A night out

Wow what a good night. Stressfull in a non serious way but all good in the end.
Alex had his first night with 'babysitters'. He has stayed with his grandparents before but we have never had anyone else look after him (unless you count the nurses in the hospital, they were the best 24 hour babysitters).
So I was a little worried about how he would go. Not worried about him being upset without us but worried about how R & R would cope with things like nappies and dinner. Alex didn't miss us at all, had a great time, refused his home cooked dinner but ate 2 jars of shop bought food and some finger food. His nappy changes went OK, the nappies stayed up. The only hiccup was bed time. He played his 'if you make me go to bed I will scream until I throw up' card. I had warned them that if he cried for more than a minute he would hit throwing up mode. I forgot that as he has a bit of a cold and is more flemy than usual he will hit throwing up mode a lot quicker. So he got to stay up the rest of the night and I got a load of washing. All in all R & R did a great job, they even did my washing up! Alex cried when they left.
We had a camera club competition on tonight. It was my second time with this club and first time in A grade competition so I'm so glad we could make it. It was an 'open' night so no set subject which is a whole new challenge. Whilst it meant I didn't have the challenge of photographing to a subject it made it harder to pick my entries. I had a lot more to choose from and I couldn't rely on a set subject to help convey the meaning in my photos. I had to chose photos that could stand on their own without a story.
We had an interesting judge (most are) who put a lot of emphasis on the technical side, things like DOF, composition and rule of thirds. He also liked to find an emotional connection with the photo and he liked things that were creative or experimental. A good all rounder then I guess which suited me because I do try to cover all the technically correct stuff and the creative. He said some great things to me during the break and said he could tell I was a perfectionist :)
I entered 9 photos, 3 in each class and all of them placed. 5 merits (like a 1st) and 4 credits (like a 2nd).

Small print class, all 6x4 inch, all got credits.

The judge thought this one was a studio shot with clever lighting and a backdrop. It was taken against the computer room wall with a desk lamp. Not even a tripod.

He said the balance in this one was off somehow but he couldn't put his finger on it. I know but the correction would have still been wrong from a traditional composition rules point of view so I left it as shot.
To make it pleasing/balanced to the eye Alex either moved over to the left with the empty grass behind him or flipped so he was facing right with the empty grass still behind him. Either was would have given a much nicer composition but he would then have been up against the edge facing out which is technically 'wrong'. So either way had it's faults and really up to the judge which rules he prefers to break. I may have done better if I had edited it but I'm happy with a credit.

He liked the use of space in this and the rich green and sharp flower.


Large colour print class. All got merits.

The judge said this one had 'sumptuous cropping'. I think he were referring to the quality rather than the size or expense :) He really liked it and used it as an example of good, well thought out cropping, in camera or post production.

This one was described as 'compelling' and he said nice things about the blance, composition, colours and lens used (long).

This one he referred to several times as an example of the sort of work he was looking for, before he even judged it. When he did get to judge it he said it was 'either a merit or a merit or a merit'. It got a merit :) It's a favourite of mine.


Large monochrome print class. 2 merits and 1 credit.

The photos of Graham and myself he said were both very strong images. The one of Graham he loved the detail and crispness (so do I). He suggested Graham fix up a hair in his eyebrow that was out of place before he poses for me again. He liked the lights and darks in the one of me and said it was a good brand camera. So these both got merits.

Alex's eyes only got a credit. I didn't expect this one to do well. I thought it was one of my weaker shots but I do like it and Graham picked this one. I was sure the blown lighting and harsh crop would be a fault and the one eye not as sharp as the other. The judge didn't have a problem with any of that but he thought the shallow DOF didn't work. He would have liked to see the mouth and nose in focus. I can see his point, the mouth is a strong darker area so some detail would be nice but then I don't think the close crop would work. If the whole photo was sharp it would look strange being cut off where it is and it would lose the impact of the eyes. Still it got a credit when I didn't expect anything.

Lastly here's my new windows desktop picture I did this morning. I needed a change. The black area border is where my icons sit and it's wide because I have a 22 inch wide screen.

Now Alex is asleep, I've just had dinner and Graham is due home soon. Graham had a staff sale day on tonight at Dick Smiths which finished at midnight and he has been going on about a new PDA/phone for months now so he went over there after we came home to see if he could order it tonight while the sale is on.