Christmas Challenge

[gstark]

Here we go - time for another challenge for y'all.

For this challenge, we have considered the various suggestions that have been made, and we're going to try a few changes to see how they work out.


1: Entries will be made by email to challenges at dslrusers dot net. Please help us to avoid getting spam by not permitting this email address to go into your address books

2. The usual deal on entries will apply - only global PP permitted, and identifying information needs to be removed from the image's EXIF data.

3: Judging will be done by a panel of three judges - Chris (Sirhc55), Matt K, and myself. Entires will be judged anonymously.

4: Period: Eligibility is from today, November 1, and continues through the whole month, closing at midnight on November 30.

5: Winners will be announced at the Sydney Christmas dinner on December 8.

6: I need to look at what I have available in the way of prizes, but there be at least three.

7. The theme: White on White. Please permit me to quote from Matt K on this ...

White on white.....flesh against silk....eggs on flour...fine bone china against a backdrop of finest Egyptian cotton.....lilies against white peeling weatherboard....white stockings dropped onto an unpainted artists canvas....a dove against the clouds.....a bride in the snow...a poodle on the sheets....a proud Persian cat in the soap bubbles....a dead Arabian Stallion draped over the bonnet of a white Rolls Royce. Bleached sea shells cupped in the white dress of a young girl...cream topped with icing sugar.....toothpaste frothed on pearly teeth.

White on white does not mean you can't have a small splash of colour somewhere in the image, but white against white must be the overriding feature.

Go forth and shoot!

The Sydney Christmas dinner

The Sydney Christmas dinner bookings are coming along nicely. In fact, about half the seats have already gone, and if you're not quick, you'll run the risk of missing out.

We're eating at the Rockefeller Bar & Grill, on King St in the city, and it's just $40 ph. Details here


Ordering from Poon

I received an email this morning from Poon, giving me that sad news that he is traveling to Jakarta with his wife due to the death this morning of his father-in-law. On behalf of the forum I have offered our condolences on this event.

Less importantly, I am unsure how or if this may impact upon the processing of orders. I know he has good and competent staff handling the everyday tasks, but I think we should be prepared to accept that there may be some delays as more important matters are attended to.

Ordering from Poon #2

If you're ordering through our facilities, please make sure that your spam filters allow emails from the dslrusers.net domain to be accepted. It makes things so much easier when you can actually see the emails I'm sending you.


Ordering from Poon #3

Thanx, Dubbya.

It seems that the Yankee dollar is continuing its freefall, which really does nothing at all to help those in the export business here in deepest, darkest, Oz.

But for those of you who might be wanting to import, say, a camera or a lens .... I've just adjusted the prices downwards.

Enjoy!

[Glen]

Great challenge Gary, looking forward to this

[Killakoala]

It is definitely going to be a challenge.

[sheepie]

Do the Melbourne members get to do 'Grey on Grey'?

[Alpha_7]

Excellent Challenge, and I'm interested on how the new format will work, hopefully it will encourage more entrants, it's certainly easy to submit an image now.

Great stuff!

[BT*ist]

White piece of paper on white desk, taken under bright fluorescent lighting, 50mm f1.4, 20second exposure. (converted to black'n'white, brightness set to 'max').

C'mon... you were all thinking it

On a serious note : sounds like a very interesting challenge

[blacknstormy]

if only I'd taken the photo
Great challenge by the way!!

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/ ... 49&group=1

[Onyx]

/in protest: but the panel of judges have poor taste!

Srsly, nice challenge. I do hope the new format encourages more entrants (I'll be mindful myself). White Christmas theme at the dinner perhaps?!

[sirhc55]

/in protest: but the panel of judges have poor taste!

Poor taste, poor taste! But I do like you Chi

[olrac]

We have jsut been trying to find paint for our walls next to a white kitchen, the amount of different "White" paint out there is mind dullingly amazing.

I am tempted to take a photo of our all white kitchen next to our slightly warmer white walls.

OMG couldnt you have chosen another color I think I am going snow blind....

[greencardigan]

Great, I just dropped my Thesis off to get bound so I might have time to take a few pics now.

If the photos are submitted by email, will we still be able to submit temporary photo and replace it with a final entry later on?

[blacknstormy]

CONGRATULATIONS GREENCARDIGAN
(and yes, I know I'm yelling )

[phillipb]

Sounds good to me.
Shame Chris and Matt won't be able to enter.
Come to think of it, maybe we should increase the judging panel to about 20

[gstark]

Congratulations.

If the photos are submitted by email, will we still be able to submit temporary photo and replace it with a final entry later on?

Yes.

We'll take only the last dated entry that you submit.

[Reschsmooth]

Great challenge, however, I have one question:

Won't the email address from which the email is sent be an identifier in itself? (I am assuming the idea is to maintain anonymity from the judges as well?)

[sheepie]

Great challenge, however, I have one question:

Won't the email address from which the email is sent be an identifier in itself? (I am assuming the idea is to maintain anonymity from the judges as well?)

Gary has a split personality - the one that gets the email won't tell the one that's judging who's photo it is

Good question - I was thinking something along the same lines.

