Get Your New Castle Images Published

Dear New Castle Photo Walkers,

I have been contacted by Oliver Brown who is responsible for content on the Ye Olde New Castle Crier website (www.NewCastleCrier.com). Oliver is very interested in gathering some great images of the town for the website. If you are interested in helping out with your images, please contact him at o.brown@newcastlecrier.com . There is no monetary incentive, but seeing your work on a highly visible website is very rewarding. You will get attribution for your image(s).

Also, Oliver asked me to mention that for anyone with interest in garden photography, New Castle will be holding a series of “Hidden Garden” tours in August. Eight private gardens will be opened to the public on Saturdays and Sundays on August 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29. The tours are unguided so photographers can take as long as they wish. There is a charge of $5/person. For more information, contact Oliver at 0.brown@newcastlecrier.com

We Have a Winner!

Pete Harvison's image is our Historic New Castle Photo Walk winning image. Congratulations, Pete! It has been entered into the worldwide competition that Scott Kelby will be judging. The Grand Prize and honorable mention winners will be announced on August 16.

So, how and why was Pete's image chosen? First, let me tell you; this was an excruciating exercise for me and my wife, Assunta, because all your images were excellent! I would like to submit all of your photos!

After a laborious evaluation of the 18 exceptional images, I ended up with five semi-finalists, then three finalists. I wanted to choose an image that would have a good chance of winning a prize in the worldwide competition.

Pete's image meets my personal qualifications for a winning photograph. It succeeds because it answers three questions which I always strive for in my own photography:

1. Does the image have a theme?

Pete's image is about Historic New Castle. That is the theme, plain and simple. This image shows us a typical architectural feature seen throughout the town, plus a touch of the past with the colonial flags waving in the breeze.

2. Does the image focus attention on the subject?

First, let's consider what the subject is in this image. Is it the building façade? Or, are the flags playing the dominant role? Where do your eyes immediately go to when first viewing this image? For me, it's the flags. There are two compositional elements here that immediately lead my eye to the flags each and every time I look at the image. One, of course, is the mix of colors of the flags - contrasting with the solid blue sky. Color itself is an important element of composition. The other compositional element is the doorway which really acts as an arrow - a pointer - which tells your eye where to look!

3. Does the image simplify?

Distracting objects in an image are just that: distracting! They take away from the image. They prevent the viewer from focusing on the subject and theme that the maker wants to impart. I always check all around the frame to make sure nothing encroaches into the scene and result in my viewer missing the point of the image. This is definitely the case in Pete's image. It's clean. No blemishes on the doorway or the rest of the façade. No distracting signs on the wall, and a nice solid blue sky.

As an aside, I'd like to commend Pete for taking a look upward! In some photography talks I have given I have challenged the audience to look up when going out for a photo shoot -- there are lots of interesting images to capture there!!

So there you have it! Pete's image is successful, and the winner in our local Historic New Castle Photo Walk contest.

Finally, please remember that a photo competition is very subjective. As judges, we struggle to avoid applying our own biases and preferences when judging images that we come across. We have our own criteria, our own favorite techniques, our personal dislikes. Fact is, we each view our world differently through our camera viewfinders.

If you don't "win" a photo competition, it does not necessarily mean your image is in any way bad. Just be sure to study the results of any competition, and analyze the critiques carefully. View competition as a learning experience. You are likely to gain tips and techniques that help you develop your "photographer's eye" further.

When asked to judge a competition, I strive to avoid my own partialities and preferences. Instead, I focus on those three principles of good photography that I enumerated above. For this competition, I know that Scott Kelby, an experienced professional photographer, will do the final judging. I have to assume that Scott will use the same judging criteria, and so I am doubly sure to follow them myself in order to increase the chances that one of our own Walkers wins the Grand Prize.

Congratulations to each and every one of you for your excellent work!

Sandro V Cuccia

Leader, New Castle Photo Walk

www.DEPhotoWalk.com

IMAGE UPLOADING

Since I've put you through my own style of "information overload" over the past 10 days or so, you may have missed the information about uploading your competition entry image.

Go to www.WorldWidePhotoWalk.com, scroll down a bit to the blog section, and you will find the instructions there. You will need your login credentials that you used to register for the walk.

FYI - as of Wednesday 10AM, six Walkers have submitted their image.

Prepping your ONE image for upload:

> Do whatever you need to do for your editing of the actual final image.
> Since your image will only be used for display on a web site, you will save at a lower resolution (meaning the height and width in pixels). A good size to send is a maximum of 1000 pixels on the longest side. PPI settings are not relevant to viewing on screen. Maximum file size is 1 MB
> When saving to JPG. Use a quality of at least 10 (or 80%).

