Weekly Photography Challenge Thread (see first post rules and then the poll at top before entering)

Yea, first entry. Road trip over the New Year holiday.

 

Boo Beretta haha jk. I like the bokeh in this shot.

 

I think I actually have a shot that works for this one haha. Not the greatest but at least I'll enter.

 

^^ The more the merrier! Glad to see such a good turnout for this challenge.

 

Thanks! I really like how you nailed the hinge pin on your Franchi (I think?), very well done. Italian guns fit me better than most others so I shoot Beretta, F.A.I.R. B. Rizzini, Benelli, etc. Hey doesn't Beretta own Franchi?!

Tease....

 

Thanks, yes Franchi and yes they're owned by Beretta. It's new I still haven't got to shoot it. I have a benelli and can't hit crap with it. I love my Ithaca/SKB but my wife has taken it over. The Franchi is almost identical so I have high hopes. The only reason I talk crap on Beretta is because a jerkoff I used to shoot trap with would never shut his mouth about how his Beretta was better than everything else on the planet. Even though I would usually smoke him with my Browning Citori.

 

I've seen that type way too often, understand totally. Although I don't understand why they are that way. I've heard some pick on the Ithaca\SKB but it is one of the best shotguns made IMO. Glad to hear your wife is shooting, good on you. I almost picked up a Instinct SL instead of the Beretta UL and if it would have had the beautiful case colored receiver like yours I may have. Haven't shot mine yet either, picked it up from a guy in Utah. Already cut the stock half an inch (keeping pitch of course) and ground a 1" brown Kick-EZZ recoil pad for it. Highs for the next week are in the below zero range so going to strip the crappy Beretta peanut butter finish off and redo it with waterlox and benmatte oil finish. Pick up a new pup on Saturday so won't have much free time for the next couple of months for much of anything else. A new shotgun and new dog, I'm a lucky man. Hmm let me get back to you on that until after he is house broken and it isn't teens and twenties below zero...

I'm sure you've already done it but if not play around with the shims on the Benelli. I have the benelli ultralight and sport, like them both especially the BUL but fit is a very personal thing and varies from person to person. I never have done well with Brownings except the old A5's with neutral cast. One of my clays shooting friends last name is Browning and yes he is a member of the "family". He doesn't understand why I like what he calls my damn spaghetti guns. It is because they fit me and shoot where I look. Well sometimes

 

lol. I'll post it tonight. I am going out to the lake in a few so I figured I might actually get one there. Not even sure the one I am thinking of counts.

 

My entry:
IMG_9607_edit_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Not the best for super shallow DOF, more macro, but whatever.

 

Great turn out!

EDIT:
Post actual attachment.
Deleted attachment and posted via flickr
IMG_5960 by ywsaechao, on Flickr

 

CS6 download didn't show up in time for me to try my idea ha

 

Benelli owns Franchi. They use the same blowback design as a Benelli.

 

The Instinct L has the colored receiver, and I really like it. My Benelli makes my brain goes haywire. That 7 round tube turns me into spray and pray haha.

Benelli is owned by Beretta.

 

Official entires.

 

Cool challenge with lots of good entries. I'd say this week was a win.

 

I think I'll participate for the next challenge since I've been AWOL for a while.

 

Great turnout, guys and gals! Thanks for participating and keeping this thread so interesting. I've got some comments -- again, I'm still a neophyte in the photography world, so this is just one man's opinion.

TJ - Definitely fits the criteria and I love the dark background, which really sets off the shot gun in the foreground. I might have gone with a slightly deeper depth of feidl to get the entire logo/etching in focus. Pretty funny how there were so many shotgun entries! Nice work!

David - Obviously this is a perfect -- oh wait, just kidding!

Cody - Love the simple nature of your shot. I wish there was a way to get more focus (no pun intended) on the "classic" snowflake on the left third line and in the focus area. I see you added a vignette which certainly helps draw the eye to it. Or maybe reframe the shot so the focus falls on one of the larger clusters of flakes. Overall, really like the feel and the subject matter. Clearly not in Hawaii for this shot!

Liz - Is that wood burning/etching? I would want to move the camera back or the focus plane up to get all of the etching in focus and move the background items back to put them out of focus. The Mason jars would look awesome all blurred out with a nice bokeh forming around where the light was sparkling off the glass.

big22 - Very cool! Love the separation between the foreground and background which really makes the rod and writing pop. I might have deepened the depth of field just a hair to allow all of the text on the rod to be in focus. How long did it take to build? My uncle has been trying to get me out on the water for some fly fishing for years -- just been too busy haha!

Mike - Another shotgun! Love the bokeh and the reflections off the gun itself. Same comment as TJ: I think it just needs a *tiny* bit more depth of field to get the entire logo and etching into focus. Cool pattern of fabric (couch?) that the gun is sitting on as well -- fits with the overall feel of the photo.

Steven - Bonus points for having a Tacoma in the photo! Nailed the focus on this. My personal preference would be to have a bit more saturation and contrast to make the grill and logo pop a bit more from the background, but that's just a personal style/mood thing. Where was your road trip to?

Kevin - Yeah, this is more of a macro shot, but it is a great macro! Excellent detail in the label -- cool to see the texture of the paper and the colors look great! I think having a bit more of the background in view (but still out of focus) would have made this more obviously a shallow DOF photo. I can see a hint of the edge of the bottle going out of focus, but there's not much true background to really set this one off as shallow DOF.

Joe - Nice work with the different focal planes in the Jenga set... really, an interesting photo because of it! My only gripe would be the upside down Jenga pieces that are in focus, but that's just my OCD coming out to play haha!


Choosing this week's winner was really tough -- had some excellent entries! You all aren't making this easy.

This week's winner: Cody, with the snow flake shot. I dunno, I keep getting drawn back to it. Something about that little snowflake sitting on that awesome, textured wood. Nice work!

 

Took a nice road trip up to Ucluelet on Vancouver Island for some New Years surfing. Had a blast and the waves were great. Highly recommended for anyone on the coast of BC. Appreciate the CC as well! Still just getting into the whole post production side of photography.

 

Congrats Cody!

 

Thanks for the feedback and congrats Cody!