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cyclone
21st of November 2005 (Mon), 17:12
Challenge #42 - Technology - RESULTS

Good job everyone! There were a lot of interesting entries, and choosing the winners was not easy. My comments in order of posting:

rpolitsr – Inside a Chip
This is the first of three PC board macros. The macro looks nice and sharp, but there is some distortion at the top corners of the chip, so I assume that you used an auxiliary lens of some sort on top of the zoom. I don’t like the picture at the bottom corner giving us a wider angle view of the main picture; I’d rather try to guess what we are looking at. Also, the chip is centered square in the middle of the picture. It would be a more energetic picture if you placed it off center somehow, possibly just making a picture of one corner of the chip.

RAW – Everywhere I go…
I love the composition of this picture! This fits every criteria I set out in this challenge. It shows the MP3 player as sort of a monolith with a larger monolith of CDs behind. It shows the technology and how it affects your life. I like how you have used selective focus to blur the CDs and keep our attention on the player. My one criticism is that the angle of the picture prevents you from getting the entire player in sharp focus. Also, the eye focuses initially on the player but is drawn up and out by the lines within the picture. This would make a great advertisement though, where the lines could lead right to a slogan printed at the top.

marie – the advertising lights of piccadilly
I’ve been to London once, and Piccadilly was certainly a highlight. You’ve captured the essence of the neon lights very well, and I like that you’ve chosen to only include part of the whole, although I don’t like how the bottom advertisements are cropped through the middle. A really neat picture would have been someone talking on a cell phone in the foreground with a cell phone advertisement displayed in the background. Such opportunities don’t usually present themselves during our limited visits…

txfirebug – DOW Refinery
This picture has so much potential. You get bonus points for traveling to what looks like the middle of nowhere to get this photo. My main comment is that you need something larger in the foreground as an anchor. If the refinery is particularly environmentally friendly, maybe put an animal(s) in the foreground (some slow moving armadillo?) to show harmony between nature and industry. If you want to show how industry is negatively affecting nature, maybe find some garbage for the foreground or wait until the plant is releasing steam into the sky (this would look good in black and white). As photographers, we sometimes have to keep going back to a place to get just the right lighting or scene.

andrewaaa5 – nokia tire…
I like the color saturation and the background blur that isolates the tire. You’ve also just focused on one part of the tire to really bring our attention to the interesting part. I like this photo a lot.

Boutty – A close look at technology
This is the second PC board macro. I like the dynamic lines of this photo – there is nothing stagnant going on here! My main comment is that by choosing to include the word technology in the picture, you may have neglected even more interesting parts of the PC board.

teekay – Technology: tomorrow’s environment
Interesting take on the subject: an old train, at one point the pinnacle of technology, now lies rusting amongst the weeds. However, the train itself doesn’t elicit a lot of interest by itself. I think a more interesting picture may be to try and isolate one part of the train that has geometric interest.

alan_potter – Falkirk Wheel
This makes an interesting subject. By going wide angle and stitching, you have made a good postcard scene of the device. I think a more interesting theme would be to move closer to isolate the wheel arm and one boat.

averagjoe – Buggy
The last of the PC board macros, and a clever play on words. The picture itself doesn’t hold my interest much – the bug doesn’t have much color or energy.

BottomBracket – Technology Over Tradition
I have no idea where you found this – I guess something like this would only exist in NYC. I really like the juxtaposition of these two radically different elements. It’s as if there is a modern alter of cars built over the ancient African alter. Just bizarre.

Don Ellis – It’s all nuts-and-bolts
Technically brilliant. The gleam of the chrome, paint, and leather. Going close to evoke interest, but just far enough away to recognize the subject. Don really pushes the G series to the limit in terms of detail and buttery smooth color. Really, really nice.


NOW FOR THE WINNERS…
This was a tough decision. Two stood out for me, one in terms of subject matter, the other in terms of technical mastery.

FIRST – Don Ellis – It’s all nuts-and-bolts.
Just a beautiful picture of a classic finely engineered automobile.

SECOND – RAW – Everywhere I go…
Great subject and composition.

THIRD – BottomBracket – Technology Over Tradition
A most bizarre combination of old and new.

Don, you’re up again. I won’t remind you to use your own rules sticky.;)



Challenge #42 - Technology

Lasers, computers, cars, industrial plants….technology and progress are all around us. I would like to see your interpretation of technology and/or how this affects our lives. I am going to leave this wide open – from a ‘wow that’s cool’ subject to a statement about the effects on the environment. But whatever path you choose, I am going to look at both the subject/message/story of the image as well as the photographic techniques involved. Considering that our forum is the result of this ever expanding technology, I look forward to see what everyone comes up with. But most importantly, have fun!

