Culture

This week is Chinese New Year. Gung Hei Faat Choih! Cultural items, events, and celebrations can be fun subjects.

"starting early" - Kirk
There is not much more Americana than baseball and getting your kid hooked early on. The baseball is now one of Ella's favorite toys.
45mm, ISO 400, f/5.3, 1/20 sec, center weighted, a-priority

"Typisch Nederlands" - Cary
Typical Dutch wooden shoes (klompen), tulips (tulpen), and Delfts Blue (Delfts Blau) pottery. Tragically, I forgot to put something orange in the picture. The klompen are much more comfortable and practical than you might think, particularly in our often wet climate.
E-3 w/ 12-60mm @ 26mm, 1/3 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 100, RAW processed in ALR2

"Tipica of Guatemala" - Mike
This shot is of a blouse, skirt, and belt (wipil, corte, & faja) from a traditional mayan girl outfit. In Guatemala it is known as tipica, which literally means typical. The belt has the mayan depiction of the Quetzal or serpent bird, named for it's extremely long tail feathers.
55 mm, f/10, 1.5 sec., ISO 200, Matrix, A-Priority

"Taste of Mississippi" - Matt
This was a nice chance to try to capture a photo of things that remind me of Mississippi. These two love birds are from the famous McCarty's up north, and the magnolia seemed to complement them well.
50mm, f/5.6, 4sec, center-weighted, m-mode

Next week's challenge:
Southern Shots
28 January 2009 - Weekly Photo Challenge: "Time Lapse"
Due: 4 February 2009

Take several photos of a changing scene and stitch them together to illustrate the progression of time. Here are some examples to get you thinking.

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=629557

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=629823

Mike

Cold

Seeing as there isn't too much snow or ice around here, depicting cold can be an effort in creativity.

"Frozen Trickle" - Cary

It's somewhat rare that it gets cold enough here to get frozen trickles like this but last Friday it got that cold.  When I spied this shot on our WES campus, I hopped out and spent some time composing it.  Even with a hat, coat and gloves, I still felt as blue as this image by the time I finished.  Here are some other "cold" shots I took that morning.

E-3 w/ 12-60mm @ 14mm, 1/20 sec @ f/8, ISO 100, RAW processed in ALR2

"Don't be a Pansy" - Tim


"Frosted Crimson" - Mike
I found some nice frost on the van this morning. I always find the patterns produced by frost very interesting.
55 mm, f/16, 1/6 sec., ISO 200, Matrix, A-Priority

"Thirsty?" - Matt
Cool off with a refreshing drink.
55mm, f/5.6, 8sec, center-weighted, m-mode

Next week's challenge:
Southern Shots
21 January 2009 - Weekly Photo Challenge: "Culture"
Due: 28 January 2009

Chinese New Year is coming up. My family celebrated this every year, and gave us a good dose of a Asian culture. Go out and find a scene to broaden our cultural horizons.

Matt

Distorted Perspective

You can take advantage of perspective and the 2 dimensional image produced by a camera to create seemingly impossible pictures without any fancy photoshop editing.

"Shade of a Bonsai" - Matt
Fun topic. I learned a lot and am already planning changes for the next time we do this same topic, which I hope will be soon.
55mm, f/32, 30sec, center-weighted, m-mode

"Moonball" - Cary

Matthew and I played a game of moonball the other night. The moon turned out to be a lot smaller than we expected. I had some fun taking distorted perspective shots this week. See some "keepers" here, including, as it turns out, very nearly the same shot taken at the same spot exactly one year apart.

E-3 w/ 12-60mm @ 27mm, 1/60 sec @ f/8 (w/ flash), ISO 100, RAW proc. in ALR2

"Im-possible triangle" - Mike
I had originally intended to do a picture with one of my kids hanging from the moon or the sun, but I didn't have time for that this week. I had to make use of my Penrose Triangle instead.
55 mm, f/9, 4 sec., ISO 200, No Flash, Matrix, Aperture Priority

Next week's challenge:
Southern Shots
14 January 2009 - Weekly Photo Challenge: "Cold"
Due: 21 January 2009

We're supposed to have record lows down here in Mississippi this weekend. Go out and figure out how to capture COLD on your camera.

Matt

Free Study

Another Free Study week to show off your pictures.

"blades of steel" - Kirk
I actually took this picture last week, but was too lazy to get it off my camera. I knew I would not get "stop motion" photos inside a skating rink, so I decided to try and get a few panning shots.
200 mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec, ISO 280, center, a mode

"Hooray! The Sun Returned" - Cary
I was so happy this morning to see the sun so I went outside and took some shots of morning light hitting various things in the yard. I liked this acorn sitting on the moss.E-3 w/ 12-60mm @ 60mm, 1/13 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 100, RAW processed in ALR2

"Gone Fishing" - Mike
We had fun fishing in a stream during the holidays while visiting family. I particularly liked this shot of my brother-in-law.
135 mm, f/4.5, 1/1000 sec., ISO 800, Matrix, Aperture Priority

"Day at the Beach" - Matt
I had fun playing with the fill flash during our day at the beach.
18mm, f/4.8, 1/500sec, center-weighted, m-mode

Next week's challenge:
Southern Shots
7 January 2009 - Weekly Photo Challenge: "Distorted Perspective"
Due: 14 January 2009

Matt and I thought it might be fun to try something with distorted perspectives. Use your creativity as to how you want to employ the theme. Here's one possible type of application:

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=549757

Hopefully, we can start seeing more participation again.

Mike