December 2010 Winner!

Thanks for all of the fantastic submissions we received for our December photo assignment on Cropping!

Here’s a peek at all of them again:

Thanks again to all of our submitters this month!

Using a list randomizer, a winner has been chosen:

List Randomizer

There were 34 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Margaret Stewart, AB
2. Lynette Parent, AB
3. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
4. April Childs, AB
5. Jill Sparks, ON
6. Teresa McNutt, NS
7. Brae Montgomery, ON
8. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
9. Brae Montgomery, ON
10. Shannon Celeste, ON
11. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
12. Agatha Wiebe, ON
13. Jill Sparks, ON
14. Heidi Brand, ON
15. Jaime Matthews, ON
16. Nicole Alvey, ON
17. Mindy Smith-Bernard, ON
18. Jill Sparks, ON
19. April Childs, AB
20. Lisa Malette, ON
21. Jill Sparks, ON
22. Maxine Lozinski, AB
23. Jill Sparks, ON
24. April Childs, AB
25. Lise Malette, ON
26. Sharon Peters, AB
27. Carrie Butterwick, AB
28. Lise Malette, ON
29. Bethany Hoskin, AB
30. Bethany Hoskin, AB
31. Jill Sparks, ON
32. Agatha Wiebe, ON
33. Nicole Alvey, ON
34. Agatha Wiebe, ON

Timestamp: 2011-01-07 02:10:03 UTC

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

Stay tuned for our January tutorial to be posted on or around January 8th, 2011!

Cheers,

Final December submissions

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and wishing you all a very safe and happy 2011!

I’m back from a self-imposed computer break and I have to say, while I missed it, it was nice to kick back and relax!  However, now I have a MASSIVE pile of submissions to share with you so it’s your turn to kick back, relax and enjoy our readers’ photography.

Jaime Matthews, of ON, sent me this adorable photo of one of her five children, Spencer:

Taken with Sony CyberShot at f/4, 1/40 sec., ISO 125

 Look at those dimples – thanks for sharing, Jaime!

Sharon Peters, of AB, shared this photo of her daughter-in-law, Rachael, and grand-daughter, Mary:

Taken with Nikon D90 at f/5.3, 1/160 sec., ISO 400

I love how the cropping brings the focus onto their beautiful faces.  Great job, Sharon!

April Childs, of AB, sent me this abstract photo, creating bokeh from her Christmas tree lights (see our December 2009 tutorial for more info on bokeh!):

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/5.3, 1/4 sec., ISO 640

Lovely – thanks for your submission, April!

Next, I want to share this colourful photo by Lynette Parent, of AB:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel, at f/5.6, 1.3 sec., ISO 100

I love how the yellow just POPS - Great submission, Lynette!

Agatha Wiebe, of ON, sent in two more submissions this month – the first is a fantastic shot of an ornament that she made with her children:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/4.5, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

How cool is that?  I’m going to have to make those next year with my kidlets!  I also want to share this submission from Agatha:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/4.5, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Love how you captured the well-loved look of your bible – thanks for your submissions, Agatha!

The next two submissions come from Brae Montgomery, of ON.  I had the pleasure of meeting Brae this fall at the CreativFestival in Toronto – I spent all of my hard-earned money at her booth!   Brae’s first photo is an extreme close-up:

Taken with Canon Rebel T2i at f/4, 1/30 sec., ISO 3200

Love it!  Great depth of field, too, by using a smaller aperture of f/4.

Brae’s second photo captured their Christmas traditional Elf on a Shelf – his job is to report back to Santa at night while the family sleeps! 

Taken with Canon Rebel T2i at f/5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

I think we need one of these at our house…   Thanks for submitting, Brae!

Jill Sparks, of ON, sent several photos this month, as well, capturing a Christmas treat and her family this year in the snow:

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/4, 1/6 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/5.3, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/14, 1/200 sec., ISO 1600

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

Looks like everyone had fun – thanks for submitting, Jill!

This next beautiful image comes from Margaret Stewart, of AB:

Taken with Nikon D40x at f/5.6, 1/160 sec., ISO 200

So pretty!  Thanks for your submission, Margaret.

Check out these next two photos from Nicole Alvey, of ON:

Taken with Canon Rebel XTi at f/5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Hee hee – love your little assistant, peeking over your shoulder!  

Taken with Canon Rebel XTi at f/5.6, 1/160 sec., ISO 100

Great use of natural light, too!  Thanks for sharing, Nicole!

Lise Malette, of ON, sent in these photos, taken on a recent trip to Florida:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XTi at f/9, 1/500 sec., ISO 320

I can almost imagine his whiskers twitching!

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XTi at f/9

Pretty – Thanks for submitting, Lise!

As we come into the home stretch, I want to share this one sent in by Shannon Celeste, of ON:

Taken with Nikon Coolpix 100 at f/3.5, 1/30 sec., ISO 306

Love this candle!  Thanks for sharing, Shannon!

Teresa McNutt, of NS, sent us this photo of her youngest daughter, who turned six on Dec 31st:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/60 sec.

Happy Belated Birthday to her – and thanks for your submissions, Teresa!

Lastly, I have two adorable images to share from Bethany Hoskin, of AB, of her daughter.  In one, she is digging into some Oreos:

Taken with Canon EOS T1i at f/4.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

 Oh, I can relate, my little friend – they’re my favourite, too!!  Yum!

About the next image, Bethany writes, ” a photo of my daughter, inspecting our Christmas decorations, shortly before removing as many as she could reach, of course!”

