POW - Sunday January 18th, 2009

<p>oh, and I forgot about this one that I took on my birthday (with kit lens)... you have to excuse me for posting so many shots, because it was my birthday this week.. ;-)</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>Todd that last is neat in a digital sort of way. Also, Duane - what great shots of your kids! May I ask how you desaturated them?</p>

<p>I like that last shot Todd.. and happy belated birthday :-)</p>

<p>Two late afternoon pix from last week that I posted on the Pentax forum.</p><div></div>

<p>and</p><div></div>

<p>Before I share my favorites, I ask for sympathy of sorts: tonight is my daughter's 11 year old birthday party and for some reason beyond my comprehension she managed to finagle having 10 of her girlfriends sleep over our house. Over the past 6 hours we've had pizza making, a fashion show, a tug-o-war, a series of "commercials", birthday cake, gossip, ice cream, yelps, and a lot of smiles. They are all camped out on the playroom floor in sleeping bags watching the first of a few videos. I think the coast is clear.</p>

<p>These are my favorite pictures:</p>

<p>George C.-Blessed Light is awesome. Yeah, film! Someone said that they will give me that Yashinon lens last week, and now I am looking forward to it.</p>

<p>Jean-Paul T.-Nice followup to George's shot. What a great focal length choice and light capture.</p>

<p>Ronny Perry--Another fine texture shot. It looks like you must have some fun when going out taking shots. Send me an email if you are ever in Seattle.</p>

<p>Dave H.- Jenna Drives is almost high key. Love the symmetry of the bodies. You are improving bigtime.</p>

<p>Javier--Nice last shot. That color!</p>

<p>Lorenzo P.- Very impressive framing and compelling renditions. I'm getting more interested in this IR approach.</p>

<p>Ian F.-That third shot is a winner. The lighting is spectacular</p>

<p>David N.- I'd be very happy with that picture. The red combined with the cracked ice is engaging.</p>

<p>Todd P.-Thanks. "For Love" is very urban and fun. The lighting is special. What did you do?</p>

<p>Thank you Somanna; I have a few versions of those stairs shots, they are all close but not quite there for me. Yet.</p>

<p>Thank you Duane Mills. You made me go back and really study my shot and appreciate it far more than I did. That's rare for me. Sweet shot of Ian and nice lighting.</p>

<p>Uh oh, the video just ended and the natives are restless. I'm gonna go and hide now.</p>

<p>ME</p>

<p>Thanks Nick. After reading some of Hin's blog, I gave Picasa a shot rather than using my normal default, CS3. Hin uses Picasa and I like the way he processes images. In Picasa I used the effects tab - B/W, the basic effects tab - auto contrast, then exited Picasa and resized the image in CS3 and finally went back into Picasa and applied a little sharpening before uploading to photo.net. </p>

<p>George - blessed light is a really good shot.<br>

I have something to contribute, but apologies to the folk who have already seen these shots in my 43mm limited thread. So, in keeping with the black and white theme, here are two shots:<br>

Firstly, Yi Jia:<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3299/3200816467_cd396265bc.jpg" alt="" width="333" height="500" /><br>

Secondly, Delou:<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3201613540_f38c7328b9.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>

<p>By the way Dave, that bird shot really looks like a Chinese painting! I really like it!</p>

<p>I guess my own aesthetic contributes to my choice of favourites: Treen, I like that a lot, reminds me of a Corbjin, Garry I like your second shot and Michael, your landscapes are just missing some soiltary figure. Chune-Hoong, I took the photo when the image in the viewfinder looked good to me, in retrospect, I guess I wanted to include the windowlight to the right and the detail of the papers in the bottom left. Portrait would've lost that and from memory, the light from above didn't pick out much detail from the waist down anyway. Somanna, I think it was stopped down to f2 or 2.8. Howard, thank you for your comments, I suppose there is a balance of angles that mimic each other, there's also highlights that form a triangle in the middle keeping it a bit geometric which I've just noticed. Michael, my resolutely untechnical 'testing' of this lens (i.e taking pictures with it) puts it above my SMC M 50mm 1.7 in terms of how it deals with flare and how it renders out of focus areas, unfortunately, it doesn't meter well on my MX so it doesn't get much use. Out of interest when did photo of the week become photo essay of the week?! I jest... Let's pray for some sun here in London so I can get some colour in my life, the *ist D seems to fall apart at ISO 400, <br>

