Camera specs; Canon EOS Rebel XS fitted with a 50mm 1.8mm lens, f1.8 @ 1/40 a second, ISO 400, tripod used.

As part of my effort to spend more time with my camera I’ve signed up for a Picture a Week (PAW) project at DPChallenge.  Though not from lack of desire, I have not had much sucess with previous picture a day projects.  One a week is a much more achievable goal with my current schedule.

This image was taken at dusk at Riverbend Park near Great Falls, VA on the Potomac River.  I used a tripod but had to lean it against the rail to get the shot.  It was a good opportunity for a Manfrotto 190XProb tripod with it’s adjustable horizontal center column.  Minimal crop with adjustments to increase overall blue across the image during post processing in Elements 6.

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1. Moonlight over the Potomac Sherri and I went to see Avatar in 3-d...

Photographer: Yo Spiff (Steve R.)

On the web: Flickr, DPChallenge, iStockPhoto, ImageStocker

Camera(s): Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT, Canon PowerShot S5 IS, Fujifilm FinePix S700 / S5700, Nikon Coolpix L6

Location: Texas

This week the spotlight falls on a Flickr and DPChallenge celebrity known as Yo Spiff, aka Steve. Our paths first crossed in March of this year after I joined the Canon PowerShot S5 IS group on Flickr where he is a moderator. Since then I’ve watched his photostream with interest and became the receiver of many great nuggets of digital photography knowledge from him. Steve employs his craft with a humor and creativity that will draw you in and keep you coming back to see whats next.

Like many of us, Steve had an interest in photography at a young age but didn’t take it up seriously until a few years ago. When asked what got him into digital photography, he responded “I’m a tech geek and the use of all the technology involved in photography fascinates me. I’ve also been accused of loving anything with lots of buttons, and modern cameras are encrusted with fascinating clusters of buttons and switches.“

Steve’s subjects range from the whimsical studio shots to captures of the world around him. He seems to have an affinity for various modes of transportation (cycling, trains, cars, and planes). He recently conducted a 30-day shoot of…wait for it…shoehorns! Yes, you heard right…shoehorns! This effort came from members of DPChallenge attempting to force, or shoehorn, an entry that didn’t quite meet the intent of the challenge. “These entries often get a lot of interesting and confused comments. There are a few people who look forward to my bizarre shoehorns, and I get some good encouragement to keep doing them.“

Not only does Steve find the interesting shot, he quite often becomes it. The Flickr members of the Dallas/Fort Worth meetup’s are always on the look out for him in a compromising position. “At local Flickr meetups, it has become a semi-regular thing to post a photo of me rolling around on the ground, trying to get a perspective view of something.” (photo provided by Flickr member mskothare)

Steve opened his Flickr account in 2007 and became hooked on the online communities. Today he has become a trusted resource to many, responding to many questions on both the Flickr communities and the DPChallenge forums. His photostream on Flickr is up to 65 pages of his work. He is an admin for the Canon S5 group along with the founder and moderator of The Upgraders group on Flickr. The Upgraders has become another home for the members of the S3/S5 groups that have upgraded, or thinking of upgrading, to a DSLR.

For each spotlight I like to choose 10-20 photographs that reflects the photographer’s range. This one was especially hard to limit to just 20. After much time going back and forth I called in my wife to help me choose. Remember that the photos here are my favorites, be sure and visit Steve’s profile links above to see his full works and choose your own favorites. Here’s a small sampling:

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