August Challenge - Vanishing Point

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!

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:

Photo Challenge - Your Personal Challenge

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

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:

Current Challenge - Colors of Autumn

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

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

Hearts Challenge

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 Community Photo Challenge - CHANGE!

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...

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!