Special thanks to my husband who came up with idea and then pushed me to come up with a way to do it. Personally, I didn't think I could but it pretty much came out exactly how I wanted it to.
We attached a thin metal chain to the top of the ball with a small screw. Lit the ball on fire using lighter fluid, then he pulled it up and let it drop. We did this several times until I thought I had something I could work with. I shot it against the wall of the garage with a metal bucket below it and a fire extinguisher in hand. Our neighbors officially think we are nuts now. :-)
Post processing consisted of:
-Rotated canvas slightly
-cropped
-levels and curves adjustments
-cloned out some marks on the wall and the parts of the chain that showed in the flame and also the screw top in the ball.
-Added a gradient layer to emphasize the gradient that was already there. The wall was lighter at the bottom where more light came in from outside.
-used the VP filter "fall color" to boost the colors of the flame.
-resized and sharpened twice
-added border
-----------------
Post Challenge:
Woo Hooooo!!! I'm so stoked about this. Thanks everyone for the votes and the comments and the well wishes!!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a "happy dance" to finish!! :-D
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 158 Avg (all users): 7.2304 Avg (commenters): 8.7917 Avg (participants): 6.9848 Avg (non-participants): 7.3600 Views since voting: 14903 Views during voting: 505 Votes: 191 Comments: 105 Favorites: 50 (view)
Nice shot! I do some aerodynamics work, and the fire really shows you what's happening with this ball. Very cool. :) It must have been heaps of fun to shoot it.
Amazing fire picture. Definitely true to the challenge. I think i would prefer a bit of a tighter crop, but damn is this a great photo! Congrats on the ribbon!
I think you've done a wonderful job with this, and I love the idea. I have only one suggestion, more context, i'd like to see something more, but what that is, is hard to convey.
Fantasic idea, breathtaking result, don't get chance to visit this site enough these days but this shot amazed me! well deserved ribbon.
Regards to all
Vin
Congrats on your first ribbon! Like this shot and definately think it´s ribbon worthy, it´s just I don´t understand why you didn´t include a catchers glove or a hand "throwing" the ball, the visual impact would have been much more like that but this works (well obviously, duh, hehe) also :) Congrats again!
Very, very, very, very, nice!
Congratulations! Well done!
Hard work, creative thinking, having fun, all leads to top images and you got it good!
Peace!
Can't believe you didn’t just call to brag about this!!! (*smack upside the head) My internets been down all weekend so I just saw this a few minutes ago! I'm so happy for you, sweet score and your first ribbon!!! Congratulations :)
Congrats on the ribbon and the insanity that created it ;)
Yer neighbours are likely jellis of the heat you n your hubby come up with :P~
Being Nuts is underrated in my opinion!!
:)
Congrats Jen. I was probably more stoked than you when I looked and the homepage and saw your name. I am so happy for you. Such an awesome shot too. Now you can mark off three of those goals. Congrats again.
Congrats on your first ribbon. I'm a big baseball fan and I even have two baseballs and a glove sitting on my desk right this minute yet I didn't think of doing this shot. Great execution on this. Even without motion blur this thing looks like it's humming across the frame.
The heater....Of course. So obvious, at least to baseball fans. That is what its all about sometimes. Bringing the obvious into plain sight....with a little help of execution.
I like what you've done here. I think the lighting is spot on as well as the depth of flame, I can see this being a dpc favourite. Its almost central but wonder if further away from central (either up or down) would help a touch? am thinking it will score well however :)
A stunning concept well executed, with great detail and color. Possibly a ribbon, too! 9
Criticisms (all minor): Pity you didn't have a more outdoors-y background to complete the illusion... dark green or blue. I'd suggest cropping to a narrower horizontal format (and making it available as a stock photo). The border in this case doesn't really add anything IMO.
Bringin' the Heat
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