Blog 157

These are my competition images entered in the Derby City Photographic Competition on Monday 16th May 2011.

The first one, entered in the themed competition "Up Close" is a seed head from the plant known by its common name Jack go to bed/sleep at noon, because the flower head closes at noon, or Goatsbeard (Tragopogon pratensis).

It is a ten shot differentially focussed set of images, the sharpest parts blended in Photoshop to give this image. I used Topaz Creative Detail Accent to accentuate the detail and finally used Silver Efex Pro High Structure to convert it to a monochrome image. Scored 16/20.

The second image "So Tired" was taken at Elvington Yorkshire Air Museum at a re-enactment by Battlegroup North, I couldn't resist taking this photograph. Knowing what competition judges are like and mostly their lack of understanding about differential focus, a friend suggested that I sharpen the hands somewhat.

I am glad I did as this image was the winner in the open competition scoring 20/20. The combined scored made me the winner overall in that competition.