Wild Art: Photos of The Happy Bullets, an abandoned gas station and Starck

by Laura Seewoester

Wild Art: The Happy Bullets, an abandoned gas station and Starck

(Click photo to see entire gallery)

Mercantile Place on Main, 1800 Main Street, Dallas, Texas 75201 The Mercantile was originally constructed in 1942 as the Mercantile National Bank Building. The 523-foot clock tower and weather spire were added to the complex in 1958. Today, the once vacant structure has been transformed in luxury residential lofts. By Flickr user Mystic Ink Photography

This week our Flickr community has shared some pics from the Cultural District in Fort Worth, a nice snapshot of The Happy Bullets at Club Dada and more from the world's largest beach ball. Oh yeah, and happy voting day. Listen to the jack-o-lantern and get to the polls (unless you voted already, you clever devil).

Tips and Tricks

I know that using a flash when there is plenty of available light sounds a little backwards, but a flash actually has multiple uses during the daytime. Fill flash is the most obvious, where you pop the flash while shooting into the sun so your subject doesn't look like a silhouette. Another issue I run into is uneven lighting, when your subject is partially shaded. Don't be fooled! Many a times I have thought uneven lighting (ie: sunlight through a tree) was very pretty until I get back into Photoshop and realize the big bright spot or shadow across someones face makes for a horrible picture. A quick fix: pop your flash. You may need to play around with it a little and brighten or dim the flash (if your camera allows). This will even up the lighting so you don't end up trying to photoshop shadows out of a photo. Even when you are shooting in broad daylight, don't put your flash out of sight, out of mind. Even a usually-useless pop up flash will make a difference.

Photo by Laura Seewoester

Without Flash. (Thank you staffer Justin Smith for striking a pose)

Photo by Laura Seewoester

With flash. Not the best example in the world but you get the picture. (No pun intended) Notice how not only is the lighting on his face more even, but his eyes are more lit up and any lines on his face have been softened. This was taken with the pop up flash on my camera. If you're really going for a nice portrait as opposed to an evenly lit snapshot, it might be worth the extra effort to pull out the big flash and match the strength of the flash to the available light.