MSA September and October 2007 - "Of Great Importance To Your Life"

As you might recall, we misplaced Barbara Anne for a few days a couple of months ago, so Wayne stood in for her for the last session.

The good news .... not only have we found her, but she has a new assignment prepared for September and October and we will be hearing from her sometime this weekend.

From what she's let me know about the assignment, it sounds like there will be a bit of thinking, definitely some remembering, and hopefully a lot of fun taking the photos and posting them here.

For any new readers, here's the basic idea of the MSA :

1. read the MSA assignment
2. take your photo according to the assignment guidelines
3. you can post your photo in the MSA Gallery : (there was a url link here which no longer exists) or,
4. you can host your photo elsewhere and link to it in this thread or,
5. you can post it right in the message here and it will show as a clickable thumbnail.
6. it's all for fun, there are no prizes, but at the end of the MSA, Barbara Ann will choose a "victim" to lead an MSA in a couple of months time.
7. if you have any questions, please email or PM me and I'll be happy to help.

Stay tuned for Barbara Ann and the next MSA theme !!

cheers eh?

September/October MSA

Greetings Fellow MSAers.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, will be to photograph any person, place or thing that has great importance and/or meaning in your life. Feel free to put a couple of lines explaining why you chose your subject, although it is not a requirement. A humble suggestion: If you wish to post more than one entry, it might be fun to photograph your person,place or thing in different aspects, e.g. lighting, weather, camera angle etc.
So, pick your subject, load up your camera and have at it!
Best Regards to all,
barbara ann

Ok folks,

Your taskmaster has issued the assignment instructions. There's a lot of latitude in this assignment, and I know that everyone has had someone, or someplace, or something in their lives that has been more important and longer remembered than others, so dig in and let's see what your memory can produce eh?

This sounds like a great assignment Barbara Anne - it should be lots of fun!

Don't be shy folks - get your cameras rolling

cheers eh?

UPDATE~

UPDATE! John has suggested, and I agree, that some of us may have MORE that one person, place or thing that is meaningful. So, if that's the case, by all means photograph and post multiple subjects. The only caveat being that they are important to you personally.
I am anxious to see what you all have to share...
barbara ann

A month has gone by.

Has anyone yet figured out what the objective criteron(a) is/are to determine what this the meaning of this assignment?

We all have meaningful persons, places and things (hopefully in multitudes) but this isn't a photographic assignment!

Can't we have a MSA that's "focused"?

I don't know what to do with this - yet I'd hate to see the thread topic die.

copake_ham said:

I don't know what to do with this

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I do.

Barbara Ann has this event. Sly has the next one. I'm sure you'll do a good job at helping them with their assignments.

It's all yours. You're running it now. You can run it any way you like.

cheers eh?

John Bartley said:

I do.

Barbara Ann has this event. Sly has the next one. I'm sure you'll do a good job at helping them with their assignments.

It's all yours. You're running it now. You can run it any way you like.

cheers eh?

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:confused:

The September/October APUG Monthly Shooting Assignment is "....to photograph any person, place or thing that has great importance and/or meaning in your life." Pretty simple (for me). Depending on what is currently going on in an APUG'ers life, this could be an 'important' or 'meaningful' thing to do, or not. In my case, it's the following:

Taking a photo of my mom has always been difficult. Either her hair is not right, or she has the wrong clothes on, etc., etc. She just doesn't like to have her photo taken. Diagnosed with Parkinson's back in 1994, she's not doing too good these days and dislikes having her picture taken even more, except for this one time. On Mother's Day in 2006, she cheerfully said yes to my request for a photo. So I ran to my Jeep, got out my camera stuff, and happily fired away. My dad, who is taking the "...in sickness and in health" part of their wedding vows to the fullest meaning of the words, had to be in the photo, of course. Yellow is my mom's favorite color, hence the background.

Picking my parents for my entry is an easy choice for me. We all know what parents do and how important they are to us so I won't go into any more detail on that, but, 18 months after posing for the photo, my mom is still hanging in there. She's falling a bit more and has a cast on her left arm from a fall last week, but man is she tough! She's still smiling.

