Staff

Andrei Duman shot this beautiful, ghostly image in Kolmanskop, a German ghost town in the Namib Desert in Southern Namibia, Africa. The town was once the heart of a diamond rush in the 1900s that drew hordes of German miners. But when the diamond fields dried up after World War I, the miners left the town and it was abandoned in 1954.

For this month’s assignment, we asked you to think outside the box about winter photography. While photos of snowmen and sledding are nice, we were looking for images that captured the true splendor of the season’s power and beauty. We wanted to see photos of winter with a sense of wonder and you delivered. Here are our nine favorite images of winter from Shutterbug readers.

This month’s assignment was “bokeh,” which is the beautiful background blur you get when you capture an image with a shallow depth of field. Bokeh, which is derived from the Japanese word for “blur,” is typically achieved by using a lens with a wide aperture (f/2.8 or faster is ideal) and a nine-bladed diaphragm, to create an almost painterly background with highlights broken into soft glowing forms. Just as critical to creating a great picture utilizing bokeh is the sharp subject matter in the foreground, which draws the viewer’s eye in like a laser beam. Here are our 10 favorite examples of bokeh from Shutterbug readers.

Backlit subjects can be tricky to deal with which is why we were so impressed with the terrific entries for this month’s “Backlight” Picture This! assignment. We were looking for images where backlight or strong directional light danced with the subject and boy did we get them. From unique uses of sunrises and sunsets to spotlight a silhouetted subject, to plays of light through fog, morning rays through a window, and many beautiful backlit scenes of nature, readers posted some fantastic images on Shutterbug.com for this assignment.