Rat thoughts

I picked up my pictures and ribbons today.  I also got some prize money, a whopping $9.25.  I spent somewhere close to $40 preparing these images for the fair.  Oh well.

The image in the back got a bigger ribbon because it was entered in the fine art contest rather than photography.

You're allowed to submit a maximum of 1 image per lot, per class and no more than 6 images total.  There are three classes, Color, Black & White and Modified Image, and there are 8 lots within each class.  Since the majority of my pictures are of animals, picking just two (one color, one B&W) was extremely difficult.  It was also hard to pick photos for the other classes, since the non-animal photos I take are much fewer than the animal pics.

Here are the photos I submitted:


Squirrel Posing, 11x14
Class 1 (Color), Lot 1 (Animals)


Handful of Baby Bunny, 8x10
Class 2 (B&W), Lot 1 (Animals)


Goat Kissies, 4x6
Class 1, Lot 3 (Photojournalism)


Wishing, 8x10
Class 1, Lot 5 (Still Life)


I'd Give It All Up For Love, 8x10
Class 1, Lot 6 (Architecture)


Avenue C Railroad Bridge, 16x20
Class 2, Lot 6 (Architecture)

The squirrel and railroad bridge pictures I had printed at Costco on poster board ($10 and $15, respectively), since I think those are my best chance at winning.  The others I printed on inkjet photo paper and mounted on foam board.  That was rather a pain in the ass, but I saved a lot of money (my cost, about 60 cents each).

The baby bunny pic I applied a blue filter and converted to B&W.  This made the skin on my hands look much rougher, which I thought contrasts nicely with the soft bunny.

The railroad bridge photo I ran through an IR filter, which did a much better job than just a simple B&W conversion.  IR helped make the leaves on the trees to stand out, rather than turn dark as ordinary B&W would do.