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10/22/2004 05:44:20 AM |
| I DID vote THIS challenge and DID give you a 10. An absolutely darling shot, wonderful concept, and superb execution of it. |
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07/23/2004 11:47:58 AM |
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07/22/2004 12:57:40 PM |
| Truly fantastic, and thanks for the detailed description on the shoot! |
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07/21/2004 09:20:21 PM |
I had picked this as a winner!
Congrats on your top ten finish.!
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07/21/2004 04:20:22 PM |
Kiss a Lot of Frogs
This title describes the learning experience I went through, putting this shot together—especially considering I have done nothing like this before.
First, we had to catch the frogs. They primarily come out at night. It took us about 30 minutes to snag eight of them. We kept them in a covered bucket overnight (don’t worry—frogs have the ability to simulate hibernation at the drop of a hat; they can shut down their systems to accommodate lack of air, food, and water. Overnighting it in a bucket was not going to unduly stress them.) The next morning, I found two more hanging around the front steps, giving me ten to work with.
Next, I needed an outdoor studio. I first tried using parts from an unassembled white desk. I printed out the word ‘Kiss’ and dropped them in the bottom. Then we dropped in the frogs. I quickly realized I had used the wrong font. I had to stop shooting to go reprint ‘Kiss’ in a better font. It didn’t matter: the results were ugly, ugly, ugly. The frogs jumped, the words slid. Even after I taped the words down it was ugly. It took about 60 shots before I realized this was not working.
So, I decided to use a banker’s box (one of those collapsible document boxes). I taped white paper on the bottom and two of the sides, then taped the words onto the white paper. Then I cut a whole for the camera lens. This looked like it would work.
In went the frogs. Out jumped the frogs.
I put saran wrap over the top of the box. I used the box lid to herd the frogs into the target corner. The frogs jumped and were trapped by the saran wrap. My daughter gently nudged them back into the box. I began clicking away. Every now and then, I’d try a different shutter speed or aperture, but I was primarily focused on trying to capture as many frogs as possible per image. I snapped off about 350 images in about 12 minutes. Almost all the images were shot at F/10, with shutter speeds ranging from 1/80 to 1/320.
That was the easy part.
Having shot film for the past 25+ years, I am fairly new to digital photography. I just recently purchased PhotoShop CS, but have not really figured it out yet. But, since this was an “open” competition, subject to Basic Editing rules, I figured that post-processing would not be that big a deal.
After a couple hours of picking through and playing with frog pictures, I thought I would need to wrap my head with duct-tape, so that when it exploded, I would be able to find most of the parts.
The hard part was finding a image that would work within the confines of the rules. In reality, I could have made it a lot easier on myself had I spent more time putting my studio together. Paying attention to detail makes all the difference in the world. The tape marks and paper joins could easily have been avoided, which would have led to images not requiring as much brightening, contrasting, and cropping.
While I am absolutely thrilled with the peer recognition, I am more excited about what I learned from the process:
1) take time to work through everything ahead of time
2) take time to take care of all the little details that can hurt the shot
3) take lots and lots of images
4) don’t be afraid to start over it it’s not working out
5) when working with small, live animals, be patient (and refrain from even considering Krazy Glue).
 
Outtakes and Polishing
Amazing what you can do with spot editing (as well as getting some experience with PhotoShop)…
more shots
Message edited by author 2005-05-25 04:59:32. |
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07/21/2004 01:23:56 AM |
| Congratulations on your top ten finish! That hard work paid off! :o) |
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Comments Made During the Challenge  |
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07/20/2004 11:12:33 PM |
| Very enjoyable, well done. The whimsicle font plays well on the fairy tale. I like the colro and pose of the frogs. Their spots do seem over-sharpened tho - some artifacts and funny dark lines. still I really like this! 9 |
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07/20/2004 10:15:48 PM |
| This is funny, funny, funny. |
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07/20/2004 03:06:02 PM |
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07/19/2004 03:07:56 AM |
| I think it would have looked better if the frogs were facing the camera. |
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07/18/2004 10:14:26 PM |
| Adorable...would have also done well in Threes! I do wish we could see at least one froggie's face. Good effort! :o) |
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07/18/2004 09:04:09 PM |
| quirky and fun, clever use of words/frogs/title, one of my ribbon picks this challenge. |
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07/18/2004 12:16:57 PM |
| My favorite of the challenge. Great idea! 10 |
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07/18/2004 11:38:45 AM |
Good job. Maybe a little overexposed but not by very much.
Very imaginitive, one of my favourites. |
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07/17/2004 03:36:41 AM |
| I doubt, shot a bug ... but nice composition |
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07/17/2004 02:17:22 AM |
| Superb idea. Everything works except the composition. The frog sitting on the back of the other one just doesn't work for me. Exposure is perfect. Neat font for the text too. |
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07/15/2004 07:09:33 PM |
| This shot is absolutely adorable. Made me laugh! Wonderful execution of your concept! 10 |
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07/15/2004 04:26:47 PM |
| You`ve done really well to get such an excellent shot given the basic editing confines of the challenge..looks like a ribbon winner to me....9 |
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07/15/2004 04:11:05 PM |
| Aaaw cute critters! This one's a bit different! Think the frog at the left is too close to edge of frame - feels a touch unbalanced but generally like composition weighted in lower left corner. |
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07/14/2004 07:33:01 PM |
| How did you get those frogs to sit on each other like that? Funny one. |
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07/14/2004 04:53:17 PM |
| I like this except for the white. Too much contrast between the frogs and the white background. Good composition. Great idea. |
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07/14/2004 04:46:33 PM |
| Fantastic shot and wonderful idea! The toads seem a little oversharpened or something but this shot is too good to mark down for that. Great job! |
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07/14/2004 03:51:05 PM |
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07/14/2004 03:41:59 PM |
| Haha! Original, amusing, and one that I have no problem fitting to the challenge. Well and cleverly done! |
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07/14/2004 02:58:43 PM |
| I 'd love to see some of the outtakes from this shoot ... 9 |
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07/14/2004 11:34:36 AM |
nice idea, but not too well taken. Frogs are looking away and lots of noise / shadow around the left lower frog which looks like it's been missed in post editing.
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07/14/2004 03:19:41 AM |
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