Finally, a theme :-)

Nikolai · May 28, 2007

These two themeless weeks were exhausting! :deal
Now we can all relax and simply follow one or two themes. A walk in the park.

Shay Stephens · May 28, 2007

It's kind of like weight training...except for the mind! Mixing things up and making the brain work in new ways help make it stronger and work better

pemmett · May 28, 2007

Exhausted is the right word. My wife threatend me with murder yesterday if I took my camera with just one more time, my daughter told me if I took one more photo of her, she'd get her eyebrows pierced (she's 6) and my youngest has said she may start talking to me again in a few years

This was a seriously intense two weeks:D And here we go again

seastack · May 28, 2007

But best theme yet ...

pemmett · May 28, 2007

seastack wrote:

But best theme yet ...

Seastack,

Is it the best because
1) the last two weeks have been hell
2) It's easy to think about what kind of image to take
3) it's a theme

D

seastack · May 28, 2007

pemmett wrote:

Seastack,

Is it the best because
1) the last two weeks have been hell
2) It's easy to think about what kind of image to take
3) it's a theme

D

4) All of the above

And because the theme opens up so many possibilities for really creative and artistic entries across a wide spectrum of photographic styles - lots of room to stretch within a framework.

osoi · May 28, 2007

And yet you can still do some much with these themes...

so happy i dont have to think so hard now...

Nikolai · May 28, 2007

seastack wrote:

But best theme yet ...

Hear, hear :-)

annnna8888 · May 28, 2007

seastack wrote:

But best theme yet ...

Ana

David_S85 · May 28, 2007

pemmett wrote:

Exhausted is the right word. My wife threatend me with murder yesterday if I took my camera with just one more time, my daughter told me if I took one more photo of her, she'd get her eyebrows pierced (she's 6) and my youngest has said she may start talking to me again in a few years This was a seriously intense two weeks:D And here we go again

Important feedback. So the Dgrin Contest team are doing their jobs well? This is good to know. Shay, Doc, mark one down for "yes, 10, intense" in the metrics.

pemmett · May 28, 2007

David_S85 wrote:

Important feedback. So the Dgrin Contest team are doing their jobs well? This is good to know. Shay, Doc, mark one down for "yes, 10, intense" in the metrics.

Can I have some more sir?

sherstone · May 28, 2007

This maybe the best Theme mix yet, on that I agree very strongly.

I am thinking it will also be one of the most widely participated themes as well. So many things in our every day world fit the criteria.

Definitely much easier on the brain cells.

System · May 28, 2007

just a suggestion-

next time we have a themeless contest, cheat!-

get someone (maybe even here on dgrin) to give you a theme!-

maybe it will prevent some brain farts!-

richtersl · May 28, 2007

pemmett wrote:

Exhausted is the right word. My wife threatend me with murder yesterday if I took my camera with just one more time, my daughter told me if I took one more photo of her, she'd get her eyebrows pierced (she's 6) and my youngest has said she may start talking to me again in a few years

That's funny! :lol

:hahaMy husband just seemed glad to get me out of the house.

richtersl · May 28, 2007

gefillmore wrote:

get someone (maybe even here on dgrin) to give you a theme!-

maybe it will prevent some brain farts!-

That may be easier than you think. Every week or so there's a new assignment over in the Technique area. You can just pick one of those assignments as a theme, if you really wanted one.

davev · May 28, 2007

Repeat after me, "No theme, No problem."

You grab your camera everyday, or everyday that you can, and take pictures of whatever moves you at that time.
After you load these pics to the computer, figure out what one you would like on your wall, or if your confident enough, what you think would do well in a contest.
Enter that shot.
That's what I did with my shot. On my 5 day trip, I shot 2200 photos.
I knew that my shot was coming from that trip because I had no other time to get out during the challenge period.
When I made my post asking which shot, I knew what shot I wanted to enter into the challenge.
I was looking for some reassurance that I was on the right page. And because of all the helpful folks here, I got that reassurance.
So remember, No theme, No problem. After all, you really can't be wrong.:D

Folks are getting a little too stressed about these. Relax.

osoi · May 28, 2007

For me the no theme wasnt actually all that bad... finding the time to take the damn shot thats a different story... my only problem with the no theme is figuring out if the photo will move the judges, knowing that it is my overall work they are looking at... trust me, i know i need work in my post... at anyrate, whether we have no theme or if we have themes that just seem like you can't come up with anything this contest is the best thing i have ever done to help my photography... Thank you DoctorIt, Shay, and everyone else...

