The Making of "Neon Green"

Winner of the November, 2016 "Dominant Color" photo contest

By LondonWombat in Photo Contests on Jan 22, 2017

When I got the phone call to join a friend to visit a local reptile exhibit I did not hesitate to say "Yes". I took two lenses, the DA 35mm Limited and my DA 55-300mm. I took many great shots that day from behind the safety of thick glass. To cut down glare and reflections on the glass I used the lens hood and put the camera right up against the glass. This also helped to stabilize the camera.

I was lucky with this shot. The lighting was well balanced and illuminated the interior display very well.

Pentax K-r, 1/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 3200, DA 55-300mm @ 150mm. Processed in Lightroom

"Dominant Color" Photo Contest Winners

Announcing the winners of our November, 2016 contest

By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Dec 25, 2016

"Neon Green" by LondonWombat

Our November, 2016 "Dominant Color" photo contest has ended and we're happy to announce and congratulate these winners:

In first place was forum member LondonWombat from Canada who captured "Neon Green" (pictured above). This photo was shot with a Pentax K-r.

Our runners-up were forum member bodson from Canada in second place with "Red Blanket" and Hattifnatt from Romania in third place with "Rose". Click on either thumbnail for a larger version.

"Red Blanket" by bodson	"Rose" by Hattifnatt

We'd like to congratulate the winners and also thank everyone who participated or voted! Also, be sure not to miss our December photo contest, "Portrait of a Stranger". Read all about it in the monthly contest forum.

The Making of "Jacobite Train (Hogwarts Express)"

Winner of our October, 2016 "Landscape in Monochrome" photo contest

By bulloughphotography in Photo Contests on Dec 4, 2016

"Jacobite Train (Hogwarts Express) - Scotland"

Thanks to everyone who chose this image. I appreciate it. As the description of the image says, I was hanging out the window of the Jacobite Train, in Scotland, to capture the refection and scene as the train passed over one of the historic viaducts. My family and I live in Park City, Utah, USA. This train ride was part of an adventure to the UK, where my son was able to play soccer with QPR. The entire trip was great, and the countryside was really lovely.

The image was created using a Pentax K-5, and was taken RAW, in color:

The original image (click to enlarge and compare with the processed image)

Settings were ISO 1600, f4.5, 17mm, 1/1250 seconds using a Sigma 17-70 lens. I did crop the image to approximately 24mm. In Lightroom, I dropped the highlights and brought up the shadows, and I also increased contrast. As you can see, I removed a distracting line in the train window, prior to converting to B&W. Conversion was made using Silver Efex Pro 2. After conversion, I added just a bit of contrast, but that was it.

Again, thank you for your support of this image. I have learned a lot in this forum and, I'm sure, will continue to do so.

- Rich (bulloughphotography)

"Landscape in Monochrome" Photo Contest Winners

Announcing the winners of our October, 2016 contest

By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Nov 30, 2016

"Jacobite Train (Hogwarts Express)" by bulloughphotography

Voting has ended for our October, 2016 "Landscape in Monochrome" photo contest, which turned out to be quite popular with close to 200 submissions of extraordinary quality and appeal. The result of the voting is as follows:

In first place was forum member bulloughphotography from USA who captured "Jacobite Train (Hogwarts Express)" (pictured above). This photo was shot with a Pentax K-5 and an Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro lens.

Our runners-up were forum member NeilS from Australia in second place with "Wanaka Tree" and kwaller from USA in third place with "North Face of Denali". Click on either thumbnail for a larger version.

"Wanaka Tree" by NeilS	"North Face of Denali" by kwaller

We'd like to congratulate the winners and also thank everyone who participated or voted! Also, be sure not to miss our current photo contest. Read all about it in the monthly contest forum.

The Making of "Stone Chairs"

How the winning image of our September, 2017 "Repeating Patterns" photo contest was made

By mymage in Photo Contests on Oct 27, 2016

Hi to all Pentaxians and a special thanks to those of you who voted for my photo. I was nicely surprised to find that the photo I proposed got all this attention since it is a bit "flat"!

"Stone Chairs"

Anyway, a long long time ago, just after the battle of Dantooine, there was a time in which I took photos especially during the week ends, walking around the city searching for something interesting. My camera was a Pentax K-7 with an smc Pentax-FA 80-320mm F4.5-5.6 lens. I arrived around 10:30 AM at a place prepared for a night projection of a film, it was summer and a sunny day. The black seats were just positioned so they were nicely lined up and cleaned: