[CJ Swartz]

The sun is finally out today in my home area after the "coldest January in 28 years" (average temperature somewhere in the low 50's F, but for us, that's cold!). My camera has worked a bit inside, but it would like to be taken out into the warm sunshine again. Chris (chrishoggy) suggested that we start doing photo "assignments", which I agree is an excellent idea. We have threads to let us see what folks have already sitting in their albums/harddrives, but we want to see NEW images, fresh from the memory card or fresh out of the fixer or however you choose to shoot and develop it.

I'm new at this moderating stuff, and there will be some things to work out, but let's start with this:

Photo Assignment: "Nature at Work"
People may have questions about what can be included, but I'm thinking we should just start out leaving it wide-open to people's own interpretations of that subject.

Time-frame for shooting your image: February 2, 2007 (today) until February 28th, 2007

What info do you submit? Tell us when you shot the image, any shooting info you have (shutter speed, ISO, f-stop, filters used, post-processing (normal photo processing allowed - sharpening, adjust exposure -- this isn't the place for art filters [we have forums for that too!])

What does the winner get? The winner gets to choose the next assignment PLUS gets all the nice accolades that come from being chosen "Winner".

Mostly, I'd just like to see us having one more reason to dust off our cameras and get out doing what we enjoy.

Post your photo submissions in this thread, and I'll set up another thread for discussion of this assignment -- how we want it to work, etc. Feel free to add info about what/where you shot -- we're interested in photography because we're interested in capturing moments of the wondrous world around us, so share a bit of your experiences. But we're going to judge your image, not your story-telling.

[ScubaMargie]

Nice shot Mystical one.

I think I have one that is just as good. It is one of a mother pademelon cleaning her joey. A mother's work is never done.

Camera used: Panasonic Lumix FZ 20
EXP: 1/60 @ f2.8
No post production.

The pic was taken at Doras Point. North East, Tasmania.

[Janet Petty]

I took this the same day as the swans (Jan 27, 07) and hope that is near enough the dates set.

Picture was taken with a neutral density filter, F22, around 3 seconds (I think). I forgot to turn the image stabilization off on the lens when I put it on the tripod; so the picture came out a bit fuzzy. I liked it, and kept it. Here it is.

Post processing was curves and sharpening only.

Janet

[discinque]

I've always wanted to do one of these "assignments" and never took the plunge. So here goes.

I work at the University of Texas at Brownsville - and yesterday when I read the assignement I walked around the campus with the Nature at Work theme in mind. I took the picture yesterday, but didn't have my tripod with me and I wasn't happy with the depth of field - so this morning I came back and it was foggy... which I think gives a nice even lighting. Although, I liked the morning light on the tile edges that I had gotten yesterday.

PS2 Curves, saturation adjustment, and sharpening.

Camera: KM 7D
F16 .3 sec
Focal: 50mm
ISO 400 (bah! forgot to override it)
shot at UTB-TSC about 7:00am CST 2-7-07

[Gary Richardson]

Had a cold snap over the last few days, and wanted to show the frost on some of the new growth brambles which probably wish they hadn't pushed their heads up too early.

Camera's a point and squirt, but the EXIF info gives the exposure as 1/60th sec at f7.1

Other than reduce size for posting I haven't done anything to it.

[chrishoggy]

No heavy snow where you are today, Gary?
I've been waiting for it so I could get some winter shots, and it has just started here in the last 10 mins Camera at the ready

[discinque]

Two years ago... for the first time in 100 years... we had snow here. And of course my camera and I were in So. Cal... sigh. Missed all those pictures I could've taken of snow laden palm trees.

Attached is the same photo as before, but after some clarification and suggestions in the discussion thread I cloned in the brickwork in the top right corner - and used the healing brush and clone tool to make it look less like a clone.

Photo submission "Remodeling" v1.1 haha

[Gary Richardson]

Originally Posted by chrishoggy

No heavy snow where you are today, Gary?
I've been waiting for it so I could get some winter shots, and it has just started here in the last 10 mins Camera at the ready

Didn't get any heavy snow at all today, just a light dusting which quickly melted away. Seems we were missed by the snow that seemed to hit everywhere else.

Pity I fancied a few more snow shots.

[chrishoggy]

yeah, we got it all day, but not heavy enough to give a good covering. There is a tree in my neighbours garden that will look really good with snow on, so I'm hoping for some before the end of this assignment

[chrishoggy]

Here is my entry
This is a macro shot of a frozen spiders web. The 3 larger droplets of water in the photo are about 1-2 mm in size.
Camera details:
Fuji Finepix S3000
Date/Time : 9/2/2007 9:50AM
Shutter speed: 1/125 sec
Exposure Program: Normal
F-stop: f/2.8
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO Speed: 250
Focal length: 36.0 mm
Flash: On at -0.1 level
Lens: Home made macro lens using lenses from old binoculars mounted in a 49mm adaptor ring.
Filters: Hoya 80B blue filter
Processing: Processed in Photoshop CS2: Slight levels adjustment, then neat image to reduce noise from dark background.

[CJ Swartz]

Here is my entry: our section of Arizona (USA) had a much colder winter than normal, and several sessions of hard freezes which killed some of more tropical plants that typically are safe in our mild climate. Even though my backyard plantings are garden plantings, Nature shows who is in charge -- in the midst of the crisp brown leaves and stiff dead branches, Nature springs forth new growth with fresh color and soft textures. There are also a few raindrops, courtesy of a brief shower in our Valley of the Sun.

Camera is Fuji Finepix S5200 10x zoom compact, image data is ISO 200, raw format, f5.0, 1/125 sec., using Macro function at 16.7mm, handheld, cropped from original. Did noise reduction in Lightroom and again in PShop 7 with Noiseware, ran Levels and sharpened generally and then selectively on raindrops.

[ScubaMargie]

There are some nice entries here, well done guys.

[CJ Swartz]

You've got less than a week to "turn in your assignment"!

C'mon folks -- let's use this next weekend to see "Nature at work".

[Janet Petty]

Help! Stop me! I can't resist! I have to post these! Spring is just around the corner; and I can't wait.

I took these yesterday at an abandoned home in the hills. These hardy little flowers survive and bloom happily despite a pitiful lack of care. We scraped, raked, and burned all around them as we prepared the old home site for future sale.

Enjoy these harbingers of spring.

Janet

[CJ Swartz]

I'll be closing this thread during the evening of Feb. 28th (Wed.).

In other words -- get your submissions in soon!

Nature awaits...