Winners for April and May!!

Thanks to all participants over the last two months who sent in their submissions for our April and May tutorials.  Here’s a thumbnail peek at each of their layouts:

The winner of the 3 Bugs in a Rug prize for the April tutorial on Depth Perception is:

List Randomizer

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

1. Darla Holdstock, SK
2. Kristi Kennedy, BC
3. Stephanie Schan, ON
4. Jennifer Lundsten, SK
5. Carrie Butterwick, AB
6. Karly Potts, AB
7. Agatha Wiebe, ON
8. Vicki Chippette,NL
9. Carrie Butterwick, AB

Timestamp: 2011-07-08 20:48:41 UTC

And the winner of the Bo Bunny prize for the May tutorial on Balancing Elements is:

List Randomizer

There were 3 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Lorie McCall, ON
2. Agatha Wiebe, ON
3. Vicki Chippette,NL

Timestamp: 2011-07-08 20:51:56 UTC

Congratulations to Darla and Lorie! Your prizes will be sent out shortly to the address on your submission forms!

Thanks again to all who particicpated – and for your patience in my tardiness!!  Watch for another post next week for more chances to win a prize!!

Cheers,

Another Round of Submissions

Sorry for the delay in posting the final submissions for our Apr/May tutorials!!  I have a friend and her family visiting and we took a whirlwind trip which included Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland and downtown Toronto.  We got in late last night and I was unplugged for most of the trip (which was pretty nice, I have to admit!).  But without further ado, here are the final submissions…

Vicki Chippette, of NL:

Taken with Canon Rebel T2i at f/16, 1/200 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Canon Rebel T2i at f/7.1, 1/200 sec., ISO 400

Carrie Butterwick, of AB:

Taken with Pentax K100D Super at f/8, 1/350 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Pentax K100D Super at f/13, 1/3000 sec., ISO 3200

Stephanie Schan, of ON:

Taken with Canon 5DMkII at f/4.5, 1/320 sec., ISO 4000

Karly Potts, of AB:

Taken with Pentax K100D at f/8, 1/350 sec., ISO 200

Darla Holdstock, of SK:

Taken with Canon Rebel T3i at f/1.8, 1/4000 sec., ISO 100

Lorie McCall, of ON:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Thank you, ladies, for your submissions and my apologies for not having them up sooner!!

I will randomly select and post a winner tomorrow!  See you then…

Cheers,

Another to Share!

Kristi Kennedy, of BC, has sent me another photo for our May tutorial assignment on Balancing Elements:

Taken with Canon EOS 10D at f/5.6, 1/30 sec., ISO 400

This photo of her children colouring depicts her daughter as the focal point, with her son in the background as an anchoring, or balancing, element.  Love the concentration in her sweet face!

Thanks for your submission, Kristi – and I’m encouraging everyone else to get their submissions into me before the deadline of June 30th!  Because wouldn’t your Canada Day be a little bit brighter if you were randomly chosen as one of the winners of our fabulous prizes??

Cheers,

May Tutorial: Balancing Elements

In our May tutorial, we are going to discuss using balancing elements in our composition.

In September, I wrote a tutorial about using the Rule of Thirds as a guideline for achieving pleasing composition within an image.  Somehow, though, using the Rule of Thirds can create an empty void in the scene.  To balance your image, try placing an object of lesser importance in the void to offset the weight of the focal point in your scene.

I stumbled across a good example of this online when logging into Flickr:

[source]

The couple dancing in the foreground is offset by the dancer sitting on the sidelines.

Another example:

Taken with Nikon D80 and 18-70mm lens at f/11, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

Here, the barn acts as the image’s focal point, yet is offset by the long grasses in the lower left corner of the scene.

So, are you ready to play?

May 2011 photography assignment:

Using the May tutorial as a guide, photograph an object or scene using the Rule of Thirds – and then offset it with a balancing object.  Try to look for scenarios that are naturally occuring – it’s sometimes difficult to spot!  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, Jun 3oth, 2011

And now for the fun part – the prize!! This month’s randomly drawn winner will receive this yummy Bo Bunny prize pack:

May 2011 Bo Bunny Prize Pack

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

1) Because the whole purpose of the tutorial is to get you to experiment with your camera, submitted photos must have been taken between May 1st and June 30th, 2011, inclusive. Photos that do not meet this criteria may be shared on the blog but will not be eligible for our contest.

