First of all, thanks for the background on your "repose" portrait Jennifer. I still think it is an awesome portrait and would hope that you would indeed share a copy with the gentleman.
I too, would like to thank everyone that took time to make a comment on my photo. Usually it takes me about the length of the contest to figure out what I am going to submit so haven't been real good about posting in the "pre-game" c&c forum. I will try to get better at that with my next entry.
Following Jennifer's lead, here is a little background on my fighter. Initially I was going to post this one, but I started to get nervous with the idea of posting a sepia photo (I am not as confident as whiterice is with the tones), plus I wanted to get in closer to his face and eyes. This photo was taken after about six rounds of sparring with one of his students. It was about 90 degrees in this old warehouse gym and I didn't capture the sweat as well as I would have liked.
Kyle Harrell is an amateur boxer, but don't let that title fool you. He really is a mild mannered, Clark Kent kind of guy outside of the ring and Superman when he puts his gloves on. His look actually changes when he gets ready to box and he doesn't even have to take of any glasses.
I met Kyle, a trainer as well as a fighter, when I first started shooting at the gym about 8 months ago. He is the "real deal". It is hard for him to even get a fight because it is rare that he bumps into someone at his level (determined by experience as well as weight). Many are trying to convince him to "go pro", but he has continued to fight as an amateur because he knows that once he has one professional fight, he will never be able to fight amateur again.
He is so excited that I used his photo for a contest! I too, am going to have to see that he gets a print.
Its great to see the history behind the shots as Jennifer and Jeff have shared. So I thought I would give you the run down on my shot.
Basically its a pretty straight forward shot...my lil one who is the joy of my life and often the object of my photos is such a chatter box and she had just gotten off the phone when I thought to set this shot up. She never seems to sit upright in this particular chair so its a natural as any 10 year old would think to chat on the phone hanging up side down!
At first when I opened the image in bridge I had fixed the color some as it had such a green cast from the green carpet and green hued wall. The yellow light added an interesting glow while there was a flash held up to the right and some very large windows to the left. I then added the vinette originally in bridge but later I brought the image to pspX2 and ran a clarifying filter to make it pop. Very simular to giving it almost a sinthisized HDR look in pp.
This was the result and I almost used this one as my final entry...
Even though there was good feedback on this something just didn't look right. I desided it was the vinette, the shadow on the forhead, and the slight slant to the back of the chair.
So back to square one in bridge working with the original...I made the adjustments to the colors like before....then used the straighting tool and straightened and cropped the image. Next I brought it back into pspX2 and added a tranparent layer and made it into a mask layer with black. This way I could remove the part of the mask that was over lampshade and darken the mask around her hair without loosing too much of the background. I ran the clarifing filter again too.
I then lightened the forehead using a clone tool on soft brush set to about 23% This is the result...
The biggest blessing about this whole thing is that my lil one who has a disease that is called Alopecia Areata which is basicly her immune system attacks her hair folicals for no reason. She has periods of remission but two days after this shoot she lost quite a bit amount of hair on the right side and top and back of her head. So we now will have to wait for the hair to return (it can start growing anywhere from a week to several years later) or she can go totally bald which is always a possibility with her having this since she was a baby. But we now have the portrait of her with all her crowning glory hanging down!
She told me yesterday that if she does loose it all then she wants to have a long black haired wig and a hot pink one for when she feels like dressing up!.... :cry
Yes Brother I've been a Nikonian for quite a while now... I actually should revisit the site & see if I can still remember my password. One I discovered Smug and Grin, I kind of lost interest in all others. This is where it's at for me....
Mosrly I shoot with D80, occaisionally my good old bullet proof f90. SB 600 flash and a multitude of Nikon/aftermarket lenses. You> w
Thank you Dan - I know that actually he's ignoring me not vice-versa
Anyway regardless of who's doing what, I appreciate your effort
I hope his not ignore you as well...
Hi it's Wess/Mad Cat guy. I am so new to this I can't tell if you are talking to each other, or if I somehow am included in this discusion. Photobug please clarify..... thanks w
Hi it's Wess/Mad Cat guy. I am so new to this I can't tell if you are talking to each other, or if I somehow am included in this discusion. Photobug please clarify..... thanks w
I was referring to a discussion between Aaron, and me, as a joke...
