"If a fly can be a grab shot, why not a cicada," says Doug Barnes. "These things are only around every 17 years. This was taken at a picnic in Wood Dale, IL. Just got a Canon PowerShot A630, and I recently started listening to your podcasts. I have downloaded all your past episodes and am playing catchup. I started out barely knowing anything about the finer aspects of photography and have gotten a lot of great tips so far."

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

And you can view more images from our virtual camera club in the Member Photo Gallery.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"Driving through a small town," said John Badgerow, "my wife firmly instructed me to drive around the block and get out my camera. No further instructions were necessary as to what to do next."

John used a Canon PowerShot A80 in auto mode to capture this striking colorful shot.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

And you can view more images from our virtual camera club in the Member Photo Gallery.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"This photo was taken at a local park," said Michael Cortina. "I often watch my grandson on my days off and always take my Nikon D50 with me when we go. I am a newbie, but belong to a local camera club. I'm always trying new things to improve my technical skills as well as my creative eye."

"For this shot, I tried to zoom in close and just watched him and he inspired this shot. I was aware of the time of day was not ideal for photography, and the focus wasn't as exact as I would have liked, but when I saw the image printed I really liked it. The info I have is 1/500 - f5.3."

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

And you can view more images from our virtual camera club in the Member Photo Gallery.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"I had just gotten my Chapman Stick back from the manufacturer, and I was taking pictures to put on my blog," said Eric Knapp. I had a bunch of hot lights set up and was using my favorite lens, a Tamron 90mm macro, on my Pentax *ist DS. I was concentrating on the fret work when this fly landed nearby. All I had to do was loosen the tripod and swivel a little to the right to take this shot and a few like it. What are the odds of this happening? I couldn't believe my luck and just had to submit it as a grab shot."

Here are the specs for the shot: Shutter: 1/60th, Aperture: f 6.7, Exposure: Aperture Priority, Focal Length: 90mm, ISO Speed: 800, Metering: Pattern.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"As I walked through Boston's Faneuil Hall Market Place today," said Greg West, "the gentleman who portrays Ben Franklin pulled a cell phone from his cloak and took a call. Whether it was Jefferson, Adams, or Hancock himself, the inopportune interruption was the Cingular costume flaw of this beloved character."

Greg grabbed this shot using a Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S at f/4.5, 1/320.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"I captured this shot a few months ago while taking my wife to work," said Lee Love. "I noticed it was very foggy, so I ran home, grabbed my camera, and went to the end of the street to capture this image."

We'll have to coax the image data out of Lee since it was stripped out of the shot, but you gotta admit, this is a handsome landscape image.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"While walking through one of the universities in Hanoi (Vietnam), this women with incredibly long hair walked by," said David-Emil Wickstrom. "My vietnamese friends urged me to take a picture, so I did."

David used a Nikon D70s in Aperture Priority mode, f/2.8 @ 1/1000th of a second.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"I found out about the fire in Griffith Park, California after it was well underway," said Joshua Targownik. "I grabbed all of my gear, which is always packed and charged, and went to the roof of my apartment building. I spend five hours, until well past sunset, shooting and simply looking at the fire, just a few miles away."

"I wanted to capture the color, ferocity, and the size of it all. I waited like a hunter for moments when planes or helicopters flew near the flames. I specifically snapped this one in the middle of a sequence of about five rapid shots."

Joshua captured this compelling image with a Nikon D200, Action Grip head on tripod (allowed him to track aircraft well), 80-400mmVR @ 250mm, 1/60th @ f/5.6, -1ev, ISO 1600.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"We just got back from a day at the beach and Jacque was strolling around camp after her shower," said Buck Heim. "After a great day of taking purposeful pictures, my favorite shot of the day just sort of happened. This shot was also my runner-up for last month’s window to the soul photo assignment."

Buck caught this grab shot of Jacque with a Nikon D200 using the popular 18-200mm VR zoom. The focal length was 170mm. Exposure was 1/20th @ f/8; ISO 100. Good example of how image stabilization can save a grab shot. Normally 1/20 would be way to slow for a handheld telephoto shot.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

"I took this last November in Chicago on a rainy evening at Millennium Park," said Julianne Fishell. "I used a Canon 30D with the fab Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens. (ISO 1600, 1/60, f5.0)."

"Thanks to your podcast on packing for a trip, I had a a ziploc bag in my camera bag, which I was using to keep my camera dry from the pouring rain. Thanks to you (again!), I've been using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for about a month now and have been rediscovering pictures that I never bothered to look at or process before, this image being one of them. From Lightroom I exported the original RAW to Photoshop as a 16-bit TIFF. I copied it to a second layer and used the Photomatix plug-in to tonemap the image, adding a touch of HDR. Then I did a curves adjustment, layer, and some sharpening."

Thank you Julianne for providing us with your techniques for creating this terrific image...

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. If we publish it, you'll receive an ultra cool custom carabineer keychain.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, grab shot, The Digital Story

Join Derrick Story for a Digital Photography Field Trip in Orlando Florida on May 11. And don't miss his sessions on Camera Raw and Photoshop Lightroom. CRE8 Conference - May 9-11, 2007