::Google+ Weekly Photography Theme “What’s Hot” Recognition::

From last week’s Google+ PAC Community weekly “What’s Hot” photography theme challenge, the judges have chosen to highlight Brian Baril!

When it comes to “What’s Hot?” Brian Baril’s image of the striking Fire Breather is about as close to “What’s Hot” as it comes! His image is both intriguing and captivating. Brian has delivered to our visual cortex, texture, color, action and beauty in his stunning image. Speaking of beauty, now is a good time to introduce Brian’s model Elisa who is from Santa Cruz California.

Brian reports his settings as:

ISO 100
Exposure time 1/250
Nikon D200
18-200mm lens

Brian has been dabbling in the world of photography for 30 years, from an SLR in high school to his first DSLR seven years ago. “I am a California transplant now living in Gilbert.” Brian says. He photographs in many genres to, “keep it interesting”. Obviously, he’s mastered the genre of creative portraiture.

Brian’s web presence can be found at:  http://lifeofbrian.smugmug.com, http://facebook.com/brian.baril.photography and of course on Google+.

Congratulations Brian Baril! Take a moment to congratulate him and add him to your circle of photographers.

 ::Facebook PAC Group — Creative “Money, Coins, Wallets & Purses” Theme Recognition ::

For last week’s Facebook Group Creative Theme, “Money, Coins, Wallets & Purses” our judges have chosen to highlight Tim Johnson’s picture!

Congratulations, Tim!

The coin is from the Philippines, minted by the United States, during World War II.  It’s part of Tim’s personal coin collection that he’s had since childhood.

The simplicity of this image, combined with the excellent composition, lighting and tack-sharp focus, made it the clear winner for this theme!

Tim made this picture with his Sony NEX-5.

His settings for this image are:

shutter speed 1/200 sec

f/7.1

Tim has a fascinating background (including teaching at a school for the homeless, working for Google, and being featured by Sony in a video – link below!) which he shared with us; he also filled us in about his interest in photography:

“I am an educator who spent many years teaching at the Pappas schools for the homeless in Phoenix and Tempe. Recently I worked for Google and then last year for an international school in Abu Dhabi, UAE. I enjoy photography, but would not consider myself to be a professional. I like taking nature and travel photos, or anything unusual. I’m one of those people who take my camera everywhere I go. Although my photos have been used by a handful of media outlets and a few companies like Sony and Intel, I don’t make a living from photography.

I have slowly been learning with my Sony NEX-5, and eventually I will move up to a larger camera. Because I have used the camera all over the U.S. and at events like the final space shuttle launch, Sony asked if I would be in a short promotional video. It was a fun experience seeing the behind the scenes of a video shoot.”

Click here to watch the video in which Tim was featured!

Tim is an active member of our PAC Group on FB, and we really appreciate his participation!   Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, Tim … we’re looking forward to your future posts!

::Facebook PAC Group — Technical “Lens Flare” Photography Theme Recognition::

Our judges selected Jeremy Raffer’s breathtaking picture he took from inside a cave at Valley of Fire, in Nevada. Congratulations, Jeremy!!

This is a beautiful example of how lens flare can really enhance a picture. The resulting image is stunning! Jeremy shared with us the back story of this picture, including the settings that got him the lens flare he wanted:

“I’m working towards becoming a professional landscape photographer. Every 3 months I take a week off of work and travel to a national park or some other place and take pictures. This was a 10 day trip I spent in the Nevada, Utah, and Arizona region in January of 2013. Valley of Fire in Nevada is actually the states oldest park. I had gotten up to take some sunrise pictures and after I had finished photographing the mornings light I decided to search for some cool cave formations as i’d noticed that the park had a lot of them. I found this one and crawled inside and set up my tripod and snapped a bunch of shots trying to figure out the right composition. You might not be able to tell but this cave was only 3 feet tall, 5ft wide and 8 feet deep. I had to crawl in and turn around and set up my tripod over my body because of the limited space. I swear there were some creepy crawlers in there with me…. F/22 gave me the lens flare I wanted and the exposure wound up being .3secs @ 21mm and 100 ISO. I was using my Canon 5DMK2 and shooting with a 17-40 F/4 L lens.”

Jeremy lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and is the professional photographer behind the lens at Jeremy Raffer Photography. Be sure to visit and like his Photography FB page – you’ll love his images that will show up in your feed! He’s very active in our PAC FB group! Congratulations, Jeremy, on your PAC recognition!  We love your photos and sure appreciate your participation in our FB group!

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Please comment on this post to show our three PAC Weekly Theme Recognition winners some love!

Also, don’t forget to take some time to check out the other awesome themed photos, on Google+ and on Facebook, and get inspired to go out and shoot!

To be considered for this PAC challenge, simply check the calendar  http://tinyurl.com/8j42x3h for the weekly photo assignments.
·Photos submitted for the Google+ Community Weekly Theme must be shot during the assignment week—no archived photos.   Hash tag #PACWeekly.
·Photos submitted for the Facebook Group 3-day Themes may be archived, or shot during the run of the theme.
·Post your BEST three shots each week based on the current theme.
·Any details you can add to your post, such as:  camera used, settings, caption, and/or a brief story of your subject, will also be considered a plus!

The winning photographers will have their photos published here on the PAC blog for all to enjoy!
To learn more about our Amazing Photo community check out our website here: https://captureschool.net/ (Open to all States and Countries!)

~ Sol Powell & Sarah Hales
on behalf of the PAC Community Leaders