AOL Photo Talk: All Things Photographic

Pictures of the Week: May3-9

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:43:16 GMT

Be prepared. You never know when an unexpected moment may happen. I suspect that Canadian Press photographer Francis Vachon did not know in advance that Team Sweden forward Marcus Nilson would suffer such a dramatic fall on the ice as he was covering the IIHF world hockey championships, but he was prepared for it. His camera was focused on the action with the correct settings as he covered the event. This allowed him to follow the action on the ice and wait for a decisive moment. Recognizing just the right time to snap the shutter is what allows us to share this player's pain and to cause our eyes to linger a little longer on this photo.

Let your eyes linger over all of this week's best images in Pictures of the Week.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: May3-9

Pictures of the Week: April 19-25

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:49:15 GMT

A Hungarian Puli dog named Fee jumps over a hurdle during a preview for the pedigree dog show in Dortmund, Germany April 24.

Is there a dog in there? I see the eyes and nose and a tongue, but I do not see a dog! It looks like a comic strip panel of a dog in a fight. It looks like a car buffer with a face. It looks like a roughed up head of a snowman.

I am kidding, of course. What a fun photo! Let's make this our first AOL Photo Talk Rorschach test and tell me what you see by posting a comment below.

Don't forget to take a look at all of this week's great images in our most recent Pictures of the Week.gallery, most of which are not as open to interpretation as the jumping Puli.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 19-25

Pictures of the Week: April 26-May 2

Fri, 02 May 2008 21:26:51 GMT

In what looks like young offspring enjoying a mixed playgroup session together, is in reality a harsh life lesson. The Impala fawn is serving as target practice for the cheetah cubs in a hunting lesson organized by their mother. The cubs eventually killed the fawn.

Here is a second photo from this same scene that I had considered using.

Although I was initially drawn in by the composition and symmetry of the two cubs surrounding the young Impala like a pair of bookends, I chose to include the top photo because it told a more complete story with the mother cheetah standing by as one cub starts to chase the impala fawn as she starts to move. If you look closely, you can see the paw of the second cub on the Impala's back.

See my final edit of all of this week's best images in Pictures of the Week.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 26-May 2

Pictures of the Week: April 12-18

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:32:36 GMT

An intriguing photo. Looking like a something out of a yet unreleased Star Wars movie, this photo shows a Saharawi woman standing beside a traditional tent at Dakhla's refugee camp near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria. I was drawn in by the contrast of the bright colors of the clothing against the monochromatic earth tones of the background.

Although a former colony of Spain, the Western Sahara, home of the Saharawi, was annexed by Morocco in 1975. The refugee camps were established to accommodate those fleeing the violence caused by conflict between the Polisario Front fighting for self-rule and Morocco.

And the refugee camps exist still. See this and other top photos from the past week by going to our Pictures of the Week gallery.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 12-18

Pictures of the Week: April 5-11

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:59:42 GMT

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" cast member Kristen Bell tries to get fellow cast member Russell Brand’s attention as he talks to a hula dancer at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles on April 10.

Who is she talking to? What is she saying? Let's have some fun with this photo and write your own caption. Be creative and funny and please keep it clean. Take a shot and post your captions below.

Looking for more inspiration? Take a look at all of this week's best images in Pictures of the Week and vote for your favorite.

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 5-11

Pictures of the Week: March 29-April 4

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:33:09 GMT

A blood trail from a harp seal leads to a small boat where sealer hunters are loading carcasses from an ice floe off the coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, March 31.

This image is mostly made up of three colors: black, white and red. These three colors work together to convey a powerful image. The red boat against the black water appears menacing as it lurks in wait. The red trail of blood against the white ice provides us with a stark visual sense of the suffering inflicted by the brutality of the hunt.

