Chat Thread for Weekly Competition 12th - 18th November 2012. "Close to Home"

[SimonW]

We've had a run of quite challenging and imaginative themes lately, so for a change this is a very simple one. Photo of something attractive or interesting either from a window in your home or within easy walking range outside. If you really need a greater challenge try to illustrate the idiomatic/figurative sense of the phrase "close to home".

The challenge is that (again in contrast to recent weeks) NO PHOTOSHOPPING ALLOWED, not even cropping. Entries should be untouched jpg files straight off the camera. However, if you cannot set your camera to produce jpgs of suitable (smaller) size for uploading, you may use an editor to reduce the file size.

The theme for this week's comp is "Close to Home"

Pictures to be taken between 00.01am Monday 12th November 2012 to 23:59pm Sunday 18th November 2012.
Pictures to be posted in the entries thread no later than 23.59pm Monday 19th November 2012.
Poll will be up Tuesday 20th until Friday 23rd November.
Winner to be announced Saturday 24th November.

The Rules for the weekly competition are:-

By entering you agree to take responsibility to
post a topic on the Sunday following your declared win
create an entries thread
create a chat thread
create a poll for that weeks comp and declare the winner on the Saturday
(if for any reason there is a problem and no subject is posted by the winner by Monday night admin will advise second place winner to post the topic asap, do the poll etc)

In case of a tie, the first entry posted wins.

photos to be taken during the specified dates, ie Monday xx to Sunday xx as above

pictures to be posted in the entries thread no later than 23.59 Monday night

[Hinfrance]

Nice on Simon - suits my current indolent mood

I'll have to see what sizes my camera will do jpgs.

[SimonW]

I hope this week's task will be easy enough to encourage lots of interesting entries.

And I also felt that I was getting a bit lazy at the shutter-pressing moment, knowing that I could straighten and crop (and even make corrections to exposure) in RAW - especially where only small pixel counts are required for the final version. And I don't suppose I'm the only one.
So for this week we really do need to take care at the shooting stage, though it should be easy to return for several attempts if you're not happy with the first try.

[Matthew]

Oooh...I'll give this a go. A good one for us Bridge users 

[SimonW]

Now that I've tried, I did find it quite a challenge. First five days too dark, grey and damp, or else foggy, or wet. I spent some time playing with the in-camera jpg settings I'd never looked at before, turned up saturation and contrast to cope with the mist.
Then today was bright enough to shoot the planned scene:



But I didn't like the result (only partly because I'd forgotten to lower the jpg saturation setting when the weather cleared) and luckily found a much better view close by, which I've entered.

Now I'm happy - Ive learned that given sufficient care at the taking stage, shooting jpgs can work - but I'm not convinced I can choose the very best colour balance or saturation levels using only the camera's screen.
And I do actually enjoy the "development" stage so RAW will remain my prefered option.

[Matthew]

My entry looks a bit darker on here for some reason...

[Reinardina]

I can only shoot JPEG, so that is no problem for me. I have difficulty keeping a straight horizon though, and also cannot really 'see' the shot properly, till it's on my laptop.
But I did manage my, rather dark, view, with a reasonable horizon, and too much foreground. Did reduce the size in pp though.
This is it.

View towards Fawley.



This is how I 'tarted up,' one of the other shots from the series.

[Beaux Reflets]

A bit rushed this week but I grabbed this on tiptoes in the garden hedge.

Last of the Summer Wine



and after a swift processing

[Reinardina]

A bit rushed this week but I grabbed this on tiptoes in the garden hedge.

Last of the Summer Wine

You had better weather than I! Mind you it is blazing down now, and I just returned from the Common, which is on my doorstep, so I might change my entry.

[Beaux Reflets]

Glad you are mobile again Reinardina

[Matthew]

Changed mine also as I wasn't happy with my initial one.

[michaelb104]

This is my entry, literally stepped out the back door.



It wasn't until it had got dark and I thought about posting the shot I realised that maybe I should have tweaked the settings in the camera to get a better jpeg (normally shoot raw), oh well you live and learn............hopefully!!
I've resized in CS5, if that is ok.

[Hinfrance]

Got one yesterday afternoon whilst out on my bike for a little ridette. I set the size 'in 'phone' and everything except white balance and speed was on auto.

[Reinardina]

Glad you are mobile again Reinardina

As long as I don't overdo it, and sit down afterwards!

[Delamanda]

Oh I was lost without the crop tool!  But 10 shots later, I just about got the leaf where I wanted.  Only pp was to reduce to size.