Anyone up for a "Holiday Lights" Challenge?

[F.Gordon]

This would be just for fun. No voting. Everyone "wins". The photos would be put in a smugfugalug gallery like we did with the Fireworks Challenge and then post the link in the Lounge.

There is no limit to the number of photos you can enter (within reason :eyes:). The only part of a "normal" challenge that would apply is the Contest License. I'm sure there are probably better links on holiday light photography tips, but I did find this one which seems pretty decent for all us Holiday Light Photography Virgins.

With the "Extreme Challenge" winding down and nothing till January after that... this would be a nice way to fill the month and give DU and the Lounge Lizs some perty pixsures to have over the Holidays.

Any interest?
:shrug:

[lakemonster11]

1. Sounds fun.

[regnaD kciN]

2. I'm in!

This should be fun.

[RagingInMiami]

3. Hell yeah

Actually, this fits in perfectly with what I was planning on doing. Because I really don't have a steady income right now, I was planning on making calendars of my photos to give as gifts. I got the idea from here because people were talking about giving their photos as gifts.

So I'm planning on doing a Miami calendar, using the photos I have, as well as going out and getting some more. The one photo I definitely want to get for the December calendar page is of holiday lights in Miami.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Calendars are a good idea...

My daughter made me a calendar with pictures of my first grandson when he was like 18 months or two, I forget, but she had pictures of him appropriate for each season and it's something I treasure. If I was smarter and knew more about this stuff, I'd make a calendar, too.

[RagingInMiami]

6. What is to know?

As long as you have twelve photos, you can hire somebody to do the rest. Kinko's or the UPS Places does it, I believe. And I'm sure you can send away to do it as well.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. True...

Oh, and did I mention that my soon-to-be son-in-law works at Kinko's? Duh...why didn't I think about that? Could they make a decent calendar with my low-resolution Mavica shots, do you think? The sun is still refusing to shine here, and I may never get another scenery shot in my life at this rate. I'm still sweating my middle daughter's planned Christmas 11 x 14 blowup picture, which the photo dude assures me cannot be done properly with my old pictures. This gray weather really gets on a person's nerves after a while.

[RagingInMiami]

15. I wouldn't trust any low-res photo to make a good print

Espcially a calendar which is larger than your average 4 x 6 print. The books I've been reading suggest to make the photo at least 300 ppi for prints rather than the normal 72 ppi for the internet.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. That's what I was afraid of...

I guess I'll just take all my old pictures off my computer, put them on CDs, and start over.

[RagingInMiami]

17. You should always keep an original high-res photo as a back up

To whatever you edit or post online.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Oh, I know that now.

It's just that all my old photos were shot in fairly low resolution, as in 1280 x 960, so there wasn't much I could do about it. Ignorance. I know better now, so I'm just keeping the Canon on large, and, yes, I will be backing up immediately the ones I intend to keep.

ed. My news ones are 3504 x 2336. Big difference.

[RagingInMiami]

19. It's a never-ending learning process

As I've learned several times, especially after losing all those photos I took in DC.

[lakemonster11]

8. I made mine on shutterfly.

You can also do it on cafepress.

[Ms. Toad]

11. If you want to do a homegrown variety...

I can give you an excel file that has the months setup for printing on an 8.5 x 11 sheet, so you can customize the days with family birthdays. It costs a fortune to add family birth/marriage/graduation dates to the Shutterfly/Kinkos/Staples/Office Max variety - and some of them don't even permit it. If you are interested, PM me with an e-mail address and I'll send the excel file to you.

I print mine on this: http://www.shoptheartstore.com/product_detail_multiple.cfm?groupID=19959247-1178-4321-A9579903DAD49374&shownav=0

It has nice plastic covers, a clip binder, matte on one side (for pages), gloss on the other (for photo quality photos - unlike Kinkos/Staples/Office Max (I didn't check out Shutterfly - so I don't know their quality), and gives you three pages extra for misprints.

Last year Staples sold them, but is not stocking them this year. I ordered them from the company at the link above, and they arrived less than a week later with standard shipping (Iowa to Ohio).

[Blue_In_AK]

12. Thanks...

This is a great idea, but I just don't know if I'm going to have time to do anything like this, especially having to learn something new in such a short time. I hate it that I have to work to live. LOL.

[lakemonster11]

7. That's what I did for my grandparents this year!

[RagingInMiami]

14. Your grandparents will be thrilled

It's a practical, yet unique and personalized gift. How much did it cost to do it? How long did it take to complete it?

[lakemonster11]

21. I did it through Shutterfly.

I think it was 15 or 16 dollars per calendar, and it took about fifteen minutes to upload the pictures, get them on the calendar where I wanted them, and order (not counting all of the time spent taking and processing the pictures, of course).

After I made it, though, I noticed that CafePress also prints calendars, and there were a couple of things I liked better about theirs. I think I trust Shutterfly to print the pictures well more than I do CafePress, though. I've never ordered anything but tee-shirts from them.

[BamaGirl]

23. I'm thinking about doing a calendar like that

But I'm hoping to market it. I haven't seen a local calendar yet. It's a project I'm doing for myself even if no one wants to buy it lol.

[Samurai_Writer]

4. Yes I'd love to!

Gives me an excuse to go out in the zero degree weather. Well, it's warming up now. Maybe it will be 20 degrees at night.

And Ragin', I'm going to steal your idea about christmas gifts. I'm on a tight budget myself, and that is a great idea!

[F.Gordon]

10. Kule. Once "extreme" is done I'll start a submission thread

:woohoo:

[bvar22]

13. Hey, I'm still working on my "Unity" shot!

But I'll be taking some Christmas light shots, especially after the new camera arrives.
One of the reasons I'm upgrading is that my Oly C-750 is a little limited after sundown (but still fun). I became a huge fan of "night time" photography after the Fireworks challenge last July.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

20. I am in. But I warn you... I live on Long Island, NY

the home of the worst ostentatious over-the=top light displays in the world.

So, stand by.

[F.Gordon]

22. A "Griswold Smackdown"

:crazy:

I like it. I'm going to look for a few "put on your sunglasses at night" houses myself.

[BamaGirl]

24. I'm taking some

I'll enter if I have them developed by the contest deadline. ;) I don't know how likely that will be though. I have about 12 rolls waiting in the fridge to get sent out as it is.