Fortnightly Challenge - Dec 4 thru Dec 17 - Topic: Favorite Photographs

[Chappers]

Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy @ Everett Events Center, WA

Nice shot - looked at your flickr page saw a bigger version - a little noise but hey I'd be happy with that - great shot

Nice mountains Dale and Chappers. As requested Chappers

1. Love top left but would PS out the human structures at the bottom. 2. Top right - it will grow on me - I can see why you took it (moon) but give me time. 3. Bottom left needs to be straightened - nice shot. I dropped the temp but its personal preference.

This is my middle child. He is almost 14 now. The camera loves this kid. I've never seen a bad picture of him.

He is photogenic - hopefully we will see more of him over time.

I've not done many images of flowers. I shot this in Maui a couple of years ago.

I'm a bit like you on flowers - I have a couple of good shots but that's about it.

 

[deep diver]

Is that the dude with a mouth in his hand??

Dale

No. That one is my youngest. He'll be 13 in February. He's the one that hates to have his picture taken. I'm lucky if I can get anything of him that's good. The shot of both of them pretty well tells the story - it was taken at summer camp in 2006. The one in the white shirt is the youngest.

The third one is all 3 of my boys taken that same day.

 

[Designer Dale]

I took this South of Olympia, Washington while on the way to Mt. St. Helens a while ago. I spent some time at the side of the freeway trying to catch this just right. I almost blew the transmission on my old Mazda trying to bolt back into traffic. One of my first RAW shots with my XSi.

EXIF Summary: 1/400s f/6.3 ISO100 135mm

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

Chappers: I posted a joke following your pic in the December Desktop thread. Some guy/gal took me seriously and promptly brought me up to speed...

Some folks are way to serious. They need to post some Favorite Photos!

Bruce: Don't tell your youngest son, but he looks Vulcan in the bottom photo.

Dale

 

[deep diver]

Chappers: I posted a joke following your pic in the December Desktop thread. Some guy/gal took me seriously and promptly brought me up to speed...
Dale

The subject in that one is round. I wonder what he/she would have said if you asked Simon about his round monitor.

That's one of the reasons I like this forum - folks are intelligent and funny. Life is good.

Bruce: Don't tell your youngest son, but he looks Vulcan in the bottom photo.
Dale

We like Star Trek around here. I think he might appreciate this. I'll let you know.

 

[Chappers]

Chappers: I posted a joke following your pic in the December Desktop thread. Some guy/gal took me seriously and promptly brought me up to speed...

Some folks are way to serious. They need to post some Favorite Photos!
Dale

I might go and play the "hurt friend" over there - but they do get a little serious.

That's one of the reasons I like this forum - folks are intelligent and funny. Life is good.

Can't argue with that one, but you forgot to mention my good looks - you don't think my son takes after the milkman do you?

 

[Chappers]

Dale I'm curious about the water sprinkler shot.

 

[Chappers]

my flower pic

 

[designguy79]

My first attempt at capturing fireworks with my Canon Rebel XTi.



It was harder than I thought to capture, but I think this 1 in particular turned out. Probably took over a 100 photos in the span of 10 minutes!

Thanks for looking.

Just curious if anyone had any comments... are firework shots considering cliche here? Or am I just too much of a MR newbies?

 

[LumbermanSVO]

Speaking of flowers. It was my first time shooting flowers and I got this guy.


Clickable!

 

[Chappers]

Just curious if anyone had any comments... are firework shots considering cliche here? Or am I just too much of a MR newbies?

Nothing is seen as a cliche here - but I've looked through your work on Flickr and I've seen some here on Macrumors before - I love your 360's - very creative, in fact I love your work - but the fireworks lack something for me. I think they need a longer exposure to get longer streaking. I've done a few firework shots and only got two that I thought were any good.

What software do you use for your 360's? They are stunning

 

[designguy79]

Nothing is seen as a cliche here - but I've looked through your work on Flickr and I've seen some here on Macrumors before - I love your 360's - very creative, in fact I love your work - but the fireworks lack something for me.

What software do you use for your 360's? They are stunning

Thanks!