________________________________

To submit, click "Post Reply" and put your Photo Name in the Subject Line. Don't forget your Camera Model.

Post until Monday noon GMT, 28November2005.


Photo Submissions

1. Camera -- Canon G-Series Camera (G1,G2,G3,G5,G6) or Pro 1 only.

2. Time -- any on-topic photo taken at any time is eligible, although photos that have won other competitions should NOT be entered.

3. Size -- photo must be EXACTLY 640 pixels on the longest side, with NO BORDERS. Odd-sized photos ineligible.

4. Post-Processing -- do whatever you like and the host will decide if it works.

5. Posting --
* ONE PHOTO per photographer in each challenge.
* Photo Name in the message subject line.
* Camera model.

6. Notes -- Name and camera are are you need, but you're welcome to add a story, location, photo tips, brief EXIF data.

7. Commenting -- No commenting during challenge. When the posting is closed, comments can be made in this thread.

Time

One challenge every week, on the following schedule:

New Topic ... As soon as possible after winning.
Posting Starts ... Right after topic is announced.
Posting Stops ... Monday noon GMT
Winners Announcement ... Tuesday noon GMT.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please consider turning on Private Messaging in your profile.
This will allow the host to contact you about winning or ineligible photos. You turn this feature on by clicking "User CP, Edit Options, Enable Private Messaging" (about a third of the way down the page). Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click this sentence for Hosting Rules and Winners List. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=926762#post926762)

Click this sentence for Discussion of Rules thread. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59640)

rpolitsr
25th of November 2005 (Fri), 12:31
Inside a Chip

Powershot Pro1

http://sites.google.com/site/rpolitsr/rpolitsr/varios/onthenet/inside-a-chip_5105_c.jpg

RAW
25th of November 2005 (Fri), 18:39
200 Cds with me....my music collection in a box...


Powershot G6...

marie
26th of November 2005 (Sat), 17:43
London , Piccadilly Circus

pro1
1/125
f3


at night the lights bearing advertisements high above our heads in Piccadiily Circus are a sight to behold.
I stand and gape at them even though I have seen them over and over

when I was very young my father used bring me into the city (Dublin) to show me how the moving electric lights were operated from behind the scenes where he worked
I marvelled at it all
why I think I love the Piccadilly lights so much

the advertisements of the moment are moving all the time, so photographing them and getting a steady picture which can be understood on 'film' (flash card with a digital camera in this case) is not extra easy.

today with all this advanced technology I think it is electronic art
and we all benefit from its many wonders

some information about the Piccadilly lights
>>

http://www.piccadillylights.com/history_past.asp

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100543/102575/piccadillylights8009.jpg

txfirebug
26th of November 2005 (Sat), 17:44
DOW petroeum processing plant in the distance.
G3
F 8/0
7.2mm Focal Length
Shutter 1/318
ISO 50
AV Mode

andrewaaa5
26th of November 2005 (Sat), 18:27
Nokia Tire, Helsinki, Finland:

http://www.butterpeanut.com/4/imagepages/image7.html

G3, no EXIF info. sorry :) and cross processed...

ok, so it is a tire made by nokia on a push bike ,but still i think it is technology in subject. nokia starting in wood pulp and paper production, and developed into different areas, such as electric cabling, and rubber production, making rubber boots (kontio), and, as you can see bike tires. but nokia is mostly known for it's very nice mobile phones. the tire is still technology in my eyes :) and this company has proved very strong in diverging into different markets...

Boutty
27th of November 2005 (Sun), 04:28
G6 - 1/125, f 3.2, ISO auto

teekay
27th of November 2005 (Sun), 10:15
http://community.netidea.com/teekay/temp/RustingLoco.jpg

G1

alan_potter
27th of November 2005 (Sun), 15:36
Here's my attempt - the Falkirk Wheel. This is where two canals meet, and this wheel turns round to lift boats up and down from one canal to the other.

Made up of three images, stitched together using Autostitch. Canon Powershot pro1.

http://www.thepotters.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/temp/falkirk-wheel-pano-640.jpg

regards,
/alan

averagjoe
27th of November 2005 (Sun), 19:36
Buggy.

I titled it that because we all know how full of bugs hi-tech is.

www.averagjoe.com/buggy (http://www.averagjoe.com/buggy)

BottomBracket
27th of November 2005 (Sun), 22:15
High Tech car lift towers over traditional African sculptures.

