December and January Newsletter

Nations Photography Club
Dec 20, 2016
3 min read

Hi, everyone!

Thank you so much for your submissions. They were all great! The winner for November was Gulia Stienfatt and the runner ups are listed below....

1. Congratulations, Giulia! Your picture was great! We chose this photograph because we loved the composition (the way you positioned the path and the trees in the frame gives the picture a unique depth and style) and the lighting you used. Your managed to enhance all the colors of the leaves and trees - something that is very hard to do, specially when you're working with shadows and lights -, creating a beautiful and warm picture. As well as those who followed our tips, well done!

2. Our first runner up is Dendzi Ntambwe. We loved the autumny colours in the picture they are really vibrant and almost rustic! and the use of dark shadows. The clouds give a really edgy and mysterious effect.

3. This runner up was taken by Ottavia austin we loved the autumn and winter blend. The berries are really bright in comparison to the out of focus background and gives a lovely overall effect.Well done!!

We are very sorry for sending the December newsletter this late - we've had a lot of homework (specially the Personal Project) and it actually took us a long time to decide on the winner and the runner ups. As it is already the 19th of December, we have decided to merge December's and January's competitions together. By the end of January (31st), you'll be able to submit 10 pictures - 5 for December's competition and 5 for January's competition. In this way, you'll have the whole Winter Break (and more) to take pictures and to send them in for both competitions. The themes and some tips and examples for these months' competitions can be found below.

THEMES:

The theme for December's competition will be People, while the theme for January's competition will be Emotions. Hopefully, you will be seeing a lot of family and friends throughout the break and will have lots of opportunities to take photos of them. "People" do not only have to be pictures of faces, it could be anything that characterizes a person or an emotion (for example, eyes or hands). These are broad topics so it's a great opportunity to experiment with your photos. Make sure the people you photograph are ok with you sending in their picture. Down below are some tips and examples that could help you when taking photographs.

TIPS:

Turn the camera: If you simply turn your camera to portrait instead of landscape, the subject of your photography will probably be better framed - your pictures will be more suited to the human figure as the picture is taller than it is wide. This may be the simplest tip but it sure improves the outcome of the pictures.
Get closer: Don't be scared of getting too close to your subject! Close-ups allow you to display more details and enhance emotions - so don't hesitate to use them!
Out of focus: To portray emotions and feelings, you could also blur the background or some small details that are not relevant to the overall picture. This will lead your audience's attention directly to your main subject and will emphasize their expressions and emotions. You can do this by changing the focus and the depth of field of your camera (in most cameras, the focus settings can be found on the lens - we will teach you about depth of field and how to change it in our following class).

EXAMPLES: