St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

From VOTING http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-270787-1.html

The winners of Happy Holidays with 142 entries and (316) votes are...

1st place = jaysnave with 5.70 points and (15) votes (1st) taken (Unknown)
2nd place = mffox with 5.45 points and (14) votes (2nd) taken 2014-09-05
3rd place = thix2112 with 4.41 points and (10) votes (1st) taken 2013-12-23
4th place = JJPhoto with 3.75 points and (10) votes (1st) taken (Unknown)

Congratulations everyone - especially those who added a little more by telling us about their photos!!!

> http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/photo_contest.jsp?pcnum=149 <
- Click (ratings) to see all the entries at once

Running Totals - Underlined equals multiple time winners
1st = fad2000, u02bnpx, PW4GDF, edlcsre, mcdykes, lifenprism, zuke, Robeng, Shaughnessy, gwigley, Pixelpixie88, Shaughnessy, qhorse, louelke, melequus, ptipton, PhotosBySteve, gene McKinnon, aerials, Mr T, Paradox, freeseframe, charben, 111USMC, DavidT, Indy5, Nikocarol, alissaspieces, fes22, manofhg, gemartin, melequus, gjoseph302, maryln, melequus, Wrongway1947, mcdykes, Double E, isisthecat, DavidT, Coolcameragirl, YPhotoGuy, aerials, Fuzzycoach, grubnide, Aussiecan, BeaverNewby, Judy1900, [u]alissaspieces, BeaverNewby, jaysnave
2nd = Fuzzycoach, GreyGeek, abby, Beaubeau, KWKathy, howlynn, DavidT, PeterM, gpro111, DavidT, mcdykes, lensbaby007, phys406, dragonswing, JimGuy, Raz Theo, photojack, rps, cat2560, kirk s, wowbmw, Captain Tom, SQUIRL033, DrPhrogg, Jstreet, regionabove, Lorima, Tony R, greg vescuso, charben, Angishore, Captain Tom, blairt, cat2560, chantel, sxripps23, BruinsFan, glenntuma, DavidT, Bobbee, dandelion, coach44, Cooper45, KWKathy, John1286, KWKathy, wowbmw, wowbmw, bob44044, Shaughnessy, mffox
3rd = mcdykes, Moonsey, Ken Mahar, roger2012, plessner, mopinia, Gary K, Shaughnessy, Nikonian72, PW4GDF, bob44044, Tony R, jimmya, abby, wowbmw, Zulu inc, Songalolo, Scoutman, Captain Tom, cifuent, Indy5, Gryffon, firtree, Daleg, freeseframe, j_c42, melequus, take5, Lorima, Jbranum, kpassaur, Sefferdog, Shaughnessy, Nikocarol, BasqueLady, jvcookies, alissaspieces, counselor1938, Hoops12751, JoeS, ptsusan, MontanaTrace, mrjcall, photomomma, erickter, Allen Hirsch, ajnorby, melequus, willowpix, Eric LS, thix2112
4th = tjoyce0528, pithydoug, catfish252, plessner, kirk s, xen, DrPhrogg, Captain Tom, cat2560, bhatch, plessner, KWKathy, JoeS, ColdSnap, Wild Life, bob44044, Fuzzycoach, ColdSnap, Hoops12751, susano, Zelle, Nikonian72, Captain Tom, Mr T, alissaspieces, taylorzacre, LPigott, Dan Copeland, Shaughnessy, greg vescuso, warogers, JoeS, ChunOn, fad2000, mffox, CarolynP, fyrlife, BigEasy, Bobster, jvcookies, Harmo, fjrwillie, Bobster, RJM, mrjcall, sleepydrdr, abby, CEAA, Atchy, Luggerbugs, JJPhoto

First Christmas


'Tis a gift to be simple ---


ChristmasWorld


First Chirstmas

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

To help this weeks Photo Critique Volunteer please visit http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-271211-1.html

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

An interview with jaysnave,

1) How long have you been into photography and what got you started?
About 3 years with good equipment. Photography is something I have a passion for but discovered late in life.

2) Do you have any formal training and what kind of photography do you do most?
No formal training. Just mentoring from friends, seminars and the local camera store, and of course the UH.

3) In your opinion, what makes a good picture stand out from the rest?
The image has to speak to the viewer in some way. It should invoke emotions, memories, and bring an internal smile. Books have been written on the topic, but that is the best I can make up spur of the moment.

4) What equipment did you use and was there any special setup? Can you walk us through it?
The idea for the image came from my wife and daughter, so I created the setup that I believed would achieve the result. To get the Christmas light bokeh behind the grandkids distance was important as well as position and angle. I practiced with a stuffed animal! I used my D600 with 70-200. To get good fill I had a remote softbox set at low power. The rest was everyone trying to get two 1 yr. olds to look up and stay in one place.

