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GAF Photography Assignment Thread 83: 100% Natural

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Theme: 100% Natural

The idea here is to take a photograph of the natural world where there is absolutely nothing man-made in the frame. It can be a landscape, macro, or anything in between; animal, vegetable, or mineral, just so long as the picture contains no buildings, houses, poles, wires, cars, sidewalks, kitchen floors, trash, fences, etc… 100% natural.

I thought this might be an interesting exercise in choosing your point of view, background control, and carefully considering what elements of the scene you put into the frame.

Submissions are due by Sunday, January 31st at 11:59 PM EST.

Voting begins February 1st and ends on Tuesday, February 2nd at 11:59 PM EST

1) The theme can be interpreted as you see fit, but keep in mind others will be judging based on whatever criteria they see fit.

2) Only one photo per person, per assignment.
-- Photos must be taken during the assignment period.
-- Only photos to be posted in this thread are to be submissions.
-- You can change your submission by editing your post.
-- To avoid cluttering up the thread, please avoid quoting images.
-- Photos should be no larger than 800 pixels on the long edge.

3) One vote for your first choice (3 points) and one vote for your runner-up (1 point), which can be based on any criteria you see fit. You cannot vote for your own submission. Non-participants are also welcome to vote. Criticism/comments encouraged.

4) The "winner" should come up with a new theme/time period. Ties are broken first by the number of first choice votes, then by longest time since last win/thread start, then by longest amount of time participating in assignment threads.

5) Have fun!


GAF Photography Assignment Threads FAQ
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
In this thread posters compete at taking the best photos... with sexy results![/homer]
 
Sorry to make you crown yourself, Lucky, but I'm swamped at work. Hopefully, I get back on my game this time around.

Let me tell ya, sitting between the president of the company and a VP in a meeting about your project when they're just shy of yelling at each other are tons of fun. And stress relieving too.
 
mrkgoo said:
Congrats! Nice open theme.
Actually sitting here in the middle of Copenhagen where there are man-made stuff everywhere, it seems almost impossible to do :lol What about parks?, they are man-made as well...

Anyway congrats, it was a nice photo!
 

hEist

Member
nice theme.

but what about the "lightning", artificial light or only daylight?
i think only daylight/natural light, right?

this will be hard, for peeps who work the whole day.

and btw. pringles when you are reading this, i want your picture of the last assigment.
Want to print it :p
 

unreon

Member
Hi guys; first time posting in a photo thread like this. I'm an absolute newbie to this photobabble business so critique as harsh as you can please :)

My submission: "Flight"

6i9q1j.jpg


I did no post-processing other than running it black and white. And my camera isn't as good as other peoples, the images don't come out very sharp =(
 
hEist said:
nice theme.

but what about the "lightning", artificial light or only daylight?
i think only daylight/natural light, right?
Hmmm, I hadn't thought about the lighting aspect, but I say leave it up to the voters to judge the end result. Some people can get very natural-looking results with flash.
this will be hard, for peeps who work the whole day.
...but there are two weekends over the course of the assignment.


Metroid Killer said:
Actually sitting here in the middle of Copenhagen where there are man-made stuff everywhere, it seems almost impossible to do What about parks?, they are man-made as well...
I first thought of this as a landscape-only assignment, but I wanted to keep it as open as possible, especially for urban dwellers, so I went with anything natural from macro on up. The heart of the assignment, though, is to carefully consider your perspective and what you choose to include and exclude in the frame.

Regarding man-made parks, again it comes down to your end result...if you can find a particularly wild looking section of a park, or isolate a lone tree away from the city backdrop, you can make it work.

January may not seem like the best time to do a nature assignment, but I remember how back in high school biology class, the teacher had our class make an insect collection in the middle of winter to emphasize that bugs and other life don't just disappear in the winter, they're there if you look for them. Nature is all around us 12 months a year, go seek it out!
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
Exactly Lucky.

great theme! I definitely wont have a hard time finding something to contribute to this one.

Just a recommendation for other urban dwellers, google parks in your city. I live in the middle of Houston(4th largest city in US by population, and huge land mass) and was surprised at how many parks, state, local or nature reserves/wild life refuges there are within short driving distances.
 

olbareun

Member
nice theme!

