Alan Craven wrote: There has just been a fuss in the UK about the award of a photographic prize to a person who took someone elses published photograph, without permission, manipulated it, and submitted the modified image to the competition.  She argued that nowhere in the terms and conditions did it state that the starting point for an entry must be a photograph that you took yourself. After much argument the award was witheld, I believe. Graeme Guy is rated one of the best amateur natural history photographers in the world, and regularly gets Champion Image and a bunch of medals in natural history exhibitions and salons all over the world.  The humming birds below are an example of his work (you can view more HERE).  Graeme was one of the speakers, and ran a couple of workshops at the PSNZ National Convention in Nelson in 2010, and I attended both workshops.  In fact Graeme’s laptop would not play nicely with the projector, so I had to rush back to my hotel to get mine, and I still have his Powerpoint on it. I also had the nerve-racking privilege of teaching some HDR and Photoshop techniques to Graeme and 39 other similarly qualified photographers in two workshops that I had been invited to run. One of the rules in NZ Natural History competitions is that nowhere in the image is the ‘Hand-of-Man’ allowed to appear.  Graeme told us that the humming birds are photographed with the aid of seven small flash guns set to 1/128 th power, which gives an effective shutter speed of about 1/30,000 th of a second, and that’s how he is able to freeze their rapid wing movement.  I’ve also run a number of lighting workshops, and I asked Graeme how it was that with all that flash power involved, the background was not black?  He answered that two of the seven flash guns are directed at a false background, which varies between a poster sized photograph printed on matt paper, or camouflage netting. So someone else in the audience asked how these false backgrounds could possibly comply with the Hand-of-Man rule.  One of the main PSNZ Natural History judges, a Ron McKie, who happened to be a very good friend of Graeme’s came to his defence saying it was OK because these items were completely ‘out of focus’. Hmmm… stunned silence all round, and a change of the rules less than a year later. ... View more

OK Steven.  That's an interesting post.  I'm in New Zealand where we have the PSNZ which represents non-professionals, and is either directly or indirectly involved, in a number of national and regional Exhibitions and Salons.  They post a number of successful images on a flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/psnz Then we have the NZIPP which represents professional photographers, and they have their annual Iris Awards.  There a re number of galleries from last year’s winners here: http://www.nzipp.org.nz/nzippweb/Default.aspx?tabid=422 Both have a high percentage of heavily edited images.  I just had a quick look and the NZIPP had a ‘very’ high percentage!  It doesn’t matter what your own opinions are about Photoshopped imagery.  If you want to compete at National and International levels, if the rules allow it, people are going to do it, and clients are going to want it because those images have impact and attract attention. I know for a fact, that some of those pictures were done with nothing more with Lightroom using presets.  I don’t use LR, but from what I have seen, you can get a lot those Topaz, Perfect Suite, and Nik filter looks with LR presets, and most of them are free.  Of the rest, I wonder how many used Elements?  My guess is very few, and they mostly used a version of Photoshop. ... View more

Steven L. Gotz wrote: As far as Photographers go (and I am becoming one as fast as I can - it takes a lot of work) the head of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals says to just buy Lightroom 5 and Photoshop Elements. Unless you need CYMK separation and a few other things that only Photoshop CC can provide, the perpetual licenses for Lightroom 5 and Photoshop Elements should do virtually everything you need done. Steven go check out some successful photographer's sites, and see what the world expects from outstanding imagery nowadays.  Lots of compositing and heavy editing that you can't do with Lightroom, and would soon grow out of using Elements.  ... View more

Blooming heck Noel.  Not sure as I'd like one of those in my back garden.  I'm guessing you took that with one of your astronomical telescopes, so you could keep a decent distance.  This will be where you come back with a picture of yourself taking Ali for walkies with studded collar and heavy chain gata lead.  Now that ‘would’ be cool.  [EDIT]  Looking at my clock, it is just two hours to CC day in NZ.  I wish I knew exactly what time, and in what zone, the launch goes live. ... View more

I guess we get used to whatever is normal for our parts of the world.  I visited the Florida Everglades once, and while the tourists wore shorts and t-shirts, the locals wore long pants and sweatshirts.  I didn't see Noel, unless he was a) moonlighting as a swamp boat pilot, or b) wearing a fancy dress aligator costume.   in winter we have warm days and cold nights, which is apparently good for the grape vines, but not so flash on people. Last year I dared to complain that the cold was getting into my bones after a cold wet afternoon watching our Classic Fighters.  A huntin'/fishin' Kiwi buddy said 'that'll be the Brit in you!'  Well that told me all right. Better get the thread back on topic. ... View more

Lundberg02 wrote:    The Toyota cools for an hour and it hasn't been serviced in 15 years.  [clip] Did you have to say that? It's freezing down here!   Well 12° outside at least, but whoever invented winters needs shooting.  ... View more