[shuttertalk]

Hey all, thanks again for your support for the August challenge. We're starting a little late for September but I will extend the closing date so that we get a full 30 days from today. And yes, please remind me to officially close submissions if I forget.

For September, we're doing something different. Photographers are invited to submit a short photo story or journalistic piece consisting of a series of images and accompanying writeup. The theme is open, and the style can be anything from a news reportage piece to a personal holiday story - it's up to you. The only requirement is that you submit no more than 5 images and keep your writing concise (roughly 10 paragraphs or less).

Our challenge this month is being sponsored by !Mo Camera Straps, makers of fashionable and practical camera straps. There will be two prizes awarded:

- One Gift Pack consisting of two neoprene quick release camera straps and one cotton tape camera strap of your choice. (Valued at $74 USD): Will be awarded to the strongest overall submission, judged based on subject matter and photographic content.

- One Cotton tape quick release camera strap of your choice. (Valued at $25 USD): Will be awarded to the strongest image, judged purely on photographic merit.

Photos must have been taken in the past 6 months - dated April 1 or later. To enter, simply create an account with Shuttertalk if you haven’t already, and post your entry as a single post to this discussion thread. Entries close midnight Sunday 7th October.


Feel free to comment, discuss or post feedback into this thread as we go along. I encourage everyone to make this challenge interactive - as people post their entries, why not post some encouragement or support? Although it's "competitive", we're all friends so why not collaborate and discuss some ideas as well?


Link to the front page news item here:
http://www.shuttertalk.com/2012/09/photo...story.html

Link to our sponsor, !Mo Camera Straps:
http://www.imostrap.com

[matthew]

Those are some very nice looking camera straps – thanks, Julian, for making it possible.

Time to get to work!

[shuttertalk]

No problems! What does everyone think of this challenge? Too hard?

The 5 image, 10 paragraph thing is a guide - more of an upper limit for the judges' sanity. If you want to submit 2 images and 2 paragraphs, that's fine too. Also I'm allowing a full 30 days for people to prepare their submissions.

[Pavel]

Thanks for the clarification Julian. I find 2&2 much more doable than 5&10. Too bad that August photos are not acceptable. I would have some treats

[matthew]

I think I may have just finished taking photos for my entry… they're only just being imported into Lightroom now, so I could be wrong.

(…but there's something else coming up later this week that might also make for a good photo story…)

Edited to add: Hello, drawing board, so good to see you again…

[shuttertalk]

Hey all, just letting you know that this challenge is closing exactly 2 weeks from now, midnight on Sunday the 7th October.

[vlad]

The Romanian Black Sea resorts stretches from Danube Delta in north down to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in south, along 275 km of coastline. Most of the summer resorts were named after Roman and Greek gods. Venus is one of them. Named after the roman goddes of love and beauty, the resort is a surreal mixture of old and new, the still of the old abandoned hotels and the liveliness of the people spending their holidays.

See the whole essay here:

[matthew]

Staso / Gray: the story of a brick.



Not far from the noise and intensity of downtown Toronto is the Leslie Street Spit, an important but accidental wild space that began life as a simple breakwater. This artificial peninsula is intimately tied to the city it was created to protect: the land itself is built out of the rubble and fill from the constant churning of construction. Tangles of steel and slabs of concrete form the headlands of this strange shoreline, and the oldest beaches of bricks and debris have been worn down into cobbles. Having flourished through decades of neglect, its five square kilometres of meadows and cottonwoods now provide a vital refuge for migrating birds and local wildlife alike.



They may start out as uniform industrial products, but over the decades even the stoutest bricks develop unique characters of their own. Shape, colour, markings and stamps; wear, scrapes, chips and fractures: each one shows the signs of its passage through the world. This small broken brick has been split in half, its corners smoothed by time, and is free of mortar or concrete. The words "gray staso" were worn but clearly legible, once part of a larger phrase but still holding meaning.



This brick was unlike any of the others that I've seen in my years of combing these stones. To find one with an ironic sense of humour is unheard of – it's actually a light tan colour – and the American spelling of "gray" told me that it was far from home. I admired it for a while and then left it where I found it, but over the next few days I increasingly regretted that choice. At the next opportunity I returned to the Spit with the outlandish hope of finding it again – and discovered that the beach itself, seen in full in the first image, was gone.



