My 2 favorite hobbies. Golf and Photography. Had fun with this one. If I win a ribbon I'll explain how I took this shot!
Post Challenge Description:
Wow, its been a while since I have won a ribbon. Bought the Canon 6D and have gotten a 4th and 3rd on its first 2 submissions. New equiptment is inspiring!
For this entry I used my backyard to set up the shot. Right in the middle of the yard that gave the best sky shot and the framing of the trees. I got the idea for the shot on Saturday and was praying for good weather on Sunday,the last day of the challenge. It was very cloudy in the morning, not what I was hoping for, but decided to try anyway. I dug a hole in the ground deep and wide enough to place the camera and be able to show the bottoms of my golf shoes as my feet extended slightly over the hole. I had to trim the grass as low as I could to make it look like a tee box area but I could only cut it so short before it looked brown so the grass was a little long in reality. I also had to drape some grass into the hole so you wouldn't see dirt just below my feet. I took a golf ball and cut off about 1/8 inch to make it look compressed on the face of the golf club on impact and glued the ball to the driver head. A few times while I was setting up the shot my dog took the ball off the driver head and ran off with it. A major delay as he would not give it back!
In order to get a somewhat realistic look to my swing I basically had to contort my body in a very unrealistic pose because of the warping of the fisheye lens. This was all done by trial and error. I had to bend my knees in an exaggerated fashion, grip down about 16" on the shaft of the club, ark my back in order to keep my arms straight stand almost direct over the T and practice my facial grimace! I practiced tensing my arm muscles to make it a more realistic looking action shot. I was actually a little sore the next day from all physical demands of the shot (I'm not so young anymore!) I took many pictures over the course of the day as the weather conditions changed from cloudy to partly cloudy to mostly sunny. I took about 50-75 shots before I got the one I liked which was actually the last shot of the day. I used flash on the camera to highlight my face but had to blend that in with the proper lighting conditions through the day as the weather changed. I would take several shots. check them on the computer to redesign any flaws I saw in my stance, position of the head of the club to the T, lighting, etc. and waited for the sky to clear. The weather gods were with me as I finally had an exceptable blue backround. Post shot adjustments included cropping, sharpening, cloning to repair some imperfections, using the burn tool to soften burned out areas and slightly saturating for impact.
Thanks to everyone for your great comments and high scores. One of the most fun shots I have taken:)
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 86 Avg (all users): 6.8966 Avg (commenters): 7.6667 Avg (participants): 6.8611 Avg (non-participants): 6.9216 Views since voting: 3264 Views during voting: 214 Votes: 87 Comments: 30 Favorites: 1 (view)
I love golf and photography. I also love this shot and your description on the process. Nice job. You've gotten a 4th and 3rd. Time for your 2nd and 1st place entries with that 6D. Good luck.
Congrats on the yellow. Thanks for the details of the shot. I have to say Wow, that's paying attention to detail. Truly a well deserved ribbon. Fantastic shot.
Haha, great work, I love the attention to details (like the simulated compression on the ball). Very, very glad your creativity and hard work got awarded. Congrats :-)
Didn't vote this challenge, but ran through the entries and this one just jumped out at me. Screamed "perspective", it did. Made me laugh, too. Congratulations on the ribbon - I'll be back for the explanation tomorrow :)
Fore!
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