Fortnightly Salon Competition (No.9)

Bearface · #1 14-01-07

Ok folks, here's the next one. Starting from 23.30 GMT today (Sunday 14th Jan 2007) and ending at 23.30 on Sunday 28th Jan 2007.......the theme for this salon is:

T I M E L E S S . . .

As with previous salon themes this one is open to your interpretation, however there are TWO mandatory criteria:

Firstly, the image you enter must be photographed especially for this salon competition; no archived images this time! I'm assuming that everyone will want to enter into the spirit of the contest by adhering to this, so no evidence or EXIF data will be required. I trust you...

Secondly, nothing within your image should reveal the era in which the shot was taken. Therefore you need to carefully consider and compose your shots to ensure that others will struggle to identify anything within the image which might reveal the period in which it was taken. We're talking "Timeless" here, remember...

**UPDATE: A couple of people have suggested that the "Timeless" criteria may seem a little ambiguous, so I'm happy to elaborate a little:

What I'm asking for are images which have no obvious references to any particular era or period. For example if a shot contained a beautiful old building and a modern car (or something easily identifiable as modern, such as an iPod), it'd be very easy to work out that it was taken recently. However if you frame a shot in which there are no modern (by modern I mean the past say.......60 or 70 years) references to help people identify the age of the image, then that shot will meet the criteria of the salon by virtue of it's "Timelessness". Similarly you need to try and avoid photographing people wearing any contemporary fashions; they need to be in the distance, sillhouetted or out of focus. So anything goes really, provided it doesn't immediately speak of a specific era. Hopefully that makes things a tad clearer? If not, PM me anytime

And that's about it. I'll be judging shots on how people have interpreted the theme, on atmosphere and mood and of course on technical merit, but the winning shot will be the one that I think has combined these qualities in the most successful way. Remember it's all a bit of good fun, but that it's also about challenging ourselves and advancing our skills, so let's see some real effort. Good luck to all and don't forget that the winner receives a 2GB Hi-Speed Kingston SD/CF card

THIS CONTEST IS FOR EVERYONE - EXPERIENCED, ADVANCED OR NOT. IF YOU PUT YOUR HEART AND SOUL INTO THIS, IT WILL NOT GO UNNOTICED - LITERALLY ANYONE CAN WIN. IF YOU HAVE A CAMERA AND THE SLIGHTEST SENSE OF WHAT MAKES A DECENT IMAGE, THEN YOU SHOULD GET OFF YOUR BACKSIDES AND ENTER THIS SALON...

Finally.........here are the rules:

1) All photographs are to be uploaded to the photo gallery at http://dpnow.com/galleries/, they can be put in members own gallery if they wish. The resulting link generated for the photo will then be pasted into the next available space in the Salon thread.
2) One entry per user ID only please, which must be the personal work of the entrant
3) Entries should be "in line" within the thread (not as links to an image held somewhere else)
4) Comments only on entries are welcome within the salon thread itself
5) After the close the curator will indicate a winner and a couple of runners up.
6) The curator's decision is final.
7) Winners should be offered first refusal to choose the next theme and curate the next salon.
8.) If the winner is unable to curate the next salon the current curator may offer that "honour" to any willing volunteer, possibly the entrant in second or third place
9) These rules are to be copied and pasted with a new theme by the new Curator at the top of the new Salon thread with a finish date and time
10) As with all photos posted on DPNow, copyright remains with the photographer and DPNow will not use them without permission

Bearface · #2 15-01-07

Just to illustrate the criteria for this new salon, I thought it might help if I posted an example.

The shot below has a timeless feel to it, because there is nothing within it to indicate whether the image was made 150 years ago, or as recently as last week. However on closer inspection, you can see a couple of things which to a certain extent give the game away........namely some telephone wires, a few TV aerials and a new road surface over the old cobblestones. None of these things would've been around when these buildings were new, so clearly it's easier to assume that the image was taken at least fairly recently. Had I cloned out the offending items, or at least composed the shot differently, I'd have made a shot which would've been very difficult to age with any degree of accuracy. That's what this salon is all about

Ian · #3 16-01-07

Hi Tim,

Presumably removal of temporal aberrations is OK, using skilful editing - even encouraged?

Ian

Bearface · #4 16-01-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

Hi Tim,

Presumably removal of temporal aberrations is OK, using skilful editing - even encouraged?

Ian

Definitely. I should think many of the compositions will inevitably feature temporal indicators which in the context of this salon will need to be removed rather than avoided by re-framing. So yes, it's okay to clone out inappropriate items

Andrew Thatcher · #5 16-01-07

Dam its going to take more than two weeks for me to build a time-machine

. Cant you change it to somethink like... Oh say Fluffy Kittens.

spl · #6 16-01-07

So you are talking short time history here - within the human era??

cause that pic definitely weren't shot in the time of the dinosaurs

Jocelyn Walker · #7 16-01-07

Bearface · #8 16-01-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by spl

So you are talking short time history here - within the human era??

cause that pic definitely weren't shot in the time of the dinosaurs

As I've said in the intro, the shot can be taken at any time, anywhere and can portray anything. However any clues to the PERIOD / ERA in which the shot was taken need to be minimized........so if you're photographing an old building, but there's a 2005 VW parked in the foreground, you've slightly missed the point. It's not about what you can or can't photograph, it's about making that image timeless, hence the theme's title

Jocelyn has posted a great example above..........there's nothing within the picture which indicates the era her shot was taken, so it therefore fulfills the "Timeless" brief perfectly.