I did no post-processing other than running it black and white. And my camera isn't as good as other peoples, the images don't come out very sharp =(

I don't think there is a huge gap in sharpness given that images are all shrunk to 800 long edge. Not that it really matters :p

If you want, upload the original size image to flickr, since they do a good job sharpening your original photos from resizing.
 
Every freakin' morning when I'm heading in to work I see the most beautiful golden sunrise light as I'm rolling down the highway. So today (Sunday) I get up at 5:45 AM, drive to one of my favorite park locations, hit the trail while it's still dark....and the day dawns gray, overcast, and drab, drab, drab. I hiked for an hour and didn't shoot a single frame. :(

At least Bear had a good time!
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
adian just climbed a freakin mountain to beat you guys. step your game up!
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Dice said:
adian just climbed a freakin mountain to beat you guys. step your game up!

Heh. I wanted to include as much '100% Natural' content as I could in one photo. Took me four days to climb that mountain!

;)
 

Ignis

Member
SDIM2325.jpg


First submission — hi.
(Not sure I'll keep this one; I'll try to come up with a better idea before Jan. 31st)

Tech info : Sigma SD14 / 150 [eq.255] mm / f2.8 / 1/60s / ISO 100 / I-ray infrared filter
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
PantherLotus said:
and here I was hoping of submitting something of the non-shaved bush variety. 100% Natural indeed.

I was wondering if we'd get an Abby Winters-style submission.
 
xtheEnemy, your rose is beautiful, but youir EXIF says it was taken on January 16, and...

-- Photos must be taken during the assignment period.

The idea is to go out and shoot something new with the assignment in mind, and maybe take your photography in a new direction. Otherwise, we'd get lots of people submitting old shots from their archives that happened to match the theme (although I know you were only a week early!)
 

pringles

Member
natural.jpg


This is mine for now, but it might change. I have a shot in mind that I really want to get, but the weather isn't cooperating.. there's a damn blizzard here right now :lol
 

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
Any tips for adjustments while taking pictures outdoors? My ISO can go down to 80, currently set at 200 for indoor pics.
 
RSZ129ps.jpg


Canon 20D, 10-22 at 10mm, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, f/8.0

PantherLotus said:
Any tips for adjustments while taking pictures outdoors? My ISO can go down to 80, currently set at 200 for indoor pics.

The lower ISO numbers will give you better image quality, but I think the best tip for outdoor shooting is not to shoot in the middle of the day...you'll get the most pleasing images in the hour after sunrise and before sunset. Mid-day light can be very contrasty and unflattering.
 
P1040957c-1.jpg


Taken this morning on a trip to Taman Negara. Camera was on auto or similar, but if it's of interest:

Lumix TZ-7
f/3.4
1/125 sec
ISO-200

Did some basic post-work to try to make the image more lively.
 


Camera model: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lens: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal length: 55 mm
Exposure time: 1/50 second
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100
Post Processing: Crop, adjust color balance, increase saturation, adjust color levels, resize, unshark mask in GIMP.
What I was smoking: Shot at the same location as my entry for Assignment #32 "Frozen," but this time it was after a huge ice dam broke and some melting created this palette of jagged lines from the foot-thick broken ice and curves of melt water waterfalls re-freezing.
 

SickBoy

Member
I never had a chance to get out for this one. Tried to take a few shots in my back yard (literally) and the results are so woeful that I'll take a pass. Sad, because my figurative back yard looks closer to aidan's shot. :)

EDIT: Great theme, though. Just tough when both my wife and I wind up running single-parent style lives (probably 12 hours a day of baby/full-time job). I get most of my free time well after the sun has set.
 
Unreon - I really like this a lot. A great selection of birds in different attitudes of flight, wonderful shadows on the foreground rocks; nicely shot. Being as harsh as I possibly can (please bear in mind I know sweet FA about the real business of photomography), I'd only say that the lower left and top right corners are slightly bare (the former having background but no subject, the latter having it the other way round), but ... Overall the image has balance, and is a pleasure to look at. The empty top right might not even be the issue, as the birds are flying into 'open blue' ... So if the res is high enough, you might (if you wished) try cropping away the lower left corner. Here's a quick stab, hope you like it:

6i9q1jb.jpg


aidan - Just lovely! I've been taking pictures of trees all weekend, and the results have often been quite dull, even when the trees themselves have been magnificent. The various heights and states of those in the foreground of your shot point the eye back towards the awesome background without hurting or insulting it (the eye). And the background itself is joyful, varied, and evocative.

captive - I'd hoped to sneak the award for exotic animal photography in this thread (in truth it's probably all my entry has going for it), but this shot destroys that hope entirely. The wonder of the natural abounds in this small horizontal strip of focus, making your photograph a true interpretation of this assignment's subject. It also reeks of hidden menace.

