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.

APAC Submissions, April 2013: dltphoto

This months selections are from my fabulous little Nikon 1 V1. Really enjoying this little camera. Even though this shot looked great in the original shooting format I decided it's time to try some edited shots at the exhibitions. Not a big fan of that but since I am a Level 2'er now I need to pull my socks up and put the puck in the net. So here is my wildly "action-ed" image of which I had no idea of how it would score. Fortunately I did OK!

Architecture, "the tension builds", score 8

One other shot for tonight from the same trip, but this time a shot nice and neat out of the camera, with minor Lightroom editing of course. I working again with the V1 with the "highlander" lens. Since this is now a whopping 540mm film equivalent focal length, I am playing with the wonderfully narrow field of view. Others would utilise this with sports or birds, but I am enjoying it for more artsy purposes. I enjoy the lines in this shot. The re-bar falls perfectly with the tension lines from the Port Mann Bridge. More abstract but I chose to put it in the Urban/ Rural category, which I thought would be a mistake, but it did really well.  I was one of the top in Level 2 and  had give a quick spiel about it.

Urban/ Rural, "avoiding the line up", score 9

Once again I fail dramatically at titling my images. I care not for titles. It means nothing to me. It changes nothing about how I view an image. However it didnt seem to effect my scores too much. The adjudicator tonight was pretty good, from the Lions Gate Camera Club. He did enjoy this image and wasn't aware of what the background was from. Always nice to surprise people.
No assigned image again this week. The shot I wanted to use which I thought would be good at the time ended up being to camera shaky ( cell phone) and would not have scored well. The concept was nice but the phone wasn't able to produce.

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, March 2013: dltphoto

Rumour had it that my good friend Jason Brown of Revival Arts Studio, was going to be the adjudicator for March's submissions. I have to admit it did sway my choices slightly. Although still I chose images that had already been slated to be "exhibited". I assumed I had chosen images that would be liked by him, having seen much of his work and knowing him for so many years. Alas no, he's helped keep me in Level one for a little while longer I hope.

I only chose to submit into the normal categories, I did not do the assigned. I haven't had too much chance recently to get out and work on them.

Urban/ Rural. "stepping on shadows", score 7

This image was a quick capture on my phone on our way to an Abbotsford Heat game. Its one of the sets of exit stairs leaving the building. The light was hitting it nicely from the side. I enjoyed the lines and the confusion with the shadows. It actually projected really well. I was very happy with it.

Experimental, "black frost". Score 6

This is another frost shot with my Nikon D200 and the 60mm macro. Again, shot into my very tinted truck windows with the morning sun reflected in the background. The frost was not black, somehow dues to the reflection and exposure the frost turned black (silhouetted I guess) and I just enriched that later through lightroom. Overall I thought it quite interesting... In keeping with my usual scores but sadly I will get promoted soon into level 1 due to overall scores.

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.

The Next Generation: dltphoto

At a recent program night at APAC we had the very well known Nick Didlick attend to give a quick presentation about his Photographic achievements with the Olympic's and a rather brief session regarding the "next generation" of camera technology.
WOW, never has the Kool-Aid tasted so good. I am pretty sure that Nick affected several, if not dozens of the club members, yours truly included!
What tasty camera liquor was he talking about???

Nikon F5 and Nikon 1 V1 with matching Prime Lenses

The Nikon 1 V1, pictured with my Nikon F5. As I recall I talked briefly about the emergence of the new Mirrorless camera's. Size, ability and image performance. They have it all, and now do I. Initially you will see the "size" that I was referring too. Super tiny but not hard to hold. Ergonomically well laid out. Not as efficient as an SLR or DSLR for quick navigation, being more menu driven, but still has key elements in some nice places. So don't all throw out your huge Nikon lenses as there is some other good news! This little V1 with the FT-1 adapter, I am yet to obtain, will allow me to utilize all my fancy new Nikon AF-S lenses with some range benefits. As it stands all my current lenses will be "magnified" by 2.7x.... so for example, my Nikkor AF-S 70-200 2.8VR will effectively become a 189-540mm 2.8. Cool. This is going to be an interesting element but since I am not really a huge distance shooter or am more interested in the Macro equivalent with my 60mm Macro (will be 162mm . sweet.)
Anyways. Needless to say I am fairly excited and now I am able to do a little 1080HD video... Something I have never ventured into. The moving image, yikes.
Here are a few started Images with my current 27mm 2.8 1 series Lens. Loving it. Just need some nicer weather!

APAC Photoclub submissions: January 2013: dltphoto

No ranting this month. Just images.

Architecture, "A Yellow Lining". Score 9

 On my quest to score a 10 with a cell phone, I finally cracked a 9 with this shot. So close!.

Simple glass building shot (Best Buy in Abbotsford, incase you locals want to know), looking up at it with some nice sunlight hitting the corner of the building illuminating it with a rich yellow. I played with a few editing Apps on the Android phone. The original capture is featured below, for anyone who cares. I did have to clean the image up a little in photoshop to remove the blobs or dirt from the glass, but all other image editing done through littlephoto app if I remember correctly.

Original Capture

 2nd Image of the night! This was from my Sigma DP1s. A long exposure, about 6 seconds if I recall, at F11 at probably 50ISO with a neutral density filter or two perched on my little gorilla pod.

Experimental, "Colourstream". score 8

 Pretty much right out of the camera with this image. Just some minor Lightroom work to clean the image up a little, also attempted to remove the weird colour vignetting  the Sigma produces.

APAC Pre-Submission Fun Game: dltphoto

I have decided to ask my readers, all 6 of you (ha), to please pretend you are an Photoclub Adjudicator ( judge) and Score/ Critique my images that I am going to post into the Club in the very near future.
This way I can get a rough idea of what I could face with a real Judge/ Adjudicator.
Scores are from between 5 and 10 (10 being the best) and for this fun post feel free to use  half points, such as 7.5 etc... Also If you can come up with a better Title, I would love to know it!
This is purely for my fun, I am not going to rant at you if you think its a score of 5 that's your choice. If you want to elaborate on what I can do better then great. Base it on Impact, content.. whatever!

I will do a follow up post with the official scores once they have been entered into the real exhibition. Then you can all see how closely you scored my image to what a professional scored it.

You can comment anonymously if you don't want to hurt my feelings... really they cannot be hurt!

"every building has a yellow lining"

"the great Pyramids"

"Reflections"

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.