I am a huge gearhead, and this challenge was like a gift from the heavens. I shot hundreds of pix of things ranging from metal shavings curling off a workpiece on my lathe, to milling machine cutters to motorcycle wheels, to motorcycle sprockets. I even shot a pizza cutter.
I had so much fun with this that my wife was a DPC-widow for the week. :)
This submission came from my collection of motorcycle toys, and is actually a Tamiya plastic scale model of a Yamaha YZR500, a Gran Prix bike from 1983. The parts are still on the sprue. Major geek points if you know what a sprue is.
The model parts were hung from a shelf with scotch tape (I was too lazy to figure out a better, more invisible method) and the wall behind was lit with a desk lamp.
Post processing was minor: levels, a gentle unsharp mask, and cropping.
My wife is responsible for the name: she said "It looks like Egyptian Heiroglyphics..."
Statistics
Place: 180 out of 283 Avg (all users): 4.9228 Avg (commenters): 5.7619 Avg (participants): 4.7965 Avg (non-participants): 5.0301 Views since voting: 1149 Votes: 246 Comments: 24 Favorites: 1 (view)
Thanks to all who commented. This image really seemed to polarize folks. My general sense is that people either liked or hated the lighting. I was attempting to get "dramatic" light on the slightly pebbled surface of the wall, but in retrospect, I think it was just dark and blah. If I were to do it again, I would place a white card on the left side to fill in a little and even out the background.
And, of course, in the days after the contest ended, I figured out several better ways of hanging the model. I had rushed into it, and it was a bit of a last minute deal... I hoped that the creativity of the idea would raise the score.
This is one of those cases in which I liked it a lot when I submitted it, but don't like it as well now.
The left side of the photo is far too dark, and the tape holding up the plastic assembies is visible. I think taping behind some of the more solid objects, and 2 light sources would have helped.
This caught my attention in the thumbnail where it looks more like relief. In the larger version the edges of the frames catch the light and reveal what it is. I wonder if you did the same thing but placed the subject on something like tracing paper and back-lit from behind the paper......
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