Fortunately, not all of this week's Pictures of the Week are as stark or as brutal, but they still tell the story. Please take a look and vote for the most compelling image.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week

Pictures of the Week: March 22-28

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:59:03 GMT

An STS-123 Endeavour crewmember captured the glowing green beauty of the Aurora Borealis while docked and onboard the International Space Station March 21. NASA released the photo this past week. Looking northward across the Gulf of Alaska, over a low pressure area (cloud vortex), the aurora brightens the night sky. (NASA / AP)

I have seen many photographs of the beauty displayed by the Aurora Borealis, and I have even witnessed its eerily ghostlike apparitions with my own eyes, but I have never seen it captured from space. This perspective provides me with an appreciation of its size. It appears as though the Aurora Borealis is hugging the earth's atmosphere. I did not realize how large of an area the Aurora Borealis could cover.

The blue marble of Earth and the bright green light of the Aurora Borealis contrasting against the darkness of space is truly a sight to behold. What is it about space images that we find so fascinating? Space images are amongst the most popular with viewers of our Pictures of the Week galleries. Whether captured by the Hubble telescope or by an astronaut, space images simply hold our fascination. I can confidently predict that this image will be the most popular this week in this week's Pictures of the Week gallery. Take a look at all of this week's best images and vote for your favorite. Let me know your thoughts about space photographs in the area below.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week

Photojournalist Dith Pran Dies

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:33:22 GMT

Dith Pran, who became prominent as a result of the 1984 film, 'The Killing Fields,' died of pancreatic cancer. He was 65. Dith survived the brutal Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s, during which almost a third of the country -- some two million people -- were killed.

He worked as an interpreter and assistant for Sydney Schanburg of the New York Times, who covered the Vietnam War as it continued on in neighboring Cambodia before ending in 1975. Schanburg helped Dith's family escape the country but was forced to leave Dith behind as Phenom Pehn, the Cambodian capital, fell.

Dith survived four years in the brutality that swept the country under the Khmer Rouge, however his three brothers were killed.

A Cambodian boy stands in front of a platform covered with human skulls at a Killing Field discovered in Trapeang Sva Village, Kandal province, 15 miles south of Phnom Penh on July 10, 1995. The mass grave contained the remains of about 2,000 victims of the Khmer Rouge, who slaughtered Cambodians during their brutal reign from 1975-1978.

When Dith finally was able to escape the country in 1979, he was hired as a trainee in the photo department at the New York Times. "The veteran staffers 'took him under their wing and taught him how to survive on the streets of New York as a photographer, how to see things,' said Times photographer Marilynn Yee," in an Associated Press story.

New York Times photographer Dith Pran photographs on assignment at an immigrant rights rally on September 4, 2006 in Newark, New Jersey.

To read more about the background of Dith Pran and his life in and out of Cambodia, go to the story, 'Killing Fields' Survivor Dith Pran Dies.

Pictures of the Week: March 15-21

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:39:29 GMT

Sometimes, you gain more by showing less. I think that the viewer is compelled to linger on this photo because of what they think they see -- skater Sinead Kerr bent over, with her head precariously close to the ice. However, its eye-stopping qualities are actually the result of cropping out the top portion of the scene. The viewer is really looking at a photo of Sinead Kerr being held upside down by her partner (brother) John Kerr as they perform their original dance routine on the third day of the World Figure Skating Championships in Goteborg, Sweden.

The cropping of this photo tricks our eyes into seeing a more exciting image than it would appear otherwise. Experiment with a variety of ways of composing and cropping as you look through the viewfinder the next time you pick up you camera and let me know what you think of the choices you made and the results you got.

In the meantime, take a look at all of this week's compelling images from around the world in our Pictures of the Week gallery, and vote for you favorite.

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week

Pictures of the Week: March 1-7

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:02:25 GMT

Laborers work at an under-construction chemical factory in Huai'an, Jiangsu province, China, March 2.

When I first saw this photo of the chemical factory under construction in China, it took me a moment to realize what I was looking at. But I was struck by its graphic elements -- the grid of sharp lines accented with bright blue and yellow pieces of equipment.

The image is uncannily similar to the works of the 20th century abstract painter Piet Mondrian -- in particular his painting, Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue, which is made up of a composition of primary colors in rectangles on a grid of black lines.

Take a look at all of this week's compelling Pictures of the Week and vote for your favorite.

- Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week