Visions by Vicki

August Challenge - Vanishing Point

2011-08-07T12:38:00.003-04:00

The August Challenge from the Community Photo Challenge is Vanishing Point, so feel free to post ANYTHING as long as it fits the challenge, Vanishing Point.

This image--Under the Bridge--was taken in Pittsburgh, PA. What a great place for all sorts of photos, but especially for architectural ones like this.

Community Photo Challenge - FIREWORKS!

2011-07-08T17:36:00.005-04:00

This is a great time to have a FIREWORKS Challenge!! This challenge has been extended to the end of July.

Here are a few of my fireworks images:

Community Photo Challenge - RED

2011-03-22T11:58:00.003-04:00

This month, there are two challenges at the Community Photo Challenge. One was Still Life and the other is RED. Click the banner above to see the other entries or to enter yourself. Anyway...here's my image for this. It's a photo of my younger granddaughter delivering Christmas presents to our house. The title of this is: Santa Chloe.

Still Life

2011-02-22T15:27:00.006-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I posted a new image on my blog. Life has gotten in the way since last July. I've been working hard at being a good President for my Camera Club, I've been managing my Adobe Photoshop Users Group's monthly meetings, I've been actually shooting photos and processing them (but not sharing enough). Anyway, Marie has posted a new challenge on our Challenge Blog and I wanted to participate. SO.....here's my image, entitled "Take Me Home".

Photo Challenge - Your Personal Challenge

2010-07-31T10:16:00.008-04:00

Our current challenge is something different - challenge yourself to try something new! Here's how it's worded in the Challenge Blog (click this banner to visit the challenge):

"Michael Staley said it perfectly.....'There is no challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself.'

This next challenge will be ANYTHING that you want it to be, but it must be something new to you. I have decided to work on a few different types of photography this summer. I am concentrating on HDR & digital Infrared photography. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. You use bracketing on your camera & Photomatix to transform your images into HDR. Visit Trey Ratcliff @ Stuck In Customs & scroll down to his video at Google."

Now to MY personal challenge: I went to an evening presentation of "Two Shots of Creativity" in mid-June. The presenters were Jane Conner-Ziser and Jack Davis. Jane's creative ideas centered around portraiture, which isn't my "thing", but Jack's creativity centered around the amazing new features in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 6 (which comes with Photoshop CS5 and was pre-ordered and installed on my computers as soon as it was available!). I've been using Photoshop since Version 7.0...over 7 years...and have used ACR exhaustively...but always just to make adjustments prior to working on my images in Photoshop. SO--my personal challenge was (and still is) to learn more about this great tool and to use it to its fullest.

My finished image is below:

Jack's lessons included teaching what he called the "4-Step Tango", first steps when working in ACR, to set the tones and color. He also showed us how to create a faux HDR look. The most enlightening part of his instructions, for me at least, was how he used Presets...and how to create your own. I'm sure most people have no presets in their ACR tabs...I know I didn't until I downloaded his. He also showed us how to use the Targeted Adjustment Tool (5th tool from the right on the top of the ACR dialog). Another great tip was how to take snapshots of your work as you progress...and these stay with the file, so you don't lose your snapshots when you save and close the image.

I can't go into detail about what I did here or what I learned from Jack, but I highly recommend, to anyone interested, that you search on the internet for 'camera raw 6 tutorials' and/or purchase Jack's new DVD (available at PhotoshopCafe.com).

Just to show how far the finished image traveled from the original, here's the photo I started with:

Blogger Community Challenge - Flowers

2010-06-19T14:22:00.005-04:00

Marie changed things up for the current challenge...Here's what she wrote: "There will be two challenges this week that will be posted....THIS one will only last a week & the following week you will have the opportunity to vote on your favorite image. This week's, challenge is "Flowers". You can do a flower garden, a macro, landscape image with flowers. It can be any kind of photo as long as it has a flower in it.Post your images on your Blog. Come back here & click on the blue button below & follow the easy instructions. This challenge starts today & ends on Monday, June 21, the voting starts on the 21st, ends on the Monday the 28th."

(Click on the banner below to visit the Challenge Blog and see the other images)

My flower image was shot in April at the Willow Wood Arboretum in Morris County, NJ. That park is a real treasure and I STILL haven't finished culling the bad ones and processing the keepers, but I loved this Golden Poppy:

Blogger's Community Photo Challenge - COLOR

2010-06-14T20:34:00.002-04:00

This month's subject is color...but NOT just color. We want to see you create something special color-wise. Something your camera did not see. Something you saw in the photo and created in post processing.

