# February '05 Photo Challenge - "Mysterious" - Sponsored by Lensbabies.com



## TwistMyArm

Hey everyone! 
I'm happy to announce that this month's challenge is sponsored by Lensbabies. The winner of this month's challenge will get an original Lensbaby selective focus SLR lens from Lensbabies.com. Please feel free to visit the lensebabies site in order to learn all about what a Lensbaby is. 

Alright and now the moment you've been waiting for. This months challenge them will be "Mysterious"! As I had mentioned previously the winner of this months challenge will recieve a selective focus SLR lens from www.Lensbabies.com.

Please read the following! If you don't read the following carefully your photo may not be included in the voting process:
The deadline for submissions is February 28. 
You can email your photo to photochallenge@thephotoforum.com. 
We ask each member to keep their photo anonymous (no distinguishing watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum), to include their forum username when submitting, and to submit no more then one photo.  If you wish you may include a title when submitting your photo. 
Please ensure that the submitted photo is in the form of a jpeg image and no larger than 70k. Images that are way over size will not be accepted. Please keep in mind that in order to keep things organized we may choose to exclude some photos from the voting stage. We'll try to keep as many in as possible though. 

Good luck to everyone and have fun with this challenge!


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## Purified

Ooo that was one of my suggestions. I have lots of ideas for it.


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## ferny

Well done to whoever organised sponsoring! It's a great idea and just goes to show how important this site is. :thumbsup:

Can the prize be shipped to users outside the US? Not that a "no" answer would stop me from entering if I thought I had a photograph that fits.


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## santino

good one twisty, themes are getting better and better


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## errant_star

TwistMyArm said:
			
		

> The winner of this month's challenge will get an original Lensbaby selective focus SLR lens from Lensbabies.com.


 

Ooooh ... how exciting! :mrgreen:

and good theme too :thumbsup:


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## Chase

I'll confirm some information about the prize and will invite someone from lensbabies.com to stop by and answer any questions you may have.


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## Nikon Fan

Sweet!!! Sponsorship is awesome!!! I'd love to get my hands on one of those lensbabies   Competition is on!!!


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## mentos_007

good topic  but I don't know what to submit


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## LensbabiesSam

Hello,

My name is Sam Pardue and I am the Co-CEO of Lensbabies.  We are so happy to sponsor this month's photo contest as well as the ones for March and April.  It's great to be able to support a vibrant community of photographers like the one here at The Photo Forum.

Ferny, we will be happy to ship anywhere that we can deliver a USPS Global Priority package, which includes most countries.  If USPS does not deliver to your country. . . .  we'll talk!

We are very much looking forward to seeing the photos.

Sincerely,

Sam


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## LittleMan

It's good to have you here Sam!
I love your product(from what I've seen) and I'd love to win me one of those!

Thanks for Sponsoring some of these!


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## LittleMan

now I wish y'all gave away something for December....(imperfection.... the one I won)


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## minew_m

Great idea for the contest.....just submitted my photo!


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## aggiezach

Thanks Sam for sponsoring our nice little competition! You guys have a neat product yo! Hope to get my hands on one some day!

Zach


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## ferny

LensbabiesSam said:
			
		

> Hello,
> 
> My name is Sam Pardue and I am the Co-CEO of Lensbabies.  We are so happy to sponsor this month's photo contest as well as the ones for March and April.  It's great to be able to support a vibrant community of photographers like the one here at The Photo Forum.
> 
> Ferny, we will be happy to ship anywhere that we can deliver a USPS Global Priority package, which includes most countries.  If USPS does not deliver to your country. . . .  we'll talk!
> 
> We are very much looking forward to seeing the photos.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Sam


Thanks for answering. 


Although I do have another question. It's not dirrectly aimed at you.

Where are all these Portland users coming from?!?! There are loads here now! Just when I thought the UK users were getting a stronghold.
Say Portland and I'll hurt you. layball: :mrgreen:


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## iman

I haven't entered before and am wondering if we keep all rights to our photos.  I can't seem to find the info anywhere else.

Am so excited about this one!


