Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m very excited to announce that I just got the First Place in the Print Pictorial category for the month of April at the Palo Alto Camera Club.
I was not expecting to win anything with this shot, but Lois Shouse, who judged on Wednesday, April 4th, liked that image very much. Interestingly she also disliked very much another image I submitted, but I will not talk about it here 
)
The photo was taken last August 2006 in Squaw Valley, near Lake Tahoe, in California. Squaw Valley which hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1960 is a great place to hike in summer and to ski in winter. So, this photo was taken during a hike with the family. Here are some shots taken during the same trip:
And, here is the winning shot, before editing, straight from the camera:
Nikon D50 • Nikkor 70-210 • 70 mm • 1/45s • f/9.5 • ev -1.0
8.14.2007 10:07AM
Although the composition looked OK to me, I wanted to brighten up a bit the rocks in the background. I didn’t like the darkness of it, I wanted a more welcoming feeling. I also thought that the light reflections on the rock in the foreground as well as the reflection on the top left rock were too distracting and moving the attention away from the flow of the water. Finally, the plant in the center with the orange flowers could be a bit more saturated, along with the colored rocks.
Here is the PhotoShop palette with the respective edits and masks:
And for those who asked more details of the edit, here is a screenshot of the respective effects:
And here is the final, winning, image!
I took some notes from the judge’s feedback. Here is what Lois liked:
- The range of water from frozen to motion (this is due to the shutter speed set to 1/45s)
- The see-through effect of water over the plant in the background, and the fact that the plant is half exposed
- The presence of the branch in the left foreground
- The overall location of the waterfall in the composition from top left to bottom right
- The overall feeling, “a picture I would like to hang in my house and keep looking at”
Judge and teacher Lois Shouse enjoys evaluating photos and to learn from the process. Lois says that composition will always be a strong priority in selecting winning images. Positive feedback is important to give competitors–but constructive criticism is needed in order to help us continue to grow in photographic skills (from judge introduction).
Thank you Lois for your feedback, awarding this image the first place in Pictorial means a lot to me. Thanks for spending the time with us to critic our submissions!
Update: 4.19.07. I Submitted the photo to the MPPA (Mid-Peninsula Photographic Alliance) competition on 4.17.07, and received an honorable mention )