The ABC's of Photography - Letter E (Completed)

[Antmeister]

The Upload Phase starts Sunday (September 23rd) and ends Tuesday (September 25th at 10pm - EST). Images will not immediately display after uploading. You will have to wait until the administrator (Dodgerchick) checks the content (for nothing more than content than may be questionable for FOFC standards).

The Discussion Phase begins Wednesday(26th) and extends for the life of the thread. We repeat this for every consecutive letter of the alphabet. During this phase, we will refer to its image's number since it will be much easier to remember when typing a post about it.

The Reveal Phase begins Saturday (September 29th) and extends for the life of the thread. This is optional. This is the phase in which you can reveal which pictures you had taken. Up until this point, you shall remain anonymous. That way there will be no biases towards your work. You do not have to reveal yourself if you choose not to do so. However, if you wish to get help with how to improve your shots, this could be a good starting point.

Anyone in the future who wishes to join this group, follow these steps:

• Go to http://www.maverickmarks.com/abcphoto.
• Click the "Login" link and register from there.
• Once registered, login and click the Upload file(s) button to begin uploading your pictures.

[Antmeister]

As some of you noticed, the schedule was modified to allow more time for discussion. sterlingice has given a good suggestion for a new schedule (to be used next week if agreed upon) and I would like to see your posted thoughts. Here is what SI suggested:

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I was thinking something along the same lines- I don't like the 2 days for comments as I think that really squeezes things for time. I realize we can post once the reveal phase begins but it's a lot more honest and, frankly, easier to do them when we don't know who has what photos.

Just a blind proposal at a new schedule:
Upload: Sat-Mon
Comment: Tues-Fri
Reveal: Sat of the next week

I like this because it allows for both weekday and weekend uploads. We know what letters are coming up so it's not as if we're going to be surprised by what's up next. I don't know how everyone else is approaching this but, myself, I kindof plan a couple of weeks ahead- I'm looking for E's thru roughly I's this week since I know that every week I'm not going to have that shot I like for a particular letter. The down side is that this gives people pretty much weekends to figure out a picture(s) on a weekly basis.

Also, there's a lot more time for comments, tho they are unfortunately all during the week so no weekend time. Lastly, I don't think the reveal phase needs to be that long. Not only that, but it can overlap the next week if it allows more time for uploads and comments in the future week.

SI

Does this schedule work for you? Let us know.

[Lorena]

I take most of my pictures on the weekends so SI's schedule works for me.

[wade moore]

Same here - I'm game.

[oliegirl]

New schedule works for me...

I had to miss last week because we were moving, but we are mostly settled in now and I found my camera I took a few E pictures this weekend, but I'm not sure how they came out yet...

[Antmeister]

Good submissions so far. Keep em coming. I am very impressed with what you guys are outputting each week.

[sterlingice]

bump

SI

[Lorena]

I'm starting to write comments on a wordpad as the images get uploaded, that way they're ready so it's not overwhelming when the discussion phase starts.

[wade moore]

Looks like this is a relatively light letter, but I kind of expected that with the shift in schedule. This ended up being a "short week" for taking pictures because of going from one schedule to the next, "F" will have a longer turnaround time and I suspect we'll have a better turnout.

[lordscarlet]

I tried to at least sneak one in early Wednesday morning.

[Lorena]

Eagle1 – I would like to have seen the background a little more out of focus, but great composition.

Emblem – Great texture and it’s not centered either… I wouldn’t change a thing!

Entertainer – I’d like to see the background a little more blurred, nice shot though.

Evening – This I’d blow up as much as possible and frame it in our hallway… absolutely beautiful and serene.. nicely done!

EveningView – I would have moved just a tiny bit to the left so the sun isn't overpowering and maybe cropped a little bit on the left so we don’t see the light post in the background, but I love the warmth and nice, soft clouds.

Eye 1– This picture seems a little washed out and the bird is right smack in the middle. I would have zoomed in closer and maybe tilted the camera so it was portrait instead of landscape.

