I really struggled to get this image - but a new macro lens and some studio lights later, here we are.
I took well over 700 shots of pins dropping on all sorts of surfaces with all sorts of DOF, shutter speeds, lighting conditions, and ISOs - with both of my cameras and all of my lenses.
In the end, this was taken with two studio lights in modeling lamp mode placed in very close proximity to the pin-drop. I tried using the flash but the movement was too fast for the pin to remain sharp - I suppose the pin is so close to the lens, the angular change at even modest speeds is pretty high.
I like the way you can just about make out the part of the granite surface onto which the pin is dropping - it illustrates just how narrow the depth of field is.
Only after I shot this did I do an image search and find a few other examples of the concept - but I do think mine offers a different angle.
As an image to look at, it is probably too drab to make many friends but I hope there are some people who will look at it in the context of how tricky such a shot is to pull off.
Edit: Crop; Neat Image; Smart Sharpen; some reduction of red and magenta (to reduce the appearance of noise); a boost to the exposure; a raised black point; and finally a crop.
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Gimmickry or execution is always appreciated and respected. My previous comment was not meant to belittle your efforts. For what it is, this is a very fine image and i think you accomplished what you pre-visualized. To me, that is the ultimate test within image gathering.
Your idea is good and fits the title. The shot is simple but quite effective to convey the idea behind your title but in itself does not convey a feeling of silence. Whilst the pin is positioned perfectly in the frame there is too much empty space at the bottom and on the right and the image would benefit if cropped a little tighter. Maybe an inch and a half of the bottom and off the right hand side. 4
I love the anticipatory silence this image creates. I would have been tempted to crop out the bottom smudges and perhaps use a 2x3 portrait with the pin centered. Having the green ball just off center makes it feel a bit off balance to me. The sharpness of the pin's tip is fantastic and it looks like you're really dropping it (over and over and over... :)
I like that you can tell where the ground is and the super shallow DOF definitely works with the image. But I feel that the part of the pin that is out of focus is a little jarring, in a sense. I realize the possible difficulty of trying to get a pin to fall within a shallow DOF, but still, I think it might have been interesting to try.
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