One of the questions in my mind is whether we want to discuss images as they are posted, and whether we want to use a separate (thread like this one) for that discussion. That's how they do the contest in the Retouching forum, and it works well for that. We're doing something new and it can be set up the same as other places or it can be different.

If we keep one thread with just the images and no comment posts, then it will be easier to see folk's work by just running thru the posts. For those of you who submit your work, and are hoping to hear some comments on your entry, would it be better to have a separate discussion thread for you to look at, or would you like the comments mixed in with the assignment photos? If it makes any difference to you, post your preference. We can always do it one way and change it for the next assignment, no biggie. ;)

I notice there has been a little confusion over the "Assignment" idea already, but IMHO we should let old images be OK for this month. We can use this months Assignment as building exercise to get people interested, to work out guidelines between us all, and to see what people have achieved with their cameras. In other words make it a free for all, as long as the image in within the assignment theme :) .
Then once we have worked out all the guidelines, fix the assignments to new images within what ever rules we work out from this months.

I notice there has been a little confusion over the "Assignment" idea already, but IMHO we should let old images be OK for this month. We can use this months Assignment as building exercise to get people interested, to work out guidelines between us all, and to see what people have achieved with their cameras. In other words make it a free for all, as long as the image in within the assignment theme :) .
Then once we have worked out all the guidelines, fix the assignments to new images within what ever rules we work out from this months.

Couldn't have said it better myself -- thanks, Chris, for saying it for me! :)

We're doing "Nature at Work", and we're trying to get us out to shoot NEW images starting as of Feb. 2nd, and due before the end of the month. But I don't want to miss out on Mystical One's shots from Tasmania, 'cause it's neat that we're getting images from Tasmania! ;)

Don't worry about it, Mystical One! :) As far as I'm concerned, this first time is a test ride to see how folks would like to have it work. Some forum challenges on other websites say "photographed OR processed" within the time limit, so your "defense" sounds good, if you needed one. ;)

If you have any shooting data, you can edit your post with the image and add it, or you can post it in this thread. If you don't have it available, we'll just have to enjoy your image and guess how we might do it if we were in Tasmania. ;)

OK, I suppose I'm adding fuel to the fire; but

How can anyone tell if the image is NEW or OLD (other than the seasons of course)?

Janet

OK, I suppose I'm adding fuel to the fire; but

How can anyone tell if the image is NEW or OLD (other than the seasons of course)? Janet

Shhhh, Janet! ;) I was hoping no one was going to ask! :) On this board, we would have a harder time using the seasons -- folks from the S. Hemisphere, Europe, U.S. -- heck, Arizona looks like winter in the mountains but spring will be popping up in the deserts soon.

If we were giving away prizes worth money, then I suppose we'd have to figure out a strict set of rules and a way to live by them. Just another reason why I don't wanna do that. ;) [submit photo containing EXIF info in file -- then we'll run it by our computer expert to make sure someone didn't insert false EXIF info.... :( ] :lol:

Soooo, as far as I'm concerned, the whole idea is just to encourage us to go out and shoot new images, (or this time around, PROCESS new images ;) ). No fouls will be called, no fingers will be pointed, and we're all in it for the enjoyment of seeing something in nature and bringing home an image that captured a precious moment in time. :nod:

I got ya. Mum's the word. Shhhhhhhhhhhh

Janet

I got ya. Mum's the word. Shhhhhhhhhhhh
Janet

Good. Since it doesn't look like many people are reading this thread, I think we're gonna get away with it! ;)

These photos are not really on topic with the assignment, but it is nature of some kind :dizzy: Thought I would put them here for a bit of fun.
This is our two new "British Giant" baby rabbits playing with our cats, then having a sleep. Cats will be in for a shock when they are fully grown (only 7 weeks old at the moment :evil: )

I remember getting e-mails with photos of Giant rabbits and checking them out with Urban Legends (snopes.com) and being surprised that the photos were not altered -- hadn't seen rabbits THAT big before! I've had cats that liked to play with rabbits, and it will be interesting to see what happens when the bunnies grow to maturity. My cats live with medium size dogs that they bully sometimes; when a big dog comes to stay for a few days, I could swear that the cats just stare at him in wonder...

Our cats are used to rabbits, as we have always had at least one. We lost or New Zealand White rabbit a few weeks ago, and he was quite big. But the mother and father of these were the size of a small dog :dizzy: Mother was a British Giant and Father a Flemish Giant. Strange mix, but they both had great temperaments.

discinque, I REALLY like your image. It has a great feel and mood to it. Only thing I would do to change it is get rid of the light bit at the top right corner. Maybe clone a few extra bricks to extend the wall or something. But other than that, it's a stunning image :)

Thanks Chris! I had struggled with that spot.. I had cropped down as far as I was comfortable cropping (there is a parking lot behind there) - it was starting to look less and less like a tree. And I wasn't sure what the rules were about making that kind of change to the photo. :)

discinque, I REALLY like your image. It has a great feel and mood to it. Only thing I would do to change it is get rid of the light bit at the top right corner. Maybe clone a few extra bricks to extend the wall or something. But other than that, it's a stunning image :)

Oh man... those are just too cute.