The 360°'s are stitched using either AutoPano Pro or Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited. It depends on which one gives me the best stitch! Then I edit in PhotoShop CS4 and use the Flaming Pear's Flexify 2 plug-in to create the projection(s).

This one has been added as "favorite" 75 times by users on Flickr:



But, it wasn't taken this year... my favorite 360° from this year is:

 

[Designer Dale]

Dale I'm curious about the water sprinkler shot.

^^^ Do you want more about the sprinkler or the Mazda?

my flower pic

^^^ Wonderful colors and composition in this shot. So many of the flower genre photos put the plane of focus in the foreground and the fuzzy part in the background. It is nice to see a refreshing approach to this subject. Nice photo.

Thanks!

The 360°'s are stitched using either AutoPano Pro or Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited. It depends on which one gives me the best stitch! Then I edit in PhotoShop CS4 and use the Flaming Pear's Flexify 2 plug-in to create the projection(s).

This one has been added as "favorite" 75 times by users on Flickr:



But, it wasn't taken this year... my favorite 360° from this year is:

^^^ These are amazing. I still can't wrap my brain around how you do this, but I'm just an old "in camera" shooter. I get he feeling that you were suspended on a wire with a super wide lens...... Don't bother with the technical details, I just enjoy the photos done like this.

Nice work by all.

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

Just curious if anyone had any comments... are firework shots considering cliche here? Or am I just too much of a MR newbies?

These are difficult to critique because they are so hard to execute. If you go back through the July PTOD thread, you will find other photos to compare yours to. I think you did OK.

Look here:Bang BOOM POW OOOOOOH!

Dale

 

[Chappers]

^^^ Do you want more about the sprinkler or the Mazda?

Both, but mostly the sprinkler - what was your inspiration.

^^^ Wonderful colors and composition in this shot. So many of the flower genre photos put the plane of focus in the foreground and the fuzzy part in the background. It is nice to see a refreshing approach to this subject. Nice photo.

Thank you - sadly as weeds in this country they were cut down about 10 minutes after I took this shot

 

[Chappers]

Just curious if anyone had any comments... are firework shots considering cliche here? Or am I just too much of a MR newbies?

I think I was being a bit harsh on the fireworks - they are tough, Here is mine - I need more practice too - but as always I didn't have a tripod when I took this.

Exposure: 4
Aperture: f/7.1

 

[PNW]

My wife dancing with our (then only) daughter at her birthday party.

Dale, I absolutely love the sprinkler shot. Part of it is the juxtaposition of the verdant field with the changing trees, but I also get transfixed on the patterns in the spray

 

[deep diver]

Can't argue with that one, but you forgot to mention my good looks - you don't think my son takes after the milkman do you?

I figured he takes after his Mom, but I don't know -- never seen a picture of either of you.

my flower pic

This is great. It really plays with the eye. I expect the blue flowers in the foreground to be the focal point. That's where my eye wants to go but it can't settle anywhere and just keeps jumping all over the place in a fun sort of way.

A serious question: Bokeh refers to the out of focus space in the background. What term is used for the out of focus space in the foreground?

Just curious if anyone had any comments... are firework shots considering cliche here? Or am I just too much of a MR newbies?

I've never taken any fireworks so I can't really comment on the experience. There is something missing for me. I think the bursts are placed well in the frame, but I think there is a little to much negative space on the left and bottom. You might want to crop a little. As for the burst itself, it feels a little flat and static. It might need a slower shutter speed or a little more exposure. It might also be that this is just not a very exciting burst. Do you have any others you can post?

Thanks!

The 360°'s are stitched using either AutoPano Pro or Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited. It depends on which one gives me the best stitch! Then I edit in PhotoShop CS4 and use the Flaming Pear's Flexify 2 plug-in to create the projection(s).

These are extremely cool. The first one looks like an M.C. Escher drawing.

 

[deep diver]

Bruce: Don't tell your youngest son, but he looks Vulcan in the bottom photo.

Dale

We think he looks more Klingon. In either case he is definitely an alien.

