Saturday, March 12, 2011

Forced Inspiration

Every now and again I enter the Boston.com "RAW" competition. It is a monthly themed contest where different guest judges view the entries submitted and award modest prizes for the winners. Whenever I enter, I always make the 1st large cut, but then fall short of placing in the top 10. My entry is usually accompanied by my fellow aspiring shooting buddy Pravin.

The contest both fun and frustrating at the same time. I often enjoy the themes they come up with for us to shoot (anything from weather, to abstract, to portraiture and landscapes), and will often try new ideas to come up with a shot to enter. However, judging photography is so subjective, I'm often left wondering how my shot, or other shots I feel are much stronger are left out of the winner's circle. Obviously I'm bias, but it just opens the window to try, try again.

This month's theme is "The human form". We often don't get much of a description beyond that, as what's the point of rigid entry guidelines when you're talking about art?

I tried looking through my archives, as when this contest was announced, I was not yet in the best shape to produce anything due to my health. I found nothing worth even submitting for a "phoned-in" entry. Looking back, I don't know why I even bothered doing that, since I'm always much happier producing something new, and honing skills etc, etc.

Luckily, my wife/muse is always the willing model, so after some trial and error, I conceptualized a new shot, and just executed it to the point of my liking this morning. Here are the results of this new effort:



See if you can spot the little "hint of Dan" in the photo. It shouldn't be too difficult.

I'm fairly pleased with the outcome. We'll see if this ends up being the contest submission for this month, or if some other idea takes hold...

6 comments:

  1. Zombie.

    Awesome photo by the way.

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  2. Yup, my vote was also on the Zombie. AND I like the photo, too. It's a different feel from the other pix you've submitted, so I'll be interested to see how it places :-)

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  3. Let's be honest, Zeis...my track record for this thing bloooows.

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  4. I was looking for the lego man =( LOVE the shot, even if it lacks Ace.

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  5. But did you find the reference anyways? Ty btw :)

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