# October '06 Challenge Photos - "Natural Light" - Sponsored by Lensbabies.com



## TwistMyArm

I think everyone and their dog decided to take part in the October challenge as we have 73 great photos this time around. Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Natural Light

Also thanks again to Lensbabies.com for sponsoring another great challenge.

You may notice that in the gallery some files appear larger then 150KB, but every photo included was less then 150KB when uploaded to the gallery.

Please keep in mind that we are trying to keep this challenge anonymous (and unbiased) when it comes to both the submitting and the voting. Please avoid sharing your opinions about any specific photos until after the voting has completed and the winner is announced.

Please read the titles carefully in order to avoid confusion before voting. The photos may not be sorted in the correct order so to ensure you view them in proper order scroll to the bottom of the page and where it says "Display Options" ensure you select Sorted By: "Image Name" Sort Order: "Ascending" and then click on the "Show Images" button.

After viewing the photos please take the opportunity to vote for your favorite. Good luck to all. If there are any questions please let us know.

The winner of the photo challenge will be contacted by Private Message (PM) on the day that the winner is announced. If the winner does not respond to the PM within 30 days they will not receive their prize and it will be put towards a future challenge. If we are unable to ship the intended prize to the winner do to his/her location we will provide another prize of equal value. 

The polls will be open for the next seven days.


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## ShootHoops

73 photos!? This is frightening.


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## jeeper

My vote is in.  It was hard to decide with so many great photos.


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## cal_gundert05

WOW!  Great shots, everyone.  I think it'll be a close race.


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## thebeginning

:shock:

my goodness gracious...we should have a limit!


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## Puscas

wow...beautiful pictures. I'm impressed and frightened by all this talent. It's great to see a lot of different interpretations of 'Natural light'. Is this the highest number of entries ever? 
All those new members trying to make their mark...



pascal


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## birdstrike

Wow indeed.  I went from 17 choices to 6 choices to 2 and then went back and forth, back and forth.

Great photos all!


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## uberben

some truely great photos in there. Can't wait to see who wins.


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## nightlights

eeek! good thing i have 6 more day so to mull this over.


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## oldnavy170

I had to choose between 4 favorites! It was a tough decision.


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## Funky

Ooooo. this is scary. 73 pictures and only 1 can win. Good luck everyone ^__^


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## Puscas

@jervin, 

please read what Twistmyarm wrote:

_Please avoid sharing your opinions about any specific photos until after the voting has completed and the winner is announced.


_pascal


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## Jervin

Puscas said:
			
		

> @jervin,
> 
> please read what Twistmyarm wrote:
> 
> _Please avoid sharing your opinions about any specific photos until after the voting has completed and the winner is announced._
> 
> 
> pascal


 

sry dude im new here


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## Mohain

There is something very fishy going on with the votes cast so far...


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## thebeginning

Mohain said:
			
		

> There is something very fishy going on with the votes cast so far...



ok i'm not the only one.  

i agree, something is off.


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## mentos_007

how can I choose from so many great ones?! it is impossible  I am going to vote for mine  kidding of course.. dang... I can't decide


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## mad_malteaser

Wowza! Can't believe how many photo's there are this month! Good luck everyone!


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## meotter

omg, there are a few amazing photos in there.  it was so hard to choose, i just went with mine   haha


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## ngirly1991

omg!! this is a really tough contest!! 
i think that some pictures were absolutely amaizing and i would defintely choose them only if it was a diffrent theme.
im telling you, there were pictures that were so hard to resist and i had to cus they just dont relate to the theme of the contest.
absolutely amaizing!! good job ya'll


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## meotter

oh yea, i'd just like to state for the record, that the thumbnails don't do some of them justice.  i won't say which ones, but you should take the time to click through every pic in the gallery to make sure you're making the correct choice.  there are some details that appear that turn what is a nothing shot into a spectacular one.


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## blooney

thebeginning said:
			
		

> ok i'm not the only one.
> 
> i agree, something is off.



