Photo © Patrick Vecino with permission to About.com, Inc.

Click the photo to see the original forum posting.

Each Saturday, I'll post an image that was originally posted somewhere in our forum on roughly the same day last year. Be sure to check every Saturday for photographic time capsule!

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February Photo Contest Sneak Peak
Assignment #99 - Forced Perspective
Photography Lesson on Forced Perspective

Winter Farewell

Photo © Veronica with permission to About.com, Inc.

Click on the photo to see the original post in the forum.

Each week I select a photo from those posted in our forum to be the new photo of the week. If you would like to submit your photos for possible photo of the week just visit our forum and post in the photo sharing area. Please do NOT label photo threads as "photo of the week."

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It's on the borderline of being an X flare, the most powerful type of solar flare. Yesterday a huge burst of material erupted from the sun and sped towards the Earth. Already the Northern Lights are showing increased activity and the bulk of the coronal mass ejection is estimated to reach Earth Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours) per Spaceweather.com. This will most likely cause a dramatic increase in the Northern Lights and provide an excellent photographic opportunity as the Lights may be visible much further south than normal. So get out your cameras and look up tonight. Maybe you'll get a chance to photograph a wonderful Aurora Borealis show.

Picnik, one of the most popular online photo editors for amateur photographers is closing its virtual doors on April 19th of this year. Originally acquired by Google in 2010, Picnik will now live on as a few creative tools in the Google+ photo editor.

What Happens to Photos on Picnik?
Picnik has a couple of options for folks with photos stored on Picnik. One of these choices is to move your photos to Google+ (make sure you review the licensing requirements before using that option). The other option is a new tool called Picnik Takeout which will allow you to download your photos to your computer in zip files.

What About Paid Subscribers to Picnik?
Per Picnik's closing announcement, they are refunds of all paid subscriptions within a week of January 20, 2012. Per that announcement, they plan to refund the entire yearly fee for all subscribers regardless of how much subscription has been used.

Free Premium Tools
As a sort of going away present, Picnik is making their premium features available for free from January 20th until they close on April 19th.