The Contest

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Here’s hoping the weather this weekend will allow for some great shots. Hohenfels is getting cold and it’s time to gear up for long dark nights and days that are just as dark! It’s also time to get ready for some great autumn and winter shots!

As promised, the information for the contest. I’ll start with the prizes. First place will get a 25 euro gift certificate to Photohaus Zacharias in Regensburg. Second place will get a 15 Euro and third will get a 10 Euro gift certificate. Of course, for the contest to be valid, we have to get at least 10 entries.

Of course, you have to like our Facebook page and make a great photo to win. I’ll be the sole judge, and each person can only enter 1 photo.

The contest will run from Saturday morning, the 15th until the morning of the 22nd. Photos must be made no earlier than today. Any image that was shot before today cannot be entered. I'll announce the winners soon after the 22nd.

The theme for the contest is “The End of Summer.” With the fests, back-to-school, and fall approaching, there should be plenty to get your creativity fired up! Your image should convey a sense that summer is coming to a close.

I’ll base my judgments on the following criteria:
1- Technical- exposure, color balance, sharpness, and other technical merits.
2- Creative- creativity, creative use of gear, creative use of elements within the scene, and other aspects of creative photography.
3- Impact- does the image induce some feeling or message, and how well does it accomplish this.
4- Theme- how well the image complies with the theme.

Ansel Adams said that “There is nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy concept.” Your photo may be technically perfect, but if there is no impact or creativity, you probably won’t win.

If we don’t get enough entries, we’ll have to reduce the prizes or limit them to 1 or 2 places. Anyone can enter, but you have to contact me to arrange for pickup of the prize. That means you have to be in the Hohenfels area to receive your prize, or plan to come here to pick it up. If your image doesn’t win, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like it, or you for that matter, it just means the winners had some greater impact or a less fuzzy concept.

This contest isn’t for prestige or grand prizes, it’s about being creative and liking your work. It’s about sharing our work with each other. It’s not about being competitive or better than anyone else.


ISO 100, f/16, 1/25
Autumn roadside. I wanted to convey the feeling of an old fashioned autumn with this shot. By exposing to place the cut wood and the framing leaves at the top of the shot at a level that pulls you toward the clapboard building, this photo seems to announce the onset of fall.

Here’s hoping you enjoy the rest of your week and capture the shots you’ve been wanting. Get out and make it happen, then show us, share what you felt through your images on our Hohenfels Volks Faceboook page.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Day Sprees

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place!

Today we’re taking a short look at short trips. It’s more about ideas for small shooting sessions.

One of the first things to pop into mind are palaces and their gardens. Often, during spring and summer the gardens are alive with flowers and color. Catching one with some nice clouds can make for a whole day affair, just shooting and enjoying the beauty around you. Another great time for palaces and such is during autumn, when the large amounts of trees create a majestic tapestry of golden and red tones woven to bedazzle. A couple good ones to visit are at Bayreuth and Wurzburg.

Another great place for small shooting excursions is any train station. Larger cities and towns often have old buildings, as well as the more modern types. The old abandoned ones make for some nice ambience, and the newer ones can be seen to bristle with life and the vigorous flow of human traffic. Munich and Regensburg have some great places to shoot, both the life and hustle and the seeming decay and abandonment.

Public parks and monuments make for special cases, as at most you can combine a great time shooting with a family picnic. This allows for some spontaneous portraiture fun, and still allows for some breathtaking photos. Some nice ones are at Walhalla and Kelheim.

Take a drive, pull over at some of the smaller stops, and break out your camera. You’ll be surprised by some of the things that will jump out at your lens. With autumn upon our Hohenfels areas, it’s definitely a great time for the little pullovers.

Well, that’s about it for today!

Here’s hoping you enjoy the rest of your week and capture the shots you’ve been wanting. Get out and make it happen, then show us, share what you felt through your images on our Hohenfels Volks Faceboook page.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Announcement

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Tuesday evening finds Hohenfels in the grip of a storm, complete with lightning and thunder!

Today’s post is a short contest announcement. Hohenfels Volks is going to have a photo contest. The prizes are all small, with the winners getting a gift certificate to Photohaus Zacharias. I’ll need to work out some details prior to starting, though.

The winners will be selected based on:
1- Technical Execution- Is the exposure correct is the image sharp, etc.
2- Creativity- How creative is your shot.
3- Theme- Sticking to the posted theme.
4- Impact- Can the viewer connect with the image in some way? What message does it seem to convey?

I’ll post the starting and ending dates Thursday, as well as the theme. A couple notes- first, this is not a photo editing contest. Get it as close to right in the camera, and your job is more than half done! Second-you’ll have to come see me to pick up your prizes. Third- your image is your image, you keep the copyrights, although we’ll feature it here. So start thinking about your shots, planning your tools, and visualizing the image you want to make. This is a great time to practice photography, for all of us!


ISO 400, f/3.5, 1/30
An old airplane engine manufactured by BMW, here in Germany. The shapes and lines lead you through the image as you wonder what it is. Sharpness and light work together to creative an interesting draw.

Here’s hoping you enjoy the rest of your week and capture the shots you’ve been wanting. Get out and make it happen, then show us, share what you felt through your images on our Hohenfels Volks Faceboook page.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Now Departing

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! I hope everyone enjoyed a great weekend and is ready for another one! Here in our Hohenfels area, autumn is rapidly approaching. Soon the trees will be awash in reds, golds, and greens, which creates some great opportunities for photos!

Today we’re going to discuss departing from the literal. As you know, most creative images involve some departure from literal translations of the scene. Often, when shooting black and white, we use filters. In color digital photography, we use CPs and editing software.

To begin our discussion, it’s important to point out a simple fact. That fact is that in order to make any meaningful transition from literal values to a creative placement, you need to know the more technical side of photography. Today’s general discussion assumes you already understand exposure and DOF, as well as the other more technical sides of a good image. On the artistic side of creative departures, we need to understand the relationship between place and fall. This has been discussed before, as has the creative use of DOF to enhance or minimize an area’s impact on the scene.


ISO 125, f/4, 1/160
By bringing the reds more into play and simulating a red filter, the departure creates something that stands on its own. It also left the tree at a level that exceeded the values of reality, creating a nice chunk of texture.

When we place an area of a scene at a certain value, it needn’t be the literal value. You’re meter will give you the value for 18% gray, but not all things are neutral gray. For instance, clouds should be near white or about 3 stops over the meter. By placing the clouds at 3 stops over meter, or M+3, we have placed them at about their literal values. Everything else in the scene will fall to its prospective values and levels, giving us a literal interpretation.

In this hypothetical situation, we may want some part of the scene to be exposed to a higher value. This can be done, as mentioned, with filters or software. For instance, if we desire the bright green leaves of spring to stand out more, we may expose them to M or even higher. Another way is to use a yellow filter in soft light, if you’re shooting black and white. This can be simulated in software applications through the adjustment of color channels.

A big part of this, as always, is your vision. Visualizing your results, and the steps to make them real, will make your creativity stand out more. It also enables you to make creative departures and still end up with an image that says what you’d like it to. Not every image needs to be literal, many of Ansel Adams and Clyde Butcher’s images are not literal, but they connect to almost everyone who views them. They are often viewed as more realistic than the reality of the scene.

This goes back to creativity, visualization, and knowing your tools. Read the manual for every piece of equipment you own, and the software, too. It’ll prepare you to make the best images possible when you make your vision tangible.

Here’s hoping you enjoy the rest of your week and capture the shots you’ve been wanting. Get out and make it happen, then show us, share what you felt through your images on our Hohenfels Volks Faceboook page.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!