APAC Submissions, May 2014 :dltphoto

I really haven't been as on top of my game as I would have liked with my entries for this year. Switching career  has made it a little more challenging for me to participate as much as I would have liked. I am looking forward to a summer of some shooting and try to get my act together for next years assigned topics. Although I just found out I have another class I can attend for my Electrical Level 2 in January so that might hamper my year again!

"Take a look inside" Macro, Score 6.5

This months adjudicator was a good friend of mine, Cristal from Level 6 Images and Art  . Firstly I would like to applaud her for taking the time to inform everyone that she really isn't into overly edited images, such as HDR (high dynamic range) and other painterly effects. Marvelous. I am kind of tired of those. "it's been done" as far as I am concerned and I really like to see people challenge their skills in the camera rather than working an image for hours afterwards. Nothing more rewarding than getting it right, right out of the camera.. 

I chose 2 random images, one from my recent tulip festival visit and another from my "drive by shooting" from last year. 

Her biggest comment about the tulips was that she couldn't see a sharp point, there is one, its just the size of a pin head. That was kind of the idea. Normally macro's are sharp and much of the subject is visible and definable. This I chose to blur/soften the shit out of it as I was just far to lazy to have used a tripod and do the traditional macro shot. Its shot with the nikon 1 V1 and the nikkor 60mm 2.8 G Macro. I liked the effect without haven't to apply any effect... I am sure if it had have been sharp from front to back it wouldn't nearly have interested me, and definitely wouldn't get submitted.

"Industrious BC", Open, score 6

This was from my little Fuji F200EXR from last years morning shooting. I just like the mood of this. Captured across the golden ears bridge from a work van going 80 clicks.. I wasn't driving!

APAC Submissions: April 2014:dltphoto

This months images weren't particularly thought through entries. Just something I slapped though the system quickly as the deadline caught me off-guard. I didn't even know who the Adjudicator was. Mr Razor Sharp, apparently. Fortunately my images happened to be "Razor Sharp". He is one of the more fussy adjudicators, actually almost annoying but brutally honest which we need sometimes. I only hope it doesn't put off some of our new club members who might take offense from it.
As for the Images, if it's something he has 'seen' before it's likely to not do well. Don't submit a sunset pic, unless it's an amazing shot that no one has ever done before, as he has 'seen' them all. Don't submit a blue heron pic, as he has seen a million of them. So what do you submit for an adjudicator that's seen it all??? We live in a beautiful area of Canada but its also got it's limitations of what we can shoot that hasn't been done and is still spectacular. I think his expectations are rather unmanageable. Take a look at some of his images. Have you seen them before? Actually a lot of his images I see quite regularly through through the club presentations. So are his spectacular? or more of the same?, as he did those images does that make them spectacular? My images aren't spectacular, but are they unique? Have you seen them before?

'Shades of Beige". Abstract, score 7.5

'Oil Painting'. Open, Score 8

There was a request on this one by my chum Gerry regarding cropping, I cropped it as shown but I also showed the Adjudicator the full image and also another different crop, and he suggested that all worked well.

Here is the original, uncropped 'as shot' version, you can decide.

I didn't have chance to submit an assigned topic image, which was "9 seconds". Maybe I'll do next months.

APAC Submissions: March 2014: dltphoto

This Months adjudicator was not as was advertised. It was supposedly my friend Elizabeth Kowal of White Album Weddings fame but instead it was Mark Kowal of White Album Weddings fame. They own a gorgeous little Chapel, so picturesque for weddings and portraiture. Sweet. An Ex-President of the club also.  He scored me 8's across the board!!!

'I'm not looking at you right now', Domestic/Captive Animals  Score 8

'Oh Lord I need a paint job', Architecture score 8

'Fenced', Assigned Topic "Bokeh" score 8

Nothing really exciting to say about these images for this month. I was deep in School Work and don't really recall if anything was said about them! They are probably featured in earlier posts, my 2 readers may have seen them before somewhere!!

APAC Submissions, February 2014: dltphoto

This month was scheduled to be my favourite adjudicator, Allen Bargen. I picked a few images that I new he would have a hard time liking and he would enjoy telling me that they weren't technically in the correct category... Why would I do this? it's fun for me!

