2 
It’s getting exceedingly difficult to pick the winner of each fortnight’s Shooting Challenge, and this one was no different. Thanks to everyone that took the time to create their images; I can see that many of you went the extra mile. This involved the ‘borrowing’ of their wife’s underwear; stealing children’s toys (may not be true,) and lots of spillage.
So, thanks for all your hard work. A couple of people didn’t adhere to the rules (dates of shots in EXIF date; filesize under 3MB) and so were disqualified — sorry. Keep to the rules next time, people!
It gives me great pleasure in announcing Adam Westwell as the winner of this Shooting Challenge with his fantastic shot of a ukulele. Everything about the image was perfect; the composition, the lines, the colour, the shallow depth of field. Adam clearly spent a lot of time thinking about his image and setting the shot up, and has won a £750 iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner for his efforts.
Here’s how he did it:
‘Photo of my Ohana Ukelele, carefully positioned in front of a table lamp. Photo was taken from the head of the Uke, with the light illuminating the base. The photo was taken at this angle to truly reflect the beautiful craftsmanship which still goes into making a smaller, less serious instrument such as the Ukelele. Despite their comedy sizing, they still have an absolutely fantastic sound.
Photo taken using Sony NEX 5N, with a legacy Olympus OM lens (50mm, f1.4) via an adapter. Photo was manually focused, and shot all the way open to provide a really shallow depth of field, ensuring the curves of the instrument remained sharp.
A small nod in the direction of musicians, techies, and photographers…’
Well done Adam!
High fives must also go to the following (in alphabetical first name order):
Andy Adams
Darius Sirvinskas
James Farley
Milad Gol
Muntzeem Nazir
Nicolas Billy
Thanks again to everyone that entered; all the images can be seen on the Flickr page HERE! What’s your favourite image? Do tell!
As we’re fast approaching Halloween, the next challenge will be, err, Halloween-themed, so come back next Wednesday to find out how to enter.
Martin Snelling is a Hampshire-based man about town who works in the videogame industry. A keen photographer, Martin shoots on film and digital; he blogs here, and tweets here.
Shooting Challenge #7 - Still Life
Shooting Challenge #13 -- Results
Shooting Challenge #9 Results: Stairs
I really like Andy’s shot – tells a great story!
I agree. The winning shot is nice, but Andy’s tells a sordid story (in my head, at least!) Great shot – makes me feel better that I didn’t enter when I see such high calibre of entries.
It’s the discarded wedding ring that makes it for me.
I totally agree, it looks sleazy until you notice the ring at which point it becomes a story.
Its like standing in an art gallery and listening to what all the hipsters are saying about splodges on the wall.
It’s art darling!
Adam is a derveved winner. Great photo.
Not sure about the rest though, especially when looking at Flickr.
Well done Adam!
I like Archie’s picture on the flickr page, it makes me think he had a good night and really didn’t want to be photographing shit that morning. Darius’ Skeleton is also very cool.
I love these competitions, I’ve never spent less than 3 hours on my attempt each time, but I’m always happy with what I’ve done – alright, you ALWAYS have some kind of niggle, but I’m talking about being happy that you’ve learned something. Most importantly, I wouldn’t have shot any of things I have shot had it not been for the competitions.
This time round I really thought I could knock something up quickly (since I was shooting in the house). Not the case. Not the case at all, took me 150 shots to get one submission….
Oh, and Andrew Wilson’s two pictures – man, I’m a little bit upset by them, and I like it…
Glad you liked them, setting the scene up was really fun and pulling out the cling film and tying up my little miscreant really made me feel like Dexter.
I’m glad you like them; they are meant to be fun and while they may not be ‘teaching’ you about your camera (that’s what books and the manual are for
), I do hope they make you look at things differently.
As you say, you’ve shot stuff you’ve never considered shooting in the past. And that’s a good thing.
Yeah, I’d actually always planned to take part in one of the shooting comps back when there was only a US Giz, but I never did. I’d always kind of figured that you’ll grow more as a photographer by stepping out of your comfort zone and making yourself go and shoot to a brief. You raise your game a bit too.
Having said all that, the best thing about the comps is – definitely – seeing what other people come up with. When you know that we’ve all been thinking along the same sort of lines, it’s great to see just how different the results are.
Thanks for the feedback! Your sentiments are exactly what I was feeling so I thought I could delay the cleaning up a bit by snapping some photo’s.
I think I like the way the light has an early morning quality to it and therefore makes me question why I was even up!
My first entries into these competitions so I look forward to more!
Some really beautiful entries this week; thanks everyone who took part in it. I love Muntzeem’s entry; the colour and light is just incredible. Well done!
There were some fantastic entries this week, and it was tough choosing a winner.
Everyone will have different favourites – that’s ART for you!
dawwwww, least i made the list, will keep trying, some really good entries
wish i had this sort of talent
Sorry but I really don’t think the winner was justified this week, it’s a nice photo but it just doesn’t do anything for me. Congrats on the prize though. My favourite was quite a simple one with some spilt coffee beans.
As for me, I’m starting to worry that my equipment is seriously letting me down, the HX20V is a good point and shoot but it just compete on quality with a DSLR. Never mind, I have fun taking photos and that’s all that really matters.
Thanks for all the comments – really had fun with this challenge. Looking forward to putting my feet up whilst the vacuum does the grunt work from now on! Great entries from all on this one….
Some great shots in there, and in the Flickr pool. Happy to have come away with a high-five, and congrats to Adam.