Team Competition Starts

This last week we started a team competition on the website where I enter my photos for challenges. Photographers group themselves into teams of 7 and in each competition the top three scores are averaged to give you a team average. If your average is higher than the team you are against that week you win the competition. Not only did we beat our team this last week but we also ended up with the highest average out of all the teams competing. The competition goes until the end of November and at the end the teams with the top scores compete against each other to see who the ultimate winner is. We are lucky to have some of the best photographers on the site on our team, so I am hoping we will do really well.

I was able to help my team out quite a bit this week I got the highest score for my team this last week and got first place and the blue ribbon with this photo. The challenge was "The Three Amigos" I was struggling to come up with an idea and I almost didn't even enter the competition, but I thought of this at the last minute. I have always wanted to do a Norman Rockwell style photograph and after looking through his illustrations I was inspired to do this shot.

My little girl and her friend were playing at my house so I dressed them up and gave them Popsicles and sat them on this bench. My hope was to get Lu Lu to lick one of the Popsicles. I was a little discouraged at first. Sydnie tried first but Lu Lu did not like the banana flavored Popsicle and would not cooperate. So I switched Lu Lu to the other side and had her try the cherry one. It only took a few tries to get this shot. She loved the Cherry one and happily licked the Popsicle while I snapped some shots. And don't worry I got the girls new Popsicles as soon as the photo shoot was over.

Title:

Whats a few Licks Between Friends?"

This next one scored well for me as well and I got in the top 10 with it. The challenge was to get lens flare in your photo. Most of the time lens flare is a bad thing in photos but done the right way it can really look good. I found this Large Juniper tree just up the hill from our house and got the idea to tie a swing to it. So I hauled a ladder up the mountain and tied a homemade wooden swing to one of the branches.

Title:

"At the Close of Summer"

This one also did well with this next one and got in the top 10 at 7th place. It was an Expert Editing Challenge so it was one that you can combine multiple photos to create your image. I decided to try and depict what a typical Soccer mom has to juggle everyday.

Title:

"Juggling Act"

And once again I got in the top ten with this photo. Earning me the nickname from one of the other photographers on the site "Top 10 Jenn" This was for a challenge called granular. My first attempt was an Ant hill with some ants on it but it didn't work out. So I started thinking about some of my Christmas decorations that look like they are coated in sugar. I wondered if there was a way you could do it to real fruit. Sure enough I found a tutorial on YouTube that explained how.

Title:

"Visions of Sugar Plums"

These next two were just fun ones I took and then did not end up entering them in any challenges. This first one was taken at the Utah State Fair.

And this one is of a Hornet cleaning his antenna after a long sweet drink of grape juice.

This Weeks Challenge Entries

I had a fairly good week with my challenge entries, I got another ribbon and an honorable mention. This first one was my favorite and the one I won a second place ribbon for. It was a really cool evening, there were thunderstorms going on all around me. I was hoping to catch some light from a lightening bolt in one of my images. This is one of the ones I managed to get it. You can't really see the lightening bolt because it is a 5 min exposure but the lit up part of the clouds is were it struck. It was so dark outside that I didn't even know it was raining on the other side of the lake until I got these photos onto my computer and saw the rain falling on one side of the image. You can't imagine the trouble I went to to get this photo, the bugs were so thick I thought I was in one of those horror movies. I would have to get my camera set up and press the shutter button and then run for safety a few yards from the lake. Not all of them were biting bugs but I got my fair share of mosquito bites. Anyway in the end it was worth the trouble since I won a ribbon for it.

title:

Thunderstorm at Night

This next one was for a minimal editing challenge that means "strait out of camera" no editing what so ever allowed. You can't even crop, so it takes some patience getting everything right. The challenge was called out your favorite window. Since acquiring this cool looking door it has definitely been my favorite window so I thought it would be fun to take it to a cool location and have my favorite window also include one of my favorite views. I did quite well with this one and got an Honorable Mention with it.

title:

A Door With a Window Into My World

And here is the door again, this is one that didn't turn out very well for the minimal editing but really came to life when I did some advanced editing techniques on it. I entered it in the free study for August and it did quite well I think I will get in the top 20 which is good for free study where there is over 300 entries.

title:

Left Standing

I had fun with this next one, I don't know if my girls did but it was a technique I had never done before and it was fun experimenting. We drove out to the Copperton/Bingham Grave Yard. It is a really old an quite interesting grave yard. There is no grass just weeds and wild flowers growing everywhere so it looks quite haunted. Plus it is in the middle of nowhere which adds to the spookiness. The grave stones are really old and many are tipped over most have some sort of makeshift fence around them, I guess to keep people from walking on the graves. Some had nicer wrought iron fences around them that were in fairly good condition. This was one of the better spots.

