The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Movement.

On 24th Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography11 Comments

Good morning, all you lovely people, did you have a good weekend? It’s another Monday and that means The Cosmic Photo Challenge is here to kickstart your week with the prompt; Movement.

As I said on Friday, I had no idea where I was going with that, it just popped into my head as I was writing the post, but then I came up with a fun way to spend Saturday afternoon.

I decided to try and replicate the old trick of moving from one place to another during the taking of a panoramic photo, but attempting this on my own turned out to be more difficult than I’d first anticipated.

For anybody who isn’t familiar with this vintage photography illusion, the trick is fairly simple; in old school photos (by which I mean old photos taken of school children), groups were often so large that the photographer had to pan from one end to the other, opening and closing the shutter at regular points along the way, to build up one long image.

Now, if you were on the far left hand end of the back row, for example, once the camera had moved sufficiently to the right and you were no longer visible, you could run round behind the assembled students and magically appear at the far right hand end of the same row when the camera completed its pan.

I’ve managed to do something similar before when photographing other people, because they can walk round behind the camera and be pictured more than once in the same shot, but how to do it on my own?

After a few abortive attempts I came up with this brilliant invention, made from a roll of paper towel, a selfie stick, a lemon squeezer and a length of cotton

Behold, the DIY Panoramic Photo Controller

I then spent a very entertaining couple of hours crawling around on the floor, clambering over furniture, holding silly poses and changing clothes, to bring you this collection of trios. I have also included some interesting outtakes and initial experiments, because they’re amusing to me. You may need to do some zooming to fully appreciate the details. ;~}

What got you moving at the weekend..?

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To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.
Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.

Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 21st Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Hello there, is it that time already? Goodness me, how time flies, it’s Friday, which means prompt day on The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

This week the word that popped into my head was; Movement.

I’m not sure what that means yet, but I expect we’ll all think of something over the weekend.

Oh, and talking of weekends; next weekend I shall be making the annual pilgrimage to Honeyfest, so you can expect me to crowbar “festival” into next week’s prompt, just to give you fair warning. ;~}

See you all back here on Monday.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: From the ground, up.

On 17th Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In photography13 Comments

Hi there, this week on The Cosmic Photo Challenge we’re gettin’ on down with it (our camera, that is), for the prompt; From the ground, up.

I got down as low as my stiff neck permitted, short of lying on the pavement, to snap these upwardly inclined shots, on a mercifully cool and overcast Saturday afternoon around Barnstaple.

I can never resist snapping the Albert Memorial clock on the Square

Now let’s see your lowdown perspectives on life…

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 14th Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Howdy, all, I’m here to provide you with your weekend homework, by way of today’s prompt on The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

I thought that, as a counterpoint to the theme from a couple of weeks ago, we’d capture photos; From the ground, up.

Yes, it’s time to get the lowdown from down low and discover what the world looks like from ground level, so things are looking up!

Have a great weekend, see you next week

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Shooting through.

On 10th Aug 20269th Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In arts, editing and effects, photography9 Comments

Good morning, all you lovely people, I hope you enjoyed the weekend, whatever you chose to do with it. Hopefully your plans included space for The Cosmic Photo Challenge and this week’s theme; Shooting through.

To recap the needlessly cryptic prompt, it simply refers to taking your photos through something; windows, doors, pipes, under bridges, tunnels, holes in, well, anything I suppose.

You get the idea.

But I didn’t do any of those things.

Well, I kind of did, then I had another idea and decided to use both.

Anyway, my original photos were shot through tunnels of trees, gaps in hedgerows, between fence panels, my front and back door, I even tried one through a metal egg ring.

And my other idea had been to use photos of windows and doors as frames for unusual views of something you wouldn’t have expected to see, so it seemed obvious to me that I should combine the two.

You honestly would not believe how long it took to edit all the small details. No AI or Photoshop here, all done with overlays and fingertip erasing of backgrounds on my phone. I have included copies of the original views for reference. ;~}

It’s amazing how the human eye and brain can detect tiny inconsistencies in edited images, which then spoils the entire illusion. So I include often difficult to achieve, yet almost unnoticeable details (just the plants and leaves overlapping the door and window frames in the first two took about half an hour each), because it tricks the eye into blending the two images together in your head.

What apertures did you capture your contributions through this week..?

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 8th Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In photography2 Comments

Whoopsie, I forgot to post your prompt for The Cosmic Photo Challenge yesterday, so here it is; Shooting through.

I think we might have done something similar before, the idea is to capture your pictures by taking them through something else. That could be as simple as shooting through a window, or through a hole in a wall, down a tube, etc…

Have fun with that, have a good weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: The ground beneath your feet.

On 3rd Aug 2026 By dalecooper57In nature photography, photography14 Comments

Good morning, I hope you had a good weekend, now it’s time to let the pictures do the talking on The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Today’s theme might be a little prosaic, but not all challenges have to be glamorous and after all, where would you all be without; The ground beneath your feet?

My shots were all captured on my morning walks in the countryside, where I chose to document the surfaces of the various lanes and pathways that make up my regular route.

What discoveries did you make as you were looking down this week..?

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 31st Jul 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Hello, would you like something creative to do over the weekend? Well The Cosmic Photo Challenge is here to help, because it’s time for your weekly prompt.

For Monday’s post we’re going to be focusing our attention downwards, to; The ground beneath your feet.

Make what you will of that and have a great weekend while you’re at it, I’ll see you on Monday. Bye for now.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Coast.

On 27th Jul 2026 By dalecooper57In nature photography, photography16 Comments

Good morning, welcome to The Cosmic Photo Challenge on this slightly less scorching Monday, starting your week with a trip to the; Coast.

I took a walk along Woolacombe beach on Saturday, where I eventually found enough scenery (mostly) unencumbered by tourists to provide this selection.