Photo Contest - I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. DeMille (8/23-8/30)

In summary, the contest is about close-up pictures of anything and the subject must be the main focus. Any picture that is a closeup of, or up close to, an object or a subject is accepted. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 pixels and crop if you wish. Only ONE picture per member per contest. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best. If there are too many entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread.
  • #1
ZapperZ
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I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. DeMille!

This week's theme is all about close-up pictures. If you've used the close-up macro on your camera, then that picture qualifies. However, your picture need not be taken only using this function. Any picture that is a closeup of, or up close to, an object or a subject is accepted. The close-up subject must be the main focus and occupies the majority of your picture.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a grey area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. But other than that, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread.

Zz.
 
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  • #2
"e' string" (standard tuning) :smile:

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5780/guitaroa4.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #3
Alright, I have learned my lesson, my bridge pic, which I choose because it was "different" turned out to be like its subject.. a loser... so... Think cute.
http://home.comcast.net/~Integral50/Ricochet/Meja.JPG [Broken]

Sleepy pup.
 
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  • #4
http://www.mcschell.com/rose_small.jpg [Broken]

-GeoMike-
 
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  • #5
Bumble bee in Morning Glory

http://home.comcast.net/~larkspur2020/beebutt2.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #6
cat's curiosity.

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5483/p1010006md2.jpg [Broken]

cat's curiosity.
 
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  • #7
GeoMike said:
http://www.mcschell.com/rose_small.jpg [Broken]

-GeoMike-


Beautiful shot! GeoMike is tough competition.
 
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  • #8
I too have learned that when all else fails, cute kittens always get at least a few votes! :biggrin:

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8344/emberun2.jpg [Broken]

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a close up photo of a moving kitten?!
 
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  • #9
Moonbear said:
I too have learned that when all else fails, cute kittens always get at least a few votes! :biggrin:

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8344/emberun2.jpg [Broken]

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a close up photo of a moving kitten?!

Which was harder, holding her down to put on that eye liner or taking the picture?:biggrin:
What a pretty kitten!:smile:
 
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  • #10
Considering the eyeliner is only on one eye, I'll let you decide. :biggrin:

If I could reach the camera now, I could get one of her lying still...she's stretched out in my arm sleeping. Tough typing one handed!
 
  • #11
My daughter Danielle at age 2 (She turns 19 and starts college next month.)

http://home.earthlink.net/~parvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/dani.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #12
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7107/gas1ik1.jpg [Broken]

gas puddle
 
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  • #13
Here is a Waspy thing on some plant I have in my garden I took 5 minutes ago for this very competition. Excuse my lack of knowledge about natury things but perhaps all the guys and gals on here would have fun working out what the little flying thing is and what plant its sitting on is :wink::smile:
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9569/waspything3lj9.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #14
Hover-fly aka wasp-fly. Not a wasp
 
  • #15
Andre said:
Hover-fly aka wasp-fly. Not a wasp
Theres the animal now anybody any guesses about the plant? (Astronuc I'm looking at you.)
 
  • #16
hypnagogue said:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7107/gas1ik1.jpg [Broken]

gas puddle

:eek: cannot compete with that!
 
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  • #17
Kurdt said:
Theres the animal now anybody any guesses about the plant? (Astronuc I'm looking at you.)
Some form of Allium?
 
  • #18
65728237.jpg


Fly sitting on my pond
 
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  • #19
Swerve... did you intentionally post that pic thinking that this was a physics forum and that the oil looked a little like the mandlebrot set? Very well done if you did, nice picture if you didn't :)
 
  • #20
I wish I had a pond.
 
  • #21
Molydood said:
Fly sitting on my pond

Please read the contest rules, especially #2. Please modify the size or it will not appear in the voting thread.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. But other than that, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

Zz.
 
  • #22
the gas puddle owns. heh, it looks like that "yin and yeng" sign.
 
  • #23
0TheSwerve0 said:
:eek: cannot compete with that!

yeah, I know where my votes going so far, fluid dynamics induce erotica
 
  • #24
Taken through an open window from a distance of about a foot. This guy is the alpha male of this year's brood of ruby-throated hummingbirds, and he won't have adult coloration until next year's visit. Nevertheless, he acts the bully and aggressively defends this feeder. MINE!

These guys are so fast that I got about 40 pictures of an empty feeder and only 3-4 decent shots of the birds. Their stops at the feeder are very brief, and my Olympus C-3040 has an unacceptably long delay after pushing the shutter before it takes a shot. Don't get one of these cameras if you want to do action photography.

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/4464/hummingbirdpe7.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #25
turbo-1 said:
Taken through an open window from a distance of about a foot. This guy is the alpha male of this year's brood of ruby-throated hummingbirds, and he won't have adult coloration until next year's visit. Nevertheless, he acts the bully and aggressively defends this feeder. MINE!

