August- September Assignment Calendar Photos

[F, Calla & Luca]

Back by popular demand we are doing calendar photos this month. This should give us plenty of time to get photos, critique them,  and in general try to help each other in this tough competition : ) I am copying some of Adina's past guidelines so you will have an idea of what's acceptable, assuming they will remain the same. I will also track down some of the back and forth we had about what's she looking for as far as content when I get a chance. Please only post photos that meet the minimal guidelines. We should all try to be honest in our comments. Sometimes I think we try to be nice , always a good thing, but avoid helpful criticism , which can also be a good thing. In this instance helpful criticism is to be encouraged I think.

Update: Adina's Guidelines

Update: 2011 Calendar Submission announcement

Update:  This assignment is going to continue for the month of September

For those of you asking about cameras and editing, this was taken with my Nikon D90, and I did barely any editing. See, no snow on Calla's nose

The original:

My submission, later cropped a bit more for the 2011 labradoodle calendar cover:

 

Update: Here are some more discussions that may give you more ideas of what Adina prefers. You have to wade through them.

1)

2)

3)

4)

***** If you crop, and you should only do this judiciously, the photos need a MINIMUM of 1800 x 2300 pixels when Adina submits them. It's better to leave a margin for error, Adina can fiddle with the size if she loves your picture and needs to crop a little.

[Camilla and Darwin]

Alright, I edited a few of them to make the backgrounds less noticeable. I don't know if these effects are too drastic for a calendar so other members should chime in on that front.

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I don't like the second picture but I prefer the background the way it was originally. It's Rooney that's the problem here, he doesn't look as well as he can. The last picture is better with the background blurred a bit. I prefer the original of the first , which I think is great as is.

[Linda and "Toby"]

I love the first one. If you could reshoot it with a shorter f/stop (f/4.0, for example) to add more "bokeh" (blur the background nicely) it would be better. The last one is great, too! Submit it!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I LOVE the first one with both Stuart and Rooney best.

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

Here is one of Parker's calendar boy photos

[F, Calla & Luca]

Nice photo if you could blur the gate. Also, you can post directly into the reply by using the second logo from the left above your response.

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

wish I knew how to blur the gate...not very technical. Also, you said to click the "permalink" logo? I did and nothing happened?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Permalink? No, when you post a reply you'll see a bar over the box. The first is link, the second is to post photos. Click that then a box should open and you can post the photo through there.

As to blurring the gate, maybe an editing guru can help. Ask for help and people often volunteer.

[Tina, Clover, Plus 5 More]

Katie, it is the 2nd button.  When you arrow over it should say "image".  This will allow you to upload the photo directly.  Hope this helps.

 

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

lol I have clicked that, but it just keeps going and never actually uploads the photo...I am having uploading issues with more than just this website it seems!

[Tina, Clover, Plus 5 More]

If you are using Internet Explorer 9 there are compatibility issues with DK and other sites. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I had a similar problem in the spring. But miraculously it fixed itself. I use Mozilla Firefox, which I generally love. I use 3.6.18 because I prefer the way the tabs work to the newest version.