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Visual Storytelling Lab
7 members • Free
14 contributions to Visual Storytelling Lab
Jan 18 •
Seeing with Intent - Assignment 5 - Image Submissions
Assignment 5 Photo Challenge — The Necessary Image Create one photograph that communicates a single, clear idea or feeling using subtraction as your primary tool. Assignment Prompt: Photograph a subject you might normally shoot wide or inclusively, then deliberately remove anything that does not serve its meaning. Your goal is clarity through restraint. Be sure that your new post is posted to the last comment in this thread. There often is a button that says "Jump to last comment." You don't want your image to appear as a comment under someone else's image.
1 like • 12h
The Path of the Forest In this forest, verticality is not a rule of the earth, but a deviation toward the light. The heroine here is the overflowing golden glow, emanating an exuberant warmth that magnetically draws every trunk that once inhabited the shadows. An invisible force alters this inner world without a sound. The trees now dwell in a point of suspension, between two universal destinies: to grow toward the light or to burn within it. It is an interior of enchantment, where small points of light awaken in the vegetation like fireflies, revealing that light and heat are the origin, the sustenance, and the ephemeral limit of this transfigured life.
0 likes • 7h
@Mike Thompson Mike, regarding the 'dramatic transformation,' it is a necessity. Your question about aesthetics, however, is a bit more complex. After much experimentation and developing images, I know my path. When I instantly accepted your invitation, it wasn't by chance; I want to tell stories through images. In this forest image, I captured it because I was immediately drawn to that overflowing light source and the trees leaning toward it. I saw something happening—something important. In the process of refinement, beyond framing and eliminating immediate noise, I knew instinctively that a slightly reddish sepia tone would be the color for the warmth enveloping the forest. Even so, I felt the need to open up the forest space a bit more so that the light could flood everything. Aesthetically, the forest changed. It changed because I wanted my message to be clear. To me, nature is not just botany, and beauty is not just aesthetics. I have found an expression that explains my process: 'ontological activism'. Landscapes are 'states of the world' of which we are a part—members of the landscape’s body. It is, of course, a very visceral and intimate process to which I surrender myself. I don’t always succeed. For example, I refined another forest image where I wanted to convey the feeling of a 'womb,' the source of water. There, I accentuated the blues and greens.
Feb 1 •
Month 2 - Prompt 2 - Photopoetry Image Submissions
Comment on this to post images you have created for the Month 2 Photopoetry prompt.
1 like • 10d
@Mike Thompson It's just moisture, Mike. In that moment, the light coated the open petals with that transparency, turning them into crystal. This image is a close-up that captures the essence of the jasmine.
0 likes • 7d
"There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons - That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes - Heavenly Hurt, it gives us - We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the Meanings, are - None may teach it - Any - 'Tis the Seal Despair - An imperial affliction Sent us of the Air - When it comes, the Landscape listens - Shadows - hold their breath - When it goes, 'tis like the Distance On the look of Death -" Emily Dickinson
Jan 7 •
Seeing with Intent - Assignment 4 - Image Submissions
Color, tone & mood. Comment on this to post images you have created for the Seeing with Intent Assignment 4: Light as Meaning. Intent: Color becomes expressive, not decorative. It's one more element that helps to tell the story.
1 like • 9d
The Tree of Life Matter: The tree in its dense state, anchored to the earth. Color as the garment of its full identity. Memory: The sepia tone that withdraws it from the present. The tree becoming a memory, softening the edges of reality. Transparency: Liberated geometry. Light passes through the wood and the matter becomes diaphanous, revealing the invisible structure. The Return of Life: Where light becomes blood. Life flows again through the channels that transparency has revealed. It is the cycle closing to begin anew, transfigured.
1 like • 8d
@Mike Thompson Thank you so much, Mike. I feel truly happy with that compliment.
Jan 6 •
Seeing with Intent - Assignment 3 - Image Submissions
Light as Meaning. Comment on this to post images you have created for the Seeing with Intent Assignment 3: Light as Meaning. Intent: Move beyond light as a technical tool and treat it as part of the image's narrative.
1 like • 11d
The Rhythm of Clarity Beyond the threshold, there is vibration. In this vision of the canopy, matter disappears to make way for the trace. What was once a rigid structure is transformed into a rhythmic cascade, where light does not merely illuminate, but flows. It is an exercise in dematerialization: the transparency, achieved through the passage of time, fragments the light source into vertical beams. Here, the imperfection of the surface is what allows the transfiguration of the everyday into something ethereal, creating a map that defies the rigidity of the support.
1 like • 10d
@Mike Thompson Thank you so much, Mike!
Feb 2 •
Phase 2 - Step 2: Timing, Gesture, Stillness (Week 6)
Theme: “Why this moment?” At its core, this question asks: What changed in the world at that moment that made pressing the shutter meaningful? If the answer is “nothing specific,” the image is probably late, early, or merely descriptive. For people, street, and environmental work, time is your main compositional tool, often more important than framing. Critique Emphasis 1. Near-Miss Moments A near-miss is an image where everything is almost right — and that’s precisely the problem. Typical signs - Gesture is forming but not fully expressed - Two people are almost interacting, but don’t quite connect - A subject is just about to enter (or has just exited) the strongest part of the frame - Expression is neutral, where it could have peaked Critique question “What would have happened half a second later—or earlier?” What this teaches - Timing is not just reaction, it’s anticipation - The photographer saw the situation, but didn’t commit to the decisive instant Field correction - Don’t shoot once. Stay. - When you feel the urge to click, pause and ask: Is this the setup… or the payoff? - Often the better frame is the second or third exposure, not the first. 2. Gesture vs Stillness Both are valid. The mistake is choosing neither deliberately. Gesture A gesture is a movement that reveals intent, emotion, or relationship. Examples: - A hand mid-air while speaking - A stride that suggests urgency or confidence - Eye contact forming or breaking - Body language that contradicts the environment Strong gesture moments - Are asymmetrical - Look unstable (they couldn’t be held for long) - Feel specific, not generic Weak gesture moments - Arms halfway raised - Steps mid-stride but unexpressive - Faces between expressions Critique question “Is the gesture saying something, or just happening?” Stillness Stillness works when it creates tension against the world around it. Examples: - A person frozen while crowds move past - A subject locked in thought within a busy environment - A figure whose posture feels resolved and complete
1 like • Feb 2
Wow, Mike. I feel like I need to read everything again, and then again! I always feel like I'm “almost there.” Reading and, especially, absorbing. Sometimes it's the little details that trip us up, but also help us succeed! Let's get to work, this is getting really serious!
1 like • Feb 2
@Mike Thompson You're absolutely right, Mike. It's not the concept that I find difficult. It's just my environment and a kind of indeterminate freezing of light. I feel like I'm in the Middle Ages; always the same gray, always the same rhythm of drizzle. Not to mention the near absence of humans or animals. But that's what creativity is for, you have to work around the circumstances.
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Active 7h ago
Joined Dec 31, 2025
Portugal, far north