Erica – I really like this shot and don’t mind her being in the middle… it works. She seems a bit nervous and her looking down gives this picture a certain mood. The only thing I would do different is change the depth of field so the stuff in the background isn’t so much in focus.

[wade moore]

Comments tonight from me, work is just way too crazy.

[lordscarlet]

Couldn't "Eye 1" have been "Egret"? That's all I have time for, as I am, you know, on my honeymoon still! :P

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Couldn't "Eye 1" have been "Egret"?

See, that's what I thought, too.

(Tho, iirc, from the the comments on the upload webpage, it's a heron)

SI

[lordscarlet]

Wikipedia says that Egrets are "one of several types of Herons"

[Bonegavel]

haven't read any feedback yet. Copy and pasted DC's link and quickly deleted all her stuff.

Eagle1 – The left hand side is too much wing. Maybe lying on the ground in front of the head and shooting up at this would have given a more interesting angle.

Emblem – love the texture. Prolly would have liked a larger ap to get the whole emblem in focus as I think it would have stood out marvelously against the great gritty hood.

Entertainer – good clean shot of danny divito. getting fill flash under his hat seems impossible in this shot but would have been nice. I like the exposure even with the blown out white dress in the background.

Evening – I would have gone with 2/3 sky or water. Love the hills.

EveningView – I like these kinds of shots. I think the tree on the right harms the framing as well as the telephone pole on the left. Nothing a crop and clone brush couldn't fix.

Eye 1– I like the framing. Favorite shot of 'E.' Just the right amount of dock and the centered bird works very well.

Erica - a nice shot but I would have closed the blinds more so the outside would have been blocked totally (the balloons distract me a bit) but the light would still have washed out the bride. The framing is a little off and the curtain distracts as well as the lamp (?) at the bottom right. I would have also tried to make the bride disappear a bit more into the shadows.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

Erica - a nice shot but I would have closed the blinds more so the outside would have been blocked totally (the balloons distract me a bit) but the light would still have washed out the bride. The framing is a little off and the curtain distracts as well as the lamp (?) at the bottom right. I would have also tried to make the bride disappear a bit more into the shadows.

OH she's a bride!? My bad.. she seemed really young to me.

[wade moore]

Hrmm.. no off-line version this week?

Eagle1: I like the effect here a lot. It's taken at an angle that makes this statue as real as possible. The only thing I'd maybe do differently is come from a lower angle to make it seem even more intimidating. As far as technical - the washed out background bothers me a little. I know this is something we are all struggling with at this stage, but on a sunny day you need to work to not get so much pure white.

Emblem: This was a clever idea that just misses for me. I don't really even have a particularly suggestion on what would make it work for me. Maybe if it was a sunnier day so there was some reflection off of the car? Maybe it's that the emblem just isn't quite sharp enough in focus for me? I hate not really having much to help, but it just missed for me.

Entertainer: I like how his fingers are really the only thing that is completely sharply in focus. I'd like to see his face a little more, the mic in front of his eye bothers me. I think DC brings up a good thought that if you could make the people in the background even more blurry it would add a nice touch.

Evening: Yeah, this one is pretty nice. It would have been nice if the sky gave you more and there were some clouds of some kind maybe? Landscapes aren't generally my bag so I'm not sure what else to suggest with this, I think it's a nice picture.

EveningView: The sun is a bit much for me in this one. I think I'd like this photo a lot better without the "ray" of sun that stretches in front of the palm tree. I love the clouds, I love the shadow, but I get staring right in the center of the picture, I feel blinded, and then I just don't see the other nice elements. If I force myself to look around I realize how nice the rest of the picture is. So I'm not sure.. shift left a little or something so that you don't get that?

Eye 1: This is one of those where the criticism I want to give I hate because it's like "you think I didn't want to do that dipshit?" Anyway. I'd like this if you were zoomed in more on the Heron. Clearly if you didn't have a bigger zoom than this he was likely to fly away if you tried to get closer. I also think I would have liked this a lot more as a vertical shot rather than a horizontal shot. I feel like I want the shape of the image to match the dramatic shape of the bird - the space on the sides seems so wasted to me.