Anyways, my plan kind of backfired. He didn't show up! So fortunately we had a visitor that evening, the President of the Langley Camera Club, Dennis Ducklow. I have actually known Dennis for many years as he was a customer of ours at the Camera Store I used to work at and he is a really nice guy... anyways he graciously volunteered to fill in for the missing adjudicator. Now I was quite excited for my images to be viewed by him!

Since I had a run-in with this adjudicator before about abstracts and the fact he doesn't believe my images were real abstracts I thought I should put another one in. Fortunately, Dennis quite enjoyed it.

Abstract. 'Abstract in White', Score 8

And 20 minutes into the exhibition night the expected adjudicator showed up! This was quite a treat. Dennis continued to score for the rest of the evening but both of them gave critiques at the end. Fantastic!

Dennis enjoyed the images suggesting he had great lines and your eyes could easily go from front to back. My friend however piped up as to be expected suggesting it wasn't actually a true abstract as he could tell what it was..... Well. I took great delight in him saying they were "plates" and he sounded very confident about it too! Sadly, He was sooooo WRONG. Oooooh, such a large grin came over my face in the dark! I called out and suggested he was wrong and if he'd like another try, I don't think anyone knew what they were and I took great pleasure in informing him what they actually are. So now he's two for two at guessing my abstract images and getting it wrong. Brilliant. Anyways.. I won't tell you what they are.. I'll keep it a mystery for now. Wouldn't you say it's abstract if you can't determine what it actually is?

Architecture. 'Uniformity', Score 8.5

Another image from this series I shot on a recent outing that i have yet to finish up with and post here. I was working with the lines and the shadows. I also rotated it just for added fun. I enjoyed that one of the lights is missing its cover. I like it when a uniform pattern is destroyed but one element. Kind of an OCD's nightmare I imagine.
Dennis suggested he enjoyed the simplicity and the Lines, I don't recall if the other dude said anything about it and really I don't care.

Assigned 'Industrial', "Mind the Gap", score 8

Last up was an assigned image i shot a little while ago with me phone and tried to give it some pizazz... I thought it was kind of industrial looking. I enjoyed the textures and lines. It's quite 'Me'.

Looking forward to March's Adjudicator as she is another friend and fellow photographer!

APAC Submissions, January 2014: dltphoto

As mentioned before in a previous post somewhere we are often informed of who the adjudicator is going to be for our upcoming exhibition nights. January's was Janet Bright, a local Artist ( Painter), friend and photography student of mine. She has been several times to the club and on my first meeting with Janet I scored very high, the next nights not so much. Just when you think you know someone there tastes change. I think since Janet now has a little more appreciation for how hard it is to capture the images, since she is now learning photography herself, she has maybe changed the scoring process in her reactions to the images. She is "evolving", so to speak.

First image up I got was bright, colourful, abstract. Perfect for her or so I thought.

"True Blue", Abstract, Score 7.5

Not the worst score I have had and really it doesn't matter whatsoever, it just gives me some to ramble on about. This was shot with my Nikon 1 V1 with the FT-1 Adapter and the Nikkor 60mm 2.8G Macro, along with a Nikon SB-800 Flash slaved wirelessly from the V1 flash. All shot manually and really no adjustments made. Kind of made a neat abstract image. I shot plenty of them but this I thought was a decent composition. I choose Poorly (wink)

Anyways, it didn't get reviewed at the club night but I asked Janet if she wouldn't mind critiquing it for me for this blog.
HOW EXCITING.
Here is Janet's view of the Blue"

"True Blue: Love the jars. My first response was that, to sit and look at THAT blue for hours and hours would be a wonderful thing. The balance of objects within the image seems very formal (almost symmetrical), with the negative/void space at centre taking visual space nearly equal to that of the jars themselves. With its monochromatic colouring, centred highlights and similarly sized objects/spaces, my attention is drawn directly to the static centre of the image, which is symmetrical and does not lead to a whole lot of excitement for the image. I do love the colour and sharpness"

Second up was another Macro effort with the same camera setup, just no wireless flash trickery!! 

"Circles of Confusion" Macro, Score 6.5

Not too much to describe about this one. It's a leaf. I just enjoyed the circles of confusion in the shot, hey I didn't say I was good at titling! Bold, colourful, simple. That was my goal.

