Quote:
Originally Posted by Jas0nP
So to better my photography and to save on travel i would LOVE to win this competition.
I feel like i'm in with a very good chance. Although my experience is laughable short - 1 months with my d90 and 18mm - 105mm - i've been obsessive ever since getting it.
So now i'm looking for advice on how i can do my best in this competition. For ideas of what they are looking for here are some images they have on their homepage:
My current brainstorm of ways to improve, things i need and shots i should aim for are:
- Wide Angle Lens + Polarized Filter. I've been hearing great things about the stigma 10 - 20mm so i will get that and get some practice with it before hand.
- Practice shooting RAW + More memory cards. I haven't taken or edited any RAW images yet.
- People adventure shots. The site i imagine will be using these pictures to sell their product, which is all the travel, camping, food and socializing around New Zealand. While pictures of lakes, mountains and so on look great they are selling the experience and i think it'll look better with those backdrops but people in the activities.
- Capitalize on the uniqueness of the tour company. The company takes sporting equipment all the way around for everyone to use. A picture of everyone at sunset playing cricket with a mountain/lake + tent background would be amazing.
- Ask the guides and drivers what they think will be good, what the company wants.
- Practice HDR shot. Although anything to them that looks 'too edited' i doubt they would feel they want a v accurate representation of the tour.
So as you can see my thoughts are a little scatterbrained right now. Any suggestions on shots i should look for or get everyone together to make happen. Suggestions of kit. Or suggestions of practice or well wishes would be very very appreciated! |
I think that almost everyone here would agree that they also want to win a competition, so we will not share our secrets in case you win
All the things you are aiming for a good. The more practice you get the better, and trying various styles most definitely is good. But all this guarantee's only one thing, that you spend a lot of time practicing.
Always enter a comp with the mindset that your image is not good enough and cannot compete with the other's. This way if you win you have more to celebrate than if youwent in believing that you are going to win. And never give up, remember that most comps have 100's if not thousands of images to go through and after a while they all look the same.
Don't go overboard on HDR as a lot of comps will not accept them, they have fairly stringent rules. But some will accept them. And often the judges will give preference to a normal image over HDR unless it is really something special and I have seen very few special HDR images (and judges can tell the difference between Photoshop HDR's and multiple exposure (or bracketed) HDR's.