- Thank you Aaron for your clarification
* it was actually between Dan and me regarding Aaron... I even don't know anymore what I'm saying...
Somewhere in there I think I received a compliment....
Glad that I was a source of agreement, I should get an award or something!
Happy to see you guys bounce back a bit!
Jeff, yes I was complimenting you, personally I was having a hard time deciding between your entry and another, it came down to the cropping of your entry, the framing just didnt seem to work for me, and after seeing your orig crop I was trying to make the point that I would have voted your way with the framing of your shot here on this thread...(not that one vote matters)
p.s. Im not sure if your accusing me of bouncing back?:D , but I really dont care to be associated in anyway with photobug.... Kat made some very compelling points about the issue only to help solidify my original judgements, didnt those facts bother any of you?
I know some days back I made an "affirmation" (actually not exactly affirmation) that I shouldn't have made,
along with my questions to Allen regarding his comments on my second entry to the contest, vs. my first one.
It was: "I hope this is not personal"
I sent to him my apologies and he absolved me from having done anything wrong.
I will however make it publicly too: I'm sorry, and I can assure you that my intention was much less bad that
it appeared into some eyes. Less or more, I agree that I shouldn't have made it.
- Things have been discussed and I hope you guys can absolve me for doing that mistake too. Thanks.
Starting from that point though, things went way to far and I actually have been seriously hurt by very grave
accusations regarding my integrity and honesty.
I'm sorry that I'm bringing this back into the scene, but I realize that I owe you all some clarifications, without which
I cannot go further and participate in this Dgrin community.
Sad to see that somebody wanted to put me into a bad light at any price - in other words:
if I was not guilty for asking, at least I could be found guilty for something else...
DSS #27 is an old story - nobody knows what happened and Kerry, managed to stop
all discussions in a wonderful manner - too bad it has been re-opened here with the purpose
of incriminating me for doing dishonest things...
I'd like to tell you that I'm proud and happy to be part of the "Daily Photo" community. It's a SmugMug community
of very honorable people. (It's not a community that I created with the specific purpose of obtaining votes into
the contests).
At the "Daily Photo" community, we all help and support each other and my photographic skills have really grown up there.
We are talking about our work, even minor personal problems (sometimes) and we are happy to announce about events
in our life, or realizations we have. I always thank to them for their support.
Several times I even suggested to some to come and participate with their beautiful work in the DGrin contests.
- I wouldn't have done this if my only purpose was to win no matter what.
I was proud to tell them that my entry made it to the finals and I never thought there was anything wrong saying that
their vote would be appreciated. They could go and vote for me or for other entries. There are other people in
that community part of the DGrin contests - I'm not the only one.
I'd like to clarify that if I wanted to cheat, I would have deleted that note. The fact that I didn't shows actually
that my intention was not to cheat.
In addition: that thing happened few months ago and we are daily posting things - I'm amazed to see how
determined could somebody be to dig so deeply into my past, for evidence to accuse me.
Anyway, as JAG mentioned these here are "challenges" not (national)"competitions" and I think they should
be meant to help us progress into the photography, not to transform us into enemies.
I really hope that these kind of unfounded accusations will never happen again.
With this being said and your permission, I'm ending this ugly chapter - let's go on being friendly and with no hate.
I cannot believe I am posting this message... I had decided to back out of the entire board, however, I would like to do so without everyone feeling I am a horrible person.... I have always gotten along with everyone...
First off... I did not go digging for anything... All anyone has to do is "READ" the entire thread to see that..
Tatiana, you posted the link to the comments on your photo,
"I simply looked at it"..I did not go on some "witch hunt" as you claim.
And for the record. It was on all your DG entries, not just one from the distant past. Furthermore, I am not the only person to notice this practice, others "have noticed" it too... I just decided to step up and stand up about it...
This will not be the first time you start trouble and then play the victim card...
You are acting as if you were attacked... Lets not forget "you" posted the link to your comments..
If it does not bother anyone else, then fine.. It does bother me, because I feel that you know exactly what you are doing..
