What can you do with a twig and aluminum foil?

By Ellen Bedrosian

While cleaning up my flower beds after a storm, I found a couple of twigs that had interesting lines and shapes. I studied them at various angles and decided to set up my own photo challenge: How many images can I make from these twigs?

Bokeh Twig

Bokeh Twig

Is your image competition-worthy?

By Ellen Bedrosian

While showing images of waterfalls in Iceland during his landscape photography program a few weeks ago, Nick Palmieri said something that stuck with me. While comparing two different views of the same scene, his favorite was the unconventional interpretation. “I have this one hanging in my office, but it didn’t score well in competition,” he said. One of the more traditional views did score well, however. To see Nick’s images, visit his Waterfalls of Iceland gallery.

He also said that he wouldn’t enter in competition some images that he has the most emotional connection to because he knows they wouldn’t score well. It did get me thinking about the purpose of competitions. Is it to win, or is it to display our artistic visions? Sometimes serendipity strikes the Rodda Center on a Tuesday evening. Artisitic vision lines up with the judge’s determination of what constitutes an excellent image, and voila! Our image scores a 9, like this image of mine from Eastern State Penitentiary.

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