time for spring cleaning. So once I took out the t-shirt you see on the picture from the closet I already knew what it's gonna be about. I got onto my motorbike, packed Nikon 5100, 35mm lens, bought some lemons and melons (yes, I did juggle melons too!) and went sight-seeing around Montreal. On this cloudy day there was no problem with high-sun shadows. Still DOF is not too great because I wanted to capture the motion, while keeping the face sharp - f1/9 @ 1/50s proved the best setting. Last but not least, I had enough of sad B&W portraits, so I decided this one will be a happy one, even if a bit autoironic. So, I guess, the motto for this summer is: 'if life gives you lemons, learn to juggle them!' :)

- Kamil Politowicz

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Burschenschaft

I used the front came of my htc One. The pic was shot with an exposure of 1/17 and ISO 160. It does fairly nice in dark settings and I must say I really like the distortion by the noise - as long as you can still clearly see the subject. The setting I chose is the place I spend most time - my workdesk. It is surrounded by the things a care for: my bass guitar, games, movies, music and mostly books. On the bass is the traditional cap of a German "Burschenschaft" or fraternity I am part of. The other important things you can't see still play a role in the picture, though: my screens provide the illumination and my PC's power LED the blue drop shadow. You even can get a climpse of the mess of papers I work with while studying. What this picture shows and what I liked in it is the reason I decided to use it in the contest: You can really tell al lot about someone just from one "selfie".

- Ramon Pallaske

Wonderful entries all around. I'd say that you were all brave to show your faces, but you're a good-looking bunch, so it sort of doesn't count! And in case you're a loyal Shooting Challenge fan who imagines putting a stranger's selfie as your desktop wallpaper, find the big shots on flickr.

In the US, Memorial Day means a three-day weekend. It's also a time when veterans don dusty uniforms in rituals to remind us all of the human costs behind the world we live in today. For this week's Shooting Challenge, I want you to capture a snapshot of this phenomenon—whether you're a patriot or not.

The Challenge

Capture a Memorial Day celebration in your town, whatever that may be.

The Technique

It's easy to write off the traditions going on around us. So last year, I asked you all to photograph one day in your life—Memorial Day. Why this one day? For one, most of us are already actually doing something, which beats taking photos from your couch.

But I'll admit there's a more clandestine motive at work. Every year, we lose more of the survivors of WWII. Hopefully this task gives you a bit of impetus (and an opportunity) to meet them and hear the first hand stories from what may seem like another place and time.

The Example

Our lead image is from Stacy Repin, submitted during last year's Memorial Day challenge. It's from San Francisco's National Cemetery, but I love the crop that seems to erase the modern world.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Tuesday, May 28th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Memorial" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameMemorial.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameMemorialWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

The selfie. You could call it a self portrait, but somehow, millennials have made it something more. And for this week's Shooting Challenge, you'll rock the selfie—as ironically or authentically as you choose

The Challenge

Photograph a selfie.

The Technique

"Ugh, why did he choose selfies??!?!" That's you right now. And you're being judgmental. So before writing this challenge off, consider a few things:

1. Selfies have resonated with a large portion of our culture. You know, like Harry Potter. And Harry Potter was pretty great.

2. Selfies are an amalgamation of the self-portrait, which is as old as art itself.

3. You're a beautiful person, really. (Well, to someone, even if it's just your mom because your mom is someone.)

Now, soak yourself in self-confidence, and set up a tripod, or just hold your camera at arm's length. And take a photo of yourself (preferably without the camera in the frame, because those shots are even worse than selfies). Consider the scene in which you're photographing yourself. Consider lighting. Consider your expression. And then photograph away. Bonus points for finding a clever twist.

The Example

You know I actually really love this lead portrait by puuikibeach? Maybe it's just that I'm a sucker for wide angle lenses and cruisewear. Maybe it's because the photo feels earnest and vulnerable. Either way, it's a great selfie. So follow suit.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, May 20th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Eye" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameSelfie.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameSelfieWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Everything we see has made its way through our eyes, which also means, there's a good chance that most of our lives is reflected in our eyes. Here are 12 fantastic images that celebrate that idea.

WINNER: Vertigo

- Michai Morin

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Sky In The Eye

It's been a while since I've tried to take an eyeball/iris shot on my own. In fact, I had a similar image in a previous contest here which was probably the last time I attempted it! Well, I was reminded over the course of an hour and probably ~100 deleted photos how hard it can be to line this up! I achieved this effect by tilting my head while hanging out my window with my camera on a tripod on the roof. I would line up my eye with my reflection in the front lens element. I didn't want the camera to be visible in the shot, however, the top can actually be seen in the center of my pupil, but it looks like the tree-line! Would you have noticed? Canon T2i - 18-55mm lens @ 55mm - f7.1 - 1/80th - ISO 200pop.

