Canon Photo5 Competition

Oh thank goodness they are finally over! NO MORE PHOTO COMPETITIONS!

This Competition held by Canon Australia is limited to 2500 entrants (No professionals allowed) with a final 50 images (10 per category) being short listed by judges, and voted on by anyone who can be bothered to register! SO REGISTER AND VOTE FOR ME!

The premise was simple "take 5 objects we provide for you and do something creative with each one individually!"

The five objects being

1. Cardboard boxes
2. Balloons
3. Cellophane
4. Dots
5. Chalk

Here are my submitted images. We were allowed an artist's comment on how we came up with the image concept. Will post voting links if I even get short listed!


"Bluey"zilla

Comment - Pondering boxes on my way through the garden, I spotted this blue tongue wending it's way across the paves when I instantly thought "MONSTER LIZARD!" I wanted to see if I could use the boxes to belie the scale in the photo, to make this lizard seem larger than it was. I didn't really want to bother the poor guy so I didn't have time to draw windows, I just hoped perspective, creative lighting and DOF would make him seem larger than life. Then again, it could just look like a lizard in some boxes No Lizards were harmed in the making of this picture.


"Flight of the "Val"kyries"

Comment - Balloons took some effort to think of, but I remembered seeing some balloon powered toy helicopters. Which instantly brought on less ominous visions of Francis Coppolla "Apocalypse Now", complete with Wagner's "flight of the valkyries". Coincidentally, the gorgeous lady in the foreground is called Val Hardest part was controlling these things, of which you had no control.


"Banks of the River Styx"

Comment - This object was the hardest. I wanted to use the cellophane as a light modifier but also as the central object. So i decided on a candle as my light source but soon found the background too dark to distinguish what sort of origami I had made. so I decided to float the boat in a red container and use the flashes light the water red... Blood red which I've always imagined to be oil black or blood red.


"Long day at the office"

Comment - I thought office supplies and what I would do if I was couped up in a high rise office building, luckily I knew a friend who was and it had a great view! It was going to be called "Friday Afternoon" and we waited almost two weeks for a nice sunset over the city, but with time running out we had to go with the weather we had. Was hard work trying to get the dots properly exposed and minimising reflections, and using the hyperfocal length of a lens is so much harder without the appropriate markings! Cloudy day gave a much more interesting sky in the end. Technically the hardest to setup.


"Chalk Camera"

Comment - Geez, what can I say... cheesy? My Chalky Camera has served me well for this photo competition. This final image is a testament to the amazing photographic tool that a chalk camera can be. Pretty straight forward method, little manipulation in software and PRESTO! Chalk Camera taking a photo of Chalk... I wonder what the resolution is... at least it doesn't seem to be monochromatic!

BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED OUT ESPECIALLY CLAIRE, SAM, KATRINA and THERESE for allowing me to sound out my ideas and providing creative feed. Thanks to Val, Matt B, Mothei, Todd V and especially "Bluey" our backyard blue tongue lizard got disturbed twice in one week, Bluey, if you are reading this, stop hiding at my front door!