Long-awaited results….

Friends, foes, family, and foreigners,

Tonight I’m announcing my favorite photos from last week’s Fred’s Place posting (www.fredsplace.org/images/bear/week3) and declaring a winner in the guessing contest! That’s right! I really did intend to announce a winner! Though some have recently cast aspersions on my integrity, I’m here today to announce the winner and prove once and for all that I’m a man of my word (or a man of my words, which is pretty much the same thing).

And this time I’ve upped the prize ante. To the winner I’ll be granting access to a special, private photo album reserved hitherto for Lisa alone. It’s full of photos of me (mostly taken by me) during this deployment. The album also contains a picture of a cat I found at a museum (I call her ‘museum kitty’) and a a bonus picture of my lunch in Algeria.

Without further ado (there’s been altogether too much ado), here are the results:

1) Petty Officer 1st Class (MK) Lucas Marino tests a new wireless headset. This photo is my favorite from this week because of the lighting. Luke wasn’t the only person testing something; I was trying out a new technique in digital alternatives to traditional lighting methods. I purposely set the white balance on my camera to read incandescent light properly, then used a handheld mini-maglight flashlight (shining incandescent light) on the right side of his face (left side as you’re looking at the picture). The ambient light coming from all around was flourescent light from the overhead lights, which gave off that greenish glow. Taken all together, the mixed lighting creates a moody image that really grew on my the more I looked at it.

2) Petty Officer 1st Class (EM) Thomas Palmeira supervises the cleanup of a mass casualty drill. I work with light all the time, but it’s rare that I get to actually show the light that I’m working with or looking for. The smoke from the drill draining out of the boatswain’s hole into the daylight above gave me that chance, and Petty Officer Palmeira happened to be standing in the right spot. But this picture is about more than light; it gives an insight into Palmeira and the way he does his work. The confident look on his face, the tatoos on his left arm, and the webbing and pipes behind him all seem to work together to say, “This is a sailor, and this is where he belongs.” The picture, to me, almost transcends time, and feels like it could be from the days of the Spanish Armada or the Barbary Pirates, so universal is the story it tells. Incidentally, light that harsh coming from above forced me to pop some extra flash into the picture, but not too much; just enough to bring out some details in the shadows and bring down the overall contrast range into the limited capabilites of a digital camera.

There you have it, and Grandma’s the winner! She’ll be receiving access to the photo album in her e-mail inbox. The people’s choice photo of the week would definitely have to go to the photo of Alex Fernandez with the Cutter in his sunglasses. Interestingly enough, he’s been having his friends re-create that picture at ruins and landmarks that we visit, so I guess the concept was a good one! Stars and Stripes, the only 1st Amendment newspaper put out by the Department of Defense, ran another of the photos of Fernandez on page 4 of their June 10th European edition (caution: large download!).

This week’s images will be posted tomorrow, and I expect they’ll probably be at www.fredsplace.org/images/bear/week4. Look for some instant classics and cool effects, including:

– How to take a group photo with a wide-angle lens while standing on top of a column in the middle of some Roman ruins
– What to do when the Chief Cook asks you to make his motley guys look good (hint: showcase their work!)

That’s all for now, kids. Thanks for playing, “Guess which picture!”

Good night,
Andrew

P.S. – Don’t forget to have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered!