Photo Contest - Things That Go Bump In The Night (5/16-5/24)

[ZapperZ]

Please read our Contest Rules before submitting. Our theme this time is:

Things That Go Bump In the Night.

We want night shots pictures! These are pictures, taken by you, at night, utilizing your skill to take night shots. The pictures can be of any subject, but must be taken at night (however, not indoors with full lighting).

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 threads. 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.

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

Zz.

 

[larkspur]

Is it ok to use a flash?

 

[brewnog]

http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/student/E.Smith-2/PICT0040_1.JPG

Will this do for starters?

[ZapperZ: I corrected your IMG tag]

Edit: Thanks Zz! Had forgotten how to do that!

 

[ZapperZ]

Is it ok to use a flash?

Yes, use of flash is permitted.

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Does twilight (dusk/dawn) count as night ?

 

[Evo]

Alien cat lands at Christmas

This is the only nighttime pictue I have.

"look mom, someone plugged the cat in too"

 

[ZapperZ]

Does twilight (dusk/dawn) count as night ?

Sure, why not. But if it is not that different than daylight, then the voting members might turn on you!

:)

Zz.

 

[hypnagogue]

http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/4058/motel8dm.jpg

 

[Moonbear]

You can tell I'm trying to get Zz's vote on this one.

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9461/pfbumpinthenight2rg.jpg

(And this one was taken without a tripod! Does that get me any special points?)

 

[scorpa]

That is an awesome pic Moonbear! I tried to take a pic but it didnt work out. My camera has a nightscene function but whenever I try to use it the pic ends up to blurry to see, and without it the picture is way to dark. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'll try again tomorrow night.

 

[SimplySolitary_]

Hm, I'm going to have to enter this one. Does a scanned version of an actual picture count, or does it have to be digital...?

 

[ToxicBug]

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.

message message

 

[SimplySolitary_]

message message

Got to love the way I read it but don't pay attention.

Sorry.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Evo, is that Foofer?

My mom's neighbors puts those same reindeer out on their lawn at Christmas time. The neighbors get irritated because Mom's cat attacks them and knocks them over. I think he gets delusional and thinks he is a wild cat stalking caribou.

 

[Mk]

Moonbear's is teh awesome1!

I took this picture while exploring the nuclear fallout shelters of Guam last spring. Complete darkness, I had to use the camera's "night vision" to walk around through the caves.
http://www.mwnx.net/users/mac/PF%20photo%20contest/Fallout.jpg

 

[J77]

New Years Eve - Dam

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3795/flare0hf.jpg

 

[ZapperZ]

You can tell I'm trying to get Zz's vote on this one.

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9461/pfbumpinthenight2rg.jpg

(And this one was taken without a tripod! Does that get me any special points?)

Drat! You beat me to it! I was going to enter my own picture on the same thing! Now I have to find something else.

:)

Zz.

 

[J77]

Drat! You beat me to it! I was going to enter my own picture on the same thing! Now I have to find something else.

Have you got one with the castle on fire?

 

[ZapperZ]

Have you got one with the castle on fire?

I might... but I'm not going with the castle route anymore.

Zz.

 

[matthyaouw]

The rising moon. I didn't have a tripod for this shot, and it was bloody hard to keep the camera still enough for a long exposure.

 

[Evo]

Evo, is that Foofer?

My mom's neighbors puts those same reindeer out on their lawn at Christmas time. The neighbors get irritated because Mom's cat attacks them and knocks them over. I think he gets delusional and thinks he is a wild cat stalking caribou.

No, that's a stray cat named George.

 

[Evo]

The rising moon. I didn't have a tripod for this shot, and it was bloody hard to keep the camera still enough for a long exposure.

Ooooh, I like that.

 

[ZapperZ]

That is an awesome pic Moonbear! I tried to take a pic but it didnt work out. My camera has a nightscene function but whenever I try to use it the pic ends up to blurry to see, and without it the picture is way to dark. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'll try again tomorrow night.

Typically, the "night" function on most automatic camera means that it has a longer exposure. It means that the camera must be very steady when you're using such a function. Our hands are not that good (some people even try to hold their breath when they snap such pictures).

My advice would be to use a tripod or place your camera on a solid object. You still need to touch the camera to snap the picture and this can still cause some movement. However, you can overcome that by putting your camera on a slight timer delay (such as 2 or 3 seconds). Then your camera won't have such vibrations by the time it is actually snapping the picture.

On most camera, to get the best nighshot picture that has some lighting, use the manual exposure with ISO 50 or 100, and no flash. Those tend to work well for most simple automatic camera.

Zz.

 

[scorpa]

Typically, the "night" function on most automatic camera means that it has a longer exposure. It means that the camera must be very steady when you're using such a function. Our hands are not that good (some people even try to hold their breath when they snap such pictures).

