It's been awhile so get ready for a bunch of photos

I have been slacking a bit on updating my photos, it doesn't mean I'm not taking any. I have been really busy with it lately I just haven't been around on the weekends to post my pictures like I usually do.

I was really excited about this first one. I got 1st place with it and also received my highest score to date. The challenge was "Country Music Titles" and was expert editing, which means you can combine multiple photos as long as they were taken by you during the challenge dates. This shot consists of 4 different photos, one is the main background with me in it. The second is the clock, the third is the moon and the fourth is a picture of a topiary multiplied and re sized several times. Everything was taken during the daytime but editing to look like night, I even added a few stars to make it more convincing.

Title:

Walking After Midnight

These next few of Kaylee were not used for a challenge except the last one of the set which is in black and white. I just loved them so much I had to include them here.

This is the one I used for the challenge, I had to use black and white because it was basic editing and I couldn't do much to it. The colors just didn't look right without help of more advanced editing techniques. So I converted it to black and white. The challenge was to make a six word story with a picture.

Title:

Storms of Life Come...Just Smile

This next set of Sydnie were taken for the high key challenge. She was not very happy during the shoot I was just going to give up but I decided to take a few of her crying and thought they turned out kind of cute.

This is the one I went with:

align="center">I managed to get 1 before she started throwing a fit, but I didn't use it because the focus wasn't sharp enough.

My kids and I took a field trip to the copper mines for this challenge. The challenge was to take a photo that might appear in a National Geographic magazine. I was a little surprised at how well this ended up doing. The wind was blowing so hard I could barely hold the camera still even on a tripod. So I was happy to see I got one usable one.

Title:

Turning a mountain inside out, 150 years of mining copper.

And this next one may look familiar to some of you. The challenge was to re-take a challenge photo and make it better. I decided on this one because I thought the first one was a great idea but I just didn't have the know how or the equipment to pull it off last time. This time I improved my score by a whole point and got an honorable mention.

Title:

Rosie the Riveter

This was for a challenge called "Sepia" you had to take a picture that would benefit from using a sepia tone. This did fairly well, I really like it though and may print it out to hang in my house.

This was my free study entry for June. I was in love with this photo. It did fairly well but not as well as I would have hoped.

This last one was for a tripod challenge. You had to take a photo that made it obvious you used a tripod. Which basically means a long exposure. I went back to my favorite place on the lake and got this one. I did pretty well with it and got in the top 10.

Finally this one I didn't end up using for a challenge, I was going to use it for sepia but my peer group thought the gourds would do better. I still like it though.

Hooray! I won at last!

I finally feel like I might be getting somewhere with my little hobby. I finally won a ribbon for one of my photos! I entered this photo of Kaylee in a challenge called "Got Milk" and I got 3rd place! I got this little ribbon next to my picture and my photo is on the front page of the dpchallenge website for a whole week! So check it out http://www.dpchallenge.com/.

My ribbon winning entry:

I am also entered in two other challenges at the moment. This one is doing really well. I am a little surprised because I made a huge mistake when photographing it with my settings. It caused the photo to be really grainy. I had my camera tied to the basement ceiling so I wasn't aware I had it on the wrong setting until the photo shoot was over. I did my best to fix it in editing, but the quality just isn't right. I think its a good idea though, and probably why its getting a pretty good score. The challenge was called "what doesn't belong"

Title:

Which one of these kids is doing their own thing?

This next one is for a challenge called "leading lines" there is suppose to be a line in the photograph that sort of moves you through the photograph. I took so many pictures for this, of all sort of different subjects, and just wasn't happy with any of them. This one was finally the one I settled on. It's doing reasonably well. I actually entered a color version but this was the version I would have liked to have entered. I just couldn't get it right, and ran out of time before the deadline was up. Oh well.

Title:

Around the bend

Here is another shot of the same area, this is what it looks like in color.

This is the one I really wanted to enter. I love it! But some of the friends and mentors didn't think it fit the challenge theme well. It's kind of different but I think this would make a great wall hanging. In fact I think I am going to print this out and hang it in my front room. I love that it is neutral and will go with my decor.

Here is another one they didn't like. I like it, but not as well as the one above. Mostly because of the building in the background. I may edit it out and see what I think.

This is one I took just for fun. I was trying out a new (used) lens a friend gave me. I really played with the editing on this one. Different but fun.