Thank you very much, Stu (smf) for selecting me to host this week’s challenge, and thank you also for your detailed reviews and coverage of each of last week’s photos. I definitely did not expect to win this challenge after looking at the other submissions.

We’re all likely familiar with Neale Donald Walsh’s quote “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” I don’t subscribe to this quote writ large to life; however, creative growth certainly increases when we escape our typical rut. To that end, this week’s theme is “Beyond Your Comfort Zone.” We all have them – subjects, compositional styles, motifs, places, and concepts that dominate our creative work and, in time, become hindrances to artistic growth. This week’s challenge: An image with a subject, framing, processing type, motif, concept, or other element which is atypical to your work. To help me with my evaluation, a sentence or two explaining how it’s different from your typical work would be great. Here are some samples for me:


Street Portrait


Simulated Duotone Alternative Process

This theme is wide open and leaves significant room for interpretation, so please interpret it as you see fit.

This challenge will run through Friday 13 December 2013 and close at midnight Pacific Time (Eastern Time -3, Central -2, Grand Meridian -8). Rules are:
1. Post one photo (max 1024 X 1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single photo in this thread. If it's not obvious, explain what motivated you to submit the photo and how you feel it represents the weekly theme.
4. The challenge is interactive. Any constructive response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the winner, who will then host and judge the next week's challenge.
6. The challenge closes after seven days. This allows a day for the judge to pick the winners.
7. Any Pentax (or Samsung) DSLR is acceptable.
8. Photos can be from any time frame, not just the week of the current challenge.
9. In case the winner of a challenge is unable to become the judge of the next week's challenge, the winner will PM the #2 winner and pass on the baton to that person to host and judge the next week's challenge
Read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/129-weekly-photo-challenges/243790-weekly...#ixzz2mipLZSF9

[tessfully]

My muse is nature/landscape and I use natural or ambient light for everything I shoot. But a challenge awhile back asked for Film Noir… and what a challenge it was. After much experimentation this is what I ended up with. Looking at it now I wish I had arranged the guitar and arm differently but I am still pleased with the results. I set up in a windowless basement, used reading lamps and black bristol board, a black bedspread thumb tacked to the wall behind the couch. A one-off so as soon as I read the theme for this week I knew what I was going to enter.

[atupdate]

I recently posted this in the "Your Pet A Day" thread but it fits this challenge like a glove. I normally shoot sharp images with lots of color. This mostly came about because when you have kids, most the places you visit to entertain them are colorful (or have barn anaimals).

This shot of our dog Moe was originally done for a weekly challenge at DPChallenge.com. The challenge was to shoot in the style of one of the members and trust me, we have totally different styles. When I saw the light reflecting off the wood floor, it reminded me of water at the beach. Since Moe is man's best friend, The Sea of Friendship seemed like a fitting title.



Tim.

[scratchpaddy]

Last week, a photographer friend of mine (who's far more experienced than I am) asked if I'd be willing to shoot some pictures of him and his girlfriend for this year's Christmas cards. It's a tradition of theirs. I've never done a portrait shoot before. Ever. But I said I'd do it. The standards for portraits are far more strict than the stuff I'm used to, and my subject knew all the rules. That meant he had lots of good advice, but it also meant he'd spot any flaw in the results. To make things worse, the park we were in was very crowded, and people kept wandering into the shot, oblivious.

I used the Helios 40 for a few. It's one of my hardest lenses to use, but I just love the results when you get it right. If you get it right. This one of my favorites from about an hour of shooting.



I was so relieved when he told me he was happy with the results.

[Bill2849]

As an all too occasional amateur photographer who has been using a DSLR for only about 3 years, I find myself either handicapped or advantaged (I'm not sure which) by a relative lack of a photographic comfort zone of any kind. In the summer of 2012 a librarian acquaintance of mine who knew of my interest in photography asked if I could furnish a few photos of the city at night to use to simulate interest in a photo contest that the library was sponsoring. I was interested in doing photos at night but had not done so aside from a few photos of streetlights in my neighborhood when I first got my K-x. I also was at the time a shy photographer who tended to take photos for personal use and to shoot photos either at home, in parks or public places and/or in a group. So I was pushing my envelope by shooting at night, shooting in public alone and shooting for public consumption...

