Happy and also proud

I am happy to announce that one of my photos won Second Place in the Urban category at the 2015 New Mexico State Fair photography competition! It marks a few "firsts" for me.

I've entered other online contests before, but this is the first "real" competition I have ever entered. The photos were judged by a panel of five persons, all professional photographers that also teach photography at various institutions in New Mexico.

The rules for my entry, which was at the Professional level (meaning that if I have ever earned any money from my photography, even a single penny, made me a "Professional") meant that my print had to framed and glassed. The other levels were Adult Amateur and Youth, which only had to be mounted and matted. Funny, I still don't feel like a Pro.

So it was my first experience getting a photo framed for competition. My first juried show. My first award.

By now, Gentle Reader, you are probably sick of waiting and are itching to see the photo that won. Without further delay, here it is. I call it Rise.

Rise by Todd Hakala

Blogger limits how big I can display it here, so here's a link to 500px where you can see it larger.

Comments by the judges, which I found interesting, were that the slight shadow to the left "wasn't necessary", and that it "screams Urban", which is good, because that was the category I put it in.

I also entered Hoodoo Factory in the Scenic category, and though it scored well enough to be in contention for a ribbon, it didn't win anything. I'm including it here for comparison.

Hoodoo Factory by Todd Hakala

Link to a larger version of Hoodoo Factory on 500px. 

Now that you know that Rise is a Second Place photo, you might be wondering what beat it for First Place. That turns out to be none other than my wife, Rozanne, with her photo Helix. That photo not only won First Place, but also Best of Show, which is quite an honor. She also earned an Honorable Mention for Penitente Morada. I'm very proud of her.

Both Rozanne and I are surprised at our success, being newbies at photo competitions. We are also happy that we purchased our first high-end photo printer that we think contributed to our success at the State Fair. We got an Epson SureColor P800 printer, which is an amazing machine. All of our submitted photos were printed on the P800.

I've known torture and I've known pain...

...and it has nothing to do with a film with Michael Caine.

My beloved Canon 5DII and it's usual companion, the 24-105 took a quick bath in a Norwegian lake on Monday. So far, the lens seems to have recovered electronically, but there are dried water spots on the second element from the front. I took it in to my favorite camera shop, Penn Camera, for an estimate. If it's fixable, I'll be without it for 4-6 weeks and be out probably $400. Bummer.

The camera seems to be salvagable. I had it sitting on the heated bathroom floor in the Bergen hotel room for 3 days, and it partially worked, but it wouldn't take a picture. The mirror would freeze at about the 2/3 point when the shutter was pressed, and the rear display indicated "Err 20".

At least the fog in the rear and top displays went away. I noticed that it wouldn't hold the date and time settings, so when I got home I looked through the instruction book and was reminded that the camera has a little coin battery, a CR1616, in addition to the rechargeable battery. I took this out (which requires a fine Phillips screwdriver to access) and tested the battery with my voltmeter: 0.38 volts it said. The battery is rated at 3.0 V.

Having had experience with dead/dying mobo computer batteries in Mac desktops, I figured that the weak battery might be causing the camera to malfunction. Off to search for a CR1616, and found one at Walgreens for $4. With nothing to lose, I put the new coin battery in, and voila!, it seems to be working fine now. As I use it, I will post further reports.