Taken with Canon EOS T1i at f/3.5, 1/25 sec., ISO 400

 That made me smile – been there, done that!  Although my kids usually just tried to stuff them in their mouth – or that of the dog, who was only too happy to oblige!  Thanks for your submissions, Bethany!

Whew!  What a great crop of photos we had this month!  Thanks to everyone who submitted – I love seeing your photos and sharing them with our readers.  Stay tuned for an announcement of our December photo assignment winner in the next day or two – and watch for our January tutorial to be posted on or around January 8th, 2011!

Cheers,

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,

Are you ready?

Thanks to everyone who submitted photos for our December assignment on Bokeh!  They were, in order of posting:

1.  Gail Bidgood
2. Kristy Burton – Photo 1
3. Kristy Burton – Photo 2
4. Kristy Burton – Photo 3
5. Maxine Lozinski – Photo 1
6. Sonia Rodriguez
7. Maxine Lozinski – Photo 2
8. Lori McClelland
9. Corry Heinricks
10. Jessi Lute
11. Kim Collee
12. Teresa McNutt
13. Natalka Lindstrom

And thanks to a random number generator , we have a winner!

And our winner is Teresa McNutt, of Truro, NS for submitting this photo:

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/5.0, 1/800 sec., ISO 400

Congratulations, Teresa – we will mail out your Kelly Panacci prize pack to the address on your submission form!

Watch for the January assignment to be posted in the next day or two – get your cameras ready!  And don’t forget about our contest – it runs until the end of the month so there’s lots of time to start blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking about our site for a chance to win!  Be sure to leave me a comment on the contest post in order to receive your ballots!

Happy Clicking,

Bokeh, revisited – and more submissions

I have received alot of submissions over the last few days – I am loving everyone’s work!

However, I have had several photos sent that are not really in line with our December assignment.  I have tried to email everyone back as soon as I received their email, to let them know and to allow them enough time to re-submit another photo , but as we are wrapping up this assignment in the next hour, no more emails will be sent.

As I mentioned to many of you, I think that I may not have been very clear in my tutorial so I am going to try to explain it more thoroughly so even if the assignment deadline is over, you can still practice and try your hand at mastering this technique, which can be spectacular when done correctly.

Depending on who you ask and what you read, the term bokeh can mean several things.  As I tried to describe in my tutorial, I consider bokeh to be circular-type light sources (i.e. Christmas lights, candles, patches of sunlight through trees…) in the out-of-focus section of a photo.  To show you an example, I photographed this Santa ornament tonight:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/15 sec., ISO 800

(Please ignore the grainy-ness – in my haste, I forgot to set my ISO back to 200.)

Note the circles of light that are my Christmas tree lights in the background?  Bokeh.  The more circular and out of focus, the better, in my opinion!  But of course, depending on your settings and desired effects, you may feel differently.

Lori McLellan, of Calgary, AB, sent me this AWESOME photo of bokeh – aren’t those large circles of light such a beautiful backdrop for her ornament?

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel at f/2.8, 1/50 sec., ISO 1600

 Corry Heinricks, of Silver Valley, AB, also highlighted this sweet snowman with her Christmas tree lights:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XTI at f/6.3, 1/25 sec., ISO 800

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/4.5, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/2.8, 1/1250 sec., ISO 1000

Teresa McNutt, of Truro, NS, too, this photo looking through her patio door, with the winter storm creating some subtle bokeh:

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/5.0, 1/800 sec., ISO 400

And Natalka Lindstrom, of Edmonton, AB, took this photo of the Meerkat at the Atlanta Zoo, using the diffused light through the reeds to create bokeh:

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/5.3, 1/500 sec., ISO 200

So how do you achieve bokeh?  Well, the trick is to use the largest aperture setting that you can, given your camera capabilities and your lighting.  The larger the setting (i.e. lower the f/stop number), the more blurred and pretty your bokeh will be!  Here are two examples that I photographed tonight to show you the difference between settings:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/9, 1/6 sec., ISO 800

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/15 sec., ISO 800

Note the difference in light with the larger f/stop – the bokeh consists of larger circles and provides a less distracting background.

I hope that helps to clarify things a bit – my apologies for confusing anyone!  There’s about an hour left to submit your photos so if you haven’t already done so, please do!  We’ve love to see!

And don’t forget about our contest – click here for more info!

Happy Clicking!

And more!

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSi at f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO 200

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSi, f/5.0, 1/25 sec., ISO 800

Thanks for your submissions, ladies!  There’s still a few days left in our December assignment so send your submissions to me and you will be entered into our random draw for a great holiday pack from Kelly Panacci!

Watch for more information on our upcoming contest on Monday, as well as our announcement of our December winner on Tuesday!  January’s assignment will be posted mid-week.

Happy clicking,

More December Submissions!

Thanks to Kristy Burton of MB for sending me these adorable photos using the light reflecting through the trees to create bokeh.

Taken with Canon Rebel at f/8.0, 1/320 Sec., ISO 1600

Taken with Canon Rebel at f/7.1, 1/200 sec., ISO 1600

Taken with Canon Rebel at f/8.0, 1/250 sec., ISO 1600

Maxine Lozinski of AB submitted me this festive photo of some reindeer figurines:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSI, f/5.0, 1/60, ISO 400

Thanks, ladies, for your submissions!

Can’t wait to see what else shows up in our submission inbox!  Remember to set your aperture as wide as it will go to create the  most blur!

Happy clicking!