Although I had the equipment (listed below) with me, I really wasn't fully prepared for my mom to agree to have her photo taken. Otherwise, I would have taken with me a film that would handle skin tones better and I would have also taken my 2 1/4 Bronica equipment. But after decades of "hair not being right/clothes not right", I just brought what ever was nearest the door when I left home. Lastly, the scan is not the greatest and was done by Costco. I"ll get my own scanner some day. The actual slide looks much, much better, but I think you get the idea.

Equipment used:
Nikon F5AE, 24-85mm f2.8-4 Nikkor Zoom, SB-28 Speedlight, small Stroboframe, Gitzo tripod, Manfrotto Proball Head, Fuji Velvia 50 (not the best for people shots).

Filmsprocket, you hit that one out of the park. Well done!

copake_ham said:

A month has gone by.

Has anyone yet figured out what the objective criteron(a) is/are to determine what this the meaning of this assignment?

We all have meaningful persons, places and things (hopefully in multitudes) but this isn't a photographic assignment!

Can't we have a MSA that's "focused"?

I don't know what to do with this - yet I'd hate to see the thread topic die.

Click to expand...

So sorry you're confused by the assignment! But, I'm confused as to why you're confused :confused: Simply select something or someone that is important to you and photograph it. You establish the criteria for yourself, basically. Then,briefly explain why you chose the subject. Hope this helps
barbara ann

FilmSprocket said:

Picking my parents for my entry is an easy choice for me. We all know what parents do and how important they are to us so I won't go into any more detail on that, but, 18 months after posing for the photo, my mom is still hanging in there. She's falling a bit more and has a cast on her left arm from a fall last week, but man is she tough! She's still smiling.

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FilmSprocket,

A wonderful choice and great photo, two people who anyone can see are incredibly comfortable with each other. You don't need to make any apologies for quality, tones etc. you hit the assignment right on the target and I'm sure this will be a photograph that'll will have great value and importance to you long after the assignment is over. Well done, from somebody who is still trying to pluck up the courage to post a shoot for the MSA.

David

Dinesh said:

Filmsprocket, you hit that one out of the park. Well done!

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My sentiments as well Filmsprocket. You not only totally understand the assignment, you understand something much much deeper. That will be a prized photo for the rest of your life. Well done.

Both of the submissions made so far are excellent and I am looking forward to seeing more. My sweetheart and I are headed north tomorrow to a place that is very strong in my memories and I have a few photos planned that, while they will fit the assignment requirements, will in no way compete with the emotional response that I had to the postings made thus far.

cheers eh?

John Bartley said:

Both of the submissions made so far are excellent and I am looking forward to seeing more. My sweetheart and I are headed north tomorrow to a place that is very strong in my memories and I have a few photos planned that, while they will fit the assignment requirements, will in no way compete with the emotional response that I had to the postings made thus far.

cheers eh?

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John,
Thanks for the nice comment and I'm looking forward to seeing your photographs. Considering the current assignment we have, competition would be the last thing I would think about. Hope you're having a nice trip!
Drive cheerfully!
Marc

Dinesh, dferrie, jimagain,

Thank you very, very much for your kind words. And thanks to Barbara Ann for the assignment.

Okay, David (dferrie)...I know you've got an image you'd like to post. I could feel it in your last message. ;-)

All the best!

Marc

FilmSprocket said:

Dinesh, dferrie, jimagain,

Okay, David (dferrie)...I know you've got an image you'd like to post. I could feel it in your last message. ;-)

Marc

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You've been an inspiration for me too. I'll have one coming but definitely in the spirit of participation and not competition

she is THE most. . .

she is THE most. . .important person in my life! And has been so for over 19 years. Please, check out "good old Wheelygirl's" contribution/submission to this MSA!
Also, BTW--I'm still around, occasionally 'lurking', because of Photography class assignments & dark-room work, I'm having wwwaaayyy too much fun, to be "cooped up" with my 'puter.
Plus, as soon as i can figure out how to get my negs onto a CD and/or my final prints onto one, I do intend on "showing off"!!
Take care everyone & 'til later. . .

