The Completely True Adventures & Lamentations of OctoGal & OctoPup in Highlands

And the results are in…

A double challenge month that it was…

First the Workspace challenge…it is under the webgallery under…wait, for it…”work”

And then we have “SCARY” Pictures, also in our gallery…I must say we have wide ranging expressions of what makes the hairs raise on our arms; from the more traditional gravesides to others that are deeply personal.

We as a group have a deep thread of arachnophobia and two of you have mycophobia? What is up with that?

With November’s Challenge being about Macro Food…I would like us all really focus on the technical aspects of light play within the images. Play with light and see what it does with your subject.

Good work, gang! I can’t wait to hear the discussions.

shrewspeaks

October 28, 2007

Shutter Challenge

19 responses to “And the results are in…”

karmardav

October 28, 2007 at 4:10 pm

While I’ve enjoyed looking at everyone’s shots, and actually having to do a little thinking for myself, I think I miss seeing any explanation some shots could need. I’m thinking many of you may be wondering to yourself, why the heck is karmardav afraid of kids’ playthings? For anyone who may have been wondering that, I was trying to represent my fear of my girls growing up too fast. One is on the verge of teenager-hood and the other is a freshly minted “tween”. My empty backyard makes me fear the day they no longer need their mom.

jen – I think one of my favorites of yours is the ashtray – its very poignant, and I totally understand that fear for your DH; I have it for him too.

shrew – I had to look up “mycophobia”! Your graveyard shots are truly creepy!

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shrewspeaks

October 28, 2007 at 4:20 pm

karmardav – that’s a great idea and I hope everyone is okay with providing the context for their photos in the comment section.

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jenfera

October 28, 2007 at 10:03 pm

Karen – I thought you were afraid of the weeds growing out of the playsets, ha ha ha! I know I’m afraid of ragweed! But, yes, your explanation certainly gives it more meaning. Then again, I suppose maybe as photographers, we should be trying to express something without words.

A little explanation on my others – the big mess of scissors and such is my junk drawer. A very scary place! Also, I guess I sent shrew the wrong spider picture! I have another one that is much clearer. The paperwork shots represent my fear of the whole process of getting my stepkids through college. My husband relies on me to take care of the paperwork side of that – financial aid forms, helping the kids with applications, etc. We got one through it last year, and we are now working on number two. I am worried about how we are going to pay for two in college in next year! I am hoping the younger one gets lots of nice scholarships!

I am going to go look at everyone else’s pictures again, and await additional commentary here from everyone before I comment on them.

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Renae

October 29, 2007 at 12:27 am

What fun!
Karen, I was a little confused too. I thought you were scared of having those playsets in your backyard forever (I know, I know…I have to get my dad over to pick up that one set!). But your explanation all makes sense now. Scares me too how quickly your girls are growing up.

Man Jenfera, you have a lot to be scared of! And I think that junk draw would keep me up at night.

MM and brc…those are some scary ass spiders. Holy. Freaking. Moley. You are some brave gals to get those shots. Brc, love the light coming through on the web one.

Hut, are you afraid of all seafood or just those particular fish heads? Either way, nice shot.

My scary shot was taken at the local skydiving school right here in my own little town. They (a.k.a. The Crazy People) jump right up until Thanksgiving, weather permitting.
My workplace shot was just a typical work day for me. My VP of Operations was down for his nap, but my CFO (Chief Fowl Officer) made it to our lunch meeting.

I too, had to look up mycophobia! Karen, don’t you have that?! ;oP
I took a few graveyard shots too. I should have submitted those as well.

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KD

October 29, 2007 at 12:53 am

This is so much fun!!
Okay, Karmadav, the playsets…I thought you were afraid of all the injuries caused by those things! (Having a daughter who just got her cast off her broken wrist after falling off a plastic Little Tykes slide, I could relate to that fear!) Your explanation makes it so much more poignant. Mine are growing up too fast too…I want to slow time down somehow.
My graveyard shot could use a little explaining too. I too have the run of the mill fear of spiders, bees, and other creepy crawlies. But, my biggest fear, the one that runs soul deep, is the fear of dying young, before my children are independent. I could lose my rational self in the fear of what their lives could be without me there. Add to that the fear of my little ones going before me….Lordy! I really should be in therapy! *SIGH*
SOOOO…..I went to the cemetery to attempt to capture a shot that symbolized death…and ran across this gravestone. Truly, it took me by surprise, because it was so appropriate. You know though….being forced to think about my greatest fear—one that I don’t allow myself to think about at all if I can help it—was actually therapeutic (sp?) in a way. I left that cemetery feeling a sense of peace, that I can’t really explain.
Was quite surprised to see that Shrew’s photos were of the same subject. I find the contrast between them and the ones I took fascinating. Shrew, your’s were so creepy! That one in particular, very spooky. Whereas mine, taken during the day with bright sunshine and the fall colors….I don’t get the creepy feeling I got from yours.
Will look at them all more carefully tomorrow. For now, I must run. Can’t wait to hear more backgrounds!

