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The JGP December 2016 Photo Theme is “Holiday Season”

The theme will be announced today on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Hu6kQJVUWGg

Click Here to SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOGRAPH to the
JGP December 2016 Flickr page

See the photo critique rules, terms and conditions below.

Have fun finding and making your December photo.

Also go to my Flickr page to see some of my work and go to my YouTube channel to see some of my videos.

 

Photo Critiquing Announcement

I am starting a Photo Critique Group on Flickr. This is intended to be a fun, inspirational and educational critique where we can all grow as photographers.

If you think this seems like a cool idea, or if you have friends or acquaintances that could be interested, please go to my YouTube video, watch it then click Like and leave a comment. If you would like to receive notification of any new videos I post, you can subscribe to my channel there. I normally post 1 or 2 videos per week and we will have the Photo Critiques videoed and put onto my YouTube channel once a month.

Below is a breakdown of how the photo critiquing process will work.

Photo critique rules, terms and conditions

This is a FREE service I am offering photographers in appreciation of the art form that I am so passionate about.

There will be monthly themes and occasionally it will be open to anything you, the photographer, wish to submit.

Rules, terms and conditions

1. Only 1 entry per person per month
   1. Maximum image upload size is 2 MB. and 72 DPI resolution
   2. Long edge must be 2000 pixels
   3. Square photos must be 2000 X 2000 pixels
2. Must be your own shot
   1. You must have full legal rights to photos you post. Please do not post photographs under copyright elsewhere. No Scanned images are accepted, no matter what the source.
   2. People, intentionally violating the above rules, are not welcome and will be banned from participating.
3. Must be taken during the month of the given theme unless otherwise specified.
4. Closing date :- Last day of the month at a specified time – South African. The information specified below is required for me to give you useful critique. When supplying the information with your photo, please lay it out in the same numbered format used here to make it easy for me to identify important relevant factors pertaining to the photo.
5. When posting include the following information with your photo :-
   1. The EXIF information (Camera, lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, flash with its set of particulars, etc.)
   2. Give/describe your experience level.
   3. Include information such as :-
      1. time of day.
      2. weather conditions.
      3. lighting conditions and/or setup.
6. Difficulties in composing the shot.
7. Tripod or hand-held.
   1. and any other relevant information that would be beneficial for me to know.
8. Why you took the photo?
9. Are you happy with the photo?
10. Where appropriate, is your subject happy with the photo?
11. If you were able to retake the shot, what would you do differently now?
12. Lastly and importantly; what is it you hope to learn by posting here?

Please keep this site “PG” rated. Material not suitable for children should not be posted. Also I retain the right to remove any images that are deemed by me to be erotic, reflect gratuitous violence, are obscene or offensive and not appropriate to this group in my opinion. My decision will be final and not negotiable. I may remove any image from the Photo Critique Group at any time, even if it was posted some time ago, without any explanation given.

I want this group to be suitable to children and their parents and not to cause any undue alarm.

By entering your shot you agree that your photo will remain on the group after the Photo Critique has expired and could be displayed in a YouTube video, our website and social media as part of promoting future Photo Critiques or competitions at no cost to us. Your photo will not be sold or be used in another fashion for personal gain. Your photo remains your property at all times. You retain all rights to your images. Images posted to this group are copyright by the posting photographers. You may include your watermark if you wish.

Guidelines:

• When posting choose your best work. Pick images you would like others to see and on which you really want to have critical input.
• A critique is not a put-down, but rather a constructive overview that is meant to help you improve your work and/or see it from a different perspective.
• Please describe your images – tell us what you wanted to express in the image, what goal you were trying to achieve, what you particularly like about the result, what you feel may be missing or flawed, special efforts you made, or any other information that may help the viewer to understand your work.
  Please give as much technical detail as possible, such as focal length of the lens, aperture and shutter speed setting, film (brand and type), time of day, weather, season, lighting conditions, difficulties of composition, camera on tripod or hand-held, and any other relevant information.

 

How to Enter Your  Shot

If you haven’t already done so, create a Flickr account for yourself by going to https://www.flickr.com/

Click “Sign up”, then follow Flickr and Yahoo’s instructions. Once you have successfully registered you will be able to upload your photo to my Photo Critique page for me and everyone else to see.