The following image was shot in a series of ballet classes that my granddaughters attend. This is my youngest granddaughter and I absolutely loved the pose but wanted to do something more with the photo. Hope you like what I did in post processing. :)

April Challenge - Window/Windows

2010-03-15T22:04:00.004-04:00

This month's photo challenge is "WINDOWS"....or "Window". The main focus is "window". You can use your imagination & be creative. You can use the window as a framing tool, but it must have a window in it. You can have one window, or many windows, but remember the focus is on windows.
Starts today & ends April 15th.

Click on the banner above to check out the other images and to join the fun!

This photo is a reflection of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse--one of my favorite places to photograph. The building where the window is located is across a parking lot and, as you can see, is really in need of repair.

I thought I'd post my photo early for this challenge to make up for the lateness of my last one. LOL

March Challenge - TREE

2010-03-15T18:21:00.004-04:00

This month's challenge is TREE or TREES, whether it is one unique tree or a small grouping, find an image that includes trees. The tree or trees should be the main subject. You can post more than one photo on your blog, but when you come back to this blog select your favorite to post on our new system.

The Challenge starts Feb.15th & ends on March 15th. Post your image on your blog & come back here & try out new system. Click on the blue button, at the bottom of the post & follow the simple directions. Click on the banner above to check out the other entries.

This image is one of my favorites ever...it was shot in Newport, Rhode Island, at the Doris Duke estate, Rough Point.

I know this is really REALLY late...actually it's borderline TOO late...but I wanted to get this in. I've been swamped and sick, so this challenge has been placed on the back burner. I hope to be much better in the future, folks.

Community Photo Challenge - Transportation

2010-02-09T23:14:00.003-05:00

The subject of this month's challenge is...

Marie states, on the Challenge Blog: Our photo challenge this month is TRANSPORTATION. You can use cars, trucks, trains, planes, even motorcycles! Some kind of transportation with or without people. You can be creative, you can use Photoshop or a paint programs. It starts today & ends Feb. 15. Post it on your blog, come back here I leave your link. Remember to visit everyone's entry to see what they contributed.

My entry is titled: Your Ride Awaits

...not that I'd actually ride in either of these trucks. Found them at a flea market/auction along a country road. I've passed this location hundreds of times in my life, but never actually got out with a camera. Not sure why I waited, but it's definitely worth stopping. I got a lot of great photos that day...but this is one of my favorites.

The style of this image is HDR or High Dynamic Range. It's created by taking three exposures of the same scene (on a tripod) and then combining them as a single HDR image (using either Photoshop or Photomatix) and then applying some tone mapping (again using either the Photomatix plugin in Photoshop or the standalone Photomatix Pro program). I love creating these and hope you all like this, too.

To further clarify, Photomatix is a program created by and available at http://www.hdrsoft.com/. It's not very expensive (under $100 with a discount code...email me for that code) and totally worth the price.

Photo Challenge: LEADING LINES

2009-11-16T21:05:00.007-05:00

This month's challenge is "Leading Lines." The challenge reads: There are many lines to look for when shooting your images...Vertical, horizontal diagonal, curves & "S" curves...even converging lines. You have a month to post your image on your blog, and leave your link/url in the comment section of the challenge blog. Well, here are three photos that use leading lines to lead the viewer into the photo. Be sure to check out the other entries at Blogger's Community Photo Challenge! The first photo is from Newport, Rhode Island, taken along the 10 mile Ocean Drive. The second photo is one of the wonderful views of Manhattan from Governor's Island. The last photo is from one of my favorite locations...Sandy Hook.

Current Challenge - Colors of Autumn

2009-11-08T20:00:00.006-05:00

Marie posted the current challenge back in the middle of October and, of course, we chose an Autumn theme for it. Rather than grabbing local color, I waited until I was able to go to Newport, Rhode Island (this year's fall color trip for my husband and me). The following are three photos taken on that trip. Hope you enjoy!

Rule of Thirds Contest

2009-06-14T22:46:00.008-04:00

Well...it was a real surprise and honor to be selected as the winner in the Rule of Thirds Contest on our Bloggers Community Photo Challenge! Thanks to all who voted for my image. I realized after posting the other two examples for this subject that it was to be a secret vote, so I sent Marie an entirely different photo. It really wasn't hard to do that, since I frequently compose my images using this rule of thirds. Sometimes I break it on purpose, but I have a lot of images that conform to the Rule. Here's my 'winning' photo, entitled SECRET GARDEN:

Here's what Marie wrote in the Challenge Blog:

"Vicki 's Secret Garden is our winner. None of the team members were involved with this contest. That is why I had everyone send me their images & votes. Thank you all who participated & voted!

