365 Day Sixty-Three -Flickr Duel winner for color BROWN

365 Day Sixty-Three, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

My latest win. This was a shot from when I was doing my 360 project last year. This was is processed to have a kind of etheral quality.

Simple Beauty at Sunset

Simple Beauty at Sunset.jpg, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

Another Flickr Duel win (this time for Flora in the Color group). This is from almost two years ago. The light (late afternoon) was just perfect and it was just a matter of positioning myself in a way to get good out of focus color in the background to complement the composition. I used to shoot a lot of flowers, mostly wild flowers out around people’s mail boxes and front yards. With spring fast approaching, hoping to do more of that soon.

Another Flickr Duel win

365 Day Fifteen Rejects-8, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

This photo won in the Home/Cover Page contest in the color group.

Schaulis (winner, Flickr Duel color portrait)

chinadoll201-1, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

This is the most recent of my photos to win a Flickr Duel. It’s of my good friend Schaulis who made the dress she is wearing for this shoot (we were trying to get a china doll look).

Bozo

Bozo, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

Been playing around with various Android Apps to improve the stock camera on my new Droid X. I’ve never really used a phone camera for anything more than snapshots and quick videos of the kids, but there’s an 8mp camera in the Droid X (and 720p HD video that can be sent to TV through a micro HDMI conncetion) so I thought I’d play around with it some. First up was to get an app that would improve the interface (which was poorly customizable). I’ve tried Retro Camera (pretty decent) and a few others, but Vignette is my definite favorite. It has numerous effects that it can apply and is also a nice easy interface for shooting with the basic default camera. While I’m at it, for those of you with a Droid phone, get Android Flickr (makes it quick and easy to send stuff into you stream, view recent photos, exlplore, and even thumbnail through photos you’ve marked as favorites. It’s a little rough looking, but it works great.

Sitll Life winner for Flickr Duel (mono)

DSC_0347, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

Still entering photos at Flickr Duel. Lot’s of fun. This is a still life from a beach trip during summer of 2009 and my latest winner. You can see a slide show of all (21) winners HERE.

 Thanks for visiting.

Flickr Duel

Christmas 2009-1-2, originally uploaded by Brian Chmura.

I’ve been participaing in some short form contsests on Flickr Duel. 6 photso are entered into each duel…in various categories. This photo won in the Black and White contest for square format. The contests run continuously…once there are 6 photos entered it goes to voting for some period of time and then a winner is announced. A new contest starts as soon as the previous one fills up. There are a large number of categories to compete in. Each photo may only be used once on Flickr Duel. So this photo can’t be entered into People, Portrait, Children…or any other category. I’ve won about 20 or so duels in the last week or two with both old an new work. Most importantly, I’ve discovered some great photographers from among those who compete on the site. And that’s the important thing. It’s nice to be recognized…but I am more interested in “meeting” other photographers who inspire me more than the competition does. Still…I have been successful in the duels against some pretty stiff competition and have to admit I feel a sense of pride in that.

Also, it game me something to write about, and a photo to share, today.

Here are a few other of my photos that have one duels (and the category in which they won)

This photo won in the Mono Group, “Minimalist” category.   It was taken the same day as the photo at the top of this post.  Our flight was delayed and Molly and I went around the airport taking pictures for awhile to pass the time.

    This photo won in the Alpha (mixed color and black and white entries) for the category “Orange.”  It’s a part of my ongoing yard art series taken last spring.  The Alpha group is a clearing house of sorts.  You must win 10 duels (and vote in at least 10 other contests) in order to be eligbile to compete in the Color and Mono groups. 

Finally, though it appeared here on my blog just last week, I will repost the picture of Molly that I entered into (and won) my first duel.  The photo was invited to the group for competition by one of the moderators and it’s how I found Flickr Duel in the first place. 

Molly in her new, custom knitted (by a friend of Grandma's) hat