First Place – Assigned Category – An Idiom Expressed as a Photograph
Two First Places
Spread One’s Wings Bridget Cline
It was taken in Myrtle Beach, SC at sunrise.
Thunderstruck Ross Steensland
This photo was taken in November of 2019 during an intense thunderstorm over Myrtle Creek. I was there before sunset and long into the night. As the sky got darker I was able to take repeated 2 minute exposures at f7.1 iso 250. I blended together two lighting strikes into the same sky photo, then blended that with the foreground and orange horizon from sunset. Canon 6DmkII Canon 24-70mm f2.8
Three First Places – Open Category
A Crack In The Sky Reflected Susan Sheets
I shot this at Bandon beach on a wintery, wet and windy weekend this January. The gear: Olympus 12-100mm lens at 12 mm, F8, 1/60th sec., on a tripod, Olympus EM5 MkII.
Go Ahead, I’m Listening Jim Heern
Golden Eagle Rudy Dierks
Image was shot at Wildlife Images. Two shot focus stacking was done on the bird to achieve sharpness over most of the image. The background is a blend of a couple of my own shot textures. I used a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 100/400 lens set at 263mm/F-8/500 shutter speed/2500ISO. Image was processed using photoshop 2019 and DXO software. Amazingly beautiful bird up close!
Three Second Places
I Hear You, I See You, I Smell You Susan Sheets
On The Lookout Rudy Dierks
The Image of the Bengal Tiger was shot at the West Coast Game Park near Bandon. The image is a time lapse of one cat taken several minutes apart. The background is a combination of images that were taken at Joshua TreeNational Park. The tigers were blended into the background using Photoshop. I used a Canon 5D MarkIV with 100/200mm lens/F-8/600Shutter speed/ ISO400 to shoot the cat shots and a 24/70 lens for the background shots. I hope this cat likes it’s new home.
I shot this in September 2019 from my back yard. A first for me in catching lightening. 2.5 sec, f5.0, iso 500.
Four First Places – Category – Open
SnowFlake Dancers Dale George
This image was taken at the dress rehearsal of Stillpoint Dance Studio’s version of The Nutcracker. I have waited 3 years to get this image for myself and it was worth it. Shot using a Canon MKIV and 24-70 mm lens combination. I had my ISO set at 6400 and aperture 4.0 as most of the dance was in challenging low light conditions.
Not a lot of post editing, mostly some color correction and bringing up some shadows and highlight control…as well as some sharpening and noise reduction.
The Ghost Of The Mountain Jim Heern
Snow Leopards inhabit the highest altitude of any big cats. These most elusive cats nicknamed ” Ghost Of The Mountains”. They are perfectly equipped to thrive in extreme high-altitudes (up to 20’000 ft.)
Snow Leopards can endure temperatures as low as -40 degrees F , they are vulnerable to extinction, there only 6,000 left in the wild.
Shot at f/ 8.0
ISO 2500
1/250 sec.
Aurora Vintage Larry Pollack
Purple Pier Ross Steensland
This image was taken late December in Avila Beach California. After the sun went over the horizon I checked the North side of the pier and found a warm glow still illuminating the structure. I composed the image as to where the pier was leading into the brightest point of the sunset. I shot at multiple focus points, several exposures to compensate for the highlights and darks, and then about 3 additional minutes to create the smooth ocean. All of them were then blended in photoshop.
Canon 6D mkII. Canon 24-70 f2.8. B+W Polarizer filter.
This little adventure in ‘horror’ shooting took place at Dale G.’s private studio. I ended up using his Canon 5D Mark IV since my D750 was in repairland. I have to give credit to Dale for the setup, lighting too. My contribution was in the processing and converting the jpeg to an infrared look which really brought out Charlie’s crazy eyes. After that I created a photo filter for a chocolate-brown ambience (that didn’t quite get there). ISO 100, f/7.1/ 2.5 secs. 33mm focal length.
Well…Hello Dolly Dale George
Hello Dolly was shot using a cheep plastic 2 piece backdrop purchased at Halloween City. I taped each sheet to my outside garage wall and carefully matched them together for the complete scene.I placed one of my many props in various positions till I had the pose and adequate distance from the backdrop. It was a foggy day so the subdued light was perfect as plastic backdrops can present a problem with glare.
Shot with a Canon 5DMK IV and 24-70 lens combination. ISO was 250, aperture at f/10 for additional depth of field, shutter speed 1/100 sec. Editing was first done in ON1 Photo 10 Suite. I use this software for its “magic erasure” as it is really good and easily removes objects like fold creases, of which there were many. It seems to be able to clone in what is needed to blend the removed portion.
Lastly, editing was done in Lightroom and some minor tweaking in Color Efex Pro (DXO). Mainly I did some detail extractor, adjustment in bringing out shadows and punching up the whites a bit.
This image was taken at Wright Patterson Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio. It is possibly the best air museum in the United States with 320 air crafts. This was shot with my Canon 5DMKIV and Canon 24-70 lens opened to 34 mm. It is a three shot HDR shot at f4, iso 6400, Oev, -1ev, +1ev, combined and tone mapped in Photomatix 60 and then light post work in LR.
This is a single shot setup in my garage with a black cloth backdrop, illuminated at the top from both corners with red LED lights. It is lit with 2 Canon strobes about 2 feet off the ground in front and at an angle towards either side. It is shot at 70mm, f5, iso 6400 with a Canon 5DMKIV. Post processed in LR and On1 Effects using a small amount of detail extractor, and glamour glow. The faces were lightened and clarity added for effect.
