[TOUGEFC]

Just watched it and enjoyed it, Nicole I have to say you did extremly well and I believe your shot was the best of the 3 portraits and you should have won that

[cmohr]

You were robbed Nicole, I did like the show, The guy just was overwhelmed by it all I fear, the girl, and her silhouette idea, for a portrait?? Anyway, good on you for getting out there on the show, well done with the "Blad"

[sam-joseph]

Congrats Nicole. ALL your shots shown on the show were excellent. You should have won. (Shouldn't have told them you were a Pentax girl.)


Edit: the favourite line of the show was: judge to supposedly gay male contestant, photographing Dick Smith, "you've lost contact with Dick".


Regards

[Peter Anson]

You did very well to put up with the ego of Vince C. Your photo was streets ahead of the other two. Tops for imagination and connection with a difficult person.
Congratulations....It's a pity they've made it so much like master chef and Australia's got talent. That's not your fault. While the judges may be "successful" they sure are full of themselves........ to a nauseating degree.... Smarmy.
Good on you Nicole!

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Last edited by Peter Anson; 06-14-2012 at 06:15 AM.

[steve1307]

Nice work Nicole, I did like yours the best, and you probably had the most intimidating celebrity subject (without knowing him previously.) Nice to see you get him to open up.

The girls (Isobel) was errrrr interesting I guess........ maybe i'm being harsh but honestly I thought hers was bit of a mess really.

The guy was just so out of his depth but maybe thats understandable, I'd be crapping my pants just picking up and not dropping a $40K camera body.


There's a "peoples choice" poll on the ABC TV website.
Photo Finish - ABC TV on the right side of the page.

From a whole 2 votes so far at 9.10pm , you are equal in the lead (1 vote from me ).

[NicoleAu]

Thanks so much for your support everyone, it was crazy and stressful, but also fun in a weird kind of way. Certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity!

[rawr]

Well done Nicole. You stood up well against the task, the scrutiny and the stress.

Interesting show concept. I wonder where they will take it in the next few weeks? I look forward to them maybe doing some birding in the rainforest with 600mm lenses, or war photojournalism, or astrophotography next

But yeah, the format. Why did it have to be so master-chef? That is a bit silly.

[goddo31]

Good stuff Nicole.
I honestly thought your photo was a fair bit ahead of the competition also. You ended up with a fine image even with the pressure of the show.

[Jools]

Finally a reality/contest show I can sit through and enjoy. Thanks for the links, rawr.
Congrats, Nicole. Great work given the show's constraints, new equipment and I imagine, the nerves.
+1 on your image. Really liked the lighting and the composition.

[JenniferLeigh]

This show looks interesting, looking forward to checking out the first episode.

[Arjay Bee]

My wife and I both were surprised by the judges not choosing your image. Well done!
As far as format goes this is a clone of a British show that was on cable last year -that waS also interesting. Look forward to next week!

[wizofoz]

As I was watching it last night I had several reactions-

'Hey thats Nicole from PF' You did a great job Nicole. Vince actually came across as being quite helpful after being a little standoffish to begin with.

'The guy Tog is an embarrasment' - imagine handing over the camera to the client because he didnt know how to work it!

It's far too Master Chef for me to be comfortable with it. I'd rather some sort of master class than a competition.

Best lines of the show belonged to Dick Smith. 'You should have asked them for film, Electronic things break down, you know' and, when the male tog couldn't work out how to use the 'Blad - ' Let me look at it, I'm quite a technical person'

(for those not in Australia Dick Smith made his fortune by selling electronics and components)

[rawr]

The guy Tog is an embarrasment

I thought so too. Judging by the previous work of his that they flashed up in the intro, I thought the guy photog was probably more used to sitting for hours in front of Photoshop than actually handling a camera.

[NicoleAu]

Johnny is such a lovely guy and he's actually doing really well with photography, both here and in the US. I think he was just really thrown out of his element, he was used to working with more natural light from what I know of him as well.

It's getting back to me that other forums have discovered I'm on Pentax forums and the generalisations they are making about me are quite amusing. Especially the one guy whose making out I think I'm a pro cos I bought a dSLR. I'm not a pro, have never pretended to be a pro. I hope to be able to produce pro quality images one day. And I get so sick of the whole derogatory 'Mum with a dSLR' generalisation that people make in the industry. I can't change that perception, but at least I hope that I show that a mum can pull off a decent shot just as well as any other amateurs out there.

It was really tough and loads of pressure. We had 30 minutes to come up with 'The shot'. I am not a confident person, it's something I have always struggled with. But I stepped out of my comfort zone, to push myself and to also be able to say - I did it. As a person with social anxiety as well, it made it extra challenging. But I got through and I got some decent shots of Vince. Overall the whole experience has been really challenging and in so many ways, a positive step for me as a person. As a photographer, I was really thrown in the deep end. We were pretty much shown what we had and we used it. I chose the large light source as I wanted to keep my lighting simple - I had very little knowledge of lighting then and I am still learning now. Vince was really interesting to work with, he has a very strong personality. But the show was about putting amateurs into situations that are out of their depth and seeing if they can rise to the challenge. Once I started focusing instead of panicking, I did ok. It's so easy to sit there and say 'You should have done this' or 'I would have done that' when you're sitting in the comfort of your chair. The amount of pressure in that situation is huge! Cameras following you around, a celebrity right there, equipment you don't know, it really is not the easiest thing to work with. In any case, the whole experience was a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again. I have heard rumours that if there is enough interest in this show that there could be more to follow.

[Ivor K Ecks]

Well done Nicole.
You should be very proud of your achievement.
I too felt that your portrait was the best( and I voted that way on the shows website)
Maybe it's just me but I find it hard to call the winning photo a "portrait".