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## Chase

Absolutely. You are only giving us right to display your photo on our web site, nothing further.


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## ferny

I think the only reason they ask for you to e-mail them so that they can host them is so that they know that all images will be available when the voting starts. If they're all hosted at the same place there is no chance of some not being available when people review them. They can also filter images if they need to.


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## ahelg

Well I've got a nice picture sitting on my hard-drive which would be good for this.


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## ahelg

Well I've submitted my photo now. Does voting take place on the 28th or something like that?


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## aggiezach

Yes, the photos will be posted somewhere around the beginning of next month and the voting will be open for 7 days. On the 7th day, the photo with the most votes wins and is displayed on our front page for the entire month. And starting with this month, the winner also gets a prize 

Zach


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## Artemis

Even im excited now...I...ive just got a lack of inspiration 

Sam? You said April and march aswell right? I know this is kinda rude, and I beg your pardon, but...Do we win prizes for those compitions aswell? hehe....just wondering is all


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## ahelg

Hope I win. I've always wanted a lens baby. They're really cool.


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## andre_gwynt

Maybe stupid question but how do you vote? I tried to vote for January's black and white...

Anyway I send in my first competition photo  I am in for February


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## LittleMan

andre_gwynt said:
			
		

> Maybe stupid question but how do you vote? I tried to vote for January's black and white...
> 
> Anyway I send in my first competition photo  I am in for February


On the 28th of February we will post a poll with all the photos on it.  The voting will stay open for 7 days, at the end of the 7 days the poll will be closed and the one with the most votes will win the prize(and get their photo displayed on the front page for the following month.


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## TwistMyArm

Photos are always posted on the 1st (unless you live on the other side of the world) of the following month. The reason for that is that there are always plenty of last minute submissions for challenges. Posting photos on the 1st means that all photos submitted on the last day have a chance to be included. 
The only time that this would change is if I am unable to post the photos on the 1st, in which case I'll post them on the 28th or 2nd.


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## TwistMyArm

andre_gwynt said:
			
		

> Maybe stupid question but how do you vote? I tried to vote for January's black and white...
> 
> Anyway I send in my first competition photo  I am in for February



When you first open the Submitted photos thread you should see a long list of poll options. After viewing the photos you can select the photo you wish to vote for by clicking on one of the radio buttons and then clicking on the Vote Now button. 
You do have to be logged in order to vote and once you've voted once you cannot vote again.


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## Artemis

Isnt a lens back different for everycamera? Will a lensbaby fit my 300D?


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## LittleMan

Artemis said:
			
		

> Isnt a lens back different for everycamera? Will a lensbaby fit my 300D?


look on their website... they have a big list of adapters/connectors.


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## GerryDavid

It says to keep the file under 70k, but are there any recommendations on max width/height?


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## danalec99

Artemis said:
			
		

> Will a lensbaby fit my 300D?


Yes.


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## LensbabiesSam

Hello again,

Sorry for the delay in responding.  We are at a software cinema show in LA right now, introducing Lensbabies to the Hollywood crowd.  

Artremis, you asked if the Lensbaby would work on your 300D and I'm happy to say the answer is yes, wonderfully.  Lensbabies has mounts for virtually every SLR camera and Lensbabies work very well with either film or digital camera bodies. And we'll be happy to sponsor the March and April competitions as well, as long as the users of ThePhotoForum.com would like to have us!

Sincerely,

Sam


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## ahelg

LensbabiesSam said:
			
		

> Hello again,
> And we'll be happy to sponsor the March and April competitions as well, as long as the users of ThePhotoForum.com would like to have us!



I don't think anyone would say no


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## Artemis

LensbabiesSam said:
			
		

> Hello again,
> 
> Sorry for the delay in responding. We are at a software cinema show in LA right now, introducing Lensbabies to the Hollywood crowd.
> 
> Artremis, you asked if the Lensbaby would work on your 300D and I'm happy to say the answer is yes, wonderfully. Lensbabies has mounts for virtually every SLR camera and Lensbabies work very well with either film or digital camera bodies. And we'll be happy to sponsor the March and April competitions as well, as long as the users of ThePhotoForum.com would like to have us!
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Sam


 
I must say...im getting more and more excited about this product...My only concern is that Cannon cameras need a chip dont they (or is that me being silly) cause thats the prob with Tamron lenses, dont work with new cannon cameras.


