I've been going back and forth on whether I should put notes on this one, because I know I'll irritate some by doing it. I'm not sure if I'm irritated myself.
When I first started on DPC, I was annoyed at any setup shot. I thought photography was about "catching" the shot. Seeing it and getting at the right time.
Challenges irritated me, because it was extremely difficult two great catches in a week. And challenges like SPAM, still life, etc., couldn't really be finds. Well, maybe you can find still lifes, but where do you happen to find SPAM other than the grocery store. I mean seriously, does anyone really eat the stuff? It stinks! (and really collects flies). My husband made me go outside to shoot that one!
Oops, sorry, I digress.
Anyway, I started learning how to setup shots. I still preferred the nature shots and the "finds". In the meantime, I watched with interest the discussions on Doc's photo:
And even the discussions on highly photoshopped photos.
And then the Puzzle Macro challenge happened. And I went out to find bugs to see if they could be puzzling. (btw, it was a painted lady butterfly -- not a mosquito!!) While I was taking photos of creepy bugs:
butterflies and dragonflies:
I looked down and saw a monarch. It was deceased. I bought it home, thinking that I'd try to put it under a magnifying glass, and using my extension tubes, get a really, really close macro that might be puzzling. After looking at way too many bug pictures, I got tired and bored and entered what I had. The monarch stayed in my dining room (which happens to be my "studio".)
Rule of thirds: So I didn't have any ideas. I had some live flowers and dead flowers -- a bouquet from my husband given a week before. I was going to try something like this:
but with a live flower on one third and a dead one on the other. Nope. Didn't begin to work. Plus, Moriarty kept getting up on the table! I've already done a cat sniffing flowers.
And then I remembered the butterfly.
I would never be able to watch Mo going after a live butterfly. I even save moths when they fly in the house, because it seems cruel to let the cats play with them and eat them. But somehow I found myself gluing a dead butterfly to a flower.
That was the easy part. The whole reason I did it was because butterflies backlit are soooo gorgeous. I set up a strobe to backlit the butterfly. Really difficult. It had to be extremely bright to make the butterfly glow; and that made everything way too bright. I then snooted the strobe. Better.
But when I asked my husband to hold the flower, it was way too difficult to get the light right. I managed to hang the flower from a backdrop holder, but that kept swinging back and forth. And my cat wrangler kept knocking it aside.
That's because Mo had absolutely no interest in it! So we tried string. He'd watch that, but it was too hard to get it close enough to the flower without knocking it out of the way. We tried his beloved milk rings, and nothing worked.
Ok, getting desperate now. I've come this far, there must be a way.
Tuna fish!! Week and a half old tunafish in the fridge that hadn't been thrown out yet, because we'd been out of town. Got a tiny drop out and onto the flower.
Mo still didn't notice!! He's awfully cute, but not too bright. When he finally did notice, he didn't really sit and stare like I'd hoped, he just kept rubbing on the flower. Of course, that knocked it out of position each time he rubbed.
I got this shot; which is what I had been hoping for.
but the pink flower just didn't fit. I didn't want to get rid of the color in the butterfly, after all that was the whole point! But the pink flower just was awful. B&W didn't really review well.
So I went with the current entry.
Here's where he started getting more interested:
By this time, I was sorry I had started the whole thing.
While I wouldn't and didn't do anything in for a shot, it still seems cheating to setup something like this. But is it really different than setting up shots with models, still lifes, etc.? I don't know any more.
Long rambling story. I hope I got the links right. And I hope that someone might find the thought process interesting.
Thanks for the comments!
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Congratulations on winning the blue ribbon. Yes, your thought process is very interesting, both technically and philosophically. I always enjoy your commentary.
Congrats on the blue Wendy. It's a great shot, and yes, I found your thought processes interesting. Not cheating imho and kudos to you for your persistance.
I'm enjoying being part of the DPL First ten! side challenge. Yours is photo #3 in my random voting stream for the Rule of Thirds VI challenge.
Intriguing use of the rule here, with two separate attention points in diagonal opposition at the intersection points. It works on one level, but also creates an interesting tension between the cat's eye and the flower. The front leg bridges the gap as a leading line, but it still feels visually unsettled to me. The exposure and background are exceptional.
Curiosity
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