Macro Contest Results for May 2024 - "Bugs"
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- Our May 2024 competition wrapped up two days ago and it was yet another record breaker, both in the quality of the submitted images and in the number of entrants. I was delighted to welcome my son, Joe Walls, into the studio to share the judging responsibilities for this month. We worked our way through over 100 entries and slowly negotiated compromises between our two top ten lists, until 24 hours later we had a final selection. In this video, Joe and I present our results and argue about our choices. This took way longer that usual and was much harder than this process typically is, but we are both happy with the final results and I don’t think we could have done a better job.
** Late Entry **
I spoke too soon - it turns out I could have done a better job. Towards the second half of the video, right after losing one of the 10th place ties, I also made a mistake - two mistakes actually - while describing Bill Wheeler's excellent photograph of Hymenopteran hamuli - I said they were on the leading edge of the forewing (wrong) and corrected my error by adding a graphic locating them on the trailing edfe of the forewing (also wrong). I am making one last correction and moving these little hooks to where they belong - on the leading edge of the hindwing. For completeness, I also slapped my forehead. Thanks to Bill Wheeler for keeping me honest!
***
This is a longer video than usual but between the Honorable Mentions and the images in the top ten, we had 40 images to talk about and that was only one third of the entries we had to choose from. I think getting it done in only 90 minutes was pretty fast work when you think that that’s only a little over 2 minutes per image.
We had better get moving.
Don’t forget to check out the newly revitalized Discord Server and my website for information about the coming week! www.allanwalls...
Thank you both so much. That was very unexpected. This was a last minute fun attempt, it took 3 times to get right over the last 6 hours of May 31st! 3 times of glueing bugs to flowers, weighting it down in the tank getting lighting working with 2-3 layers of diffusion and 3 times i had to fill and empty the tank. 1st time a head floated off, 2nd time part of the flower floated off. Its not upside down, but weighted down inside a fish tank with a thing called a flower frog - a heavy metal weight with spikes on to hold the flower. I then strategically added milk then ink. I created a video to go with it which is on my channel - hopefully it will make you laugh with its daft effects and music. I did try commenting before, but it seems to be removed, maybe RUclips doesnt allow links on comments. Thanks again Joe and Allan. My prize is your words Loved seeing everyone stunning images.
Howdy Allan and Team! Thanks for the honorable mention for my photo of the tiny Phanias harfordi(?) Jumping Spider. This spider was a great photo model, moving from leaf to leaf for almost 20min, letting me capture numerous poses. It was so calm, I really should have tried a handheld stack rather than just the single shots I took 😃.
👍 hello Allan, and hello everyone, thank you for the enormous work you have done for this competition, surely harder than all the others with more than 100 proposals, very happy for my honorable place, and congratulations to all, for these truly magnificent photos . the next competion in june will require a good dose of concentration and imagination.
Huge congratulations to the overall winners, to the top ten placements, to the honourable mentions, and to everyone that entered this months competition!.. Hi to Joe, and thank you for helping with the very difficult task of judging. It was fun and refreshing to hear your viewpoints, and I hope you do so again soon.. The entries this month were all simply incredible, all of you deserve my praise and thanks for making these competitions so much fun for me to enter every one of you. 👏👏👏💯
Congrats to the winners, well deserved!!
Hello Allan . WOW. to get 2 pictures in the top 10 is truly amazing,considering I am a relative newcomer to the world of Macro, less than a year.I have followed your Videos and live streams and have learnt a lot,from design of my Macro cage and equipment to use. So a big thankyou,keep up the great instructional work and videos
Hey Allan!
I just subscribed to your channel which has interesting tutorials.
I had just started macro photography and another day I found a dead jump spider, took some pictures, and posted them on Facebook and Instagram .. some guys left me horrible comments saying that I killed the spider, which I did not.
Anyway, I have learned a lot from your videos!
Thanks so much and have a wonderful day!
Thanks for the Fifth Place Mr. Allan
Vu here
Wow I didn't expect an honorable mention since I'm just a rookie unga bunga-ing his way thru macro photography. I want to clarify that my little crab spider friend is actually really alive and on the prowl 🤣. You can tell by the way it's front legs are being held way back and ready to snatch an "Unsuspected Prey" like a snare trap! Which it did later that day if it's the same fly. Saw it eating a fly as I was on my way out to work that same afternoon. I actually have other photos of it older with a bigger butt and all, but didn't want to submit it because you can tell I missed quite a few (many) steps in my manual focusing on a macro rail. I'm willing to share if you want as proof that it's alive.
But anyways, thank you both for the honorable mention! Truly honored to be one of Joe's champion. Can tell that Joe's a gamer when he mentioned "3rd person" because that's what I was pretty much going for (gamer myself). You can slap me if I'm wrong! 🤪
Also congrats to the others! I would like to mention that my personal favorite is Mr. Walker's metallic beetle (#8). Something about the iridescent shells of bugs is just so appealing to me. Anything iridescent honestly.
Hey Mr Vu! I loved your photo! I'm also a gamer. The use of "Unga bunga" in your comment makes me think you are maybe a Souls gamer? Anyways, I'm glad I got to speak for you in the competition and I really hope you can hone your skills because I personally think you have what it takes to win if you keep at it!
@nannonana I'm too much of a coward to play thru a souls game. Friend actually made me suffer through a single playthru of Elden Ring. Never again 🤣. However I am a big Monster Hunter since World. Hence the inspiration of the title: The Hunter.
And thank you, I really appreciate it. 🙏 I'm currently trying to get better with my manual focus stacking with a macro rail. It's proving to be challenging.
Hello , superbes photos ! La créature de Mr MC Guinness(56:38) est un : "Stictocephala taurina " is a species of buffalo treehopper in the family Membracidae.
Cordialement.
Glad you liked the photo. It is pronounced as O-day
@57.08 that is a Stictocephala, a North American treehopper.
I want to correct the misinterpretation of the title of my photo "In The Middle Of The Decomposed State" in which it was assigned ninth position, which refers to the environment in which I found the "insect". The bug as the subject of the photo was alive at the moment. Let's hope he's still alive.
I'm very happy that you both like my photo. I hope your followers and lovers of macro photography do too. I'm already a loyal follower of the channel. A thank you to all.
Don't neglect the like.
Apologies if you have covered this but I cannot find any examples of determining the difference between focus shifting on the rail or keeping the camera still shifting the focus with the focus ring. Are there pros and cons for both? Some say do not use a rail as it changes the focal distance but only use the focus ring while others go the other way. I would imagine you have discussed and tested this? So basically it is about the best method for accurate focus stacking. Or does it really matter?
I am also a macro photographer, I want to participate in this, it would be better if you give me the link of any future contest
You can find it on his website which is in the description.
I didn’t like the beetle submerged in water it just looked kinda fake and more like a drawing. That’s my personal opinion so please don’t sue me lol
It was just meant as a bit of fun :) ruclips.net/video/r6_Pz31aSrk/видео.html
Loved the clever title pun and the image!@@AngiWallaceCreativePhotography