Prior to that challenge, I had no idea about what 'Pet Rocks' were. To my knowledge, they never made it to that side of the ocean, and I had to ask the great Internet for some enlightenment. Needless to say the answer left me doubtful, to say the least. Since I don't know where to buy LSD these days, I went back to the good old brainstorming method, and tried to imagine various situations involving pets. After a few different sketches, I decided to go with those 2 persons, walking their respective pets, in a scene including an undergoing rock love affair ;-)
At first, I spent a whole afternoon walking in the woods, and took about 500 photos of different paths. Some were nice, with the sun filtering through the leaves, but despite my efforts to make this background work with the scene, the composition wasn't so good, and all the results were rather disappointing. So 2 days before the challenge end, in a desperate attempt at creating something, I brought my camera at work, and took advantage of my lunch break to quickly reach Berton Street in Paris and photograph it. The street is actually quite narrow, paved, and has nice lamps, so it looked like a nice background possibility. However, it was a cloudy day, with a very flat and diffused light: in order to add visual interested I converted the scene to that foggy night look. This permitted me to turn the street lights on in post-processing, resulting in a much more dramatic lighting of the characters. I believe this is the first time the main light of my background photo is virtual: it was interesting to achieve.
While I was processing the background, my wife was working on the pets. She created the eyes out of cardboard pieces, and glued them to the rocks. The rocks themselves were originally relatively flat, so I deformed the texture in post, to emulate their roundness. We also decided to dress in a way that would match the mood of this old Paris street, like in an old novel. I took the photos at home, using a lighting setup designed to match the virtual lighting of the street. I inserted all the characters in the scene, and created the various necessary shadows (woman on street, man on street, rocks on street, leashes on street, leash and collars on pets). Finally, I gave one of my cats an opportunity to make a little cameo appearance on the roofs, I'm glad several of you did notice it :-)
Thank you all for the great comments and votes! I'm very happy that some found my entry funny, as this challenge was really a call for humor. It definitely is a big pleasure for me to create such fanciful image and to be able to share it!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 31 Avg (all users): 8.3548 Avg (commenters): 9.3448 Avg (participants): 7.7500 Avg (non-participants): 8.4712 Views since voting: 9137 Views during voting: 444 Votes: 124 Comments: 61 Favorites: 15 (view)
Well, as you know...I always enjoy your kitty cat images...;-) I enjoy how this image highlights Mrs. Gyaban's charm and femme fatale mystery which clearly more than just intrigues you. (Appropriately, she is ignoring you...;-p). The supporting roles of the adorable pet rocks casts just the right amount of flavor and fun. Truly, your wife adds a genuine and gracious authenticity to an otherwise silly challenge. She deserves this score and ribbon.
The lengths to which you go are just stunning, Christophe. To me, perhaps the most amazing part is how your wife goes along with it all, as an active co-creator. This has to be one of the fascinating relationships of all DPC-dom, and so the image greatly amuses me because it echoes that relationship in itself :-) Very well done!
Waitaminute, that light's VIRTUAL?! Are you yanking my chain? (Or leash, in this case)? ;-) Congrats as always, and can't believe I missed the cat watching from the rooftop!
Your images are always A M A Z I N G. But what I perhaps love even more about your entries are your stories and editing steps. Unbelievable to read that you "turned the street lights on" in post-processing! Wow ....
What a master you are and what great imagination you have. I think we are very priviledged to have you here on DPC.
My top pick. This is superb. I love the way the two rocks are eying one another, the way the man is looking at the woman and his rock is pulling at the leash, the fact that the woman is walking away but her rock is lagging behind. Voted earlier.
If rocks have feelings too, you wouldn't get leashes that go around the largest part. It makes them feel that they're way too round. They'd prefer something much more slimming!
I hear that harnesses are much easier on rocks. :)
Very surreal feel even still in this pretty "normal" scene. Love the addition of the black cat on the top of the buliding...or was that already sitting there? Either way great October feel!
Adorable, Christophe, although I feel that your wife's (and her pet's) left side could have used a TINY bit more light. LOVE the kitty watching the proceedings :-)
The feline witness, (which I did not see until after viewing for several minutes,) to this extraordinarily well thought out, perfectly executed, hilarious moment, wraps this whole scene up in a nice little package. Even though the concept is quite simple, it tells such a great story. And I bet the editing did not take 20 hours for this one either. The rock's eyes are the winners, fantastic.
Rocks Have Feelings Too
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