I'm taking this week's topic from Darren Rowe's weekly newsletter. My rules are a little different. Since we are getting into the busy time of the year...Holiday Season...you can use old photos or take new ones. Take some photos of your pets, your neighbor's pets, your parent's pets, the school pets, or neighborhood pets. Here is a link to Dareen's article on taking photos of pets http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-pets.
Have some fun and dress up your pet or take a photo of a pet in an unusual place. You can use photoshop to change the photo background or change the shape or position of the pet. You can clone your pet or pets....anything goes this week...show me your creativity!
Boy we had a great turnout for the #78 Photo Quest on Diagonal Lines. Thanks to Cap'n Stephel, Darcy, Yancunyong, Trailblazer, anthrogrrl, Maju and Spike for some really amazing photos! I'm not sure the Trailblazer wanted in but I'm including her.
For each person that posts to the quest I pick the one photo that I liked the best and that fit the Photo Quest the best. Just because I pick one photo does not mean I dislike the others! It isn't easy to pick one from each participant as the photos are so good!
I'm going to start with Spike as she was the first to post for this week's quest. My favorite was the "Steve at the Reaper Miniatures factory looking like the kid in a candy store", photo. Look at how all the toys on the wall form long, multiple lines drawing your eye right to Steve. I also like the texture created by the toys and the fun way she used diagonal lines in the photo great job Spike!
Maju just took my breath away with her photo of Regent's Canal 02! This is a BIG WOW photo! Notice how the walkway, the trees, the reflection in the water pulls your eye right to the bridge. The composition on this photo is wonderful with the bridge right at the ROT point! In this photo even the light areas with no details, water without reflections and the sky pull your eye to the bridge. Wonderful work Maju!!
Next was Antrogrrl and what a nice surprise that we get to see some of her "old archaeology photos for this challenge." You made it hard for me to choose one photo as you had so many great ones this week. I have to say I liked 2 snow tracks the best. The tracks in the snow, the diagonal line of the plants, the mountains and the sky push your eye right to the furtherest point. The angle of the photo and the diagonal lines give the photo a feeling of a never ending landscape. The tracks in the snow tell the viewer the snow is fresh and the people in the vehicle where the first to see this landscape. This photo tells a great story, super photo Antrogrrl!
Trailblazer posted two interesting photos to the Photo Quest Group. My favorite was the first photo Ink-and-surf-jpg. There are several diagonal lines in this photo. The surfers arms, legs, the surf board and the surf all provide great diagonal lines. I really liked the way we have two diagonal lines coming together with the surfer in the forground arms, forming one diagonal line and the surf board forming the opposite diagonal line. The intersection of these lines draw your eye right to that point. Nice capture Trailblazer!
Yan's many wonderful photo all with great examples of diagonal lines really caused me to stop and consider all the photos before I made my selection. I really have to pick Photographers @Mt. Gomadan as I loved all the photographers lined up with their tripods to take photos of the fall colors. This is a very fun photo full of color and lots of interest in what the photographers are doing and thinking about how each one is taking their photos. Great photo Yan!
I pick Darcy's photo of her son playing the in water sprinkler as my favorite. What a fun photo. It makes me want to run in a sprinker too. Here Darcy has framed her son with the diagonal lines of the sprinkler on either side. This was a hard shot to get as she has the camera shutter slow enough to capture the sprinkler water in drops and the camera set fast enough to get a very clear shot of her son. This is another photo that tells a story of Darcy's son enjoying his summer. Love this one Darcy!
Last but not least are the photos from Cap'n Stephel. Her photos are always full of personality. You got to look at the snowman in the pumpkin patch! The photo I liked best from her post is the first one of the trail. The fence and the shadow of the fence give the photo a great sense of depth, distance and mystery. She didn't tell us the whole story here as we can't see the end of the trail...we keep looking be we can't see that far as the trees cover our view. Very nice photo Cap'n!
Late! Sorry!
These are three semi-recent photos I've taken that fit the quest. First up is a photo from a trail around a lake.
I was going through some photos I took at Tumacacri Mission a few weeks back and I saw a lot of photo with diagonal lines. So I'm just going to post a couple for this quest. For this one I changed it to black and white added some noise and artistic stuff and lighting. The diagonal lines are the stones on the grave site.
I played a little more with the next photo. I selected the church and didn't select the brick tower. Then I changed the church to black and white, worked some on the contrast and brightness, added an artistic filter and erased the black and white from the top arch and the two diagonal columns. By added color to the the diagonal lines I wanted to push the viewers eye up to the arch and the cross on top of the church.
