AOL Photo Talk Is Signing Off

Not quite two years ago, we launched this AOL Photo Talk blog to chronicle what we do here at AOL as photo editors. Our inspiration was to bring you great photos to experience, thoughtful information, and to have some fun along the way.

It's time, however, to move on. All things evolve, and the only constant is change. And we've evolved and launched a brand new area for photography -- a photo hub, if you will, known as Pixcetera. Check us out at http://www.pixcetera.com.

 

Pixcetera will bring you the best in photography, spanning photojournalism, fine art, nature -- even outer space. Find great photo galleries that interest you, or use Pixcetera as your hub for everything related to digital photography -- from viewing great images to managing your own photos. We've just launched the site, and we'll be expanding it over the coming months. We update Pixcetera daily, so be sure to check in on the site often. Bookmark the site, and enjoy the wide variety of photographic offerings that we'll bring to you there daily.

 

So this will be the last blog post at AOL Photo Talk. But our end here serves as a beginning at Pixcetera. Please be sure to visit our blog there at http://www.pixcetera.com/blog, where we'll continue to bring you interesting information related to photography.

Thank you.

- Gary

Tags: Pixcetera

Pictures of the Week: May 17-23

Now this is about as close of a call as you ever want to get. An amazing set of pictures from Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic, who was shooting pictures right next to a U.S. Marine engaged in a firefight, shows the Marine narrowly escaping death -- or at least what would have been an extremely serious wound. The Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit was engaging Taliban fighters after they opened fire near Garmser in Afghanistan's Helmand Province May 18. The Marine was not injured.

We ran one photo from this series in our Pictures of the Week photo gallery, but I thought that showing these photos as a group would give a sense of just how close this Marine came to being hit, and how instantaneously and irrevocably things can change in combat. Luckily this Marine escaped with his life.

Take a look at all of this week's amazing images from around the world in our Pictures of the Week photo gallery.

Tags: Pictures of the Week

Pictures of the Week: May 10-16

Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing over the Alps in Bex, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2008. Some people go fishing on their day off. Yves Rossy likes to jump out of a small plane with a pair of jet-powered wings and perform figure eights above the Swiss Alps. The revolutionary human flying machine comes after five years of training and many more years of dreaming. (Anja Niedringhaus, AP)

Maybe it's because I saw Iron Man last weekend, maybe it's because as a kid I expected that we would all be zipping around in our flying cars like the Jetsons by now, but I found the images of Yves Rossy, also known as the 'Fusion Man, soaring above the Swiss Alps powered by a jet-powered wing strapped to his back to be an amazing sight.

 

As soon as I saw the video, I knew I would include an image from the event in this week's gallery. There were a lot to choose from, but this photo, by Anja Niedringhaus is a great shot of an amazing achievement. The backdrop of the snow topped Alps provides a sense of the altitude, the jet trails provide a sense of the speed and power. The angle of the view provides a clear view of the man and the machine.

 

Take a look at all of this week's amazing images from around the world in Pictures of the Week.

 

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: May 10-16

Pictures of the Week: May3-9

Be prepared. You never know when an unexpected moment may happen. I suspect that Canadian Press photographer Francis Vachon did not know in advance that Team Sweden forward Marcus Nilson would suffer such a dramatic fall on the ice as he was covering the IIHF world hockey championships, but he was prepared for it. His camera was focused on the action with the correct settings as he covered the event. This allowed him to follow the action on the ice and wait for a decisive moment. Recognizing just the right time to snap the shutter is what allows us to share this player's pain and to cause our eyes to linger a little longer on this photo.

 

Let your eyes linger over all of this week's best images in Pictures of the Week.

 

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: May3-9

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Pictures of the Week: April 26-May 2

In what looks like young offspring enjoying a mixed playgroup session together, is in reality a harsh life lesson. The Impala fawn is serving as target practice for the cheetah cubs in a hunting lesson organized by their mother. The cubs eventually killed the fawn.

 

Here is a second photo from this same scene that I had considered using.

 

Although I was initially drawn in by the composition and symmetry of the two cubs surrounding the young Impala like a pair of bookends, I chose to include the top photo because it told a more complete story with the mother cheetah standing by as one cub starts to chase the impala fawn as she starts to move. If you look closely, you can see the  paw of the second cub on the Impala's back.

 

See my final edit of all of this week's best images in Pictures of the Week.

 

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 26-May 2

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Pictures of the Week: April 19-25

A Hungarian Puli dog named Fee jumps over a hurdle during a preview for the pedigree dog show in Dortmund, Germany April 24.

 

Is there a dog in there? I see the eyes and nose and a tongue, but I do not see a dog! It looks like a comic strip panel of a dog in a fight. It looks like a car buffer with a face. It looks like a roughed up head of a snowman.

 

I am kidding, of course. What a fun photo! Let's make this our first AOL Photo Talk Rorschach test and tell me what you see by posting a comment below.

 

Don't forget to take a look at all of this week's great images in our most recent Pictures of the Week.gallery, most of which are not as open to interpretation as the jumping Puli.

 

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 19-25

Pictures of the Week: April 12-18

 

 

An intriguing photo. Looking like a something out of a yet unreleased Star Wars movie, this photo shows a Saharawi woman standing beside a traditional tent at Dakhla's refugee camp near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria. I was drawn in by the contrast of the bright colors of the clothing against the monochromatic earth tones of the background.

 

Although a former colony of Spain, the Western Sahara, home of the Saharawi, was annexed by Morocco in 1975. The refugee camps were established to accommodate those fleeing the violence caused by conflict  between the Polisario Front fighting for self-rule and Morocco.

 

And the refugee camps exist still. See this and other top photos from the past week by going to our Pictures of the Week gallery.

 

-Lee Van Grack

Tags: Pictures of the Week: April 12-18

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