- Chris Potako

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We Have Contact

I wish I had a better macro lens for this challenge... the minimum focus distance was several feet, so I knew I'd be cropping the image later. The streaks in the reflection were from a gobo pattern in an ETC ellipsoidal. The hand belongs to my very patient model. I don't own a strobe kit (hence the high ISO and low shutter speed - couldn't go much brighter with continuous light sources without blinding the subject), but I do have access to LED film/video lights and a cyc wall. I used two DeSisti LED floor lamps (40W Magis and 90W Leonardo) to light the model and Altman LED Spectra Cyc 100's made it a breeze to find the same blue to match the model's eyes. Tech Info: Canon 5D Mark III, Sigma 70-300mm w/macro lens, 300mm focal length, f/5.6 aperture, 1/20s shutter, ISO 3200, cropped and tweaked in Adobe Camera RAW & Photoshop.

- Jon Wolding

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Wingless

I was excited about this contest because I think macro shots of eyes are some of the coolest images. After some persuasion, my friend volunteered to let me use her eyes and I let her pick the object to be reflected. As an artist herself, she chose a favorite personal drawing of a crying angel with the caption "I can fly no matter how wingless I feel". The image was shot with a a Canon 7D and a 60mm macro, a constant light to keep her pupil small, and then a external flash to bounce off the drawing for the reflection. Credit for the eye and drawing goes to Sonya Bolton.

- Tim Nummy

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Big Screen

Wanted to try out my new tele so figured I would give this a shot. This is a photo of my eye, taken with a Canon T4i on a tripod with the Canon 70-200 at 120mm. I used a Kenko 36mm extension tube as a macro. Camera specs are ISO 800, f2.8, 1/30. The only processing done to the image was a simple crop. I used Photoshop to create and reverse the reflected image. The image is displayed on my Macbook held extremely close to my face. There was a fill light above but the majority of the light came from the computer screen at max brightness. The rough quote comes from the Underpants Gnomes South Park Episode and subsequent memes.

- Timothy Schubert

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Middle Falls

This photo was taken at Letchworth State Park overlooking the middle falls. I used an Olympus EPL-2 set at "autofocus" which ended up being iso 200, f9, at 1/250 of a second. I looked into the sun, aimed the camera as best I could at my eye, and started snapping away. After the shot was taken I upped the structure, contrast, and saturation a bit in they eye using the Photoshop plugin Viveza 2 to make the reflection pop a little more.

- William Brown

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Cross My...Heart

So I called my friend Cath for the shot. The original idea was to have a queen of harts playing card in her eye. I couldnt get the shot to work like I wanted to. So then we moved inside and were just talking about ideas on the shot and she got the cross. It worked perfectly. Nikon D5100, 18mm-55mm Lens, f/5.6, 1/6 sec, ISO 100.

- Jack Gebhardt

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Video Vision

My wife has recently completed her dissertation and will be receiving her PhD. She has been working almost 24/7 for over a year and a half. When she was winding down, she decided she wanted to hook-up her Super Nintendo and play "Secret of Mana" and "Final Fantasy III" for relaxation (I knew there was a good reason we were together). This is her eye and her Super Nintendo controller. 35 mm, 1/40 sec, 400 ISO, f/7.0. I also used macro extension tubes.

- Rob Huber

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Hawkeye

This was tough. Frustratingly tough without daylight/sunlight. The girlfriend and I don't get much time together these days, so I like to use these challenges as an excuse to do something together and practice photography at the same time. The concept was basically a themed photo on my favorite comic book series right now, Hawkeye. So I proposed she do her makeup in a way that was inspired by the series, and that part came out fantastic in my opinion. The reflection was supposed to be a simple cover from one of the issues of the series. One problem, with just indoor lighting (only time we had to get this done was late at night) it was next to impossible to get the book to reflect into the eye properly. So the shot didn't come out how I wanted it to come out...but I still think it's a really cool concept and the makeup at least looks great! Would love to do a series of these based on my favorite books and her amazing makeup skills. Canon t2i, 18-55mm kit lens (at 55mm), f/9, no flash.

- Mick Anders

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Dentist Chair Simulation

This was shot with a Canon 60D, and an old Canon 80-200. I used a macro adapter and a ring flash adapter. The ring flash adapter is what you see in the reflection. Settings are f/16, 1/200, ISO 400.

- Michael Chiri

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Rubber Ducky

I was pretty excited to try this out, and then a little disappointed in the results of my actual efforts. This is of my 1 year old daughter outside playing with her rubber duck. She loves that duck! In looking at the pictures I took of her, I found that there was a reflection of her duck in her eye. This photo wasn't actually meant to be for this challenge, but I saw there was a reflection, so I cropped and brightened up the colors. Canon Rebel XS, f/1.8, 1/1000sec, ISO-100, +2 step, 50mm.

- Amanda Jaeger

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Ready For My Close-Up

I took these with my Nikon D3100, f/5.6 1/50 sec exposure, ISO 800, 55mm focal, no flash. Long story short, I do not have a macro lens or any real macro experience. I have been meaning to participate in these challenges for a long time but never got around to it, so when this was announced, and I actually had a solid idea, I got my crap together and did what I could! Unfortunately, my pics did not come out like I wanted...I had the grand idea of having the eye reflection show me looking at myself in the mirror and crying (so much angst, I know, but it was supposed to tell a story.) I wanted to capture how people judge themselves in the mirror and deal with body image issues. You can see the studio lights of my bathroom mirror so I guess that's kind of cool.