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brc

October 29, 2007 at 2:59 am

Okay I need to study everyone’s pictures before I comment. It seems you were all more profound and thoughtful than I was.

In the meantime here’s the background on mine. Lest you think I’m just a Shutter Challenge photo hog, Shrew had mentioned to me a couple of times that sometimes pictures tell a better story in a series, so I took a series of shots that I called The Creepy Yet Strangely Beautiful Underbelly of My Decaying Garden. This included the shots in the Gallery as well as a couple more of my dying tomato plants. While I thought they were creepy-looking when taking the shots, I found that some of them were actually quite beautiful (in a creepy sort of way).

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shrewspeaks

October 29, 2007 at 3:20 am

I am feeling guilty reading all the context you all have behind your photos. I am not sure how best to do this moving forward. I want all the context to be captured, however, I was up to 2AM compiling all the photos saving them out from email converting to uniform sizes etc. Any suggestions how we can improve this?

My grave yard photos…well I woke up at dawn and scurried down to our local Revolutionary graveyard and waited for light to dawn. I was also playing with an in camera effect of shooting with a slow shutter speed and zooming my lens at the same time. I guess I didn’t take my challenge so personally…if I had I would have just resubmitted my cubical as something that terrifies me.

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brc

October 29, 2007 at 11:52 am

Shrew you shouldn’t have to do so much work to prepare our photos. That takes away from your learning time with Kelby. Is there any way you can give us uploading instructions so that you don’t have to play with our shots? I, personally, don’t mind giving and reading the context in the comments section here. OR we could each send a brief context and you could cut and paste the contexts into the main post.

The first time I uploaded to the Web Gallery you sent me a Gallery link and I just uploaded. Can we do it this way so that each of us uploads our own straight to the Gallery? That way you don’t have to mess with them at all.

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ivoryhut

October 29, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Shrew, I was just about to ask you if you zoomed in on that cemetery shot while taking the picture. Kinda creepy effect! But cemeteries generally make me feel sad and not scared. I feel bad thinking about the ones these people left behind who mush have felt such deep grief over the loss.

Renae, imagining myself being so high up there in the sky was making my knees weak!

Jen, I agree with KD. I think that shot of the ashtray is my favorite of your shots. Very sobering.

Brc, your shots look like a lovely English garden compared to what I have outside. Except for that spider one. Why don’t I have cool-looking spiders like that in my garden?? Why??? I would sooo crop that one and force the viewer to really look at it up close. 🙂 Hmm … maybe this is why I seem to keep losing friends …

MM, your spider is way cool too. How big was it? Oh, and I have visions of mushrooms everywhere wailing, “Where’s the love? Where’s the loooove??” (Shrew, for the first time in 17 years, I’ve finally gotten some pratical use for the semester I spent in a mycology class. Sure, it was only so that I’d know what mycophobia meant, but still! I can now say that semester’s tuition wasn’t a complete waste.)

KD, love the colors, the lighting, and the impact of the name of the tombstone. Love how you framed it too, off to the side, view of all those other tombstones in the background … and I thought that showing evidence of autumn brings it home. Having grown up in a country with only two seasons (wet and dry), autumn always fascinated me because I always was amazed at how dying leaves can look so beautiful.

Great work, everyone!

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ivoryhut

October 29, 2007 at 12:13 pm

Oh, yeah, I forgot to explain mine. Here’s the thing: fish scare me. I love eating it, and I can even look at it in shows or in an aquarium. Hey, I’ll go fishing even. But I cannot for the life of me hold a live fish, and when dead, please don’t ever ask me to look at their heads and their eyes. It’ll scare me to tears. Seriously. I once had to scream for our neighbor to come help me finish cleaning some fish that I wanted to cook because I couldn’t take looking at their eyes anymore. It wasn’t pretty. I can’t even look at that photo for too long. I had to take that with my videocam with the 20x zoom from way across the living room. Yeah. I’ve got fish issues big time.

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KD

October 29, 2007 at 12:17 pm

I think the beauty of these challenges is that each of us interprets them in our own way! That’s what makes it so much fun! I do love the back stories though. I’m happy to read them in the comments section as well. But please, anyway that makes it easiest for you is the way we should do it. I’m flexible. I’ll do whatever you need me to. 😉

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jenfera

October 29, 2007 at 1:08 pm

I will admit that I am having a little ADD looking at the pictures this way. When there are lots of pictures in the gallery to look at, I lose track of them a little and forget what I might have wanted to say. Is it easier or harder to load the pictures right here to the blog? Also, would you like to give us size guidelines? Would that make it easier for you either way?

