DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Side Challenges and Tournaments >> January Walkabout -- Posting Thread
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 15 of 15, (reverse)
AuthorThread
01/18/2008 09:42:36 AM · #1
Post your January Walkabout Pictures here!

Looking for extraordinary photos in ordinary places. Complete details on the challenge here. Don't worry if you didn't sign up already ... everyone is free to join us, post and comment in the challenge.

Here’s the place to post your pictures.

A few reminders:

1. Your picture must be taken between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. (local time) on a single day during the challenge period, January 18-21.

2. Post up to five images here. All images should be uploaded in a single post.

3. Try to include a little narrative in your post, telling us how/why you chose your starting spot, where you went, what you did, and how or why you found the images you did.

4. Please try to comment on as many images you can during the coming week (Nov. 26-30). Commenting on this challenge is as much fun as participating.

Treasure Hunt – Naturally Framed
Take a photo and use objects in the foreground or background to frame your main
element(s). As suggested by jaxter – without even knowing the upcoming open challenge. A double bonus for this month == Win the Treasure Hunt and a ribbon too!

November’s Personal Challenge – Down on Your Knees
As we walk around, most of see the world from five or six feet above the ground. It's amazing what a small change in that perspective can accomplish in turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. This month, as you are on your walkabout, try to take some pictures from your knees, or even lying down on the ground. Share what you find in your posts!

Have fun, and thanks for playing!
01/18/2008 04:31:17 PM · #2
Let's start this challenge with a good dutch tradition: complaining about the weather.

It was raining this morning, it was raining this afternoon, it's still raining.
Weather forecast: rain! Perhaps Tuesday there will be some sun.

Just lucky it was (mostly) dry during lunchtime. Started this challenge from my work.
Made a very nice walk and here are some impressions. Didn't want to do much editing,
so all the photos are within the "basic editing" rules.

Spring seems to be coming. I like daffodils.


There's an old gas plant near my work, still being renovated. Lots of artist.
Here's a nice place to sit when the sun is shining.


A view of the environment, framed by a bridge. On the left side the old gas plant.


A part of a building. I liked the lines and all the bricks. Please don't
complain about missing the bottom part. It was not very interesting.


On the way back I found this small waterfall. Had to go into the mud
to take this shot. Just liked the lines and the light.


Well, it was cold, but very nice to do. Just walking, making photos and
forgetting all the things you still have to do.

Thanks EstimatedEyes for setting up this challenge.
01/19/2008 01:35:54 AM · #3
well after a week of no rain and temps in the 30deg C
guess what today bought "RAIN"
so i gathered up my camera and wandered to the local Golf course abot 600 mts from home
it has been years since i stepped foot on the course too
With Melbourne and most of Aust in drought its very dry

so the colors are pretty dull and dry but i noticed that the pine trees had small clusters at the end of each branch
so i shot it using macro at 3 cm


There were a few ducks about picking at whatever they could find to eat
but as i tried to get closer they would waddle off again so after a while i gave up on stalking them to get that closer pic


as i was stalking them i heard a thud behind me and turned to see a Kangaroo bound about 5 mts away then he baulked hopped sideways and into the bush as fast as i turned he was gone grrrrrrrrrrrr

so as i walked the course for the next hr most of the wildlife consisted of Magpies

and Cockatoos


now after seeing that Roo i will be returning at dusk or dawn tomorrow with some luck there may be more about
well i hope you enjoyed my walkabout as much as i did
this walkabout is a great idea and i learned to expect the unexpected :)
01/19/2008 07:52:59 PM · #4
I didn't want to wimp out for 2 months in a row!
I choose the little Panasonic P&S because it has very few controls and I can just about run it with my heavy mittens on. I forgot about shutter lag on this little toy, but I knew I wasn't willing to spend extra time outside in -14F.
This is the view from the bus stop this morning. Not very interesting But very cold.



This is the view from the bus stop on the way home. Uptown Movie Theater marquee. The neon lettering was turned on on, but not dark enough for it to show. I would have gotten a few better composed shots, but my bus came and I got on.


Sorry about the cruddy snaps. I don't think I'm leaving the apartment tomorrow so I'm posting them.
01/20/2008 04:09:18 PM · #5
Photomouse and I went out for our walkabout just before lunch this morning. It was cold, gray and cloudy, and not a little wet from yesterdays rain. Of course now, after lunch, the sun is out and it's warming up nicely... such is life. *sigh* Anyway, we decided to walk the paths that meander through our subdivision and see what we could find. I think Photomouse made out better than I did, but here is what I found.

