Five ways to liven up your autumn photos

This is a guest post by Danny Groner, who is the manager of blogger partnerships and outreach at Shutterstock. Here in the northern hemisphere, autumn is upon us, which means that we've already started to see some of the red, orange, and yellow colours of the season crop up. Marketers and advertisers know how to appeal to our autumnal eye, sprinkling these bright colours everywhere possible. For photographers looking to cover the autumn season, that poses a challenge: How do you shoot these natural settings in new, innovative, and vibrant ways? Here are five suggestions for how to add some flavour to the autumn season:

Apply traditional colours unconventionally

Keep close to what is proven to work this time of year, but adapt your style to show these colours in another way. For instance, a row of houses, instead of forestry, might offer the same feelings of seasonal foliage without leaves piling up. It's about the season after all. Discover an urban forest beyond the trees.

Bring it indoors

Flowers and plantlife may grow predominately outdoors, but that doesn't mean that you can't bring their vivacity inside. A well-placed bouquet, taken with the right light and proper angle, can give the same punch as inside its more natural setting. Moreover, solid colored walls can complement the flowers, adding a nice backdrop to your pictures.

Go minimal

If you do decide to use leaves to help tell your story, you don't have to do it with so many. Sometimes, less is more. In this case, you can see more expression from a lone leaf than you may find inside of a pile of them. It's a living being, and focusing on one will help convey some emotion that can get lost in transit otherwise.

Be abstract

Your favourite colours can go further if you allow them to blend and dance. Inside pieces of artwork, there's more flexibility and movement than what is naturally created. Reds and oranges can look and feel remarkably louder when paired with some darker colors. Art and photography have a similar relationship worth exploring.

Use non-traditional colours

Nature has so much more to offer than the most traditional colours. Surprise your audience with some other colours, like purples, that show up this time of year but may take a little more digging. It's worth pursuing a shot through a slightly different lens. Even if you don't know what you're looking for as you trudge through piles of leaves, you'll recognise it when you see it. It may not look as familiar at first, but it'll surely be at peace with the season at hand.

Get floral for May's photo competition!

It's May; so spring is springing in the northern hemisphere and autumn is falling in the southern hemisphere. Sprouts are sprouting, shoots are shooting, and blossom is blooming one side; head the other and trees are turning to flame. It's an excellent time to photograph plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees. Your monthly photo mission, therefore (should you choose to accept it), is flora.

The wonderful people at Fracture are supplying the prize for the talented winner.

As usual, entries need to go in the Small Aperture Flickr pool and you've from today (Friday 4 May) until Friday 26 May to submit your entries. Remember, please that it's one submission per person, though.

Any questions? Ah yes, last month's winner. Well, between Haje launching Triggertrap Mobile and me being up to my eyeballs in various projects, we're running behind. We apologise; we haven't forgotten and we'll get there. We promise.

Otherwise, here are the rules, in case you need them.

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

News in brief: Streamlined iPhoneography with iOS 5

Huzzah for improved functionality! When Apple updates iOS 4 to iOS 5 this autumn, gone will be the days of having to unlock your iPhone’s screen in order to snap a photo. Nope, no more fumbling, just use the volume-up button to release the shutter.

You’ll get grid lines, if you want them, for Rule of Thirds-alicious composition and by tapping the screen you can lock your focus and exposure on one subject. Then you’ll be able to crop, rotate, remove evil red-eye, and organise your images into albums using the new Photos app.

What with your photos being pushed directly from your iPhone to any other device via the fluffy new iCloud, it’s just a touch groovy.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

Our October Photo Competition!

Hello Lovely People. We’ve a little treat for you. We thought that you might like to have a go at a monthly photo competition. We’ll set a theme or technique, you submit a picture to our Flickr pool, we choose a winner. If you’re really lucky, we might even try to rustle up some prizes. What do you say? Interested?

Thought you might be.

Cos it isn’t autumn all over the world, we thought that we’d avoid the cliched ‘Autumn’ theme and instead go for a technique this month. I’ve been obsessing over long exposures recently, so I’d like to see what you guys can come up with using a slow shutter speed that can dazzle and impress me.

You’ve between today and Wednesday 27 October 2010 (that gives you three weeks) to submit your, what will doubtless be stunning, entries here.

We’ll try to decide on a winner before Wednesday 3 November. If you’re the lucky person with the super-groovy winning entry, we’ll show it off here on Small Aperture and send you a copy of 365 Photography Days, which has some gorgeous inspirational shots in it.

Any questions? Ask away.

Being a competition, we have had to draw up The Rules. Sorry. I know it’s not that exciting, but it’s got to be done.

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t have written for Small Aperture or be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Small Aperture.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

10 scintillating shadows and silhouettes

Bad shadow can ruin a picture: you’ve obliterated what you were supposed to be looking at, or mysteriously zombified your subject. But sometimes, good shadow can make a picture, making it that bit more interesting. Other times, shadow is the picture. I’ve been taking a look around for shadowy and silhouette-comprised pictures that I think might be worth a second look. What do you think?

1 – Autumn Cycle

Autumn Cycle, by moriza (Mo Riza)

2 – World’s Favorite Sport

World's Favorite Sport, by vramak (Rama V)

3 – Shadow Rider

Shadow Rider, by lowjumpingfrog (John Norton)

4 – Dance When No One’s Watching

Dance When No One's Watching, by vramak (Rama V)

5 – Discovering her shadow!

Discovering her shadow!, by Just Taken Pics (Ste Elmore)

6 – pre-dawn silhouette

pre-dawn silhouette, by switchstyle

7 – Me and my shadow

Me and my shadow, by jronaldlee (James Lee)

8 – It takes a long time to grow young

It takes a long time to grow young, by nattu

9 – Love is…

Love is..., by lovelypetal

10 – Shadows

Shadows, by Xavi Talleda

All photos used in this article are used as ‘fair dealing‘. If you have strong reservations against your photos appearing on Small Aperture, please contact us, and we’ll get them taken down. Please support the artists creating these photos by clicking on the photos to take a closer look at their work!