Changing Photographic Styles

Last night I wasted quite a bit of time sitting through the Royal Photographic Society's Digital Show which comprised largely of blurred and fuzzy images.  As a group they have decided that this is todays photography and reward each other with acceptances and honours for regurgitating this sort of, most would say, rubbish.   It reminds me of how back in 1953 I visited the RPS exhibition in London along with fellow photographic students from Guildford School of Art and the theme then was soft portraiture and soft landscapes .... quite unlike the sharp and crisp commercial images we were being trained and helped to produce in our studies .... we collectively thought the RPS was rubbish and I guess my aversion to the RPS transfered itself to the NZPS or whatever it is called .... they have their style too.

Preceeding that show was our our monthly competition 'Wild Outdoors" and guess what we got?  Yes you guessed, it was in the style of the NZ camera club .... landscapes ... urrgh!  The judge in his openning remarks said he had hopes for humans doing wild things out of doors ... but no ... just landscapes although the winning photograph was steps above the rest with its beautiful capture of frost and the only photograph I remember twelve hours later out of all I saw last night, UK and local NZ.  The print quality of all the local images was of a very high level  .... BUT!

Two weeks time we will have projected images, I think I know what I will be entering but that will remain confidential until after the night :-)

The Naive Tourist

That is me!   It is a warning to watch yourself when abroad.   Was on my own with the car belonging to my then daughter-in-law driving up Phantom Canyon in Colorado when a couple of bobcats darted across in front of the car.   Being keen to get wild life shots I was out of the car in a flash along with my Panasonic FZ30 [ 8mp ] and stood on the edge of the road some ten/fifteen feet from the car.   I saw one of them across a field in a clump of trees watching me.  Even with x12 zoom [ 432mm Angle of View ] I thiought it was too small in the viewfinder but I carefully pressed the trigger.   Then I turned my back on it and walked back to the car.

Completely forgetting that there were two of them and afterwards I wondered .... was the mate sitting behind the bushes beside the road?   Gave me if not nightmares some queasy moments thinking about how silly I was to turn my back on such creatures.  particularly when I met up quite close to one in a wildlife park.   Even though he was behind wire netting I was very nervous walking away from him as he sat, head out of his den, watching me.

Full of enthusiasm for "Wild Life" I then ventured onto a long beach, quite close to home, and got too close to a grumpy old sealion.   He openned his mouth and I took my shot .... trouble was that I have a one second review for me to confirm I have the shot ...and I didn't see him lunging at me .... I beat a hasty retreat and he fortunately stopped chasing me ... I am sure he could have gone faster than I could run at 76yo then.

 

Firefly Abroad

They are re-building the road outside my house.  First they use a viscious grubbing machine to rip the old surface to pieces and then lay a nice new surface about two inches deep.   Here they are laying the final bit and with a two second exposure it is supprisingly sharp ...I was using a tripod ... but you will note the 'Firefly' .... well at least that's what my son suggested it could be ... LOL

The rig is continually moving forward.

A freindly fellow

Was upin one of the local cemetaries, an old and largely disused one I suspect, photographing the graves for reference for the local council website and had just finished the current part of the assignment when this freindly fellow decided to stay still long enough to enable me to get a shot of him.   No sooner had I pressed the trigger than FLIT he was off again .... so pure luck but  it was nice of him to help me .... near a decade since I had a similar chance and with my slow digital of those days I didn't get a shot.

Tone Mapping

Recently came across this term and not sure what is happening aprt from the obvious compression of tones to suit the limited range of the display buit tried it on the previosyu street photo and think it somewhat better than the previous treatment which took much longer :-( LOL

The Photographic Society

Last night was a monthly meeting and we started off with print of the month and first up were the ones which didn't get placed and the fist was interesting. Cannot show you here becuase not mine. The lower part of the screen was a vivid bed of flowers with an early eveing shot of a street behind. The judge commented that it was two picture becuase there was nothing to link the two 'halves' together. I am sure that there could have been a lampost or something to do this in the conventional way. But what struct me about the shot, and it might be my imagination, was the way the myriad of colours, tail lines of cars, neon signs, street lights had a similar colourful presence in the top halve similar to the bed of flowers ....so I am left with a feeling that there are more ways than one to connect elements of a photograph together.
As for my entry, not selected for a place, which I didn't expect but of course hoped :-), I found it interesting that the elements of the composition which act IMO as a frame around the [picture were slammed and were too dark, judge didn't like the black. See for yourself ....

Actually it was an accident, like often happens with me in editing, that the background was burnt out and I used the curved tool to try and fix. Brought the top right hand end of the line downwards with little or no effect until it reached the bottom and I liked, I think, what I saw :-)
You can see a bigger version on my website
http://jcuknz-photos.com/PHOTOS2012/PHOTOS_2012.html

nearly a year has gone by

Due to computer problems and other reasons I lost this page and access to it. Just found it and sadly the BOSS is no longer with us but some ashes in my rose box guarded by a beautiful and sleek white cat satuette.