My advice would be to use a tripod or place your camera on a solid object. You still need to touch the camera to snap the picture and this can still cause some movement. However, you can overcome that by putting your camera on a slight timer delay (such as 2 or 3 seconds). Then your camera won't have such vibrations by the time it is actually snapping the picture.

On most camera, to get the best nighshot picture that has some lighting, use the manual exposure with ISO 50 or 100, and no flash. Those tend to work well for most simple automatic camera.

Zz.

Thanks I'll try that. When I took the picture above I set the camera on the rail of the bridge and tried to keep it steady on the rail and it worked better than my other attempts but still obviously not that well. I'll try the delay timer thing if I can figure it out haha.

If I manage to get a better pic can I delete the one from my above post and replace it with the better version?

 

[ZapperZ]

If I manage to get a better pic can I delete the one from my above post and replace it with the better version?

Sure, we'll allow that for now. But if everyone starts doing that, we may have to modify our rules to not allow that. We're still trying to work out any kink out of this contest.

Zz.

 

[GCT]

I made a query about a certain photo that was taken by "swerve" (?) a couple of days ago, and I'm not able to find the location or the picture, nor can I remember the theme, it was a pic of a river upon sunset. If someone could help me to find the pic and perhaps tell me of the location on which it was taken, I would appreciate it.

 

[SimplySolitary_]

I made a query about a certain photo that was taken by "swerve" (?) a couple of days ago, and I'm not able to find the location or the picture, nor can I remember the theme, it was a pic of a river upon sunset. If someone could help me to find the pic and perhaps tell me of the location on which it was taken, I would appreciate it.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=120605&highlight=Photo+Contest", perhaps?

 

[GCT]

Yeah, that's it, thanks. What's the location of each of these places, is there list of locations to associate the pictures with?

 

[ToxicBug]

Alright, I'll play:

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/5033/sleepscreen19uq.jpg

 

[Cyrus]

ToxicBug, great pic

 

[neutrino]

It took me sometime to realize that I had an entry for this contest.

That is a 15 sec exposure of an http://www.satobs.org/iridium.html" . This one was as bright as flares can get - nearly 40 times brighter than Venus and a 100 times brighter than Jupiter at their brightest.

The star that you see to the bottom right is Canopus, the second brightest in the night sky.

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz.

 

[heartless]

It took me sometime to realize that I had an entry for this contest.

That is a 15 sec exposure of an http://www.satobs.org/iridium.html" . This one was as bright as flares can get - nearly 40 times brighter than Venus and a 100 times brighter than Jupiter at their brightest.

The star that you see to the bottom right is Canopus, the second brightest in the night sky.

What game is that? :)

 

[Cyrus]

http://photos.airliners.net/photos/middle/6/3/3/1044336.jpg

Please note, I did not take this foto. I just thought it was amazing and wanted to share it.

(Feel free to delete this post if you want to Zz)

 

[ZapperZ]

I will let it stand for now, but please keep all photo submission in this thread to be relevant only to the contest. If not, it will just make my task a bit more difficult, and I've already screwed up one polling thread as it is already.

Zz.

 

[Cyrus]

Thanks Zz, I have the perfect church to foto, but no camera

 

[Mk]

ToxicBug and Zz's are the best now. Zz's is so good good—you can see fine detail. However ToixicBug's is quite pleasingly artistic.

 

[ZapperZ]

Er... russ, if you're going to submit something to our contest, you'll (i) have to pick just one and (ii) have it uploaded to one of the photo server. I'm not accepting attachments.

Zz.

 

[russ_watters]

D'oh, sorry. Perhaps I should start reading the rules... I'll fix it.

 

[Integral]

http://home.comcast.net/~Integral50/wolf.JPG

Pumpkin

 

[heartless]

You didn't take this picture yourself, did you?

 

[Math Is Hard]

http://home.comcast.net/~Integral50/wolf.JPG

Pumpkin

OOOH! Cool! Did you carve that design?

 

[heartless]

What is that?

 

[SimplySolitary_]

What is that?

...Erm, mine?

 

[heartless]

yeah, your's. I'm not able to recognize the mysterious object therefore I need to ask. I'd be glad to know about it. :)

 

[SimplySolitary_]

It's a streetlamp that sits outside my house. :) Not that interesting, I must say.

 

[heartless]

I like it. It's quite interesting to me. I have a strange feeling looking at it. I inverted its colors in Gimp, it also looks cool the other way.

 

[SimplySolitary_]

Thanks! :) I took two, but I really liked the color in that one, it seems almost surreal.

 

[ToxicBug]

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.

So I don't think that's allowed... I don't really care though.

 

[SimplySolitary_]

I figure that modification means putting it in photoshop and giving a bird a third eye... wouldn't it?