- Mike Gill

Wonderful entries as always! From your comments, it seems like this week was exceptionally challenging, but for what it's worth, you made the images look effortless. To take a look at the even bigger shots, head over to flickr.

Our eyes capture everything we see. So for this week's Shooting Challenge, we're going straight for the source.

The Challenge

Photograph something reflecting in an eye.

The Technique

I know what you're thinking: "That sounds neat. I've seen shots like that before. But how were they taken?"

This is how. <— Use that tutorial, with clearly laid out diagrams, and you'll be fine. Basically, the trick is to have a strong light source on one side of the eye, your subject on the other side of the eye and a camera set taking the shot in between.

The Example

Our example is the music video for K-Conjog's QWERTY, directed by Francesco Lettieri (via PetaPixel). The content can be a bit explicit, but it does show how far you can push the technique narratively/creatively.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, May 14th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Eye" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameEye.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameEyeWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Perfect symmetry. It's how we define beauty, but photography tends to shy away from it. Here are 19 pieces of proof that symmetry really is beautiful.

Winner: The Beer Can Building
When this challenge was announced, I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot. I've taken a lot pictures of this building, and even submitted one to a previous Shooting Challenge. This is Tampa's Rivergate Tower, known locally as "The Beer Can Building". To get the inverted perspective, I took the shot laying down, looking straight up at the building. While the building is an exercise in symmetry, the individual pieces of the limestone facade have all become faded and stained to differing degrees. This adds a nice random effect to counter the symmetrical construction. I shot the picture in black and white on my Nikon D3100 set at 1/60 sec, f/29, ISO 100, with a 18 -55mm lens @ 50mm. In Photoshop CS5, I rotated the image 0.5 degrees, cropped the edges after rotating, and adjusted the exposure and contrast just a bit to make everything pop.

Located at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the "Levitated Mass" is a 340-ton hunk of granite. This sculpture is simple and powerful. One thing I loved most about walking under the rock was the lighting in the hall. Half of the hallway was illuminated, and the other in shadow. My favorite part is the line created from the bottom-left of the frame to the top-right. The shadows edge meets with the edge of the wall creating a line of symmetry. Held up to a ruler, it's a near perfect straight line. Shot with a Nikon D5100, 18mm, 1/1600sec, f/4, ISO 320.

- Matthew Zarzeka

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Lights Are Symmetrical!

Lights are Symmetrical! I found this out the hard way. After looking everywhere in nature for the past few days I found that it is indeed pretty hard to get what I was looking for in terms of "Symmetry". This doesn't really seem to be eye candy to me but it was really the best I could come up with since I haven't actually had much time lately. Shot with a Canon powershot sx260hs f/3.5 iso 200. Not much of a story behind it but I think it at least grasps symmetry very well.

- Josh Matthews

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Imperfect, But Pretty Cool

This is Saint Josephs cathedral in San Jose, CA. The symmetry is not perfect, but the detail is pretty cool. Canon T2i, f/3.5, 10mm, 1/30.

- Diego Jiménez

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Kiting

I was shooting at Gay Parade Minneapolis, on a sunny clear day, when this kite caught my attention. It was flying randomly, held by someone dancing on the parade. I shot twice until ...one of those moments, the kite and the wind seemed just stand still a fraction of second lined up with the line of the building... one still can see the black wire... Camera: CANON G10, Lenses: 80mm, ISO: 100.

- Rodolfo Tucci

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Ological Scien

Nikon D5100 with 18-55 zoom lens.shot at 18mm,post processing into B and W with silver effects pro and Adobe CS6. biological science building on the university of Arizona campus.

- Steve Wolfhope

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Waiting for Pizza

When a friend calls at noon on a Friday to see if you want to go on a spur of the moment weekend trip to San Francisco, you just have to say yes. While walking with friends and waiting for our Tony's pizza to be ready, I saw this really cool church and instantly thought of the symmetry shooting challenge. The twin spires of the Saint's Peter and Paul Church jumped out of the cityscape and I knew there was a cool picture to be made. I originally thought that it would look cool as a silhouette, but it felt just wrong to cover up all that intricate detail, so I left in in there. I couldn't get the church exactly centered without there being a tree branch in the way, but I got pretty close. I used my Fuji X100 at f/4, 1/10, ISO-3200 to get the shot.

- Ray Bazz

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Sugarloaf Mountain

I went hiking on Sugarloaf Mountain in Frederick, Maryland this weekend, and I figured I would look for some natural symmetry — pretty sure there will be many other webs in this gallery. I was hoping to find a basalt formation (they are here and there in my area), but no luck. It's a little washed out (late afternoon sun) but I really like the way 'ole "spidey" kept his kills in a nice straight line to ensure the maximum amount of web remained to take out more unsuspecting bugs flying by. Canon T5i Canon EF S18-135 STM lens. ISO 160/Auto.