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## sillyphaunt

Oh no.. Not another product I have to get!!!

I just got my Holga up and working.. and this is exactly WHY I wanted to shoot Holga, the effect is so neat. 

My question, I have a Fuji Finepix S7000.. Do you have any adapters for that?

My film camera is a Canon AE-1, so if not, I'll still HAVE to get it for that one 

I don't think I have a photo to submit for "mysterious".. Maybe my Holga images I took today will work.. Hmmmmmmmm *off to scrounge up something for the competition*


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## 2Stupid2Duck

Hey Silly - there's tons of lens adaptors for the S7000 - depending on what size lens you wanna fit.  The only problem if you go smaller is that you need to watch that you don't accidently crop your pix to a lovely round shape. LOL.  (just zoom in a bit and that solves the prob.) If you wanna email me, I can tell you what I use on exactly that camera.


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## LittleMan

What about a panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20?
It can't change out lenses.

Any ideas?


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## LensbabiesSam

Hiya again,

I have good news, Artremis & Sillyphaunt.  Lensbabies will work very well with all Canon bodies.  In fact, we have versions of Lensbabies with a mount for Canon EF (EOS series) and a Lensbaby FD mount which works great with the AE1 Canons and some other earlier Canon FD mount bodies.  With both cameras, you can shoot in AV mode and your camera will automatically adjust exposure based on the light coming in through the Lensbaby.  

Sorry though, we do not have a Lensbaby that works with fixed lens (point and shoot) cameras, so we do not have a solution for the Fuji Finepix S7000 or the Lumix DMC-FZ20.  

Thank you so much for  your questions!


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## LittleMan

LensbabiesSam said:
			
		

> we do not have a Lensbaby that works with fixed lens (point and shoot) cameras, so we do not have a solution for the Fuji Finepix S7000 or the Lumix DMC-FZ20.


That's alright, I have a canon too


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## japmula

Wow, this is the first time I've ever even heard of the Lensbabies...=) Even if I don't do the challenge, I'm definitely going to look into purchasing one! =)

P.S. - How many photos can you submit again?


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## ahelg

I thought about buying a lensbaby once but I don't have the money to spend. It would cost me loads more then it's original cost due to the fact that Norway adds tax, and thats not all. You also have to pay them for the trouble of taxing the product.


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## GerryDavid

ahelg, what if you get an american friend to buy one and ship it to you?  You may be able to avoid some tax that way, but the duties may get you.


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## Artemis

Thats amazing...I cant believe a product like this could work.

Next youll be developing an autofocus one


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## GerryDavid

Well the idea isnt new.  On the larger/older camera's you use to have bellows you could adjust to get the perspective you want.  Im not sure if it was just for large format, or for  medium format as well.  Its a good idea and can help you with some shots.  like if you take a picture of a tall building from the base, and you want the dof to be parallel to the building, with this sort of thing you can.  Im not sure if lensbaby can bend enough for something like that though.

At least I think thats what this lense does.  :0)


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## jilly

I know this is going to sound daft to all you professionals out there but what is a jpeg and how do I know if the photo is over 70k  -  sorry to be so ignorant but give me a couple of months Iand I will stop asking stupid questions


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## GerryDavid

If you have photoshop, you can go to save for web, and it will tell you the final file size, and lt you change some properties to meet the file size if your over.

If not, just save the image as a jpg, go to the file directory and find the file and check the file size.  If its to large, resize and save again, or save at a lower jpg compression.  Do this to the original, not the same jpg over and over again.  If you do it to the same jpg, it will get a ton of compression artifacts.

And a jpg is a file format.  It makes up info in the picture to save it as a smaller file.  Its good for pictures on the internt.  Instead of being a 4mb tiff file, it may be a 200kb jpeg file.  It all depends whats in the picture.