Remember ... the deadline is July 31, 11:59 pm EST.

What happens next? I have the honor of judging a winning image from our group. My deadline for that is August 7, and I will keep everyone informed as to the status. The local winner will receive a Kelby Training book (and they are all excellent books, by the way) plus a chance at winning first place or one of ten honorable mentions when Scott Kelby chooses for the worldwide contest in mid-August.

Remember, even though our Photo Walk is behind us for this year, you still need to go out and shoot lots of pictures - everyday, if you can!

Sandro Cuccia

Leader, Historic New Castle Photo Walk

www.DEPhotoWalk.com

It Was a Glorious Walk! (And now for the real work!)

What a delightful time we all had at our Historic New Castle Photo Walk! The 100-degree weather made it even more delightful! Not only was the weather good, but the camaraderie was great, and our Leader was delightful, if I say so myself! In many ways, the fact that the the town was not crowded with (other) visitors was a plus and actually contributed to a very relaxing event. I observed many of our Walkers just taking their time and putting lots of thought into their photography - or maybe it was the heat that made all of us move in slow motion!

And ... the chimping was fast and furious!

Our "Chimp and Chew" session turned out fine, after-all - and, it was fun! Thanks to the efforts of my wife, Assunta, we managed to get a last-minute group lunch organized at Jack's Bistro. We met Oliver Brown, publisher of the Ye Olde New Castle Crier website (www.NewCastleCrier.com) who facilitated our accommodations at Jack's Bistro. I enjoyed meeting everyone and talking about our common passion. I saw lots of business card pumping! Jack's Bistro was a perfect spot, the food and service were excellent, and we practically had the entire dining room to ourselves.

By now, you should have received instructions for submitting your ONE photo for the contest. Those instructions are sent by the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk organization, and you will be submitting your photo through the web page where you signed up for the walk. (Hopefully, you remember your login information, yes?) The instructions are also located on the home page of www.WorldWidePhotoWalk.com ... just scroll down a bit to where the blog entries start.

Don't forget to keep checking www.DEPhotoWalk.com for updates from me as we go through the image-selection process.

Now, the hard part begins ... looking over your hundreds of images; deciding which one to submit because they're ALL good.

I'll speak for myself and tell you that in general, I shoot 80/20. Eighty percent are culled out; the rest are keepers. This is why I tell people to TAKE LOTS OF SHOTS of each subject. Try different angles, different orientation, different focal lengths, closer, farther away, try selective focus through aperture settings, etc.

When reviewing your images, don't go crazy selecting your good and best ones. Delete with impunity! At the very least, move your discards off your computer and onto external media.

Additionally, I urge my students to really understand and work with the three components of Exposure - Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO. That and correct metering willminimize your time post-processing at the computer! The idea put simply: get it right in-camera and minimize digital editing.

One final suggestion; choose an image that is YOUR favorite.

Having said that, there are certain elements I look for in a winning photograph:

1. Does the image have a theme? Does it tell a story? Is your message clear? For example, even if you take a picture of the diagonal patterns on the boardwalk, that is your theme. Don't ruin it by framing poorly and having distracting elements within the frame.

2. Does the image focus attention on the subject? How are you using certain elements of composition to help my eyes go immediately to the subject? For example, we had lots of "S-Curves" at the Riverfront. The S-curve is a classic element of composition and can be used successfully to lead the viewer's eye. Framing techniques and selective focus are other techniques to try.

3. Does the image simplify? Distracting objects within the frame are definite no-nos. Get into the habit of examining every bit of your frame when shooting, especially the edges. Watch out for clutter (unless, of course, clutter is part of your theme), and things that don't belong.

So, fire up the 'puter, backup your files, and let the culling begin!

Remember ... check www.DEPhotoWalk.com for updates.

Thanks for making our Photo Walk a big success!

Sandro Cuccia

www.DEPhotoWalk.com

We Have a Flickr Group! Join Us!!

We have a new Flickr Group for our Photo Walk photos! The link is HERE [http://www.flickr.com/groups/dephotowalk] and it's called "Worldwide Photo Walk - 2010 - Historic New Castle"

Flickr.com is an excellent photo-sharing website that I gladly recommend to all photographers - beginners and professionals alike. I've been using it for quite a while for my own purposes, and I think it's a fantastic service not only for sharing images, but for discussing and learning all things photography by joining different "Groups" - like special interest groups - within Flickr. I've joined several Flickr photography groups and it's quite enjoyable and educational. And, it’s all free!