Janet's comment:

"Circles of Confusion": This image is far more detailed and affecting on my computer than it was on the big screen where it was originally shown. I see leaf detail and delicate circles (which I didn't see before). Asymmetric balance makes me wonder what's just outside the shot; was it raining, cold, misty? and the magical circles (of confusion)- very intriguing. I suppose it is true, that the medium is the message. Thank you for showing me this high res version.

Cool... So there you have it. In essence I think she liked them and that's enough for me. , they aren't grand masterpieces of Photography mind you, some something I thought was interesting. Other people's opinions of these images may vary massively. It's such a terribly subjective thing. Janet probably enjoys a good  "Monet", I enjoy a "Giacometti", our tastes are our tastes, which is my point. Thanks Janet for your input. I'd love to go out shooting with you one day, "the painter and the photographer", that would be an interesting post!!

APAC Submissions, December 2013: dltphoto

"Branching Out", Abstract, Score 7

This months showing was a "photoclub bust" for me if  I was a competition minded and cared about progressing into future levels. Paul Baker was our adjudicator. He is very good at critiquing the images, mine just weren't ones that he felt needed to be discussed!

"Alouette in Green", Landscape, Score 7

This is my attempted image that went missing somewhere along the lines for November... too bad. Shot with my Fuji F200 EXR compact camera

"FireBreather", Assigned "Ancient", Score 7.5

This was the assigned image "Ancient". I thought it quite fitting, after all it's been there a jolly long time. It's as ancient an item one will find anywhere although its probably not viewed in that way!!

I don't think I scored the rock bottom score that evening, although I could be wrong. I didnt hear any 6's that I can remember!  Oh well. I really liked my images compositionally and they projected well. That's really all that matters to me.

Next month's adjudicator is a local artist  Janet Bright. She reacts to impact images but maybe less technical than the photographer judges.....

APAC Submissions, November 2013 :dltphoto

Two months of bad timing and I haven't been able to get to photoclub to see the images submitted or who the adjudicator is and how they scored images. This month I had a tragedy also since one of my images failed to get to the final process online, somehow. I'll just resubmit it in next months.

Assigned "Light", Follow the Light, Score 9

 After a fun and challenging evening out with a friend this is the result of us mucking around. For this image I actually combined three individual images since I had three mediocre images the play with. I used the simple technique shown in a previous post "how the magic happened". The exact same principle with different subject matter.
It appears to have scored well, although I wasn't one of the top three so this means the adjudicator was scoring quite high.

In Camera, "NightFall", Score 8.5

My other image to be scored was from the same evening,  painting with light. Not a bad effort out of the camera. Quite happy with the image considering the challenges we faced shooting it.

APAC Submissions, October 2013: dltphoto

I wasn't able to be present at this months exhibition evening due to a 'man cold'. I relied on my fellow club members to give me any feedback that the adjudicator had with my images.
All I know is that adjudicator enjoyed a lot of the images, she ( Betty Andres) tended to score on the high side according to my above average scores.

 

"Private Peeker", Architecture Score 9.5

 This was shot at Barkerville, BC. Initially for the textures it offered but I also enjoyed the fact the curtain is set in such a way as someone could be peeking out at me. She reviewed it but I haven't gotten any feedback on it.

'Life Lines', Floral, Score 8.5

This shot was from my phone last Autumn. I enjoyed the overall feel of the image and thought I had a pretty sweet shot from such a limited camera. The Leaf shot she reviewed and wished the depth of field could have been better but overall she enjoyed the colours but wished I might have come closer to pay more attention to the lines of the leaf. Of course I wasn't there to inform her it was from my phone....

'Smile for Dad', Assigned ( Humourous), Score 9.5

Last Christmas's photo shoot in my studio, I always enjoy getting the girls to do a little something odd and it worked well for scoring.

APAC Submissions, September 2013 : dltphoto

It's that time again folks. It quickly snuck up on me since I have been so busy juggling my new career and such. In fact I was in such a rush to get images in by the 8pm deadline that I just grabbed three images without much time for consideration, we'll see how I fare up! One new thing they have added this year other than a few different categories is the adjudicator's being able to give half points, so instead of a "Deep Six" there is now a chance of 6.5!!