5) Do you post process your final images, and if so can you describe your workflow?
This is the rest of the story. I was firing the camera so fast trying to get a good expression that many were almost completely dark from the flash not engaging. This image was produced bringing the exposure up in Lightroom. Just enough that the illumination from the Christmas lights was glowing on their face. The images with flash were good, but it washed out the Christmas light illumination on their faces.

6) Who or what has influenced your photography and what inspired you to take your winning shot?
Not any one person or thing. It just sort of happened.

7) Would you change anything if you could do it again, and if so what?
I would probably experiment with different lighting.

8) What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
To find out what you know or don't know one has to just shoot, make mistakes and learn from the mistakes.

9) What is your favorite photography accessory, other than your camera?
Lighting, whether it be sophisticated strobe or natural light.

10) If you had to choose one lens which one would it be and why?
My Nikon 70-200 2.8 does a great job.

11) What lighting equipment, if any, do you take on a shoot?
For events mostly a speed light with diffuser and I bounce it if possible.

12) If you couldn't do photography what else would you do?
Professional sports star, but photography is easier.

13) Do you have any funny or interesting stories about your experiences?
You have to laugh at everything that goes wrong otherwise you will never get through it. In my first wedding the wind blew over my umbrella and broke the stand. I took the umbrella off and it made a fun prop for the bride and bridesmaid.

14) Is there somewhere we can see more of your work?
I have a website in progress, but is too unorganized right now to share.

15) Do you have any advice for the rest of us?
Just keep shooting and don't be afraid to try things. If you need some advise use the Ugly Hedgehog!

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

An interview with thix2112,

1) How long have you been into photography and what got you started?
I have been interested in photography since I was a kid growing up in the 1960s using cheap plastic cameras. I still have one or two photos from that time. I just found photography fascinating and it always held my interest although it became more of a hobby over the past 10 years or so with the advent of the DSLR. I purchased my 1st SLR in 1983, a Pentax Super Program, which I still own. I love the Pentax system. I have since acquired a large collection of Pentax film SLR cameras and a treasure of classic Pentax lenses that I still use on a Pentax K-3 DSLR. With the collection of film cameras I have, I taught myself how to develop film too. Photography is a hobby that I love to do and learn about.

2) Do you have any formal training and what kind of photography do you do most?
When I first purchased my 1st DSLR, a Pentax *istD, I sought out a basic photography class at a Arlington County VA community center. That has been it. I mostly read books and poke around forums like the Ugly Hedgehog, and look at the photos of great classic photographers to get a better understanding of the craft.

3) In your opinion, what makes a good picture stand out from the rest?
A photo that provokes an emotional response when you see it. If the photo tells a story to me, that captures my attention. I know that "tells a story" has been used to death, but it has to spark my imagination in some fashion. Interesting perspectives capture my attention too. I generally prefer black and white photos. Those types of photos have a dramatic feel that draw me in.

4) What equipment did you use and was there any special setup? Can you walk us through it?
My setup was a Pentax K-01 digital camera with a Pentax 10-17mm fisheye lens set at 10mm. Shot a series of about 13 overlapping photographs in portrait orientation. I used a tripod in the center of the living room. The camera was mounted to a relatively inexpensive panoramic tripod head called "Panosaurus." This allows the lens to rotate around the optical center of the lens while you take each overlapping photo. This is important to do so that the photo stitching program is most efficient at figuring out how to stitch your photos into a panoramic. After taking 13 photos, I used the stitching program called "Huggin" to create a stereographic projection - the "little planet" photo you see. If you search "little planet photography" you will see examples of this type of photography.

5) Do you post process your final images, and if so can you describe your workflow?
I generally shoot in digital raw and post process my digital photos using Apple Aperture adjusting contrast, light levels and sharpness to my liking. Since Aperture support is being discontinued, I will probably move to Adobe Lightroom. I also shoot film. I develop my film at home, then scan the negatives using an Epson V550 scanner, using VueScan software, then post process in Aperture to tweak the contrast and light levels. For black and white, I usually apply a duotone to the scanned photo (and to my digital photo) to give them a warm, slightly sepia tone.

6) Who or what has influenced your photography and what inspired you to take your winning shot?
This was the photograph that influenced this idea and can be found on the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day web site: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120128.html
I wondered how that was done. After searching the web, I found out these are typically composed of several photos stitched together to make a panoramic photograph called a stereographic projection.

