Photo of the Week # 187

Photo contests are an interesting thing. Some like them, others don’t. We all like some recognition for our work but not everyone likes the critique from judges. You have to listen to the critique without taking it personal as it isn’t meant that way. It is critique to hopefully help you to understand how an image may be better, that’s all. Sometimes you won’t agree, we are attached to our images after all. You have to take a step back and be objective, maybe that judge knows what he/she is talking about.

A version of the photo below was entered into a contest where it scored mediocre and garnered non favourable critique. I created the composition very deliberately the way I did but I was told the subject was too central in the frame and the foreground was too dark. I was confused as other judges have said if you want to bring attention to the subject, do it with light, darken the foreground to guide the eye to the true subject.. I got to playing and cropped to a new composition, avoiding most of that foreground this time and pushing the subject off-center as suggested.

Comments welcome.

Photo of the Week #185

The pandemic has made a mess out of the music business as we all know but it is starting to come back now and I have had the opportunity to shoot a few full concerts recently. Alan Doyle is always a good time with his authentic Newfoundland music and world class band, The Beautiful Beautiful Band. The Grand Theatre in Kingston has seats right to the stage so there is no pit. We have to shoot from places where we are not getting in the way of paying customers. I was tucked into a corner way off to the side, out of the way but Alan still found me and connected with my lens.

Photo of the Week # 184

I’m not a religious person but for some reason I find myself drawn to the architecture of old churches. They are unique buildings and they are no longer made like they used to be. Modern churches just don’t have the character they used to have. Many rural places in Canada have great churches to photograph. The Canadian Maritimes have many and from time to time when I have found one in good conditions, I sometimes photograph them.

Tracadie, Nova Scotia

Photo of the Week #183

Awhile back I took a series of images of these mushrooms in Frontenac Park. I entered one of the series in a club competition. I recieved a Judge’s comment mentioning the clutter on the forest floor around them and a crop problem as well. As an experiment, I cropped this to as tight as I could and darkened the remainder of the background so to pop the mushrooms much more in the frame. I’ll let you be the judge as to whether that judge was correct or not. Is that the Mario Brothers theme song I hear?