Hugh Milsom Beach - the Ivan recrop

Yep, think Ivan's right on this one.

Hat-tip to Hugh Milsom

Hugh Milsom came and spoke at Camera Club earlier in the year - it was one of the best talks and bodies of work that I've seen in my two years' membership there. Sadly, Ivan wasn't able to go but I was so impressed with Hugh's distinctive work that I bought the book he was flogging for Ivan.

Hugh's post-processing style is very different from most. He starts off with flat-lit, subdued colours and subdues most of them even more, achieving a pastel, ethereal effect - look at the beach section of his website to see what I mean. Anyway, I was going through my back catalogue a week ago and picked this shot of Saunton Sands in Devon as one which I'd previously rejected - Hugh has shots in his book from this neck of the woods, too. Anyway, I thought it might work well with a similar treatment, and I'm rather pleased with the result. What do you think?

Ivan's Entries for the 2008 Annual Digital Competition

Below are my 5 entries for the Cambridge Camera Club Annual Digital Competition. The categories are the same each year;

PEOPLE
This category includes formal and informal portraits, figure studies, groups and people in action.

CREATIVE
The use of any technique to create an image that transcends the bounds of reality and so stimulates the mind of a receptive viewer.

PICTORIAL
Here there is complete freedom of imagination and technique to produce an image of any subject in such a way as to achieve an individual interpretation of reality. Landscapes would normally fall within this category.

RECORD
A category for photographs that are a factual representation of any subject excluding Plants & Animals, giving detail and
maximum information on the subject specified in the title. High technical excellence is required in this category.

PLANTS & ANIMALS
Photographs must be accurate record shots of the living plant and animal, world giving detail and maximum information on the subject specified in the title. Photographs of mounted specimens, obviously set arrangements, or derivatives are ineligible. Factual, not cute, titles are required. The image must convey the truth of what the author saw at the time of taking. Whether produced in a conventional darkroom or via a computer, any manipulation of the image must be confined to the removal of minor blemishes or distractions. The final image must have been produced from a single negative, transparency or digital recording and must not be a combination of images. No section of a single image is to be duplicated and incorporated into the final image.

I have entered 2 for the Pictorial category. These are below.

Sunset Beach Walkers



Abandoned Bike



I have also entered 2 for the People category. These are below.

Eskimo Girl



Untitled



Finally, just to be different, I entered this image for the Record category.

Rusty Door Bolt



Please let me know what you think.

Cheers
Ivan

Annual Digital Competition

I only put two in this year, both in the portrait category. I very much doubt they're in the Camera Club mould, but I don't really give a damn.

Lidgard Photography has been updated

By the way, I have recently updated my website. I still need to do some work on it, and I need to set up PayPal and a shopping cart of some sort.

I recently went to a workshop called 'Email Is So Dead' which discussed the use of blogs and YouTube for artists. I can tell you more about that when I get back.

Do let me know what you think

www.lidgardphotography.com

Damian

Surf at dusk

This is an image I shot on Sable Island. It was taken at dusk, I had the camera on a tripod with my 100-300mm zoom lens and the camera set at: 10 seconds at f4.0, 250mm, ISO100, RAW.

In CameraRAW I optimised the image by adjusting the levels and curves and so on. This is a technique that I haven't used much before.

Not sure about the quality of the JPEG however.

Damian

Eskimo - Part 1

A picture of our little one, Abby, taken just last week. She was in her car seat, me in the front passenger seat. I've not optimised the black and white treatment - will do so and re-post, but just wanted some initial feedback, primarily on the image and composition. Advance input to help me get the b+w right would be good also.

Ivan

How to reduce noise using Photoshop

Something which no doubt plagues us all from time to time (unless we have more money than sense...). An article from The Luminous Landscape which may help out.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/techniques/chrom-noise.shtml

Ivan

Project Suggestion

Dear All

We are clearly all really busy and not posting much to the blog. No worries there, but how about a little project to get our juices going? I'll keep it simple. Three shots that tell something of "My Neighbourhood". Colour or black and white (not mixed, though).
Timeline. One month.

Thoughts?

Ivan