Bad photographer cred?

 

Again with the tree photo
this time basically
at the crack of dawn

Still a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest, and RantWoman is trying to demonstrate quirky skills.

RantWoman again encourages everyone who might be intrigued or even just slightly interested to read the contest guidelines.

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

The contest does not want anyone who has ever done professional photography. Do the following comments mean RantWoman might be over-qualified? 

Part of the instructions ask for a one-minute video about a bad photography experience that still turned out well. There is also the part about other skills. One of RantWoman's skills is going on at length. Hence the multiple blog posts.

First Prize in the 4H photography category at the county fair: there were no other entries. 

This happened decades ago at an age when RantWoman officially could see enough with glasses to maybe do decent photos. RantWoman remembers giving a speech about sewing. RantWoman may have entered some baked goods. But the blue ribbon went to an album of black and white photos. RantWoman has long since lost the actual album but remembers that it was in black and white. Some of the composition was less than perfect, though RantWoman also remembers at least one shot of one of the town mountains that she really liked

The fambly reunions:

RantMom, may she rest in peace, and her siblings had a tradition, after their kids were grown and everyone was on less tenuous financial footing. of getting together every couple years with at least a few at a time of the cousin generation. So there RantWoman was recently looking at photos ahead of RantMom's memorial. Quite a bit of the time, RantWoman found herself thinking "who are theese people and why can't anyone take decent photographs? RantWoman can tell that photographs of people standing with light behind them in front of various forms of scenery do not do justice either to the people or to the scenery. Does that observation already make her overqualified for the contest? The memories are FUN regardless.

The cat and the disposable camera. 

While RantWoman was trying to land on her feet after her midlife vision-related DNA kicked in, RantWoman signed up for a workshop series called "Getting involved in your Neighborhood." Part of the project involved handing RantWoman a disposable camera with instructions to document one's surroundings. Very funny. RantWoman really could not even locate the camera viewfinder and took a few pictures just by framing the camera based on externam things she used to orient the camera. The Queen of Meow, RantWoman's cat overlord at the time liked to jump up onto the railing of the balcony across from RantWoman's apartment. To RantWoman's surprise, a couple of RantWoman's cat photos showed the Queen of Meow proudly strolling along the railing, oblivious to the 4-floor drop to the patio.

The incision at the bottom of RantWoman's neck.

Scroll forward a couple decades. Add a smartphone so theoretically RantWoman can better use her limited vision to frame the photos at least a little better. Oh, but wait: a new task. Recently RantWoman had a surgery related to a different strand of DNA lotto. The surgery involved a small incision at the base of RantWoman's neck, sealed up with surgical glue and steri strips. RantWoman lives alone and cannot really see into the mirror to monitor healing. RantWoman an also has a smart phone that attempts to tell her how to capture her face. RantWoman did not want to capture her face. RantWoman wanted to capture her incision as it healed. To do that RantWoman basically had to ignore the instructions offered. RantWoman probably would have been able to tell if she were developing a raging infection without photos. Luckily, RantWoman has a coupe people in her life willing to receive daily photos and comment on the evolving color palette. The doctor was impressed at the follow-up visit.

The daily tree motif

RantWoman's apartment looks out on a tree, actually more than one tree. RantWoman does daily tree photos more or less just for fun. RantWoman is not preoccupied about the quality, composition, contrast of the photos. RantWoman's task is to write alt text for the photos. Alt text is description used by screen reader users to describe content of photos. Nowadays, a lot of platforms have AI which automatically does a mediocre job. RantWoman's efforts are also possibly inadequate. Sometimes the descriptions include details like the building in the background or the plants growing on the window ledge or some observation about weather conditions. There is some dance of messing with AI, attempting to improve on AI, and meditation about how much description is just right for different situations. Does RantWoman just have weird ideas of fun?