More December Submissions

I have lots of photography goodness to share with you today!

Lee-Anne Thorton, of AB, kicks us off with three of her holiday-inspired photos:

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/3.5, 1/8 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/3.5, 1/20 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/4, 1/6 sec., ISO 100

Great job – thanks for sharing, Lee-Anne!

Next, Jill Sparks, of ON, shares this fun, winter image:

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/18, 1/200 sec., ISO 1200

That looks fun – and cold!! Brrr! Thanks for sharing, Jill.

Heidi Brand, of ON, shares an image of her daughter’s birthday cake, showing an interesting perspective.

Taken with Canon 40D at f/6.3, 1/10 sec., ISO 100

Yum!  Those silver non-pareils are the perfect touch!  Thanks for your submission, Heidi.

Our next submission was sent in by Mindy Smith-Bernard, of ON:

Taken with Canon Rebel XTi at f/2, 1/20 sec., ISO 800

Love the warm ligthing – thanks for sharing, Mindy!

Maxine Lozinski, of AB, shared this image of her grandson and his friend, Apollo:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/5.6, 1/20 sec., ISO 100

What a beautiful rotti, Maxine – and your grandson is handsome, too!  Thanks for sharing.

And finally, Carrie Butterwick, of AB, sent in this image of her son, fresh off the hill after a day of ‘boarding:

Taken with Pentax K100D at f/9.5, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

Another handsome young man!  Love the cropping – thanks for submitting, Carrie!

Lots of submissions from AB and ON today!  Hopefully, they inspired the rest of you to grab your cameras and try our December photo assignment!  Deadline is January 2nd, 2011 at 11:59pm EST – get out and play!

Cheers,

December submissions to share

I have another round of submissions to share with you today!

Agatha Wiebe, of ON, sent me this photo of her son:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/5.6, 1/50 sec., ISO 400

Thanks for your submission, Agatha!

April Childs, of AB, shared another photo for this photo assignment, this one of her son “helping” his Daddy shovel the driveway:

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/14, 1/200 sec., ISO 1600

How adorable!  Thanks for sharing, April!

Our next submission comes from Lise Malette, of ON:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XTi at f/4, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Ho ho ho!  Thanks for sharing, Lise!

Jill Sparks, of ON, sent us this submission:

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/5.3, 1/125 sec., ISO 200

Love it!  Thanks for sharing, Jill!

I love seeing your submissions come in – remember to include your camera information to have your image shared on our blog!

Cheers,

Our first December submission!

Thanks to April Childs, of AB, for sending us our first December submission for our photo assignment:

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/5.6, 1/3 sec., ISO 1600

Love the reflection – and great use of filling your frame!

Be sure to send me your images for a chance to win a set of 5 Canadian Scrapbooker Basics books!

Cheers,

December Tutorial – Cropping

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!

And because of that, this month’s tutorial is an easy one!  We’re going to be talking about CROPPING.

Nowadays, in these digital times, when one mentions cropping a photo, it leads you to think of post-production photo editing.  Almost all of us have cropped our digital photos; whether it is done to remove the unsightly load of laundry on the floor next to your toddler, or to add visual interest to an image, it is based on the editor’s personal preferences.

However, cropping can also refer to a composition guideline that you have probably often heard:  “Fill your frame!”

The easiest way to add instant impact to an image is to fill your frame with your subject.  Consider the following photo:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f7.1, 1/200 sec., ISO 200

Adorable in itself, just for the cuteness factor alone, but I find the ‘helicopters’ on the grass in the background distracting.  Notice how much more striking it becomes when I crop it, in post-production:

Of course, we can save ourselves a whole lot of post-production time by zooming in and filling your frame with your subject.  It’s a perfect way to reduce background noise.  As well, it also preserves image quality, as you are not reducing the size of your final image, and as such, the number of pixels.

So it’s time to go back to the basics – use photography guidelines (like the Rule of Thirds, framing, perspective, etc.) and crop “in-camera” while taking your photos!

December 2010 photography assignment:

Using the December tutorial as a guide, photograph a subject or object and fill your frame.  Don’t be afraid to get in close and get the details!  As always, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment on this post, or email me at sue {AT} canadianscrapbooker {DOT} ca.

Deadline:  11:59 pm EST, January 2nd, 2011

PLEASE NOTE:  Because the whole purpose of the tutorial is to get you to experiment with your camera, submitted photos must have been taken between December 9th and January 2nd, 2010, inclusive.  Please send original-sized photos – I will size them for our blog.  And PLEASE don’t forget to  include your camera settings, including camera used, f/stop, aperture and ISO settings for your image in the Comments section of the submisson form!  Submissions that do not include this info may not be posted on the blog  or included in the prize drawing.

Please submit your photo, using only our submission form (no emails, please!), for a chance to be entered into our draw to win an awesome prize.   A randomly chosen entry will be drawn after the deadline.  Please note – submissions that are not relative to the tutorial and/or do not abide by these rules will not be posted on the blog, or entered into the draw.  Please click HERE to review the rules regarding this draw BEFORE submitting.

This month’s sponsor is Canadian Scrapbooker!   This month, our winner will receive a complete set of Canadian Scrapbooker Basics technique books:

December 2010 Prize Sponsor: Canadian Scrapbooker

Enjoy your holidays – can’t wait to see your submissions!

Cheers,

We have a winner!

Thanks to our submitters this month for our November photo assignment on Framing – not only for sending us your images, but for being patient with me in uploading them!

Here’s a peek at those eligible for the Harmonie prize pack:

Thanks to everyone who shared their images!

Using www.random.org, a winner has been chosen:

List Randomizer

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Sharon Peters, AB
2. Sharon Peters, AB
3. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
4. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
5. Conni Frankl, SK
6. Lori Ann Frey, SK
7. Nathalie, Cormier, QC
8. Bev Beaudette, ON
9. Nathalie Cormier, QC

Timestamp: 2010-12-07 02:33:12 UTC

Congratulations, Sharon!  Your prize pack will be sent out shortly to the address on your submission form!

Stay tuned for our December tutorial to be posted on or around December 8th.

Cheers,