PHOTO COMPETITION — COMMENTS THREAD

Haych

Hopefully just managed to squeeze one in!  Not amazing but tried to find a reasonable subject after work today.

skullfunkerry

boogieman said:

Haych said:

My best mate takes some pretty decent shots.  I say best mate, he'll go half way round the country to climb a mountain with a camera but won't drive across town for a coffee:

https://themountainphotographer.co.uk

Ooof, some absolutely beautiful shots there. Talented guy. 

Agreed, there are some stunners there! Also: I think you *both* take great photos

I did a camera workshop with a guy called Harry Wheeler-Brand yesterday afternoon, going through some basics of exposure, and using full auto rather than my standard which is Aperture Priority mode. It was excellent, I feel like I've got a much better understanding of how my camera works now, and I feel like where in the past I've seen something but not been able to get a good shot of it, now I've got a better chance of actually capturing the image I want.

Haych

skullfunkerry said:

Agreed, there are some stunners there! Also: I think you *both* take great photos

Thank you, you are too kind  I work on the law of averages - if I take enough photos with enough different camera settings then one of them will hopefully be ok

I'm enjoying the photo competition, not because I enter to win (or think I ever will) but because it forces me to, ahem, focus a bit and think about the theme.

My biggest weakness, though, is having a good eye for photography.  My mate has an incredible eye and can take a completely mundane object and turn it into a stunning work of art!  I hate him for it, in the same way I hate Paul Gilbert for being so damn nice and so damn good on guitar!

He does this thing he calls fence post Friday, where he'll simply shoot a photo of a fence post every Friday, but in the most incredible way, and turn it into a fantastic photograph.  Even more annoyingly, he just does it for fun and so he can post (no pun intended) something on Facebook with the hashtag #fencepostfriday

The photos he's published on his website (above), in my opinion, aren't even his best.  

boogieman

skullfunkerry said:

I did a camera workshop with a guy called Harry Wheeler-Brand yesterday afternoon, going through some basics of exposure, and using full auto rather than my standard which is Aperture Priority mode. It was excellent, I feel like I've got a much better understanding of how my camera works now, and I feel like where in the past I've seen something but not been able to get a good shot of it, now I've got a better chance of actually capturing the image I want.

That’s interesting, I’ve done a couple of photo courses and the instructor has always tried to get people away from using the full auto setting. 
Mine is usually in aperture priority too, but I suppose what using auto does is make you concentrate on the framing and seeing the shot, rather than getting bogged down with the camera settings and technicalities.  The best thing I learned on a course is to not just take a couple of shots and be satisfied. The instructor said to move around the subject, look at things from all sorts of angles and perspectives, don’t move away until you’ve exhausted all the possibilities it can offer. Similar take to Haych’s mate and his fence post shots in a way…. lots of ways of seeing things but from a single point. 

westford

My photo was a close up of this old door. I haven’t figured out why it’s where it is, but it’s quite nice to look at while walking by.

skullfunkerry

boogieman said:

skullfunkerry said:

I did a camera workshop with a guy called Harry Wheeler-Brand yesterday afternoon, going through some basics of exposure, and using full auto rather than my standard which is Aperture Priority mode. It was excellent, I feel like I've got a much better understanding of how my camera works now, and I feel like where in the past I've seen something but not been able to get a good shot of it, now I've got a better chance of actually capturing the image I want.

That’s interesting, I’ve done a couple of photo courses and the instructor has always tried to get people away from using the full auto setting. 
Mine is usually in aperture priority too, but I suppose what using auto does is make you concentrate on the framing and seeing the shot, rather than getting bogged down with the camera settings and technicalities.  The best thing I learned on a course is to not just take a couple of shots and be satisfied. The instructor said to move around the subject, look at things from all sorts of angles and perspectives, don’t move away until you’ve exhausted all the possibilities it can offer. Similar take to Haych’s mate and his fence post shots in a way…. lots of ways of seeing things but from a single point. 

I think I might still use aperture priority quite a bit. I found it really useful though to see how things afect the shot - like getting it all set up, then if it's too bright, go to a shorter exposure. I understood that before, but I hadn't thought about how if I'm only controlling one thing and the camera is adjusting everything else, then if I make a change like decreasing the aperture to let less light in, the camera will instantly tweak everything else so the final photo will still be overexposed.

We did some long exposure stuff that was really good fun, too

skullfunkerry

westford said:

My photo was a close up of this old door. I haven’t figured out why it’s where it is, but it’s quite nice to look at while walking by.

I was convinced your photo was a close-up of an old sword or dagger

boogieman

skullfunkerry said:

westford said:

My photo was a close up of this old door. I haven’t figured out why it’s where it is, but it’s quite nice to look at while walking by.