These photos are not really on topic with the assignment, but it is nature of some kind :dizzy: Thought I would put them here for a bit of fun.
This is our two new "British Giant" baby rabbits playing with our cats, then having a sleep. Cats will be in for a shock when they are fully grown (only 7 weeks old at the moment :evil: )

I think this months (the first) assignment is all about testing the waters. We don't have rules as such, so they can be made up as we go along. I think being edited in photoshop is OK, as this is all part of the processing. I only have a Finepix S3000, and that is more or less a point n shoot camera. Without photoshop my images wouldn't be worth showing. I have made a few modifications to the camera, with filters, lenses and flash redirection, but thats about it's limit. There are very few manual settings, so I just find work-arounds to get what I want out of it.
IMHO , as long as it stays and looks like a photo, and it's not over-edited, it's OK :) .
This is my quick retouch of your image (hope you don't mind :) )

Don't mind in the least - and thank you for the heads-up. I've made the adjustment myself and will post it as a reply to my original on the other thread.

I think this months (the first) assignment is all about testing the waters. We don't have rules as such, so they can be made up as we go along. I think being edited in photoshop is OK, as this is all part of the processing. I only have a Finepix S3000, and that is more or less a point n shoot camera. Without photoshop my images wouldn't be worth showing. I have made a few modifications to the camera, with filters, lenses and flash redirection, but thats about it's limit. There are very few manual settings, so I just find work-arounds to get what I want out of it.
IMHO , as long as it stays and looks like a photo, and it's not over-edited, it's OK :) .
This is my quick retouch of your image (hope you don't mind :) )

Well I messed up a bit. Thought I was in the discussion thread, not the assignment thread. So if you want to delete/move my posts to Gary in Assignment thread, feel free CJ :)

Now back to why I popped in :dizzy: . Just took these this morning, so thought I would post them here, plus add my macro spiders web as my entry for the assignment.

First is a wider shot of the frozen spiders web, that I shot with my DIY macro lens for the assignment.

Second one is the tree I spoke to Gary about, it's an odd looking thing, with these bright red cones on. The reds look blown out in the image, but that is exactly how it looks in real life :dizzy:

Wow Chris, very very nice. I like the color and the feeling of peaceful morning quiet. I also love that you're able to create great photos with tools on hand. That you don't need to spend $1000's to recreate what you see.

CJ, I love the concept - nice to see nature isn't as fragile as we sometimes believe. Without knowing the options you had... looking at the picture I would love to see the face of the flowers - if you could still have the dead vegetation in the background - or even framed in a way to make the contrast of living/dead more stark.

Nice shot Chris, the web almost looks like a shattered window, or the ice in a frozen puddle when you've stamped on it.

Anyone know what kind of tree that is? I've never seen cones that colour before.

Boy it has been a long time since I have been on Retouch Pro, so much has changed, for the good but of course this was always a great site.
I started here to ask a question if anybody was doing dedicated infrared work on this site. First off found this great thread on photography and the challenge, great fun. So here is my question, anybody doing digital infrared here? I recently had my D70 converted to a dedicated infrared and sure could use some help and support.
Here is the info on the pic I am sharing, it is the life guard towers at Huntington Beach State Park, California. It was taken with a Nikon D70 converted IR, custom WB on gray card, ISO was 200, f16 125s shot in raw. PP was channel mixer method. Nature here is bright sunshine even in winter, it might sprinkle tomorrow which will be exciting, there were many people swimming and surfing on this beach today at 4:30 in afternoon. Sorry to have mentioned that to those of you in bad weather. So the nature of things here is sunshine.

I'm not a really big fan of IR but have seen some amazing stuff over the years. Now that digital has entered the picture, "doing it" in Photoshop is easy. I admit to have digitally created IR with success. If you want the how to, I can provide info.

On the other hand, check out http://www.photosandphrames.com/ . My two friends who have this site do a lot of IR work with a dedicated digital camera. I'm sure they would be willing to chat with you.

Janet

Boy it has been a long time since I have been on Retouch Pro, ...

...anybody doing digital infrared here? ...

Here is the info on the pic I am sharing, ...

Platscha, it HAS been a long time, nice to see you again! :wavey:

I have an Olympus C2100 UZ (UZI) which didn't need conversion to do IR (at lower resolution than your D70, of course), and I have done some IR also. Between you, Janet and me, and our collective links to others (Daniella from DPreview/PBase always blew my socks off with her IR work) ought to be able to give support.
Daniella: http://www.pbase.com/zylen/infrared_with_dimage_7
Another IR link: http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/images-infrared.html

Platscha, if you want to submit an image to this month's Assignment "Nature at Work", please post it in that thread. Hope this gives you another reason to visit us on a daily basis. :)

Thanks CJ, yes a long time, I did put a photo in the thread just for fun.
Judy, thanks for the information, I know how to do IR effect in PS as a matter of fact I have tried several methods as well as using Nik effects but so far I have never found one that is really the same as true Infrared, close but not the same. I do have a dedicated camera so need to learn how to better utilize that.

The voting thread for February's Photo Assignment is open until 10pm MST tonight.

Thanks to all who have submitted entries for this first-time event. I'm very interested in your ideas about doing anything differently, doing it the same, doing something else, etc.


*** Breaking News *** The votes have been counted and the results are in!

1st place -- discinque

2nd place -- Chris (chrishoggy)

3rd place -- Janet Petty and Gary Richardson

Congratulations, discinque! :bigthmb:

Congratulations, Chris, Janet and Gary! :nod:

Congratulations to all entrants -- you were the FIRST! :)

Congratulations to discinque for winning this months contest, and for setting an interesting new challenge for March.

Thanks also to CJ for setting things up, from little acorns .........

Now, if only I hadn't cleaned away the mould that was growing on my window sill yesterday !

Now, if only I hadn't cleaned away the mould that was growing on my window sill yesterday !


Mold? Too funny. I'm going to have to clean the cat hair off mine. I have the perfect idea. The only problem is getting the subject to "pose".

Janet