This months Adjudicator is Rick Shapka, here is the brief info we were given before our submissions were due.

 

"Rick Shapka began his formal photographic training about 2002

by completing diplomas in photography at Focal Point, as well as art history at UBC. In addition, Rick completed workshops with a number of master photographers including Joe McNally, Jay Maisel, Jean Miele, Dan Burkholder, Freeman Patterson, Andre Gallant, Eddie Soloway, and Tony Sweet.

Rick spends his time with photography in and around Vancouver as well as traveling extensively to make pictures. His recent photographic journeys include Arizona, the Palouse, Moab Utah, Vancouver Island, New Brunswick and Namibia.

He photographs the landscapes, the people and has a particular interest in HDR and abstract photography."

First up is the Assigned topic which is "textures". Fortunately I had this one ready to go from my instagram account, originally shot by the trusty Nikon 1 V1 and filter applied via instagram.

Asigned Texture,"Red, White and Blue", score 7.5

Then on to the exhibition section. I choose two images from my most recent shooting, since I was in a big hurry! Both from the Nikon 1 V1, and yes I do have a DSLR but the little Nikon is just so wonderful ( please don't cancel them Mr Nikon). No fancy edits done to these images, basic Raw conversion only.
Not entirely sure I put them in the best category but well...whatever!

Landscape "Lady of the Lake", score 7.5

Portrait, "Night Floating", score 7.5

So I scored the Perfect "Mr Average", 7.5 all the way through. His scoring wasn't wild as compared to some but he rarely fluctuated from the .5's, which I guess will be the new trend. We'll see next month!!!

APAC Submissions, June 2013: dltphoto

This is the last month for photoclub before we take our summer break and hit our new year in September. This also sees the end of the current Presidents tenure. Gerry H has been excellent and I have very much enjoyed his direction and enthusiasm. I am sure that being the President of such a large photoclub has it's ups and downs and I hope he is able to come back and do it again sometime. Thanks Gerry. Also I would like to thank all the other excellent volunteers.

The adjudicator was Allen Bargen, sadly. He and I don't see photography the same way. You all have seen my work, feel free to look at his.
Clearly CAPA rules dominate his scoring. Personally, I think the capa rules are too restricting. If we all do what they want then we wouldn't be artists, we would be conformists.... Anyways, before I start to get too deep into this train of thought lets just look at the images.


First the assigned topic, "Fog".
I originally had an image I wanted to use and which I even printed, but I couldnt think of a great title and the image wasn't too inspiring to me. So at the last second I switched it for this image. Again my title sucks but I enjoy this image better, I don't have a printed version so it'll be a projection only for this one.

fog and wires, score (  21 out of 30 )

Next I choose to do two print images. Our projector at the club is kind of hit and miss so I felt I should print some this time as printing is the safest way for the adjudicator to view what you want them to see.

Portrait, "instrumental passion",  Score 8 out of 10

This is a nifty shot of my friend Omer Cordell, a talented musician and photographer. We had to shoot some images of him for his Bass endorsers. I found this to be one of my "winning" shots, alas not for the adjudicator. Its a barely edited image with some minor lightroom adjustments. My normal,

Lats up was another Macro attempt.

Macro, "shades of yellow", score 7 out of 10

Now I am sure that a real macro shooter would want better depth of focus in the shot but that's really not me or my style. This was with my Nikon 1 V1 and the 60mm Macro lens. I am more of an abstract type macroist! He didn't choose to talk about any of my images and actually I am fine with that. Personally I would choose to ignore his comments.

Textures: dltphoto

Recently I have had a little thing for textures. Inspiration came from shooting "letters" for the APAC Blog header.
Some shot with my Nikon 1 V1 and an assortment of Nikkor Lenses, others from my Android Phone

APAC Submissions, May 2013

I wasn't expecting much for this months entries. It was kind of a last minute rush to get them entered. They are images I wanted to submit but may have fared up better with a non-Capa adjudicator. (this just in, here's the Judges Website.) All images were shot the Nikon 1 V1.

Assigned "Trees", 'Bench', score 19

No surprises that I didn't do well with this. I like the feel of it though.

Level 2. Drat! :dltphoto

It finally happened.
Here is an email I received.

