First off it is February in Minnesota... finding black dirt (thats not frozen) is near impossible. Having no thawed black dirt available, I had to resort to using potting soil (which contains white styro, etc.). I used a 'shoot' off of an Eternity Plant (African origin) to represent the new sprout.
Spreading out the potting soil over a piece of cardboard (prox. 3' wide x 4' deep), I then tried to remove as much of the foreign particles as possible. I placed the Eternity Plant shoot into my desired location, positioned my halogen desk lamp, and took the shot.
Editing:
It was necessary to clone out multiple white specks, and other foreign particles, because of having to use potting soil for 'earth'.
Performed a slight clockwise rotation to straighten sprout while adding a roundness effect (in my opinion) to the shot.
Did a little 'burning' of the left leaf on the sprout (original was a tad 'burned out' in my opinion).
Cropped to an aspect ratio of 7 x 5 (the size it would be if I submitted to DCPrints).
Resized, bordered, and submitted for challenge.
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This photo is great, the lighting is very good. Looking at the title I autamatically thought earth which is probobly what you intnded. The leaf is offset from the middle which is very good for composition. Great job.
i really like your shot a lot. great minimalism and lighting which creates a very strong clean image. nice job.
your downfall in this challenge could be that your true subject isn't really one of the four elements. however, i still really like it regardless of the challenge.
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