Camera Labs

Hi everyone! Welcome to September's Assignment!

The theme for this month is "Welcome to our curious but beautiful world", as suggested by robbon44 and 4xxxx who won the July 2012
competition. Be sure to read the whole post for the rules.

In robbon44 and 4xxxx's own words:

"We have had a bit of a chat and we are both pretty new to this but we think we have an idea for the assignment.

Staying slightly topical we thought that with the mars rover landing and taking photos of an alien world, of what and how would an alien race take photos of our world if they landed here.

So our theme would be "welcome to our curious but beautiful world".

We are looking for people to show photos of what they think our world represents, its technical advances, its natural wonders, its inhabitants from an outsiders point of view. This can be scientific or it can be social curiosity. If you arrived here today what would you see that you think is worthy of taking some further interest in or think wow thats just strange. As a side line why not try taking a photo of your environment as maybe the rover is of mars..

It may be a little open to interpretation but we like the fact that the openness may encourage more people to enter with photos of what they see as being representative of our wondrous, quirky and possibly whacky but most definitely beautiful world.

With respect to rules we simply ask that photos be kept as simple as possible, let the image do the talking and keep post processing as simple as you can. Mild HDR is fine as is slight coloring but the idea is we show off our planet in its natural beauty."

The rules!

1: You can only submit one image and it MUST be taken during September 2012. Photos taken earlier will be disqualified!

2: All images submitted must be no more than 1024 pixels on their longest side, although you can include a link to a
full resolution version if you like. Flickr users must link back to the original version to comply with its latest rules.

As always, please exercise good judgement on what is suitable for the forum. Keep it clean and family-friendly or it'll
be removed. See the Forum Rules for guides.

Please include a sentence or two with your photo describing what you were trying to achieve and if there were any
particular challenges in doing so like, for example, any special exposure or lighting setup.

We're all enthusiasts here, so it's also great to see what equipment you used and the settings too. So please also
include the following:

Camera Model:
Lens and focal length:
Aperture:
Shutter Speed:
Sensitivity:
Post processing:

Submissions will close at midnight GMT on 30th September 2012. The final poll will follow.

Please remember this thread is for submissions only. If you'd like to comment on any of the submissions or ask any
questions, please do so in the September 2012 Comments and Questions thread!

Thanks and good luck!

- Bjorn

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Found this seaweed on the beach the other day, looks like something from an episode of Dr Who.

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Nikon D90
Nikkor AF-S DX; 18-105 f/3.5-5.6G VR, 55-300 f/4.5-5.6G VR, 35mm f/1.8G
Speedlight SB-700

http://keystrokesukimages.com

My very small alien sees in the negative, can only perceive 5 tones and also had the misfortune to land
in a patch of Horsetail plants in my garden pond. It's not easy being an intergalactic pioneer!



Canon Powershot G10. Macro setting, ISO200, 1/125 @ f.8
PP Crop, Invert to the negative, posterise 5 tones. Reduce to 800pixels

Haven't been on the forum in awhile and was perusing this thread on a lazy sunday morning. I thought i would have a nice submission from last week. Someone visiting earth from outer space might be intrigued by the lovely landscape we have as well as the interesting hot air balloons in this picture )

This was a bit of a challenge for me with lighting as the balloons were taking off into the setting sun so i decided to take the picture as a silhouette to be able to get nice exposure of the beautiful sky. This was taken in Ottawa at the annual hot air balloon festival.

D7000, nikon 18-200mm at 18mm, F8, 1/8000, ISO 200, minor editing in lightroom (contrast, lens correction etc.)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Trying to take closeup of a grasshopper, while lying on the grass got this shot at almost the same eye level as that of the bug I was trying to shoot.


From the eyes of grasshopper by Ain_Qaf_Seen


Canon 550D, 70-300 mm non IS kit lense @ 300mm f5.6, 1/200 sec ISO 800, no post processing.

EOS 5DII
EF 24-105L IS USM
f:14 at 1/4 ISO 100

Cherry blossom thrashing in a stiff breeze. The daffodils were lower and more sheltered.

