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Shoot the West Island Gazette
Photo of the Week
"It made me feel as if I was nine years old all over again," said one reader, of Gazette photographer John Kenney's shot of these kids blowing in the wind.
Nothing tells a story better than a really good photograph. It can stir emotion, bring a smile to our faces and, on occasion, cause us to pause and reflect for a moment.
So what better way to kick off our new interactive website than to invite you to participate in our West Island Gazette Photo of the Week Contest. We give you a theme, you supply the images. And each week, the best photo will be printed in the West Island Gazette newspaper section and here online.
Our photo editor, Lynn Farrell, has some useful tips below on what makes a good photograph. Each week a different Gazette photographer will pick the winner based on the following criteria: Originality, Composition, Relevance to the Theme and Location (the photo must be shot in the West Island Plus area). Please, amateur photographers only!
You must be a registered user of westislandgazette.com to enter the contest. Once you've created your free account (which you can do here), upload your photo here. (Make sure you select PHOTO CONTEST in the Image Gallery field.)
Photos must be uploaded to the website by Tuesdays at noon. You may submit a maximum of three (3) entries per week. Prize-winners will be announced here on westislandgazette.com on Wednesdays and in the printed West Island Gazette section on Thursdays.
So get those cameras ready and click away! You can see all of the entries to the contest here.
Brenda O'Farrell
ofarrell@thegazette.canwest.com
Editor, West Island Gazette
Photo editor's tips
Great photos capture emotion and elements of surprise but they also adhere to some technical rules, things you might keep in mind no matter what your shooting:
Composition and lighting: Make sure your photos are aesthetically pleasing, with a nice balance of elements within the frame. Ensure the photo has a clear point of focus that directs the audience to what you want them to look at. Make sure the lighting is pleasing and you've exposed your images well.
Movement: Choose an appropriate shutter speed to capture the action. A fast shutter speed will freeze the action. Using a slower shutter speed to blur movement can suggest motion. Experiment!
Ultimately, the best photos are the ones which move people, either to laugh, scream, even cry. Or it may simply be, as one reader told me once about a photo we ran of boys tilting against the wind with their jackets held aloft as sails on a boat "it made me feel as though I was nine years old all over again."
– Lynn Farrell lfarrell@thegazette.canwest.com
How to
enter your photo in the contest
Remember, only registered users of West Island Gazette Plus can post their photo entries on the site. If you are not a member, please create your free account here.
1. Select POST YOUR OWN PHOTO (on the top right of every page) or just click here.
2. Fill in the required fields: TITLE, LOCATION. Under IMAGE GALLERY, select PHOTO CONTEST. Then put in the CAPTION and CREDIT. Don’t forget to put the photo credit in parentheses.
3. Then upload an IMAGE by clicking BROWSE, selecting your image file and clicking UPLOAD. Make sure your file size is not larger than 1MB.
4. Click SUBMIT.
5. Your entry has been uploaded.