Sunday, May 9, 2010

Prepping for the Fair

After last year's submission fiasco with the State Fair, I decided that this year I would start preparing early. I have until the first week in August to get my images selected, printed and mounted for display. Out of the six entries (the max allowed by an individual) three were accepted for display. One of the three rejected images was disqualified due to the fact that I submitted it into the monochrome category and it has a little splash of green color in it and the other two did not score enough points. But the fact that I had three displayed, when 1400 were submitted and only a little over were actually displayed made me feel proud about my accomplishment. No awards were given, but I was happy just being displayed.

This year, as of now, I have narrowed my images down to sixteen so far. My selection process now begins by grading each image on its own merits and narrowing the selections down to three color prints and three black and while prints.

Here are the candidates remaining.

Color Category:
This is a macro of a cattail. A fun little image I shot last spring while I was playing with my macro tools. While this may not make it to the submission stage, there is something about this image that I like.










Another macro, taken the same day as the above. I have a deep affinity for the decay happening in the world. I return this spring to see if I could find my subject again. I was hoping that with a year of experimentation I could try reshooting this subject, but alas the fence was removed completely. At least nobody else can ever recreate this shot with this subject.






Last year one of photos that was accepted was from a shoot I did at a civial war reinactment put on by the Northwest Civil War Counsel. I am hoping that this photo, from a different reinactment will recreate some of that point scoring magic again this year and get accepted as well.








Again with my love of decay. This photograph was taken on a heavily overcast day in Minto-Brown park. Much like my other decay subject I recently discovered that my subject has been completely removed from the park, and hence removed from being recreated by someone else, possibly more talented. I love this blend of grays, reds and oranges. Something about has held my facination for a while.












A late summer experiment using a 500mm lense from a friend of mine. The various levels of golden tones really play well with each other, which is why I have selected to be in the semi-final round of selection.








At the world beat festival my wife were having dinner before the headlining bad was supposed to play. Four men walked up and asked if they could sit with us while they ate. We said yes. We started some small talk and learned that they were the lead and rhythm guitarist, drummer and trombone player for the headlining band. They granted front stage access to photograph the show. Sila and Afro-funk Experience was an amazing experience, both the music and access to photograph them. This is the lead singer, Sila.

This is image that was disqualified for the monochrome category because of the slight green in the lamp post and benches. I am definitely resubmitting this photo again this year in the color category. I have title this "My Personal Narnia". It is without a doubt one of the more popular photos in my portfolio and a personal favorite due to the story behind it. This was photographed on my mom's birthday, the morning following an ice storm that was part of a week long severe winter storm that laid waste to us for over a week. I almost died this day while shooting some photos at the State Capital. The top of a tree at the capital, which I was standing under, broke under the weight of the ice and missed hitting me by inches. Following that, I left the capital and headed for this park in which I came across this scene. While at this scale you cannot see the ice, everything is coated with a half inch of ice.




Spring in Central Oregon is a place of wonder and amazement. This is the Three Sister's Mountains; North (right), Middle and South Sister peaks, just outside of Bend, Oregon. In the foreground is a horse ranch.








Results from the visit to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. Tulips are the most photogenic flower in my opinion. There is not guarantee of this photo being submitted, the only thing more photographed than flowers are people's cats, but it is worth considering.














This is from my most recent trip to the tulip farm mentioned above. Instead of photographing flowers as the subject, I wanted something a little more abstract, so I focused on communicating the colors which is really what makes the farm a unique place to visit.








This too was at a local civial war reinactment. To get this shot I had to get clearence from the event's safety coordinator and even then they were hesitent until I allowed them to substitute a real gun with a non-functioning replica. Well the shot still worked, as you can tell.







I am torn between these two. But alas, will need to iliminate at least one, possible both. I will just have to see how these fit into my grading system. If one makes it, that will be fine and if not, that will be fine as well.
















Monochrome Category
These two self portraits have generated a lot of controversy for me. My wife doesn't like them, my coworkers are a little afraid of them but my brain loves them, so why don't I let a neutral third party be the final judge of their worthiness. I shot this one as part of a movie character series. This was my attempt to recreate the King Leonidas character in 300. But instead of screaming "This is Sparta", I dropped an F-Bomb.











This is my best impression of Hannible Lecter from Silence of the Lamb. In my mind I was saying to myself, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." This was a fun shoot.















In my processing of this image and the timing of the year, I called this "Goodbye to Summer". It seemed fitting. Funny how all of Black and White shots seem to have people in them. Is this a theme?









So that is my sixteen. I think the three black and white are a shoe-in, since there is little to no competition from my collection for them. Now what I will do is grade each of the images and post the results of my grading on here to see if anyone else agrees or disagrees with the voting.

Thanks for reading... Until next time, enjoy.