I was at OfficeMax picking up a few things when I happened to notice that they sold a pre-made rubber band ball. With the "Mundane" challenge in the back of my mind, I remembered seeing a shot something like this a few years ago in an office-supply type catalog. So I bought the rubber band ball and a pound of colored rubber bands and had some fun...
(Second in my series of challenge-inspired "office organization tools" shots. The first was my paperclip entry in the "Simplicity" challenge called Homage to Johan Vaaler. Next up: staples... =)
Shot with the Canon 50mm/1.4 on a tripod. I intentionally tried to keep the lighting in the back darker and the further-away rubber bands out-of-focus to give it a "more distant" look. I took some shots with even shallower DOF, but I figured that type of effect would probably get hammered, so I'm submitting this one taken at f/11.
Minimal post-processing: bumped up the saturation and cropped to the 5x7 aspect ratio. This image was difficult to compress; I had to save it at JPEG quality 50 (!) to get it under 150K.
Useless trivia: there is exactly one white rubberband in the photo. I didn't think you'd notice it, but you can definitely see it.
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Place: 2 out of 169 Avg (all users): 7.0000 Avg (commenters): 8.4286 Avg (participants): 6.9800 Avg (non-participants): 7.0299 Views since voting: 13116 Votes: 167 Comments: 57 Favorites: 54 (view)
Nice Job Eddy--
When I made my comment "Rubberband Man", I was actually referring to the Office Max comercial--
I see these things everyday, I work at Office Max :)
We keep them up front for impulse buyers like you, lol--
Maybe this is a bit rude, but to me this is the only image in the top three that really meets the brief, as the others are at least partially someone else's art. Well done on a great concept and flawless execution
One of the hardest parts about this entry was coming up with a title for the shot. I submitted it with something "mundane" like "Keep on rollin'" (or something equally lame) and at the last minute, the much-better title "Growth Opportunity" just hit me.
For anyone interested, here is an "out-take" that shows an alternative composition I was considering:
Very creative idea. Love the vibrant colors of the rubberbands. The white road that was created gives a sense of movement for the rubberband ball. The diagonal orientation of the white road gives it a dynamic feeling. "10"
Great job of being creative, so many entries are so similar, yours stands out. This also fits the subject very well, rubber bands are very ordinary. I think you should've used a smaller DOF, or somehow stopped the viewers eyes from moving up, and off the page.
This is what this contest is all about. How cool is this??? And how ever were you so incredibly patient to arrange all those rubber bands so evenly?? This needs to be one of those motivational posters - very nice job! 10
That is soo cool. Very creative idea. I would have tried to tweak the light a little to make it brighter and maybe more contrast. Very good anyway tho.
This is one of those shots that leaves me smacking myself on the forehead and doing a Homer Simpson "Doh!"... Why didn't I think of that???? Great work. Any time I have that reaction to an image, it definitely deserves a 10.
Whoah! Craziness! Did you set all of those out? This definitely makes the mundane seem anything but ordinary!! And I love the design and the title for it.. very very clever. Nice work!
Exellent Idea! Great composition and wonderful colors. Great use of DOF also. Fits challenge to a "T"! Well done! Should definetly be a Top 5, in my humble opinion. :-)
Very very cool! Love this composition and idea. My only complaint is that the flat bands are not very sharp. Did you do this intentionally? Hope this does good but afraid it won't cause its definately not inside the box!!!
TC
Growth Opportunity
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