- Rodrigo Moscoso

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The Blues

I took this shot while testing out my new ND filter. I used my Canon T1i, a kit lens, and my tripod. I set my aperture to f/4.5 with 1/40th sec exposure at ISO-200. I try to find subjects off the beaten path, but at times I felt like I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. I never saw any "No Trespassing" signs, so I took my shots and left. I wasn't very excited about this shot until I after I got it on my computer. Tweeked it a bit in Lightroom, and this is what I ended up with.

- Andrew VandenHeuvel

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Bridge Commute

I pass this bridge everyday on my drive to work and wondered what kind of photo it would make. I decided to go out and take a photo and ended up with a rather symmetrical shot shot when viewing down the bike path. Camera: Sony a77, Lens: Sony SAL1650, Aperture: f/8.0, ISO: 100. Bracketed Shots: -2/-1/0/+1/+2, Tripod: Three Legged Thing. Manually bracketed, wireless trigger and tripod mounted. Merged and tone mapped via Photomatix. Edited via Lightroom 4. Clarity, Contrast and Shadow settings increased. Highlights and a few luminosity settings reduced.

- Ian Dickmann

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Empire Welcome Mat

I was in downtown NYC at the Empire State Building looking for symmetrical things to shoot. The building itself is perfect symmetry but as I was walking around in the lobby I came upon this behind the main desk in the lobby. The way the building is pictured with reflected rays around it made a better symmetrical picture. This was shot with my Canon 550D camera using a 50mm f1.4 lens. The aperture was 1/125 sec at f1.4 in aperture priority mode, evaluative metering and center weighted focus. I used a slow 100 ISO speed and shot the picture in RAW format. Converted to JPG with a little work in Canon’s DPP program.

- John McNamara

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Double Trouble

This is a simple smartphone shot (iPhone 5). I didn't have my SLR with me at the time and looking back, it doesn't look like I needed it. In case it's not obvious, the subject is an Alligator. The reflection comes from the underside of the water surface. Photoshop was used for cropping, sharpening and desaturation.

- Steven Giblin

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Chihuly Garden

I shot the photo at the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, an amazing place showing sculptures by the American artist Dale Chihuly. I felt like I was walking in a dream with some amazing setup for the sculptures. I was just having a good time walking around when I saw an opportunity for a symmetry photo, I could only take one shot because the security asked me politely to not place the camera in the glass holding the sculptures. After he said that, I wanted to take more photos so bad, but I had nothing else to do but just let it go and enjoy the rest of the exhibit. I used my Canon T4i at f8, 1/40sec ISO400 with a 18-200mm lens.

- Alecio De Paula

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Green Beauty Mark

I've always wanted to shoot the bridges from this vantage point but your symmetry challenge/assignment provided the perfect excuse! Long exposure with a solid tripod and shutter release trigger. Edited in Lightroom/Photoshop.Canon 6D with Tamron 10-24 wide angle at ISO 100 16mm f/10 32 secs.

- Michael B. Stuart

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It's A Chair!

OK—I don't have a tripod. Or a level. Or a dedicated camera. I do have a camera on my phone, a chair, and a brick wall. Seemed like a good idea at the time. This picture was taken with the front camera on my HTC Droid DNA with standard automatic exposure settings (1/40 sec shutter, ISO-224, 4mm focal length, no flash). Owing to time and circumstance (and lack of tripod), I did end up using Paint.NET to lop off a small piece of the left side of the image. No other adjustments were made.

- Adrian Stovall

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Jefferson's Ceiling

This photo was taken while laying on the floor of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC looking up at the inside of the rotunda. I thought it was a cool shot the way that all the squares align perfectly and you really cannot tell if the squares get smaller or if it is an optical illusion as they get farther away from the camera. This was shot with my Nikon D5000 at f/4, 1/60sec. @ ISO 400.

- James Bowman

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It Would Make A Beautiful Bug Zapper

After spending most of the day walking around the city looking for pictures, I remembered I had some decorative filament bulbs laying around my apartment. I taped the socket cord to my kitchen wall, turned out the lights, and shot away! It was kinda tough getting it to stay at the right angle.Canon Rebel xsi, Canon 100mm f2.8 macro USM, ISO 200, F8, 1/100.

- Isaac Richardson

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Cell Towering

This is a picture of a cell tower i took today at work using my point and shoot canon power shot A3100 IS. Ironically, I didn't know about the contest and i just took this pic thinking it would look cool, and that's the only camera I happened to have on me. The pic is unedited, just used the b/w setting on the camera. All other settings were auto.

- Shawn Miller

When you stare at symmetrical photos for too long, going back to the real world feels completely out of whack. Thanks for the strange sensation followed by an inevitable bout of depression. While I'm self-medicating, you can find the big shots on flickr.

They say symmetry is beauty, which makes a lot of sense. It's the balance of equal proportions. It's a sort of geometric perfection. And for this week's Shooting Challenge, you're going to capture it.

The Challenge

Photograph symmetry. Real, not photoshopped.

The Technique

It's going to be a bit of a hunt. You need to find something symmetrical in the world (because, please, don't just photograph your laptop). You'll notice that nature is rarely symmetrical, but buildings often are.

