New Post has been published on http://www.kgsinclair.com/2018/09/the-long-weekend-and-image-preparation/

The Long Weekend and Image Preparation

Since my last post, Marie and I haven’t attended any workshops. We spent a “long weekend” at Noosaville on the Noosa River and a highlight was a boat trip through the Noosa Everglades. The waters are like a mirror and everything is reflected in detail. I have been posting some images from the weekend on Instagram. Here is a selection of them:

    Each month at the BCG Speakers Night, there is a digital show of images submitted by members. These images don’t have to be competition quality. They are meant to be a reflection of current work. For the show on 10 September, I submitted the following images:

Jemma

Me and My Girls

Night Lights on the River

Tanya

  Apart from our little break, this period has been quite busy. I have been preparing for the Brisbane Camera Group AGM which was held on 10 September as well as attending to a number of action items from the recent Committee meetings of the Club. Also, I have continued selecting images for possible entry to the BCG Annual Competition.

My Print Project Challenge has been developing slowly and further progress has been made. I need to create a maximum of 6 images for my entry. I now have 2 images that are well developed and 3 that a partially developed and 1 that is still back at the beginning stage. I still have time on my side but need to be careful that it doesn’t run out too quickly.

The BCG Monthly Competition wasn’t high on my list this month. As a result, I didn’t enter any images. It was more important for me to progress my Annual Competition and Print Project Challenge entries. In conclusion, here are a couple of images being considered for entry in the Annual Competition:

New Post has been published on http://www.kgsinclair.com/2018/07/learning-from-amazing-images/

Learning from Amazing Images

Wow! What a month for photography exhibitions. Marie and I attended the Queensland Camera Group Print Project challenge exhibition. The quality of the entries from the members was very high and it was easy to spend time there getting lost in the images. Some of the techniques used were thought provoking for our own work.

The Professional Photographers Association of Queensland (PPAQ) Print Exhibition was the first time they had held such an event. It showcased the work of their members. Again it was easy to get lost in the images. We also spent time discussing various images with the makers and they were very happy to share tips and techniques with us.

We were confronted with many images that expanded our world view and showed some of the pain and suffering in the world today when we attended the World Press Photography Awards exhibition. We were struck by the power of photo journalism to tell a story in a single image. I wonder how these photographers can spend time in these environments and not come away with their lives being impacted by what they have witnessed and lived through to gather the images they made.

Our home club, Brisbane Camera Group, was the organiser and host of the Queensland Interclub Audio Visual Competition which is held every two years. Marie and I attended the awards evening where every Audio Visual submitted was played and the winners announced. This was a different way of seeing images and was very enjoyable. The quality of work was very good. A key to having an effective Audio Visual is being able to tell a story that holds the attention of the audience. This requires both well captured images and a suitable soundtrack.

Marie and I attended an Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Workshop run by Ash Kashyap to improve our skills with this software. We came away having learned new ways to process our images. For me, I enjoy seeing someone else’s workflow as there is usually something I can take and use in my own workflow to improve my images more effectively.

The second Adrian Lowe Workshop was held recently. Adrian is the creator of the SMARTS process of evaluating an image. His talks are about learning about yourself and how you impact your photography. Using this knowledge, you learn to create images that are unique to you. That way you will stand out from the crowd and have your own style.

Construction was the topic of our July monthly competition. I submitted two DPIs taken with my mobile phone. One image had some work done on it to make it appear more “surreal”. The other was a more natural representation of the scene. The judge for the month was Melissa Anderson, an AIPP qualified judge who I have a great deal of respect for. My “surreal” image received an acceptance and the key take away was the treatment I had applied had confused the colour palette and there were aspects in the image that made it hard to know what the focus point of the image was. The other image received a Merit which I was very pleased about. The images appear below.

Preparing to Lay a Floor (Merit)

Under Construction (Acceptance)

  I am still making slow progress with my Print Project Challenge entry. I purchased a couple more props for the shoot which should help. Last weekend I captured a few images of my nephew and his girlfriend for possible inclusion in the project. It was a lot of fun and I’m hoping I can make some of the images work into the story line. Here are a couple of images from the shoot.

  My Instagram activity has been modest this last month. I have called up some older images and worked on them before posting. A few new images were also featured. They have been a mixture of portraits and other images. Here are a couple of images for you to enjoy.

New Post has been published on http://www.kgsinclair.com/2017/06/sometimes-judges-produce-surprises/

Sometimes Judges Produce Surprises

Unfortunately Marie and I were unable to attend the Brisbane Camera Group’s Competition Judging evening last Monday. Therefore I have only received the results but not the feedback provided. This was one of the few months this year where I submitted four images for judging.

The set subject was “Self Portrait” and I only submitted one entry in this category. As my Print Project Challenge is based on a series of self portraits, I didn’t want to submit any work done to date. Instead I took one of my test shots and tried to be creative with it. This resulted in the image “Rock Solid” displayed below which received an acceptance.

Rock Solid – Acceptance

As I mentioned in the previous post, I submitted an image for judging that I also submitted for the image show. I must have experienced a “grey moment” for that to have occurred. In hindsight I was not very happy with the images I submitted in the Open section and was not expecting much at all. And that’s where sometimes the judges surprise!

I was very surprised when the image I least expected to do well received an honour. The other two images only received acceptances which was most probably all that they deserved.

Lions Guarding – Acceptance

Rusting – Acceptance

Peace Brother – Honour

Photoshop still remains largely a mystery to me. However, last Saturday I worked my way through Peter Eastway’s “How to Master Photoshop Layers” and found this to be a very useful resource. Just watching how he does his selections was a revelation and has made my workflow a lot easier. On Sunday I put my new found knowledge to work to do some proof of concepts for my Print Project Challenge.