The purpose of our Flickr group is for you to upload as many images as you want from your New Castle photo walk and to share them and talk about them. This is completely optional and unrelated to your uploading the contest entry. That is done through the main Worldwide Photo Walk site, and you will be receiving separate instructions for that.

Our Flickr group is a public group - meaning that anyone can view the images. However, membership is by invitation only so I can restrict membership to our photo walk participants only -- that is, only our group members can upload images.

In order to participate, here's what you do:

1. If you don't have one already, create a Flickr account. It's free. To learn more about setting up an account, go to www.Flickr.com . Also, “RC” from the home Worldwide Photo Walk organization has created a short video HERE to show you more about how to set up a Flickr account. You will upload your Photo Walk photos to your Flickr account first.

2. Join our Flickr Group. In order to be able to participate in our Photo Group and discussion, visit our Group page www.flickr.com/groups/dephotowalk, and follow the prompts to join our Group. I will receive an email from your account, and I will activate your membership into the Group.

3. Share your Photo Walk images. Once your membership is activated, you will see our Group listed in your account's groups listing. (There is a "Groups" menu at the top of your Flickr home page). You can then select the Photo Walk images that you uploaded previously to your own Flickr account, and make them available to our Group. You don't actually move them or copy them to the group, they get linked to the Group so others can view them.

By the way, as an aside, if you already have or will have a Flickr account, I suggest that you click on your account settings page and look over all your settings to make sure you are protecting your privacy and copyrights adequately. Notice that you can restrict what your viewers can do with your photos, and you can restrict what resolutions are available for downloads. You can also prohibit the downloading and printing of your images.

I hope you take advantage of the Flickr group! It's a fantastic resource from all photographers.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Sandro V Cuccia

Leader, New Castle Photo Walk

www.DEPhotoWalk.com

Just One More Day!

Well, tomorrow is our Photo Walk! I hope you are looking forward to this as much as I am! The weather forecast is looking pretty good (but hot), and we should have some nice early to mid-morning light for that added depth and dimension to our outdoor photography.

Now, about tomorrow...

You should arrive in the area by 9 AM. There are no parking lots to speak of, but you should find plenty of curb-side parking that early in the morning. We congregate at the northeast corner of Delaware and Third Streets (on "The Green"). I will be the big, goofy looking guy in a white Photowalk T-Shirt and khaki photographer's vest.

Please note: We are NOT meeting in Battery Park as originally stated on the Worldwide Photo Walk registration site.

Did you check out the Historic New Castle Map? Also, don't forget to check the official Historic New Castle Website.

OUR SCHEDULE ...

> Arrive by 9 AM to get your gear ready

> Gather around at 9:15 for last-minute announcements (Delaware & Third Streets)

> Everyone fans out individually or in small groups to photograph the area. There is no set plan or route as the location is fairly compact. Consult the map (see link above).

> The Photo Walk officially ends at 11:30 AM. However, you can certainly continue if you wish.

> There will be no formalities at the end of the walk, but we'll have informal Chimp and Chew sessions at the location of your choice. Check previous blog entries here for some suggestions.

MY ROLE AS YOUR WALK LEADER ...

It has been a pleasure organizing a local walk for the New Castle, Delaware area. Unless I get pummeled and harassed by my fellow walkers, I plan to lead more of these (the downside is that I can't be eligible to win the prizes, but then again I never win anything). I already have some ideas for venues at future walks.

My job tomorrow is simply this: to facilitate the gathering of like-minded photography enthusiasts for a social photo shoot. Once you arrive on site, you are more-or-less on your own, but I still urge you to form small groups and share your knowledge and photography.

My other task will be to handle the photo contest portion of the walk. I will be judging your entries for the best-of-the-Walk for a local prize. I will then submit that winning image for the Worldwide competition.

During the Walk, I will spend my time tracking down the groups throughout the morning (as long as I can keep up), and offering any advice I can. I will also be photographing YOU photographing! I may even do a video, even though I am a still photographer. We'll use these for future walks.

FINALLY ...

At the Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk website, there are other last-minute articles for you to check out. Also, be sure to read the news about some post-Walk activities and web-events.

See you tomorrow!