[gstark]

Great challenge, however, I have one question:

Won't the email address from which the email is sent be an identifier in itself? (I am assuming the idea is to maintain anonymity from the judges as well?)

Absobloodylutely. That's how we know from whom each entry has been submitted.

But none of the judges will be accessing that email address, which is now posted in the lead message of this thread, and is also now active.

One of the KMs will be <strike>volunteered</strike>volunteering to handle these, and will be posting the images to the gallery site for us, and thus, anonymity, wrt the judges, will be preserved.

[Reschsmooth]

And who keeps on saying out of earshot of the mods/admin that they are unintelligent?

Good solution.

I presume the volunteering process was a 1 step back approach?

[gstark]

I presume the volunteering process was a 1 step back approach?

Still in train.

[firsty]

Gary
are there any size restrictions on the file we email.... and what would be the preferred pixel dimensions for judging as I assume they will be judged off calibrated monitors and scrolling around a photo to see it all would be detrimental to ones score.

[Alpha_7]

Keith brings up a very good point, with white on white, the calibration of monitors becomes pretty damn important.

Keith's earlier white on white he shared nearly a year ago, with the paper and Kool mints was fine on a calibrated screen, but on others, it was invisible and looked like just a pure white image, it follow a couple of forum members at the time.

[gstark]

Craig,

He does indeed.

Keith,

I'll play around with sending up some files over the weekend, and see what limits the mail server might impose.

I agree that we all should be using calibrated monitors, and I have little doubt that Matt and Chris both do, as do I. I'll throw the subject around between the three of us and we'll come up with some numbers that should permit best viewing and judging.

Thanx for raising the issue.

[Willy wombat]

Cool - Comp is on my radar.

[trotkiller]

But for those of you who might be wanting to import, say, a camera or a lens .... I've just adjusted the prices downwards.

Enjoy!

My order on monday, Mamiya M7 II Kit $2110.00

Today Mamiya M7 II Kit $1976.00

[Steffen]

But for those of you who might be wanting to import, say, a camera or a lens .... I've just adjusted the prices downwards.

Heh, that's just my luck - I ordered one of the buggers a week ago...

The good news is, the lens appears to be already in Alexandria, according to FedEx

Cheers
Steffen.

[Big Red]

maybe you should post this challenge in the Challenges forum ??

Another thought ... its a great idea to email the pics in.
You could post the pics in a temporary gallery and get the members to vote for one pic only in an open voting thread.
[so you can't vote for your own pic]

[sirhc55]

Hope you are all shooting the white

[Onyx]

I'll offer a bump to this thread.

Get yer last minute entries in folks!

[gstark]

Thanx, Chi.

Just a day to go.

Do it now

or never!

[Reschsmooth]

Two quick questions:

1. Can someone confirm that the max size of the image is 2000 px (I am sure I saw this somewhere but I am not sure)? File size?
2. How does one get rid of identifying information from EXIF data?

thanks

[gstark]

Two quick questions:

1. Can someone confirm that the max size of the image is 2000 px (I am sure I saw this somewhere but I am not sure)? File size?

2000 px is correct. File size shouldn't be an issue

2. How does one get rid of identifying information from EXIF data?

thanks

How have you done this for past challenges?

[Reschsmooth]

How have you done this for past challenges?

The only other challenge was the tryptich (sp) which lost a lot of the EXIF data.

Looking at it, I can't see my name on the data (using Bridge). Sorry if I sound unintelligent about this, but there is a reason for it.

[stubbsy]

Patrick - I edit my images in a text editor to remove the exif data - I use EditPad Pro since it has no file size limits (we use it to open 100 gigabyte + files at work for viewing and editing). Just search for your name.

[ATJ]

I just didn't save the EXIF information at all when I saved it as a JPEG.

[BT*ist]

I just wanted to apologise (you know, partially if not mostly to myself) for not having an entry for this competition - earlier this year I made a promise to myself that I'd enter every comp or exercise that dslrusers had. And this time I even had all the props and everything prepared and then.... yeah... just didn't get around to it.

[Alpha_7]

Feel free to post, what you would of submitted had time not got away from you.

[Jonesy]

I to am slack. Had a few ideas and a couple of options to submit but time got away...
work got extra busy, time management went out the window and it was yesterday(saturday) when I realised it was all to late

go luck to everyone else though

[BT*ist]

Well, this is probably the closest I could get to what it was I was after - plain flour placed in a cookie cutter/mould on white A4 paper, after the mould was removed. Love - light as air, fragile, crumbling, easily camouflaged... I liked what I was saying, but I found it hard to get away from a vague sense of it looking like I was also simply a cocaine addict with a romantic streak....

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/61147501@N00/2079207273/" title="zIMGP9943 by bt_ist, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2229/2079207273_5430c39b95.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="zIMGP9943" /></a>

[Alpha_7]

I like it, shame you didn't get to enter it. Certainly better then my own entry.

[Bluebell]

A clever concept.
I'm looking forward to seeing all the entries.
Good luck.