The Sky’s the limit!

Thanks for reading this far! If you’re still interested in the Caterpillar Photographic Society and our assignments read on. This one is about the May category of Sky that was judged early in June and the scoring criteria had changed.

Rule Of Thirds

At our last meeting when Sky was chosen we’d had a video on the Rule Of Thirds and we were to be judged out of 20 points. 10 points maximum for sticking to the Rule Of thirds and a maximum of 10 for the quality of the photo.

That means you could have a crap photo but if it stuck to the rule of thirds you could get at least 10 points, this was the future scoring method we’d be sticking to.

Shooting Stars

As soon as Sky was drawn from the hat of randomness I’d envisaged going back up on to the Wrekin to do a proper quality Star Trail that I’d be able to submit. Little did I know that the beginning of our summer (and the rest of it too) was to be filled with crap weather. All the way throughout the month there was not a single clear sky, not one!! I’d kept an eye on the met office app on my iPhone but there was no promise of nice weather or clear skies. Gutted.

After no joy with the weather I started thinking about abstract ways I could photograph the sky and saw a really good window with a moody sky reflected in it, but alas this was probably the only time since January that I hadn’t had my camera near me. I was thinking about reflections of the sky in Puddles, pools and lakes but nothing came up!

Aerial Photography

Towards the end of June I was getting desperate and still had nothing to show. Then I had a trip to France on an aeroplane and thought I might get some decent shots out of the window. Despite carrying a massive weight into the cabin of the 767 to ensure my 500D came with me I was given an aisle seat, bugger. There was a French lady in the window seat and I felt that I would have invaded her personal space (fnarr fnarr) to lean across and take some photos out of the porthole. As it happens, Birmingham was experiencing some lovely weather, but when the Boeing got up to cruising altitude the climate changed and it was bloody awful. No photos would be taken on this flight..

As I left for the airport on the return leg of the journey the sun had got his hat on and the weather was sweet. When I got to Paris CDG though I made a decision that I wasn’t going to carry all that extra weight in my laptop backpack, it had my entire collection of tech in on the way out, so I decided to leave my Canon in the suitcase and stow it in the hold for the journey back to Birmingham. Subsequently, after leaving the Executive lounge and boarding the plane, I was given a window seat, ARGH!!

That’s when the French dude beside me in the Aisle seat was puzzled why I had my iPhone up at the window all the time taking pictures of the wing and cloud formations all around it. I was using the normal iPhone camera, Hipstamatic and instagram but nearly all of them failed to produce a decent photo. You can see the only really mediocre one below.

Sky Plus

Later in the week, back in the UK, it was my Wedding anniversary, my 17th anniversary that is. I’d left the house to walk and get a drink for us both from the co-op and on the way down our road I noticed that the sun was dropped and rays were shining through the clouds, casting shadows on the clouds. It looked amazing and I didn’t have my camera with me again! Argh! I whipped out my iPhone again and snapped away at the cool looking formations, you can see the best of a bad bunch above.

These were the only two photos I’d taken that were eligible for the Sky category and none of them fitted with the Rule Of Thirds, but what the hell. I submitted the Sun Rays photo as my entry and wasn’t surprised when it didn’t win.

Another member of the group Dave Fellows also had a photo very similar to mine, he’d taken his on his DSLR and it was a better quality picture for using it, but there wasn’t much in it. Just shows how much Phone cameras have come on in the last few years.

Results

The winner, Dave Bickle, had taken a photo of the sky from Haughmond Hill with a bench in the foreground and it stuck to the rule of thirds as well as being a good picture. It was a worthy winner, but I thought that another member of the CatPS should have taken the prize, Neil Richards submitted a photo of Albert Docks in Liverpool that contained a reflection of the sky which in my mind made it even more Skyey.

To summarise this slightly shorter post:

  • Take your camera everywhere, it’s a bugger when you miss a good shot.
  • Learn the rule of thirds, it does improve your pictures.
  • Don’t be frightened to invade French women’s personal spaces.
  • Download Hipstamatic or Instagram for your phone if you fancy it, they give some great effects.

The next month was Architecture and I was determined to not leave it too late so I put some time into it as you’ll read in the next post.

Bye for now.

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