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Brian,
Canon 5DII, 7D, EF-S 10-22, EF 50 USM 1.4, EF-S 60 macro EF 16-35 L USM, EF 24 -15L IS USM, EF EF 100-400L, Canon SX130

Here is one I took at the local airshow this weekend. Shows the great advances we have made in the last 100 years alone.
Just did some toning and curves.

Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teegprice/7990578544/

Camera : Canon 5DII
Lens: Canon 500mm F/4L
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 800
Speed: 1/4000sec

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Canon 5D mkII+Battery Grip
Canon Rebel T2 l Yashica FX-3 I Minolta srt 202
70-200 f2.8 L / 17-40 L / 50 1.4
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teegprice/

I took my new alien friend out to Moreton Island this past weekend, so he can experience life here on Earth in a relaxing, and beautiful, way. He saw a ton of wildlife, including starfish, dolphins, kookaburras, rose-breasted cockatoos (Galah), and tons of fish. He was in awe of how different each and every animal was. I thought about posting a wildlife pic here for this assignment. However, on the last night, my friend was absolutely taken aback by the sunset. Being that the sky in his planet is always the same color, black, he was amazed by the colors and the clouds. Hopefully you all feel the same


IMG_1474 by amp82585, on Flickr

Camera Model: Canon 600D
Lens and focal length: Canon 18-55mm kit lens, at 29mm
Aperture: 9
Shutter Speed: 1/4000
Sensitivity: 1250
Post processing: Shot in RAW, the only PP was to increase the saturation a tad, and crop a tiny piece off the bottom where I caught someone's head down on the beach

Enjoy!

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Canon EOS 600D
Canon EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, EFS 55-250mm f/4-5.6, EFS 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM

Man and Beast by Nikon Pup, on Flickr

1/25 sec @ f/5.3
ISO 1000
105mm on Nikkor18-200mm VR II
Nikon D80
Converted to B&W with contrast adjustment

Looking back into the sky. "Everything's better at home."

Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM @ 12mm
F5.6
ISO 5.000
30 sec

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

IMG_2763-1 by robbon44, on Flickr

hey look...walking on water ! Strange human behaviour....

Canon EOS 500D
EFS 17-85mm at 17mm
Polarizing Filter
F/6.3
1/400

auto tuned in LR

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Canon 550D, Canon EFS 17-85 IS USM, Canon EF 75-300 IS USM, Canon EFS 10-22mm USM, Canon EF35mm F2.

Got some of the gear but really still no idea...

I would show an alien the Hand of Peace. (I would imagine with coming from a distant galaxy they would have the ability to obliterate our planet)



Taken at the Currumbin Swell Sculpture Festival

Camera Model: Nikon D7000
Lens and focal length: 18-200mm VR II @ 35mm
Aperture: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
Sensitivity: ISO 200, -0.7EV
Post processing: Lighten, contrast and light crop

How on earth could I change by accident from aperture mode to manual, half of my shoot were under exposed including this one.


Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

I took my alien friend to the family get together. Just as we were called to the table the evening sky colours changed. The alien commented on how beautiful the sky looked so I took this photo for him.


DSC_0708_RAW by Cujo1976, on Flickr

Camera Model: D60
Lens and focal length: 70-300mm VRII, 145mm
Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/6s
Sensitivity: 100 ISO
Post processing: Converted from RAW to JPEG, straightening

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Camera: Nikon D60
Lenses: Nikon AF-S DX 18-55 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR, Nikon AF-S VR 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED
Flash: Nikon SB-910
Tripod: Joby Gorillapod Focus with Ball Head X, Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 with Manfrotto MH054M0-Q5 ballhead

Flickr

Hey, they've got golden water!


OnAssignment1 by pierovera, on Flickr

Camera Model: Canon PowerShot SX20 IS
Lens and focal length: 15.9mm (89mm)
Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/1600
Sensitivity: ISO 100
Post processing: Some Photoshop (The Photoshop history log is in the EXIF data in Flickr)

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Gear: Canon SX20 IS, Canon Rebel T3i, Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Wishlist: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
Visit me and leave me a comment in My Flickr

Sunset



Camera Model: Nikon D7000
Lens and focal length: 16-85 @ 38mm
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
Sensitivity: ISO 160
Post processing: Crop and contrast boost in PS

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams