Mini Challenge #151 Environmental Portrait

Syncopation

Mini-challenge #151: Environmental Portrait

An environmental portrait is defined as a portrait taken in the subject's usual environment, e.g. their home or workplace which in turn gives an insight into the subject's life and their relationship with their surroundings

The contest will be a quick turnaround closing on October 2nd, 2012 at 8:00 PM GMT

OUR UN-OFFICIAL GENERAL RULES
1. Have fun sharing and seeing what others share!*
2. The host supplies a topic and you post 1-3 images. The host judges the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and is not eligible to enter. The 1st place winner becomes the next host, chooses the next topic and becomes the next judge.
3. Any photo you’ve taken is eligible, regardless of when taken or camera used.*
4. Any amount of post-processing is allowed. However, it is helpful if you list your camera and lens along with your photo.*
5. You may comment on other contestant's images. If you want someone to leave you some critique or criticism, just ask within your post.
6. The winner has up to three days (72 hours) to begin a new mini-challenge, or the honor goes to the #2 finisher and so forth.

Guidelines:
1. Enter 1-3 photos and put them in a single post.
2. Either embed your image in the thread or, if you must, supply a link to it. Keep in mind, however, most people don't want to click to open photos hosted elsewhere (i.e. on your website).
3. Also try and resize your photos prior to posting so they're sized appropriately for viewing without having to scroll (~800 pixels on the longest side works best.)
4. Give each image you enter a title.
5. Enjoy discussion with members about their images, don't let this just be an entry thread!
6. When quoting a post, change the IMG urls to a 200x200 size picture so it is clear your post is feedback and not another entry. (See here for help).
7. Don't be hesitant; share 'em and enter!

Mini-Challenge pointers:
1. Upon winning a mini-challenge round, your first step is coming up with a new theme and starting a new thread using the same format as others have used.
2. Make sure to notify the admin of this thread to update the main thread links with your entry thread.
3. Feel free to watch the thread as it grows or wait to the end time and look at all the entries all at once.
4. After the time/date has passed, then officially close the thread with a single post notifying everyone of the fact.
5. After you're finished judging, start a new thread (again using the prior formats) and post your Winner and runners-up. It is important to have runners up in case the winner does not show within the 72-hour window.
6. PM the winner with this info above and let them know they have 72 hours to set up the next mini-challenge.
7. If the winner does not show/start the next mini-challenge after 72 hours, notify the next runner-up and post a message on the Winner thread of the fact.
8. Remember, if you're the Winner, you run the next mini challenge!

Here are couple of examples of my own environmental portraits:






Good luck everyone!

linyangchen

Many thanks Syncopation for running this challenge! Here are my inputs.


The Terminator driving a Land Rover (reflected in sunglasses), Uganda




A performer takes time out during the Notting Hill Carnival, London




Preparing for takeoff, Airbus A330, Entebbe International Airport nonstop to Amsterdam Schiphol

kentwaller

time for a break




"Thats The Craic She Said, With One Leg Up'n The Dash And Nothing On But The Radio..."




"so, going to rachel's party tonight? no, gotta work..."

davev

This will piss off half of you folks.

1) President Obama

grandmaR

First step to making a Panama hat - in Ecuador 2008

Assistant waiter Sun - on Enchantment of the Seas - 2011


New Orleans tour guide - winter 2004

PedalGirl

1. The Candy Lady


2. Out in Right Field

WhatSheSaw

Here is one I took for a challenge a while back. I'll add a couple others as I find them.

#1 Open Wide


#2 Artiste

travelways

I always liked this subject, and have lot's of pictures on this
The hardest part is to decide which ones to show...
Here are some:

1. Guatemala Lifestyle



2. At the kiosk



3. Old fashion tailor

Alans Grin

Not good at candid people shots - just too embarrassed doing it!
Here are a couple which might just about fit the bill...

1) Now where did I leave it! - Venice



2) Fixing a Leak - France.



3) Ouch my head hurts! - Boys gowing up in Kenya.



Alan.

tinamarie52

I'll play!

1


2


3

richtersl

#1 - Woman's Work is Never Done



#2 - The Cook



#3 - Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Salesman?

lifeinfocus

Street artist working on Main Street Midland, Mi. 1




Street artist working on Main Street Midland, Mi. 2

Midknightc3

Friend of mine putting new floors in my house


Relaxing in camp, 1145pm outside of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile


Lupe Munoz, miner/cattle rancher making breakfast, Guanajuato Mexico


Clark

grandmaR

[QUOTE=kentw
"so, going to rachel's party tonight? no, gotta work..."
[/QUOTE]

I loved these, but particularly this one as I have one of a Roman re-enactment and when I looked at the photo I took it showed one of the soldiers that had his back to me had his hand up under his tunic scratching his butt.