I just joined under 4 different emails and i could vote 4 different times, I could get my friends to sign up and vote for me, I can look at the votes and see who is in the lead and this will affect my vote also, for example, why vote for sombody with no votes, they wont win. I'm sure nobody would do this though... lol


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## uberben

i'm sure the powers that be can look at the photo entry and see how many Newly created voters a photo has.


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## gizmo2071

blooney said:
			
		

> why vote for sombody with no votes, they wont win



Your voting for your favourite.


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## meotter

thebeginning said:
			
		

> ok i'm not the only one.
> 
> i agree, something is off.




what's wrong?


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## zombiekilla

due to a misunderstanding with a mis-read file size I wasnt able to submit a photo this month!


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## Arch

ok, just so its clear... you are not allowed to join under different names... or ask people to join for the sole purpose of adding more to your votes.... members who continue to do this will be disqualified from the competition.


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## Puscas

very good. 
Btw, at what point is it okay to offer TPF-members money to vote for my picture? 



pascal


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## uberben

how much money are we talking?  I'm hoping to buy my first home soon, so i'm listening


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## karissa

Did someone say money?


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## Puscas

did you see? The moment I mentioned money, I went from 'TPF Noob!' to 'No longer a newbie, moving up!'.....
Even the exclamation mark looks bigger...


on topic: I've chosen my favorite. (no, it's definitely not my own) 
Good luck to everyone. 



pascal


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## Chase

Do yourself a favor. Rather than spending small amounts on a lot of different useres to bribe them, combine it all together into one bribe that REALLY counts. Do you need my pay pal address?


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## Arch

damn chase got here before me.... mods charge less than admins tho :mrgreen:


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## Funky

Bah bribing people is evil :roll:  i mean cmon.


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## Alison

Chase said:
			
		

> Do yourself a favor. Rather than spending small amounts on a lot of different useres to bribe them, combine it all together into one bribe that REALLY counts. Do you need my pay pal address?



Here you go, that's alison@showmethemoney.com :mrgreen:


Really though, some fantastic photos, it's going to be a very tough vote this month!


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## kulakova

yeah i did it. there was 4 photos to choose from.

HEY MODS!!! 
i would actually like to suggest a new rule, for example, to vote you have to have specific number of posts + be a member for 1-2 months. that would be honest.


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## Mohain

nukacola said:
			
		

> HEY MODS!!!
> i would actually like to suggest a new rule, for example, to vote you have to have specific number of posts + be a member for 1-2 months. that would be honest.


 
Good idea Nuke a Cola


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## zaramuni

I voted for my favorite.....it was a hard choice and not everyone else's favorite, but I had to go with my heart.......good job everyone though, I was really very impressed!


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## Alison

nukacola said:
			
		

> yeah i did it. there was 4 photos to choose from.
> 
> HEY MODS!!!
> i would actually like to suggest a new rule, for example, to vote you have to have specific number of posts + be a member for 1-2 months. that would be honest.



We are currently discussing new guidelines similar to your suggestion. 

Thanks,
Alison


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## blsdgwright

I have been visiting the pics every day and couldn't make up my mind. Finally I went with the one I liked first (not my own:blushing: ). Some many wonderful pics!


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## Funky

I think having a certain amount of posts before you can vote is a fantastic idea.


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## zombiekilla

boyfriend uses the same forum as us and he said you can get different mods so that you can control who can and cant vote. I think that is a grand idea. And it is a shame it has to be that way.


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## panzershreck

went through almost all 73, had picked out 6 favorites, none of which i could decide on... then went back to a few i skipped and saw one that was great and liked so much more than the 6 favorites

happy accident for me, my vote is in

and great photos!


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## Indie Matters

There are some very amazing shots in there.


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## TwistMyArm

Alright so with so many fantastic photos I'm sure everyone wants to know exactly submited the winning photo, octphoto18-A Midnight Clearing. This awesome photo was submitted by Uberben. *Congrats Uberben*!