"Dear Mr. Turner:  
 It gives me great pleasure to advise you that THE FREE RIDE IS OVER;

 you have completed the requirements for Level One by acquiring 200+ 

points by March 2013's Exhibition night and that you have now graduated

 to the Level Two category AND WILL HAVE TO STOP PHIDDLE-PHARTING AROUND

 AND GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!

NATURALLY, WITH THIS ADVANCEMENT COMES THE PRIVILEGE OF BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE
APAC EXEC. AND UNDERTAKING SUCH POSITIONS AS MAY BE ASSIGNED TO YOU.

(Please remember to precede your image titles with L2 rather than L1 

starting in April)

Congratulations!"

Then a follow up email from the APAC president....

"Eventually, even 6's add up to 200..."

Hahahahahh. Oh well.

 I guess I am going to have to pull my socks up and work harder with my 

random assortment of camera choices for exhibition images.

Level 2: Intermediate
One image in each category must be scored at 
8 or higher. All other images must be 6 or 
higher. Must compete in 6 categories with total 
of 50 points in each category

APAC Submissions, February 2013: dltphoto

For this Month I went all out. Super excited about these three images. However the more excited I am is how proportional to how disappointed I will be when the adjudicator scores them. this theory I have proved tonight. The scores were very erratic. Not in my favour but I still enjoyed my choices.

After my last epic fail in the Macro category I though I would attempt something more obviously macro. Its bright fun and pretty much right out of the camera. Just how I like it. Its early morning frost on my black tinted truck window. Oddly the rich blue is coming from the reflected blue sky of the early morning. The Depth of Field is dramatically short but that's what is to be expected when I am too lazy to get my tripod and I quite like it this way. The adjudicator did not see it my way, she wanted more depth, sharpness and maybe rule of thirds on this, meaning not having the focused part dead centre.

Macro, "Cool Blue", score 8

Instagram'd Version

 I did a square crop in instagram ("The Hive") which was very well "liked" I should mention.

This next image is your textbook "instagram" shot and it's right out of my phone!
 I put it in the architecture category which was probably a mistake. It's a funky church in Abbotsford, hence the title. It should probably be in the "Duncan's lost his mind" category... Sadly, My title was VERY common so it seems. Someone else put an image in with the same title which happened to show three images before mine. That didn't help I am sure.

Architecture, "stairway to heaven", score 7

Finally, we wrap up the night with the assigned topic "Psychedelic, or just Psycho". This is another phone shot with an SLR Macro filter in front of the lens. To help with the close up, since my phone is lousy at macro. I saturated it a little to give it more of a  Psychedelic look... more drug inducing!

Assigned (Psychedelic, or just Psycho), "L.S.C.D", Score 20 (out of 30)

The adjudicators scoring was very low for the assigned, but still mine was one of the lowest.

APAC Photoclub Submissions: November 2012: dltphoto

Last month saw the massive APAC Seminar here in Abbotsford. I enjoyed it, it's great to see all the reps and all our customers, at least a good hand-full of them all in one place. Also this year I had one of my images showcased and printed by Lens & Shutter. So proud! hahahahah

"motion blur" which was supposed to be titled "when two atoms collide"

First up for the evening was the assigned category "wheels". A previous shot which readers may have seen in a previous post from Barkerville. maybe.. I don't recall if I posted this shot... anyways. Its pretty obvious. It's a Wheel. Purely the title is the only thing that can save this shot! "It's got some wheel flare"... Wheel. Get it? Real Flare?...ha hahah. no. sorry. I wasn't expecting any great numbers and got punished suitably.

Assigned Topic  "Wheels",  "It's got some wheel flare" score 22 ( from 30)

Next up, A Phone shot. ooooooooh. Curses!

Abstract, "New Horizons". score 6

 It was a shot that I thought was kind of interesting. I did apply a cross-processing action to it to give it this interesting cyan/ greenish look. It was featured more recently in my "favourite shot" for September, which I showed the original capture along with the cross-processed version.
Architectural, Abstract and kinda Artsy. Perhaps the type of shot a designer may use in a Loft space to create form and interest within the minimal space.... Something like this!!!

Image ripped off from google images... thanks whomever you are.

