December Monthly Challenge

[NonEntity1]

Thanks for the votes ya'll; if I countedright I think this month's challenge is my responsibility. If I counted wrong, somebody tell me quick so I can edit this post into something else!

December's challenge is (drum roll) Peace, as in "Peace on Earth"/Serenity, not merely the absence of war.

In reading about photography I often see the question "What are you trying to say with your photographs." This is hard for me to wrap my head around because generally I am trying to say "This is a sharp macro of a bee" or something similar. It is much easier for me to understand the technical aspects of photography than the artistic and I am very interested to see what my fellow Pentaxians come up with to convey a feeling of Peace. It is also a challenge to myself, because, as I write this, I have no ideas at all.

Oh yeah, rules: Photo must be taken this month, resized to no larger than 800 pixels wide please, and, of course, taken with any Pentax or Samsung Dslr.

Thanks,
Lt. Tim, the philosophical :-)

[bigdawg]

You talk hostage takers to death??? LOL Seriously a good challenge!

Dawg

[robar]

hmmmmm............

[mtngal]

I've got an idea, may work out or may not. At least I have all month to try some things...

[nhmom]

I have an idea, too. And, the weather is perfect for it. Well, except that it was 9ºF out this morning at 8 a.m.

[EddyinGA]

I'm not sure if the term "esoteric" fits this challenge exactly. But, it's close.

[mtngal]

Well, nature cooperated today for me to take a serenity picture, but the photographer didn't manage her part - I'll take another look at what I took, but I was disappointed in my pictures. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Perhaps I'll come up with something better next week, when we are on vacation.

Anyone else have any luck?

[mtngal]

I took some more today, but decided that I'd post one I took yesterday, especiallybecause no one else has taken the plunge yet.

Since this is such an open-ended, philosophical topic, I thought a bit of explanation was in order.

There are all kinds of ways of interpreting "serenity and peace." I chose to interpret it personally, rather than as an abstract thought. I'm not imaginative enough to be able to figure out how to capture abstract thoughts, without doing some type of series. So I decided to concentrate on what makes me feel serene and at peace with my life and surroundings. I realize that what makes me feel serene would probably cause others to feel all kinds of anxiety or depression, but then, things that might delight and calm others might cause me to go to yawn and go to sleep. To give some frame of reference - I'm a native Californian, growing up and now living in Southern California.

I also found trying to capture scenes that make me feel serene and at peace highlight my own personal weaknesses as a photographer. Most of you who have been around for a while realize that I'm a person who "sees" in details and takes mostly macro pictures. I'm not very good at wide-angle and making grand vistas look as beautiful and interesting as I find them in reality.

So here's the only one that I've taken overthe past twoearly mornings, wandering around my local area. I'm still not all that happy with it and may change it later. After all, can't you feel serene and at peace looking at a leaf?

[NonEntity1]

mtngal wrote:

So I decided to concentrate on what makes me feel serene and at peace with my life and surroundings. I realize that what makes me feel serene would probably cause others to feel all kinds of anxiety or depression, but then, things that might delight and calm others might cause me to go to yawn and go to sleep.

I like your shot Harriet and I think that is a spot I would find peaceful also. I guess my hope was to see many very different takes on the idea. Hopefully this is not an impossible topic, I hate to go down in Pentax forum history as the guy with the worst monthly challenge ever :O! I do have a couple of ideas that I am going to try, hopefully next weekend.

Tim

[penolta]

NonEntity1 wrote:

Well, if it were too easy, it wouldn't be much of a challenge, would it?