Another from the competition

Here’s another Twilight image from the Pilbara. I really do love the soft light that follows the sun setting, and in this region it seems to have that magic afterglow most nights.

Pilbara Twilight

To the other bloggers out there, can you think of why the re-sized images come up so soft like this? Click on the image and view in it’s full size and you’ll see what I mean. They never used to go this bad but i’ve noticed it a bit lately… :-/

 

This image is from just out of town, I went out storm chasing and found myself at the top of a hill. The sunset was pretty uneventful, and the storms that were going off were simply too far away. I hung around anyway and once the soft light hit I was able to capture this image, the hill I was standing on cast it’s shadow through the bottom of the image, which I felt balanced out with the darker clouds in the top half. It got a 77 in the Landscape 500.

 

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Here’s a new image from The Pilbara

This is one of my favorite images from the Pilbara, and quite different to others of this vast landscape. It’s got the white gums I love, mixed with some amazing twilight light after sunset. I took it a couple of months ago now but was waiting until the results from the Landscape 500 came back before I posted it.

Bronze in the Landscape 500- Score 79

The sunset on this particular day wasn’t anything too special, but I hung it out as I really love the twilight light, and it really has an amazing effect on the Pilbara Landscapes. This day did not disappoint, and my patience was rewarded. There was some wind which gives the tree it’s surreal look. Mixing moving leaves with the stationary trunk. A trunk which has shone beautifully in the soft light, and the rocks which still have incredible luminescence taking into consideration there is no direct light on any of this scene.

Just missed out again on Silver, but still a result i’m happy with

Click here to see my other competition results.

Some oldies get Bronze

Here’s a couple of other images that I’ve had for quite some time that went ok in the recent Landscape 500 photography competition held by Christian Fletcher.

Bronze in Landscape 500- Score 77

The first image here is from a while ago down in the Stirling Ranges. Read my previous post for info on this image.

Bronze in the Landscape 500- Score 77

I also took this image a while back in Albany. For the full post check out this post.

Click here to see my other competition results.

 

Landscape 500 Awards

Christian Fletcher held his first photo competition this year, and with top photographers such as Peter Eastway, Tom Putt, David Evans and Nick Rains being the judges- I thought it was a perfect chance to get my work rated by the best in the business. I never really thought i’d win, but if I got a Silver or 2 would have been pretty happy.

As it turns out I got all Bronzes, this one being the first of them. Just off a Silver , so still pretty happy with the result.

Bronze in Landscape 500. Score 79

Here are the top 50 images, and judging by the amount of Karijini images in there i’m now resenting my choice to not enter mine haha. I thought with so many from that location it’d be a bad choice to enter them. Oh well, only the first big comp i’ve entered so I still can’t complain

http://www.landscape500.com/Top-50-Results.php

Click here to see my other competition results.

Kelmscott Show

Well the Kelmscott show was on this weekend and I entered a few photos in the photography comp again. And managed to have a bit of luck again, managing 3 firsts and a second in the 5 categories I entered. I’m not sure if the overall quality was as good as last year- but there was certainly some very nice images spread through the categories, so I’m quite pleased to have done well again. You’ve seen these images before so I won’t go into details too much- but if you wish to be bored you can go back to the original posts through the links

I was surprised to have done well in a couple of categories as I failed to read the size restrictions on them- and as a result had to take the images out of their mattes and have the photo hanging by itself. Obviously looking very plain compared to being matted. I’m learning a lot of lessons lately- and this is another…. read the bloody competition guidelines Stephen!!

Flare Baby

First image got first place in the Adults Open category- it also got best exhibit in the overall class for this image.  View the post here

Turtle

The next one received first in the Adult Animal Study category. View the post here

Karijini Sunrise

This image received first in the Adults Enlargement- Landscapes category. View the post here

S Bend Sunrise

And finally this image received the second place in the Adults Reflections and Patterns category. View the post here

Canning Show

There was another small show on a couple of weeks and I managed to follow up my success in the Kelmscott show, with a few places. Once again there was a reasonable standard of entries so I was quite pleased with the results I got

The first image here received 1st in the small sunrise/sunset category. It is an image which if it works on your monitor will look good and you’ll see the layers in the land through to the clouds and sky, but if it doesn’t, it will look really horrible (black,muddy,and really dark). Judging from my past images it will probably be the later. Sorry I can’t get them looking proper on this thing… hopefully it will come up ok though because it does come up well when printed and you can see all through the scene.

