Calendar Winners 2014

[F, Calla & Luca]

Everyone is invited to post their Calendar winners here. congratulations to all. I do know how many great photos were not able to fit in. This is the one place in this group where the word calendar is allowed until next year when sometime around August the madness starts again : ) I really prefer, and I am sure you all do too , to hear general comments on photos or specific points, pro and con, rather than " This is a calendar  winner for sure." We know there is no such thing. Or "Save this for the calendar. Anyone who doesn't know a highly praised photo is a possible submission, well need I say more. But we all know we worked hard. All the photos I saw deserved to win and hundreds more did too. We worked hard and the calendars look great. Adina has an impossible task she did well!

Addendum: someone remind us of this next year:

Adina P replied to your discussion "Calendar Winners 2014" in Photography Group on DoodleKisses.com

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If I may add some notes/suggestions for next year:

1) Practice removing leashes with photoshop and have someone check your work before submitting.  Some really nice photos either didn't or almost didn't make the cut because it was very obvious that a leash/collar/harness was erased.

2) Avoid really close crops especially if the crop is a bit tall or a bit wide.  Such crops will lead to the chopping off of heads, chins, tails or feet if they are closely cropped and/or tall or wide.  Cloning to add height or width to the photo can help!

3) Only ONE excellent photo per dog ;-)  Just kidding.  But when discussing photos with a friend of mine who has helped me deliberate year to year, her first comment about this year's photos was about how EVEN BETTER they were than last year.  Made for a tough job.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Hang on F I am going to start a new thread.  As you said this probably doesn't belong here.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

@F Something just occurred to me.

Is there really a way to control F or command F? I think not! ha ha

[F, Calla & Luca]

Too true, only the computer version : )

[Camilla and Darwin]

AMEN Jay, this is what I've been trying to say but have been unable to articulate. The "editing" actions you take are the same thing as what the camera does - so why does one have the stigma?

 In addition, the idea people have that editing is a new thing and dishonest is ludicrous, professional photographers have been doing this from the start NOT just with digital photography. It's part of the process and always have been.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Then we confuse things even more by talking about "editing" each other's work.  For example, I take a photo, transfer the raw file to my computer, use lightroom to "develop" it into a JPEG and then upload to DK.  You download my JPEG, make some changes and then repost.  We refer to this as your "edit".

I can see why someone might look at this conversation and thing that my JPEG is the original and yours is an edited version, but actually I don't think that is how we are are using "edit" in this context.  What you have edited is not my photo, but my developing of the RAW file.  You just started with the JPEG because we don't have a practical way for me to give you my RAW file together with all the settings for you to tinker with directly.  But I think that what you really are doing is not editing my photo but editing my developing.  Kind of like you are saying, I see they way you developed that RAW file - but if it were me I would develop it like this.  Assuming you are not doing something drastic like removing a leash.
 

[DJ & Chance]

I always shoot in raw and raw files require some editing.  So, I guess this would be a calendar in which the camera edited photos as it produced jpg files.  I haven't looked at a camera edited file for some time--it probably does a better job than I do :)

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

On something of a tangent, what I have been making sure to do lately is to set the white balance on the camera before taking the shot.  I used to think who cares, just set it to auto and sort it out in Lightroom. But I've been making a point of choosing daylight, cloudy, etc. on the front end and I am positive the camera does a better job - at least gets it to a closer starting point.  One of these days I'm going to remember to use one of those little grey cards and I will compare for real.

[Camilla and Darwin]

That is interesting - my cloudy is always too warm and my daylight too cool. Auto is usually the most reliable thing for me to use, but I do tweak it a bit after in PS

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

I know a lot of people say that.  In fact I have never heard anyone say what I said but I really do think it is true, at least with this camera.

[Camilla and Darwin]

What camera do you have, out of curiosity? 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Jay has a Nikon D 7000 or 7100.

[Camilla and Darwin]

Ah. I've heard that Nikon white balances (especially "cloudy") work a lot better than the Canon ones.