Chat Thread " My Best Christmas Weekend Shot" 25th-27th december 2009

[jinky]

Great stuff - another joint win. Well done Del - a nice shot. I`ll Pm you with some theme suggestions and we can work out who does what but I`m happy with anything theme/ work wise. Thanks for the votes folks.

Reviews
Angi - A nice shot that got my interest but not my vote as it was just a little too dark for me and I would have liked you to have been in closer. Like how the little girl has been captured doing her thing.A lot of noise in the image due to high iso/ low light no doubt. You got any noise reduction software? It can help but at the expense of quality in the image. Great contrast of a warm beach scene against my snow cricket!

Jonc400d - Nice to see those special cards for special mums and dad`s . A shame you have a view like ours from your front window with a gable end/ modern house. Far more interest on your window sill than outside really but it gets across the feel of Christmas day.

My vote went to ogga again. Just loved the look of concentration on the small child`s face as the story is read and felt this was what a family Christmas is all about. Some good shots by others squeezed in too as we were all short of time. It was a lucky break for me spotting the match on and having my camera with me - but then I always seem to have my camera with me lately so it can pay off. I sent a few shots of the cricket off to press but heard nothing - part of my resolution for the new year to push myself more.

A Happy New Year to all and don`t get too drunk!

Email sent through PR Del

[Sarasocke]

Well done Del and Paul ! Del got my vote - I loved the composition, it included a number of aspects of Christmas, with the bauble sort of as an afterthought. I got a feeling of warmth from the picture, which is, I think, part of Christmas.

debfz - the last of the snow. Not a bad photo at all, but didn't have that connection to Christmas, it's mor of a "Winter" picture.

jonc400d - view from the window. A very pleasent photo - may have got more votes if it had been visible from the beginning.

Just looking back at the poll now, I noticed that the photos are now "clickable" but only to a photo the same size. Hmmmm ....

PS - Del - einen guten Rutsch dir auch

Story time A nice photo of Christmas time. I like the angle of undisturbed concentration, although the image may have been improved with better framing and a tweak in light temperature post processing towards capitalising on the cosy warmth the subject portrays. Nice capture (my children were to excited to keep still for long exposures and I hate using onboard flash, so I only managed a few blurred shots)

Giddiyap Horsey! This picture came close to getting my vote, and I like the general composition in framing the shot. However, while the exposure setting may suit portraiture work and the beautiful angelic face portrayed here, I feel the overall effect in brightness losses some depth in detail (and implies an over exposed image that can easily be adjusted in selective post processing). This said, it is good to see such joy and the natural playfulness being captured, and the shot reminds me of images often used in the decoration of children's shops.

To my choice this week; I was torn between Carols around the Piano and Boxing Day Cricket, and eventually went for the latter upon the action and novelty factor.

Nice shots all round - Happy New Year to all.

[Delamanda]

I think we're having slight communication problems here! I've PM'd Jinky and he's emailed me, but my inbox is empty and I think our messages are hovering somewhere in cyberspace, so we haven't actually been able to liaise! I'm in a non-UK time zone at the moment and so will only be online for another hour or so. If we haven't managed to communicate in the next hour, I'll put a suggested topic up here at 18.00 UK time and then subject to J's confirmation, we can either run with it and set up the threads tomorrow or choose a new one, unless anyone has any other ideas?

Del

[jinky]

Hi del - just got your messages and they were on the same lines as I had emailed supposedly through this site!
happy to go with it on a basis of "Resolutions" if you want to set up the chat / entry threads and i`ll do the poll. I had suggested doing it the way a certain Fizzio from the old site did it last year - " This year I will... " to get away from the resolution focus and into wider maybe grander plans.

Anyway I leave it to you. Don`t know what is going on with the site - maybe I should have used the PM rather than email button but it has worked for me in the past.

[Delamanda]

Sounds good to me! Takes it beyond the ashtray, the wine bottle and the scales then. I'll get on the case now.

[jinky]

Cheers del - just tested the site by trying a PM with more detail but if it does not come you have the bones of it - like minds eh. Given the timing not likely to think of anything else and I guess everyone else saw it coming

[HinFrance]

Well done Del and Paul – and what a tough subject for the next challenge.

Above: angii – Bruce – Three Wise People and a Child:
Moody and copper coloured, but to be honest it doesn't do anything for me. A pleasing record shot possibly, but no wow factor - rather like my poor effort in that regard

Below: michael104b – Bauble:
Can't get much more christmassy than this. The bokeh (lorks I hate that word) is pleasing as is the subject. This doesn't quite work as I feel that it could do with being somewhat lighter overall and the centre of focus should match the centre of the lighting – as it stands the focus is on the part of the bauble in shadow and the part in the light is already slipping out of sharpness.