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Joy!
Joy!
tanguera


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Macro VII (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: 2010
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: Oct 2, 2010
Aperture: 3.5
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/250
Galleries: Emotive, Macro
Date Uploaded: Oct 2, 2010

 This idea sort of just popped into my head. I've had the little lady since 2005 from my trip to Peru. She's about one inch tall, and was part of a tiny pin that included a gent with a hat, and his arm hooked through hers. But he'd lost his hat and just looked weird without it. Besides, I'd envisioned just the girl skipping through a field of flowers.

For the field, I had originally wanted to use a pincushion, but there wasn't one around and I just didn't have the time or energy to go buy one. So it became a scavenger hunt for something to stick pins in. I remembered I had a red squeeze ball, and hunted around for that until I remembered that one of my foster kittens (Lola if I remember correctly) decided to see what was in the center. Fortunately, my sweetie also had one, but it was blue. Would a blue ground work? Oh sure, why not.

Then it was just a matter of sticking pins into the ball in a pleasing way, and figuring out how to position the girl. Her left arm was still hooked from where she was arm-in-arm with the boy, so I decided to use that to my advantage by filling her arm with "flowers", and used another pin through the back of those (which were all taped together) to attach her to the ball. From there came the idea to give her the appearance of skipping or jumping through the field as she picked her flowers.

converted from RAW
topaz adjust (simplify)
color balance
Gaussian blur layer
levels
curves
fill layer to 30% opacity
some dodging
save for web

Statistics
Place: 101 out of 168
Avg (all users): 5.2951
Avg (commenters): 6.5000
Avg (participants): 5.2295
Avg (non-participants): 5.3607
Views since voting: 755
Views during voting: 283
Votes: 122
Comments: 9
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 10/20/2010 12:55:10 AM
An excellent story - very peaceful and serene with a huge feeling of warmth and friendship. All from pins, a ball, and a doll.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
 10/13/2010 07:30:33 AM
I really liked this image, I am surprised it didn't finish at least closer to a 6.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Sony SLT-A57
Sony DT 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM
10/11/2010 06:24:00 AM
Surprised thus finished where it did. I really liked this one. You were robbed!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Nikon D700
Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED
 10/10/2010 09:40:49 PM
It's a fun idea, but i don't really get why the focus is on the needles to left,
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Sony SLT-A57
Sony DT 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM
10/10/2010 01:11:19 PM
This is one of my top ten images. Great imagination and creativity. The different pin colours give the image a nice balance, and you've captured the title perfectly. The lighting of the face under the hat is spot on. It there is anything critical to say, it's that the two red pins bottom left are in the plane of focus and my eye keeps getting drawn to them. I think it would be perfectly legitimate in advanced editing to blur these two out a bit so that they are not so much of a draw. That said, it still a great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D90
Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR
 10/09/2010 11:02:22 AM
Meets Challenge 10 Impact 7 Technicals 5 Processing 7 Creativity 8 Total (weighted) 8
Has the makings of a good picture , for me the focal point needs to be worked on - good try and the colours are great
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D300s
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
 10/08/2010 11:20:45 PM
Very creative... Love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D500
Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM
 10/08/2010 05:10:03 AM
too OOF
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-30D
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
 10/07/2010 06:56:45 AM
Very attractive and inventive - she does actually look joyful -
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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