Phriday Phun

THE CHALLENGE

THE RULES:

• Choose a beautiful location full of potential photo ops
• Spend the day 4 wheeling with at least 6 other people
• The other people cannot be photographers and are interested in riding, not taking pictures; and,  however polite, fun, and wonderful they are, they would probably be irritated with a photographer wanting to stop every few seconds to take a picture, or spend time viewing a scene from every angle, or waiting for the perfect light, etc. etc., so..........
• Take no longer than 5 seconds to compose and shoot each image
• Only take images when and where the group decides to stop
• Use only a point and shoot camera in auto setting
• Must be the first time using said camera
• No tripod
• No bracketing or combining multiple exposures
• Use only the LCD screen to compose your shots (if you have a viewfinder)
• Shoot in the middle of the day
• No filters, polarizers, etc.

THE OBJECTIVE:

• Come up with at least 1 semi-decent photo that you wouldn't be totally embarrassed to post on your blog!!  

MAKING THIS CHALLENGE EVEN REMOTELY POSSIBLE!!! After seeing the images I ended up with, I realized immediately that for me to have even a chance at coming up with a few reasonable images, I had to be able to do some editing, so I did do some post process work in Photoshop.  I learned very quickly the limitations of a point and shoot camera, and if this experience did anything for me, it was to remind me how much I LOVE my 5D Mark II.  I left it at home this time,  and I ALWAYS take my camera on trips.  I felt like my arm was cut off!!


Here we go.  First a SOOTC snap of our group.  (I noticed right away the noise in all my sky shots was intense.)

The next two are about the best I came up with.  I tried to reduce the noise, correct odd color casts and I added a little clarity.  This is Determination Towers, Moab:

I lucked out with this next image.  A huge storm front passed over turning everything dark, dramatic, moody, and rainy which certainly helped the composition and lighting.  This was shot at Dead Horse Point.

I actually had a second objective with this challenge as well.  I often have people ask me what kind of camera they should buy "so they can take good pictures".  I always give them my opinion depending on the money they want to spend and how serious they are about photography.  But I always end by saying, that an expensive camera will not make you a good photographer.  There is no short cut to learning how to create beautiful images.  You must learn and practice, learn and practice, repeat, repeat.  But, I really do think that great photographers can produce great images with any camera.  And, although they certainly are limited creatively,  they know how to work within the limitations of whatever camera they are using!