From the Reject Pile

With a whopping sixteen options to pick from in my last post, it probably seems that I showed no restraint in selecting photos as options for my Been There entry. Alas, I edited the photos below with the June competition in mind, but decided that they either did not fit the theme as well as some of the others, or that they had some defect which would make them less competitive. Still, there are several that I am quite pleased with, so I thought I would show them here.

It was quite dreary and grey during my trip to Dresden, so I'm afraid a lot of the pictures looked a bit washed out. My trip to Florence was over this past Christmas, and the cool weather meant a lot of misty mornings, leading to some hazy photos. Likewise with Heidelberg. While I think this creates a bit of an eery ambiance, they aren't the sharpest photos as a result, and I worried that they wouldn't be competitive. In a similar vein, I usually don't travel with a tripod (too cumbersome), so when I insist on taking night photos, like I did in Paris, I end up with some ok shots that could have been dramatically improved with a little less camera wobble. I also enjoy the sweep panorama function on my new camera, but sometimes the lens distortion is a little too intense, as in some of the panoramas below (Florence in particular).

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy

Vienna, Austria

Paris, France

(In)decisions

Most of my time lately has been devoted to shooting portraits (see my previous post) and some new travel photos in Germany, France, and Belgium (below), but I also have some exciting news to share. In early March, I decided to enter the Guardian newspaper "Been There" travel photo competition. Much to my surprise and pleasure, I was selected as a finalist for the March competition, and my photo was published online (click here to view my photo, entitled Solitude on Stanley Lake). Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty motivated to enter the April competition, so I need to make some decisions.


Unfortunately, as usual, I'm having a hard time deciding which photo to enter, and the photo is due tomorrow (the 23rd). The theme for April is "Street Life"--anything which captures daily life in an urban setting. I think I have a few shots which capture urban life from my recent trip to Paris. While I'm drawn to the photos of the performer climbing the lamppost with a soccer ball, perhaps the Parisians lounging on the banks of the Seine does a better job of capturing daily life? I also feel that the film grain on the performer pictures is a little distracting--it was a very dreary day, and the ISO settings combined with the high humidity mean there's a lot of noise in those photos.

Suffice it to say I'd be grateful for some external opinions. Is there one that strikes you as fitting the theme particularly well (or badly)? One with more striking composition as compared to the others? I'd love to hear your thoughts!