The Hunt is On

We can call this our virtual field trip -- but I like the notion of a Distributed Scavenger Hunt:

On your marks, get set . . .  GO!

Place your five photos in YDIP 12 -- identifying which is which (i.e. Scavenger -- character) and if you wish, add a caption to enrich our viewing experience!

Since I had little feedback suggestiong chaged categories, we'll go with the following:

• a photo that says "spring" (or "mud season," depending where you live)
• a photo that takes advantage of the longer days (morning or evening)
• a creative shot of an old building
• a low-light shot of something in your area
• a portrait of a local character

And I'd suggest you upload them as you go, rather than waiting until you have a full set.  Whoever gets the first full set will earn great respect for their efficiency.  Whoever submits fun creative images -- at any time -- will have our undying admiration.

The Scavenger Hunt

Heritage Park in Terrace has old buildings!

I’m sure everyone knows Barb McCracken by now: the lady who invited all the students in Ft. St. John and area to the regular Strawberry Jam at the Lido to practice low-light performance photography.

Well, Barb has offered us another great idea: a photographic scavenger hunt. 

Here are some of the “objects” we could include:

Around here the skunk cabbage says "spring."

• a photo that says “spring”
• an evening or morning photo that uses the light of our new longer days
• a creative shot of an old building in your town/area
• a low-light shot of your town center / farm / lake (etc.)
• one portrait of a local character

Now, I don’t have any way to provide a prize, AND I am not getting sucked into comparing one creative image with another! 

BUT maybe we can agree to provide express permission from all of us in the course to all of those who complete the hunt to indulge themselves however they wish on a Friday evening!  (Ahem, within the limits of the law and relationships with significant others)

An iconic "Terrace" scene: Ferry Island

As additional benefit, and as always, this special project could be used for credit in the course.

I’ll give this message until the end of the week.

Then we will vote on the best five items and the hunt will be on!

Reply here to the blog with your fresh ideas!

He's B-a-a-ck!

Well, folks — thanks for your patience while I was gone.  It was fun keeping in touch while on the road, but it is also nice to be back home with the full suite of tools with which to work.

I’d like to say welcome to some new folks who have joined the class since I left: Susan McRae, Wyatt Riegel, Michael Blahitka, Dana Davis and Shealagh deDelley are all new to the group.  I look forward to hearing “hello” messages here in the blog from those who have not introduced themselves.

Timing counts as the deep hues last only minutes

And it seems we had a bit of a tough winter, so it must be doubly nice for those of you who are beginning to feel the warmth of spring in these longer days. 

Now that I have had a nice satisfying time taking photos of exotic locales, I am going to be back to working on technique and will share those ideas here.   If you have a technique you’d like to play with, don’t be shy to fire a message here to the blog and we can have some fun with it.

Having said that, I have been enjoying low-light photography, and will feature a few of those in this blog entry.  This is a nice area to work in, as it allows you to take control of the light — though mixing ambient and artificial light depends a great deal on timing.

Mixing artificial and ambient light is fun.

And for those of you who didn’t know — we Nikon users were experiencing some dismay to find the Nikon plant was affected by the Tsunami inJapan.  They are (as of today) back on line and producing again, subject to intermittent power supplies.  This is no cause for wild cheering among the Canon crowd, by the way!

On that topic, here is a great podcast that sometimes gets a little too “Nikon” but often deals purely in imaging and interesting techniques.  It’s called “The Image Doctors” and I listen to these podcasts on my iPod while driving back roads on weekends!   

You should too.