Use a tripod. If your tripod has a level, even better. Keep in mind that the wider you go with your scope, the more incredible the effect will be. And while two squares, side by side, are obviously symmetrical, you'll probably get more visual bang for your buck by considering curves and diagonals, like our lead shot.

The Example

Our lead image is by flickr's jakubkadlec (outside the Louvre, I believe). Notice how intricate the lines are, which exacerbates the visual balance.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, May 6th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Symmetry" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameSymmetry.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameSymmetryWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Paint in the face? Powder up the nose? We're not playing around. This is fine freaking art.

A Single Tablespoon??

This is a tablespoon of powdered paint placed on top of a balloon...seven milliseconds after it the balloon was popped. The popping of the balloon was captured by the StopShot, which triggered the flash units (placed at 2, 5, and 11 o'clock).
Equipment: Canon 5DIII, Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II, StopShot, 3x Yongnuo YN560II, EXIF: F16, ISO400, 1"

- Ryan Taylor

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Drop

The first thing I thought of when I saw this Splash shooting challenge were images I had seen of drops of color into liquids, and I had always wanted to try it. This shooting challenge gave me the opportunity to. I learned a lot about my new prime lens in the process and hope to try this experiment again for different results and with different colors. Nikon D5100, 35mm, 1/40000sec, f/1.8, ISO 100

- Matthew Zarzeka

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Pain(t)ball Portraits

This is from a series of "paintball portraits" that I'm currently working on. Based on classic Victorian portraiture, I start by firing paintballs to create the base and then finish the faces by hand. Then I photograph the finished piece while it's still wet to capture the texture. Shot with a Canon 5Dmk3 w/ 24-70mm @ f14, 1/100 sec.

- Shana Siegel

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Thunk Clump

I was happy that at the end of the description for the color splash challenge it said "really try this," it made me want to go out of my way to do this. Chalk powder is apparently not too easy to find around here so I bought a package of chalk, blended it in a blender, and then baked it to remove the moisture (so it wouldn't clump). It still clumped up pretty badly. As this was my first time doing a powder shoot, and I don't have a studio, I went to a very helpful friend's apartment with a black poster board for a background and we used a sheet to catch the excess powder. By the end of the night the camera, apartment, and ourselves were covered in chalk but we had made some pretty cool images. Lit with two desklamps on chairs and the bright white bulbs from the Soft Box challenge, black tri-fold posterboard taped to a door for the background and shot on a Canon 400D with a kit 18-55mm on Aperture Priority mode, ISO 1600 @ f/22, 1/200sec and a Canon 430EX II speedlight on top. Edited in Photoshop with a NIK tone mapping plug in. I can't explain how chalky this was, but totally worth it.

- Jack Kelly

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Chess Mani-Pedi

A glass chess piece with colored nail polish (both sparkled and non-sparkled). We thought it would be a decent idea since we didn't have any colored chalk to use (or a good place to throw it - it's been raining!). Taken with a Canon Rebel T3i with the kit lens (18-55mm) and a macro attachment. ISO 800, 1/30 shutter speed, f/5.6 and on manual mode. Just used white paper for the background (again, lacking materials and space).

- Clint Smith

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Playing In The Dirt

I used my nephews and niece to attempt the challenge. I used a green screen. built earlier this year to have fun playing around with for silly composites. Originally, we tried to use water for the image. I ended up choosing an image of one of my nephew's with loose red soil from the surrounding desert being chucked at him by his sister (much to her satisfaction) . During the process of reviewing some of the images one nephew shouted, "We look like the Croods." So, here is the image of my litte caveboy nephew. Camera: Nikon D200, Lens: Nikkor; 55 - 200 mm f/4.0-5.6, Focal length 105mm, ISO 400, f/ 5.6 @ 1/250, Crop: aspect ratio 4:5, , Lighting: Ambient: open shade f/5.6 @ 1/250, Strobe: 2 Alienbees 1600, Key: above model (equal to ambient), Fill: directly in front; f/4

- James Carrillo

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Orange and Blue

Christian (the model) is a very good friend of mine. We tried some pictures with powder in orange as you can see but I didn't get the shot I want. We didn't had so much orange powder so we started to try some photographs with blue powder. Meanwhile the sun goes down I must go for ISO 3200 because I still want to shoot with 1/320, to get the nice effect of the powder. In the end it work very well and we tried different backgrounds…We ended up with some nice brown wood. I use my Canon 6D with 24-105mm f/4, ISO 3200 and no flash or something else…

- A. Gottlob-Schoenenberg

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Bacteria Swarm

For this week's photo challenge, I did a 'splash of color' with bacteria from a salmon's gill onto a SWC agar plate. They are fluorescent bacteria that produce light with luciferase. I took the picture with my Olympus E-PL1. f/5.5. 13 secs. ISO100.

