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March Free Study

Camera specs; Canon EOS Rebel XS fitted with a Canon EF-S 50mm f/1.8 lens, f20.0 @  16 seconds, ISO 400 on tripod.

After reaching the coveted 6.0 score, by the time the voting was over I ended up with a 5.67.  This shot was taken during Shawn Duffy’s Night Photowalk DC.  After last month’s disaster I’m happy with this score which is my highest so far in a free study challenge.

February Free Study

Camera specs; Canon EOS Rebel XS fitted with a Canon EF-S 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens, f7.0 @ 1/100 a second, ISO 800 at 135mm.

Its funny how Chinese fortunes work. Yes I did get laid off, I found out the day before I opened the fortune cookie. For some odd reason I kept that fortune as a piece of cruel irony to laugh at if times got tough. Funny enough though, the day after my layoff took effect my old manager called me and asked if I would be interested in coming back as a department head (promotion from my previous position). I guess these things do come true given time.

It took me a couple more orders from our local take-out to get enough cookies for this shot. This is my first “studio” photo using a tabletop setup I bought my wife for Christmas.

Unfortunately the photo did not do as well as I’d hoped in the DPChallenge free study challenge for February.  It brought me a 4.79 which is my lowest score yet.  Very disappointing for a shot that I put that much thought into.  Time to go back to the drawing board and work on my March entry.

DPChallenge – Free Study 2009 – January Entry

I may not have made it an official resolution this year but taking more photos was definitely a goal.  To assist this and force me to stay on track I’ve signed up for a number of projects like Jason D. Moore’s On the 4th, Picture a Week, and also attending more photowalks like the ones hosted by Aaron Brazell and Shawn Duffy.  The end result is not only having fun but obtaining more experience both in the taking of the shot and the post processing experience.  The best side benefit is it forces me to interact more with the community and creates more online and real life relationships with others that share a love of photography.

Another project I’ve taken on is the monthly Free Study challenge at DPChallenge.com.  Unlike the Picture a Week project, which I also found at DPChallenge, the Free Study images are graded by the membership there.  Members vote on the entries using a 1 to 10 scale and also are provided a way to leave comments for feedback, criticism and advice.  I was told when I first joined that I should have thick skin as at times the feedback and scoring can be rough. That was good advice.  Images I thought would do well have tanked while others I thought were so-so did better than I expected.

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