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!!

Going Forward: dltphoto

I am going to be somewhat busy for the next few months as I continue on my journey into a new career to help sustain my photography habit ;-)

These faces are my motivation!

Favourite Shot, February 2013: dltphoto

Not every shot I take is a visual masterpiece. Sometimes images aren't necessarily about an award winning composition or the rule of thirds etc.... Quite often they are a memory, hopefully a fond one. This months favourite image was one I can't forget as it was a birthday present for my wife from her sister. She giggled at it for quite sometime. A happy moment.

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

Why Woodn't You?...:dltphoto

Out on a recent epic cold and wet  morning with Mr Koopmans discovering new wooden things in Chilliwack. Can you spot the Cell Phone pic??

One shot forward, Three years backward: dltphoto

Here, in the dead or winter, I find myself going back through endless folders of images from loaned camera's and random shoots.I came across this image from my brief experience with the Nikon D3x during August, 2009. At one point Nikon's flagship Camera, with both Mega-Pixels and Build performance. Paired with my excellent Nikkor AF-S 60mm macro they were a match made in heaven. Anyways, this image I have chosen I can't really decide on.

320th sec, F5.6. 400 iso

I like the idea of it visually, it's pleasing and easy to look at. Howeve it doesn't inspire me since I am not a avid flower photographer.  When I  look at it as though it isn't a flower I go back to liking even more. I am very drawn the the shallow depth of field behind the centre of the flower, a sense of explosion of both colour and movement.

Happy Christmas, 2012: dltphoto

To all my friends, family and blog stalkers!

"have a good time, all the time" ( Quote: Carter USM and maybe someone else).

November 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

Here is my choice image for November. I will remember it as being a dreary drizzly day with a walk on the local trail with Lucy as her and I took photos with our cameras. The image itself has some pleasing aspects but this is secondary to how great I felt spending time doing the thing I enjoy with a person I helped create!

APAC Photoclub Submissions, December 2012:dltphoto

It's punishment time again.... hahahah (just kidding). The December month sees a previous judge (an artist/ painter), umm adjudicator, from last year, the same adjudicator who gave me a 10. Not knowing this before I submitted my images, I sadly uploaded them a day before we were informed who the judge would be. So, I was stuck with the images I chose. I may have been a little more daring had I have known. Its all good though.

Experimental, "Night Watchmen", score 8

This is one of my first "Over edited" images. Basically, I had an image I really wanted to work but I didn't enjoy the lack of overall depth in the image. The initial shot (below) was impossible to get at the time since the only method of keeping the sky in the shot would have been to flash the subjects which clearly was not possible. So I had no other option than to "fake" a sky.

Crows at Barkerville, original shot

After trying several rich blue sky and cloudy shots in the background from my stock of sky images, I felt no impact with any of them.
Then I recalled some images I had just shot with a Lensbaby and thought I would try it with that sky ( an image I won't share yet as its to be a future submission). The effect was much more dramatic. It appeared much more "moon-lightish" with the Crows. Not the perfect blend of images but I thought it created a nice mood and something that you might not normally see. Crows in the dark would be pretty hard to spot and shoot. The light I had on the roof worked nicely simulating  moon glare on the roof top. Overall. I was quite pleased with the final outcome.

Second image for the night.

Open, "20th Century Rock Music",  Score 8

This is a very simple Lensbaby shot of a discarded CD I stumbled across on a bike ride to work. The light fell on it perfectly and created some nice colour tones. The blurring was the lensbaby effect. I had shown the image to a club member previously and they could'nt figure out what they were looking at, so I thought they might need help determining the subject matter, hence the title.

Finally I submitted a print for the assigned topic "People at Work". Challenging.
Scrolling through my hoards of images and I found a Barkerville shot of which the people dressed in character dress, were working the streets... I threw a quick aged action over with with some nasty lens vignette on it to make look super old-school, since its a "period" style shot.

* Addition, The Adjudicator, Janet, actually critiqued this image during the post let-down. She enjoyed the interaction, the movement of the people. She also enjoyed the dark bottom left-hand corner which compensated for the lighter top right hand corner. She also felt the people's heads angle lead you nicely down to that dark left hand corner. I can see the appeal of that. none of which was intentional, at least I don't think my brain saw that, but maybe it did.*

Assigned, "Barkerville- Still working", score 25 (3rd place)

Thanks to Colin for helping me with the title for this one. I hate titling images... hate it.

Random Road Signs, Instagr.am :dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/OSMkkrq32D/

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 2":dltphoto

So as I mentioned I had at least one blank roll.. well darn it I ended up with two! That means that the Voitlander will either undergo surgery or it will have to be retired. Everything seemed to be operational! Alas, that's the biggest loss of frames I have ever had... as I said I am not too cut up, i did shoot most things with a couple of cameras. Its disappointing but I will live.
We opted for not staying at one location this year and headed from Green Lake to a place called Barkerville, another 5 hours from Green lake, up past Quesnel in the Middle of NOWHERE. Currently Its the furthest I have traveled within BC since I have been here... This province is pretty darn big!

Williams Lake Tourist Centre

All of our Rigs...

