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Winning the Hall of Fame this December is a first time player! Diane, from Sonoma County, California (that's in Northern California wine country, about 90 minutes north of San Francisco) blasted ahead of the pack with an impressive lead. Toward the end of the challenge, other contestants were hot on her heels, but Gemma the labby won the day, thus disproving the theory that dogs never win our most prestigious challenge. ;-)
What type of equipment do you use?
I joined Flickr and PFO using a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ 18 -- a great point and shoot type camera with a great zoom lens. But I rapidly upgraded to a Nikon D80 dslr, and I love it. Mostly I shoot with an 18-200 lens, but occasionally i put on a longer zoom (75-300) , and for macro phototography use a Nikon 120mm macro lens. I'm not patient enough to carry a tripod, so virtually all of my photos are hand-held. I use Vibration Reduction lenses which help a lot!
What's your favorite subject to shoot?
Flowers are at the top of the list, but really I'm drawn to anything with color. I love shooting close-ups of ordinary objects. And dogs and cats -- I could shoot them all day long. I hardly ever shoot people, but I need to develop that.
Tell us the story behind your Brackets entry:
This is our dog Gemma, rescued via a wonderful labrador retriever rescue organization. She's mosty black lab with some Weimaraner in her, we think. She's very expressive, especially with the eye-rolling. When I took that picture, I was sitting on the kitchen floor playing with my camera, to keep my daughter company while she did her homework. I'd been tossing the ball for Gemma but she pooped out and plonked down nearby. I took that shot and while the color version didn't do much for me, I loved her expression. Once I used Photoshop to turn it into black and white, I was thrilled. I think it's the best picture I've ever taken.
[ed.: so do we!]
Any advice for beginners?
Hah -- gutsy for me to say, as I really AM a novice. I'd say KEEP SHOOTING. A lot. Use the "burst shooting" mode if your camera has one and take several shots of everything so that you're more likely to get one good one. And don't be afraid to crop WAY in once you have a picture you like. Perfectly centered images tend to look amateurish. An off-center subject, even with an edge cut off, can be much more interesting. And keep shooting! And keep shooting! And did I mention? Keep shooting!!
Yay -- a big hand for all our entrants this month and especially to Diane and Gemma. Give that dog a bone!