As far as using Jag's words on challenges VS competitions.. well, I can say that, I am not the one that was complaining I had not been voted for, and caused a stink over it.. I have always been a great sport about it all, and I was not the one complaining about the judges..
What can I say.... You pointed out the cheating, I made a point of it not being fair... and "I" get threatened with personally attacking someone for pointing out what "they themselves" brought up..
From everyone's remarks, I can see your really good at this and personally I don't have any further time to waste on the baby games I have witnessed...
I was here to learn and help, not play adult baby games, and sue me for wanting things to be fair and on the level for everyone involved, whether you call them challenges or contests... you would think "fair" is still important..
It was my previous intention to close my account and back away... but Kerry I cannot figure out how to do that.. so please shut it down for me....
I have nothing more to say.... but this,,, all of the friends that I have made and you know who you are, I just could not let her paint me out to be some bad person that went digging dirt on her when that "is not" what happened..
Unlike some, I am not posting this for attention or sympathy. I have thought my decision through carefully, and I am backing out for good reason... Hopefully things can return to normal and you guys can get back to what you truly love..
I wish everyone the best.. The majority of you here are "mature" and don't play into the games, and you have awesome talent, and have taught me so much,,,.. and thank you for that..
I usually just lurk, but I didn't like to see where this was going. Let's just, as a community, move on. Please, Kat, don't cancel you're account over something like this. If those who are involved don't mention the word "Ignore," (and I'm just saying hypothetically, not calling out anybody) you are doing a better job ignoring the other person by not even referring to him or her. By bringing it up, it just exacerbates the situation It also cuts down on sides being chosen, etc etc.
I'm sure everyone has learned something already. I didn't know there were other Smugmug places I could troll, which is awesome. And let's all put back the *grin* on dgrin.
I know I have just started on the forum and don't really 'know' either of you. But here are my observations about this whole thing and my hope.
tatiana wanted feedback on why her photo wasn't chosen, and a lot of us really like honest c&c, myself included. It was pointed out to her that the before-challenge threads would be a good place for that, that there is also the c&c thread. So I take that to mean that she was in the wrong to ask for it from the judges after the fact. Since she apologized to the judge, apparently she took it to mean that also. That was a learning point for me - I know now where to go for c&c, and that's good.
Email/forums/writing are probably the worst way to express feelings. It is way to easy to misinterpret 'tone of voice', mood, etc. I think maybe all parties involved did some of that at all turns. Hard not to on email without talking to a person fact to face to gather all the visual nuances of communication.
That being said, and not wanting this to turn into yet another heated conversation or a thread that has people writing in to support one person or another - can we not just drop this and move on without ANYONE leaving the forum? All people involved are people that I have learned from as a 'lurker' by reading posts and studying their photos. All people involved have things to contribute and all involved probably misread or misunderstood or 'took the wrong way', or too critically, things that were posted on the infamous thread.
Can we all not just drop this and move on with no further comment on this? it was done, it was not good, it wasn't pretty, everyone makes mistakes, let's all remain with the forum and continue to work on photography.
What did you guys find the hardest about the topic? I didn't enter because, not only do I not know anybody since moving lol, I couldn't figure out how to portray myself as both a photographer and an illustrator. For some reason, I felt like I had to choose, and in the end, I couldn't.
- Our judges are awesome, and we are all thankful for them
- Soliciting for votes is not okay and never has been
- Nobody here is on a witch hunt
- We don't want anybody who loves it here to leave this community
To add to that:
- Your awesome mods can only monitor what occurs on DGrin. So we can tell you soliciting for votes is not allowed, but we can only actively stop it on the boards. One of the ways we do this is monitoring where votes come from in the polls.
- The above comment is simply a reiteration of the official challenge rules. It is a reminder, and it should not be misconstrued as anything personal.
- I am the coolest chick on the planet and you should all pay homage in the form of brownies. Copious amounts of brownies.
- ...uh, ignore that last one. Sorry.
Comments
I too, would like to thank everyone that took time to make a comment on my photo. Usually it takes me about the length of the contest to figure out what I am going to submit so haven't been real good about posting in the "pre-game" c&c forum. I will try to get better at that with my next entry.