And a jpg and jpeg are the same thing, both file extensions work.


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## LensbabiesSam

While a Lensbaby is based on old fashioned camera technologies, a Lensbaby won't do perspective correction to straighten out the converging lines of a skyscraper.  And it won't focus from near to far along a diagonal axis, like an $1,100 tilt shift lens.  However, it WILL selectively focus like a tilt shift lens, but in a much more fluid, intuitive, and dynamic fashion.  You can do very dynamic selective focus photography, say of Children playing in a park, which would be very difficult to do using a tilt-sift lens.


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## GerryDavid

I stand corrected.  :0)  Thanks for the reply.


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## the_hybrid

im a noob, but i entered my photo, am i still able to compete?


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## Chase

Absolutely, the challenge is open to everyone.


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## the_hybrid

thank you,

hopefully i get a couple votes


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## Bimmie

the_hybrid said:
			
		

> thank you,
> 
> hopefully i get a couple votes



The competition is damn hard.
The level of photography skills is very high on this board.
Don't underestimate these people


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## the_hybrid

Bimmie said:
			
		

> The competition is damn hard.
> The level of photography skills is very high on this board.
> Don't underestimate these people



i wasnt i just want a vote, lol


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## Gerd

hopefully you'll vote for yourself


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## Shutterbug

As long as one will work with my D70, I have a good mysterious shot to submit


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## Artemis

I better submit....if it hasnt closed already...


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## triggerhappy

Mine's in.  Good luck everyone!


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## CrazyAva

I have submitted mine.


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## ahelg

so. when can we vote?


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## LittleMan

ahelg said:
			
		

> so. when can we vote?


as soon as they post up a thread with all the submissions as a poll


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## Chase

Bear with us on this one, my guess is that there were a TON of submissions!


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## Artemis

Chase or TwistMyArm if yah need help lemme know, id be glad to help


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## Corry

I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT!!!  

Hey everyone, VOTE FOR ME!!!!  Wait...you don't know which is mine...DAMN!


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## LittleMan

core_17 said:
			
		

> I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT!!!
> 
> Hey everyone, VOTE FOR ME!!!!  Wait...you don't know which is mine...DAMN!


no one listen to her.... you all know you need to vote for me... (mine will be the best there)

:mrgreen:


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## ahelg

Chase said:
			
		

> Bear with us on this one, my guess is that there were a TON of submissions!



Aww. That means I don't stand a chance. 

Vote for me. I'm the crap one


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## Corry

LittleMan said:
			
		

> no one listen to her.... you all know you need to vote for me... (mine will be the best there)
> 
> :mrgreen:




Don't count on it, BUDDY!  :mrgreen:


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## triggerhappy

Children, children. You should really stop your bickering.
.
.
.
.
.
.
BECAUSE I'M GOING TO WIN BWHAHAHAHA!!

Yours sincerely,

 Doctor Evil


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## LittleMan

core_17 said:
			
		

> Don't count on it, BUDDY!  :mrgreen:


Friendly competition....


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## GerryDavid

core_17 said:
			
		

> I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT!!!
> 
> Hey everyone, VOTE FOR ME!!!!  Wait...you don't know which is mine...DAMN!



I 2nd this.  Every one should vote for Core's, but they should mix mine up with hers and vote for mine by accident.   :mrgreen:


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## triggerhappy

GerryDavid said:
			
		

> I 2nd this. Every one should vote for Core's, but they should mix mine up with hers and vote for mine by accident. :mrgreen:


 

You just try voting for anyone but me..... layball:


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## Artemis

triggerhappy said:
			
		

> You just try voting for anyone but me..... layball:



...*whimper*...what....if we..dont...BY MISTAKE 

*looks at Trigger again*
*whimper*


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## triggerhappy

Artemis said:
			
		

> ...*whimper*...what....if we..dont...BY MISTAKE
> 
> *looks at Trigger again*
> *whimper*


 
Remember, I know where you live layball: 


(actually I don't, but lets not allow that to get in the way of a decent threat).


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