7) Would you change anything if you could do it again, and if so what?
For this particular shot, I would have taken a bit more time to get the carpet correct. Little planet photos leave a hole at the bottom of the photo. You need to do some photo cloning work to patch that hole correctly. In this case, I could have done a better job fixing that hole with better carpet cloning. When you are looking for a location to make a little planet photo, it is easier to do if you set your tripod up over a consistent texture like sand, dirt, grass, gravel or asphalt.

8) What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
I am glad I really did not know anything - it has been a fun learning process through all my horrible photographs!!

9) What is your favorite photography accessory, other than your camera?
A good, solid tripod - this can be a hassle to take with you, but it gives you so much more flexibility to make sharp photos no matter what the lighting. I get really frustrated when I think I made a good hand-held photo, only to find it blurred due to motion blur when I enlarge on my computer.

10) If you had to choose one lens which one would it be and why?
Right now, I just purchased a Pentax 20-40mm Limited lens to use on my Pentax K-3 camera. I am looking forward to using it on my hiking trips. It is a high quality metal barrel lens (reminiscent of lenses of old) that is weatherproof (along with the camera) and has a slightly wide - to very short telephoto zoom range. The wide end can provide opportunity for wide angle landscape photos and the short zoom can provide a portrait perspective. It's build quality is outstanding, fairly lightweight and balances well on the camera.

11) What lighting equipment, if any, do you take on a shoot?
None for now. I do have flashes (linked by a flash cord for off-camera) for macro photography. But generally like to use natural light and a tripod. I need to do a bit more study of flash/lighting photography to add to my arsenal.

12) If you couldn't do photography what else would you do?
Continue to hike and backpack without a camera I guess. I would like to hike the entire Appalachian Trail some day. My wife and I have an interest to do country walks across the UK someday also.

13) Do you have any funny or interesting stories about your experiences?
Anytime my wife and I are somewhere, and I see a couple or small group of folks trying to take a group photo, my wife always knows that I will go over and volunteer to take a photo of the entire group allowing the photographer with the camera to get into the group photo.

14) Is there somewhere we can see more of your work?
I do have a Facebook page where I have started to post some of my work (search Thomas Hix Photography on Facebook). I have sold some of my film-based work at a local craft store in Madison Alabama.

15) Do you have any advice for the rest of us?
Have fun! I enjoy reading the Ugly Hedgehog Forum.
Tom

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

An interview with mffox,

1) How long have you been into photography and what got you started?
I started about 25 years ago, mostly while traveling, but began getting serious 4 years ago. What got me started was a shot I took at Grand Teton NP that is still one of my favorites.

2) Do you have any formal training and what kind of photography do you do most?
No formal training, but I've learned a lot from UHH, lots of reading. Most of my work now is landscape/seascape, flowers and, more recently, birds.

3) In your opinion, what makes a good picture stand out from the rest?
It's really a matter of personal opinion: what the picture "says" to me. If it's pleasing to the eye, then it stands out from the rest.

4) What equipment did you use and was there any special setup? Can you walk us through it?
I have to give a lot of the credit to my wife. She brought the "subject" home from a walk after a windstorm: a tip of a pine branch with 2 cones on it. We both found it beautiful in its simplicity, so I put it down on a sheet of paper and photographed it (Leica C-100, f 5.6, 1/50 speed in ambient natural light indoors.

5) Do you post process your final images, and if so can you describe your workflow?
I do some post processing (but not for this particular shot) in PSE or, recently, Corel Paintshop Pro. Mostly I use it to recover a washed-out sky or to experiment with different effects (e.g. B&W, pencil sketch, Orton Effect, vignette).

6) Who or what has influenced your photography and what inspired you to take your winning shot?
The beauty I see all around me in living things, in a cityscape, in nature. Recently I have become much more aware of light and the way it changes from hour to hour and day by day. The simple beauty of a broken pine tree bough was my inspiration for this shot.

7) Would you change anything if you could do it again, and if so what?
I would have started sooner and spent more time doing it.

8) What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
The value of patience and perspective. (I guess that's 2 things!)

9) What is your favorite photography accessory, other than your camera?
Tripod, including my Joby Gorilla.

10) If you had to choose one lens which one would it be and why?
My Zuiko 40-150 seems to give me the best range of options.

11) What lighting equipment, if any, do you take on a shoot?
None.

12) If you couldn't do photography what else would you do?
Though I'm retired, I still spend a great deal of time in charitable work helping the homeless and the unemployed among us.

13) Do you have any funny or interesting stories about your experiences?
Not really.

14) Is there somewhere we can see more of your work?
I've posted a few things on http://slickpic.com.

15) Do you have any advice for the rest of us?
Keep on doing what you love to do, and never stop learning.
mffox