February 2010 Photo Competition: Discussion

[Frank Lopes]

Thread is now active.

[philbach]

Just a comment about my entry. The cold weather here in SC has moved the Brown Pelicans off the ocean into the local lagoons. This has made approaching them somewhat easier than usual. Notice that this pelican was banded. The other thing about this photo is I think the pelican looked down on me with some disdain. Ha.

[Frank Lopes]

Last year on the way up the coast of Maine, we stopped at Cape York to shoot this light house.

I set up the camera on the tripod and using the infra red remote, shot about a dozen pictures: different focal lengths, different zooms, different exposures etc.

I noticed tons of seagulls around but it never occurred to me that I would capture a seagull hovering in front of the camera. Not by design, but it was pure accident.

I never saw her when I shot the picture and neither did the people that were with me.

Not a great picture, but just another example of "pure dumb luck".

[philbach]

Frank that's a very nice photo. Now before I vote I want to make sure that Gull wasn't placed. Some of my more mischievous friends tend to do that at times. Just kidding.

[amica999]

Cathy, nice catch of ovewhelming joy of having catched the prey :-)

[philbach]

Cathy, Great Action shot. What did the Cat catch to eat??

[CathyH]

Thanks Amica and Phil, she was catching the elusive piece of cheese.

[Frank Lopes]

The voting thread is now open.
This thread will remain open until March 2nd, 6:00pm EST.

Note:
Since I had no online access for the past couple days, the dates for posting and voting have slipped. I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Frank Lopes]

Philbach, one of our most visible forum members, not wanting to miss voting even still he does not have the ability to go online, sent me this note a couple of days ago:

Hey Frank, I am unable to post my votes on the Feb photo contest and I am getting ready to leave town for a few weeks and I'll be offline. At any rate I'll check the vote thread later today but just in case, here are my votes.

(1) SouthBay Soft Landing-Interesting and sharp
(2) Frank Lopes (Your Entry) Light_House_Bird. A traditional setting with a seagull observing the scene.
(3) CathyH-Pickles. An energetic, interesting and happy Cat
(4) Janet Petty- Turkey Buzzard-Somewhat frightening; nice photo

Philbach, we look forward to your return.

[CJ Swartz]

Frank, I'm glad that the problem was lack of online access rather than a personal/family emergency. Although, nowadays, lack of online access could be considered a personal emergency.

[Frank Lopes]

For me it is.

This winter, living in the NE part of the US, has not been exactly... idyllic...

Originally Posted by CJ Swartz

...lack of online access could be considered a personal emergency...

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by Frank Lopes

For me it is.

This winter, living in the NE part of the US, has not been exactly... idyllic...

News item:"More than 250,000 homes and business are still without power as restoration efforts continue days after a slow-moving storm battered the Northeast with heavy snow, rain and high winds.More than a million utility customers throughout the region lost power at the peak of the storm. Nearly 100,000 utility customers still lacked electricity in New Hampshire, the hardest-hit state. New York had about 96,000 outages and Maine 36,000..."

[Frank Lopes]

The results are in and the winner is: Southbay!

Southbay has been contacted and will choose the topic for March.

Congratulations.

[Southbay]

First, thanks very much for liking the Soft Landing shot.

A bit of background: It's a bird house in a local marshy area, and the action was wild that spring day – flitting back and forth feeding whoever was staying at home.

I had a Canon G10 with me at the time, and as it featured a slooowww fps, I basically focussed on the house and fired whenever anything came near. Actually, my wife was with me and would call out "Bird", because I had the camera up to my face and couldn't see the "incoming".

Ten minutes of holding up the camera, and a couple of dozen shots later, I got a few that were useable.

[Janet Petty]

Great job, Southbay. Congratulations!!!

Janet

[CJ Swartz]

Congratulations, Southbay - if you worked that hard to get the photo, you deserve another Congrats! for that. Actually, it sounds like it was your wife who was working at scouting out the bird landings while you simply pushed the shutter on her cue - give HER a congrats for winning also!

[Southbay]

Originally Posted by CJ Swartz

Actually, it sounds like it was your wife who was working at scouting out the bird landings while you simply pushed the shutter on her cue - give HER a congrats for winning also!

She's been my spotter for many years, and with quite a good eye. I've also got a couple of sharp-eyed older kids who "suggest" which photos to keep and which to trash. So I'm often just the middle man. As you imply...simply pushing the button.

[sharynideas]

Congratulations, Southbay. That's the kind of shot I'd like to get but never can.

[CathyH]

Well done Southbay, enjoyed the background info too.

[philbach]

Congratulations, Southbay. A very nice photo

[Frank Lopes]

Philbach,

Welcome back.

Originally Posted by philbach

Congratulations, Southbay. A very nice photo