Seeing my Long Exposure shot scoring lower than I anticipated, I decided to shoot an entry for Neon Signs as well. ;) I had been wanting to shoot something similar to this (with my uncle's neon cactus) for quite some time, so this challenge was a perfect excuse! It was shot in a relatively remote area of the high desert. I parked on the side of the road and ran 200' of extension cord down a hill from the inverter in my car. My friend stayed in the car and flipped the inverter switch on and off to light the cactus up when I told him to.
The actual power cord for the neon cactus is coming from the right side of the frame and is buried beneath the sand. The power cord you see is just a decoy that I grabbed from a CD player (I really wish it had been white for this shot!). I picked up the power outlet (which is propped up here by a rock to provide a better angle) at a Home Depot about 2 minutes before they closed. :) I started the exposure, had my friend flash the cactus on and off, then exposed for several more minutes to allow the full moon to light up the landscape. I wish the moonlight hadn't lit up the glass neon tube so much and washed out some of the neon, but there wasn't really any easy way to avoid it...
A cop showed up while we were shooting this and asked what we were doing on the side of the road at 2:00 AM. I told him I was doing some long-exposure night photography. Then came the question of the year - "So you takin' wildlife pictures or sumtin'?" :/ ...... Yep, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing. Long-exposure nighttime wildlife photography is the BEST!!! Right there, right there - see that blur? I call this one 'Squirrel by Moonlight'. :D
* Post-challenge: Thanks everyone for the awesome comments!!! This was a blast to set up and shoot. :D And oh yeah - Jason, don't even sweat the vote. I can see how some people may have thought this didn't fit Basic Editing rules. Thanks for taking the time to explain your vote, and welcome to DPC! :)
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 124 Avg (all users): 6.8876 Avg (commenters): 7.6000 Avg (participants): 6.6462 Avg (non-participants): 6.9653 Views since voting: 10462 Views during voting: 564 Votes: 267 Comments: 74 Favorites: 16 (view)
Great shot and title... I didn't get to vote in the challenge, so I'm commenting now. And the appropriate response to the cop would have been "Here's Your Sign" Congrats on the blue.
I would like to publicly apologize to Sean for my 2 vote. I am a new member and this is my first time voting. I was quickly flipping though the photos and when I saw that one I didn't think it was real, I thought it was fake. Can you see the descriptions before voting? If I had read Sean's description I wouldn't have made that mistake. Is there someone I can email to change my vote? Anyway I'm glad that my stupidity didn't cost you a blue ribbon and I hope you will accept my apologies and congratulations!
Is there a way to change a vote? I realize now that I need to vote on the actual photo and not what I think it was or was not...Leave the reviewing up to the site admins. I apologies to the whole site for that.
I look forward to participating in the future and will not make that mistake again!
I didn't vote on this challenge, but this is just fantastic! Even better is that you took the time to share the background on how the shot was done. I think I see that nighttime desert squirrel running around back there in the background! :P Great job, and congrats on a well deserved blue!
Congrats dude, I didn´t vote but judging from the top 20 thumbnails, the best shot won this challenge as far as I am concerned, good creativity, very much in spirit of Scalvert´s shots.
This was my only 10 - It was perfect - When a picture makes you wonder how it was takenand is also well executed - Then thats 10 in my book. Really well done. This would also make a great poster!
Jeff
This is a real hoot! Very clever and well done. I'm not crazy about the green border - it does match the neon, but I feel it is also a bit distracting. But you still get a 9
personaly I find the border a bit distracting, especialy with the colour maching the neon, but the title, and the whole idea, is just great.
the most origanel shot here, framing is perfect, and the power point in the dirt, just love it.
nice idea, lighting could be improved as it is clear, the cord's shadow isn't induced by the neon-cactus. Sky should be darker, startrails should've been cloned out. green border distracts a bit
Birth of Las Vegas
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