[charliezap]

An intriguing theme for certain for this challenge.I'm more comfortable with bugs-flowers-scenics and just about anything where I don't have people posing for a shot. While vacationing in Florida these two gentlemen were playing at a local watering hole and asked me if would take their photo in hopes of getting a decent one to use on a CD cover for their next album.I emailed them this shot which they really liked and they did end up using it for a future promotion.I was out of my natural element and comfort zone but I got lucky this time.--charliezap

[jmschrei]

I have no trouble with playing up the processing of my photos when I feel like it but I am really very basic, I use Aperture and then one of the Nik plug-ins like Silver Efex or Color Efex. I have never been able to get my head into Photoshop or agonizing over an outcome. My preference is to shoot a lot, purge heavily and only process the few shots I think are keepers for some reason.
This is the only true HDR shot I have ever processed. I knew when I saw this monument against the grey sky that it was a perfect candidate so I took a few sets of shots to work with and hauled them through HDR Efex. I love the result but the massive Tiff file created will limit my use of this technique I suspect!

[TenZ.NL]

A very intriguing challenge indeed and some very nice entries.

My main focus is nature: landscapes, wildlife, birds, macro and sometimes some cityscapes and industial photography (usually LE). Generally people are not included, I like to be out and alone when doing my thing and I`m allergic to high ISO/low light. Also B&W is fairly uncommon for me.
A few weeks ago I was asked to shoot a MMA/muay thai event, lots of fast action in horrible light. It was an old friend and teacher so I couldn`t refuse. They gave me acces to the ring, so suddenly i found myself in front of the public and allmost at the centre of the spotlights in a dim lit gym trying to find a good pov and lens for a job totally unknown to me...So this was way beyond my comfortzone
But, after slowly gaining a rhythm, I even produced some neat shots. And while this is not an actionshot, I liked this one the most:


Gearing up

[Tamia]

This is an inspired theme, to the point where I felt outside my comfort zone just looking at the shots I knew were outside my comfort zone. My element is the wild outdoors, the wilder the better, and everything there is my subject, from birds and animals, to landscapes, rocks, water, and natural processes. I also love shooting abandonments, discards, the evidence of times past and the absence of people in places where they once were.

What I absolutely don't enjoy is shooting in public places with people around me, and especially photographing candids of people who are not my friends and relatives. The thought of my photographing someone just seems very rude (because I don't like it if someone does it to me), unless they've asked me to do so or invite me to do so. But when I was walking along the street and saw this woman stop, hold her head, and stand there for a moment, I had to grab a shot. It just seemed as if she was asking herself, "Now WHAT did I come out here to do?" In an instant she'd continued on her way with an appearance of purpose. For the moment I stood there, composed, and clicked the shutter, I was profoundly uneasy she'd turn and look at me, and I was relieved she hadn't.

[Neville]

Like some of the other contributors in this thread, I don't feel comfortable taking candid shots of strangers, unless I take the chicken route and take the shots without the subjects' being aware.

A while ago I went to a motor cycle event nearby to take some action shots, and I was drawn to some of the interesting people there, including some heavy biker types. I spotted this individual light up his cigarette and decided to take a shot of him as he looked down to light up. Much to my horror, he looked up and stared into my eyes at the exact moment that I pressed the shutter button! He had this menacing look on his face and I felt that I was about to get into some trouble, but his face quickly changed into a faint smile as he acknowledged me. I nervously raised my hand in greeting and quickly moved off...

[smf]

Photography with intentional blurring of the entire image is out of my comfort zone. I have seen effective use of the technique by Denise Ippolito, and some of that work can be viewed in part of her site at A Creative Adventure

I do not pretend that this photograph demonstrates excellent implementation of the technique, but I'm not ashamed of it. The subject is part of a small waterfall outside the Visitor Center of Chippewa Nature Center near Midland, Michigan.

Shutter speed was 1/10. I moved the camera (a Pentax K-x).

I don't expect to spend a large portion of my time doing intentional blur photography. But I'm glad to have a bit of experience with the technique. I'm glad that this thread prompted me to try it during part of this past Saturday.

[Jools]

I feel uncomfortable in extreme post processing. By this, I mean experimenting with various types of programs and formats that may generate a different image than the normal photograph. I tread with trepidation when it comes to posting them. I am interested in these techniques because they may add to the feel/mood of an image I am trying to capture. Sometimes, I can see it in my mind but do not know how to reproduce it. To this end, this is one of my favorites.

[sealonsf]

I'm another one who doesn't like to post process my photos too much. But with this one, I tried something new when processing with Photoshop Elements - Ink Outlines - and played with the color tones a bit.

[IMG][/IMG]

[noelcmn]

I'm not comfortable with night shots, and especially people. And also B/W shots- I have very few in my collection. This night shot I like, B/W seemed to work best for this shot. Good challenge!

[StephenHampshire]

I am not one to do a lot of off-camera flash, but a while back I was asked to do soe shots of the grand-daughter of a friend. A bit of bounced on-camera and a shoot through brolly with a slaved flash on remote.....