Day In The Life Of...

[Ruin]

This past weekend (April 18 and 19), I took part in a local photography project called "Day In The Life Of Asheville" (DITLOA). Quite simply, area photographers spend 36 hours from Noon Friday to Midnight Saturday taking pictures of Asheville, NC and it's symbolic surrounding areas (that might be just outside of city-limits). Everyone got some great stuff, and I got a few good ones too.

We enter a total 16 photos. One is a photographers pick, the others are to be judged. In a few weeks we'll have a gallery opened at the Pack Place Library in downtown Asheville where the winning pictures will be put on display. Selected photos will also be donated to the Library as part of their Asheville Heritage collection.

As a photographer, this was a lot of fun and very challenging. It highlighted my strengths and of course my weaknesses.

Anyway, I figured I'd share with you all my DITLOA submissions and a couple bonus pics.

C&C is always welcome! There's no such thing as a final product!

Ruin's DITLOA Submissions

*Titles, tags, captions and other info are still being added.

[Ruin]

A few more of my faves:

*This was "My Pick" for automatic display in the gallery. The other 15 are being judged.

[Dick Splash]

What camera are you using and do you remember any of the settings?

DS

[Ruin]

DS, I'm using a Nikon D80 with a Nikon 18-200mm VR lens.

Settings for each picture can be found in Flickr. Click on a thumbnail soy ou get the larger image. On the lower right there's a section called "Additional Information." One of the bullets has the Nikon logo and says "Taken with a Nikon D80.

More properties." Click on More Properties and it gives you more tech specs than I could ever hope to remember.

By having the VR and higher ISO settings, I was able to take some great low-light handheld shots at VERY slow shutter speed (some of those IIRC were taken with a SS of 1/3").

Hope that helps.

[Ruin]

Well, I'm happy to say that even for as disappointed as I was in my work, I did have a picture selected for display in the gallery.

One of the two judges picked my photo "Pipin' Dancer" for gallery display. I'm pretty pleased.

Pipin Dancer

[Guest]

Don't sweat it, bud. I haven't entered a contest since 2005. Most times you look at the submissions and see what the judges picked, and it's obvious it either quickly turns into a political thing, or they just don't know what a good photograph is when they see it. This happens all the way up to major publications like Pop Photo. If you take a look at the 2nd and 3rd place photos, or even the honorable mentions in most contests, that's where you'll find the real gems.

Personally, my fav was the night shot of the alley and street light, but I guarantee you some judge thought it wouldn't be beneficial to tourism of Asheville showing an artistic view of the other side of the city.

[Ruin]

Thanks Durka. More disappointment came in my own work rather than with the judge's selections. It was a bad weekend for me, and I just wasn't... "in the right place." I'm surprised I had one picked at all. Although, seeing that 3 car/moped sideview mirrors were picked, I am a bit bummed. Oh well, better luck this summer with a few more contests. Hoping to hit Bel Chere this year, but who knows.