Trek Earth

See more photos by BilboCA on TrekEarth

5 September 2009

Alexis told me about Trek Earth this past spring. It's a site whose motto is "Learning about the world through photography." Check it out at http://www.trekearth.com.

I joined in April but didn't become active until late June.

The site allows you to post one photo per day and encourages each member to write critiques of other members' photos. The critiques are accompanied by "smileys," and a big green smiley awards 2 points to the photographer. Since joining, I've posted more than 60 photos and written close to 400 critiques.

My main goal was to improve my ability as a photographer. Learning more about the world was a second goal. An outcome I didn't expect, but appreciate, is developing a community of e-friends. So, I've had extensive exchanges with Way, who was born in Laos, Donato, a Sicilian, and Pablo, from Norway.

In just a few months of involvement, I've learned a lot. Here are a few key lessons, obvious in retrospect, but still usefully taught and reinforced to me at Trek Earth:
(1) Always sharpen digital images in post processing.
(2) Watch out for tilted horizons.
(3) Resist the temptation to put the subject at the center of the frame. (Or, if you violate this guideline, do it deliberately.)

I've also learned that writing critiques is an important part of being involved in the TE community. Writing thoughtful critiques is harder work than posting photos. But a lot of learning takes place through studying carefully the photos that others have shot.

The expectations for photo quality are high on TE and these expectations have pushed me to try to become a better photographer, both with the camera and in post-processing.