Meeting Minutes for 18-March-2010
We had thirty-six entries in the “Dreamscape” themed photographic competition this month! Coming in first place was Daniel Korzeniewski with his photograph entitled “Caribbean Beach”. Daniel created his image at Cable Beach in Nassau, Bahamas a few months ago using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) process. Daniel used five photos that he slightly over exposed and then merged them together using Photomatix, and then finalizing the photo using Lightroom and Photoshop. Daniel says he does not like his HDR images to have the overdone look or look extremely HDR, so he’s developed a technique that he uses to make them look as real as possible, and still bring out all the detail.
Coming in second place was James McCallum with his photograph entitled “New Dawn”. James made his photograph at the Coral Cove Park in Jupiter, Florida during sunrise. He used a Graduated Neutral Density filter attached to his lenses to keep the sky from blowing out with the darker part of the filter on the sunrise. James says he went there on several occasions trying to time to low tide as much as he could. He used Canon 1Ds Mark II on a tripod and a 16-35mm lenses set on 20mm.
Coming in third place was Bob Mulligan with his photograph entitled “Neverglades” Bob says the “Neverglades” idea came about in order to fit within the theme of the print competition, “Dreamscapes”. The boardwalk, which is in the Shark Valley area of the Everglades, had a nice diminishing perspective and great wood texture, the photo was exposed in order to practice with his HDR software. Bob then squished the boardwalk in Photoshop’s Liquid filter, he then saw he could have some fun. Birds and gators were standing by in his photo files, so he dragged them out and gave most of them a liquid twist. Only the great white heron was different, his bill got the zig zag filter. “My dreamscape was to be a nightmare! A cartoonish nightmare” Says Bob.
Daniel is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of April. Daniel, James and Bob have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year” Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, April 9th, 2010 to see Daniel’s print is all its glory.