Wind and water do their slow work to transform the rubble shoreline, but heavy machinery moves much faster. Dump trucks and bulldozers still rule the Leslie Street Spit; in the space of a week the wonderful old beach had been covered with newly-discarded cinder blocks and concrete slabs. I took what I could from this newly broken landscape and moved on, but couldn't resist passing through one more time on my way back. What I found made me very, very happy.



Resolutely mute, shaped and broken by machines and by the elements, this brick still speaks to its past life. Created a half-century ago in a small town in western Pennsylvania, it travelled five hundred kilometres to reach Toronto. By random chance I discovered it the first time; the second opportunity defied the odds. Broken and worn, what was once part of the city's fabric is now treasured in the home of an unlikely collector. A fitting end to a remarkable journey.

[matthew]

References:

The Leslie Street Spit:

• Wikipedia overview.

• Toronto Port Authority, responsible for maintaining the harbour and infill operations on the southern shoreline.

• PDF document outlining the acceptable material types for landfill.

• Website for Tommy Thompson Park, the wild space that's overseen by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

Grey versus Gray: notes on usage.

"[A] small town in western Pennsylvania" is Darlington, PA. Map and source.

Technical details:

• Image 1: Nikon D800, 35/2D at f/11; taken 29 April 2012.
• Image 2: Nikon D800, 50/1.4G at f/4; taken 29 april 2012.
• Image 3: Nikon D800, 50/1.4G at f/1.4; taken 29 april 2012.
• Image 4: Nikon D800, 50/1.4G at f/11; taken 5 may 2012.
• Image 5: Nikon D800, 85/2.8PC-E at f/16; taken 23 september 2012.

[Toad]

Brilliant story, Matthew! Very well done!

[matthew]

Thanks, Rob. This is an odd thing to be passionate about, I know, but both this place and the bricks fascinate me. My collection probably totals a couple dozen pieces - they're material for a continuing photo protect - but this one really is something special. (To me, at least. ) But I really do need to be quite selective in what I bring home: it's about a three-kilometer walk back to shore and the nearest public transportation.

(I have met one other person who also collects unusual bricks from this location; he uses them in his garden.)

[vlad]

Good story, Matthew!

[matthew]

Thanks, Vlad, both for your kind words here and for everything you've brought to Shuttertalk. I have to say that I also really enjoy your tour of the Venus beach. The gentleman in the second photo fascinates me – I'm trying to understand what it is that is resting on his shoulder, and why he's carrying a megaphone.

I also like that we've both chosen uncommonly wide aspect ratios for all of our photos. It's a nice touch, and it does fit the format and presentation quite well – although I may be biased.

[vlad]

Hehe.
Well,the gent with the megaphone thingy was advertising his business. He, a guy with a monkey and a photographer took pictures with the lizard, or the monkey for 10 lei (local Currency, about 3 bucks, but more like 20 if you take into account the purchasing power). Couldn't help buying one myself. One of the funniest things i did this summer. Us photographers got to support each other .
This was the onlypic i took with the pentax, all the others were shot with my panasonic lx3 in 16x9. I enjoy wide angles and the movie like format it gives.

[shuttertalk]

Thank you for your entries everyone - just letting everyone know that this challenge is now closed. Judges will now enter deliberation... stay tuned!

[Toad]

Thanks, Rob. This is an odd thing to be passionate about,

Well we don't always control our passions. That's why they are passions rather than things on our "job list", yes? Keep the faith.

[smarti77]

Both brilliant photo stories Matthew and Vlad. Great work.

[vlad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hGaoyfbrsI

[alessya]

Congrats guys, for the work you've done, your photo essays are really stunning!

[vlad]

Thank you, Alessya.

[kNox]

I can't believe I missed this one. We should have them more often and advertise them more!

[vlad]

I agree. I wish there were more contestants.

[alessya]

I saw it just a few days ago, when I posted. However, I will definitely join the next challenge

[vlad]

Looking forward to compete with you!
Maybe the next theme could be on intimacy?

[alessya]

Haha, that would be great since it's my favourite type of photography, but I don't know if others agree with it