Here is how I did it for anyone curious. I had Kaylee pick a pose she could hold for at least a minute. Depending on the light your model must hold their position for 30 seconds to a minute. then after the minute is up you have your model walk out of the frame. Then you let it continue to expose for another couple minutes. What you end up with is a ghost in a single exposure. You can also add ghosts to images by layering photos in photoshop but this way is much more challenging and fun.

Title:

Not Yet at Rest


This next challenge entry was for "the letter C" challenge. You had to take a photo of something starting with the letter C. I thought it would be fun to do a cornucopia with vegetables that start with the letter C. These crates I found at one of the abandoned buildings I photographed are also coming in handy and crate also starts with the letter C so it was a bonus.

Title:

"A Cornucopia of C's"

That's it for challenge entries now onto a few I took this month that I really liked. This first one is of a sunflower, I really like how it turned out when I converted it to black and white. I think I am going to try and do a grouping of flowers in black and white for one of my walls at home.

Here is my next attempt at a flower for the grouping. It is a Cosmo I like it but not quite as much as the sunflower. But I do think it will work in the grouping.

And one more I am experimenting with. Not sure if the side view works for the grouping or not. But I liked it anyway. It is a Black Eyed Susan.

These next two are just some close ups of some bugs I took I thought they turned out pretty nice.

Hanging in there!!!

Okay seriously I need some new models. I have had to use myself way too much in the last few challenges. So if any of my neighbors want think it would be fun to model for me let me know. Mostly my ideas are a bit goofy so I always feel bad asking people. The one above was for a challenge called Horizontal/Vertical the idea was to photograph something usually photographed Horizontal or Vertical and photograph it the other way. I came up with this goofy idea and to my surprise it actually tricks the eye pretty well. I only had to lay on that stupid rock about 20 different times before I got a decent pose. It ended up in the top 10 of the challenge.

This one was for a challenge called "Home" the idea was to photograph something that is about home. It didn't necessarily have to be your own home, but when I saw Sydnie blowing bubbles on the deck and those cool clouds behind her I decided to grab my camera and see what I could come up with. My editing was a bit sloppy on this one but I still did fairly well and scored in the top 10 of the challenge.

This one was for a challenge called "Stripes". This one I really wish I had another model for. Kaylee and I had to stand in the middle of the road while Brianne watched for cars. Luckily it's not a super busy road. But we did have a few people pass and wonder what in the world we were doing.

This one I had fun with. I borrowed some of my moms old things and then did my hair in a 1940's hairdo and posed for this one. The challenge was called "Film Noir" it was a style of movie made in the 1940's and 1950's the idea was to capture the moody lighting and film subject. This is what I cam up with:

This was for the abandoned building challenge. I actually visited several abandoned buildings on my way home to Idaho a couple weekends ago. This one was one of my favorites and what I ended up entering for the challenge.

Here is another one I stopped at on the way home. My kids were getting really annoyed with me making all the stops. Usually I have My Husband with me and he doesn't like to stop. He wasn't able to come on this trip so I was having a field day being able to stop as often as I liked.

I want to say this was one of my favorites too but I will end up saying that on all of these abandoned building shots. I guess abandoned buildings are just so fun to shoot, they have so much character.

This one really was my favorite photo, not building though. The one I entered was my favorite building. But this one had such a cool sky behind it, I can't help liking the overall scene of this one a bit more. I may still end up entering this in a challenge, the monthly free study is coming up and you can enter anything you took during the month of August.

And finally this one. I entered it in a challenge called "Time" you were suppose to convey time in some manner. I must have missed the mark I didn't score well on this one. My idea was to show how sometimes we wish time could just stand still.

This last one I did not enter in anything it's an out take for another challenge currently in judging. I just threw this one in for fun.

Wow! I have some catching up to do.
I took a ton of photos in July. I think just a combination of all the trips we took, the great weather and entering a lot of photo contests. I will try to keep my writing short so this post won't be any longer than it is. I will start of with my challenge entries. They are in order of how well they did.

This first one I loved it was for a challenge called distance. It is of me, Sydnie and Brianne. I was going to have Kaylee in the photo but I ran out of time getting everyone ready and I didn't have anything white for her to wear. Instead she helped me take the photo. I got third place with this photo.

Title:
Onward to Distant Mountains

This one only got an Honorable mention with 5th place but it was up against some stiff competition. It actually scored really high and got a 7 average only my third 7 out of over 100 challenge entries. I always love it when I can score a 7 even if I don't win a ribbon. The challenge was to photograph a bug.

title:
Mr. Smiley Face


This one did pretty well also and I got in the top 10. I was kind of surprised it did so well, I thought it was kind of a weird but cool photo so I didn't know how it would be received. This is a close up of Sydnies eye. The challenge was to take a close up of something other that a bug or a flower.

