I entered five photographs in the Senior Photography Division of the Rockingham County Fair this year and I was awarded two First Place and two Second Place Awards. These are the photos that won awards; details about the photos and how they were taken are in the Technical Information section below. Please click any image to see a larger version of the image.
Rocktown1 Class
The photos in this class must be a unique photo that depicts Harrisonburg, the county seat. My photo of the Harrisonburg Public Safety Building was awarded 1st place in this class.
Earlier this year, Beverly and I were walking in downtown Harrisonburg when she noticed the reflection of the sky in the building’s windows and pointed it out to me. I realized the possibility of an interesting photo for the county fair, so the next time we were downtown I took a camera to determine possible locations, photo times, and lens requirements. Since the photo location would be in the middle of a busy intersection on Main St., I chose a sunny Sunday afternoon in July at about 5 PM so the sun would be behind the buildings to the left in the reflection. The building to the right in the reflection is the Federal Courthouse2. The way I planned this photo is described in the Technical Information section below.
1For the origin of “Rocktown” please see https://www.rocktownhistory.org/plan-your-visit/about-us/
2Originally this was the Harrisonburg United States Post Office and Court House, which opened in 1940.
Abstract Class
Photos in this class must contain a design of patterns or shapes where the subject matter is not evident. My photo of a kitchen grater was awarded 1st place in this class.
I remembered seeing a suggestion a while ago for using a tablet image to illuminate a subject, so I downloaded some abstract images and chose one to use to help create this photo. The actual details of setting up the photo are in the Technical Information section below.
Closeup Class
Photos in this class must be of a subject that is photographed at a very close range and is clearly defined and recognizable. My photo of an Orchard Orbweaver spider was awarded 2nd place in this category.
Beverly had originally seen a spider web between two plants in our sunroom and pointed it out to me. The full extent of the spider’s legs was about ⅝” and the body was about 3/16″ long. The details of setting up the photo are in the Technical Information section below.
Artistic Class
Photos in this class have been altered using digital editing software. My photo of a candy box tray was awarded 2nd place in this category. This photo has already been featured in our Whatizit? post.
Technical Information
In addition to the camera and exposure information, this section includes something about how I created each photograph.
Abstract Grater
To create this image, I illuminated the kitchen grater in a darkened room with an iPad displaying an abstract image. I then photographed the reflection of the abstract image on the grater.
The final image was created from three separate photographs which were focused on different parts of the grater and then combined with focus stacking software. Please see the Definitions, Software, & Apps page for more information about focus stacking software.
- Date: 5/26/2024
- Time: 11:54 AM
- Camera: Canon EOS 77D
- Lens: Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens with 1.4x Teleconverter
- Settings:
- Lens: 147 mm, f/16
- ISO: 1600
- Shutter: 1/2 sec
- Cropped image is 5425 x 3616 px
Harrisonburg Public Safety Building
- Date: 7/28/2024
- Time: 5:02 PM
- Camera: Canon EOS R7
- Lens: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
- Settings:
- Lens: 17 mm, f/11
- ISO: 200
- Shutter: 1/125 sec
- Cropped image is 6947 x 4630 px
- GPS: 38°27’01.5″N, 78°52’06.0″W
This image is an HDR combination of three separate images taken at different exposures and combined with Aurora HDR software. The Canon R7 camera does internal HDR but that image was cropped too much to be usable.
I planned this photograph in advance using the PhotoPills and Sun Seeker apps on my iPhone along with Street View in Google Maps.
The red pin in the center of the PhotoPills screen capture shows my location in front of the Harrisonburg Public Safety building using Google’s Satellite View. The thick yellow and orange lines show the position of the sunrise and sunset on that date and the thin orange line shows the position of the sun at the time of the shot. The Sun Seeker screen capture shows the angle of the sun at the time of the shot and I confirmed that the building to the left would block the direct sun using Google Street View.
Please see the Definitions, Software, & Apps page for more information about HDR software and these apps.
Orchard Orbweaver Spider
- Date: 6/10/2024
- Time: 4:54 PM
- Camera: Canon EOS 77D
- Lens: Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens
- Settings:
- Lens: 105 mm, f/8
- ISO: 1600
- Shutter: 1/6 sec
- Cropped image is 1924 x 2886 px
Originally, I tried to photograph the spider and its web backlit with the sunlight through the windows but could not see any detail of the spider. For the final photo, I placed a piece of black foam board against the window to block the sunlight and illuminated the spider with an LED reading lamp with the spider and web against the black background.
The spider’s web was between the Peace Lily on the left and the Norfolk Pine on the right. I had the camera angled upward to photograph the spider against the black background. The spider is circled in red in the expanded image.
Candy Box Tray
- Date: 3/29/2023
- Time: 11:35 AM
- Camera: Canon EOS 77D
- Lens: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
- Settings:
- Lens: 31 mm, f/16
- ISO: 200
- Shutter: 1/15 sec
- Uncropped image is 6000 x 4000 px
Beverly received the candy as a present. When she had finished the chocolates, she showed me the interesting tray inside, so I made several attempts to photograph it in different ways.
This candy box tray photograph was made from four separate images focused at different points and focus stacked with Helicon Focus software. The foreground and background were then removed using Photoshop to give the appearance of the tray floating in mid-air. Please see the Definitions, Software, & Apps page for additional information about focus stacking.
