For a lack of better models...

I have had a few challenges lately that require a more grown up model than what Kaylee can pull off. I feel kind of funny asking other people to pose for my challenge photos, so I have to pose for them myself. I don't like doing it, mostly because I suddenly become a lot more critical of the photo when I am in it. I have a hard time being objective. I won't like a photo simply because of the way I look in it.

This first one is me very glamorized. It was for a challenge called "What DPC love the Most" Meaning: take a picture of what people on the website tend to score really high. I must have figured it out, because I am did really well with this one. I got 4th out of 95 entries.

I posed for this one in a huge wind storm, Brianne was a trooper and climbed the hill with me and pushed the shutter button. My girls are going to learn photography by default Brianne is already off to a good start.

Title:

DPC Loves: Flowing Robes and Brooding Skies

Now for a much less glamorous shot. I wore absolutely no make-up for this one. We are studying a photographer from the 1930's Named Edward Weston. He did quite a few portraits most of them are complete side views and almost all are in black and white. This is what I came up with. I did my hair in a 1930ish sort of hairdo and did my best to pose looking to the side and pushing my remote for my camera at the same time. The feedback has been extremely positive on this photo, and I think I should do quite well with it. Scoring doesn't start until Tuesday so I won't know until then if I hit the target or not.

Title:

A Weston Style Self Portrait

Here is another view, I actually liked it better but it wasn't a side view so I decided against it.

Kaylee did get to model for one shot this week, this one was for a challenge called "Focus Point" a focus point is something that draws the eye into the photo and keeps the viewers interest. I had the idea for a bright umbrella against a stormy sky. I really lucked out with this one. We took it just as a hail storm was coming in, I was able to capture some really mean looking storm clouds coming in. This one is doing extremely well, I will get the best score I have ever gotten for an image and complete one of my goals of getting a score of 7 or higher. 7's are really hard to get I have come close so many times, only to see it drop to just below a 7 at a 6.9. This one should make it, I am at a 7.3 and holding steady! I should ribbon with this, you almost never get a 7 without ribboning. The results come in on Tuesday, and I am anxiously awaiting the results on this one.

Title:

A Bright Spot in the Storm

This last one is sort of a ho-hum shot. It was taken for a challenge called "Lucky Thirteen" I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this one and it shows in my shots. I think they are kind of boring. This challenge hasn't started yet, but I doubt I will get a good score. Who knew I had so many clocks!!!

Title:

The Thirteenth Hour

Here is another shot. How do you make thirteen gourds look interesting??? Well I tried, but everyone liked the clocks better so I went with that one. I still sort of like it better than the clocks but if everyone else said the clocks were better so that is what I will go with.

Late Additions

I wasn't going to post so soon, but I purposely left a few photo's out the last time I posted here. I thought I might be winning a ribbon for a recent entry and last night the results came in and I DID! I got first place for this photo:

Title

The Tower

Kind of a strange title I know, it was for a challenge called "Tarot Card" it wasn't a challenge I was planning on entering, but I got these amazing long exposures of our lake and the mountains and I wanted to enter them in something, and friend who was helping me with them suggested they may work for "the tower" tarot card. I really don't even know what tarot cards are, so I just went with the suggestion thinking it probably wouldn't do all that great because it didn't really fit the challenge. Well I was wrong, and happy to be wrong! You can veiw my entry on the front page of this site http://www.dpchallenge.com/

Here are a couple others I got that night, I will most likely enter one of these for my March free study, but I haven't decided which one yet. I'm sure neither will win, as the free studies usually have over 200 entries and really amazing pictures, but I hope I can at least get a good score with one of them.

This next one I just entered, it is doing really well but it won't ribbon or even come close. There are some really amazing entries in this particular challenge. Now before you criticize me for putting make-up on Kaylee let me tell you about the challenge. It has to be in the style of a fairly famous photographer named Manny Librodo. He does amazing portraits mainly of models. So I wanted mine to have a kind of a high fashion feel to it. So poor Kaylee had to have her eyebrows plucked (she earned a $1 for that) and get some pretty heavy eye make-up applied (I don't think she minded that so much) I had her cover the rest of her face so you couldn't tell how old she was. Anyway, I thought they turned out pretty well. Here is my entry:

Title:

Through the Eyes of Innocence

Here is an out take I had a hard time deciding between the two:

And one last challenge entry. This challenge was called "Urban Nature" we had to take a picture of some sort of nature in an Urban setting. So I decided to try and get some shots of the birds that always hang out at the Walmart parking lots. They turned out okay, these are my first "wildlife" shots and I really don't have the lens to pull them off. Despite that I am getting a respectable score, so I am happy with my first attempt.

Title:

Walmart Shopping is for the Birds

And here is an out take, I almost entered this one because the quality on the bird is a bit better, but the Walmart sign wasn't obvious enough.

My Girls

I have been working hard on getting ready for an upcoming boutique, and I finally got done and everything set-up last weekend. So this week I got to have some fun and take yearly shots to hang on my wall of my three cute girls. I mostly just wanted head shots in B&W, nothing fancy, to blow up big 16x20 and hang on my wall in some cute frames I got on sale at Hobby Lobby. They turned out really cute. I found some cool brick backgrounds that I added in after to make the background a little less boring.

Kaylee age 10

Brianne age 7

Sydnie age 3

Challenge entries for this week

This first one was for a challenge called "Two Colors" I decided I would do a cool paper curling technique called quilling. It's mostly used to make cards and decorations, but I thought it might look cool to make a larger one and light it from below. I placed the pieces of paper on a white cutting board and put my flash underneath, so it sort of glowed from beneath. It turned out cool and is getting a good score, but not good enough to ribbon.

Title:

"Shades of Purple and Green"

This next one is for a challenge called "Half" you had to take a photo of half of something. I had an idea to take a picture of Sydnie and one of her cute little friends holding hands. They turned out cute. This is the one I entered.

Title:

Best Friends, Two Halves Make a Whole

This is the one I wanted to enter, but got talked out of it since it wasn't "half enough" I wish I would have I like it much better.

This was for a really fun challenge called "Day taken at Night". In this challenge you had to take a photo at night in the complete dark and expose it long enough for it to look like you took it during the day. I had never done anything like this before and it was fun to try. This one I took at 9:00 p.m. and exposed it for 15 min. The results are really surprising, it really does look like day, the only thing that gives it away is the star trails. The big bright globe behind the silo, is the moon although in this photo it looks a bit more like the sun.

Title:

"A Moonlit Silo"

Just so you can understand how very dark it was outside, here is a test shot I took of the exact same spot this one was exposed for just a few seconds.

I'm glad this ended up turning out well because I sat in the dark by myself with only a headlamp for light, for almost and hour and a half. It was pretty cold and kind of in the middle of nowhere. I had to hike about a 1/4 of a mile away from my car to get to this spot, and I usually don't get scared over things like this, but I have to say this was a little spooky. I just kept thinking of the mountain lion Shaun saw by our house a few years ago. I did have an annoyed Raccoon that kept chirping at me, I think he didn't like my headlight and wanted me to turn it off. I was sort of glad to have the Raccoon around because I thought, "if a Raccoon is around making noise it probably means there are no mountain lions in the area." Wow! what I do for a photograph.

One last note, I purposely held back a couple photos because there is a chance I might be getting a ribbon for them! Stay tuned to see if I do.