Strikeslip · May 28, 2007

OH SNAP! I had it in my undersized brain that the first semi-final ran until the end of the month and I didn't get an entry in! Holy smokes, could somebody please give me a swift boot to the head?
:cry

Oh well, lesson learned!

lynnesite · May 28, 2007

Strikeslip wrote:

OH SNAP! I had it in my undersized brain that the first semi-final ran until the end of the month and I didn't get an entry in! Holy smokes, could somebody please give me a swift boot to the head?
:cry

Oh well, lesson learned!

Slippy, *I* will. But you're a little excused from being kinda new 'round here.

mwgrice · May 28, 2007

Strikeslip wrote:

OH SNAP! I had it in my undersized brain that the first semi-final ran until the end of the month and I didn't get an entry in! Holy smokes, could somebody please give me a swift boot to the head?
:cry

Oh well, lesson learned!

I've been working on a device to smack some body upside the head through email or IM. I'll make millions!

Tessa HD · May 28, 2007

I agree

Nikolai wrote:

These two themeless weeks were exhausting!
Now we can all relax and simply follow one or two themes. A walk in the park.

I didn't feel as creative. I'm looking forward to following a theme, after being "themeless".

Tessa

Nikolai · May 28, 2007

Dave,

davev wrote:

Repeat after me, "No theme, No problem."

With me, it is a problem. Let me switch environment for a moment. I'm a software engineer by trade. Imagine a customer asking you for an application. You naturally would ask "what for?". Yet you get no answer. No idea whether it's a text processor, photo editor, UI for a medical device, sound mixer, dbms, operating system...

Humans are task-oriented creates. If the task is not narrow enough, it's almost feels like a task-less.

Another example. You're starving and you need to find a food. Will you hunt? Will you fish? Will you gather? A certain choice is need to be made prior your engagement. Of course, there is an answer: just get anything. But will you start making a fishing pole? Or a bow and an arrow? Or a berry basket? Too many choices...

Take you and your trip. You've been through the extremely scenic places exactly during the challenge period. SF, Yosemite, Mono Lake, Bodie.. Ask anybody - it does not get better than that (well, you've missed Southern Utah:-). But let me ask you: with all those 2200 shots, was it an easy task to choose from? They are all good, right? And many are great! But you still had to pick *one*.

I was actually thinking of coming along with that trip (same time, same place). Then I decided not to. Because I knew that I will simply fool myself into the concept of "oh yeah, those are all beautiful places, sure I will get something SF1-worthy". Unfortunately, it does not work that way, not for me. Long gone the times when I was shooting everything that moves or stands still. Nowadays I need to have the idea first. And if I don't get one - even the Arches NP would not help.

That why I think the open theme contests are harder than the "themed" ones.

mwgrice · May 28, 2007

With the open-ended contests, I think it helps to have your own internal theme(s) or subject(s) in mind. I assume most of us do some shooting outside of the competitions. Nothing's going to stop you from recycling old competition themes, either.

Nikolai · May 28, 2007

mwgrice wrote:

With the open-ended contests, I think it helps to have your own internal theme(s) or subject(s) in mind.

My internal theme(s) are not necessarily "family/office safe"

mwgrice wrote:

Nothing's going to stop you from recycling old competition themes, either.

Pray tell, which one?

It's not the question of how I shoot. It's the question of how it'd be judged...

All I'm saying is themeless contests are hard, much harder than the themed ones, that's all...

davev · May 28, 2007

Nikolai wrote:

With me, it is a problem. Let me switch environment for a moment. I'm a software engineer by trade. Imagine a customer asking you for an application. You naturally would ask "what for?". Yet you get no answer. No idea whether it's a text processor, photo editor, UI for a medical device, sound mixer, dbms, operating system...