- Lucas Lin

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Sprinkle Rain

I had some really fun trial and error photos that came out of this. Originally, I really wanted to do something with water droplets or food coloring in water. Well, for some reason nothing turned out the way I wanted. So I looked around the house for something colorful that I might be able to use. I turned to a sensory box I made my 1yr old daughter. It's full of rice I colored with food dye. I didn't think it would give me anything better than my water ideas, but when I started pouring it in front of the camera, I realized I was wrong. I loved the way it looked! I admit, I enhanced the color and contrast a little bit, and I did crop my hand out of the picture, but I'm still pretty happy with the way this turned out! Canon Rebel XL, f/1.8, 1/200 sec, ISO-100, +2 step, 50mm, compulsory flash.

- Amanda Jaeger

You put some serious time into these—for both the photos and the cleanup. Thanks to everyone for doing something I'm sure they've never done before. This collection is superb. And if you'd like the big versions, they're over on flickr.

WINNER: Eureka!

Around last week the idea sort of popped in my mind to take clean, stylized pictures of lighbulbs and filaments. I'm probably not the first one to come up with this but what the heck, I thought it'd be fund. Since incandescent bulbs are now banned in France I had to order a few with interesting filaments from a specialized shop. I actually have 7 different bulbs in this series but this one's my favourite - I just like the overall balance.

I shot it with my Fuji X-E1 and kit 18-55 zoom at 55 mm, f/22, ISO 200. The image is a combination of two shots: one with the bulb on, a 9-stop ND filter, and 4-second exposure (the filament), and another with the bulb off, no filter and also 4-second exposure (the glass). I probably could have done it in one shot if I had a variator to have the bulb running at low power. The main challenge was to find two appropriately-placed vertical light sources for the side highlights; in the end I took the shot in my parents' kitchen - I was visiting - at night, with the garage and living room doors ajar. Whatever works! Anyway. I think it turned out OK.
- Wealon Bouillet

Decay

This photo was taken with a Fujifilm x100, ISO 1000, F 10, 1/250 in Huntington WV, and I think that it captures the slow decay and religious fatalism that is rampant in this town. As far as editing it was converted to black and white in Lightroom 4 with adjustments made to exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, lights, dark, and clarity.
- Ken Maynard

Flare Up

I have always wanted to participate in the photo shooting challenge, brush some of the dust off of my rapidly aging DSLR. Yet the opportunity never presented itself. It was always "wait till this is finished," or "I'll do it tomorrow." As I'm sure you guessed, work was never done and tomorrow never came. More on the photo; I was taking photographs through a compound light microscope and I couldn't get them quite as focused on the light source as I liked. After getting some satisfactory pictures from cat genitals (yes, for real), I really liked the accidental photos I took. It reminded me of the first photo challenge I read about, back in 2010, it was of lens flares. So I'm taking you guys up on your suggestion, and this is my first photo challenge submission of the first photo challenge I ever read! This photo was taken with an iPhone 4S, using the stock camera application and later edited using iPhoto for some minor saturation and levels adjustments.
- Rhys Mucik

Tulips

We went to the tulip Garden near there was lots of colors, colors in the garden was overwhelming, I was confused to choose which tulip color to shoot, finally I settled with yellow. Result is what you are seeing. I shot this with my Nikon D5000 and with 18-200 lens, ISO set to 250 and f/6.3
- Sathish Kumar

Color Me Rad

I wanted to do the anything challenge, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. My niece suggested that I take a picture of something new.. something I've never tried or done before. With that in mind, I decided to bring my Sony Cybershot with me on my first ever 5k. This was the Color Me Rad 5k, so I knew if nothing else, I would get some colorful shots. I couldn't even see through the viewfinder through all the color dust in the air, but I blindly shot photos anyway. This was a group of runners who found themselves back in a color zone after the race. The lined up and had a friend of theirs unload a bag of dust over them. It's not the best framed photo in the world, but I think it captures how much fun and color this event actually is!
- Amanda Jaeger

Open Wide

Using the "no excuses" line as my motivation, I set myself out to take an image for which there was no excuse. Originally, I was planning on making a composite image by taking the face shot and the roach shot separately but my subject seemed less than intimidated by the arthropod and I had to oblige. If I could conjure a single justification for this image it is that we should all be more conscious of what we choose to eat. Many foods today contain ingredients that we would not otherwise consume and increased awareness could empower people to make healthier choices with their diet. This image was captured using a Nikon D5000 sporting a 50mm f/1.8g at ISO 200, f/8.0 and 1/100's of a second shutter speed. Two studio strobes were used. One as a main light and the other on the background and to soften the shadows a bit. The cockroach was already dead and didn't have any other plans that night.
- Diego Barrera

More and More Cats

Not that we need any more cat photos online, I wanted to do something neat for the anything challenge but Florida weather prevailed and damped out basically everything. The cat here likes to go on these crazy running sprees and hide above one of the towel cupboards. Grabbed a few shots as she stared down at the camera and loved the way the light lit half of her face. Shot on a Canon 400D, f/4.5 @ 1/125, ISO 400
- Jack Kelly

We Did Said Anything

I've had this idea for sometime now, but finally had some time after work to shoot it. It was originally a 124 image Brenizer cropped down to what you see here. I shot it by myself as you can imagine it was quite difficult to manage. 5D Markii, 85L, and natural light. Processed in Lightroom and Photoshop CS6.
- Kyle Ford

