Entered my first photo competition...

JohnnyDaJackal · 11-08-05, 07:18

Well I didn't take home any ribbons or anything, but i'm happy to say, "I finally popped my cherry" so to speak. Anyway i've been in this photo club for about 2 months now, and have been blown away by some of the skill and knowledge of some of the members. Naturally I felt intimidated, since I'm a complete n00b, and I still do feel intimidated, but after entering this competition I feel really relieved. I only entered two shots in the "prints" part which was open to all levels of photography not split up. Both photos we're only touched up a little bit in PS, just some cropping and small branch removal, nothing crazy. My friend's father has been really cool with showing me how to work PS and helped me mount my prints.
My turtle shot didn't to great I got scored a 5, range goes from 3-9, 9 being the best. It did seem like our judge was giving out pretty low scores for the night. My bird shot did a little better receiving a 7. The judge even stood up to get a closer look at it, and was pretty impressed with the detail. I would have qualifed for another round of scoring, but since there were 2 pictures that scored an 8 that met the top scoring quota and the competition was closed. I was very happy with the judge, because he was *really* knowledgeable, and familiar with nature shots. He had a long list of credentials under his belt, including mutlipe wins at an international level(nature shots). Even though he took long to critique each picture, instead of quickly scoring, he highlighted my strong points and weak points as well as everyone else's photo. Which was nice to hear

I also just enrolled for a digital imaging class at my school for my last semster for a free elective. I hope to build up my skills pre/post processing. Anyway here are my pictures. Both taken with my Fuji FinePix S5100 in the highest JPG setting. They look pretty bright on the monitor; but the prints are darker, richer and vivid. I printed them as 5x7s on my friend's father's Epson photo printer, which did a great job.
I know feel the need to upgrade my photo printer, especially with black friday right around the corner

The Journey

Bird on Blue

Setec Astronomy · 11-09-05, 05:00

Wow, those are really cool shots...although I'm a little miffed that using PS to "touch things up" has become SOP

JohnnyDaJackal · 11-09-05, 06:21

Thanks Mike, the "prints" category is open to manipulation, but for the actual "nature" category you really can't do too much after the picture has been taken. Its probably the most restricted with post processing, which I understand why. Aside from a little cropping and sharpening, thats about it. I know the judge was complaining that one photo was touched up too much because the dragonfly's wings we're different.

Spilchy · 11-09-05, 07:19

Nice Job!! Sounds like you found a cool hobby. For an amateur, you've got some skills!

I had an old picture of my grandfather, the last one taken of him before he died while on a fishing trip. It got ruined somehow with water. I sent it to a photo store and they scanned it, used PS to fill in the water damage and then printed it out on photo paper. It looks flawless!

PS is an awesome tool to use, but I can see how it takes away from the organic nature of photography. I'm sure the "purists" out there are livid with what it has done to the hobby.

Accumulator · 11-09-05, 08:32

Cool! I was wondering how the photo club was going.
Good pics, that's a pretty broad tonal range on the bird, tricky to get the exposure just right- I was wondering if you should've opend up a half-stop or so but I think you'd have blown out the highlights. I bet it looks a little different on the monitor/print and that somewhere in between the two you see just what you're after (not that it isn't great anyhow, don't get me wrong). Great use of selective focus/DOF too, everything that matters is tack sharp but the background is perfectly muddled. Ditto for the turtle pic- you have a good eye for what you want the camera to capture vs. what you see with your eyes.

If this is what you're doing *now* I'm just

about what you're gonna produce with some more experience!