G6

http://piofort.zoto.com/img/452x640x1/7a4d9c122cc387d717e037d22cc33ebd-.jpg

Don Ellis
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 00:34
http://kleptography.com/images-carparts/mg_mirror/crw_8546.jpg

G2

cyclone
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 08:55
This challenge is now closed. Results later today.

cyclone
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 15:51
The winners have been selected. Please see the top of the post.

rpolitsr
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 16:54
Congratulations Don Ellis, RAW and BottomBracket for your clever subjects and nice shots.

Thanks cyclone for an interesting topic and good judgement.

Don I think your picture is a master piece.

Close to the winners, I enjoyed the humor in Boutty’s almost complete and sharp and well exposed overview of technology, and the beautiful panoramic of alan_potter showing us a modern mechanical marvel that could have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci many years ago.

Thank you teekay for another beautiful shot of a rusty steam monster.

Don Ellis
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 20:49
Thanks very much, Cyclone, for the honour and the insightful comments on everyone's photos. You did a great job. Congratulations to RAW and BottomBracket, as well as everyone who took the time and trouble to enter. I'm glad to see these challenges continuing.

Alan... I'm afraid panoramas suffer from the 640-pixel rule, but I would love to see a larger version of your shot. If you don't mind, please post it here. It's a very interesting piece of technology.

I've posted the new challenge and look forward to seeing some interesting shots.

Cheers,

Don

Boutty
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 20:52
Congratulations Don, RAW and BottomBracket for your well deserved winning pics. Your pics just pop! Thanks cyclone for an interesting challenge. Well done everyone! I enjoyed seeing and learning from your pics.

Thanks cyclone and rpolitsr for your kind comments on my pic. Sorry rpolitsr that I entered another PC board. May I ask what macro device you used for the EPROM/CPU shot? Perfect DOF it has! Mine was an reversed old 40mm lense tapped to my G6's adapter. Seemed to do the job but terribly narrow DOF.:p :p

RAW
28th of November 2005 (Mon), 23:44
Congratulations Don Ellis, a deserved first place, and BB, a very interesting subject. This was a tough challenge, but everyone did an exelent job with their photos.

Cyclone, Thank you for runing the things and for your great comments on every entry.


Regards all and see you next challenge, I see already posted...:cool:


Cheers,

marie
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 00:38
Congratulations to the winners

# 1 Don

# 2 Raw

# 3 BottomBracket

and many thanks to Cyclone for the comments and hard work of judging all the pictures

quote

"I like that you’ve chosen to only include part of the whole,
although I don’t like how the bottom advertisements are cropped through the middle"

unquote

thanks Cyclone
just to say I left the picture uncropped to show the bits of the advertisements all over
as I could not possibly take in ( in a photograph) all which was seen at the time , so I left those portions for that reason ,
to show there was more and more
but I understand fully what you say


I loved all the entries
really interesting

Congratulations to everyone who took part

some great shots, especially the winning one
and two and three etc :)

rpolitsr
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 01:39
Thanks cyclone and rpolitsr for your kind comments on my pic. Sorry rpolitsr that I entered another PC board. May I ask what macro device you used for the EPROM/CPU shot? Perfect DOF it has! Mine was an reversed old 40mm lense tapped to my G6's adapter. Seemed to do the job but terribly narrow DOF

Never mind about the PC board, remember that I posted a kitchen sink after RAW’s sink in ‘Liquid in Motion’ and I thought it was fine because there were different concepts. This time, the tree pictures of PC boards expressed different concepts as well.

For the PC board shot, I used the Pro1 SuperMacro mode without accessories.

For the EPROM clear window shot, I used also a reversed 50mm lens (borrowed from my old Canon A1), but it was attached using a home made extension tube (http://sites.google.com/site/rpolitsr/rpolitsr/varios/onthenet/macro/extensiontube5145_web.jpg) mounted in the same way as the Canon Conversion Lens Adapter LA-DC58C. The tube has a Vivitar 52 to 55 mm filter adapter glued on the other end to receive the lens. :idea: :)

By the way, the distortion mentioned by cyclone was caused by the clear plastic window in the chip, not by the reversed lens.

For a better DOF, I used the Pro1 in SuperMacro mode with the reversed lens attached.
When I use the reversed lens and the camera at full zoom, there are les vigneting and better magnification, but the depth of field is less than 3mm (1/8 inch).

For an even better DOF in macro mode, search threads about stacked focus elsewhere in this forum. LordV is an expert on stacked pictures.

