CactiGuide.com

sundanz wrote:Hi Daiv, I just looked at all the Photos and they're just gorgeous! I have a suggestion if I may. How about photo categories like all yellow flowers or all red or all pink etc etc.
Or only showcasing spines? Most cacti are very beautiful when photographed from the top only,with no flowers, and you could make a seperate category for that. I would assume the voting would be easier and perhaps fairer?
Just a thought!
Karin

Thanks for the suggestions, Karin. Every contest cycle we try and include a large variety of topics, from broad to specific. I think we have been doing what you suggested. In February the topic was yellow flowers, March was red spines, and May was devoted to pink and purple flowers. To see what the 2013 topics are going to be, here is a link to the contest schedule :

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=28373" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The BCSS runs similar contests, no prizes except the winner of the last months contest sets the theme for the next months, therefore the sites membership keeps the whole thing rolling:-

http://forum.bcss.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=74

I won it last month and set this months theme, therefore would anybody be interested in the same Close up or Creative Crop contest here for January? As this is the close season for cacti in the UK it enables collectors to crop and manipulate pictures they have already taken in previous years until new flowers are out.

See:-

http://forum.bcss.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=165379

I like the idea of keeping the picture contest going. Your themes and who moves it forwards works for me. Only concerns when it come to the quality of the pictures taken should not rule out the chance of winning. I don't have that kind of equipment. The bcss, "oldest plant" just a normal picture had a chance to win. So, open themes could bring in more interesting pictures even though the quality of the picture may lack.

How about a contest to see who can cover themselves with the most cholla?

There should be a more physical prize for that. I assume this was not a deliberate choice to get covered but was the medical team really necessary?

You don't need fancy equipment Hobbyman, a smartphone is quite good enough for posting on the Forum. In fact most cameras now have far more megapixels than people will ever need. The average computer screen only has the resolution of about a 4 megapixel camera, so a 4 megapixel image is all you will get on screen, whether from a smartphone, 8 megapixel compact camera, or a 36 megapixel pro camera. Most digital projectors used in camera clubs to display images on a projection screen for competitions only have a resolution of around 2 megapixels or under, so what's the point of 36 megapixel pro cameras in that case? The only need for high megapixel cameras is if you are making house door sized prints. Most of our present cameras or smartphones have far more megapixels than needed for web use.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/how-many-me ... -1974.html

All my pictures are taken with a now old 10 megapixel Nikon D200. This originally sold for £1200 body only ($1472) and pristine examples can now be picked up secondhand on EBAY for £110-£130 ($135-$159) less than most secondhand smartphones on EBAY. This image is from it, but you are still seeing only around a 4 megapixel image on your computer screen.
It has never been lack of expensive equipment that determined the quality of photographs ever since the Box Brownie days. It is usually techniques such as how to light the image, even if using daylight, and staging the image rather than just pointing a camera at a subject in situ without thinking about these things and hoping you will get exactly what your eye sees. Now with digital, since they don't have to buy film and pay for developing anymore, people have got into the "motordrive mentality" these days so just point the camera at a subject and blaze away hoping one frame will be OK. I seldom take more than 4-5 single shots of any subject, since if I can't get a reasonable image on one of those I have not been paying attention to staging the subject. In fact since I bought my camera I have never used the motordrive at all and I usually manual focus on the viewfinder screen rather than use autofocus.

http://iphonephotographyschool.com/nature-close-up/

Have a go with your smartphone or compact camera, you have nothing to loose. You can produce just as good an image on screen as if you had the latest 36 Megapixel Pro camera. Never blame your photography on the equipment, most of our cameras and smartphones are far better than we are and these days and most of the process is now automated anyway compared to the film and separate light meter days.

"Box Brownie days" That was my first camera. I checked out the iPhone link and will apply it to my Samsung. Just glanced at the link and learned a few things that may help me out. Thanks

Don't say I don't look after you all Hobbyman. Just for you and your Samsung. You have no excuses now!

http://www.reasontouse.com/phone/samsun ... ce-review/

The thing you often have to remember with smartphones and compact cameras is not to get closer than they can focus. Just because you can see an image in the viewfinder does not mean the camera can focus that close and it will be sharp. It is always best to do some experiments to see how close you can get, but usually if you read the manual, or a review of your camera/smartphone, it will give the minimum focusing distance and closer than that the pictures will be blurred. All lenses, even macro lenses, have a minimum focusing distance, get closer and they cannot focus. You can always crop a picture you have taken from slightly further away if you want a larger image.

http://www.superstokedmagazine.com/arti ... -tutorial/

http://www.phonearena.com/news/How-to-t ... ks_id69899

https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/15163633 ... smartphone

How to crop.

http://www.howtogeek.com/214508/how-to- ... -software/

http://www.wikihow.com/Edit-and-Crop-Ph ... ,-and-iPad

http://iphonephotographyschool.com/flowers/

You can also crop in Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0xEoBBBZZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwYjkbKZ0HM

What about epiphytes that aren't really epiphytes?