Regards to all, George</p>

<p>wonderful portraits Garry!<br>

Michael, I just saw the couple as I was walking along and snapped in Program mode, which for some reason decided on a one second shutter at f1.4, even though they were under a bunch of big lights, but that long exposure kind of threw me off and then I was nervous they'd see me, so I chickened on trying again to get a sharper shot, but I was glad the light at least turned out the way I saw it.. :-)</p>

<p>Hi folks..Nice shooting all..<br>

My 3 favs for this week are<br>

@George....Truly your are a gifted film shooter. There is nothing about that image I would change.</p>

<p>@Duane, The portraits of Ian and Emily are absolutely great. Great PP work on them as well...</p>

<p>@Todd...Venus over Laguna is your finest image as far as I am concerned. Well done!</p>

<p>Wow great series of shots everyone. Too many to make indivitual comments on but a few that caught my eye against all the excellent work.</p>

<p>George C's opening shot. great light and 'look'.<br>

Ronny Perry's crumbling house. almost B&W with the striking blue paint peeling and the lace in the window. Great capture.<br>

Javier's boat at sunset. I don't know if that's flare or a reflection but a great looking image.<br>

Justin's great B Ball shots. Sharp as a tack. Nice lens and great work. So where are the hot women? :-)<br>

Duane's shot of 'Ian' Perfect light and very nice capture/expression.<br>

Ian F's 3rd mountain shot. Great light in that shot. Wonderful landscape.<br>

Lorenzo's first IR has a great mood to it.<br>

Haig's flower macro. Crystal clear and nice colours.<br>

Todd's first flower shot. Great background in that shot Todd. The last one after sunset is excellent. Happy B'day!<br>

Gary's second profile shot. Love the dark look of that one.</p>

<p>It's been brutally cold here and this is the only decent shot from the week I've taken. It was -38C and just at sunrise in Grand Falls New Brunswick. There's a river that cuts through the center of town and where the water was exposed to the air, a heavy ground fog blanketed parts of the valley.<br>

<a title="ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting" href="http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ivp0574churchatsunrise1la6.jpg" target="_blank" title="ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting"><img src="http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6416/ivp0574churchatsunrise1la6.jpg" border="0" alt="" /> </a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Ok, I'm going to post this week - since Saturday was very productive for me.</p>

<div></div>

<p>another... </p><div></div>

<p>and finally - a portrait shot</p><div></div>

<p>Terrific, Rose! I love the Green dragon and the <em>ukulele</em> portrait is stunning. </p>

<p>Ian - wow, very amazing and rugged landscapes. Nicely captured.</p>

<p>John - your first shots with the DA 70mm Limited make a very compelling case for choosing that particular prime simce it looks as the price/performance ratio is excellent. Outstanding shots.</p>

<p>Haig - wonderful lighting in the "Botanical Gardens" image. I assume the exhibit is glass?</p>

<p>David - looks cold. The patterns and reflections in the ice are interesting and the red ship really pops.</p>

<p>Todd - the DOF on the 50 is a blast to play with however I like the "Seconds" shot best. The motion is very well captured.</p>

<p>Will comment on more shortly.....</p>

<p>Howard - great yard, I also like the low sunlight and long tree shadows in the shot.</p>

<p>Garry - superb B/Ws. I like the shadow from the hat in the photo of "Delou" and how the eyes are not visible. Great composition with a wonderful gritty feel.</p>

<p>Peter - terrific photo of Grand Falls with wonderful atmosphere. I haven't been there in quite some time, not since being based in Gagetown and ocassionally driving to Edmundston on some weekends. please post some more shots as it is quite a scenic town. </p>

<p>Rose - love the "Dragon". Kudos.</p>

<p>It is glass Duane.. Dale Chihuly has exceptional glass creations.. I posted an album with some photos from the exhibition at the botanical gardens here:<br>

<a href="http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/569484614xVAZfy">http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/569484614xVAZfy</a></p>