Jan. 5, 2016----CSCC meeting:

Got back into South Florida just in time for our next camera club meeting.  I had sent in my digital pictures before we headed to Oregon.  So long, in fact, that I had forgotten what I submitted!  The assigned category for Jan. was "animals".  So I decided to enter one from one of my favorite passtimes---snorkeling.    I have thousands of great underwater photos, but chose this one because of the amount of coral, pencil urchins, depth, and color that it has.  Although the judge did say he really liked it, he only managed to give it an 8.

 This was his recommendation---crop in to just the one moorish idol and the bigger pencil urchin.  I had plenty more that were more close up, but personally liked the above one better. 

 In the open division, I decided to stay with Maui and submit one of my surfer photos.  He really liked that one, too.  Commented a couple times he wondered how the photographer got that angle since usually photographers are shooting at beach level.  I actually shot this from a cliff.  He had nothing negative or suggestions on how to improve it, but only gave it a 9.  I guess I shouldn't be disappointed in that, there were only a handful of 10s and not that many 9s. 

At the last minute, I decided to print out a picture to take for the assigned printed group.  So I printed out these little guys---juvenile monk seals.  The photo was actually taken by Ken, but I entered it to see if he would warrant a 10.  The judge really liked it, too, but suggested it have a vignette added to the edges to highlight the seals and some catch light in their eyes, and gave it an 8.    I thought these guys were very unique in that they are "monk" seals---you don't expect to see 2 together.

  It's interesting what the different judges pick to criticize.  He's the first one to mention vignette.