Tree Frog

I saw this tree frog the day the contest was announced. About an inch long and very lively. Took me a while to get a decent shot. Canon 50D, 100mm macro lens, Canon MT-24EX Flash, 1/250th, f/11
- Chris Andrews

Beat The Heat

A friend of mine was getting a bigger aquarium for the fishes. So i could get the old aquarium to play around. Nils and me we built a couple of weeks ago a custom made laser trigger. So I set up my little studio with the laser trigger, a SB900, another snooted SB900, Macro Lens and my D700. I had to darken the room and started to throw things into the aquarium. That is what came out :-)
F8, Iso 800, Exposure 1Sec, 105mm.
- Markus Enderlin

Blue Bird

My wife and I went on a walk to just relax and enjoy the early spring weather. As we were walking back and the sun was setting, this bird landed on a branch and sat there with an open mouth. I shot it with my Rebel xsi at 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 400. I edited the file in Lightroom.
- Rob Huber

What variety! Nature, pets, urban decay, abstraction and studio work that would put any stock photo house to shame. Kudos to all of you for putting yourselves on the line this week and photographing what you wanted to. The full galleries are below. The big shots are on flickr.

View gallery »

View gallery »

A black backdrop. A splash of color. It's a visual that just pops. And you know what? It's super easy to pull off on your own. (Seriously! Push yourself! Try this!)

The Challenge

Capture a splash of color. It can be liquid. It can be powder. It can hit a subject or just fly through the air.

The Technique

I was inspired by the work of Andrew McGibbon—specifically his collection Super Colour. I was curious how he created the shots. And what he said was that the powders/paint shots weren't that hard to create.

"We had one light source (a profoto beauty dish) a black background and then my assistant simply chucked paint at the side of the girls head - presto!"

(Note: to avoid trial and error, know that his shots were taken at f8, 1/200. That f-stop will vary by your light and lens, but you'll want to set your shutter speed to around 1/200 if you want to duplicate the exact mix of blur and definition.)

Now, you may not own that expensive piece of lighting equipment, but any bright, soft, evenly dispersed light will do. (Light kits are pretty cheap to build, especially as you only need a single light rather than a bunch.) And as for the paints/colored powders, no extra color gels are required. Also, if you don't own a black backdrop, you can always try a white sheet/wall instead...just be clean about it.

The Example

Our lead image is from Andrew McGibbon's collection. Again, don't be afraid to try other approaches—miniatures, still life, anything. If you have enough color in motion, whatever you do will be interesting.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, April 29th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Splash" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameSplash.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameSplashWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Every week, I tell you what to do. And you obey because I type so powerfully. But just this once (OK, it's kind of an annual thing), we're going to change the rules. For this week's challenge, photograph anything.

The Challenge

Photograph anything you'd like. You know what? Even use Photoshop so long as there's an original image involved. Just create something amazing.

The Technique

So, the problem is, when you can do anything, it's hard to decide on doing something. First, promise yourself that you'll submit something. That way, you'll have your own deadline to answer to. Then, if you find yourself stuck in indecision, go somewhere new with your camera. A new building, museum, or part of the city you've never seen. I can almost guarantee that you'll be inspired. But if all that doesn't work, just look through the Shooting Challenge archive to find an old challenge you'd wished you'd entered and do that.

The Example

Our lead image was taken by Gilliam Dela Torre, the winner of our Food As Art challenge. It's fantastically weird. Don't be afraid to be a little weird.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, April 22nd at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Anything" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameAnything.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameAnythingWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Winner: Orb

The challenge for me was that I am in Autumn as I live in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore while technically I cannot submit Spring, I took the view that I can submit something that has the theme of Spring. A very traditional picture of insects collecting the nectar out of blossom. This plant is actually considered a weed and my neighbour chopped it down shortly after the pictures were taken. I have no idea what type of insects they are, they seem quite harmless and didn't mind me pushing the camera lens up close. I took these with a mirror less Sony NEX-F3 camera. This is a new purchase and I am still getting to grips with it. The lens I used was the standard Sony 18-55mm zoom. I set the Camera in manual focussing mode and then simply set the focus and moved the camera back and forth to get the sweet spot. I had two issues it as not as easy to focus as my Pentax DSLR and the sun washed out the LCD so at times it was point shoot and hope.
Camera: Sony NEX-F3, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, 55mm (82mm equiv 35mm)
- Nick Smith

Rosy Painting

The first bud on a miniature rose plant, a sure sign of Spring! Taken with my Canon 7D, macro 60mm lens, f/2.8, 1/80s, ISO 200.
- Rachael Pawlak

Blue Flamingoes

It was a great overcasty day in my neighborhood of Venice, CA, so the lighting was easy to work with. The day prior to taking this shot, my wife and I were walking our baby and dog by this setup in someones yard and every flower was in full bloom. It looked like a sea of these flowers that the flamingos where wading in. I snapped a shot with Instagram and my friends loved it, so I went back to get a shot with my Canon 40D. Unfortunately, half the flowers weren't in full bloom this time, so the effect was not as dramatic - but still a good shot. I used my 50mm prime lens to get a nice DoF and shot from a few different angles.
- Randy Osborn