I found a tree that was absolutely gorgeous. It had Ivy entwined around it and I could not pass it by. In the spirit of this months walkabout, I took a bottom up shot.


Rather close to our children's School, I found these stacked up rocks. It appears to be a cairn someone made.


A few feet from the cairn I found this toy car half buried and I couldn't resist playing on a mocked up landslide photo.


Sadly, we have plenty of these in my neighborhood. On the other hand, we have plenty of living ones as well. This particular stump however, I found to be rather striking, so I captured it for your viewing pleasure.


For my last photo, I found a nice sized boulder about thirty yards from my front door. It's about the size of a full sized truck. I took a photo of the front side of it, but I found this shot into a large crack behind it much more appealing.


I hope you enjoyed my photos, and I hope you had a great time on your own walkabout. I will take a look at all your Treasure Hunt entries later this week and have a winners name sent to EstimatedEyes by Saturday morning.
Jaxter
01/21/2008 12:07:28 PM · #6
Had some time yesterday just before sunset, so decided to squeeze in my walkabout. I did something a little different this month. I picked a location I often go to shoot, the state park near my home that surrounds Suisun Bay, a small bay off the Carquinez Strait right where it dumps the Sacramento River into San Francisco Bay. I've been there so much that the place now seems ordinary to me, so I think it fits the challenge. But just to be sure, I decided to do the entire walkabout using only The Original Lensbaby, which I got a few weeks ago but haven't had a chance to experiment with.

It was bitterly cold (for California!) with a nasty wind sweeping across the Bay, but I had a good time playing with the lens on my short walk along a trail I've been down many times before. I parked outside the paylot. This is the view as you enter the park, and I liked how the light was falling on the water in the late afternoon.


I cut down the hill to the shore, where the tide was out and this huge cloud was on the other side of the strait, with the sun behind it. The image is way blown in the center, and it has a kind of graphic feel, but I like it.


I cut over to the trail along the shore, where this bench sits with a nice view of the water. I dropped to one knee and grabbed my framing shot for the Treasure Hunt.


As I walked along the trail I found a lot of familiar subjects to shoot in a new way. Some worked, many didn't as I get used to the new lens. I am frequently drawn to the golden grass along the shore, and find it an intriguing subject that is very difficult to capture. Here's an attempt with the Lensbaby.


It was starting to get cold and the light was fading so I finished the loop and began walking back to the parking lot along a bike path. Just before I arrived back at my starting point, I saw the setting sun hitting the tall grass, and got down low to shoot up at the phone pole towering above.


Most of the editing was pretty basic ... some curves, levels, saturation adjustments, added a photo filter to a few of the pics, and not much sharpening for obvious reasons.

All in all, had a fun, if cold, time out there, and got the creative juices flowing a bit which is why I love these walkabouts. I'm satisfied with my first attempt at playing with the Lensbaby, and hope you like some of them too.
01/21/2008 02:22:20 PM · #7
Like jaxter said we headed out together again on our walkabout. I think he's wrong though, cause I think he made out better than I did :).

I only have 4 photos instead of 5. A lot of what I took didn't come out like I thought it had.

We started our walk and I noticed a tie down up in a tree. It was to high up in the tree for me to reach to take down. Made me wonder how it got there and it's obviously been there for quite some time. Light is a bit harsh because I had to use my flash.


This is the playground equipment behind the youth center. I really liked the colors of the equipment and the texture and pattern of the brick wall behind it.


A shot of the path we were walking. We live in a little housing community more or less set off by itself on the outskirts of town. These paths run all through the community and make great places to walk the dog, or for the kids to explore.


Last shot is of a street sign, it can be a bit confusing driving through here (this was taken at a 4 way intersection). A lot of roads have the same name, you really have to pay attention to the numbers on the houses.
01/21/2008 05:11:08 PM · #8
Since this is primary season in the US I thought it appropriate that I head off to where I do my voting. The actuall polling place is located in a small building on the grounds of the historic St. Thomas Church. The building of the church was authorized in 1732 and completed in 1745. So by US standards it is quite old. There have been modifications to it over the past 250 years so it has changed a bit since then.

The first image is of the bell tower. This was cropped from a larger image where I was trying to get down low and capture the entire church in the image. The crop worked much better.



