NMP Challenge Submissions: April-Symmetry
- May 9, 2008 -
This is quite a bit overdue, but here are a handful of images from those participating in April’s photo challenge with the theme of “symmetry”. I thought this would be a bit more difficult than the first, but you guys were able to pull together some quality shots here. To start, my favorite has to go to Taffy out in Philly…I’m a sucker for ring shots…
…side note: reflection shots of tables etc. can be very difficult to set correctly. It all begins with good light (as is with all aspects of photography)…
The rest of these submissions were brought in by Marily (photo credit to Yliram), Leena T and Briana.
[Marily]
[Leena T]
[Briana]
Remember, May’s challenge has already been posted, and I think it’s SO FUN! Get all your friends involved to do some exciting stuff. The theme is music/movie titles, so get creative, set things up, and start shooting! Image you are creating a CD/DVD cover…what would it look like? I’m so excited!
natemathai |
filed under: Photo Challenge, art
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#7 (2 of 12)
- March 11, 2008 -
This post is long overdue, but I’ve finished my second book in my race of 1 book a month for 2008, “UnChristian”. Like I stated in an earlier post, I’ve already started my next book which is “Never Eat Alone.” For now, a recap:
I was pretty excited/interested getting into this book. The premise of it is seeing how a new generation view “Christians” and the Christian faith. As a whole, its a very interesting topic, with a lot of research put behind it. A lot more research than I expected. Much of the book was stating the results of different surveys that were given, from how people view different issues pertaining to Christianity. Although it was more stats than I would have liked, there were some interesting points brought up:
- Christians seem to be too concerned with a “Get Saved” mentality, trying to convert the world and not really caring for the individual. (What happens after they ‘get saved’?
- Those outside of the faith have a smaller community of friends who do not follow the same belief. (If they are called to reach the unreached, why aren’t they interacting with them regularly?)
- There’s a perception that Christians do not live in ‘reality’…they don’t understand what’s going on the world, how society is run, and the likes. (It’s not as perfect as they make it seem).
Now, I don’t agree with every conclusion that was brought on through the research, but there are a great amount of points that need reflecting on.
Apart from Christianity, this is an important concept for people to think about. How do those around you perceive you, your community, your business? Where is the truth behind the statements? How can you change the perceptions that you are giving off so people get a true look at who you (your community | your business) really is?
And as a fun addition, here are a few images on my walk home from work today, with some fun processing. With the weather getting better, I’m excited to finally have more opportunities to get the outdoor shots that aren’t just snow!
natemathai |
filed under: art, personal
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NMP Photo Challenge: March
- March 4, 2008 -
Hey everyone! OK, so I got good feedback from people interested in talking part in the monthly photo challenge, so we’ll get started now and see how it goes. Please read through the directions to help this flow as smooth as possible. I’ve been going through many different concepts for photo themes, so I’m very excited to see what people will come up with. But for the first one, I figured I’ll start very simple.
THEME: Yellow
(here’s a little something to get you seeing yellow)
DIRECTIONS | RULES | REQUIREMENTS
- Be creative! Think outside of the box. Use different angles. Just before you take the picture, think what would make the image stand out more.
- Focus on the theme. Take the picture in a way that the theme ‘jumps out’ at you (blatantly, or creatively).
- Images must be taken by you (do not submit images that are not yours…that’s just wrong).
- There is no limit to the number of images a person can submit (this might change in the future…but for now, just shoot and send!)
- Images can have basic adjustments (exposure, crop, white balance, highlight/shadows, contrast) using photoshop or your favorite image editor, but should not be drastically edited (it shouldn’t look “photoshopped”). We want to show our visions before we press the shutter, not after we sit at the computer!
SUBMISSION
- All images should be re-sized to have a maximum length of 500 pixels. (I don’t need your full-resolution images, we’re just posting them online). I’ll post directions below.
- Please do not place any sort of watermark on your images. I will provide credit and link back to you with your information presented, but I’d like to keep the individual images as pure as possible when I receive it.
- E-mail all images to challenge@nmathaiphotography.com , with the month submitted for somewhere in the subject (ie. “March Photo Challenge”).
- Please include the following information in your e-mail:
- Your name (and whether you would like me to post your it or not)
- Your website/blog (for me to link back to)
- Title of your image (if you have one)
- Vision with the image (why did you take this picture the way that you did?)
And that’s that! Just get creative, and open your eyes to the world around you. Like I said, think outside the box. Take a couple ’safe’ shots (things that obviously fall under the category of “yellow”) and then push the envelope a bit. I know my blog readers can be an artistic bunch if you try, so go! Let me know if you have any questions on the challenge, as this is the first one, there will probably be many details to iron out as we get this thing set. For now, just get out there, see reality, and start shooting!
