Photo contest – voting results!

Thanks to everyone who voted! Wow it’s still going to be a hard decision 😛

First, there were some votes for photos that I said I wouldn’t enter – the red chair (95) and the infirmary gate (33). I appreciate the votes for those, in fact I really love the gate one myself. But as the red chair is the most commonly photographed cell in the whole place, and the gate was also a photo in the slideshow by the instructor, I just don’t feel that they would win. Though I may have taken the gate photo exactly the same without seeing a similar image first, it’s just not unique enough because of that.

The other images that I sadly had to disqualify are the gargoyles. I loooove me some gargoyles 😀 and I may end up getting some cards with the most popular image on them (2), but as they were a halloween decoration and not a permanent part, I feel that they have less of a chance of winning this contest.

There was a clear first place winner after removing those images from consideration – I counted votes for the color and black and white versions to be the same and images 24/25 got 5 votes total! The color one wins out with 4 votes:

I will be entering this image! And later this week, I’ll use it to show you the power of RAW format and how it really can benefit your images.  For the second, we have a tie among several images…

16/17:

32:

47:  OK, so this didn’t get any votes but it has my vote, so I’m still considering it! I really like the image, AND this was in an area that we didn’t have full access too, my timing was great that I could sneak in during a tour and get this shot. So, because I feel it’s a strong image that no one else probably got, I’m including it in the tie.

54/55:

88:  One of the two votes for this image came from a professional who I consider to be the best in the state (at a minimum), and his reasoning is that it includes a human element with the boot.

I’m pretty much torn evenly between 47 and 88 at the moment, but that may change. I may have to just flip a coin….  I have to decide today and submit them for the contest, so I’ll let you know what I decide!

Thanks again to all who entered, I may do a random drawing even if I don’t win the contest, so stay tuned!

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Eastern State Penitentiary Photos (And a contest!)

Just in time for Halloween (my favorite holiday!), I’d like to share some photos from a workshop this past weekend that I attended. Tamron and one of my local shops, Photozone offered this great opportunity to take photos all day long at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia PA!

Saturday was a two hour classroom setting seminar which went over the schedule for the next day, what to bring, and a presentation by Ken Hubbard from Tamron on what to expect at the Penitentiary and how to get the most out of our cameras.  Sunday, we boarded a bus before the crack of dawn (ouch!) and headed down to Philadelphia.  The day started with a private tour before the site was open to the public, and then we were free to shoot.

As an added bonus, Tamron had tables set up with their lenses and we could borrow any of them to shoot! I borrowed the 10-24 mm wide angle in the morning (worked amazing in the tight cells!) and the 60mm f2.0 macro in the afternoon.

(Tamron is offering a similar workshop a few times in November that goes to the Lakota Wolf Preserve! It just may be worth getting up that early (or earlier) once again… See their full event schedule here.)

When we got back to Photozone, there was a raffle with many prizes – I won a lens cleaning pen, but the first prize was a new tripod (Oh I could have used that, as mine broke that day! Not so bad that I couldn’t use it the rest of the day, but I definitely need to replace it).

But the more exciting contest – which has my competitive spirit going full force – is a photo contest!  Each participant can submit 2 photos from the workshop, and the instructor is going to choose a winner. The prize is a Tamron 70-300mm VC USD Di Lens!  I have a 1 in 23 chance of winning it, and I am DETERMINED!

This is where YOU come in! And to sweeten the deal, if I win, YOU WIN!  I need help choosing my two best images to submit. If the image you vote for wins the contest, I’ll be sending you a prize too!

Note: While I will count all votes and try to submit the two highest ranking images, I have a few that I probably wouldn’t submit.  This is because a few images I took (and really like) are similar to the instructor’s images in the slideshow during his presentation. I don’t know how that would affect the chances of winning, but I don’t feel that submitting a “copy” image (even if it’s my own take on it) is a good idea… The two images below are examples of this – the gate at the infirmary and probably the most popular photo from the site, the barbershop chair. If you want to try to talk me into considering them, go ahead, but this is the only reason I’ll overrule the votes.

OK so let’s get down to the nitty gritty details!

HOW TO ENTER:

Go to the album of images either on

• my site
• my facebook

Vote for your TWO favorite images by leaving a comment (any comment) on the images. If you can’t choose two, you can just vote for one, but it lowers your chances! Do not vote on both sites, just go to the one most convenient for you.  If there’s a color image you think should be black & white, you can state that in your comment/vote.

