Re: ADA contest

["Madan Subramanian" <madans at satyam_net.in>]

John I too don't own a (decent) camera, All I got is a point and shoot and a
beaten Mavica still which records on a floppy. In fact this is what had me
in two minds about entering the contest, Finally around 10th April my friend
convinced me to try, so I got down to prune the stem plants. The shoot was
initially scheduled for the 18th, but that damn stellata didn't grow that
crucial 2 inches, so it got postponed to the 20th and the stellata still
hadn't made it, in the meantime a gorgeous lily leaf hit the water surface.
Oh well... couldn't postpone any longer so we had the shoot on the 20th of
April.
We used Kodak E100s and E100Vs film for the 35mm format and my friend went
and got 120mm Kodak E100Vs film as I wanted a massive blowup of my tank for
my drawing room.
I didn't like the Vs film, even though it is supposed to enhance the
colours, the natural colours of the E100s was simply superb.
The 120mm medium format film was an entirely different story.
Then came choosing the slide to mail to the ADA .... the spouse never lets
you be certain here.
Finally on it's way went my entry to Japan by Fed Ex with the promise that
it would be delivered on 29th morning positively, guess what?...  I find out
on the 30th that due to a " missed connection" my parcel had cleared customs
at Japan and was still awaiting delivery ..... was still awaiting delivery
?!!!.
Off went a panic e-mail to ADA explaining the situation and Mr. Nozomi
Hayakawa was kind enough to reply,  must have been close to 10.00 PM there,
that he had checked at the Fed Ex website and my parcel would be delivered
on the 1st of May and ADA would accept my entry. Phew !!!
All I know of photography is to aim and shoot and blame the rest on the
camera. This was fun.
As for hiring a professional photographer I only paid for the materials (
one roll of 35mm slide film, the others was my friend experimenting)  and
the scanning / printing.
BTW the slide was scanned on a Nikon scanner, I don't know if that makes a
difference. I don't think one should worry about the actual print, ADA would
not have asked for the slide if the contest was to be decided on the print
alone, more over a lot depends on the printer you use, view the slide using
a slide projector if possible and choose the one you like and send it off.

Madan Subramanian
Bangalore, India.