Humans are task-oriented creates. If the task is not narrow enough, it's almost feels like a task-less.

Another example. You're starving and you need to find a food. Will you hunt? Will you fish? Will you gather? A certain choice is need to be made prior your engagement. Of course, there is an answer: just get anything. But will you start making a fishing pole? Or a bow and an arrow? Or a berry basket? Too many choices...

Take you and your trip. You've been through the extremely scenic places exactly during the challenge period. SF, Yosemite, Mono Lake, Bodie.. Ask anybody - it does not get better than that (well, you've missed Southern Utah:-). But let me ask you: with all those 2200 shots, was it an easy task to choose from? They are all good, right? And many are great! But you still had to pick *one*.

I was actually thinking of coming along with that trip (same time, same place). Then I decided not to. Because I knew that I will simply fool myself into the concept of "oh yeah, those are all beautiful places, sure I will get something SF1-worthy". Unfortunately, it does not work that way, not for me. Long gone the times when I was shooting everything that moves or stands still. Nowadays I need to have the idea first. And if I don't get one - even the Arches NP would not help.

That why I think the open theme contests are harder than the "themed" ones.

I still think you're making it to hard. If someone asks you for a program with no direction, make any kind of program you want to.

You say make it like you're trying to find food. Build a fishing rod or a basket. You already have the tools, your cameras and lenses.

Yes I was lucky enough to go to a very scenic area during this challenge. But if you look at my thread where I asked for opinions, quite a few people thought that I had some nice "standard" shots of those areas, but nothing that really stood out. 300 of those shots were of the bears that I was at ISO 1600 and getting shutter speeds of 1/15 to 1/100 at 300mm. Not a chance for any of those to make it in the challenge. Many others were taken in less than ideal conditions also.

When I first viewed that shot (truck and gas pumps) on the screen of my camera, I knew it had a very good chance of being my shot for this challenge. To make sure that I could see what the final pic would look like, I shot "almost" all of my shots at Bodie in the B&W mode. No chance to second guess if the shot would be better in color or B&W.

Nope. I still think people put to much pressure on themselves.
Maybe a good exercise would be to go to a place that you have photographed a hundred other times, and try to find one different angle to give that old photo a new look. A better look. Shoot it in color, B&W, IR a stop under, a stop over, with a flash, without a flash, from your shoes, from overhead, during the day, during the night, you get the idea.
Take a new look at something old. Then you'll think like that more often when you go taking photos.

BTW, even with all the nice place I went to, there is no reason to think that that's an advantage.
I took this shot in my backyard last year. It did Ok.:D

I did take this shot for a theme challenge, but it's a shot that I had in my head for quite some time before that.

Now, if I can just figure out how to do crop circles for angles and curves.

osoi · May 28, 2007

Nikolai wrote:

My internal theme(s) are not necessarily "family/office safe"
Pray tell, which one?
It's not the question of how I shoot. It's the question of how it'd be judged...
All I'm saying is themeless contests are hard, much harder than the themed ones, that's all...

first who said it had to be "family/office safe"... I mean if it is not straight up porn then whats stopping you... ofcourse the idea that the judges might not like that is one, but even in the themed rounds who is it to say that your take on the theme is the same as the judges...

Flyinggina · May 28, 2007

Nikolai wrote:

My internal theme(s) are not necessarily "family/office safe"

Well Nik, that should bode well for your coming up with something for the current themed challenge.

Just keep it SFW.

If someone who did not have to deal with the semi-finals can comment, it always seemed to me that a themeless contest would be really, really difficult. It makes sense to me that for many, if not all, it would be highly stressful. As I see it, you are not choosing your favorite shot taken in a two week period. In the first place you have to have to get out and shoot, again and again and again. Then you have to choose something that will please a limited number of judges that you know nothing about, while knowing that they will have strong views about certain types of photography. Then, if you pass that hurtle, you have to please the dgrin public.