You have until Friday October 28 at 12 noon (EST) to vote. Friday, I will count and determine the two winning images, and over the weekend I will refine these images further before submitting them to the contest by October 31.

If an image you voted for wins a new lens for me, YOU WIN! You will have your choice of either

• A gift print of any image from the Penitentiary series, 8″ x 10″ or smaller (your choice of size)
• A set of 5 greeting cards with any image from the Penitentiary series (all 5 will be the same image, blank inside)

If you have any questions or comments that aren’t votes, please leave them below!  Thanks, and I look forward to us BOTH winning! 😀

(Yes, I still have photos from Burning Man, our road trip, and my amazing class with Neil Van Niekerk to finish up and post. I had to work on these in a hurry to make the contest deadline! They are coming I promise!)

 

Edit to add: If you vote for a color or B&W image, and I send the same image but opposite of the one you voted for, I’ll still count your vote when it wins! 😀

Crazy Hazy Summer

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer!  I am, despite the heat and humidity being worse than usual – but then I’m about to fix the humidity part of that equation by camping in the desert.  It’s been busy over here, as we just bought an RV for our trip to Burning Man, and will be doing a cross country drive to get it home after!

A few weeks ago I had an amazing day in NYC at a photography workshop run by Neil Van Niekerk – if you are serious about learning photography, I can’t recommend his books/blog/workshops enough!  I haven’t even had time to finish up with the photos from that day to post them, but I’ll get to it after our trip.

My bigger priority was a photoshoot with another photographer from one of my forums – so often the photographer in the family never has a shot of the whole family, so our forum started up a pay-it-forward photoshoot swap among volunteers.  I didn’t need photos of us, as we have plenty (from Neil!) from our wedding, but I was anxious to apply what I learned  so I offered up a photoshoot.  Marie and I pored over google maps and looked at geotagged photos to find this great location in Hook Mountain, NY.  It was quite a hike for a hot and humid day, and the kids were feeling it too, but I was really pleased to meet her wonderful family and give her a few new family photos to remember the summer!

When we couldn’t get any more posing out of them, they had some rock skipping lessons!

Thanks Marie, and also thank you to your beautiful family! It was great to spend some time together along the Hudson.

What I’ve been up to

Scratching luck dragons behind the ear, and taking photos of mythological creatures

Playing with Instagram on my upgraded iphone! See my gallery here.  If you are on instagram, my user name is KatieGould.  I also tweet them, tumblr them, and put them on my personal facebook page! (My fan page is www.facebook.com/katiegouldphoto – come “like” me!)

Working on the new looks for Katie Gould Photography!  As you may know, this blog template and my zenfolio site were built quickly and haven’t had much time put into them.  My husband is working on the back end development stuff for a new look on the blog, I finally got a logo, and I’m working on choosing colors and other branding characteristics.  It’s so much fun!! 😀 Don’t get too excited, it will probably be a while before the “full” launch.  However as soon as my logo is revised for me, I’ll be starting to use it in watermarking.

What have you been up to?

Valentine’s Day Shoot

I had the pleasure of shooting two friends for some Valentine’s Day goodies for their husbands! Here’s a sample of some of the fun.  And if you ever need to rent a studio, I highly recommend Angel Studios in Philadelphia, where we shot these!

Holiday Baby

My beautiful friend is getting a special gift this Christmas – she’s due around New Year’s Eve! We had an awesome time taking photos this week.
The pendant in her hands is a special necklace that she wears daily – I have one as well, it’s from Cleu Camp at Burning Man!

Assateague Ponies

Virgina Dunes

(Taken with an iphone 4.0, edits in picnik)

Steampunk fun

So I have only gotten through one day of the photos from the Steampunk World’s Fair – but oh WOW was it a fun day! Kyle Cassidy, a well known steampunk photographer, ran a workshop allowing us to use a studio setup and take pictures of other Fair goers. I have Sunday’s photos in two sets, sepia (really just a warm black and white, I didn’t take it to full sepia) and regular colors. Click the examples below for the full sets on flickr!

Special thanks to Kyle and the wonderful models in our workshop!

Stay tuned for Saturday’s photos, though I have to admit they aren’t this exciting… 😀 Oh wait, there was a flaming sword fight….

Click the photo for the full sepia set from Sunday

Click the photo for the full color set from Sunday

Colorful Spring

My tax return often has been used to upgrade my photo equipment, and I upgraded two lenses this spring!  I am looking forward to good times with these new additions.