In this photo the main subject the pots are in a diagonal line. In the original photo the pots where in a dark shadow. I cropped the photo then selected the shadow and lightened it and added saturation. Then I selected the light wall that was too light, added contrast, darked the highlights and added saturation. Now the shadow looks more like a stain or paint on the all and less like a shadow.
The last photos is of the columns supporting the covered over the walkway for the visitor's center. In this photo the diagonal line formed by the columns draws the eye to the door.
Gees can you believe this is the 78th Photo Quest? Seems like I started this just a few months ago. I thank all the loyal members for all their great photos and for teaching me more about photography.
For this weeks quest lets look at diagonal lines and how they contribute to a photo. You can use diagonal lines to draw to eye to your subject or the lines can be your subject. The human eye natural views an image by going from left to right. By placing a diagonal line from left to right you are using that natural view to your advantage by now drawing the eye to your subject. Make it easy for the viewed to know what your subject is.
Can you look at your photos and know what the subject is? Do you look for the subject of your photo in your view finder or LCD before you click the shutter? Do you remember the rule of thirds?
Now that I've filled you with questions....here is this week's quest. Take some photos using diagonal lines. Photos can be any that you have taken in the last year. If you can't find a photo with diagonal lines or can't find a subject with diagonal lines around use a photo software to make some lines. No excuses this time.
Here is a great article on diagonal lines http://digital-photography-school.com/using-diagonal-lines-in-photography. Any questions...please ask! Take care and have a wonderful week.
Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/using-diagonal-lines-in-photography#ixzz0W97s6TSu
Yikes there were some very scary photos this week! Thanks to all the folks that send in photos, it was so much fun to see what you were doing for Halloween. I miss Halloween so much. The department I worked the for last 9 years didn't do much of anything for Halloween. Now that I'm retired well, it was even less. We are too far out in the country to get trick-a-treaters so it was like any other day here. Darn it...I did get to see some cute photos of my grandsons dressed up.
Back to the quest I didn't see a bad photo in the group and we had tons of photos this time. Darcy made my job easy by posting only one photo, thanks so much girl. Her photo of her daughter as Wednesday Adams showed tons of creativity. Darcy's daughter played with the photo in photoshop to make it spookier! Great work there.
Then along came Cap'n wow frozen pumpkin fields and a great jack-o-latern...amazing work on that. My favorite was the jack-o-latern photo. Taking the photo at night gave it a real Halloween glow.
Next was Yan with his great photos of Halloween in Japan. My favorite was the friend dressed as an alien...great capture in a dark bar.
Now it was Amy Sue...boy she made my job very hard with all her great photos! Thanks for the great photos of the kids trick-or-treating downtown. What a great place she lives that the merchants give out candy..keeping it safe for the kids...very nice! It was so hard to pick a favorite...so I picked two. I loved the pumpkin and hunted house photo. The low light gives the photo a very nice Halloween spooky feeling. Then I really like the Halloween old photo of the two kids under the movie poster. Nice work there with making the whole photo feel very old.
Wow then there was Metz....so many, many photos my friend. I felt like I was there with you enjoying seeing how your children had so much fun. Of couse it helps that her kids are so cute! So my favorite of all the photos was Halloween 048 with the red tree behind your daughter! That was an amazing photo, loved the red leaves that matched your daughters outfit. Nice work there!
Our digital camera is pretty crappy actually but I tried to make do with what I got by messing around with the basic of most basic elements color adjustment & brightness & contrasting. Which mostly just consisted of me sliding the slider bar back and forth until it gave a result that looked interesting to me. Yeah, skills, I have none. LOL
Here are the results.
Here she is, playing the part of Gothic Tween Red Riding Hood, Miss Gabrielle. I wish I could've done the picture in my head justice. I loved the idea of her posing pensively near that red tree. The middle one is my favorite of of Gabby.
And playing the part of the plundering pirate, Benjamin. ARRRR!
I had to gently remind him that we do not stab the neighbor's boo globe. LOL
Yeah, she's all that! :-D
This one is my favorite of Ben.
Gosh darn it she's just so freaking beautiful! Yeah I know, I'm not exactly impartial but hey...
To Grandmother's House!
The Driveways Are Alive With The Sound of Pirates!
Some attempts at "artistic" photos. LOL
OOOOH, Spoooky! Scarecrow C.S.I., or was it Scarecrow S.V.U.? Yeah yeah, I'm the Ghost of Costumes Past. There's 3 different costume remenants here. :-P The 1st photo is my veil deciding it wanted 2 be in the picture. A chocolate Halloween House the kids got to decorate/make in a craft program at our local Library. I LOVE our Library! FLOWERS! EEEK! Save us! WHEW! We're free! Free to Trick Or Treat again!
Two Lumps made me laugh and shake my head today
