A Week of Photo Prompts | Melanie Louette

Silhouette photos : I've found the best results are had when the sun has just about set but there is still enough glow to capture the features crisply. This was taken with my in phone camera (iPhone 5). I set the camera lock to focus on the setting sun and was super happy with this shot of our gang of friends sitting on the beach while camping. Love how it tells a story.

(iPhone 5)

Summer bokeh : Blur is easy to achieve on a DSLR with a wide aperture on a manual setting. This is taken with a 50mm lens, wide open at 1.4 Did you know you can also get good bokeh with an iphone? By holding your finger in front of the lens against a lit background and locking the setting, everything beyond that will be blurred, and you will get that beautiful 'bokefied' look. This works especially well when photographing Christmas lights. Which won't be long... ;)

(Nikon dSLR)

(iPhone 5)

Sunset shots : Summer sunsets are my jam. And with a beautiful backdrop like this, you can't go wrong. Another iPhone pic of my fish son in the water, again taken while camping a few weeks back. Playing around with the composition and rule of thirds makes this shot interesting.

Capturing komorebi : The word "komorebi" in Japanese literally means the scene produced by interplay of sunlight and trees. Familiar as it is, we rarely think about it consciously in our daily lives. It’s a summers day experience, the kind of thing you’d see while lying under a tree, wandering through a forest, or in your own backyard, like my shot here. I'm kind of obsessed with it at the moment. I've also video-ed it and it is beautiful to look at come the dead of winter when I pine for sun and leaves.

(iPhone 5)

(Nikon D7100, taken through a white camping tarp)

Capture the colours around you : Take advantage of summer's hot palette- there are so many beautiful colours to choose from!

Think about perspective : I took this from the middle of the lake in my kayak. I could have chosen to take just a landscape shot of the lake, but what makes this shot more visually interesting is the tip of the kayak in the foreground, just off to the left.

(iPhone 5)

Get those action shots :Getting outdoors, getting active, and loving it. :)

Photo prompts are a great way to break out of a rut, much like a scrapbook sketch. :) I hope I've inspired you, and I would love to see your shots, so be sure to post them to your Instagram using #SCphotoprompts hashtag.