title:
Looking Up


I almost got in the top 10 with this one. I was really surprised too. It was a National Geographic challenge. You were suppose to photograph something that could go in a National Geographic Magazine. I thought that I didn't have a chance since I didn't photograph an Animal. I chose to photograph the copper mine in Utah. It was really hard to find a way to get a sense of scale. I used a editing technique called tilt shift. It is when you blur the top and the bottom of the photo and it makes the object seem miniature.

title:
Bingham copper mine, 150 years of turning a mountain inside out


This one did fairly well. It was a skyline challenge I thought mine was unique because it had a double skyline both the mountains and the city.

title:
Two skylines....Two Creators


This next one did fairly well but I think it would have done better if I had titled it properly. It was suppose to be showing how you took a tutorial and showed it in a photograph. My tutorial I found was how to change the color of someones hair. I must have done too good of a job because people kept commenting on how they didn't know what the tutorial was. I thought it would be obvious because there is no way I would dye my 7 year old hair pink just for a photo.

Title:
Please mom! Can I dye my hair pink.


Here is the original just in case you were worried her hair is pink.


This one scored okay as well. Looking back on it she is a bit too washed out. I should have done a better job editing this one. Challenge was rule of thirds in blue.

title:
The girl with the blue polka dot umbrella

This one did fairly well considering I shot it about 30 min before the challenge deadline. I didn't have time to edit it properly so I just cropped it and added a frame. The challenge was to paint with light. So this was taken in pitch black conditions and then I used a flashlight swirled around the object to make the light patterns. This is also fun to try with sparklers on the 4th of July.

Title:

Mystical Blue Orb

This one only did okay. I think it was because it was just wrong for the challenge I entered it in. The challenge was to take a photograph of a mainly pastel subject. I guess this one wasn't pastel enough.

title:

Butterfly in Pastel

This last one was wrong for the challenge I entered it in as well. It was suppose to be a photograph of a knife, fork, or spoon. I guess a pitch fork doesn't work.

The next few photos were not for challenges they are either outtakes of other challenges or ones I just love or both.

I just loved this one of Sydnie. I don't know why but I love photos of kids looking down so you can see their eyelashes.

This was an outtake for the bug challenge. I loved it but I think my grasshopper was the right choice.

This was and outtake for the distance challenge. I loved it as well but the other one was just a bit better.

The rest are not outtakes for anything just pictures I took messing around. These first two I really love they are long exposures of a waterfall near a place we go camping.

Challenges

I have been having a lot of fun taking photos and entering them in challenges on the website DPC. I have had some photo's that have not done very well and others that have done better than expected. Its a fun learning experience. You just have to learn to never get your hopes up too much and learn to have a thick skin when your photos score poorly.

I am excited to announce that this photo got an Honorable mention in a challenge that finished up last night. I didn't get a ribbon but I get a little star and by my photo. I finished 5th overall and got my best score so far on a challenge. I was just tenths of a point away from getting 4th or even 3rd. So the scoring was very close. If you want to check out my profile page here is the link:http://www.dpchallenge.com/profile.php If you want to have some fun and vote on some photo's, you can sign up for a free account on their website.

Title:
"Hidden Valley Ranch"

Homemade Landscapes

This next one is currently in scoring right now. But it is doing really well! I don't think I will win a ribbon with it but I think I might get in the top 10, which is a coveted spot because your picture appears on the front page with the winners. This challenge was called "complimentary colors" we could use any of the complimentary colors as the main subject in our photograph. For those of you who didn't take art class: complimentary colors are opposite of each other on the color wheel, Red/Green, Purple/Yellow or the one I chose Orange/Blue.

Title:

Orange and Oh! Those Blues.

This next one is another challenge I entered called "portrait tryptic". This mean you take a series of three photos and present them in a way that tells a story. I am not scoring well with it. I still like it, and it is very interesting to see my girls merged together like this. But there are a couple problems with it. First it doesn't necisarrily tell a story, I guess in a way it does but I could see how people wouldn't think so. Also, Sydnie would not smile with her mouth closed and the older girls looked bad smiling with their mouths open, so I just went with it. Also, the faces don't line up perfectly, but this has nothing to do with how I photographed it or edited it, its just that a 3 year olds anatomy is very different than a 6 or a 9 year old so there was no way to get them to line up.

Title:

"Three Sisters"

I have been trying to take some other pictures of just regular stuff, but it has been hard to keep up with that and my challenge entries. I did manage to get out and take a few pictures of the beautiful leaves we have had this fall. Here is my favorite:

Title:

"Holding Hands"

Here is a cute one I took of Kaylee at Dinosaur Park, I applied one of the fun free black and white filters I found online.


On the website DPC they also have little forums where you can post pictures that are not involved in challenges. Other people on the site look at your photos and comment on them. A forum I am currently involved in is called layered images. People share photo's they have applied textures or layers to. It has been fun and I have found a ton of new textures to use on my photos . Here are a couple the ones I have been working on.

Titled:

"At the Park"

Titled:

"Clocks"