I was convinced your photo was a close-up of an old sword or dagger

I thought it was a barrel. 

skullfunkerry

Just a reminder that it's the last day of voting for this month, over in the competition thread

skullfunkerry

A little bit early, but April's winner has just been announced

skullfunkerry

Evening chilblains

New competition thread is now live. Enjoy!

paulnb57

Crewed a Safety Boat for the Round the Island (Isle of Wight) Powerboat race today, conditions were great for racing, the winner did the (approx)  53mile course in around 35 mins, (to be confirmed) pretty impressive on water. Weather light rain and misty, trying to get a decent photo from a 10m RIB, bouncing around at 35 knots in light rain was a joy….as this boat blasted past. making us feel like we had stopped, the fella in the rear seat managed a wave, the speed and noise is amazing

Winner of the big Class 1 race finished in 34.42 mims at average 102.8mph bloody hell! Course was 50.1 nautical miles


The big boats came through first, we had a medic on board and gave chase, just in case, a short while later the loons in the Thundercats caught us up and roared past…..

ThePrettyDamned

Completely forgot this existed and have some fun stuff, but decided I'd open with something quite abstract, and yet I think has a lot of sense of movement in it.

I chose the colours deliberately to try to make something that felt almost uncomfortable and alien. 

skullfunkerry

ThePrettyDamned said:

Completely forgot this existed and have some fun stuff, but decided I'd open with something quite abstract, and yet I think has a lot of sense of movement in it.

I chose the colours deliberately to try to make something that felt almost uncomfortable and alien. 

It instantly made me think of aliens, and space. What is it? I'm guessing it might be ink in water or something like that, but I'm not 100% certain on that!

ThePrettyDamned

skullfunkerry said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Completely forgot this existed and have some fun stuff, but decided I'd open with something quite abstract, and yet I think has a lot of sense of movement in it.

I chose the colours deliberately to try to make something that felt almost uncomfortable and alien. 

It instantly made me think of aliens, and space. What is it? I'm guessing it might be ink in water or something like that, but I'm not 100% certain on that!

It's dyed cream and milk (getting right consistency was very hard!) in a tank of water, lit by 3 or 4 flashes. This reason for all the flashes was to ensure everything else was rendered dark - it was shot in the living room. Very challenging to put together, I tried about 20 times and this was the best (the challenge being getting a density and drop height to get interesting shapes, while also having it captured within the framing, and timing the shutter well).

I did do other colours, but pink worked best - I originally tried orange to match a slime mould, but it looked a bit too comfortable somehow! 

skullfunkerry

Just booked myself a ticket for this:

https://www.cameraworldlive.co.uk/

Sadly it won’t be in time for this month’s competition. Thought for a tenner it’s definitely got to be worth a visit. Anyone else from here going?

ThePrettyDamned

skullfunkerry said:

Just booked myself a ticket for this:

https://www.cameraworldlive.co.uk/

Sadly it won’t be in time for this month’s competition. Thought for a tenner it’s definitely got to be worth a visit. Anyone else from here going?

Not me. I don't have the budget! But it'll probably be a decent trip.

I shoot with a fuji X100T mostly at the moment, and may see if I can pick up a leica or Panasonic lx100 for a zoomy thing, but that's it. 

Fretwired

I'm back from the dead ... the Grim Reaper won't get me just yet ...

My pic is of a speeding Jap sports car near where I live ... this stretch of road is a great money earner for plod.

skullfunkerry

I was hoping to get out and take a photo for this month, but it's all conspired against me. I wanted to get to Shoeburyness and get some waves or something, but I haven't had a chance with work because I was working away, and then my stepdaughter was ill; so I tried to get a photo of the dog have zoomies around the garden - got a couple, but they're not very good... finally, while I was away in Wales last week I thought I might get some cool light trails or somethings, as my hotel was right by the M4; but no, it wasn't that close (which is a good thing really, as I wasn't listening to traffic all night!).

I'm working on site in Greenwich all of next week so I won't have time to get anything before entries close, so iIn the end I've gone with a photo from a falconry day we did last year for my mum's birthday. Agonised over which one to use: some of the others I considered are on imgur, here:

https://imgur.com/gallery/sgCSUon

Haych

I took my 12 yo daughter to the fun fair this afternoon with a couple of her friends.  It ended up being a disaster - weather was rubbish and my daughter vommed after the fourth ride!  Then she vommed again in the car on the way home!  Happy-happy-joy-joy!

There was some good potential for shots in line with this month's theme.  It was a pretty crap fun fair, but if it was a better day I might be tempted to go back after dark and try again.  I've already submitted a shot for this month so it wouldn't have been for the competition, just to see what might happen and what sort of result I could get.

I did take a few photos but the light was rubbish, since it was raining, and it was a pretty lame fair.  There was a ride throwing people in the air behind the dodgems, so I grabbed a couple of shots to pass the time while the girls were giving each other whiplash.