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DPChallenge Forums >> Side Challenges and Tournaments >> Team Suck Featured User: Writeheart
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04/13/2009 10:08:13 PM · #1
This week's FU is Writeheart!

Are you more of an "official challenges" or "side challenges" kind of person? Which of these formats inspires you more?

I think that I like them both equally, for different reasons. The “official challenges” feed my need for competition. I am very competitive, although that is subsiding quite a bit since my pictures don’t even come close to competing with those on the site, yet. The “side challenges” fill the need for critique in order to better my skills. I am not very consistent though, which is pretty obvious in how many side challenges I have started and not finished.

How does your father feel about you being a Canon girl? Has this caused any awkward moments at family gatherings?

Not yet. He is just getting into photography and really hasn’t had time to sit down and learn his camera. He doesn’t understand why I went to Canon though since the Nikons were less expensive. I think it boiled down to just liking the feel of the Canon and also the way the lenses felt and worked on manual settings. The downside is, if he gets any really cool lenses or equipment, I won’t be able to use them.


I've always liked droplet shots. How did you set up this one?

I had just bought our Pentax, our first DSLR, and thought, “oh, water shots can’t be too hard”. I learned fast that they are not that easy. I set the camera on the tripod, used the on board flash. I manually set the focus and just kept clicking away. I had the kitchen sink dripping into a red vase that I have. I must have taken hundreds of shots. I don’t have my computer here in AZ with me, but I will look up the photo info when I get home and add it to the pics. I may even venture to try another attempt when I get my Canon back.

You have some fantastic black and white images in your portfolio. What inspired the following pictures?

Thank you. I love black and white shots (it’s the only side challenge I ever completed)


I took this picture of the statue at the Bighorn sanctuary in Colorado Springs because I want to do a story on the bighorns.


This is a garden spider at our last house. He came out one night and I made my poor hubby stand with a flash light on him. I just thought that the web and spider looked so good in B&W. I liked it better than the colored shot.


We were at Elitches and my family was riding some other crazy ride that I refused to go on (don’t much like heights, or the feeling of falling), so I spent most of the time clicking shots to try to stop motion and see what my camera could do. Now that I look at this shot, I want to go back and bump up the contrast and play with it more in PS when I get home.

Do you have a particular season that draws you out with your camera?

Most definitely winter. I love the snow! And I love how things look after a fresh snow has fallen.

Do you play a musical instrument?

Not really now. When I was young I played flute, guitar and piano. I would love to play piano again (with more lessons) and learn how to play the drums.

How did you become interested in photography? Are you in any photography groups outside of DPC?

I actually started taking pictures in order to sell them with my articles I write. However, I haven’t written many articles since I got my dslr. I’m too busy taking pictures. I am excited to be getting my Canon 40d and to take some Photoshop classes this fall in school. After that, I hope that I can build my skill enough to produce magazine quality photos.

I have been in two different photography groups outside of DPC (when my schedule allowed). The first is the Christian Photography Guild in Colorado Springs. And the other is the www.meetup.com group that meets in Colorado Springs. Both groups have amazing members (both hobbyists and professionals) and everyone shares and helps one another. I am so glad that my schedule will allow me to return to the groups when I get back to Colorado.

If you were to lead a DPC-GTG for Team Suck, where would you take us?

Well, I am a sucker for the Zoo. I absolutely love animals. I spend hours at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo taking pics while my youngest son volunteers there. It’s especially great when they have their baby animals out.

When I worked at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs I helped set up a GTG there. It was a model GTG and was so much fun! That’s where I took
.

This is the castle at the Glen


On another GTG at the Glen I took

So, maybe a hike to the falls would be worth it. Anyone interested?

rodfulk asks:

If I were to visit Scottsdale, Phoenix, or any anywhere in the valley and wanted to take some breathtaking photos of desert landscapes. Where would you suggest? And why there? Do you have photos to share of your suggestion?


There are some amazing photo opportunities, but I think that a trip through Fountain Hills to the McDowell Mountain Regional Park is worth it. It allows for some great Saguaro cactus pictures since the park is filled with them. Even if you didn’t want to pay the fee to get into the park, just pulling over on side of the road provides many great desert landscape views. The added bonus is that the Fountain in Fountain Hills goes off every hour on the hour for 15 minutes and is beautiful. I don’t have shots on this computer of McDowell Mountain park, but here is a snapshot of the fountain. I have yet to learn how to edit these well. This is just a quick run through in iphoto (which I know nothing about).

raish asks:

If ladybirds didn't eat aphids, would you still love them as much?

Yes! I don’t know why I like them so much. However, I do think that I will replace my poor ladybird when I can get a good hummingbird picture. I took that ladybird picture with my very first digital point and shoot. It was years ago at Glen Eyrie and was probably the first time I thought that I really wanted to learn how to take good pictures. I liked the contrast of colors and the texture of the leaves so much that I was hooked. So, I guess that should really be the answer to the question above about when I started getting into photography (except for the fact that I got a “real” camera to take pictures for selling to magazines because 2mp wouldn’t work).

04/14/2009 12:27:50 AM · #2
congradulations Writeheart! very interesting thank you for your answers!

04/14/2009 08:08:00 AM · #3
Nice job Julie.
04/14/2009 09:04:01 AM · #4
Excellent interview! It's always fun to learn new things about our team mates!
04/14/2009 10:21:49 AM · #5
Julie great interview, we have probably met and didn't even know it. I belong to the meetup group so when you get back and go maybe we will see each other.

Message edited by author 2009-04-14 10:22:04.
04/14/2009 03:57:13 PM · #6
Always lots of fun learning about each other's styles, inspirations, etc. Good work Julie!
04/14/2009 04:37:12 PM · #7
Congrats Julie - nice interview!
04/14/2009 04:51:49 PM · #8
Delightful interview! And I have to add this one - it's always been one of my favorites of yours:

04/14/2009 04:53:46 PM · #9
Thanks for the wonderful interview. I feel I know you so much better now.
04/14/2009 06:09:12 PM · #10
Much enjoyed! Thank you!
04/14/2009 11:13:01 PM · #11
Thank you guys so much! I loved answering your questions. I hope that I can meet a lot of you since one of my main goals this year is to meet more DPCers. But even if we don't meet in person, I have really enjoyed meeting you all in cyperspace.
04/14/2009 11:20:05 PM · #12
Very interesting! I enjoyed it!
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