[ravnostic]

Oh, how the hampster wheels have just started turning.
oh oh oh………

I promise, Kestrana, I won’t burn the house down.

Yeah, well. Burning, falling, roasting hamsters; that’s what I’m seeing. Little gears spinning and falling through the air, squeals of despair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJP2PH8WKaI[/code]

[ravnostic]

For songs, I was going for something representational of the song, so a picture based on title, lyrics, or theme would all be appropriate.

I’m going to go with this on at least one shot, so I hope you really meant what you wrote. Lemme know if not.

Album covers I was going for more of a recreation of the album cover (or jacket liner). So Led Zeppelin, for example: the ‘Houses of the Holy’ cover could be done as a SFF version, but something like ‘Led Zeppelin I’ think would be more difficult, unless you can come up with a creative way to recreate the Hindenburg disaster.

The first thing I think of is “I won’t do this better than Orionid will, so I won’t bother.” 😕

[ravnostic]

Atticus is a great name. I once knew a cat named Atticus.

[ravnostic]

Wait, so if you have the breasts, and you’re female, how does that make orionid the size queen?

I’m so confused…

Well, the saying goes, “There’s only two things I hate–size queens, and little dicks.”

You just have to do a little gender bending for proper context in Orionidopolis Land is all.

[ravnostic]

And you should have taken a picture of your soapbox for Defunct.

Oh, snap! 😯

Kestrana-1, Ravnostic-0

[ravnostic]

It’s going to take me a week to figure out what to post for this. I have at least 10 different outings to choose from and the weekend is coming so there’s sure to be at least one outing. This is a good problem to have, I suppose. On the other hand, I’m screwed when “The Song Remains the Same” rolls around.

I just picked a trip with over 400 photos, and went with it. I love the shots I’ve picked, and for once, don’t really care how I do in the contest as I’m sure I’ll get at least a few ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, but probably won’t have the winning entry. There’s too much stellar competition amongst the group.

I, too am farked for Song unless I’m misunderstanding something (I’ll post that question in that forum).

[ravnostic]

No doubt. It still hurts when something I think is great tanks, but I try and remember the format and the medium – it’s not exactly set up for subtlety and voters don’t have time to ponder each and every picture. If it doesn’t have immediate ‘grab’ in a 640x format nestled in among a few hundred other pictures, it’s likely to get overlooked. Add to that the (hunch of mine) that an increasing number of people are only voting for a handful of pics any given contest these days and… well, for the most part I’m happy with the stuff I put up, and I get comments and complements outside the contest pages now and then, which is nice.

Amen to all this. What I post for contests anymore isn’t always what I liked best for a contest theme–it’s what looks best in the smaller format. My domain server statistics back up the fact that most people don’t even look at the larger size versions–those might get 50 views. The site images, however, get hundreds, sometimes over a thousand. Of couse, a lot of those views are fellow farktographers going back to clickity on the voting numbers, but the difference is still significant.

And I’m learning to be happy with the votes I get, win or fail. So long as I have just one that does well, I can be a happy camper. This week I’m doing pretty well with all three, which has never happened before. I’m hoping at least one ends up in the top ten, but ya never know.

[ravnostic]

….I can tell by the pixels…..

Who’da thunk I’d be labeling you a size queen?

Orionid: Size queen.

Just sayin’.

[ravnostic]

Here’s a collage with yesterday’s moon, which was a bit brighter. Venus is about 18 pixels broad, which translates to about 3 arc seconds per pixel.

//Gets off soapbox, heads to bed.

[ravnostic]

A couple of B-sides. I’m pretty sure that at least one of these should have been A’s. My record of not being able to predict the taste of voters is well established.

I feel the same way with mine. I love the ‘Slave St’ shot.

[ravnostic]

Ummm…today IS Wednesday, isn’t it?

[ravnostic]

Yeah I had to go out a few different times to get this weeks pictures also. One of my choices was found when I was out running some errands.

Two of my shots came from a Halloween display at my local pub. It’s fortunate the manager knows how to decorate and has *unusual* items to showcase. I wasn’t thrilled with the lighting but made the best of it that I could. I’m hoping they are at least unique, one might get a few laughs as well maybe. My last shot came from a series that ‘failed’ to pan out for Classic Green. But I’m sure it will be a common subject to this theme, so I don’t have much hope for it (which of course means it will get more votes than either of the other two, if history continues to repeat.)

[ravnostic]

I’m hardly what can be described as an expert, but I’ve improved tremendously this year (no, really, even people here have said so). I’ll chirp in with what I’ve learned.

Either by low f/stop or by telephoto, my better shots have shallow depth of field, which forces the eye to focus on what I want the viewer to see. The downside is the focus needs to be spot-on, which can be hard with images that are spontaneous shots, rather than ones that I can take the time to plan.

Like Curious said, look at a potential scene from many different angles. Frame them with either the camera or your fingers. Don’t be afraid to get dirty if it means getting a great shot–perspective changes nearly everything, and that can make the difference between ho-hum and ‘wow’.

Bracketing has helped a lot. You can post-edit this to a good extent, but the closer you are to where you want to be to begin with, the better the final result. I bracket my ISOs, my f/stops, my exposures, in different combinations, and over time I’ve developed a better ability to ‘see’ a shot before I take it, thus leading to needing fewer brackets as I’ve started out in a better place to begin with.

Try and see shots in things people might not ordinarily take pictures. There’s a million shots of the St. Louis Arch, but very few like the one U-man took from within the structure that ranked highly in a recent contest. Uniqueness counts, if you can find it.

Read old photo magazines, and check out various websites (I’ve crawled through the forums here and found lots of tips and suggestions that also lead to some websites, and while I have an aunt who’s sent me back issues of photo mags, you can also troll the library for the same.)

What they say about the natural lighting at dawn and dusk is true. I often plan ‘great’ shots at any time of the day, but actually take them when the sun is low in the sky. The colors just pop better. If it’s too yellow, I’ll adjust the color temperature to pull some yellow out of the image. Contrast is better, too, at this time; a sun high in the sky leads to images that are too bright in places and not bright enough in others, which is fine if you want to HDR them, but sucks if you don’t/can’t.

For interior shots, I try to have more than one lighting source, if possible; shadows are not often the photographer’s friend. Which is also why I almost never ever use flash. Nasty shadows thrive in a flash atmosphere.

I’m sure you’ll get lots of tips in here that are better than mine, but then, here in the forums is where I’ve gotten some of my best tips anyway. Heed the (real) sages in here–they’ve been a photographic blessing, in my case at least.

[ravnostic]

Having only read the interweb on the subject, I was guesstimating the flair. My bad. I’d gathered that the WO took place toward the end of the regular day’s offering, and then continued with item after item.

There’d be a good item for BoC–a box of flair buttons. Great costume idea, at least…

[ravnostic]

Cause From their FAQ, they events happen once a month or so, and you just have to get lucky and notice a little flashing symbol near the end of that day’s regular item. But go read the FAQs yourself; you’re sure to get a chuckle out of them.

[Author]

Posts