The first home made extension tube for the Pro1 that I saw was made by kallousa (Ahmad Kallousa). Visit his thread HA HA ... Pro1 + Reversed Lens in the MACRO forum, it is very interesting.
Check also page #4 for some descriptions and pictures of the reversed lens mounted in the camera.

alan_potter
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 05:23
Alan... I'm afraid panoramas suffer from the 640-pixel rule, but I would love to see a larger version of your shot. If you don't mind, please post it here. It's a very interesting piece of technology.


Thank you for the kind comments, Don. A larger version of this pano can be found at this link:

http://www.thepotters.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/temp/falkirk-wheel-pano.jpg

There are two canals. One comes in from the top right of the picture on the rather spindly-looking elevated section you can see. The other runs almost perpendicular to it, and it is accessed via a lock that you can just see at the extreme left-hand side of the "lake" that makes up the bulk of the photo.

A boat arrives at the wheel, and in doing so displaces its own weight in water. The doors are sealed, and the wheel turns through 180 degrees, lifting any boat from the bottom up to the top, or the top down to the bottom.

The wheel is so well balanced that it is turned using just 8 x 1kW motors...

Pretty impressive, all told.

There's more at http://www.falkirk-wheel.co.uk/

Thanks again, and congratulations!

regards,
/alan

Boutty
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 05:47
... For the EPROM clear window shot, I used also a reversed 50mm lens (borrowed from my old Canon A1), but it was attached using a home made extension tube (http://www.geocities.com/rpolitsr/varios/onthenet/macro/extensiontube5145_web.jpg) mounted in the same way as the Canon Conversion Lens Adapter LA-DC58C. The tube has a Vivitar 52 to 55 mm filter adapter glued on the other end to receive the lens. :idea: :)

By the way, the distortion mentioned by cyclone was caused by the clear plastic window in the chip, not by the reversed lens.

For a better DOF, I used the Pro1 in SuperMacro mode with the reversed lens attached.
When I use the reversed lens and the camera at full zoom, there are les vigneting and better magnification, but the depth of field is less than 3mm (1/8 inch).

For an even better DOF in macro mode, search threads about stacked focus elsewhere in this forum. LordV is an expert on stacked pictures.

The first home made extension tube for the Pro1 that I saw was made by kallousa (Ahmad Kallousa). Visit his thread HA HA ... Pro1 + Reversed Lens in the MACRO forum, it is very interesting.
Check also page #4 for some descriptions and pictures of the reversed lens mounted in the camera.
This is grouse! Thank you rpolitsr sir so much for the detailed tips and hints. Yes, I still have an old old Canon AE-1 (Black body;);)) but misplaced my 50mm lense somewhere. Had to borrow my wife's old Konica 40mm lense for the shot I wanted. The DOF I felt a bit like the width of a hair. I had to pat myself for getting this shot hand-helded.:p:p Salute sir!

txfirebug
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 06:44
Congrats to the winners. Once again there were a lot of great entries.

Don Ellis
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 08:39
Thank you for the kind comments, Don. A larger version of this pano can be found at this link:

http://www.thepotters.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/temp/falkirk-wheel-pano.jpg

/alan

Alan... thanks so much for showing us the big picture and offering the explanation. Very interesting... and you've done one of the great photos of it. Beautifully framed... even got the picnic table bench in there. :)

Thanks a lot...

Don

Don Ellis
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 08:41
Don I think your picture is a master piece.

Modesty says I should try to talk you out of that opinion, but manners dictate that I should simply say, "Thank you."

Cheers,

Don

BottomBracket
29th of November 2005 (Tue), 12:53
Congratulations to co-winners Don and Artan (RAW). Don's picture is an excellent choice, the color and composition is simply sublime and outstanding. It looks like it was taken with a medium format camera! RAW's picture is splendid as well - excellent composition, one can tell a great deal of thought went into this. Thanks cyclone for a well run challenge, and for the individual comments. As always, I have enjoyed seeing the various interpretations of the theme, and there were a lot of great pics as well, that could have easily been in the top three. I am intrigued as well by Alan's shot - very pretty, and that Falkirk Wheel is a work of art as well as ingenuity. Great capture, and welcome to the challenge (as well as the forum).

My shot is just a grab shot - people familiar with my photos must know by now that the bulk are of the street photography genre. I may have a distinct advantage here, living in NYC, which has a high photo opportunity per square area ratio - all I have to do is walk around and click the shutter.

Great challenge, all! Looking forward to the next one.