Does a Museum Count as "Media"?

A while back, it was announced that Eric Cheng's famous "screaming turtle" shot had won the "Animal Antics" category in the 2005 Nature's Best Photography Contest. One of the features of that contest is that the winners are displayed, along with favorite pictures from previous years, in a gallery at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. I work in DC so during lunch one day, I hiked over to the museum to check out the exhibit. The turtle is displayed quite prominently -- is 4'x5' a big enough enlargement? Eric may be in town next weekend so I'll leave it to him to take some good pictures of the display!

It is also worth mentioning that the San Diego Underwater Photography Society won the award for Best Club. A collage of their work can be found on the other side of the wall Eric's picture is hung on:

Mike

Media or not, it’s great!

Congrats Eric.

Thanks, guys. I'll be there this weekend, and hope to meet up with Mike. anyone else in the DC area?

Dude, that is way beyond media. That is the freakin Smithsonian!

Dude, that is way beyond media.  That is the freakin Smithsonian!

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That is a problem to non-Americans, how we suppose to know if it’s 'the freakin Smithsonian!' or some forlorn Museum, although the Smithsonian looks somehow familiar name

Very cool Eric!!!

Nice one Eric,

But were you pointing a camera at poor Donatello or a shooter. At last those pesky shelled Ninja freaks get whats coming..

Dive safe

DeanB

Great job Eric - I would like to know your reaction regarding the quality of the print in such a big size and also the specs on the gear used to take it.

Outstanding! That is a great honour most definately. Mike take a picture or two of Eric next to the shot.

I also like the quote in the picture you took too.

Kudos Eric!

I met up with Eric on Saturday, but not until after he had already been to the photo exhibit. Knowing Eric, he probably managed to get a photo or two of himself with the shot and will no doubt post something to the journal section of his site with any pictures he took there.

Quote: On the other side of the "wall" the pictures are on is another quote: "At the foundation of everything in nature."

Enlargement quality: Eric's photo is actually a crop of a D60 photo. He can go more into how much of a crop but I think it is actually something like half of a horizontal. Blown up to 4'x5', there was some pixelation as one would expect. Eric mentioned something about it being blown up just a bit too much. However, I didn't find it to be all that objectionable, especially since there is some blurring in the original due to (and showing) the motion of the turtle's fins. I don't think the casual observer there would care a lick about it. His shot is also helped by the subject matter and by being on a wall by itself -- there is nothing adjacent that, by comparison, would draw attention to any enlargement effects.

Mike

Photos, as requested!

I agree with Mike -- the photo is blown up too large for its 3MP source. But at a normal viewing distance, it looks just fine, and seems to be a nice entryway image for the exhibit.

Here's a link to all of my photos, plus a bunch of crap I'm sure you don't want to read : http://echeng.com/journal/2006/01/30/screa...sonian-dc-trip/

I just noticed that one of the photos says that a catalog of winners is available in the ground floor museum store.

Did anyone who went see any such catalog? does it exist? If so, can you buy one for me?

I just noticed that <a href="http://echeng.com/journal/images/06/0129/060128_093417_echeng5169.html">one of the photos</a> says that a catalog of winners is available in the ground floor museum store.

 

Did anyone who went see any such catalog?  does it exist? If so, can you buy one for me?

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I saw that as well when I was there and wandered around the gift shop looking for it. I found nothing and didn't get a chance to ask the lady at the cash register because there was a line and I had to get back to work. I can check on it again next time I'm downtown.

Mike

Page 18 of the February Smithsonian magazine has our mouth-agape little friend.

Kevin

Savannah