I have won the August edition of Boston.com RAW photography contest! A little background on the contest. It is a monthly contest open to all amateur photographers, and there is a different theme every month. Each month they get local professional photographers to judge the contest. August’s theme was Architecture, the judge was Bruno Debas of the New England School of Photography, and unlike other months, this time the photo had to be taken during that particular month.
Here is the winning image!
A little info on the Building. This is the old Paramount theater, which for many years has sat dormant a victim of the combat zone era in Boston. But with the combat zone gone and the revitalization of Downtown Crossing, Emerson College has purchased the Paramount Theater and is restoring it to its old glory. Behind it stands the Ritz luxury towers, a great example of old and new architecture working together.
This image and the other winners for the month have stirred up quite the debate over at Boston.com. It seems some people think that the images are either over processed, the equipment used by the winners is expensive and they dont have a chance to win because they dont have the same equipment that we had etc. etc. etc. I have addressed these issues on the site, so have some of my peers, but to reiterate. Photography is more that how an image was processed. It is about light, composition, timing, feeling. I will say, this is an HDR image, now while I produce my share of HDR work, I don’t use HDR as a crutch, however when you are taking a photo in mid afternoon sun in a urban environment where shadows can do unpredictable things, HDR is a tool that will help you bring out the most of your images. Some people said that this photo was all Photoshop. Well this image has very little Photoshop work done to it. In fact the only work done in Photoshop was to clone out lens spots. Other than that Photomatix was used to create the HDR image, and Lightroom was used to adjust the HSL levels to bring the colors into balance with one another, and some dodging and burning was done.
Photography is an art form. Unless I am doing editorial photography and documenting a specific event for record, post processing is a standard affair to achieve the end result of how I saw the scene as I photographed it. With that said there are a lot of times where my photos have very little post processing, but there are occasions where I will process them, to bring out colors, textures, and light.
I am not sure if the people that criticized the amount my equipment cost, or the processing done are people that didn’t win and are upset/jealous because they feel that their images are better, or if they are just people that like to post negative things for the sake of being negative, let me offer up the following. Take a deep look within yourselves, are you attempting to become a professional photographer. If you are, are you truly serious about it? If you are serious about becoming a professional photographer, you have to sacrifice, you need to live, eat, sleep, talk about photography all the time. You need to get up before sunrise even when every bone in your body is telling you to stay in bed. You need to have a camera with you at all times, to catch a moment at any time. I have shot thousands of photos this year in a effort to improve my craft, I’ve gotten up at 4am to trek up to the North Shore to photograph a sunrise. Stayed up till one or two in the morning to get my photos downloaded cataloged processed and uploaded. I’ve spent, money that I know I shouldn’t have on gear, not because I wanted to get something, “more expensive or better”, but rather to get my practice to the next level. I can take photos with my $50 Holga that are just as good as my 5D mark II. However, I am not going to take a holga, into the white mountains to photograph waterfalls, I am going to take the equipment that is going to help me get the job done, whether that means purchasing or renting something. Not everyone needs a carbon fiber Gitzo tripod, but if you are going to be huffing it in the mountains or the streets of Boston, not only will it give you the most stable platform possible for your camera, it will save your back! Sacrifice is the name of the game for becoming a pro, if that means giving back, by offering free services to a cause or a charity, instead of getting paid, or eating microwaved noodles for a week, cause you need to rent that specialty lens to get a job done, you have to have the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak and realize while you may put your self temporarily between the proverbial rock and hard place, if you have the passion and want to make it, it will all work out in the end.
So get out there shooting, keep your passion alive, be constructive not destructive, improve your skills, and help others improve theirs, because at the end of the day, photography is about community.
