This week’s challenge theme is thanks to Barbara Keusch’s suggestion on Facebook.

This week your task is to take a photo of something in such a way that leaves the rest of us guessing what it is. My preference is that you capture your mystery shot in-camera, i.e. not via filters in post-processing. There are a few ways that I can think of accomplishing this:

• You could photograph a small part of a larger subject. This does not necessary need to be macro, though it often is for mystery shots.
• You could go the abstract route. We have had a couple of abstract challenges this year, but many abstracts are easy to identify so this week the challenge is to create a “mystery” abstract.
• You could photograph strange reflections. Or photograph “through” something that warps the subject.

Here’s the thing though – don’t abandon your knowledge of photography in your excitement to stump the rest of us. This is first and foremost a photography challenge, so whatever photo you take should hold up as a good photo even outside of this challenge theme. Don’t forget about composition, lighting, exposure, focus, DOF, etc.

BTW – if you’re interested in what my photo is above, read to the very bottom of this post.

To recap this week’s challenge:

• Take a photo of something in such a way that leaves the rest of us guessing what it is.
• Post-processing is allowed, but not “filters” that create abstraction not already captured in-camera.
• Post your photo during the week of Sunday, October 13 and Saturday, October 19.
• Please remember to comment on at least FIVE photo submissions this week. Start by guessing what the subject of the photo is and then feel free to comment on the photographic qualities of the photo or simply your reaction to it. Thank you!

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

• Take a new photo for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
• Post your photo each week to our active communities on Facebook or Flickr (or both). Tag the photo:  #2019photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
• Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2019 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.

Mystery shot revealed…

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The photo at the top is of a greenback cutthroat trout in moving water. I was having trouble focusing on the trout itself – my camera wanted to focus on the surface of the water instead. That created a very strange diffraction of everything below the surface of the water and I liked the warm & cool tones that emerged when I increased the contrast of the image in post-processing.