No Photos !





Not posed or taken especially for the competition, but the opportunity presented itself so I thought I'd enter.

Camera Make: PENTAX
Camera Model: PENTAX K20D
Image Date: 2009:06:02 16:12:08
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 70.0mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm)
Exposure Time: 0.0025 s (1/400)
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO equiv: 100

I came home today happy that I had finally managed to take a shot of someone at work. I processed my image, went to the competition only to find it closed ! Doesn't time fly when the weather's good

Oh well, next time perhaps.

Very nice Gwyn, you've donw well to make a great exposure in what seem like difficult conditions.

#2 for me, although the foreground is a little dark I love the sense of scale that the wonderful sky brings to the shot.

I'm waiting for Pentax to do a deal with Dolby to create a noise reduction system

Thanks for the challenge & the judging Pete. I'm not going to set the next challenge as the participation is somewhat lacking. Apologies to those who have enjoyed it, I wonder if Brian (isdky) wants to continue it by setting the next challenge.
This may be more a challenge for the drab winter months when people are sat at their computer with some time on their hands perhaps.

The camera never lies...

A flood at Battersea.

isdky, sorry. Competition was posted as closing at midday. I didn't judge until past 16:00 so there was a window for latecomers.

Thanks for offering to host the RAWs for this comp.


I hope I didn't do too bad a job of commenting & I look forward to playing with iceblinkers RAW on the next rainy day

Ok, a dissappointing number of entries after the last comp produced so many.
I hope I haven't managed to single-handedly kill off this fledgling competition

Just a quick comment on each from me.

Anvh: I'm guessing you tonemapped this one as you've produced alot of detail in the shadow areas. Unfortunately the blues seem a little posterized & the telltale halo around the tower is evident. Nice vibrant image though.

jackitec: I like the straight sides to the tower in your version, the correction of the barrel distortion has led to an increase in perspective distortion though, which I find less pleasing. But on the plus side it does make me look thinner !! A good side-effect of the corrected distortion is that you've cropped off the blown highlights to the left.

iceblinker: You've one a very nice job on the Raw conversion, nice tones & plenty of detail brought out in the shallower shadow areas. A small crop has got rid of some of the blown highlights, but those that remain still draw the eye. I'd have liked to have seen a little more saturation but overall a good job.

piotro: You've gone for a tight crop here which doesn't work for me, the edges of the tower are just out of frame & my eye follows the line down & out of frame which doesn't hold the attention long enough. Tones are rich but the image seems a little flat & doesn't pop at all.

MGraley: A very original take on the image. The Blur vignette has isolated the subject well & brought it out from the background, unfortunately as it has blurred the edged of the tower also it does look unnatural. If you had managed to blur the foreground & background but keep the tower sharp (to appear as tight DOF) this would have been a great image.. The image isn't straight either, ok there aren't any straigh lines to go off but it seems to have a slight tilt to it. Great idea, had it been a little more polished, it would have been unbeatable.

kemp: An even closer crop, very creative as it highlights the great architecture, reflected & distorted by the mirrored tower. The processing which has led to different tones of blue in the tower & background is great, but it has led to a blown area of cloud which is just too off-putting for me.

Winner: iceblinker, I would have liked to have seen a slightly more imaginative crop, but as an exercise in getting the best detail from a RAW file, iceblinker has shown us the way. A well deserved win & over to you iceblinker to provide the next RAW for us to play with. I also hope the participation will increase once more in the next RAW challenge. Thanks to all who entered.

Bob

Makes a world of difference I think.

Lots of choco I'd say. Plenty of lavazza though.

You can't beat a fresh coffee, I've an automatic bean to coffee machine at home & although it's not as good a manually made espresso it's darn close when you get the grind size right. Almost zero mess too !

I've had some pleasant coffees from Starbucks on occassion, it totally depends on the Barista you get really.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Coffee !!