Following Jennifer's lead, here is a little background on my fighter. Initially I was going to post this one, but I started to get nervous with the idea of posting a sepia photo (I am not as confident as whiterice is with the tones), plus I wanted to get in closer to his face and eyes. This photo was taken after about six rounds of sparring with one of his students. It was about 90 degrees in this old warehouse gym and I didn't capture the sweat as well as I would have liked.
Kyle Harrell is an amateur boxer, but don't let that title fool you. He really is a mild mannered, Clark Kent kind of guy outside of the ring and Superman when he puts his gloves on. His look actually changes when he gets ready to box and he doesn't even have to take of any glasses.
I met Kyle, a trainer as well as a fighter, when I first started shooting at the gym about 8 months ago. He is the "real deal". It is hard for him to even get a fight because it is rare that he bumps into someone at his level (determined by experience as well as weight). Many are trying to convince him to "go pro", but he has continued to fight as an amateur because he knows that once he has one professional fight, he will never be able to fight amateur again.
He is so excited that I used his photo for a contest! I too, am going to have to see that he gets a print.
http://jeffgroves.smugmug.com
But then, your entry was damn good too!
http://lrichters.smugmug.com
Basically its a pretty straight forward shot...my lil one who is the joy of my life and often the object of my photos is such a chatter box and she had just gotten off the phone when I thought to set this shot up. She never seems to sit upright in this particular chair so its a natural as any 10 year old would think to chat on the phone hanging up side down!
At first when I opened the image in bridge I had fixed the color some as it had such a green cast from the green carpet and green hued wall. The yellow light added an interesting glow while there was a flash held up to the right and some very large windows to the left. I then added the vinette originally in bridge but later I brought the image to pspX2 and ran a clarifying filter to make it pop. Very simular to giving it almost a sinthisized HDR look in pp.
This was the result and I almost used this one as my final entry...
Even though there was good feedback on this something just didn't look right. I desided it was the vinette, the shadow on the forhead, and the slight slant to the back of the chair.
So back to square one in bridge working with the original...I made the adjustments to the colors like before....then used the straighting tool and straightened and cropped the image. Next I brought it back into pspX2 and added a tranparent layer and made it into a mask layer with black. This way I could remove the part of the mask that was over lampshade and darken the mask around her hair without loosing too much of the background. I ran the clarifing filter again too.
I then lightened the forehead using a clone tool on soft brush set to about 23% This is the result...
The biggest blessing about this whole thing is that my lil one who has a disease that is called Alopecia Areata which is basicly her immune system attacks her hair folicals for no reason. She has periods of remission but two days after this shoot she lost quite a bit amount of hair on the right side and top and back of her head. So we now will have to wait for the hair to return (it can start growing anywhere from a week to several years later) or she can go totally bald which is always a possibility with her having this since she was a baby. But we now have the portrait of her with all her crowning glory hanging down!
She told me yesterday that if she does loose it all then she wants to have a long black haired wig and a hot pink one for when she feels like dressing up!....
so if she has a period of loss tell her I said Hot Pink Rocks!
fwiw, if you had used this crop above in the entry I know you would have received one more vote...
loved the work here!
Even though I'm in the state of "ignoring Aaron"
Great perception Aaron.
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
He can't hear you.
Wait, let me pass this on to him. Hey Aaron, Tatiana agrees with you
Danny
http://danielplumer.com/
Facebook Fan Page
:lol4
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
So glad you appreciated that Diva. :feelgood
http://danielplumer.com/
Facebook Fan Page
Thank you Dan - I know that actually he's ignoring me not vice-versa
Anyway regardless of who's doing what, I appreciate your effort
I hope his not ignore you as well...
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
its all fun & games until someone puts an eye out
Glad that I was a source of agreement, I should get an award or something!
Happy to see you guys bounce back a bit!
http://jeffgroves.smugmug.com
Yes Brother I've been a Nikonian for quite a while now... I actually should revisit the site & see if I can still remember my password. One I discovered Smug and Grin, I kind of lost interest in all others. This is where it's at for me....
