The following photos were my first entries into any contest at the Cleveland Photographic Society.  The main theme was "Pictorial", which is an all encompassing category that includes any photo you've ever taken or edited to any degree.

"Before the Light"

2012-02-10 "Before the light"

Contest Score: Second Place

(this photo later became "Photograph of the Year" during the year end competition!)

Location: LaDue Reservoir (http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/laduereservoir) - during a Bass fishing tournament

Camera gear:

- Canon Digital Rebel XT

- Tamron 17-200mm telephoto lens

- Cokin graduated filters (I used a Sunset filter, and possibly a 2 graduated Neutral Density filter... but don't remember as I don't take notes)

Photo Specs:

Raw Image

Focal Length: 200mm

Aperture: f/6.3

Shutter Speed: 1/200

ISO: 800

Software used:

- Photoshop

- Noise reduction software

Print medium: Metallic photo paper

Lessons learned:

- Metallic paper does a great job at accentuating certain colors in photos, however, if you have a photo with a lot of highlights, it could work against you, as those highlights could look "blown out".

"Autumn Stairs"

2012-02-10 "Autumn Stairs"

Contest Score: 20/27

Location: Bridal Veil Falls in Bedford Metroparks (http://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/Main/Bridal-Veil-Falls.aspx)

Camera gear:

- Canon Digital Rebel XT

- Promaster 11-18mm Ultra wide angle Lens

- Cokin graduated Neutral Density filter

Photo Specs:

Raw Image

Focal Length: 11mm

Aperture: f/4.5

Shutter Speed: 1/250

ISO: 800

Software used:

- Photoshop

- Noise reduction software

Lessons learned:

- I ended up cropping this photo from it's original 2x3 to a 4x5 aspect ratio to fit within an 11x14 photo mat, I lost a good portion of the photo by doing this. This negatively affected the look of the photo, which cost me points in a contest where every point matters!  I have learned not to change the aspect ratio of a photo just to fit within the mat.  Instead, I should have left the ratio alone, and purchased/created a mat that matched the photo's original dimensions.

- Still being new to the whole photo editing process, I did an extensive amount of "noise" removal.  The original photo had a lot of grain in it, but not a lot of "hot pixels".... I didn't realize that when printing, that grain would barely be recognizable, so I did far more than I should.  When you look at this photo, you'll see that it's really smooth, where you can't see fine detail in the wood on the stairs.  Now everything looks plastic and undefined.

Well there you have it... My first blog, about my first photo contest entries at the Cleveland Photographic Society.  I'll be posting every contest entry to date, as I find the time.  I'm hoping that with your comments, I can refine this to be more comprehensive and entertaining.  My ultimate goal is to help teach people some of the things I've learned along the way.  If you take anything away from this, being entertainment or new ideas, then I have done what I've set out to do!

Please let me know what you think!

Have a great day!

 Dan