We will still post helpful photography tips, so you may still get alerts from the challenge blog.

Check out our future topics on the sidebar.

Enjoy your summer & take plenty of pics.

Congratulations Vicki!Here is a helpful link on composition: http://www.johnharveyphoto.com/LearnComposition/"

I would like to wish everyone happy shooting this summer...and be sure to keep the topics in mind when you're out and about with your cameras.~Vicki

Bloggers Community Photo Challenge: RULE OF THIRD CONTEST

2009-06-11T14:25:00.002-04:00

This is a fun way to learn about photography...one of the fundamental rules (and one of the main one that can be broken with great results once you've mastered it) is the Rule of Thirds. It's more of a suggestion than an actual rule, but is something that's very important for photographers to understand. There are also some 'rules' for this contest:

1. All images will be a certain size 72 DPI 4X6(432 pixels X 288 Pixels) Try to get as close as you can, no larger.

2. No watermarks, signatures or copyrights symbols on photos.

3. To submit,you must send a copy of your image to me @ Mariebm56@aol.com & I will add all photos to a post. Please label the subject area - Challenge Contest. Days to submit photos JUNE 10 & 11th only. We should have the voting on the 13 & 14th.

4. Our team members/judges will decide which best follow the challenge & also include good photographic qualities.(sharpness, contrast, color or B&W)Once our team makes the final selection, we will leave it up to our community to vote on the winner.

I'm sending one of the images below to Marie for the contest...want to guess which one? :)

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: FLOWERS

2009-06-03T22:44:00.007-04:00

The last challenge before the summer break is Flowers. To visit the Challenge Blog and the links to all the other entries, click on the banner below:

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: PHOTO STORY

2009-05-19T22:47:00.006-04:00

The Current Challenge is to create a Photo Story of related images. I probably have a ton of photos I could use, but lately I've been focusing (no pun intended) on Sandy Hook, part of the Gateway National Park System, and absolutely love taking different angles and types of photos of the lighthouse...so, my entry is a series of photos of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. I'm not sure if it qualifies, but I love it. Click on the green banner above to go to the Challenge Blog and check out the other wonderful entries.

(Also, click on the collage below to view it larger.)

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: Tranquility

2009-05-05T22:22:00.009-04:00

(click the banner to go to the Challenge and to view the other entries)

This week's challenge is "Tranquility"...a very ephemeral thing. It's not something you can describe in concrete words...it's a feeling more than anything else. Not everyone will agree with everyone else about what's tranquil, or at least the first thing to come to mind for one person will not be what a second person will think of right out of the box. I have a ton of photos that I consider tranquil, but this is one of my newest, so I thought I'd use it. It's a photo of a wildlife viewing area on Sandy Hook, part of the Gateway National Park System--a wonderful place for viewing wading birds. Hope others find it as tranquil as I do.

The same day, I took the following photograph. I always find flowers a tranquil subject...this is no exception:

Tulips on a Hill

2009-04-26T09:26:00.003-04:00

The skies have mostly been gray here, which kind of matched my frame of mind. For those of you who don't know, I lost one of my sisters a couple of weeks ago and then, on top of that sadness, ended up with a sore throat/fever/headaches/etc. The weather here has mostly matched how I was feeling. Last Friday, the sun came out and the day was glorious. I grabbed my camera (my NEW 40D--another long story) and headed to my favorite garden spot to check out the tulips. It was late in the day and I was able to get some great photos of the flowers with great light. This is just one of the many images I captured that day. I guess I'm coming out of my funk.

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: Birdhouses

2009-03-06T16:07:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd be really pro-active this week and post my photo at the beginning of the challenge, instead of at the very end just under the wire. I just got some new plug-ins for photoshop and decided this would be a great chance to play with them. I took a photo that wasn't the best one and tried to make it better using onOne's PhotoTools2 and PhotoFrames4. I think the photo turned out nicely...so am anxious to use it on a photo that starts out as a good one. :) Here's my entry for "Birdhouses:"

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: Winter

2009-02-26T10:55:00.005-05:00

(click the banner to go to the challenge, read the rules and see all the entries)

Winter in NJ can be snowy one year and clear and warm the next. This year, all the snow we've had is gone. More could come, but for now...nothing. This image is from earlier this winter when we actually had some of the white stuff softening our world.

