121 posts tagged “photography contest”

It sure was nice having CountryByDesign, Cap'n Stephel and Anthrogrrl filling in with new quest for the last three weeks! Yea, you guys are the best.

Now that I've had 4 weeks off I'm ready to challenge or punish you all with a new Photo Quest for this week.  CountryByDesign reminded me of a great photography website, Digital Photography School.  I signed up for their weekly newsletter and this week they have a great article on telephoto photography.  Check it out  It gave me a great idea for this week's quest.  Take some photos using your telephoto zoom or a telephone lens.  If you don't have a tripod this may give you the excuse you needed to buy one.  Check out Walmart they have a nice lightweight tripod that usually is under $40.00 and works great with a point and shoot camera.  If you have a DSLR you will want a heavier tripod make sure the camera with the telephoto lens doesn't tip the tripod over.  If you don't have a tripod and it isn't in the budget you can use a stool, a chair or a table as a tripod.  Just be careful the camera has good support.

1. Please post the different range of photos you get at various distances. 
2. Post some or all of the camera settings and if you used a tripod or if you used anything to hold the camera.
3. All photos must be taken during this week. 
4. Software enhancements are fair game but no cropping this time.
5. If you want to try something new and have a little fun, while you are taking a photo quickly move the zoom up or down and see what happens to your photo. 
6. Since this is a holiday weekend I've added a day to this quest and you have until Thursday at midnight, Arizona time...yes we have our own time zone..same as Pacific Daylight Time.

I tried the zommie thingie with my camera and it was a hoot.  I was so uncordinated that at first I only got a blurred photo.  This is funny as I've spent so much time and energy tring to eliminate all possilbe movement of the camera to get the clearest photo possible...now I'm going for blurry. Here are two photos I got trying this technique.  I'm not perfect at it yet but it was a challenge.

_IGP1441-zoom

_IGP1447-zoom-

Most of all have some fun with your camera and I hope you learn something new.

I had to admit that Trailblazers photo this week was a real hoot with bug spray and all!  I'm going to follow last weeks rules and pick the best photo of each Voxer.

Oh boy I messed up Amy Sue posted some great photos after I had done the winners posting.  So sorry Amy Sue!!!  Check out her great photos this week.  I pick her favorite as mine too the portrait of her adorable dog is wonderful.  She has captured her dog from nose to eyes with nice light in the eyes and wonderful detail in her dog's face.  This is a difficult angle and she did is so well!

So for Trailblazer I pick her photo of the tomatoes with the bottle of bug spray...hmm that is the only photo she posted but it was great!  Nice work with photoshop too.

Now Cap'n it was hard for me to pick between the sunflower and the dandelion as both were wonderful.  After much consideration I had to go with the dandelion as this photo has a magical quality maybe like it would look to a bug up very close and fuzzy.  Wonderful photo!

Last on the list but not last in any other measurement is Country by Design's White Periwinkle.  With F2.6 the background is nicely blurred and the flower is very clear.  I'm impressed that the photo is so crisp and clear with a shutter speed of 1/25 I would expect more blur.  Thanks so much for posting your camera settings.

I need some time off for good behavior!  My granddaughter is coming for a visit and I need to catch up with my life.  Anthrogrrl suggested that during my sabbatical other members of the Photo Quest step in and do a quest.  Thank you Anthrogrrl for this wonderful suggestion...I might even have a minute or two to enter!

Please welcome Anthrogrrl and be as kind to her as you have been to me.  Stay tuned I think something wonderful is about to happen.

Peace!

WPG

Wow I can't believe that I've done 63 quests now.  When I started I never knew I would keep it up this long.  There have been weeks when I've taken off and when I was ill in the Spring I missed a few weeks here and there.  I so enjoy seeing everyones photos and you all impress me each week with how you interpret the quest.  We are all so different and some from different experiences that makes our photos unique.  This was was no exception!

Again thanks goes to the brave souls that posted entries for this crazy quest.  I do apologizer to Yan as I didn't even consider that everyone wouldn't know what a scavenger hunt was!  Boy we Americans can forget that everyone in the world doesn't have the same culture as we do...so sorry.  I'll try to be explain American words and events.

We had a super pictures this week and I thank Amy Sue, RealWorld, Cap'n Stephel, Yancuyon and anthrogrrl!  Amy Sue I've missed your entries and anthrogrrl thanks for joining us and jumping right in!!

OK here goes for the photos that I thought best represented the scavenger hunt, instead of an over all rating I'm going to rate the best photos for each of the items in the scavenger hunt. 

Best photo of something old, oh my this was so hard I really so give all of you 1st place for this as I loved the photos and the great stories.  I hope this can help you develop your ability to tell a story with your photos.  Well for the best photo in this quest of something old goes to Amy Sue.  Take a look at her photo of her fathers books.  She did a very nice composition with the two books.  I espically liked the angles of the books, she did just photograph she placed them a nice angles.

Best photo of something no one knows you have.  This has to go to Anthrogrrl, great sense of humor there.  Very nice photo this one tells a story too, you can see that her hand has something in it and it makes you courious to know what it is. 

Something tasty, oh my you guys all made me hungry with your photos of food.  My favorite here is Cap'n's photo of the cookies.  Wow great shot I can just smell the chocolate chips cooking and how them melt, oh, oh...I better stop here.  Again this photo tells you that these cookies tast and smell wonderful.  I really like that Cap'n broke one cookie open so you so see the chocolate chip all melty. YUM!