Walking around the back of the church I found the old grave where I could still read the dates on the tombstone. I thought putting the church in the background, however as the sun was behind the church by the time I got there is washed out the sky. Time to get serious about HDR processing I guess.



Immediately behind that tombstone was a second much older grave. However the tombstone seems to be much more recent. I wonder who replaced the old one.



Moving back around the the front of the church I captured an image of it from the front.



There is an iron fence around the church grounds as well as some around some of the graves in the cemetery. It is very old and run down in spots. And there are some old trees on the property. This one has managed to overtake the fence.

01/21/2008 09:17:24 PM · #9
I decided on one of our local city parks for this walkabout. It's a place I like to frequent with my camera. Sat was beautiful, and it's a good thing I went because Sun was overcast and cold, and today it snowed.

I spent as much time on my knees and back as I could stand (just not as flexible as I used to be) in an effort to change my perspective. I also used my macro lens on quite a few shots. Here's some oak leaves that were still hanging onto the tree.

I liked the combination of textures and shapes in this one

This little guy was taking turns with his brother riding the battery powered vehicle. As you can see he didn't need to stop for directions. I'm calling this one my 'found treasure'.

This is my favorite of the bunch - a little stream going through the park.

This is where I get down and dirty - that is down on my back in the dirt to get this one.

As always, thanks to Dennis for organizing this month's outing. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's pics.
01/22/2008 12:18:11 AM · #10
I chose the coldest day of winter to go on my walkabout, Saturday. Temp was 7F with a windchill of -20F. I started at the library since I had a couple books to return. I walked for 45 minutes but had to stop inside businesses 3 times due to the cold.

I walked around front of library and after the initial blast of cold air, turned around and took a shot of the library. The library is an interesting design and I know I'll go back for more one a warmer day:


I walked down the street, took shots of courthouse, came back to library to warm up, then to the outlet mall. By the time I got there it was warmup time again, then out quickly because the sun was setting and the clouds were on fire:


A bit of walking around, more warming up, and I decided to head back since the sun already set. On my way back I noticed this "old" clock, something I've driven by but never noticed it before. I really went crazy with the processing but I like how it turned out:
Personal challenge achieved - taken from knees!!

I came back to the main road and saw these colorful, newly restored buildings. I knew they were working on buildings here but never noticed the great job they did, and I love those colors.


When I was nearly back to the library, I noticed the lightpost and then fence. But there was no house to be seen - what a great find and it really makes me wonder what was there years ago.:


It was great to get out and shoot even if I froze my niblets off. Thanks EstimatedEyes for putting it together.

I'll start commenting tomorrow.
01/23/2008 06:46:21 AM · #11
Ter, I like your presentation with the story and the nice borders. The photos are a little small to get a good look. Did you saw another roo?
01/23/2008 09:37:36 AM · #12
Hey Ter thanks for joining the walkabout. Nice group of pics. I really like that close up shot of the pine tree -- nice tight crop and tack sharp as well. The lovebirds in the last frame are very cool as well. Well, not as cool as a roo, but pretty cool nonetheless! ;>P

Thanks to all who braved the elements to join the January walkabout. Comments seem a little thin this month ... still plenty of time left to comment from the warmth of your home, and add your favorites to the Hall of Fame thread!

Message edited by author 2008-01-23 09:38:54.
01/26/2008 07:36:09 PM · #13
Thanks guys
i really did enjoy doing this and hopefully will be able to join in future ones too
what is the best size to post into future walkabouts?
01/26/2008 09:26:07 PM · #14
Originally posted by Ter:

Thanks guys
i really did enjoy doing this and hopefully will be able to join in future ones too
what is the best size to post into future walkabouts?


Best option is to become a member and put the images in your portfolio with a thumbnail link in the thread. It also makes it much easier for people to comment on the images. If you don't want to join then create a thumbnail and a full size image where you want to store the images, stick the thumbnail in the thread with a link to the full size image.
02/20/2008 04:16:15 PM · #15
Hey guys ... I neglected to congratulate hajeka for winning last month's treasure hunt, with this image from his walkabout, as selected by jaxter the winner of the previous treasure hunt:



Thanks to everyone who participated last month, and look for another walkabout sometime in March (with the weather and reduced participation it seems every other month is about right to run this challenge for the time being)

See you next month!

Message edited by author 2008-02-20 16:16:57.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 06:32:54 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 06:32:54 AM EDT.