[Heie]

Thank you everyone

One of your images appears to be titled... well all I can say is that you could have been shot for saying "Valley" in the Scottish Highlands while here... that's an English thing, it should read Glen in the Scottish Highlands. I think you got a good result bearing in mind the sheer numbers that no doubt entered such a competition, well done sir.

A glen = valley? Do you guys even speak English?

But thanks, Kerrow - can always count on you for support

Congratulation Alex. I'll say a couple things about the contest: (1) I hate, hate, hate Flickr. (2) The Category 1 [military] photos were generally of superior quality to the Category 2 [non-military] ones. I'm actually surprised they included the 'Eyes Downrange, You!' in the winners, since it shows someone doing something incorrect. (Although of your submissions, that one is likely the strongest.) There are some phenomenal photos in there (yours included) but I have to say that the winning Cat 1 Still Life and People category photos are terrible.

Yea I have nothing to do with how they manage it - I guess Flickr is the easiest way. Last year and all the previous years it was only in some AWFUL flash based gallery that only those who had a log-in (since it's an Army system) could access and view. While Flickr may not be the primary choice for some, it's a great improvement.

And those are two of the ones I insinuated at, as well as a few others that frankly I would have instantly discarded as a judge. The rest of the bunch were some stunning works of art, but there were a bit too many "slipped by" for my liking...

Wow! You were in some very strong company. Although a few of those winners are a bit overly HDR-ish for my taste there is not a bad image among them and most are stunning. I think you can be very proud of your work.

Thanks Sandy I am very proud, certainly.

There are some great images (including yours), but I have to admit I was a bit surprised and disappointed by what I saw in the Flickr gallery. When I read 'US Army Photography Contest' I didn't expect over half of the pictures to be of cats, birds, flowers and children playing in fields. Seems a bit pointless. I expected more military and photojournalistic content - images of military life, from Afghanistan, Iraq etc.

Yea, it's more the "Contest for U.S. Army Service Members (Div 1) and Employees/Dependents (Div 2) with military and non-military submission categories."

Good job, Alex! I had seen most of the photos before, as you have been generous with posting here. I think you have a good eye. Hopefully selling a lot of your gear doesn't stop you from continuing to shoot in the various places you go.

I try to share quite often (I'm just so excited when I get something right ) And thanks for the compliment on my "eye" - I would agree with you and at least I have something going for me - can't draw and I'm color blind

And no - just streamlining my kit to have less overlap and thinking ahead to how much I'll be able to shoot and how I'll be doing it (more portrait work than documentary/adventure, etc.). So yea - I'm not going anywhere

I'm curious -- What is being done incorrectly in that photo?

As everyone else said - it's that the shooter is looking down (presumably at me?) rather than at her target to see where her rounds are going. A huge no-no as it is a breach in firearms discipline.

My office's security software blocks your website as adult content. If you think that's undeserved, you can request a review at http://urlfiltering.paloaltonetworks.com/ChangeASite.aspx.

That's really weird. I followed the link and sent a review request, so thank you for the heads up and the means to affect change. But I can imagine that it has to do with the domain hosting (www.1and1.com) as it is sometimes blocked by filters. Where the "adult" comes into play, I have no idea - I haven't been lucky enough to shoot any nudes

Thanks again everyone!

-Heie

[bigdavephoto]

Great pictures Heie.


U.S. Army photography Contest.


My father did that for quite a few years while he was in. If I remember correctly, he won it a couple of times 2nd place, 3rd place, honorable mention. Yeah, he did good with the photography contest.