Erica: Probably my favorite picture this week, but nothing totally jumped out at me this week. Very nice, just candid enough but still very classy for a wedding shot. The colored things on the window or whatever are bothering me for whatever reason. I feel like the shot is hurt a bit by the venetian blinds - would have been nice if there were sheer curtains or something instead - but clearly you had no control over this. Very pretty bride - made for a great shot.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

OH she's a bride!? My bad.. she seemed really young to me.

Really? Hrmm.. thought this was obvious - especially to a female!

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Really? Hrmm.. thought this was obvious - especially to a female!

Well in Hispanic culture, young girls dress that way on their Quinceanera (celebration of their 15th year). Some even wear a veil. That is why she was confused. She thought it was one of those.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Antmeister

Well in Hispanic culture, young girls dress that way on their Quinceanera (celebration of their 15th year). Some even wear a veil. That is why she was confused. She thought it was one of those.

Whereas I've never heard of such a thing - definitely a plausible explanation.

[wade moore]

Some guesses:

Evening_view - Padres fan. Basically because of the palm trees I'm takin' a stab at that being California.

Emblem - DC - it just seems like her kind of subject, composition, etc.

Erica - Bonegavel - he seems to enjoy interior, no-flash shots.

[OldGiants]

I'll be busy this weekend, so I'm going to jump the gun and reveal I'm eye and eagle this week.

Eye is a shot of a Great Blue Heron. I have lots of heron shots, since there are often up to five of them around the lake on which I live. This is as close as I've ever gotten to one without it taking off before I could capture the shot. A second shot would have been the bird flying off, and I have plenty of these.

I wanted the textures of the water and weathered wood of the dock, along with the feathers in the bird.

Eagle is the best of dozen I took of that statue ast week. This is actually about fifty yards from the site of the heron picture. The problem for this, is that the eagle is quite large and under trees so it is permanently in the shade, and standing back to shoot the entire bird makes the head too small and lacking in detail. I took some lying on my back, but it was about 11 AM, so the sun was high in the sky and IMO spoiled the shots. The sun also created all the glare off the water in the back.

Flash didn't help. I had hoped it would becasue I've had some good luck picking up details in the shadows on outdoor shots in the past, but not this time. Washed out the detail.

Anyway, I loved the emblem shot. It reminds me of the photo-realism techniques of Burt Munroy. He would spend twenty minutes on Call For Help explaining how he got the rust details just right using Photoshop. He often sounds like Slartibartfast describing to Arthur Dent how he got an award for creating the crinkly bits in the coast line of Norway (Hitchhiker's Guide).

Erica, evening and eveningview are good shots, but too dark for my taste. Entertainer is nothing special, but has nice color and a pan pipe, which always makes me happy.

[Castlerock]

Eagle1: Seems well exposed and somewhat interesting as I like the shooting angle. I think it would be much better if the background was either highly blurred or if you found a (slightly) different angle but see the previous sentence. :-)
Emblem: I like it but I think the focus point is off. It is focused on the front edge of the emblem so that part of the emblem is in focus as well as the surface in front. I'd like to see the focus point moved back so that the focus is starting to drop off at the front edge. Might be more fun if it was a muddy 4x4 emblem instead of a muddy VW emblem.
Entertainer: Due the nature of the shot you don't have control over time of day or the crowds so you are fairly limited in what you can do but... Use a fill-flash to help get rid of the harsh shadows under the hat. One of the very few times a flash is actually called for is in full-sun. Fun, colorful, tourist-type shot.
Evening: The water is more interesting than most of the sky so I'd like to see it with mostly water (horizon at the top) and, ideally, get some shore-line in the foreground. A little dark for my taste.
EveningView: I like this one. I'd crop out the ??? on the left that looks like a ski-lift. But given the flat ground and palm trees I'm sure it's not a ski-lift.
Eye 1: If the subject is supposed to be 'Eye', I think this one falls flat. The eye doesn't stand out at all. It could be titled 'cleat' as the cleat has about as much prominence. As a shot of a bird, it's not bad but I'd like to see this in a vertical format.
Erica:I like this one. It's a silhouette but there is still a little detail in the dress. The objects outside are unfortunate, though. I'd like to see the blinds uniform and block the view of outside.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Castlerock

