***WINNER'S Thread for the April Photography Contest!***

[Tom Kitten]

Thank you all who participated, voted and commented in our April Photography Contest, "Macro Photography!"

We are happy to announce our first place finisher and winner is California Peggy for her floral portrait "The Rose". Congratulations, Peggy!



Congratulations for second place finisher HappyCynic for "Frost".



And special kudos for Diamond_Dog, our third place finisher for "A Lacy Leaf"



It's been my pleasure to host this month's contest! Til' next time!

[snowybirdie]

1. Congratulations all

Difficult to pic best. They all were great! Thank you.

[MontanaMama]

2. Absolutely stunning - all of these!!!

Thank you to everyone who shared their work. Thank you Tom Kitten for hosting.

[Solly Mack]

3. Congrats all!

[MichaelSoE]

4. Grats to the winners.

It was one of the harder contests in which to pick a favorite image as every entry in the contest was superb.

[WalkerinSC]

5. Great job to all who submitted. Congrats to the winners.

Well deserved!

[hermetic]

6. Well done!

So many lovely, tiny things.

[urbanhermit]

7. Congratulations to the winners!

And everyone who submitted a photo.

[crickets]

8. This was an especially amazing collection of photos this month.

Thanks to all who participated and congrats to the winners!

[sab390]

9. First time I voted

And mine didn't make it. I guess I have to vote more often.

[h2ebits]

10. Wow! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous

[planetc]

11. C. Peggy: it must have been hard to ...

get that much glow into your photo without getting overdramatic; Happy C.: Frost and ice are mathematics in bloom, and you got the shot; Diamond D.: a reminder that all of nature is constructed from tiny, delicate structures. Great job, all hands!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. Thank you so much, my dear planetc!

The glow was caused by the sunlight which was shining on the far side of the rose! I was quite happy that I had been able to capture that.

The other two winners also produced amazing and gorgeous photos! Hats off to them!

[Diamond_Dog]

15. Thank you so much, planetc!

I am still in shock that I placed third among this absolutely stunning group of photos.

Congratulations to CalPeggy and HappyC! Your entries were fabulous and your honors well deserved!

[HappyCynic]

23. Thanks, planetc

My photo wasn't actually taken with a macro lens. I used a bellows I got from ebay (I think you can find some for around $40) and a really old used Minolta MD 50mm lens (also really cheap). More cumbersome than a macro lens (and no auto-focus) but you get much higher magnification.
California Peggy's 'The Rose' was definitely well deserving of first place and though Diamond Dog's 'A Lacy Leaf' finished third, it was just as deserving of a first place finish.
Regardless of what equipment and techniques used, all the photos entered were fantastic, regardless of how they placed!

[planetc]

26. Your detailed reply gives me nerve enough to ask ...

a seriously dumb question. Did you take your photo with a film camera? As distinguished from a digital camera? And are the photos we see in these contests mostly digital, mostly film, or what? I sort of thought photographers had switched to digital, but what do I know?

I only know what I like, and I agree with you that whatever the equipment, our photographers are getting fantastic results!

[HappyCynic]

29. Digital

To be exact, it was with a Sony A330. Ancient by today's standards and only 10.2 MP.

Here's a bit of trivia about the Sony Alpha series. Sony bought Minolta when Sony was getting into the SLR digital camera business. As a result, the Sony Alpha series used the "Alpha mount" for the lenses, which was essentially the same lens mount as used by the Minolta cameras. This resulted in the Sony Alpha cameras being compatible with a lot of the Minolta lenses (though not with the old Minolta MD lenses). Because Minolta was one of the leading camera manufacturers back in the 80s and 90s, there were a ton of good quality Minolta lenses in the market. So, in the same way the Canon and Nikon cameras were compatible with their respective film camera lenses, Sony also had a ton of film camera lenses they were compatible with. In practical terms, that meant you could get a lot of used lenses for cheap. (I have quite a few lenses and almost all of them cost me less than $100 each, some significantly less.) (I owned a Minolta film camera with a few good lenses so that's why I went with Sony instead of Canon or Nikon.)

I believe all the photos in the contest were taken with digital cameras, though I'm not 100% sure. I'd guess it's probably something like 98-99% are digital. I'm not sure how many are phone cameras vs dedicated cameras, though. With today's phone camera technology, they're essentially replacing the entry level cameras. (I think Olympus is abandoning the entry level SLR/mirrorless camera product lines for that reason.)

Hope this wall of text wasn't too boring for you.

[planetc]

31. NOT boring.

Just what I wanted to know. It seems to me that every good photographer understands their camera and the process of photography down to the finest detail. And you have made an extremely flexible camera from often used parts. Those of us who love these DU contests are always falling about marveling at the results the contestants produce. This helps me understand just how thoroughly prepared the contestants are when miraculous subjects loom up before them. It takes nothing away from their skill and eye for a good picture, and I will just be even more impressed with their results.

Thank you.

[brer cat]

12. They were all winners!

Thanks to all who participated.

[panader0]

14. A great contest. There were so many outstanding photos. Congrats to all.

[niyad]

16. Congratulations to all the winners. It was a most intriguing theme.

[reACTIONary]

17. Fantastic pictures, and...

... a great contest theme !

[live love laugh]

18. Beautiful O'Keefe-like rose.

[Hortensis]

19. Congratulations and thank-you to all. Exquisite topic!

[blogslug]

20. Beautiful!

Congratulations!

[rogerballard]

21. All So Beautiful

Congratulations Winners!

[a kennedy]

22. Yeeehaaaaa, winners were exactly how I voted. 😁 NOT.....but....so happy, ALL ARE BEAUTIFUL

and again congratulations to all who entered the contest, AND a super congrats to the winners. All winners deserve it.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

24. beautiful

[Grumpy Old Guy]

25. Congratulations to all.

Thanks Tom Kitten for running the contest.

[electric_blue68]

27. Congratulations! Really interesting, and pretty set of photos in the macro form. The Rose was my

first place pick.

The color was gorgeous, with a very nice gently off set composition. It was however the through the petals sun glow that elevated for me. 🧡

It was a challenge to pick the initial three contestants. A good sign of quality all around.

Well done, photographers! 🎖️ 👍

[HAB911]

28. Congratulations to all!

[alfredo]

30. Winners all

[2naSalit]

32. All very good!

But that rose!