Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

[pelliott1954]

Re: Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

Well Done Alex on winning the comp, and I would like to know how it was created.

Regards Paul

[DeeGee]

Re: Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

Well done to all who entered. Congratulations to Alex.

[Paulstw]

Re: Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

Well done folks :) It twas a challenging one :)

[S_J_P]

Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

Well done one and all!

[chodeva]

Re: Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

congratulations Alex, and thanks to all who entered. some creative images there

[DianaS]

Re: Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

Well done Alex, great image and well deserved win.

di

[AlexR!]

Re: Challenge 59 - The Christmas Card

Jeez, Andy, you are 'avin' a larf! My first entry in a Challenge and I win? Thanks all for the appreciative comments everyone, though personally I preferred a number of other pics to mine, particularly those of Pelliott and Tony Goodrich.

Paul, you asked how it was done. Well I'd just put our decorations up that Sunday afternoon and it struck me that it might make a nice abstract picture, particularly as there were already two superb 'bauble' pics in the comp. So I set a tripod up in the porch. Unfortunately there's a step down so to get the camera level with the wreath I had to put the tripod on an old cardboard box which meant the setup all wobbled whenever I touched it. Anyway, I set the time for 5 secs, tried a couple of different White Balances, but liked the gold cast that came from my porch light in auto, then shot using the remote switch, counted 4 secs and zoomed in (wobbling!) so it got just under a sec zoomed in a bit; hence the ghost image. Took half a dozen different variants I guess. Processing was just straightening and cropping in PS Elements to centre it and cut out distractions like the doorbell and frame, then resizing and sharpening. Surprised the zoom isn't reflected in the EXIF, but I don't really know what I was expecting it to say.

First time I've ever done anything like that (I've only had the tripod a couple of months) and was fairly pleased with the result.

Funnily enough, having said to myself that I was definitely going to enter this one in order to challenge and improve myself, on the Saturday I found myself in central London for a couple of hours but try as I might I just couldn't find a shot I was happy with. As an aside, while I was in Trafalgar Square I snatched this one of pigeon scaring, the juxtaposition of hawk and sign amused me, but it's no Christmas Card. Despite being disappointed on the day, I'm now glad that I was forced to improvise.


IMG_1774_resize by AlexR!, on Flickr

Anyway, enough of my ramblings...
You will all want a comp to test out the shiny new bits of kit that'll be dropping down your chimneys on Tuesday. I'm a bit tied up with work and Christmas prep right now, but I'm planning to launch it on Sunday; just got to think of a fiendish theme.

Cheers,

Alex