Nicely done everyone. And yes now you can feel free to talk about the photos if you like.


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## Puscas

CONGRATS UBERBEN!!  :hail:


(Well, usually I'm a sore loser  layball:..... ...., but in this case I think congratulations are in order. Uberben: great picture!)




puscas

(oh and to everyone I bribed: I want my money back...)


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## Mohain

Excellent pic Uberben, you had my vote  What exposure? 2 hours? What kit? 

Who was no. 10? That was another fav of mine. I also really liked 21, 37 & 49. Some top quality entries :mrgreen: (I was No. 5 for what it's worth).


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## kulakova

Yeah! Congrats!!
But * Uberben!! *You have to told us how it was done!!
please...


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## kulakova

BTW, I was 10.
It was my test for the photo art school


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## uberben

Thanks everyone....I was trying to think of something unique for this contest. I figured there would be a lot of nice sunset/sunrises and some good sunbeam shots...I didn't want to compete head to head in those shots. I had already visualized this shot a good month ago, but hadn't found a good night to do it.  My luck came through the weekend before the contest ended and I got a clear night up by the cabin. 

This is on the north shore of lake superior in minnesota pretty late in the night since I had to wait for the moon to go down.  Its a 1hr 15minute exposure done in 15 minute exposures to reduce noise on the DLSR sensor then stacked in Photoshop. I was using a 20d with a grip for extra battery life, a tokina 12-24 f/4 lens, and of course a remote.  i don't have the exif data on my now, but I think I shot its around f.6.3.   All the light you see there is natural light put off by the stars and I was pretty happy on how well the land/trees lit up.  Other then layering the photos, adjusting the levels a little bit, and cropping.. its pretty much they way the photos were shot.  It was pretty cold that night too..20 degrees F.  I was doing the keep warm dance since I didn't dress quite warm enough.

Thanks again.

~Ben


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## zx3guy2000

Excellent photo Uberben!  

I never knew you could get a shot that bright late at night, just by leaving the shutter open longer!  I'm going to have to do some experimenting with this feature when I finally break down and purchase a DSLR !!   

I thought those lines were rain, didn't think about them being stars!! Very Nice shot once again!  This is an inspirational shot for me so Thank You!!


Again congrats!!


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## meotter

AWESOME shot uberben!  i hadn't noticed your photo detail in the thumbnails, and when i finally did check it out, i was upset i hadn't voted for you off the bat.  photos of this quality just floor me.  I knew right away it was stars from an exhibit i saw in the Glasgow museum of modern art (looked like this) 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





my buddy who i showed it to thought it was fake, because he thought it was meteorites in the pic and assumed there is no way to get this many meteorites in a shot.

however, i digress, awesome shot and congratz.  your shot was definitly a cut above the rest!

oh yea, i was picture 2 if anybody cared.


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## uberben

I used to shoot star trails on my old 35mm canon thats fully mechanical... Since you could leave it out there for 6 hrs and not have to worry about sensor heat degrading your photo or your battery dying on you mid shot.  I am just so much more comfortable with CS2 then darkrooms.  So if you have a film camera, go out on a clear night with no moon in a dark area away from any big city.  You will be amazed at how easy it is to get something that is pretty cool.  Make sure you bring a high powered flashlight though, its hard to compose the shot in absolute darkness.


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## Elli

Congrats!  That was an amazing shot and one of my favorites.


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## lankysmom

Congrats, Uberben!  I just feel honored to have gotten 3 votes on my nekkie baby!  
Thanks to those who voted for me!
Steph


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## mad_malteaser

Congratulations uberben, that was a beautiful photograph and my particular favourite. And well done to everyone else who entered.


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## JTHphoto

great shot ben, congrats.  i love your technique/process for using the dslr for startrails.  even 15 minutes seems like a long time, i start getting hot pixels after as short as 30 seconds...


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## karissa

yeah... thats a lot of work for one photo....  but.. it is one great photo...  Gratz!


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