June '07 Challenge Photos - "Around the House"

[TwistMyArm]

Hey people!

Nice work everyone. Thanks to all of you who participated again this month. We have 26 photos in all and they can be viewed here,

Around the House

You may notice that in the gallery some files appear larger then 150KB, but every photo included was less then 150KB when uploaded to the gallery.

To ensure that voting remains fair only active participating members of the forum may cast a vote. New members may not be able to vote right away in a challenge due to restrictions that have been put in place. If you cannot vote, but believe that you should be able to, feel free to send a pm to myself or another TPF staff member.

Please keep in mind that we are trying to keep this challenge anonymous (and unbiased) when it comes to both the submitting and the voting. Please avoid sharing your opinions about any specific photos until after the voting has completed and the winner is announced.

Please read the titles carefully in order to avoid confusion before voting. The photos may not be sorted in the correct order so to ensure you view them in proper order scroll to the bottom of the page and where it says "Display Options" ensure you select Sorted By: "Image Name" Sort Order: "Ascending" and then click on the "Show Images" button.

After viewing the photos please take the opportunity to vote for your favorite. Good luck to all. If there are any questions please let us know.

The mods/admins of ThePhotoForum.com may decide the winner from the top five submitted photos. The winner of the photo challenge will be contacted by Private Message (PM) on the day that the winner is announced. If the winner does not respond to the PM within 30 days they will not receive their prize and it will be put towards a future challenge. If we are unable to ship the intended prize to the winner do to his/her location we will provide another prize of equal value.

The polls will be open for the next seven days.

 

[PhotoPhoenix]

aw man, how come i'm not allowed to vote on the pole? is it because i entered?

 

[TwistMyArm]

aw man, how come i'm not allowed to vote on the pole? is it because i entered?

New members cannot vote on any polls until they've been an active member for a set number of days. Based on your join date you should be able to vote by the 5th so you'll still have a turn.

 

[geminigrl24]

Can you tell me when I will be able to vote?

 

[PhotoPhoenix]

that's cool then. i'll wait. i always though thread restrictions were based on your number of posts and/or 24 hours.

 

[TwistMyArm]

Can you tell me when I will be able to vote?

Have you tried voting?

 

[geminigrl24]

It says on the bottom that I am not allowed to vote.

 

[TwistMyArm]

Sorry, I didn't notice how many posts you had previously. You should be good now.

 

[geminigrl24]

Thanks

 

[TwistMyArm]

And the winner is.......Sabbath999 again! Sabbath999's photo recieved the most votes making him a winner for the second straight month in a row.

We also want to take the time to congratulate Spyder who was the runner up with his photo, Baking Day.

Thanks to everyone who participated. And a big congrats to Sabbath999 and Spyder!

 

[Tangerini]

Congrats guys!

 

[macropleasure]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :hail:


this was the second photo challenge i took part in..
in the first one..my photo got no vote.
but this time..it had one

 

[sabbath999]

Thank you.

I prolly should just let it ride, but I need to "fess up" on this one...

My picture, Good Dog, is a complete fabrication. There was no George (actually, George was the dog my wife had when she was growing up). I was thinking about something to take pictures of "around the house" and I had nothing... then I got to thinking about the movie "Garden State" and the little pet graveyard they had in the back yard.

I figured that would be a cool idea for a shot, but I don't actually know of anybody who has one. I decided to make my own. About 10 years ago, we did a "graveyard" halloween decoration for a town-wide contest, and when we got done with it I threw the crosses and other decorations in a pile out in an old coal bin in case I ever wanted them again, and there they have sat for the last decade.

After a bit of searching, I found them and dragged one out that had apparently had some water on it at some point in time, so it looked weathered but not TOO weathered. I figured it looked like it had been outside for two years, so that's how long I decided George would have been dead.

I did give him a good long life though, so nobody would feel TOO sorry for him.

My wife, who is an artist, wrote the words on the cross (being careful to make them not look too neat but readable) and then I planted it in the back yard amongst some clover.

I tried shooting at several angles, and in the morning so the cross was lighted from the front, but one day it was fairly overcast after work, so the lighting was very flat. I shot the picture you saw here then by putting the camera (D80, 18-200 VR) on the ground from about a foot away, giving a "George eye view".

In Capture NX, I darkened the sky and totally de-saturated it (the sky had a bluish cast, so I removed all color from it), cranked up the brightness and saturation of the cross, and cropped it. Total processing time from opening to close, about 3 minutes.

I took more shots with the clover mowed down, but I didn't like them as well.

So there ya have it, that's the story. I have fessed up.

I thank everybody for their votes, and congratulate the others on some fine photos.

Added later: Oh yeah, one thing I knew that was a problem in the picture was that the cross writing faced away from the house. In real life, a person would never do that... they would have the writing on the grave marker on the side where it was more likely to be read... but that didn't work in the picture, so I just fudged and hoped nobody noticed.

 

[TwistMyArm]

With that much effort put into the challenge, the win was well deserved ...regardless of whether George ever existed or not!

 

[spyder]

nice pic sabath, and that was quite a bit of work you put in it. my idea came when my little sister was baking cookies, and i put them all on the table. i did the black and white because the wall behind it was green and looked bad with the dark table. thank you everyone