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: Close Ups

2009-02-11T09:24:00.005-05:00

The current challenge is Close ups...and I'm lucky that the Deep Cut Orchid Show took place last week at a location very near me. I went there three out of the four days it ran and had a lot of fun shooting the orchids. They are such weird flowers--some look like faces, some look like aliens...all are beautiful! Here are a sampling of some of my shots with my macro lens. Hope you enjoy...

Hearts Challenge

2009-01-28T11:05:00.006-05:00

The Bloggers' Community Challenge "Hearts" is in progress. It's just for fun, no voting on this one. To check out the information for this challenge, and to see the other entries, click on the banner below:

My entry below was taken in St. Augustine, Florida. These flowers were growing in the courtyard of the bed & breakfast where we stayed, and they really did look like there were hearts in the flowers.

Hearts 'n Flowers

Blogger's Community Photo Challenge: Still Life

2009-01-15T19:33:00.002-05:00

The current challenge (which ends tonight) is Still Life. This is definitely not my favorite type of photography...in fact, it's probably near the bottom of the list. Here's one of my few attempts at shooting still lifes...

Be sure to click on the banner to check out the other entries for this challenge and/or to enter an image yourself. Happy Shooting!

2008-12-18T21:30:00.004-05:00

This week's challenge is Christmas Ornaments.

If you don't celebrate Christmas & would like to join in, you may include a decoration that would represent your holiday.

Well, here's my entry...late unfortunately. I tried to upload it earlier today but lost the internet in the middle of the upload and didn't get it back until after 9 p.m. Oh, well...at least I tried. Click the banner above to check out the other entries in the comment section.

Throughout my home, the holiday decor mostly includes snowmen...not sure when this started, but I'm very picky about the ones that come to visit--they must have some personality evident in their expressions. I think this ornament epitomizes those personalities. :) Hope you enjoy it.

Photo Challenge - Christmas Season

2008-12-04T21:25:00.005-05:00

This image and the wish behind it is appropriate for any time of year, but especially for this season. It's my wish for the new year!
Check out the other images at the Blogger's Community Photo Challenge!

2008-11-14T00:20:00.002-05:00

This week's challenge at the Blogger Community Photo Challenge is "Give Thanks for..." The idea is to show something (or some things) we're thankful to have in our lives. In my case, it's a no-brainer. I'm blessed with three wonderful grandchildren--Joey, Zoe and Chloe.

Serving Lunch

2008-11-08T13:57:00.002-05:00

Apparently, by feeding all the songbirds and other birds at feeders in my yard, I'm also offering a buffet lunch for any hawk that happens to pass over. I looked out the back door earlier this week to see what birds were feeding and there were absolutely none--here's the reason...

Blogger Community Photo Challenge: SPOOKY

2008-10-23T18:12:00.010-04:00

This week's challenge is "Spooky" and it's SO appropriate! Click here: SPOOKY to play along. Here's my entry--just for fun--not in the running to win.

'Graveyard Ghost'

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot - Fences And What's Behind Them

2008-10-08T15:39:00.005-04:00

I've never participated in Carly's Monday Photo Shoot before, but thought I'd give it a try...here's my fence. It's located in one of my favorite places to shoot, so what lies beyond the fence is the wealth of nature and beauty that is Sandy Hook National Park.

Blogger Community Photo Challenge - CHANGE!

2008-10-07T01:27:00.016-04:00

Ok...to complete the move to my new home, I've found some images that say change...but unlike our move here, the changes depicted in my images aren't good...at least not from an aesthetic point of view.

First, here's the challenge: "Our first challenge on our new blog is CHANGE, it was suggested by Rob. Vicki & I thought it was perfect for our move here".

This is a postcard showing how the hotel looked when it was a popular destination for vacationers:

My 'Change' is the demise of a great hotel, the Metropolitan. In it's heyday, this wonderful hotel was a gem of the Jersey Shore in Asbury Park. The images I've captured show the decay that resulted from years of neglect. Sadly, even that is now gone, as the hotel was demolished early this year. Sometimes progress demands a steep price. A couple more photos:

Moving in...

2008-10-05T22:08:00.006-04:00

Hi, welcome to my new 'home'! Hope you like it here...help yourself to some wine and cheese and find a nice comfy chair and, as my relatives down south say, set awhile! I'm glad to see you made the trip over the bridge to this new and, hopefully, wonderful home that we've all found here. Be sure to check out the Bloggers Community Photo Challenge and participate if you're so inclined. Marie went to a lot of effort to pack up all our winning entries from our old home, load the truck, and unpacked them in our brand new Bloggers Community Photo Gallery, so be sure to check that one out, as well. All future challenge winners will be posted there, so it will continue to be the Best of the Best! Glad to see you. Enjoy your stay!