"Our annual family vacation took us to Traverse City, Michigan. We have been going to this location for many years, but this year we decided to take a day trip to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore," said Brian C. Davenport.

"There were many photo ops here... almost too many. This shot keeps drawing me back. It's a photo from the Lake Michigan overlook, 450 feet above the lake. There's a small trail that leads down to the lake for brave souls who want to endure the hike. It takes about 15 minutes to get down to the lake, but about an hour climb back up... not for the faint of heart or unprepared hiker -- very steep incline. There were many warning signs around to that effect."

"As you can guess... there were many that were unprepared. Most ended up crawling on their hands and knees to make it back up. Those specks you see... are people trying to climb the dune."

If you have an interesting 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

"Five years ago, my youngest son and I were in Washington state on vacation" said Kevin Miller. "We received a call early in the morning from a friend back home in Las Vegas regarding the attack on the Twin Towers."

"To remember the events of five years ago, a local mortuary set up a memorial here in Las Vegas. A flag was posted for each victim from September 11, 2001. Accompanying each flag was a small plaque with the victim's name and in many cases, personal information is given as well."

"For those of us who are visual, to see a flag for each of the nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attack is very impressive."

Photo taken with Canon 30D, Canon 24-105mm f4.0 L series lens set at 105mm. Exposure was f11.0 at 1/200 second with -.67 exposure compensation using aperture priority at ISO 100. Shot in RAW, processed in CS2.

If you have an interesting 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

Brian Davenport writes, "I have a request and a grab shot (kind of... actually, it really is a "grab" shot). My "The Digital Story" keychain really takes a beating, and it has malfunctioned. The click don't click... it sticks."

"Now I know I'm abusive to the poor thing. I carry alot of keys for my job. Any chance of another one? I am including evidence as a grab shot. Thanks for the great site and show."

My reply, "Hey Brian, would love to send you a replacement. And thanks for sharing your work with The Digital Story virtual camera club."

BTW folks, I hope to send out the next batch of keychains next week. Keep on shooting and submitting! (and Happy Friday).

Technorati Tags: candid, grab shot, The Digital Story

"After 30 years of traveling around the world, I went back to Italy" said Nish. "My new job is to shoot pictures of people putting their heads in the mouth of the shark. This shark is next to a big aquarium full of real sharks. I've never been a photographer, and started listening to Derrick's digital story podcast, and now I am totally addicted to it."

"During work, I use an Olympus Camedia in program mode," Nish continues. "This shot of my girlfriend was taken with my Nikon Coolpix 5200. In the last 3 months, I've taken more then 3000 pictures of people going into the shark. I try to be creative, finding new ways to place people inside. Lots of fun and actually good money."

If you have an interesting 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

"Over a year ago I stumbled upon this wall in an old manufacturing section of town and took a shot of it," said Brett Stoddart. "Every time I looked at the picture, I would imagine it broken up into sections with more detail in each. I finally made it back to where the original was taken, and recomposed the shot with emphasis on the grease handprint against the whiteness of the wall and the peeling red paint. Needless to say, I have been so much happier with this and other 'revisited' images of 'the red wall.'

Brett used a Canon 20D in Aperture Priority mode at f-5.6. The ISO was set to 400. The focal length was 140mm.

If you have an interesting 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 grabbed this photo only the other day on my balcony after a awful rainy night," said Emil Trollklint. "This flower had landed on the wood floor, and its shape and colour attracted my eye. I captured the scene with my Canon A620 set to 1/60 of a second at f-2.8."

If you have an interesting 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

"After getting my first camera phone, my initial thought was, 'well it's a novel idea but not very useful,'" said Harold Thompson.

"One day while waiting for our dinner to come, I took the camera out and begin to pan around to see what might be within range. The colors of the catsup and hot sauce bottles on our table sort of popped. So I took a grab shot, and to my surprise, it wasn't too bad. My next step was to bring it into Photoshop and experiment."

"The final adjustments were pretty simple. I duplicated the background layer, applied a posterize effect, around 6 or 7, and then applied the ink outlines filter on another layer. You can also adjust the exposure which is sometimes necessary with camera phones. Lighting is really a big deal with these little guys."

The camera phone used is a Samsung SCH-a670 with a resolution of: VGA (640 x 480)

If you have an interesting 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 love your idea of grab shots," said Matthew Kuperus Heun. "I, too, like photographing what I see around me. One of my photography goals is to never disturb what I'm shooting, whether is people, landscape, animals, whatever. While I do few posed portraits, I'm constantly challenging myself to improve my photographer's eye."

"The attached photo is my submission for a Grab Shot. I had my little Canon A75 point and shoot with me during our block party last week. The fire department was doing a demonstration for the kids, letting them control the hoses. To cool off, the kids were playing in the spray. I walked around for a shot backlit by the evening sun streaming between two houses, just as my neighbor was walking out of the spray. I love the effect!"

One of the things that I want to point out here is that Matt walked around the subject to find this great angle. I discussed this and other techniques in my "10 Tips for Great Field Photography". By doing so, you'll often find an even better composition, as demonstrated here by Matt.

If you have an interesting 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 shot this as I was going into an exhibit at our local zoo," said Harold Thompson. "I was suddenly struck by the irony of the sign and had to grab the thought. I usually focus on the wildlife, but this time the sign caught my attention. I used a Nikon FM with a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor Lens at f 5.6 125/sec."

If you have an interesting 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

"This is a shot I took of the New York Botanical Garden Conservatory last month here in the Bronx" said Eric Marin. "The framing of the photo reminded me of some sort of alien landscape from a Star Wars movie, and I just loved the way the blue gradient of the sky contrasted with the white dome."

Eric used a Casio QV-R40 in program mode to compose this artistic shot.

If you have an interesting 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