There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
-Shel Silverstein, "Where the Sidewalk Ends."
I just moved to China and last week I had the opportunity to vacation on a beautiful island in the South China Sea called Hainan. Just took my point and shoot out for a day at the beach and got a million great shots of children playing in the waves. This was taken without the challenge in mind as I hadn't seen the new challenges since leaving for the island. These three were adorable. I had trouble deciding what to submit, but I'm in a hurry so I went with the one I found most moving. I really wish I had gotten some more of a wave crashing in on this one though, they went crazy every time one came at them. Seriously so cute, they were having a blast.
I really wavered on how to edit this. I feel like for the challenge leaving it in color would have created a more playful atmosphere, especially because the colors were really vibrant, but I just like the photo so much more this way. It just looked like hokey eye candy to me in color, or like a typical beach resort photo or something. It probably would score better like that, but I'm a much bigger fan of this version when I'm not thinking about the challenge. I decided to go with what I liked best, even if it doesn't get me the score.
Editing steps:
-rotate to correct the horizon
-crop
-auto levels
-convert to grayscale
-duotone with PANTONE Black C and PANTONE 119C
-messed with the duotone levels
-add border
-resize and save for web
-sharpen
-fade sharpen to 15%
Post Challenge:
Post Luminous Nominee??!!!!???!!!!!
No way! Thanks a ton! I met a few goals with this one. Plus I love it personally so it's all just icing now :)
Statistics
Place: 26 out of 190 Avg (all users): 6.0118 Avg (commenters): 6.5000 Avg (participants): 5.8958 Avg (non-participants): 6.0574 Views since voting: 1299 Views during voting: 258 Votes: 170 Comments: 9 Favorites: 1 (view)
Great image, I find it underrated, at least based on my tastes! I disagree with you in that the color would have scored better. Who cares! The sepia tone tugs at the heart; makes me yearn for the childhood summer days spent at the beach. Growing up in Southern California, that was nearly every day! As a point of critique, I feel that you could have made a bigger impact with a stronger composition, specifically the sky. I find myself scrolling down to "crop" some of the sky out. Still a successful image because it spoke to at least one viewer, and that was before I read the title!
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