I took this on a recent trip down south with my girlfriend Alysia, who I do have to thank for this image. I’d just been shooting at the rocks in between Greens Pool and Elephant rocks in Denmark. When returning to the car I was scouting for new compositions for the next morning in Greens Pool. As we got to the steps she pointed this out to me way off in the distance to the West. I set up and took a 30sec exposure with my 150mm and just managed to have enough light to capture the scene. I love s shapes curving through a photo so the shoreline really was a beautiful subject. Then the layers in the silhouette of the land and cloud really topped it off.

The next image was taken at Yallingup Beach on the last morning of the trip. It received 3rd in the same section. After a week of horrible light I was hoping for some last minute luck and was grateful to get it. After trying a few compositions using rocks and reflections I came across this pool. I love the rocks under the water and the main rock created a nice strong focal point. It was a beautiful sunrise with the clouds lighting up quite nicely.

This image received 2nd in the sunrise/sunset enlargement. You can read more about this photo on my Karijini Post. I’ve adjusted this image since the original post to get it looking more like the print. And taken Flem’s suggestion on cropping the foreground a lil.

This image received 2nd in the small landscape category. It’s the same image I spoke briefly about in my Kelmscott Show Post. I will try and get another image up soon from the same night and a bit more info.

I received 3rd in the Landscape enlargement for this photo. More info can be found on this image in my Hancock Gorge Post.

Last shot here is a close up of the pelican I got so close to while at Rotto. It’s a very different shot to what I usually take, definitely a bit more “artsy”. I really liked the texture captured in the feathers.

Kelmscott Show

Well I managed to have a bit of success in one of the local shows the other week. The Kelmscott Show has a great little photography comp each year, while no where near as big/good as the Perth Royal Show it has improved greatly in quality over the last few years. This year I finally got around to entering. It was my first real competition outside of the monthly competitions we have at the camera club. At the end of the day I was quite pleased to find that 5 out of my 9 images had received placings. 1 place in each of the categories I entered.

My first image received first in the Adults Open category, it also received the Best exhibit of that class as well. You can read more on this image in my Hancock Gorge post.

This image also receive a first place. This time in the Adults Enlargement, Nature category. The photo was taken at Rotto about 2 years ago while over there on a day trip. I was going around by myself (as i seem to always be with my photography) trying to get some nice pics of what is a beautiful island. This pelican sat still the entire time I was there. Allowing me to shoot for about 5min. What is amazing is this was taken at 1.5m with my 45-150mm lens! He didn’t mind me at all!

This image received 2nd in the Adults Enlargement, Landscape category. More info of this image can be seen in my Afternoon Light Post

The next image here received a Highly Commended (3rd) in the Adults Enlargement, Flowers category. It is a photo of some Everlastings near the Banksia Farm found in Mount Barker. I was down there last year with my Grand Parents. It is a fantastic spot, so if you’re ever going through Mt Barker, make sure you pop in and see Kevin. Have a look around and make sure you get his very interesting presentation on Banksia’s. The man is amazing…and a lil crazy But you will learn an incredible amount about some very fascinating plants. I promise you will be impressed with it!!

And here is the last placing. Receiving 3rd in the Adults open category. This image is a new one, fresh for the world to see (unless you have my 2009 calendar). It is taken at West Cape Howe, near Albany. While on a weekend visit to the Stirling Ranges with some mates earlier on this year, we did our mandatory “macca’s run” to Albany, I decided to take them along the 4wd tracks out to the point. With light fading very quickly I ended up going to the first beach a track took us to. And ended up here as the light just started fading. Running down I took this image, and then a couple more. The surf was pounding and created the perfect effect for a misty scene. Appropriately named “Rocky Dreams”

I’ve been trying to make some adjustments with my images to get them looking much better on the net. There’s still no enhancements, but i think they are now starting to appear more like they print. So I would be interested in how they appear also. My images always appear on the darker side on the net, so hopefully i’m starting to fix that