Baby-girl is looking good for 19, wheelygirl. You've taken good care of her. She doesn't really look overjoyed about having her photo taken, but, at least she's being polite.

I've never really liked cats before. And when I go to someone's house who has a cat, the darn thing comes right over and tries to be friends. About a month ago, my daughter caught me at a weak moment and convinced me to get a cat (through PetSmart Adoptions). Four weeks later, and I still can't believe it, but 'Blanco' (white cat with green eyes) and I are best buddies. Now I understand, better, a photo such as yours, wheelygirl. Well done!

Marc

Submittal

This is my first post to the MSA. In the spirit of "something that is important to me", I have posted in the MSA gallery a shot of my father.

Hope you like it.

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

Welcome to MSA

shicks5319 said:

This is my first post to the MSA. In the spirit of "something that is important to me", I have posted in the MSA gallery a shot of my father.

Hope you like it.

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

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Welcome to MSA Shicks! Thanks for posting the wonderful image of your dad.
Only a few days left folks to submit photos of a person, place or item that is meaningful or important to you!

I never even noticed there was a MSA I wonder what I haven't found on this site...LOL

Just entered (there was a url link here which no longer exists) in the MSA Gallery

Welcome Xia Ke

Welcome Xia Ke to MSA Gallery. Now that you've found us, stick around for upcoming assignments! Thanks for posting!

The love of my life

So (there was a url link here which no longer exists)my post. Actually I posted two. The beach my wife and I go to relax and my wife waiting patiently with out two little dogs while I fiddle with my cameras.

In the 1920's a young man accompanied his parents, sisters and brothers on a move from Eastern Ontario to the mining, farming and lumbering country of Northern Ontario. They settled their farm, lived, worked hard and started to prosper. In 1939 this young man and two brothers volunteered for the Canadian Army and then spent six years training in England and fighting in Europe before coming home in 1946. We never heard what happened, but one brother moved away, one worked diamond drill rigs and slowly drank himself to death, and this young man bought a veterans lot next to his Dad and started his own farm. Until his death, he never left the farm except to hunt, fish, and go to funerals. He prospected passionately, and was awarded an honorary lifetime prospectors permit by the Ontario government. He died a couple of years ago at almost 90 years of age.

His name was Ed. I married his niece.

I met Ed in 1978. He and one brother were still farming then, milking and separating by hand, and keeping the cream in a spring fed cooler to be sold to the local dairy. I spent many hours sitting with my back against their cookstove, drinking thick black tea and talking. Ed was a conspiracy theorist with a deep distrust of government and we used to argue about stuff like that. About a year before his death, he let me drive him into th e hospital for some tests, and we were talking about something that led to a bet for a case of beer - I don't remember what we were talking about. Some months later his health finally failed, and as he went out of the house on a stretcher, he gave his brother a $20 bill and told him to give it to me in payment of the bet. He died shortly after. We bought a case of beer with the money and had one at his "grave".

He didn't want a grave or a stone or a funeral. He gave his brother very firm instructions and they were followed. Here's where his ashes are scattered. It's where he used to sit and watch as moose, bears, foxes and other assorted animals would go about their travels. Only a few of us know where it is, so one day I decided I'd make the photo. The gray box at the base of the tree is the box his ashes came home in.



I miss Ed (and his brother - who has also passed away), but life goes on and I see both the old guys every time I see the rest of my sweethearts family. Here's the rest of the crew in another spot that's close to us. It's a cemetary that can only be accessed during the summer. It's about two miles into the bush on a sand/gravel road, but it's a nice spot for a visit. My sweethearts parents and sister are buried here as are a lot of her Aunts and Uncles. This is where I helped dig the grave for her cousins Dad. Her cousin was my best man when we got married. It's a peaceful place. We sometimes go and have lunch and a couple of beers when the weather is nice.



Life goes on .....

cheers eh?

A marvellous image and a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing something so personal with us John.