It's on!!! My Entry

In my previous post I spoke of a little challenge between some friends of mine to take a photo ID. Here is my effort, I found it really hard deciding which one to submit for our little comp, but I ended up deciding on the edit with my eye on the lens. I am getting better at my editing, but not sure the eye on the lens looks 100%. Let me know what you think. The top photo is the one I entered, the second a different edit and the third is the original.

What the ID is all about: The items at my feet represent where I am at currently and what is floating around in my head at the moment. The photo's and a couple of trinkets represent the fond memories I have of my time (6 months) volunteering in South Africa, and the end of an era as I am heading home to Australia in a few days. One photo ([link] the B&W one a favourite of mine), a lens brush and lens cap - represents the improvement in my photography this year, a guitar pick (i just started learning), some pills - I have the flu at the moment , and a juggling ball (represents the fun ahead and doubles as an apology to a friend of mine who taught me juggling for forgetting to invite him to our little ID photo off in the first email I sent about it, though I soon remembered him!). Oh, and I represent me and how awesome I am


I looked at heaps of ID's for inspiration, here is the one that most closely influenced my pic [link]

Ehon has also made an entry for our little comp, it can be found on his blog at http://ehonchan.com/2008/12/29/id-challenge/

It's on!!!

I just sent a message to a couple of friends of mine challenging them to a photo off!!!

I decided to do it for fun, but to help me learn about photography. I recently realised that I was taking photos with one aim, to take a nice, interesting or cool looking photo. This works reasonably well for me, though in order to progress with my photography I need to think more about the photo before I take it. Think about what I am trying to say with the photo and about how the changes I make to settings etc when taking the shot will affect my editing.

The idea of the challenge is that because I am setting out to take a particular type of photograph, and a good one at that, I will be forced to think about these things. I will have to if I am going to compete with them as they are very good photographers.

The challenge is this: Each photographer has one week to take, edit and upload their photo. The photo must be an ID, this is a self portrait which generally includes the camera, see here for examples.

There are no rules (except that it must be a new photo taken especially for this), any equipment can be used and editing is allowed. The photo's must be uploaded to Facebook and a messgae sent to the other photographers informing them of your entry by 5pm wed 24th Dec 08. That's next wed! If anyone reads this and want's in on our little game let me know.

Oh, P.S Winner buys everyone ice cream next time they see them!

People I have challenged so far:
Ehon
Doug
Matt
Mark
Betsy

The difference some editing can make

Thought I would put up these 4 photos to demonstrate the difference editing can make to a photo.

The first is the original, there are a couple of things that I noticed in the image that I wanted to bring out in the final image. Firstly the eyes and smile of the kids, secondly the dirt on the kids legs.

Both of these next two edits involve multiple layers and effects and were obtained through similar steps. It was created with a slightly different contrast to the one below and in addition has an effect to give a softer look and another layer to soften the edges of the photo more, giving it the appearance of an older photo with less contrast.
Below is my favourite edit, the smiles are prominent and the condition of the childs shoes as well as their smiles/faces attract attention.
The below edit was an accident and scared the sh*t out of me when I saw it. I accidentally dragged a layer into the wrong spot (order) in photoshop with this rather disturbing effect. It freaked me out so much my eyes started watering. I thought I had found away to reveal the demons in a photo or something... The kid on the right still freaks me out to look at!
Thanks for reading.

Cheers
Dan

Umlazi k Section - My Pics 1

Here are my pics from our trip to Umlazi, K Section

This first one I love, I took allot of this girl with the dog. This is the only one I have edited so far and the only one I will put up but I love them all!
She had a gorgeous smile, pitty about the fat kid. lol
We were amongst the informal housing going for a bit of a walk when this man approached Cate. It was quite sad, he was mentally retarded in someway (i'm no doctor, but he clearly had some form of retardation), and was known by the locals we spoke to. They said that his family didn't care for him properly.

He took a liking to Cate, her mistake being giving him a kiss on the cheek upon his request when he came up to her. White people (especially girls) get allot of attention in places we work, especially here in the middle of nowhere as it is so strange to see them there. It would be a pretty safe bet to say that we were the only white people there since I last visited a couple of months ago. Word gets out and people come out side their house and stare.

Culturally guys will annoy the girls (and people generally) until it pisses everyone off, though in there culture it is rude to interrupt or ask someone to go away so people just listen to it. Though it can get ridiculus and i ended up having to tell this guy and a couple of others that day to piss off (in Zulu). I did try more politely before that but these guys couldn't take a hint.
One of Thembisa's sisters dancing on the road.

Cate and Thembisa's youngest sister. Luckily despite considering it Cate did not abduct this child despie being tempted by how cute the kids were. Probably a good thing, they are only cute for so long...

Cate's Umlazi Pics

Here are the photos that Cate took during our trip to Umlazi. They look awesome and I am very jealous of someone who manages photos better than me with less effort and fuss.

I am editing mine now and they will be up in a couple of short hours.

I think this first photo is my favourite from the whole day!
Cate's foot, the kid's feet.
My take on it during editing. In theory it should simply be desaturated, I hope it appears that way on your computer. If not I am blaming in advance my monitor displaying the image too bright.
Thembisa's (she was the student who invited us to her house) youngest sister.
These next three pics are some more of my favourites.


The area is made up of 'informal' housing all built ridiculously close together, and made from whatever materials people could find. The walls themselves are mud (see the walls in the above shots) or sometimes bricks and the roofs are time, or asbestos. If they leave people throw patch them with whatever they can, see the mix of carpet, canvas, tin, wood and steel making up this roof, held there with an equally eclectic collection of weighty objects to stop the roof blowing away.


Yep, it's what it looks like! Just growing along the path to Thembisa's house. Thembisa was far less impressed by the novelty of it's open growth then Cate and I were.


Cate and I have an interesting dynamic, I have an unusual talent for making a fool of myself. Cate has an unusual talent for taking photos of me that compound the appearance on film of my stupidity. Case and point below.

Jedi Knights

As it turns out, everyone in South Africa is actually a Jedi Knight. When we visited Umlazi last weekend, some kids showed us how they practice using the force by levitating stones.





Kate and I started to get pretty good too.


Probably worried that we'd seen to much and fearful of our uber force mastery she proceeded to fly kick me in the head from across the room.


P.S. We were playing a game called (obviously) rocks or stones, can't remember which. You draw a circle and place a pile of stones in it. You throw one up in the air and before you catch it (you must catch it) you pull rocks out of the circle. You throw it up in the air again and you must push all bar one of the stones back into the circle before you catch the one you threw in the air. If you do this you keep the rock that you left outside the circle and go again, if you fail to leave out one rock or drop the one you threw in the air it is the next persons go. Person with the most rocks at the end wins.

We found it a little and spent an hour or two playing it with the kids.

Umlazi K Section - Teaser Pic

On Saturday, Cate and I visited a the home of a student (Thembisa) who I work with. She lives in a 1 room house with her mother and two sisters. I am working on all the photo's now which will be up soon. Here is the first, I couldn't wait to upload this one (it took me about three hours to edit).

Hope you enjoy it.

Dan