These guys are so fast that I got about 40 pictures of an empty feeder and only 3-4 decent shots of the birds. Their stops at the feeder are very brief, and my Olympus C-3040 has an unacceptably long delay after pushing the shutter before it takes a shot. Don't get one of these cameras if you want to do action photography.

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/4464/hummingbirdpe7.jpg [Broken]

excellent photo!

I like the fly on a pond too.
 
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  • #26
rocketboy said:
excellent photo!
Thanks. Since the background was very bright and the feeder is in shade, I had to use flash to fill in the shadows. These brave little guys didn't care - they acted like it was no problem. I got a couple of good shots of this guy because it's HIS feeder. The other birds are tougher to photograph because they make brief hit-and-run raids on the feeder until he chases them off. He's the only one that actually perches and takes his time drinking the sugar-water, except for one mature female that he tolerates - I think it's his mother.
 
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  • #27
ZapperZ said:
Please read the contest rules, especially #2. Please modify the size or it will not appear in the voting thread.



Zz.

apologies; now corrected.
 
  • #28
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6479/plantnf3.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #29
Nice shot, detta. I don't know the fname of that stuff, but it is VERY fragrant when you crush it in your fingers.
 
  • #30
Turbo...We have a few feeders in our yard including one on a window. I have been trying for a couple of years to get that shot. Nice pic indeed. My Nikon has the same problems with shutter delay as well.
 
  • #31
Are there any digital cameras that don't suffer from that shutter delay problem? Or do you have to go into the exhorbitant, professional level price ranges to get them? I haven't encountered any that didn't have some delay, and it really is a pain when you're trying to capture an action shot.
 
  • #32
Most digital cameras above $500 or so generally have little or no shutter delay if used properly. One thing many people don't realize is that any camera will have significant shutter delay if you're using the auto-exposure, auto-focus, red-eye reduction, etc. features, all of which occur in sequence before the picture is actually taken.

You need to set the camera to manual, focus it, select your exposure, and compose your shot. Once all that's done, sit and wait until just the right instant -- press the shutter, and your camera will take the picture nearly instantly.

- Warren
 
  • #33
chroot said:
You need to set the camera to manual, focus it, select your exposure, and compose your shot. Once all that's done, sit and wait until just the right instant -- press the shutter, and your camera will take the picture nearly instantly.

- Warren
:rofl: Well, when you put it in perspective like that, I guess it's not such a delay. Gosh, it's been so long since I've known anyone to use a manual focus camera that I forgot how long it can take them to focus while you're sitting there trying to freeze the smile on your face.
 
  • #34
Moonbear said:
:rofl: Well, when you put it in perspective like that, I guess it's not such a delay. Gosh, it's been so long since I've known anyone to use a manual focus camera that I forgot how long it can take them to focus while you're sitting there trying to freeze the smile on your face.

Pretty much all professional photographers use either manual focus, or have cameras with auto-focus mechanisms triggered by a half-press of the shutter button. After the first auto-focus for their scene, they lock the focus and don't touch it anymore. Bye bye, shutter delay. Your kitten picture, for example, would have benefitted from this. As it is, your camera focused the wire mesh behind the kitten, rather than the kitten itself. As usual, auto-focus got it wrong anyway, so why use it at all?

Auto-focus is, in fact, the bane of photography these days. I've had to sit still for minutes while some novice photographer takes picture after picture with a full-auto digital camera, throwing out several in a row because the focus isn't quite right on any of them.

And how about those people who take home movies with camcorders, but don't have the foresight to use its focus lock? The kid's chasing a ball or something else with a lot of motion, and the camera is constantly changing focus. You end up with one frame every two seconds that's actually in good focus.

- Warren
 
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  • #35
chroot said:
Pretty much all professional photographers use either manual focus, or have cameras with auto-focus mechanisms triggered by a half-press of the shutter button.
I still find that useless for action shots, because until something is in the frame to focus on, even the half-press of the button locks the focus on something other than what you want to take a photo of. I can't seem to convince my camera to ever lock onto anything I want it to lock on. Of course, with the kitten photo, that's because she wandered in from the side (I just cropped out the dirty windowsill). I had other in-focus shots of her, but they weren't as cute. Then again, I had some that were a complete blur of orange and black as she zoomed past the camera. :rofl: I did get a few better ones yesterday when I focused on a toy I had placed out for her, and then snapped the picture the moment she came up to the toy. Bleh, I prefer photographing things on microscopes. At least then I can adjust the focus exactly where I want it and nothing moves once I get it all set right! :biggrin:

Then again, there was no way I was going to spend over $500 for a digital camera, and the ones that have complete manual focus are huge! I'd never use it because I'd never lug it around. I'd rather have blurry photos than none at all.
 

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