"Abstract:  images extracted from a larger reality or subject. An abstract image is, usually, independent of pictorial references and reduced to form, colour ,tones, texture and line." ( APAC Guidelines for Category)

Since I got such a low score for this image I quizzed the Judge at the end as to why it didn't do well. Apparently it didn't fit his description of Abstract. Really. So I asked him what he thought the photo might be of and after 4-5 attempts of guessing it wrong, he then suggested that this image is an Abstraction, not an Abstract. Oh Dear and Really?? An ABSTRACTION not an ABSTRACT. This should be the point where I storm out and knock over some chairs in disgust.
This fills all the criteria that I can see.

Images extracted from a larger reality, CHECK ( its a big building)
Independent of pictorial references, CHECK ( no story line here)
Form, Colour, Tones, Texture and Line, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK and CHECK MATE!

Someone suggested I submit it again, since another Judge might lap it up. Personally, I want to show new images. I dislike seeing the same image re-posted.


My third image for the evening is definitely one my readers have all seen before. I was testing the theory that things in three's always do well, according to CAPA rules and other fellow club members. For the sake of attempting to score well, which apparently didn't work, I did remove some items from this image in order for them not to be distracting for the judge. It would appear to be necessary if you don't want to get caught out, point wise, with irritating things they don't like in the image. It can make all the difference to some Judge's, but apparently not this ummmm Judge.

 This happens to be a "real camera" shot from my Nikon D200 with the "Highlander" lens.

Architecture, "get to the point", score 7

"Architecture: images depicting  buildings, structures, interiors and  surroundings, whole or in part, that
emphasize design or functionality." (APAC Guidelines for Category)


It would appear that the Projection system for the club has been fairly bad recently so I may have to start printing to get the right image judged. Although, It probably wouldn't matter and at the end of the Day it makes no difference to me. I still enjoy all three images. That guy wants to look at nasty overdone HDR's and overly PS'd images... that's his choice, have at it.

APAC Photoclub Submissions, September 2012: dltphoto

Well, Its photoclub season again. This means submitting new images to be critiqued and butchered by "experienced" judges in the photo judging industry!.. Hahahahah, not really! well maybe somewhat.

So the Judge for this first month was Francois.. no, Francoise... umm I forget, lets call him Frank for short. Frank was very specific about how he wants to see images. He wants them "RAZOR SHARP", and I quote "images need to be Razor Sharp".
Fortunately  my images were "RAZOR SHARP", sadly one was of a sunset type scene. Frank suggested if your going to submit Sunset Scenes, it had better be spectacular because he's seen them all. Wonderful! this exhibition night should be interesting.

Sunset on Lake, score 8

First up was my shot in the Landscape category, As you see I scored an 8, which is really not a bad score in the photoclub world. I guess the only way to have scored a 9 or 10 would have meant that my image needed to be "spectacular". Its not your stereo typical sunset, its bold and vibrant. Actually it shows very little of the sunset since its just a reflection/ ambient shot. 

So, feeling pretty good about myself so far. Next up a Film Marco shot I did which I featured in a previous post "Pink Wheat". Having enter film images before and watching them being judged up against digital images and imaging wizardry, I have decided to enter them through the digital process without people knowing its film. The Judges are now so used to manipulated images that they aren't able to assess film images the way they should.

Needless to say my second entry into the "macro" category scored me a repeated 7. I didnt expect to score so well anyways. Its a random shot with shallow depth of field that really makes the image kind of messy, since the wheat was blowing in the wind, it was a case of rapid shooting to get one good one. Perhaps if I attempted some better selective cropping it could work better. I am really not a "special effects" type person, I enjoy good "razor sharp" images that I can capture in the camera and tweak mildly in programs like Lightroom. I am soooo not a heavy filter on top of filter type of guy. I am going to keep sticking to my plan and the photography I enjoy. Good "razor sharp" images as close to out of camera as possible and hopefully they will look "spectacular". Is that OK Frank?

 We did have an assigned topic for this month, "though a window", but alas I didnt have anything I thought really worthy that might score well. No need to put in something I personally wouldn't have scored well. This was a pic I considered but it wasn't crying out to me.