2) Please send original-sized files – I will size them for our blog.

3) 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.

Happy Clicking!

Our May winner!

We had some wonderful submissions this month:

Thanks to everyone who submitted their photos this month (top to bottom, left to right):

1. Cynthia Hordyk
2. Gail Bidgood
3. Sarah Lou
4. Lisanne Côté
5. Patricia Delorme
6. Tara Vosbourgh
7. Mindy Smith-Bernard
8. Erin Aumack
9. Lorie Pollock
10. Teresa McNutt
11. Michelle Kuijer
12. Lori North
13. Marla McNutt
14. Lori North
15. Michelle Kuijer

And our winner is…

Congratulations to Patricia Delorme!!  Your Nikki Sivils prize pack will be sent out shortly to the address on your submission form!

Thanks again to all – our June tutorial will be posted early next week!!  I’m heading to the Toronto area this weekend for a Donna Downey class - so excited!

Cheers,

Final Submissions to Share

I have a few last-minute submissions to share from last night!

Michelle Kuijer, of ON, sent in two submissions this month:

Taken with Canon EOS XS at f/4.5, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Canon EOS XS at f/5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

 Our last submission comes from Teresa McNutt, of NS.  She comments, “We have had such little sun…Had to lay flat on the ground to grab this one.”

Taken with Nikon 40D at f/4.8, 1/2000, ISO 320

 Looks like it was all worth it, Teresa!  Love the delicacy of this!

Thanks to you and everyone who submitted their photos this month.  I will be drawing and posting a winner tomorrow morning – check back to see who our lucky winner is!! Will it be you??

Cheers,

Last Day to Submit!!

Have you sent me your photo for our May assignment yet??  Deadline is tonight at 11:59pm EST so you have all day and evening to get out with your camera and take some backlit shots!

Lorie Pollock, of AB, sent me this photo, saying, “…In this picture, I sprayed my son’s grade one spruce tree and put it in the direct sunlight and as you suggested, took the picture from down low, directing my camera to the sun.  I love it!!!”:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/11, 1/1600 sec., ISO 1600

I love it, too!  The sunlight glistening off the water droplets is fantastic!

Next, I want to share two submissions from Lori North, of ON:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS XT at f/4.5, 1/2000 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Canon EOS XT at f/7.1, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

These are wonderful, Lori!  Thanks to both of you for sharing!

And to everyone else, I’ll be watching my inbox for YOUR submissions…

Cheers,

Feeling Patriotic

Mindy Smith-Bernard, of ON, sent me this photo that makes me feel patriotic:

Taken with Canon Rebel XTi at f/10, 1/800 sec., ISO 400

Thanks for your submission, Mindy!  More submissions to follow later…

Cheers,

Submission from Down Under

What a happy surprise to see this submission in my inbox!  It’s nice to see our little blog crossing the oceans to meet fellow photographers from abroad! 

Today, I’m sharing this photo that Sarah Lou, of NSW Australia, took on a scrapbooking retreat:

Taken with Olympus E450 at f/5.1, 1/160 sec., ISO 100

 Not only is the backlighting through the trees wonderful, but I love how the sunlight is reflecting off the top of the wheat grass in the background!  Thanks for sharing, Sarah!

So, how about it?  Anyone else want to try their hand at using backlighting in their photos?  Just send me your submission form by May 31st, 2010 to be eligible to win a Nikki Sivils prize pack!

Cheers!

Another Submission To Share!

Erin Aumack, of AB, sent me this photo for our backlighting assignment:

Taken with Canon Rebel Ti at f/14, 1/800 sec., ISO 100

I love how the clouds diffused the sunlight to a hazy glow – thanks for sharing, Erin!

Only a few more days left – don’t forget to send me YOUR photos!

Cheers,