Welcome to Day 357 of the Daily Challenge. Today's challenge is 'A Picture Tells a Thousand Words.' Show us your photos that tell a special story, or spoke to you through raw emotion. I can't wait to see your creative responses!

It is incredibly cold today in Georgia, USA, with a bitter wind that can take your breath away and also threatens to blow cars right off the interstate. I wasn't able to shoot many fresh new photos today. I also won't be available to comment until very late. I wish you all a great Saturday, and for those of you who still have shopping to do, stay safe and warm!

As a participant, do you ever think to yourself, "I wonder where they come up with these topics?"

As a host, I sometimes wonder the same thing....As I am submitting my topics I feel excited about them, but then when the day comes I sometimes think to myself, "What was I thinking???"

So here are my examples for Peace/Excitement. This is the time of year when people everywhere are filled with emotion, so try to capture that.....or try for some red, or red and green, or red white and blue or whatever it is that inspires you to pull out your camera..

and my song for today...This 9year old child is amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTZj2MGRXEM

So did you play that piano?? :thumbup:

Hi, I am woefully unprepared for this challenge because I thought today was Monday all day until about an hour ago.
All excuses aside, let's see what everyone comes up with.
My original idea was musical instruments but I noticed the calendar says Music.
Musical instruments can be an actual instrument, home made instruments, people singing, or even a child laughing. At least to me, a child laughing or singing is the most wonderful music ever made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpe59XmDXzs

I hope everyone will share some flowers today.
As usual I am not picky. It can be a real flower, artificial, indoor, outdoor, a painting you made.... new or archives.
This is the time of year that a lot of folks need to be cheered up and flowers help cheer me up.
Enjoy the day.

As for the song... a friend sang this at my Grandma's funeral and although I am not real religious I love this song because it makes me think of my Grandma.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qNcdeEIfjE

I hope everyone will share some flowers today.
As usual I am not picky. It can be a real flower, artificial, indoor, outdoor, a painting you made.... new or archives.
This is the time of year that a lot of folks need to be cheered up and flowers help cheer me up.
Enjoy the day.

As for the song... a friend sang this at my Grandma's funeral and although I am not real religious I love this song because it makes me think of my Grandma.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qNcdeEIfjE

Normally when we talk about balancing light, it usually means balancing ambient with flash. But getting good photos of holiday lights involves a different kind of light balancing: Continuous ambient with fading ambient.

You don't need a high-end camera for great results. You can use a very inexpensive digital camera and do just fine. You don't even need flash. It all comes down to what time of the day you shoot. And a couple of other little tricks.
1. Arrive early. The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark. More specifically, get there before what looks like mix light to your eyes, too.
2. Compose your photo in such a way as to include as much sky as possible in the background. Shooting from a low position can help. Even better: If you have your choice of shooting direction, shoot into the afterglow of the evening sky.
3. Try setting your camera's white balance for "tungsten," as if you were shooting indoors without flash. All of those little lights are tungsten balanced. As a bonus, the tungsten setting will turn your afterglow sky royal blue once your light balances out.
4. A light foreground like the snow or water can give nice foreground interest.
5. Use a tripod or a beanbag to steady your camera. (I need to remember this cause I’m a shaker) You'll be shooting in the range of a quarter second to a full second at twilight. If shooting with a smartphone or tablet, use both hands to brace it against something solid.
6. Somewhere in between sunset and full dark, the Christmas lights and the ambient light will start to mix beautifully. You'll have about a 10-minute window which will give you a nice series of subtly different lighting variations.
Have fun with this…. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with. Low light shooting continues to be a challenge for me.
Happy snapping! :thumbup:

(these are worth watching)
http://youtu.be/ojzxvgkB4eY
http://youtu.be/-xLoQ72Ec3k