by successfulbob | imaging competition, photography, photography education, podcast
2014 was a very fine year in my Imaging Competition history. A Silver Photographer of the Year Award in my Photographic Open case entries and a Diamond Photographer of the Year Award for my Master Artist imaging entries.
As I’m doing a podcast for the 12 Elements with Mark Oehler today talking about last years entries and competition in general I thought I’d post the images so anyone listening to the post could view what we are talking about.
Being a member of PPA and participating in Imaging Competition through PPA is one of the fastest ways to improve your photography. I firmly believe without the International Photographic competition I wouldn’t half the photographer I am today. You can check here for the entry information for the 2015 year.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS What’s holding you back? You don’t get into competition to win awards. You get in to learn the craft. Awards come after. If you are waiting until, “My images are good enough.” Then you’ll be waiting a long time…
PPS The awards will come…
by successfulbob | imaging competition, photography, photography competition
Wanna make better images?
I do.
Always.
Which is why I continue to participate in the Imaging Competition through Professional Photographers of America (PPA) after 16 years.
Probably the word Competition should be removed as it implies that you are competing against others as at a sporting event. Not so. You are competing against a standard and your personal past performance. This is an incredible learning opportunity
Entries are open for the International Photographic Competition (IPC).
You can get more details and see a slide show of the 2014 PPA Loan Collection here
If you are a PPA member and not participating in Photographic Competition I believe you are missing out on one of the best benefits of your membership. The feedback you get from putting your images in front of trained fellow photographers is very important. I would have to say that Imaging Competition has been one of the driving forces in making me a better photographer, growing my skills exponentially.
Take advantage of this opportunity. If you get the chance PPA members can view the judging live in Lawrenceville, just outside Atlanta, GA. Another option is to view the judging via the Live Streaming. If you have images in the competition don’t forget to order the critiques for your images. You get a video review with one juror giving you feedback on what was good about your image but even more important how it might be improved.
So get your images together and compete with yourself to be the best photographer and image maker you can be.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography education
There’s a new inductee into (onto??) the Sound Bites Grill Wall of Fame.
Renee Patrick has a marvelous voice. She was performing with the Steve Sandner Jazz Trio as a guest during Jazz and Juice that has been a Sound Bites Sunday evening staple for a while now.
Renee live on stage followed by an artistic treatment…
Original image captured with the Lumix GH4 1/25th sec f3.2 ISO 1600. The lens is one of my favorites for capturing individual artists on stage the Lumix Vario f2.8. A better camera setting would have been ISO 3200 at f2.8 to give me a bit more sharpness although I do like the movement captured here with her hand slightly blurry… With those settings I would also set the exposure compensation down about 2/3rds to a stop to make sure to not loose the highlights in the LED stage lighting.
Jazz and Juice is Live Jazz with 1/2 price bottles of wine with dinner. My wife Holly and I enjoy catching the Jazz music, good food and a great price on the wine!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography, wildlife photography
GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Oh wait. I’m a little carried away there… But, one technique for making an interesting photograph is to take a very small subject and fill the frame with it. This flower is about the size of a fingernail. Using the Lumix FZ-1000 I was able to bring this tiny subject forward. While I don’t often recommend bulls-eye composition I think it works in this case because of the bud in the lower left corner and the leaf in the upper right hand corner. The flower dominates but the additional subjects in the frame give you eye something else to look at and turns it into more modified diagonal composition.
The bud is barely the size of my pinky fingernail & the flower is just a bit bigger than my thumb. Settings 432mm Exposure 1/5000 sec to help freeze the flower in the breeze, f5.6, ISO 800
Constantly working and playing when not on a commissioned job. Without practice and really knowing your gear it’s difficult to grow as a photographer. Golfers are constantly trying to ‘find the groove’ and practice is a huge part of their ability to succeed.
When is the last time you tired something new?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
What excites you?
Have you made, or at least tried, to make an image from it?
Today’s Photo/Art quote comes from Edward Weston…
“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.” Edward Weston
Even more important can you make the commonplace unusual? Who knew a green pepper could look so sexy?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
