Harry’s Photo Contest

So those of you in Sitka know that Harry’s photo contest ended back in June. Well, since I am re-tooling my blog, I thought that my entries for this contest would be a good subject as my first photo posts. Just to give some perspective on this contest, my daughter was born in early May and I found out about this contest in the middle of the month. The photos were due the first week in June. I didn’t really have much time to take, process, and choose photos, and I think the photos really suffered for this. I think these are pretty good photos, but each and every one of them needs some serious work. And if you hadn’t guessed, I didn’t win.

This was the only shot of the three that I took specifically for the photo contest. I had gotten the idea from some websites I saw. Obviously, it’s not really a miniature, but the technique is supposed to fake it. One of the big things I wanted to do was take three totally different pictures, and this one was my novelty shot. Not a single heavily processed shot placed in the contest at all, so I learned what not to do for next year. The subject is the cable house in Sitka. It’s a historic building that currently holds a restaurant and a radio station. In the background, you can see both the O’Connell bridge and Mt. Edgecumbe.

Of the three shots I submitted, this was my favorite. I took this one on a walk with my wife and newborn daughter. Along the sidewalk, I saw a large stone planter with a bunch of tulips in it. There were actually as many red tulips as there were yellow, but I managed a composition with the one red in the foreground and the yellow ones in the background. As far as composition is concerned, I think I did very well. Unfortunately, and it’s difficult to see on this shot, the red tulip is slightly out of focus. It was a lot worse on the printed 8x10. I think it was a combination of the wide open aperture (f/1.8) and the fact that I was hand holding. I’m still very happy with this shot.

In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t submitted this shot to the competition. This was the last shot I chose for the competition, and it was between this one, and one of some fishing boats in a harbor. I don’t remember why I chose this one, but when I saw the printed version, it looked awful. It looks pretty decent here on the screen. The volcano is Mt. Edgecumbe and is about 8 miles away from where I was standing. I still love the colors I was able to capture.

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:2, NASB