Pal M4, Part Two : dltphoto

So since I had so much drama on the first roll and that I fixed it or at least hoped I had fixed it, I thought it fitting to give it another roll. Having seen the results when I got the film back it reminded me of how wonderful film really is, this is a process which has been around for such a long time and to this day is still amazing. It really can stack up against digital. Don't get me wrong, digital is soooo convenient and cost effective and easy to delete and and and... but film has never lost its appeal.
This little Pal M4 is very, very capable, in the right hands of course. I am quite enjoying it! As I mentioned before I have a little wide angle lens with it, here's to show you how little extra the wide angle offers. I have yet to determine exactly "how wide" it is, no literature on it that I can find at this time. I guess its around 35mm wide equivalent from the cameras native 45mm.

Firstly.. you need to FOCUS it... duh!!!

With the wide angle lens on

Without the extra lens (45mm)

 So the scene is fairly different you see more of the cars and more of the poles in the background. Since I am also using the Wide Angle viewer on top of the camera I am sure my alignment is off a tad, I didn't use a tripod like I probably should for this experiment, but really who reads this and does it really matter???? heheheheh

APAC: Photoclub Submissions, June 2012:dltphoto

This months submissions caught me a little off balance, since I was enjoying some well earned vacation time with my family and I quickly grabbed three images in the folder of potential images for submission!

First up was the assigned topic, "my Community Landmark".

Since Abbotsford is fairly spread out I thought I would try a landmark which is always a landmark. Every now and again, these little crosses show up in a farmers field for everyone to see. It relates to someone's opinion regarding abortions etc of which I have no opinion, that's not what this post is about!

Anyways, this is a shot right out of Insta.gram (phone App)!!!! even still had the border on it. It scored a 22 which was right in the ball park, at least I chose an image for MY community and not some other community far far away, after all the challenge was "My Community Landmark"

Crossing the Field, (Score 22)

 Next up was an image from my "stigma" from Green Lake last summer. It was one of the few Sunsets I got during that holiday which worked out, the detail was really nice with the "pink wheat" in the foreground. Minimal editing done really, just converted it from the weird Sigma Raw.. This scored a surprising 8, of which being the top score of a Level 1 Rookie, meant I had to speak about it. Nothing to say really.

Sunset at Green Lake, (score 8)

 The final submission which a Fog shot from December I think, this one also happened to be from my Phone, didnt really mean to add another phone shot this time, I just grabbed the image that I saw first. Once again it scored a very pleasing  8 and I gave a quick talk about it, although I didn't mention that it was from my phone... duh!

Powering the Fog, (score 8)

APAC: Photoclub Submissions, May 2012: dltphoto

SO... May's submissions were very, very  interesting.
We had been informed that the usual CAPA judge would again be replaced by somebody not trained with the "rules", this Judge was an Artist (painter) and a teacher I believe. Something different!

My first Image up was for the Assigned Category, this months topic was "Junk".

"where beds are laid to rest" (score 20)

It was a junk store I came across last summer on one of our camping trips, Shot with the Nikon D200 and 70-200 2.8VR, I thought it had decent colour and detail.I hoped the bed frame would look obvious and people could distinguish it, it scored ok compared to all the others, it wasnt scored the worst!

Next Up... A shocker!

"skies that surprise" ( score 10)

So, I have shown this image before on my other blogs for Lens and Shutter etc.... So, I am sure other APAC club members had seen it before, but the Judge has not.... SOOOO she gave it a 10... blimey, a 10. The only 10 of the night!
So I had to give a quick spiel about it, Shot with the Olympus Pen E-PL2 with the stock 14-42 lens, right out of the camera using one of the ART Filters called "Dramatic Tone". Basically it then offers the operator , regardless of photo knowledge, the power of well edited images without any of the after shooting non-sense ( a kind of in-camera photoshop).

Then, to top it off I had this image. A little more on the creative edge. I thought since its a Non-Capa judge I might get lucky and I scored an 8... very pleased she recognised it as an interesting composition. She even selected it to critique at the end. Of which she offered it sparked and emotion from her, she was mad at it as she wanted to move the leaf off centre for some reason, but she enjoyed the image.
As for the title I don't think anyone quite understood which is fine, it sparked a reaction... Titled 50/50 due to the fact the leaf was sitting mostly  50% over the blue paint and the road... not 50% of the blue and road which most people assumed what I was suggesting. Also this one was shot with my Phone, this is my highest scoring phone pic...

"50/50" score 8