Mosrly I shoot with D80, occaisionally my good old bullet proof f90. SB 600 flash and a multitude of Nikon/aftermarket lenses. You> w
Please elaborate.... you lost me on that one.
Negative copy, over. w
Hi it's Wess/Mad Cat guy. I am so new to this I can't tell if you are talking to each other, or if I somehow am included in this discusion. Photobug please clarify..... thanks w
I was referring to a discussion between Aaron, and me, as a joke...
- Thank you Aaron for your clarification
* it was actually between Dan and me regarding Aaron... I even don't know anymore what I'm saying...
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
Jeff, yes I was complimenting you, personally I was having a hard time deciding between your entry and another, it came down to the cropping of your entry, the framing just didnt seem to work for me, and after seeing your orig crop I was trying to make the point that I would have voted your way with the framing of your shot here on this thread...(not that one vote matters)
p.s. Im not sure if your accusing me of bouncing back?:D , but I really dont care to be associated in anyway with photobug.... Kat made some very compelling points about the issue only to help solidify my original judgements, didnt those facts bother any of you?
I did say "a bit"
http://jeffgroves.smugmug.com
I know some days back I made an "affirmation" (actually not exactly affirmation) that I shouldn't have made,
along with my questions to Allen regarding his comments on my second entry to the contest, vs. my first one.
It was: "I hope this is not personal"
I sent to him my apologies and he absolved me from having done anything wrong.
I will however make it publicly too: I'm sorry, and I can assure you that my intention was much less bad that
it appeared into some eyes. Less or more, I agree that I shouldn't have made it.
- Things have been discussed and I hope you guys can absolve me for doing that mistake too. Thanks.
Starting from that point though, things went way to far and I actually have been seriously hurt by very grave
accusations regarding my integrity and honesty.
I'm sorry that I'm bringing this back into the scene, but I realize that I owe you all some clarifications, without which
I cannot go further and participate in this Dgrin community.
Sad to see that somebody wanted to put me into a bad light at any price - in other words:
if I was not guilty for asking, at least I could be found guilty for something else...
DSS #27 is an old story - nobody knows what happened and Kerry, managed to stop
all discussions in a wonderful manner - too bad it has been re-opened here with the purpose
of incriminating me for doing dishonest things...
I'd like to tell you that I'm proud and happy to be part of the "Daily Photo" community. It's a SmugMug community
of very honorable people. (It's not a community that I created with the specific purpose of obtaining votes into
the contests).
At the "Daily Photo" community, we all help and support each other and my photographic skills have really grown up there.
We are talking about our work, even minor personal problems (sometimes) and we are happy to announce about events
in our life, or realizations we have. I always thank to them for their support.
Several times I even suggested to some to come and participate with their beautiful work in the DGrin contests.
- I wouldn't have done this if my only purpose was to win no matter what.
I was proud to tell them that my entry made it to the finals and I never thought there was anything wrong saying that
their vote would be appreciated. They could go and vote for me or for other entries. There are other people in
that community part of the DGrin contests - I'm not the only one.
I'd like to clarify that if I wanted to cheat, I would have deleted that note. The fact that I didn't shows actually
that my intention was not to cheat.
In addition: that thing happened few months ago and we are daily posting things - I'm amazed to see how
determined could somebody be to dig so deeply into my past, for evidence to accuse me.
Anyway, as JAG mentioned these here are "challenges" not (national)"competitions" and I think they should
be meant to help us progress into the photography, not to transform us into enemies.
I really hope that these kind of unfounded accusations will never happen again.
With this being said and your permission, I'm ending this ugly chapter - let's go on being friendly and with no hate.
Thank you for your attention.
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
You got it
Cheers!
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
First off... I did not go digging for anything... All anyone has to do is "READ" the entire thread to see that..
Tatiana, you posted the link to the comments on your photo,
"I simply looked at it"..I did not go on some "witch hunt" as you claim.
And for the record. It was on all your DG entries, not just one from the distant past. Furthermore, I am not the only person to notice this practice, others "have noticed" it too... I just decided to step up and stand up about it...
This will not be the first time you start trouble and then play the victim card...
You are acting as if you were attacked... Lets not forget "you" posted the link to your comments..
