"This came about during an early morning commute when, for a change, I decided to take the ferry across the Potomac River rather than the bridge," said Alan Bushnell. "As I was leaving home (in the dark), I noticed my camera bag next to the door and grabbed it just for kicks. I'd done that a few times before, but never got the chance to use it."

When I arrived at the ferry, it was still quite dark and the combination of a recent snow with the water gave the whole river a nice low fog. I took this shot while standing next to my car on the ferry in the middle of the river. The shutter speed was a low 1/8th of second so the image stabilization on my lens was a lifesaver."

Allen used a Canon 20D, 70-200 f/2.8IS, with the ISO set to 400, 1/8 sec at f/7.1.

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"I woke up at 4 am one morning and couldn't get back to sleep," said Jeremey Barrett. "So I made my way to earliest-opening coffee shop here in town, which is on Sugar Land's town square, and took my camera bag and tripod. This was taken around 6:30 am, and I really liked the balance of light from the sun just coming up and all the Christmas lights."

Jeremey used a Canon EOS 10D at ISO 100, set to 4 seconds at f-8. Since he was using a tripod, he was able to keep the ISO setting low thereby minimizing image noise.

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.

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"We were going on a cruise for spring break and had hired a limo to go from the airport to Long Beach," said Neil Martin. "We had time to spare, so the driver took us for a tour of L.A. and one stop was the Santa Monica pier. After walking the pier and loading back into the limo, I spotted this gentleman and grabbed the shot out the window."

"I liked the color contrast between the Coke machine in the laundromat window and the Pepsi bottle on his bike. Back home, I used Photoshop Elements to isolate and intensify the two colors. By selecting the brush tool on the color setting and working carefully, I eliminated all the other colors."

Neil used a Fuji Fine Pix S602 Zoom set to f/2.8, 1/80 sec. at 200 ISO.

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You're Not Ken Burns -- But FotoMagico slideshows are so good that people will believe that he helped you.

"I captured this grab shot on a trip we took last September to Italy," said Nicole Wijnands. "We were in Venice just sitting down for a break. I looked back at the bridge and saw this guy relaxing in the sun. I knew I had to get the shot! I quickly got out my camera with the telezoom attached and got it."

Nicole's Canon 350D was set to ISO 800 (she just got out of a museum), 1/4000 at f/10, focal length 200mm on Canon EF 75-300mm F/4-5.6 USM III

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.

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"I recently went to the Detroit Zoo and had a chance to experience their new "Australian Outback" exhibit," said Brian C Davenport. "It's a pretty cool concept. Just you and the animals... no walls, no cages per se. You are in the exhibit with only a roped off path for you to follow. The animals come and go as they please and even stop to stare at the visitors. One even decided to take a little nap on the visitor path. This big fellow seemed interested in the big black "eye" I was pointing at him."

Brian used a Canon DRebel XT, Canon EF 75-300 at 300mm, ISO 400, AP mode at f/8 and shutter was at 1/125th 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.

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"My son and I were canoeing around the islands at Charleston Lake Provincial Park," said Andre Campeau, "when we came up to this northern water snake basking in the morning sun."

Andre used a Nikon D70 with a 55-200 Sigma zoom at ISO 200 to capture this wonderful grab shot.

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You're Not Ken Burns -- But FotoMagico slideshows are so good that people will believe that he helped you.

At a recent live fire training for my fire department, we burned three old dilapidated barns for a farmer," said Wade Moline. "As senior training officer, it is my responsibility to ensure that firefighters are being trained to meet state and federal standards."

"For later critique of these training exercises I take pictures of everything I can and the photos are great to incorporate into Keynote and present to the firefighters so that they can see what they did right and what they did wrong as well as use them for classroom training."

"After this training session, I downloaded all the pictures and as I was going through them, this one caught my eye. The firefighter may look like he is in the fire, and to some he looks like he actually is on fire, when he is really behind the barn pushing in the remains of a wall. The waves of heat rising from the fire appear to make a "glass" effect."

Wade used a Canon EOS D60, shot at ISO 400, f 5.6, shutter speed 1/640, 176 mm.

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"I was just returning to my car just after day break because the rain was getting harder," said Mark Gale. "I noticed a small bird fluttering through the bare branches of a bush. I stopped where I was and set down my tripod. I then hunkered down to see what the excitement was all about. Seconds later this hawk dove in and missed the bird who could move around in the smaller parts of the bush. Tired and not so happy that she missed breakfast, she sat on this fence post for a couple of seconds before the hunt began again."

Mark captured this grab shot with a Canon 30D with EF 300mm lens plus a 1.4x extender at ISO 800 at 1/125th of a second.

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"I took my camera to the Naples Fort Myers Greyhound Track in Bonita Springs, FL," said Paul Tomlinson. "I was attempting to get down low (per one of Derrick's podcasts) to get a different angle on the subjects. I was dismayed that many of the images were out of focus, but darn it if these athletes aren't tremendously fast."

Paul captured this shot with a Fuji S2 Pro using the Nikkor 80-200mm F2.8 at 200mm, F4, and 1/750 at ISO 100.

As an aside (from Paul), if you have an interest in adopting a retired athlete, please visit: www.naplesfortmyersdogs.com/adopt.html

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"The juxtaposition of the two sets of people struck me as a photo op," said Landon Michaelson. "White collar and blue collar. The bird added the final touch."

"The couple stopped here briefly, as did I, then the moment was gone."

Landon used a Nikon D200 with a 85mm 1.8 at f/4, and a polarizer and ND filter to keep shutter speeds in check in the bright sunlight, as he was shooting wide open for awhile. The shutter speed was 1/50 second. Landon thought f/2 was too shallow and would lose the fishermen, so he switched to f/4 and grabbed this shot. You can see more of Landon's work at Best Kept Secret Photography.

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.

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