Note from Dan: I’ve always been impressed with Nuno Correia’s smoke photography over at Photoassignment.net, many examples of which he’s shared with Cheapshooter readers. I asked him to write a tutorial on how he approaches smoke photography, and he gladly obliged. Thanks to Nuno for this great post - I’m excited to try his methods out for myself.

Smoke photography can free your imagination: its like looking for familiar figures in the clouds. The minimalism found in a thin line of smoke and the complexity of its little swirls is fascinating.

You don’t need top notch hardware to capture smoke photos; a point-and-shoot digital camera works just fine. See how after the jump.

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Kudos to all those who participated in this week’s Photoassignment.net challenge - architecture. The group included Cheapshooter Flickr Group user mzieglertx, who joined in with a cool shot from Tacoma. Catch the slideshow below:

This week’s assignment? Framing.

The idea is to use natural or set up frames to set off the subject. Could be outdoor or indoor photos. Due on Monday, the 15th of October, at noon GMT+1.

Shoot some photos and post them to the Cheapshooter Flickr Group and I’ll post them here on Monday. Please tag all photos with the word “framing”.

Check out the results to last week’s photo assignment: tools.

This week’s photo assignment is a fun one: urban architecture.

Buildings in urban settings, from overall views to single buildings, or even exterior details. Due on Monday, the 8th of October, at noon GMT+1.

I’m going to join in and you should too! Post your results by Monday to the Cheapshooter Flickr Group and I’ll feature them here on the site.

Check out the results from this week’s photo assignment from Photoassignment.net: lines. I love detail shots like this, so it was tough to choose just one as photo of the day. Here’s a slideshow of their work:

Nuno Correia and Pedro Pinheiro had a close encounter while shooting his photos this week:

We almost got arrested (Pedro and I) for this photo, well… they were rent a cops, but they don’t let us take any more pictures. No visible signs prohibiting people to take photos but the cherry on the top of the ckae was when the rent a cop said: “You cannot take photos, and even less with a tripod”… I wonder, do they fear a big camera with a tripod… if I was a terrorist I would try to be discrete… a tripod and a 400d… that’s not discrete at all! :p

Good work guys.

This week’s photo assignment:

What about tools? Tools you need to work with every day, old tools abandoned somewhere, new tools still in the shop. Feel free and try not to get arrested.

Post your results by Monday to the Cheapshooter Flickr Group and I’ll feature them here on the site.

The photo’s from this week’s photo assignment were absolutely fantastic. Here’s a Flickr slideshow of the best. I’m not going to say too much because both Pedro and Nuno are working on a guide for Cheapshooter soon. It should be cool.

This week’s photo assignment:

The idea is to photograph, converging, diagonal, horizontal or vertical lines. There are some lines that make your eye go into the infinite or to some determinate place or object. Find them. Due on Monday, the 24th of September, at noon GMT+1.

Post your results by Monday to the Cheapshooter Flickr Group and I’ll feature them here on the site.