Ivory – I love the fish shot, and I totally hear what you are saying about fish. Fish creep me out too. I used to have an aquarium. I heard it was a soothing hobby. HA! There’s nothing soothing about scouting for dead fish every day. And then any time I had to stick my hand in there for anything, I was afraid of one of them brushing up against me. Ewwww. I never buy whole fish, and I sure as heck don’t want to be served a fish with a head in a restaurant. Gross.

MM – I refuse to think of your black cat as scary. He’s too darn cute.

KD – I like the irony in your graveyard shot. Young is apparently not so young any more. Oh, and I like your workspace! Very cozy.

Shrew, I was wondering about that effect in the graveyard, if you added it later or what. Very cool. Like a scary slasher flick.

brc, fungus can be very creepy. I didn’t get it at first, but then as I looked at the series, I saw it.

See, now I feel like I am forgetting something!

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shrewspeaks

October 29, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Alright…I have been thinking…we have a choice…
1.We can continue to use the webagllery and you have a chance for unlimited submissions or
2.I have to limit everything to one photo to be posted here.

(Please Please Mr. WordPress give me more room)

As for the context…I firmly believe we need post them in the comments. I drove myself crazy Saturday night, agonizing on how to include context or if I should even do it. I think for Guest Shutters I can post the context; but for Challenges it becomes a daunting task of organization, besides if we answer the challenge then the name of the photo could serve as the context.

What do you all think?

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shrewspeaks

October 29, 2007 at 3:52 pm

By the by…I LOVE the work shot of your CFO…this so could be a Life Mag shot

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ivoryhut

October 29, 2007 at 5:39 pm

Just a suggestion here, although I don’t know if it will mean more work for everyone or not.

Does anyone use Flickr? Because I’m thinking, we can form a Flickr group and set its privacy settings to either members only for both posting and viewing, or by invitation only, meaning anyone else can view and comment on the pictures, but only members can post.

If we do it that way, we each can just upload to the Flickr group account, and tag them appropriately with name of the shutter challenge and photographer’s name. Then we each can put in our own comments to our own photos, and when viewing we can even view the picture first, figure out what we get out of it, then read the comments later to see what the photographer intended.

I was just thinking that this way lets us all share the burden and lighten Shrew’s load. I think that this will also make it easier to accommodate a growth spurt in uploads and photographers in case our numbers start, well, growing. Shrew might even want to entertain the idea of opening up the monthly challenge to the Flickr public (there are some really, really, really good photographers there) someday. Ya never know. 🙂

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shrewspeaks

October 29, 2007 at 5:49 pm

I LOVE IT (Especially the phrase lighten Shrew’s workload…I always think of Maynard G. Krebs, the G stands for Walter when I think work.)

IvoryHut, I will email you my cell…could we set up a time to discuss and help me set this up? Flikr has been a sort of a mystery to me.

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jenfera

October 29, 2007 at 5:54 pm

I have a free flickr account, but I used it all up with the food photos for my blog. They have limitations on the free accounts on the total storage, as well as on amount you can upload per month.

Another choice would be Google’s Picasa, which I have been using probably since February of this year. You can also leave comments, as on Flickr, but there doesn’t seem to be the same limitations. I think there is a total limit, but it must be much, much bigger than Flickr’s.

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karmardav

October 29, 2007 at 9:24 pm

I also feel like jenfera – its hard for me to remember whose shots are whose having to go back and forth to the gallery. I will of course do whatever is easiest for our shrewbie-doo. The only thought I had was, would it be easier if you went back to presenting one photographer’s challenge entry in a day?

Renae – I think I did indeed have mycophobia when we were little. I hated to play anywhere near mushrooms and I remember when we used to go through that fungus book of your dad’s and scream at the pictures!!!

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brc

October 30, 2007 at 12:26 am

I finally had a chance to spend some time with everyone’s photos. I also figured out a way to open a Word document and put it side-by-side with the Gallery photos. Then I’m going to cut and paste my comments into the blog. Then I don’t have to go back and forth…

Shrew — the graveyard shots are great. I love the effects you added. They convey a real sense of eerie-ness.

Ivoryhut — Your moon shot is stunning. The clouds add just the right touch of mystique. And those fish eyes are creeping me out big time.

Jenfera — I love your creativity in interpreting the challenge theme. As a photograph I think I like the closer-in image of “Scary 2” better than “Scary 3,” although “Scary 3” conveys the quantity of the paperwork better. The junk drawer is fantastic! Now the ashtray and cigarettes… that’s scary.

Renae — the color of the parachute against the blue of the sky is beautiful. I really like the simplicity of this photo.

Karma — I can totally relate to the sentiment of your photo. I love that everyone approached the theme from a different angle.

MM — I’m totally creeped-out by the little patches of fuzz on your spider. Also, the black cat shot is very compelling.

KD — The tombstone photo is beautiful and sad. The play of the fall colors against the white of the tombstones. I like the double-entendre of the name on the stone playing into your fear (I assume this was intended).

Nice job everyone. BTW I’m all for the Flickr thing if it makes things easier for our Shrewbie.

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