 

[deep diver]

I rarely feel any of my images are "wow." There is always something more to find. This is my one image that I think is perfect as is. It is also decidedly low tech. I threw a black cloth over one of my patio chairs, taped a piece of sheet music to the arm, positioned the sax, and started shooting. I tried some DOF shots of other parts of the instrument but they were really bad. The only PP was to take out a couple of flower petals that fell on the cloth and to bring down the highlights to show the texture of the keys.

 

[Designer Dale]

Both, but mostly the sprinkler - what was your inspiration.
Thank you - sadly as weeds in this country they were cut down about 10 minutes after I took this shot

Rough definition of "weed" is any plant that is where it isn't appreciated. Appreciated by whom is up to debate...

As far as the sprinkler goes, it was one of those "Gee, that's cool" photos.

I was in farm country on I-5 south of Olympia, Washington on my way to a shoot in the Mt. St. Helens area. Traffic was pushing me to 65, which was a bit fast for me, when I passed a field with several of these sprinklers going. They are fairly common here, where summers can be very dry.

The arc of the water and the green of the field just snapped a photo in my mind and I pulled over and walked back on the other side of a guard rail.

I am an unofficial student of Doylem over in POTD, and put some of what he stresses (patience, studying the scene, making decisions before you squeeze the shutter) into practice. I watched the rotation of the spray and how it sent out one last long arc of water at the top of a cycle. I decided on where in the circular path of the spray was the best light to show this. I waited for that point and squeezed of shots until that last long spit was captured at the top of the arc. I like the photo.

As for the car, I had a 1993 Mazda MX-3 with a small engine and a bad front wheel drive thingy. I had to floor it to get into traffic and I could feel the front end rocking side to side through the gas petal. I traded it in for a 2004 Nissan pick-up the week before Thanksgiving. It was my birthday present to myself......

Here's the photo again.

Dale

 

[CK Williams]

Just curious if anyone had any comments... are firework shots considering cliche here? Or am I just too much of a MR newbies?

Sorry, I missed most of the first page and didn't see it. I really like the colors, but think it could be cropped some. In looking at your others, there are some outstanding shots, but the pyrotechnic engineers didn't give you much help with contrasting colors.

Thanks for the C&C Chappers. I noticed the off-line lake after I posted it.

Here are some of my limited attempts at flowers and the insects that like them:

 

[deep diver]

another from Maui

 

[deep diver]

Here are some of my limited attempts at flowers and the insects that like them:

The butterfly is outstanding.

 

[Chappers]

As far as the sprinkler goes, it was one of those "Gee, that's cool" photos.
I am an unofficial student of Doylem over in POTD, and put some of what he stresses patience, studying the scene, making decisions before you squeeze the shutter) into practice. I watched the rotation of the spray and how it sent out one last long arc of water at the top of a cycle. I decided on where in the circular path of the spray was the best light to show this. I waited for that point and squeezed of shots until that last long spit was captured at the top of the arc. I like the photo.

As for the car, I had a 1993 Mazda MX-3 with a small engine and a bad front wheel drive thingy. I had to floor it to get into traffic and I could feel the front end rocking side to side through the gas petal. I traded it in for a 2004 Nissan pick-up the week before Thanksgiving. It was my birthday present to myself......

Here's the photo again.

Dale

I like the photo too but its not your typical favourite photo - thank god we are not all the same. It is however good to know your reasoning and purpose here, as I'm a curious soul.

I rarely feel any of my images are "wow." There is always something more to find. This is my one image that I think is perfect as is. It is also decidedly low tech. I threw a black cloth over one of my patio chairs, taped a piece of sheet music to the arm, positioned the sax, and started shooting. I tried some DOF shots of other parts of the instrument but they were really bad. The only PP was to take out a couple of flower petals that fell on the cloth and to bring down the highlights to show the texture of the keys.

This is a great shot - needs no other comment.

A serious question: Bokeh refers to the out of focus space in the background. What term is used for the out of focus space in the foreground?

Fokeh as a non-serious answer.

My wife dancing with our (then only) daughter at her birthday party.

Beautiful photo.