!!!!BONUS PHOTO TIP!!!!
Re-sizing an Image for the web
Photos can be very large in size when taken from the camera, which is great if you want to make a 16×20 canvas, but useless if you’re just e-mailing a picture to friends or posting an image on the blog. Most online photo hosting sites will shrink your images to display properly, but if you shrink it before hand, you can upload faster and upload more! So unless you’re planning on printing it, shrink it. A general rule of thumb would be to have the resolution at 72ppi/dpi for web, and 300ppi/dpi for print. Also, for my challenges, I’d like the images to be no larger that 500pixels on the largest size, because that’s just a good viewable size and easier to deal with. So here’s how you can do that.
In Photoshop:
- Go to File->Automate->Fit Image, and set both values to 500 pixels.
- Then go to File->Save As, and save it as a jpg image, at a quality of around 7-8.
Using Picasa:
- Click Export to Folder
- Under Image Size, move the slider to set it at 500.
This should shrink your images considerably and make them faster to upload/e-mail.
[You guys interested in photo tips? General photography or post-processing? Let me know and maybe I'll post things like this more often]
natemathai |
filed under: Photo Challenge, art
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I’m Thinking of a Challenge…
- February 29, 2008 -
Pretty much everyone and their mother has a camera nowadays, by it a D3, an XT, a simple P&S, or even a camera phone. At a wedding, about 75% of the people there will have some sort of camera (no factual evidence for that statistic). And I think it’s a great thing. I feel like so many people, though, are not letting themselves really use this tool to get a deeper glimpse in the world around them, which is one of the things that I love about photography. As I walk down the street, I immediately see a massive picture with great details, be it signpost, a colored door, or a distant statue. And many times, as we walk through the day consumed with the concerns of ourselves, we walk right past the beauty that’s around us.
So I was thinking of possibly doing some sort of “Monthly Challenge” thing, basically in an effort for people to take more pictures and get creative; to experience the beauty and ‘reality’ of the world they live in and share it with the rest of us. There would be a simple topic/theme to cover, and then for the month you would go and ’search’ for it., take LOADS of pictures, and e-mail them to me. I’ll combine them all and post the different perspective that we all have on the same idea. What do you think? Here’s an example scenario to show you want I mean…
Theme: Color
And people would submit (these images are from a free stock photo site):
It’d be very interesting to see how different people perceive the same direction. Even though we’re all looking at the ’same thing’, we will all have different aspects of it that jump out at us. And recognizing the differences in people’s perceptions will inevitably open up our eyes. So…do you want to play?
This will only work if we have a decent number of people participating, so let me know (leave comments!) and if we get a good response I’ll post the first theme. Maybe I’ll even pick my favorite one (totally subjective 
) and that person can win a special prize. So…let me know! Happy shooting people, open your eyes and keep it real…
natemathai |
filed under: announcement, art, insight[02.18.08] Monday Night Recap
- February 18, 2008 -
- [Slam Dunk] He was robbed last year, and I called it again for this year- Dwight Howard is a beast! When the man requests to raise the rim to 12 feet, you know there’s no contest. Did you see his superman dunk? It makes me wonder what the exact definition of a dunk is…anyone know?
- [AllStar] I missed the all star game, but even still, it is my favorite all star event of all the sports. Football players don’t really play because it’s the off-season and they fear getting hurt. Baseball isn’t as fast-paced during actual gameplay (though I still watch it). The NBA has both excitement, entertainment, and competition. What else could you ask for? (Hockey isn’t a sport, for those of you who were wondering…)
- [Engagement] I was busy Saturday morning with an engagement shoot Saturday morning…it was a blast shooting for Jaime and Manoj. Did I tell you I love my job? Although they stated the hate photographs, they are both very photogenic…I’ll post more about them later on this week.
- [AfterParty] It just so happened a couple friends of mine got engaged that morning as well, but I missed the ceremony do to the other engagement. I did make it out to their after party, and that was some fun times. It such a blessing to see two friends get together and chase God…I’m praying your ministry guys! I decided to take a few ‘ambient light’ [high ISO, low shutter, no flash] shots throughout the night (I was a bit tired after the morning), so here are a handful of the headshots and such:
- [KnightRider] Did anyone see the premiere of the new Knight Rider? I missed it, but heard some bad reviews? Anyone got any comments?
- [MyDadsBetter] I just got the tale end of “My Dads Better Than Your Dad,” a new show on NBC. Ummm…is this seriously the type of mentality that this next generation is being taught? I’m not a fan of the concept.
- [Canvas] My girlfriend came home this weekend, and I gave her this as a gift:
I love canvases! I’m going to get some bigger ones once we get our own place. I knew those years of Trading Spaces in college would be of benefit…I have a much better eye for design.
