Had to go to a "baby store" on my lunch hour to purchase a duck (o.k. 2 rubber ducks and some floaty fish). Then I went to a supermarket to buy green grapes. As I couldn't eat the grapes for lunch and traffic had been bad and the service at the first store was awful, I bought a pre-made submarine sandwich and some chocolate milk to take back to work with me and eat at my desk.
I shared the "rules" with people at work who I thought were understanding friends--they're still friends, but I have come to realize how strange they think I am--I think they also came to realize how strange I am--I think I shouldn't have shared....
Went home with my understanding husband who helped me brainstorm the idea. The martini glass was his idea and I swam with it. (Everything else was my idea, but I still love him.)
I have an earlier opus that this refers to, "Blowin' Bubbles" for (oddly) the multiple light source challenge last year. It was inspirational to be able to re-visit an earlier, well-received work.
"Ducktini" was created with great care and over several attempts--I can't call this work (of art) "work" in the true sense, as every part of this opus has been enjoyable, from the lunch-time traffic, the uninspired salesclerks, the confused grocer, to the final result--each piece of the puzzle simply fit into the next as if this were the most natural thing I have ever done. (I am thinking of contacting a gallery to consider rep'ing my pieces.)
Editing was, of course, minimal. My intuition in setting up the shot made it simple to crop, adjust levels, alter the hue (ever so slightly) on blue, yellow and green, and sharpen for the electronic medium we engage in.
Best wishes to all those, who like me, have realized the "vision" and were inspired to engage in a truely 21st century art form!
Statistics
Place: 6 out of 125 Avg (all users): 6.5299 Avg (commenters): 8.0526 Avg (participants): 6.2329 Avg (non-participants): 6.6079 Views since voting: 4575 Views during voting: 595 Votes: 351 Comments: 27 Favorites: 4 (view)
I'm sitting here trying to come up with a crit and I honestly can't see anything that I would have liked to have seen done differently.
Focus, angle, lighting, everything seems right on to me.
If I HAD to pick something that I would change, I might have gotten a different duck.
There are 2 things about the duck that if they were not there might have improved the shot, but to the overall shot, they are very minor details. First, the duck is yellow with a reddish beak, but what is the red on his chest? I cannot think of anything that would be red on a duckies chest. Is it a tie? Anyway, it's a slight distraction trying to figure out what it is. Second, there is a small bit of sailors hat sticking out from behind the glass. doesn't seem to be adding anything to the shot. It appears that it's not really suposed to be there, so the tiny piece sticking out is anothing tiny distraction. Again, these are 2 very tiny things that don't really take away from the shot at all, but might 'clean it up' a bit had they not been there.
Overall beautiful shot, love the bubbles, placement of the duck and grapes is great in my opinion. I like that he is behind the glass. I don't have anything else to add...congrats. ~Heather~
Switch from the old "the tree/pole/sign/whatever coming out of the back of subject's head". I would like to have seen the duck a little more to the right. But I love the coloring, bubbles, foam, and reflections.
I think this is a wonderfully creative shot. I love the bubbles. The lighting is great and I do like the nice reflections of color in the stir stick and the glass. It does make you want to move the glass over just a bit so you can see more of the duckie's face, but then it may lose some of it's appeal. Great shot and I really like it. (9)
I guess the duck is placed directly behind the glass to get those vertically flipped duck heads in the glass. That's a nice effect, but took a while for me to discover when looking at the picture. The immediate impression was that the duck is disturbingly hiding behind the glass and thus everything in the scene is too tightly packed into the center. Otherwise this is excellent - very nice background and lighting.
Great lighting choices and composition which causes the eye to move around the frame seeming to understand the image. My only crit is about hiding the duck behind the glass, even cutting of the duck's eye with the glass. Overall, an excellent use of lighting and elements for a cool looking photo.
Nice composition, you are going to get a lot of negative comments for not having more blue in the background showing, but I like the overall effect of this photo, good work.
Very well done! Striking color use, sharp focus. All the elements required in a pleasing arrangement. Like the bubbles the rubby ducky floating on. The reflection in the water adds to the overall composition.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