Anther, Stigma, and Style

Just starting to see signs of Spring in Massachusetts; a few overachievers; the early finishers from the Winter Marathon. But we know Spring is coming. Canon T3i, EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, f2.8, ISO 100.
- Costas Kitsos

Giant Butterbur

It was taken on one of the first warm days this year in the mountains near my home in Akita City, Japan. It is a picture of the popular mountain vegetable Giant Butterbur also known as Fuki. It is common in the cedar forests of Northern Japan, and it very popular in cooking in this area. This shot was taken with a Sony DSC-H9 at 1/20s, f2.8, ISO 80.
- Christian O'Brien

Feed Me, Seymour

I decided to dedicate this challenge to a beautiful orchid that has accompanied me stubbornly while moving to another town. This winter has been too long... and finally with the arrival of the sun I captured the blossom of the first 2013 flower! Canon 550D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS, f/5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 800
- Filipe Soares

Iced

Spring came, then went back to winter. The crocus' came up on a beautiful 60 degree spring day, the next day it snowed 12". Canon 50D, Canon 100mm Macro lens, ISO 100
- Chris Andrews

Poppy

I was walking around the Stanford Shopping Center Mall while a good friend of mine was getting an MRI at the Stanford Hospital. I was enjoying all the lovely flowers budding, and noticed this poppy getting ready to flower. I instantly knew I needed a photo of this flower. Iphone 4, F 2.8, 1/120sec, ISO-125
- Mike Valenzu

Cul-de-sac Rose

I've lived at the foot of these sweet, rolling hills in Fremont, CA for the past 15 years. In all this time, I have never attempted to climb it. Until this morning, when I woke a friend up and we headed out to take a picture of the sunrise. Now, it took us a good twenty minutes to reach the top, just in time for us to get shots of the sun and surrounding landscape, including many cities in the bay area. To be honest, I felt a little disappointed, because most of the plants are dead at this time of year, scorched and parched by the sun. It took us half an hour to navigate a route down the hill and jump a barbed-wire fence into the neighbor's yard, as well as their fence into my cul-de-sac. As we were walking, I noticed this beauty, and took a photo. Worth it. Canon 7D, Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/125 sec
- Anthony Lau

The Climb

After reading an article on photo walks I decided to grab a friend, a six-pack of tall boys, and head to a nearby river. We saw a large spider hanging from a tree, dancing in the wind, which drew me over to this interesting looking tree. When I got to the tree I saw the large carpenter ant, and saw this as an opportunity to test my new lens out. I took this picture with a Canon 6D, and a Canon 24-105L lens. Camera settings : focal length - 105mm, shutter - 1/320 sec, aperture - f/4.0, ISO - 800.
- L. Alex Frank

Flowers may be a bit of a lob when it comes to photography, but you still hit these out of the park. Amazing entries all around. Here are the wallpapers. Find the full galleries below.

View gallery »

View gallery »

It finally—finally—feels like spring. Time to get out there and enjoy it. For this week's Shooting Challenge, shoot a photo of the best season of the year.

The Challenge

Take a photo that shows the first bits of spring coming to life. You have until April 15th to do so.

The Technique

I don't know how you do it, but the spring Shooting Challenge has become a bit of a tradition, and the results are unreal. The first buds and blooms. Those early morning when frost finally gives way to dew. Get out there and get your hands dirty. Plant yourself in the grass, mud and gunk and get a great shot. Don't be afraid to bust out the macro lens.

The Example

Our lead shot is by Chris Andrews, from our 2010 challenge. In other words, you'd better bring it because it's already been broughten.

The Rules

0. No watermarks. They're so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

Send your best photo by Monday, April 15th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Spring" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameSpring3.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameSpring3Wallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Hunting Bugs

This challenge gave me a chance to be a better dad by taking my daughter out to "hunt bugs" and bring along her magnifying glass. She's not nearly as afraid of them as I am. So here's one of her holding a milkweed bug. She treated it like it was her pet. She was very gentle with it. She dropped by accident it a few times and was adamant about recovering it, and then eventually let it go. It was a lot of fun for both of us (as long as she was picking up the bugs.) It isn't the best composition in the world so I lowered myself to cheap parlor tricks like pushing the color, saturation, vibrancy, sharpening, definition, and mid-contrast. Shot on a Nikon D70S, 18-70 lens at 18mm, f11, 1/200, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, post processing in Aperture.
- Brian McCabe

A New Car!

This photo was taken with my newly acquired Samsung galaxy S3! Since my wife and I were out in the park having lunch, I decided to test it after reading the photo challenge of the week; working on lens or any magnifying glass! The lens used to magnify the toy car is my Canon 500d close-up. The only setting I changed in-camera is the scene mode which is Landscape mode.
- Ave Guisala

Thanks to our two intrepid photographs this week. It seems that magnifying glasses didn't inspire a lot of entries. And on a totally unrelated note, your dSLR wrote and said she misses you intensely.