It is easy to say that all you have to do is take the kinds of photos you take best and put in the one you think is your best. But what if you like abstracts? Or something that looks great as a 13x19 print but too busy on a computer screen. What if you like photographs with a lot going on in them? What if the photo has great emotional impact but is not technically perfect? What if the picture has such a gritty theme that most people would not hang it on their walls? Are any of these potential winners? In some contests, they would be. In this one, I rather think not. Unless....???

I think we should all thank those who entered SF#1. We have learned from their experiences, just as those of us who enter the challenges have learned from others and from our own efforts and frustrations.

I am in awe of those for whom SF#1 was not stressful

but I am also in awe of those from whom it was difficult and stressful but who sucked it up and entered anyway.

bow

Just $.02 from someone who has been an observer for the past 4 weeks, except for entering the losers' contest.

Virginia

davev · May 28, 2007

Ok. Lets figure out the worst thing that can happen.
If my photo doesn't get picked for the final 10, did I lose anything? Nope. Still have everything that I went into the contest with.
Will Andy take away my Dgrin privileges. I don't think so. (Andy?)

Now yes, like anyone else I'd like to win the prizes. Everyone would.
But if it doesn't happen, I'm no worse off than I was before.

All you can do is win. You can't lose. At least that's my take on this.

Nikolai · May 28, 2007

Dave,
You're kinda proving my point:-)

Your "best shot of the year" was taken in your back yard. I *love it. If you ask me, it trumps all the shots from your trip

And you probably knew it, also.

So, why didn't you simply retake it? No pressure, you know exactly what to do, no need to go thousands miles away, you could've done it with your eye closed on ANY night and then forget about the whole thing.

Yet you have chosen to embark on a long jorney. You were hoping to find "it". You didn't know what "it" could be, you were just hoping the idea will come and you'll get it.

If you ask me, it was *you* under the pressure, not me. I was at home, just waiting for "the muse". I had a few occasions to go out and shoot, and I did, and one of them made the contest. I also had a few "made up" occasions, but none of them worked out well enough.

Again, my point is that constests with no rules and with no judges known in advance are harder (for me:-) than those with the rules set and judges appointed. If it's not the case for you - that's totally fine by me.
And I do envy you

Nikolai · May 28, 2007

davev wrote:

All you can do is win. You can't lose. At least that's my take on this.

Oh, no arguments here. I kept saying that even I don't make any top ten, not even a PQ, I will still end up with ~20..40 decent images that I would not take otherwise, so from that point of view anybody who plays, wins.

It's just it's so much easier to go if the heading is known (POTC3 rule:-)

davev · May 28, 2007

Nikolai wrote:

You're kinda proving my point:-)

Your "best shot of the year" was taken in your back yard. I *love it. If you ask me, it trumps all the shots from your trip And you probably knew it, also.

So, why didn't you simply retake it? No pressure, you know exactly what to do, no need to go thousands miles away, you could've done it with your eye closed on ANY night and then forget about the whole thing.

Yet you have chosen to embark on a long jorney. You were hoping to find "it". You didn't know what "it" could be, you were just hoping the idea will come and you'll get it.

If you ask me, it was *you* under the pressure, not me. I was at home, just waiting for "the muse". I had a few occasions to go out and shoot, and I did, and one of them made the contest. I also had a few "made up" occasions, but none of them worked out well enough.

Again, my point is that constests with no rules and with no judges known in advance are harder (for me:-) than those with the rules set and judges appointed. If it's not the case for you - that's totally fine by me.
And I do envy you

Nik. I try not to duplicate too many of my shots that I enter into challenges.
I do try to find something a little different when I go out to shoot.
That's why I didn't do the match trick again.

I did take one shot before I went out west that I would have been fine with entering if I would have come back with nothing. But I got lucky at Bodey, and I kind of like shooting in B&W.

For me the open theme seems easier than the ones with a theme.
Like I say, I can't be wrong with anything that I enter in an open contest.
In a theme, a judge(s) may think you're going a bit to far in your interpretation of the theme.

I guess after you've walked a 6" beam, 150 feet in the air, the photo challenge seems pretty easy.

Finally, a theme :-)

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