Sandro V Cuccia

Leader, New Castle Photo Walk

www.DEPhotoWalk.com

My Top Ten Last-Minute Photo Tips To Help You Get the Most From Our New Castle Photo Walk

Here are my top-ten last-minute tips to help you get the most from our Wilmington Photo Walk on Saturday:

1. Prepare Your Gear!

There's nothing worse than showing up for a shoot and realizing that you forgot something critical. Similarly - and this happened to me a lot - you do your on-location shoot, then get home ready to review your images, and you realize that you had a wrong setting on the camera. Examples of this would be -- the autofocus mode, the metering mode, the white balance, and others.

It's a good idea to prepare everything the night before, get a good night's sleep, and before you take off in the morning, do one last check of things.

I prepared for my photography students a handy checklist modeled after my own. I think you may find it helpful, too - whether you tend to travel with lots of camera gear or you like to keep it simple. I have a PDF version of my checklist that you may download directly by clicking on this link.

2. No SLR? Not-a-problem!

You certainly CAN do a photo shoot and win contests with a "point-and-shoot" camera and even a cellphone camera. Those of us who need tip 1 above and use lengthy checklists might be gadget geeks and have all the latest gear, but that DOES NOT assure success as a photographer! Remember, if you grasp the basic concepts of photography-- composition, exposure, and light -- you can and will make incredible images! Think of this: "it's not the violin, it's the violinist!"

3. Keep Things Simple!

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is nothing wrong with limiting your gear to one camera and one lens. When I do this on a particular shoot or trip, it forces me to be more methodical with my photography. It helps to really get down-and-dirty with the particular camera or lens and really understand how to get the most out of it.

4. Give Yourself an Assignment - and Stick To It!

When going out for a Photo Walk, an interesting approach might be to have a particular goal or theme for the shoot. Some examples: Photographing people (how about just photographing the other participants), local architecture, angles, wide-angle photography, HDR (High Dynamic Range photography), depth-of-field manipulation for selective focus, certain compositional elements (eg; circles, leading lines, etc.), or a particular color. Giving yourself such assignments can often get you out of the photographic doldrums!

5. Take lots of pictures!

There is no excuse for not taking tons of photos with today's digital cameras! These little computers with lenses allow us to capture boatloads of images at no cost. The instant feedback we get on the LCD display is one of the greatest learning tools around. It opens up many doors to creativity and experimentation. You can't fully grasp the concepts of photography without lots of practice, so go out there and shoot like a nut! Study your images during the shoot and afterwards at the computer. Analyze themetadata from your camera so you understand how the settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc) you selected affected the resulting image.

6. Make Friends; "Network."

We photographers are a geeky bunch. We love to get together to talk photo gear, the old darkroom days, get into Nikon vs Canon debates, and show each other our best images. A Photo Walk is a great opportunity to meet like-minded enthusiasts who share this passion called photography. So bring your smiles and your business cards! Get to know your fellow walkers, and join us for our"Chimp and Chew" after the walk. [If you never heard that term - Chimp - and how it relates to photography, ask me at the Walk].

7. Respect People and Property.

Although we will be photographing in a public area, please be mindful of the people around you. Be particularly careful if you choose to photograph strangers, and especially children. You will find that most people do not object to being photographed - particularly if you approach them and tell them that they have an interesting look. Ask if they wouldn't mind photographing them for your own photographic education. Remember that if you want to use images of people for publication and/or commercial use, you will need to obtain a signed release from them. A nice gesture would be to offer to mail them a copy of the photo.

As for property, one pet peave of mine is when photographers move objects (chairs, tables, trash cans, etc) to clean up a scene for a photo, and then don't replace the items back in their original places. Please be certain to leave a scene as you found it. Some property might require a release for photography as well. I don't think we need to worry about this for Saturday's shoot, but just keep it in mind.

8. Learn From Others <> Share Your Knowledge With Others.

Get to know the photographers you will shooting with. Share techniques, tips, perspectives on the scenes at hand.

9. Stay Safe!

Be aware of your surroundings as you walk around concentrating on the little monitor on the back of your camera. You don't want to end up in the Delaware River! Stay out of restricted areas while participating in the Photo Walk. Finally, stay hydrated! Bring water, and protect yourself adequately from the sun rays by using sun screen and wearing a hat.

10. Have Fun!

As with any other activity you engage in, if you don't have a good time with photography, then think about getting out of it and trying something else to give you satisfaction and a way to temporarily escape from life's pressures. Let's face it, unless you do photography professionally, you're engaging in photography because you are passionate about it. Learn by your mistakes, take things in stride, relax and enjoy this wonderful pass-time!

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Sandro V Cuccia

Leader, New Castle Photo Walk

www.DEPhotoWalk.com