Please don’t leave it until the last minute to register. People occasionally have difficulty and I am not able to help you nor capable of speeding up the process. When I initially registered with Flickr I ran into difficulties and the entire process took me 4 days to get it sorted out. Since there are deadlines for submissions this means you could miss it.

When will you be able to submit your first photographs to John Golden Photography’s Photo Critique Group on Flickr?

I will be making the announcement of the theme and the Photo Critique Group Name for December on my YouTube channel on Friday December 2nd 2016. So keep your eyes peeled by going to my channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHbnA-h4F0rP4YMqkyPl1QA

Hope to see you in the group soon.

 

Muizenberg – 2016

While in Cape Town earlier this year I managed to go to Muizenberg beach early one morning. I spent some time there and managed to get quite a few lovely images.

There was a crazy black southeaster blowing which kept me clinging to my hat. This strong wind resulted in churning surf and a misty atmosphere. The image below was one of the fist I took that morning. I realised that straight forward photos could not capture the overall atmosphere of the morning. They could only express some specific details from the scene. So I decided to make a panorama… and here it is, composed from 6 images which I stitched together to create this striking image.

I really like the fish-eye effect which resulted from stitching the images together.

The warm gold and magenta colours as apposed to the cooler blues and greens in this photo appeals to me. I also love the warm glow and reflection between the sun above the horizon and the beach. The way the warm light kisses the horizon, beach, benches and the cabins on the left and right extremities of the image keeps my eye engaged which is what my intention was when composing the shot.

Go to the Gallery section where you can see more photos which I took along the beachfront that morning.

 

Welcome to 2016

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season… we did!

We have returned from a three week trip through Gauteng, the Free State, Northern Cape, Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. This was not just an opportunity for us to see our family members and to meet with friends again, but also to see parts of South Africa we have never been to before. Naturally this gave us many opportunities to take photographs that otherwise would not become part of our portfolio. When I have processed the pictures over the next few weeks I will share some of them here with you.

This photograph was taken at the beginning of our trip at 05:32 on the morning of 5 Jan. 2016 on du Toit’s Kloof Pass. This scene appeared just as we rounded a long sweeping bend which revealed Paarl and Table Mountain to us on the other side of the road. Photos I took there will be posted on the blog soon.

We hope your year started as positively as ours did.

We enjoy travelling so if you wish to use our services somewhere other than in Gauteng, you are welcome to contact us.

 

Season’s Greetings

We, at John Golden Photography, wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a prosperous, loving, peaceful and healthy 2016.

I had such fun producing this Christmas card and inserting our images into the snow globe… and it was even more fun getting the snow to animate in the globe.

This image is a composite of 4 photographs and 7 graphical elements. I had so much fun during the entire creation process that I plan to do a number of similar composites in the near future.

 

From Cape Town to Pretoria

Having moved up from Cape Town last year I am pleasantly surprised at how much I am enjoying doing photography here in Pretoria and Gauteng in general.

Hi there! I’m a photographer who is constantly aspiring to achieve new results that I have not managed to do before. This means that I normally have a camera with me and no matter where I am or what I am doing I’ll be looking for interesting subjects, light and situations to capture. I used to live in the gorgeous and sometimes windy city of Cape Town but now I live in the hot and sunny city of Pretoria in South Africa. I love watching the late afternoon thunder storms they have here during the summer months.

John Golden loved photography for decades as an amateur and has finally made the move to become a professional. Since he had his first black and white photographs developed by a laboratory more than 40 years ago, he has tinkered with the art-form and taken on paying assignments from time to time.

One of my favorite experiences is listening to my customers responses when they first see the photographs I have made for them. This experience is even more awesome when they go through them a second time and start exclaiming and debating among themselves as to which ones are the favourites, which I find very motivating…

John mostly uses natural light for his photographs but if the occasion calls for it he has gear to artificially light the scene. He has a theatrical background so loves situations or images that have a sense of the dramatic.

I founded John Golden Photography in 2013, and have been providing images to the public ever since. We are a small mobile business, located in Pretoria East, that consists of a 2 persons team. As and when required we are able to source additional crew to suit a project’s requirements.