From 600 to 24 to 10! I filtered down by considering photographic competence, uniqueness to the day, and, of course, all your feedback. These 10 made the final cut: Now, we wait to see which gets selected for the exhibition.
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I need your help.
In the Long Shot 2012 contest, we had 24 hours - from 6pm Friday, 6/1 to 6pm Saturday, 6/2 - in which to take pictures. I went out for a few hours total on Saturday in two different trips and took what felt like a lot of pictures. About 600. It was one of those days where I wasn't feeling it and was over-clicking to compensate. Nothing really jumped out to me and captured my attention and because of that, I'm having a hard time choosing which pictures I should submit for review. The contest allows for up to 10 photo submissions from which the panel will choose at least one to be printed and framed for a reverse auction to be held on exhibition day. What is your favorite or do you have several? What pictures do you think are wall worthy? Let me know by leaving a comment! Click the picture to view the gallery. T-minus 6.5hrs on the Photo Center NW Long Shot 2012 photo contest. 17.5hrs remaining. Go have some fun and take some shots!
"LONG SHOT is an event that celebrates photography, creativity, and our greater community, while raising funds for education and outreach programs at Photo Center NW. It is a fun, one day event where photographers hit the streets to capture a theme, community, or subject of their choice. Any image taken between June 1-2, 2012 is eligible for exhibition, and at least one image from each participant will be featured in the LONG SHOT exhibition at Photo Center NW on July 28, 2012. The event is open to everyone, using any camera, anywhere." I brought my nephew out on on a little photo expedition a few weeks back. The weather was nothing exceptional so we figured to head towards the Sound where the weather is usually a bit nicer than inland. We ended dropping into Ballard, had a sidewalk lunch at the home of Seattle's best sandwiches, Paseo Caribbean Restaurant, and then did a tour of the University of Washington campus. The weather did lighten up as the day went on and allowed for pretty pleasant strolling around town.
Click a picture to jump to the gallery. A quick rise in the water level of the Snohomish River was reason enough to take the bike out for a late-night spin. Add the starry night, broken clouds, and the fact that my wife needed some things from the grocery store and it all added up to the perfect evening and excuse to get out and take some pics. It was a little eerie cruising along Rivershore Road with the deep, cold, relentless river water flowing by just feet below the top of the bank. The water is usually a good 10-15' lower than it was that night. I found myself starting to imagine the water suddenly surging up and over the bank and had to cut those thoughts short so as to not spin around and head out before getting started.
Because I took my bike and I haven't yet rigged up a solution for hauling along my tripod - keep that a secret between you and I - I was only able to get a couple decent shots. The rest ended up blurry because, unfortunately, I'm not Steady Eddy when it comes to my hands. Probably too much coffee. Luckily, there were a couple spots where the levee was recently repaired so there was no grass or brush which allowed for a clean shot on a natural rest. Although even with resting my camera on the levee some of the photos still picked up enough vibrations to render a blur. I set my camera on aperture-priority, 800 ISO, 30-second exposure, and used the self-timer in order to reduce camera movement from pressing the shutter. Focusing at night is always a challenge. There was just enough contrast in the trees against the sky across the river that I was able to use auto-focus to set my focus and then switch it to manual to keep it from adjusting. At first, a train went by and I caught it streaking by. After that, it was quiet. And peaceful. Occasionally, a small ripple or surge of the river could be heard. A reminder of its power. It was nice to just lay on the levee and watch the river flow by and I lingered for awhile after taking my pictures. It's moments like these that I seek and that I hope to share when I pick up my camera. Pass me the horn, I want to give a toot for Washington. You don't need to travel far here to view some world-class scenery. For a guy with such an affinity for taking pictures - such as me - it sure is a great place to call home. I'm a lucky guy.