Something Hot, hmm realworld got me there.  A hot grasshopper, now that is a new one!  His has some great bokeh going on in this photo, nice work real!

Something wet this one is one of my favorites, Yan's photo of his son's wet hair.  Classic portrait with great balance between the wonderful wet hair and his son's eyes.  Both captured in the ROT spot and in diagonal lines.  Lovely shot Yan!!

Great work as usual.  Now I have to put my thinking cap on for next this week's quest!

I'm feeling all patriotic today and in honor of the 4th of July in the US; I would like to see some photos in red, white & blue.  The photos this week can be patriotic about your country or can have the colors of red, white & blue.  Use your imagination and have some fun. 

Photos must be taken during the run of this week's Photo Quest, by you and you can use any camera setting or any software to enhance your photos. 

Another week of great entires, thanks to Realworld, Country by Design, Karen, Canp' Stephel and Yancunyong.  Everyone had something different to post.  There were the great photos of Yan's friends having fun, Karen's adorable little dog, Country's beautiful home and her property and Cap'n's viola.  No two posts were alike.

Now for this week's winners.  1st place goes to Cap'n for her great pictures of her viola.  What fun use of light.  I have one of those headlamp thingies and I'm going to have to play around with it. 

2nd place goes to Karen for her lovely portrait of Cho Cho.  Karen you really nailed the ROT in this photo!  You captured such a lovely pose of your dog looking over her shoulder and the nice angle of the pose really made this photo interesting.  I took some photos of my dog yesterday and I can appreaciate how difficult this is!

3rd place goes to Realworld for the wonderful composite of the things he loves.  Nice work on this composite!

We did a Quest similar to this some time back.  Here are the rules take a photo of something you really love or like a lot.  Can be human, animal, vegetable or even an object.  My grandfather said you can't love anything that doesn't have a neck...but there are things in our lives that we real like..love.. that don't have necks...ice cream, cameras, computers.  The list is endless.

This photo can be a portrait, landscape, staged, natural...any light is OK.  Natural, available, flash, table lamp, flashlights.  Now when you decided on a subject for your photo, think about how you will take the photo so that the viewer will see the love or like you feel for your subject.  If you can't manage to capture how your feel about your subject then take a photo of your subject doing something that makes you happy.  Some examples could be a child at play, your hubby cooking dinner for you, your cat sleeping.  So here a some web links to explore emotion in photography:

http://www.art-photograph-gallery.com/pictures-of-emotions.html

http://www.my-photo-video.com/capture-convey-emotion-in-photos-bw-black-white-monochrome/

here are some examples on istock http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?text=emotions&action=file most are of people.

This week Quest is late so I've added a day to the deadline.  Hope you have some fun with this quest.

Here are a few of my farvoite photos that I felt were very emotional.

toesbw

Jo-in-a-tub

sunrise_08-09-08

Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to seeing your photos for this Quest,

Here I am late again.  I need to stop taking on so much so I can get the Photo Quest done on time.  Note to self: "don't try to do so much."  Now that I've spanked myself, let us get on with the quest.

We didn't have many entries this time...maybe you all are as busy as I am!  Thanks go to Country By Design, yancunyong and Cap'n Stephel  for your wonderful photos!  Also thanks to Yan for the photo of your very cute little tripod.  I want one!!!

I went back and forth this week between two photos for 1st place, the sunset from Cap'n and the wonderful twilight landscape by Country.  I don't think I've ever done this before but 1st place is a tie this week.  These two photos are great and both deserve to be in 1st place. 

Second place goes to Yan for his great photos of night lights and his son.   Thanks Yan for taking time out of your busy life to take a few photos and submit them to the Photo Quest.

Here is a fun quest for this week.  Take a photo where you have set the camera shutter for 5 seconds.  If your camera doesn't have a 5 second setting, then find the setting that has the longest shutter speed...probably a low or night photo setting.

Tripod is recommended but you can use a table, chair, bench or what ever is handy to brace your camera. You can get an good tripod for around $40.00 at walmart and check out the pawn shops.  Raymond found a great on triopod at his local pawn shop.  Another place to shop is Craigs List, I've got some nice lenses there.  If you have a shutter delay setting, a remote shutter release or mirror up setting, try them out. With all these new setting consult your camera manual and make sure you understand how to use them correctly. 

Try shooting scenes that have people or things that are moving.  Then shoot one where everything is very still.  Use the lowest ISO you can manage.  If you have a polarizer filter use it to add darkness to the photo.  Don't set the lens down too far use f8 to f11 for the best results. 

Take photos of moving trains or cars at night.  How about a kids soccer game, or a track event.  Bees, butterflies, humming birds could be interesting subjects.  Waterfalls, the ocean waves, a sunset, all great subjects for this quest.

What white balance will complement this picture?  You might want to try a few different white balance setting.

Post as many pictures as you like, please tell us all the stuff you used...shutter speed, f stop, ISO, lens, tripod or no tripod.

I'm off to a jumping show on Saturday evening...I might be able to get some interesting photos there.  Most of all have fun!

I must have scared a lot of the regular photo quest members away this week with this quest on white balance.  Sorry didn't mean to have the quest be too hard.  I hope you took the time to see the photos posted and how changing the white balance can really alter the look of the photos.

1st places this week goes to Country By Design for posting all the different setting with white balance for the lovely flowers and the plants. 

2nd place goes to Yancunyong for the photos of the concert.  I disagree with you Yan as I like the second photo the best.  But I wasn't there was I?

Thanks goes out to our two participants this week for braving out this quest!