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A big part of learning and appreciation is in looking at what other people create and how the world responds to them. To this end, I look at a lot of "photoblogs":http://photoblogs.org/. Some of them had one lucky image that caused me to start watching, only to find that the rest of their images really aren't that good and, eventually, I stop watching. Others, continue to impress me day after day. Regardless of why I'm looking at their art, I think it's important to look at art, and talk about art and appreciate it.

While a lot can surely be learned from *bad* images, I don't want to get into the habit of publically mentioning photographers that put out bad work. However, I do want to showcase those that produce images that mean something to me, or images that I can appreciate. This will, hopefully, be a daily/weekly/monthly thing.

And now, without further delay…

shattered — by David Kapp

(click to enlarge)

Today's image is by "David Kapp":http://blog.lifekapptured.com/. Dave is a working photographer living in San Francisco. "His gallery":http://www.lifekapptured.com/gallery/index.htm is full of inspiring images and I encourage you to browse through it.

Today I will focus on his image entitled "Shattered":http://digital.lifekapptured.com/index.php?showimage=128. I'm not sure if Dave is showing us the entire window or only the interesting portion of it, but it really doesn't matter. His composition is incredible. With interesting elements in all of the right places, our eyes wander the edges of the broken glass. With a good use of reflection to produce brighter areas, our eyes eventually land on the point of impact. The use of black and white in this image is superb. The tones are varied, the image has lots of contrast and is very sharp. Technically, it's top notch. Visually, it's very interesting. And in this case, most importantly, it is dramatic, even when drama wasn't present in the "real world".

I encourage you to view the larger version of "Shattered", discuss what you like or dislike about it here, let Dave know what you think, and add Dave to your list of people to watch in the future.

(If and when I ever get my photoblog up and running, I intend to do this there.)