Well, our fireworks outing was interesting, and informative, but not very exciting. We encountered rain until just before the show (luckily it stopped and we didn't have to worry about being soaked or rained out), but then the air became very still. When the fireworks began, the smoke did not blow away, so the fireworks were bursting in the midst of a rather large cloud of smoke. Not very photogenic. Ah well. In the end, there were some good photos - see below.
On the positive side, our numbers grew one more as we welcomed Mark to the group and drooled over his Canon 5D and some of the images he has taken with his prime lenses.
We have also been discussing the location of our group as we grow and may have some news in the near future regarding where we will be holding the group and the frequency. The next meeting is still on schedule and at the same time, however - so stay tuned for that.
The world wide photo walk is coming up - there are over 30,000 people signed up for it world wide, making it the largest social photography event in history! Our own little walk has 15 people signed up and looks to be a good outing.
4 Week Challenge
Our four week challenge is about encouraging us to reach further and expand our skills and creativity. Each four weeks, we have a new challenge, and an opportunity to share our pictures with each otehr. The photos have to be new and shot within those four weeks. We encourage you to take as many as you like (it's a digital world) and pick a few of your best, then bring them to our group on a media stick. We will display them and give a quick review for the benefit of all.
The Last Challenge
The last challenge was "fireworks" (as well as our outing). Because of the weather, and timing problems, we only had three shooters out to actually get photos of the fireworks, but we still had some interesting shots.
Brett's image shows a nice burst - captured over one second. You can also see what we meant by the amount of smoke that was present that night. It really obscured our view of the fireworks. Nonetheless, Brett managed to get a nice starburst shot.As we were all sitting in approximately the same spot, we all had very similar pictures. Brett had a very similar image
to this one taken by Gary. Once we figured the smoke was going to obscure the bursts of fireworks, we realized the silouhette of the tree and the reflection of the water gave the composition much more appeal, and started shooting for that instead of the bursts of fireworks, though the smoke did provide some interesting effects at times (See Gary's Flickr).
Rachel did a very respectable job considering the circumstances as well. She was working hard to get the long exposure tripod shots, and had some good ones. This image prompted some interesting discussion about cropping the composition.Our Next Challenge: Signs
That's it... signs... doesn't seem like much, but when you get thinking about it, it leaves a lot of room for creativity. How do I capture a sign in an interesting way? Remember, although we allow some photo manipulation for colour, focus (blur) and exposure, we're looking for an image pretty much "as shot" - so you're not allowed to create your own sign in photoshop, or doctor one with a new slogan... though creating your own sign is not out of the question.
I don't have any technical links for this challenge, but here's a few tips:
- Remember the sign can be anything - a street sign, a store sign, or even a sign that you make yourself and take a picture, so perhaps it will be a sign that strikes you odd, or perhaps you will create a small sign and place it somewhere unusual.
- Part of a sign, or the whole sign? - Your image does not have to be of the whole sign, maybe just part of the sign in a particular situation will be enough.
- Odd sign, odd place - is the sign somehow incongruant to the place the sign is found? Perhaps you will find a sign that seems out of place.
Mid-Way Shoot-Out
The outing this month is the World Wide Photo Walk... which also might be a great place to take a photo of a sign (just don't let anyone see you taking it, or they may all want that photo of that sign :).
See the world wide photo walk site for details: www.worldwidephotowalk.com/cambridge-on-ca
Oh, and by the way, when you're on the walk, you have the opportunity to enter one or two of your pictures in the contests. There will be one winner from each walk (including ours) and their image will get submitted to the world-wide contest which has some awesome prizes!
Freebie of the Month:
Have you heard of HDR? This unusual mode of photography - High Dynamic Range imaging - is relatively new and directly related to the digital world of photography. For a definition of what HDR is, visit the wikipedia site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
There is lots of buzz about it. It's not terribly complicated with the right software, and can produce some stunning results. And to help you get started, here is a totally free application you can download to try it out:
http://www.easyhdr.com/download.php#free
It's a little hard to wrap your mind around the software at first - I recommend you read the tutorials - but once you get the workflow, it works very nicely and smoothly.
Next Regular Meeting: August 9th, 2009
6:30-8:30pm - the location may be subject to change this month, so stay tuned, or contact the blogger for details.
