Voting - MPC #109 - Structure - ends 8/29

[butterscotch]

Phew, narrowed it down to 5. I culled the herd down to 15, then scored them on a scale of 1-5 in three categories (how well it met the theme, artistry/style and technical merit), added them all up, and then went back and made sure the top 5 were photos I actually liked (they were). In the end, I had to leave behind some really good photos and many great interpretations of the theme. Voting ends the 29th.

1. Edgnar:



2. outabounds:



3. systemoverblow'd:



4. Lonnie:



5. skiingislife:

[powdork]

system, as soon as i saw that i thought i recognized the windows. is that watergate?

[systemoverblow'd]

system, as soon as i saw that i thought i recognized the windows. is that watergate?

It's one of the new buildings of the Vertex Pharmaceuticals campus on Fan Pier in the Seaport District, South Boston.

The one on the right in this rendering.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Whoa, close race!

[smmokan]

It was, until all of Lonnie's friends joined TGR to vote.

[Lonnie]

It was, until all of Lonnie's friends joined TGR to vote.

Lol. Ironically, I was just checking in to see how far behind I was. And I'm not sure that I even have 12 friends!!!

[Chainsaw_Willie]

At this point you only need 11, assuming you voted for yourself...

[Lonnie]

At this point you only need 11, assuming you voted for yourself...

To quote Chris Rock, "I didn't have 6 friends in high school. I don't have 6 friends now!" lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...ilqOveh2s#t=56

[angry swede]

This was a particularly strong group of finalists. I really liked Lonnie's subject and can be a sucker for macro. So I admit I voted for him.

[systemoverblow'd]

I refuse to vote in any I become a finalist in personally. Not that one vote would have mattered

Congrats Lonnie!

[Edgnar]

Congrats Lonnie, I really liked the macro shots, especially the strawberry one. Or what I think was a strawberry?

I really liked outtabound's shot too.

[Lonnie]

Congrats Lonnie, I really liked the macro shots, especially the strawberry one. Or what I think was a strawberry?

I really liked outtabound's shot too.

Yeah, it was a strawberry. Good call. The shot that one was the bottomside of a zucchini leaf out of my garden. Honestly I was surprised I won. Normally the mags don't like "out of context" images like this. My initial thought in going macro was I had a couple of insect shots (like the dragon fly wing), but they didn't come out like I wanted so I started to experiment. I had a two flash setup shooting directly on the subject (1/4 to 1/16 power) or reflected off a couple of umbrellas (100% power on the flashes).

For the shot that won. I ended up putting the leaf of top of the flash umbrella and shooting thru that and illuminating the light from underneath (full strength on the flash). I shot all of these using a 25 year old minolta 50mm f/1.7 and a couple of extension tubes. That why, even at F/22 the DOF is so narrow. The curvature of the umbrella didn't help that either. In post, I tweaked the exposure a bit, pushed the contrast really, really hard and applied a good deal of clarity and sharpness. That's the good thing of not having anything else in the frame, I could take some liberties in post processing that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

Thanks again everyone, I enjoyed everyone's photos and learned alot (I NEVER, EVER shoot macro).

[butterscotch]

Congrats, Lonnie!

Meant to check this last night or this morning but I'm traveling for work this week and things are getting out of hand.

Lonnie: when you say extension tube, do you mean a teleconverter?

[Lonnie]

Lonnie: when you say extension tube, do you mean a teleconverter?

Nope. Some thing like this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=macr...+tube&tbm=shop

Basically, they're just "hollow" tubes that move the focus point of the lens away from infinity to a MUCH closer distance. Allows you to focus at up to an inch or so away, giving a "magnification" effect.