Human_Shield - Beautiful and unusual. Makes me think of a world without humans, which I think is probably one corollary of this assignment.

ronitoswife - Really like this one, it immediately caught my eye and kept it circling within the framework of the shot. Perfect balance as far as I'm concerned, and puts me in mind of a painting as much as anything else. Perhaps the variety of textures accounts for this. There isn't a clear subject of the image, but it feels like mystery and atmosphere themselves are being represented; it's like a question mark (wrapped in an enigma, etc). That's all I know to pass comment on - this photo makes me feel like there's more to it than I understand.



My picks:

1st: ronitoswife
2nd: aidan

Honourary mention to Human_Sheild, and hats off to everyone who participates, even if just by commentary.
 
Okay, let's vote!

unreon said:
Hi guys; first time posting in a photo thread like this. I'm an absolute newbie to this photobabble business so critique as harsh as you can please :)

My submission: "Flight"

6i9q1j.jpg


I did no post-processing other than running it black and white. And my camera isn't as good as other peoples, the images don't come out very sharp =(

ChryZ said:
p1000496.jpg


Lumix GF1, 20mm, F/1.7, 1/159s, ISO100. EXIF for more details.

aidan said:


CLICK FOR BIGGER


Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/13.0
Focal Length: 43 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: -5/3 EV

Ignis said:
SDIM2325.jpg


First submission — hi.
(Not sure I'll keep this one; I'll try to come up with a better idea before Jan. 31st)

Tech info : Sigma SD14 / 150 [eq.255] mm / f2.8 / 1/60s / ISO 100 / I-ray infrared filter

pringles said:
natural.jpg


This is mine for now, but it might change. I have a shot in mind that I really want to get, but the weather isn't cooperating.. there's a damn blizzard here right now :lol

captive said:
4310073479_ed31682d6b_o.jpg

Camera: E-30
Exposure: 1/4000
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO: 400

mrnorush said:
Was hoping for some sun this weekend to take picture of the beach, but that didn't work out :(

MACRO TIME.

4317861128_731ecd3360.jpg

Maklershed said:

Rolio said:

Lucky Forward said:
RSZ129ps.jpg


Canon 20D, 10-22 at 10mm, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, f/8.0

B-B-Bomba! said:
P1040957c-1.jpg


Taken this morning on a trip to Taman Negara. Camera was on auto or similar, but if it's of interest:

Lumix TZ-7
f/3.4
1/125 sec
ISO-200

Did some basic post-work to try to make the image more lively.

Vamlock said:

Human_Shield said:
4319685667_b5d7f1ed54_o.jpg


Due to the unusual porportions, I've included a link to a larger sized version below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/human_shield/4320401674/sizes/o/

Neuromancer said:

Squirrel Killer said:


Camera model: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lens: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal length: 55 mm
Exposure time: 1/50 second
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100
Post Processing: Crop, adjust color balance, increase saturation, adjust color levels, resize, unshark mask in GIMP.
What I was smoking: Shot at the same location as my entry for Assignment #32 "Frozen," but this time it was after a huge ice dam broke and some melting created this palette of jagged lines from the foot-thick broken ice and curves of melt water waterfalls re-freezing.

ronitoswife said:

Remember, anyone can vote for their favorite picture and a runner-up, you don't need to have entered something. Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome.
 

RuGalz

Member
I have a weakness for snowy scenes...

1) Human_shield - I really like all the colors within the scene.
2) Squirrel Killer
 
1. ronitoswife - For some reason, it reminds of me of Planet of the Apes. I half expect to see Chuck Heston and the Statue of Liberty just off frame.
2. unreon - So close to being my number one, but I wonder whether it might have looked even better in color.
 
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