If it does not bother anyone else, then fine.. It does bother me, because I feel that you know exactly what you are doing..
As far as using Jag's words on challenges VS competitions.. well, I can say that, I am not the one that was complaining I had not been voted for, and caused a stink over it.. I have always been a great sport about it all, and
I was not the one complaining about the judges..
What can I say.... You pointed out the cheating, I made a point of it not being fair... and "I" get threatened with personally attacking someone for pointing out what "they themselves" brought up..
From everyone's remarks, I can see your really good at this and personally I don't have any further time to waste on the baby games I have witnessed...
I was here to learn and help, not play adult baby games, and sue me for wanting things to be fair and on the level for everyone involved, whether you call them challenges or contests... you would think "fair" is still important..
It was my previous intention to close my account and back away... but Kerry I cannot figure out how to do that.. so please shut it down for me....
I have nothing more to say.... but this,,, all of the friends that I have made and you know who you are, I just could not let her paint me out to be some bad person that went digging dirt on her when that "is not" what happened..
Unlike some, I am not posting this for attention or sympathy. I have thought my decision through carefully, and I am backing out for good reason... Hopefully things can return to normal and you guys can get back to what you truly love..
I wish everyone the best.. The majority of you here are "mature" and don't play into the games, and you have awesome talent, and have taught me so much,,,.. and thank you for that..
Kat
I'm sure everyone has learned something already. I didn't know there were other Smugmug places I could troll, which is awesome. And let's all put back the *grin* on dgrin.
Now back to the dark with me
Houston Portrait Photographer
Children's Illustrator
tatiana wanted feedback on why her photo wasn't chosen, and a lot of us really like honest c&c, myself included. It was pointed out to her that the before-challenge threads would be a good place for that, that there is also the c&c thread. So I take that to mean that she was in the wrong to ask for it from the judges after the fact. Since she apologized to the judge, apparently she took it to mean that also. That was a learning point for me - I know now where to go for c&c, and that's good.
Email/forums/writing are probably the worst way to express feelings. It is way to easy to misinterpret 'tone of voice', mood, etc. I think maybe all parties involved did some of that at all turns. Hard not to on email without talking to a person fact to face to gather all the visual nuances of communication.
That being said, and not wanting this to turn into yet another heated conversation or a thread that has people writing in to support one person or another - can we not just drop this and move on without ANYONE leaving the forum? All people involved are people that I have learned from as a 'lurker' by reading posts and studying their photos. All people involved have things to contribute and all involved probably misread or misunderstood or 'took the wrong way', or too critically, things that were posted on the infamous thread.
Can we all not just drop this and move on with no further comment on this? it was done, it was not good, it wasn't pretty, everyone makes mistakes, let's all remain with the forum and continue to work on photography.
Just my 2 cents.
kara
about.me/karastewart
Why should you let one person's comments make you want to close your account? I haven't seen anybody (else) accuse you of anything.
Let's just stop the blame game here and move on!
Hey I will be needing your C&Cs for this round on some Yosemite shots I will be taking this weekend, so don't be going anywhere
I think I am at a point that I really wished that Kerry would just go ahead and close this thread so we could all move on to the next round!
Los Angeles dance photographer
Website: http://www.allenparseghian.com
What did you guys find the hardest about the topic? I didn't enter because, not only do I not know anybody since moving lol, I couldn't figure out how to portray myself as both a photographer and an illustrator. For some reason, I felt like I had to choose, and in the end, I couldn't.
Houston Portrait Photographer
Children's Illustrator
- Our judges are awesome, and we are all thankful for them
- Soliciting for votes is not okay and never has been
- Nobody here is on a witch hunt
- We don't want anybody who loves it here to leave this community
To add to that:
- Your awesome mods can only monitor what occurs on DGrin. So we can tell you soliciting for votes is not allowed, but we can only actively stop it on the boards. One of the ways we do this is monitoring where votes come from in the polls.
- The above comment is simply a reiteration of the official challenge rules. It is a reminder, and it should not be misconstrued as anything personal.
- I am the coolest chick on the planet and you should all pay homage in the form of brownies. Copious amounts of brownies.
- ...uh, ignore that last one. Sorry.