Everyone's submissions are great, and I particularly like the tailor of travelways. But tinamarie52 either you didn't get the concept, or I don't know what it is about.

fjcvisual

1. Earning a Buck - Venice Beach


2. Every Day - Bangalore, India


3. No Time

explorish

explorish entries
Dribbling



Some win, some lose



Chilling on a Sunday afternoon

bfluegie

I don't take many people shots, so the pickings (from me) are slim.

#1. Changing of the Guard, WWII (Great Patriotic War) Memorial, Moscow


#2. Solitary Guard, WWII (Great Patriotic War) Memorial, Moscow


#3, Dugout Duty

zoomn

1.


2.


3.

CHANDLERJA

#1 Conversation



#2 In flight



#3 Sunglasses?

sapphire73

Don't have many photos in this category but am contributing a couple to the thread....

1. Tribal Chief in Ghana


2. Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) - taken at an apple festival this past weekend


3. Caregiver for Orphans in Kenya

dnie

grandmaR wrote: »

I loved these, but particularly this one as I have one of a Roman re-enactment and when I looked at the photo I took it showed one of the soldiers that had his back to me had his hand up under his tunic scratching his butt.

Everyone's submissions are great, and I particularly like the tailor of travelways. But tinamarie52 either you didn't get the concept, or I don't know what it is about.

grandmaR,
In most cases the subject is up to everyone's own interpretation. It can be quite varied at times. The post read "a portrait taken in the subject's usual environment". Her pics have a subject and an enviroment. It is just a little "out of the box" thinking.

grandmaR

The boilerplate at the top asks us to comment. I made two positive comments and one negative comment. Are only positive comments allowed?

I thought briefly of doing animals, but if I had done that, I would have wanted the natural wild environment that the animal was in as that would show something about them. A horse is a horse is a horse. Unless it is a working animal and shown working, (or shown posing in the show ring if it is that kind of horse) it doesn't show me much about the horse.

dnie

grandmaR wrote: »

The boilerplate at the top asks us to comment. I made two positive comments and one negative comment. Are only positive comments allowed?

I thought briefly of doing animals, but if I had done that, I would have wanted the natural wild environment that the animal was in as that would show something about them. A horse is a horse is a horse. Unless it is a working animal and shown working, (or shown posing in the show ring if it is that kind of horse) it doesn't show me much about the horse.

Not at all, positive and negative are how we learn. I was just giving you my thoughts on the environmental aspects. Like I said, we all see it differently, have our own personal tastes and outlooks. I wasn't saying you were wrong.

grandmaR

I feel bad about saying anything negative, but I really thought that those photos didn't get the concept (which I didn't at first and had I not looked at the examples, I might also have posted something like those). Mostly I meant to give a kind of nudge to look at the other entries. For this topic, you could make the argument that almost ANY photo showed a subject in its environment. Unless it is a pure landscape or seascape with nothing in it but sky and water or land, or some kind of product on a white field, there's almost always a subject and there's almost always an environment.

Alans Grin

grandmaR wrote: »

I feel bad about saying anything negative, but I really thought that those photos didn't get the concept (which I didn't at first and had I not looked at the examples, I might also have posted something like those). Mostly I meant to give a kind of nudge to look at the other entries. For this topic, you could make the argument that almost ANY photo showed a subject in its environment. Unless it is a pure landscape or seascape with nothing in it but sky and water or land, or some kind of product on a white field, there's almost always a subject and there's almost always an environment.

GrandmaR

Don’t worry too much, and certainly don’t worry about voicing what I would call questioning, but not “negative” destructive comments – or “troll behaviour” as they would say these days. In truth I wish there was more constructive commenting, and as dnie says … we don’t really learn from neutral or no comments. Selfishly, I would like more feedback on my efforts and generally more dialog within these competitions.

I think you are fair to say tinamarie has gone a different way to most – but to my mind these are some wonderful shots and I am grateful to have seen them. The wonderful bird shot in particular – for my tastes.

The question of "in or out of scope" will really be addressed by Syncopation during judging and I had "in our out" of scope doubts about my own submissions – each has their own interpretation / threshold.

In summary, please do not feel bad or constrained to make comments in the future – I wish there was more of it!

Alan

grandmaR

Thanks. I looked at a lot of photos before I submitted mine and tried to weed out those that didn't really fit the category (in my opinion anyway). I wanted photos that showed a person's face, their environment and my own criteria - that were a little unusual. I rejected the 'everyday' options (sports, police, children, musicians) because I'm not a professional and my pictures are really just candid snapshots. What I might have going for me is the length of time I've been doing it, and maybe the places I've been. I have color slides back to 1958 when my dad gave me a 35 mm camera for my 20th birthday. And a few Brownie photos from before that.