Forum Competition #120 Breaking The Rules

[Adam]

Referring back to when Andy Latham was in talking about landscapes and he made a very good point that's always stuck in my head. There are rules to photography the same as there are with most things in life. So in full agreement with Andy "take photos of what YOU like" and don't worry if all the boxes are ticked so long as the finished image is exactly what you want it to be. Totally open, landscape, portraits, stills anything you like and just why personally you like it.

Have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.

Adam

Closes Midnight Saturday 4th Jan 2014

[Donna]

Go on then, I'll go first!

Animals. I love taking photos of animals. They make you laugh, they make you cry, they can be your best friend and then they can be your worst enemy. They might have the speed, elegance and strength that a human could never dream of having, but they might be the laziest, cuddliest and most docile creature that you could ever hope to meet. Such a diverse group of beings that all share the Earth with us, and I find them all fascinating in their own ways.

[Paul Jones]

So in full agreement with Andy "take photos of what YOU like" and don't worry if all the boxes are ticked so long as the finished image is exactly what you want it to be.

This is one of my favourite images. Breaks the rules? Some people say you shouldn't shoot into the sun; you should avoid lens flare; you need to have contrast in your images. I still like it.

[John]

I'm breaking a few rules with this one: Don't put the subject in the centre of the frame, don't use a wide angle lens close up on faces, don't use a landscape format for a portrait.....

003 Hazel.jpg (368.8 KiB) Viewed 11310 times

Ricoh GR, 18.3mm lens, APS-C format.

[Dennis G]

My Girls, Angela and Khara.

Regarding rule breaking there's a little too much noise, too much post processing vignetting which i'm never too keen on, the image has been cropped too much losing the top of the heads, that said it's a treasured image as we lost Khara last year (Khara is our German Shepherd on the left of the image for those who wondered or couldn't work it out!!) and thankfully i still have my wife Angela so for those reasons it's one of my favourite images.

[collier15]

I'm with Paul on this one shooting into the sun. This was just a passing shot at the old faithful Pennington Flash.

[yachtsman1]

I had bought a Canon camera system from a Company called Camera Box, unbeknown to me it was a gray import, one of the lenses was damaged & went straight back, the other a 70-200 zoom I took up onto Leyburn Shawl to see if I could get anything reasonable with it, so I sat down on a form, set up my tripod & focussed on a patch of thistles. I took about 20 shots, which although grainy were good enough, so against the odds I was taking close ups with the wrong lens.
.001 sec exp, F8, 200mm.
Eric.

t1 by E & MS, on Flickr

[Adam]

After checking with Mr Riley it's been agreed to extend the closing date of this competetion to the 11th of January due to the holidays and people being busy opening Christmas gifts and bringing in the new year. Many thanks everyone and have a great New Years. Remember this is an open photo choice regardless of whether it ticks all the "rule" tick boxes.

[Janice Freeman]

Janice Freeman Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel - Copy.jpg (194.32 KiB) Viewed 11186 times

The roof detail of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle in Milan. Comment was made that "could see no point to the image". So I broke the rules in that respect! However, there is always a point to a picture in my opinion. The fact that someone else does not get it is irrelevant. I like my image. (and if the roof falls in - who has got the shot for the architects to reconstruct - me Yayyyy)

[Phil Ingham]

The obvious rule break here is that the shot is not horizontal. I tried to give the shot something different than a usual sunset shot usually does. I tried to use the lines of the pier and angled the shot so that your eye is drawn to the sun. Not sure if I achieved it! I still like the shot tho!

[Phil Jones]

Porsche 911 50th Anniversary @ Goodwood.jpg (133.82 KiB) Viewed 11075 times

Hi All.
This is my entry with a few blemishes of light from the feature being lit from the ground straight up to the cars ( over 100 feet up! ) The focal point is also right in the centre.
Still one of my favourites though!
Regards,
Phil.

[Stbourne]

Took this as a homework pic on motion stopping. As it goes its pretty central and no room for the subject to ride into, them there's the flare
from the headlights.

I liked it especially for the headlights.

Cheers
Shaun

[Paul Jones]

it's been agreed to extend the closing date of this competetion to the 11th of January

Competition now closed and ready for judging

[Adam]

Hi Everyone!

Thank you all for taking the time to enter, especially over what is a busy period for one and all!!

I picked this subject because most of the time people only want to exhibit what is deemed to be their best work, according to "the rules", but I thought that it would be interesting to see what everyone actually likes to do, when they're not concentrating too much on what a photo should and shouldn't be like.

Donna - I've never seen anybody make a giraffe look like an alien before. Ever! I like it, but I'm biased, and there's no way I'd get away with letting you win!! Plus, I already know that you'd pick an animal related topic for the next competition, and I don't want to sit out in the cold for the next two weeks so that you can take a million more photos of animals to choose from!!

Paul - There doesn't seem to be any flare on the photo seeing as you've shot into the sun, and although there isn't as much colour, I think the photo has a nice pastel kind of feel. Very relaxing to look at and all it's missing is a man, fishing over the side of the boat, with a beer in his hand!

John - I am seeing more and more portraits being done landscape and I actually like it. I know that the subject shouldn't be in the middle, but the whole shot is about the subject, and so why not have the subject in the middle? It's clear and there's no hair in the way of her face.

Dennis - This one has a nice feel. I think the only thing that I would say is that I would have liked Khara to have been looking at the camera, but she's still in focus and she's a lovely looking Shepherd. The sentimental value is great - being a dog owner myself, I know how important it is to capture the memories whilst you can.

Michael - Lots of flare on this one, plenty of blurred birds and some nice brown Pennington Flash water. BUT, I like it - it's a good action shot with plenty going on, but it's not too busy because most of the action is in one area. I like the duck's silhouette. Definite "on the fly" shot.

Eric - When I first got my camera, the only lens I had was a 70 - 300mm and I had to do a lot of close up photos due to the fact that it's a telescopic lens. What else can you do with it? I really enjoy taking close up photos - it's not macro work, but it's nice and sharp, and it's got really good colour.

Janice - I really like this one. There's nice reflections in the windows, which come from the roof. Personally, if the only complaint that you've had is that someone couldn't see the point to the image, I'd be happy with that. Photography is largely down to a matter of someone's opinion - shoot what you like, the way you like, for yourself.

Phil I - I love skies - the more full of clouds, the better. I like the overcast foreground - it's dark and moody, but I'd have liked the sky a bit more moody too to make the clouds stand out more and it would have given the horizon more of a glow from the sun. I'm not sure if they are jet streams in the photo, but I like them, which I know is a big no no.

Phil J - This is one of those shots that you needed to have been there to see and appreciate it, because it's difficult to see the scale/size from the photo. I'm guessing that they are real cars in the shot, which is really cool, and something I would definitely have had a go at trying to get a photo of too. Shame it's a black car in a night time shot, but you can't have everything.

Shaun - We are frequent visitors at the barn and I tend to go for the older and more American style bikes. I like to zoom in on one particular part of a bike rather than taking photos of a bike as a whole. However, it's a good action shot - common sense tells you that they are indeed moving, otherwise they would fall over! The colour is good too. Shame you didn't take a step to the side to get rid of the biker in green behind them though.

In conclusion....

3rd place - Janice

2nd place - Michael

1st place - Phil Ingham

Congratulations Phil - it's over to you. Pick a good one eh?!

Cheers Everybody,

Adam

[collier15]

Well Done Phil a note to self must try harder next time, Hope you pick one that i'm good at next time.

Michael