For some reason, I became obsessed with this challenge, doing four different shoots with my glass sphere. But I didn't like ANY of my results. I almost didn't enter. Finally, as I sat and pondered what to do, I thought of soap bubbles, but then fretted about how to present them.
Then it dawned on me that I had four playful foster kittens. Bubbles and kittens!! What could be better, right? Well, I didn't have time to go to the store for a proper bubble blower, so I had to make my own soap water, and fashioned the little wand by twisting some jewelry wire. Then I couldn't get the right soap consistency. I began to worry that I was losing my light (I only get about 45 minutes of good light in my office), and then that the kittens were approaching nap time and would care less about the lovely soap bubbles I was making for them.
Finally, I got it all together and started shooting, but quickly realized that auto focus wasn't going to cut it. I zoomed way out, chose a deeper focal depth, focused on the area where the light and the kittens and bubbles would (hopefully) all line up for me, and hoped for the best.
Then I had to blow bubbles, making sure they were big enough, close enough to the kittens, and in the light. Of course, when the kittens were paying attention, I couldn't blow a bubble to save my life. But if I'd blow 3 gorgeous ones in a row, they were off fighting each other and totally missing my handiwork. I almost gave up (my shooting arm was getting REALLY tired), and I finally got this one. I knew I had it even before I checked them all. There were several other fun shots, but this was the money shot, although I had to crop super tight to make it more about the bubble. I love how the shadow of the bubble frames Franny's little face. I wonder if anyone else will notice that detail...
Converted from RAW
HUGE crop
Sharpened, sharpened, sharpened
Silver Efx neutral
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I expect there will be some DNMC comments since the "sphere" is rather ephemeral, and not an in-your-face sphere. But I just love this shot and had to enter it.
[POST CHALLENGE]
Top 20! Yeah! Thanks for all the votes and wonderful comments. I love this little critter and the wonderful shot she gave me.
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Place: 18 out of 113 Avg (all users): 5.9420 Avg (commenters): 7.5000 Avg (participants): 5.7358 Avg (non-participants): 6.0130 Views since voting: 1056 Views during voting: 324 Votes: 207 Comments: 17 Favorites: 0
WOW .. this is fantastic .. love the lighting and that sharp as bubble .. love the look on pussy's face & the reaching out is excellent .. great in b&w too .. :)
I like this picture a lot. I would liked to have seen the cat's paw in focus. Just my take though. In literature, there is no perfect reader. In photography, there is no perfect viewer. You have my highest vote. Even higher than mine.
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