Even though I've lived in Washington my entire life and have spent a lot of time exploring it, I still find out about things and places I never knew about. Picnic Point was almost just such a place. I'd seen it before, but had never been there. Let me explain. Many years ago I rode the Sounder commuter train from Everett to Seattle. A ride I recommend, by the way, especially at sunrise. It is prime! Anyway, the route follows the east shore of the sound and you pass some beaches along the way. Mukilteo and Golden Gardens are a couple of them. I'd already known about Mukilteo. The others I didn't know about. I later searched out Golden Gardens. I didn't search out Picnic Point and until just recently, when some friends invited us to a BBQ at Picnic Point, I had only a name-less and place-less memory of it as just one of the beaches I enjoyed viewing from comfort of the train. Now, I'll have to go explore the others. I'm sure they're also worth the trip. Picnic Point is, as the name suggests, a great place to have a picnic. Or a BBQ. From the parking lot, you cross the railroad tracks, fenced on both sides, via a footbridge and come out on the grass. The grassy area is a nice and is supplied with picnic tables, grills, and a view of the Olympic Mountains across the sound. Trains occasionally pass by and you get to see, hear, and feel them as they roar along. Walking out onto the rocky beach gives you a view up and down the Sound. Although I didn't go in the water, it appeared to be a pretty shallow and safe slope. However, don't take my word for it. All in all, it was a great place to finally go. Snow geese have been congregating in the fields of the Snohomish valley. Have you seen them? They look like a patch of snow against the contrasting green and brown of the fields. When they take off to fly, they look like an erupting wave and sound like a soft, drawn-out thunder. They were in the fields the other evening so I decided that I would stop on the way to the park and take a few shots. While my wife and daughter waited patiently, I tried to sneak as close as possible without disturbing them. Although they noticed me, they didn't scatter and I was able to get close enough to capture some decent detail. I was really hoping that some would take flight as it is quite the spectacle. None did, of course, UNTIL we got in the car to leave.
Spike is a term used in software development for a quick research project. I recently commissioned myself on a photography spike - using lighting.
I've never used lighting much, or even been that favorable to it. Mostly, probably, because I have generally been a nature and candid moment photographer and lighting isn't always necessary or practical in these scenarios. Also, it's always kind of seemed like cheating - like artificially altering the scene no longer makes the picture a legitimate capture of a real moment - so I just relied on what the scene provided. I realize, of course, that photography isn't just about snapping a picture. In many ways, photography is about creating a picture and lighting can be an immense help. I've admitted it, I've purchased a little lighting kit to begin experimenting and playing around with, and I'm excited to begin learning some new areas of photography. The picture of my daughter here, who curiously watched the whole endeavor, is one shot from a small roll of the first experimental photos I snapped in our home studio. This is a water bottle. Kind of weird, huh? If I hadn't made this and someone showed me and had me hazard a guess, I definitely would not have guessed it was originally a water bottle.
I was bored of my previous phone wallpaper so I snapped a pic of a water cooler bottle that had beads of condensation covering the inside to see if I could tweak it and wring something interesting out of it in Photoshop. I actually won't even be able to repeat exactly what I did as it was a completely non-scientific process. Basically, it went something like this: crank up the contrast, convert to black and white, adjust the hue, up the saturation, apply a crazy filter (that gave it the cool texture), tweak the color and lighting settings a bit more, and call it macaroni. I converted it back to black and white for my wallpaper because the coloring is a little loud for my taste. It was a nice winter morning the other day - one of those clear, crisp, bright days - so I took my camera around with me and took shots whatever I came across that looked interesting. Shooting just to shoot. You'll see some of the other photos from this morning in the roll.
I swung by a farm where there's a couple horses to see if I could entice one to come near by and let me take a couple shots of it. It wasn't hard, carrots did the trick. This one here was walking back-and-forth along the fence, but I wanted it's head to be closest to me and in the forefront of the picture - since that generally gives animals a friendly look - so I held the carrots on my side of the fence and made it lean over to get them. It was a willing model as long as I kept the carrots coming. I did a little Photoshop post-processing to this image in order to give it a little more character and a bit of a farm, countryside feel. |