Autumn in the Rocky Mountains.
by jimsapp

Comment:
Congratulations on your fist ribbon also! Love your shot.

Autumn Evening
by paul58

Comment:

Originally posted by KiwiPix: So come on Paul, don't rip us off. How about a bit of a story about the shot and the process of getting it. Taht's the least you owe the voters :)

OK! OK! I know that its nice to tell all about how about you did your entry. I just didn't really feel like I did anything particularly innovative to get this, but here goes:

It was late Monday afternoon & I still had no really good entry for either open challenge. But lately we've been having some quite pretty sunrises and sunsets. (This time of year is good for this in Northwestern Ontario, partly because of the length of the day. In late June, for instance, to capture a sunrise, one might have to rise at 4:00 or so in the morning, and it's still light at 11:00 PM).

Anyhow, as it got into early evening and it looked as if we could get a nice sunset, I started thinking about how to prepare, just in case. My wife had the car, so I didn't have the option of driving to some "perfect" spot. But we do have a pond on the property with cattails growing. The only problem is, it's down at the base of a hill in a less than optimum spot for capturing sunsets. So I ran down there (by now the sun was setting, and I wasn't yet set up!) found a spot where I could get some cattails without drowning, broke off an armfull of them (carefully chosen for form and character, of course), and ran up the hill to our back field, where the sun was now setting. Realizing that I needed some way to stand them up, I (now getting desperate) sprinted back down to my house to look for something (anything!) to use for a "flower pot". I quickly located a chunk of hollow poplar log from my firewood pile, and hightailed it back up to where my cattails were. After strategically arranging them in their "pot", I set up my camera as low as my tripod will allow and proceeded to capture this "tranquil" scene. (I had to lay on the ground to shoot - and (puff,puff...) boy, did I need the break! The sky that evening really was spectacular, and it was (and always is) great to be there to enjoy it! It didn't take take an awful lot of tweaking on the computer to end up with what you see here. In Paint Shop Pro 8, I used the histogram adjustment for contrast, both for luminance and for colors. Then upped the saturation a little, resized, applied unsharp mask.

And thanks again for all the comments & votes. Hope to learn (and share) lots more in the days to come!

Message edited by author 2005-10-05 15:02:49.

Autumn Evening
by paul58

Comment:
Thanks all! As I was watching my score, I thought I had a good chance of making the top ten, but didn't expect a ribbon, particularly a blue!

A Light Step High Up In The Clouds
by Coley

Comment:
Great idea & execution! This made me smile.

Gazing Ball
by Twyla

Comment:
Nice capture - very pretty!

Now This is a Knife
by paul58

Comment:
I really appreciate the comments - particularly regarding the lighting (good or bad), as this was tough for me to get. I wasn't entirely happy with the look, but I thought it was the best of a number of takes. If someone has more suggestions on how to improve this, I would love to hear them. I make knives (this is one of mine!), and photographing a blade with a mirror finish has always given me some trouble.

For this shot, I lit the subject from the left side and held one larger & one smaller piece of white card as reflectors in key positions to diffuse a little light & control glare. But, as some rightly noted, I somewhat lost the reflective appearance of the shiny blade.

Sunset
by Bud

Comment:
nice photo.

Treebeard
by blue_dragon

Comment:
I like the rich coloring. Very nice sillouette.

ol' boot on that thar post
by bruski

Comment:
Interesting, Nice colors, too!

my shoes
by arnar

Comment:
I like the coloring and the setting here.