Emblem: I like it but I think the focus point is off. It is focused on the front edge of the emblem so that part of the emblem is in focus as well as the surface in front. I'd like to see the focus point moved back so that the focus is starting to drop off at the front edge. Might be more fun if it was a muddy 4x4 emblem instead of a muddy VW emblem.

THANK YOU!

That's exactly what was bothering me that I couldn't place. This is what I was trying to say about the focus of the emblem.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Emblem - DC - it just seems like her kind of subject, composition, etc.

Nope, I actually didn't submit a pic. For some reason, I thought I had until Wednesday to submit a pic.

[Castlerock]

I didn't submit one either. I took a few shot's of my son's beautiful blue eyes but nothing even remotely usable. 'E' was tough for me.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Some guesses:

Evening_view - Padres fan. Basically because of the palm trees I'm takin' a stab at that being California.

Erica - Bonegavel - he seems to enjoy interior, no-flash shots.

Actually, both were mine. The former being from San Diego (so, yeah, the California is dead on) and the latter being my wife.

I really need to set aside some time the next couple of days to comment back on the last three threads if I get a chance. We'll see, towards the middle of the week, after being on-call Monday.

SI

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Actually, both were mine. The former being from San Diego (so, yeah, the California is dead on) and the latter being my wife.

I really need to set aside some time the next couple of days to comment back on the last three threads if I get a chance. We'll see, towards the middle of the week, after being on-call Monday.

SI

Wow SI I wouldn't have known that was you. You've come a pretty long way considering where you started... not that those pictures were bad but, you catch my drift

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Wow SI I wouldn't have known that was you. You've come a pretty long way considering where you started... not that those pictures were bad but, you catch my drift

To be fair, those were taken 2 years ago about a week apart. The first was at our wedding and the second on our honeymoon. That said, I think I'm getting a better feel for picking out pictures. We'll see, tho. There's still some out there stuff. Plus, I don't think I ever did a reveal for the last two weeks.

SI

[lordscarlet]

I was emblem.

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Emblem – Great texture and it’s not centered either… I wouldn’t change a thing!

I think we have very similar style and taste.

Originally Posted by wade moore

Some guesses:

Emblem - DC - it just seems like her kind of subject, composition, etc.

See, I told you, DC.

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

Emblem – love the texture. Prolly would have liked a larger ap to get the whole emblem in focus as I think it would have stood out marvelously against the great gritty hood.

Originally Posted by wade moore

Emblem: This was a clever idea that just misses for me. I don't really even have a particularly suggestion on what would make it work for me. Maybe if it was a sunnier day so there was some reflection off of the car? Maybe it's that the emblem just isn't quite sharp enough in focus for me? I hate not really having much to help, but it just missed for me.

I would have loved to get a sunnier day. Well, really, it was a sunny day. The Bug was against a wall, and I believe that wall gave it very limited sun exposure over the course of a day.

Originally Posted by Castlerock

[b]
Emblem: I like it but I think the focus point is off. It is focused on the front edge of the emblem so that part of the emblem is in focus as well as the surface in front. I'd like to see the focus point moved back so that the focus is starting to drop off at the front edge. Might be more fun if it was a muddy 4x4 emblem instead of a muddy VW emblem.

I would have LOVED to use another emblem. In fact, I have a lot of emblem photos, but I was in Greece (the car was in a parking lot next to the water in Naxos) and they were all at home on my external hard drive.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

I was emblem.



I think we have very similar style and taste.



See, I told you, DC.

It's gonna be interesting to see if others could differentiate between your and my pictures in the future. I should have known it was you