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 1: dltphoto

The first of this years camping trip was to one of our favourites, Green Lake. Since I holiday with several different cameras, perhaps about 10, i find I am able to post a few times just using some of the different camera formats. This years I have a full spread of varying digital ( compact and DSLR) and film ( manual and automatic).
  Having so many formats and being able to still use them all makes it all a little bit more fun for me, after all it is my holiday too! In this entry I will be displaying some of the digital compact versions, since I have an awful lot of images I think I will just bore you with a few!

The beach

My Cycling Shadow

Barkerville, BC: dltphoto

Somewhere way up in the middle of nowhere on the road that takes your hours to get there is this wonderful little town called Barkerville, Established 150 years in a time when Gold was in them there hills....
This is an excellent place where people have restored an old Gold Rush town and have made it into a wonderful destination for  people, willing to do the drive, to mooch around and look at some of the old buildings that made up this Western style town.To make it even more enjoyable they have capped it off with people in full dress for the time period wandering around pretending to be characters from that period, really quite the photographers paradise!
Since I hadn't really read to much up on it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I certainly didn't imagine it being as large as it was. The buildings were wonderfully rustic, not like the good old brick I am used to from good ole England. The Only thing I missed or would have liked was the occasional tumble weed to go rolling down the main street!! that would have made it priceless

Here are some of my favs to give you some character feel to the place

June 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

This months epic was a "straight outta the Fuji" compact shot... I just love the "busy"ness of the shot and its somewhat abstract nature..really since there is no distinguishable scale for size it could be a huge water fall or an incredibly small one??

Wedding Golden Oldie (2007): dltphoto

Fortunately over the years of shooting many, many weddings you get to meet people with talents different from your own, which often proves useful in the future...hence the beautiful Tile job I am getting in our bathroom, if anyone needs tiles laid then let me know, I can hook you up with Ruslan!

Here a shot from waaaaay back in 2007 of the affore mentioned Ruslan, which at the time someone suggested it reminded them of a famous artist's painting, Jack Vettriano... here is my new rendition and below is my previous 2007 effort of which I named myself  "Turnerano".... I'll let you guys decide whether or not its reminiscent of his work, which is featured at the bottom!

2012 edition

2007 edition

"the Swinging Butler" by Jack Vettriano

Happy 300th Post: dltphoto

It feels like I have done alot more but apparently Blogger informs me that I have posted 300... So what special thing can I do for my 300th post?
Give away 300 images....all in one shot.

APAC: Photoclub submissions, April 2012:dltphoto

So this month I got my submission right!! The image below is the one that never made it! Actually to bad it did make it since the Judge ripped it to shreds, something to do with change my angle, get lower, use a macro lens, crop the light from the top, blah blah blah.... wah wah wah was all I heard!

"frozen and leaning" score 7

Just when you thought the night couldn't get any worse he hands me a 6... I think it was the lowest score all night. Pft... whatever, once again he slammed it into the ground, something to do with the mountains needing to be in focus and the tree on the left to distracting..... blah blah blah. Maybe next time I will just submit some non-discript, plain boring shot that conforms to the Capa rules... Actually I have noticed that those whom use PHOTOSHOP a lot seem to do very well, maybe the judges have now gotten used to seeing edited or over edited images rather than the nice capture out of the camera, as they would have seen back in the good old film days... Challenge accepted!
 Like I have said on previous posts I really don't care what the judges do or don't like, I would like them to expand their horizons to see past the rules which as I have learned in my years, need to be broken.
My images certainly arent the best in the world, I am not blowing my own trumpet, creatively I think I have good content, with a solid composition and good technical merit.
Yes I have a little high-lighted areas Mr Judge, after all I did use my phone for these images. Its much easier from a real camera, I am enjoying pushing myself from a camera which is far less capable. That makes it much harder. Much more FUN.

"over the hills and far away" score 6

My final submission was the Assigned topic "from ground level". I chose a cute little wedding couple shoot I did for Offload Studios, to show how small they were I chose to do a diptych, which I imagine I was punished for.. I scored a combined 22 out of 30!

"the bride and groom" score 22

littlephoto app: dltphoto (celltography)

One of my favourite editing apps for my android phone is "littlephoto". It is simple and easy. If your an androider like me, then check it out!

mytubo update, march:dltphoto

So I have been on mytubo for quite some time now and have become a little frustrated with the amount lovely ladies posting themselves on there, Mirror shots and Risque shots, also the flagrant mytuboers using there fancy DSLR cameras and posting them under the cellphone #tags...so much so that on the weekends I have been sharing images from my real cameras... but informing what camera they have been done with. Its too easy from a real camera. The real challenge has been doing it all with a very limited cell phone... now, that it is a challenge!
Heres a little update from my mytubo world, since none of you see them accept #wallaceross & @beyondexposure and the others whom follow my images on the program itself. I know have over 726 images on mytubo, cant share them all sadly.

"twists"

"un-named"

Snail Mail Surprise, Damn! Chakra: dltphoto

Came home to an interesting package yesterday. A  package approximately 7incs square. Mysterious...

Upon further inspection I wondered if it was the Life Saving Instrument that I ordered...