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Oh well, the challenge is now over, so I thought I'd post some of the images that I didn't enter...

http://sheepie.smugmug.com/gallery/301055

i really like (in order) the waterfall, the ants nest (?), and then the palm...

very nice shots and very well converted to black and white.

feel like sharing your workflow for b&w?

Hi Sheepie, just curious, what made you pick the moon over the pelican?

phillipb wrote:Hi Sheepie, just curious, what made you pick the moon over the pelican?

In hindsight.... A moment of stupidity?

Ummm... I think at the time I was pretty thrilled to get such a good moon shot after trying for a while.

I didn't mean to detract from your moon shot, technically it's probably a harder shot to take but there's not much you can do with it for composition.
My personal criteria of what makes a good photo is the time I spend looking at it. The pelican kept my attention for a lot longer then the moon.
Good luck in the comp.

I agree. The pelican is heaps better than the Moonshot. in fact i like most of the above examples better than your Moonshot.

I love the feel of the fungi on the tree.

The stream scene is very idyllic.

The pelican rocks. It's even posing for you. A great shot to be proud of. Blow it up, print it out, frame it and hang it proudly in your living room. Visitors will love it.

Excellent photos. Keep it up. You're getting better and better.

Hey Sheepie
I like the pelican too - great shot. Also the waterfall.
Good work!
Vic

All those are brilliant B&Ws sheepie. I could imagine looking at those pictures while looking through a book on Australian nature. And you did all that in one month. Top effort!

I may have already been asked but just in case .... what lens did you use for the moon shot?

Yes great pics!
I like the budgie and the pelican!
And even though the B&W treatment does not enhance it much I like the waterfall!

thanks all

I think the main reason I didn't put the Pelican in was I forgot about it! I had (what I thought was) all the potentials in a folder, and when the time came, went through them to pick the final entrant. For some reason the Pelican wasn't there, and it wasn't until after that I realised!

Oh well...


The moon shot was with a cheapy telescope we got the other day with credit card points. The camera is mounted straight into the telescope (with an adapter I had lying around) and I then manually focus and set exposure. With my eyes, it's pretty hard to focus manually :/

So far as workflow, nothing special. I have two ways of converting to black and white that I was experimenting with.

1. Using Colour Balance and then setting Saturation to zero. By changing colour balance (a layer lower than Hue) I then see the effects. I then check on the levels, and it's done.

2. Use The Channel Mixer set to monochrome. Probably less steps involved here than the 1st method. Again, make sure you check on levels afterwards.

Also, playing around with the curves helps sometimes.