Bloom
by sleekr

Comment by birgir:
I't looks to me that you have painted the background with black color in photoshop or some software. Not very well done ... if I'm wrong then ... hehe don't know what it could be then :P

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by sleekr:
Thanks dsidwell, and all others during the challenge.

Strangely enough, this was the 'least set-up' of all the shots I took. I was planning on having a single straight nail in the foreground, with the bent ones in the background. I took quite a few shots with my MX600Z, and then moved aside for a friend to try with his Olympus C5050. In between his shots, I placed my MX600Z on the wood, behind the straight nail, braced against the wood and the nail, and took a shot. What do you know, it turned out the best of the lot!

I did this in an earlier challenge, so I do it here as well - answer some of the questions and address some of the statements made in the comments during the challenge:

'This is not motivational...'/'...more de-motivational'. It's a 'de-motivational' poster, intentionally. Demotivators can motivate too! As per www.despair.com's motto, 'Increasing success by lowering expectations'.

'...little too much shadow top left' / '...upper part of the image is a bit messy' Maybe. I rather liked the wall in the very background, so I didnt crop the top, and I couldnt crop the left without affecting the position of the front nail.


...cont

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by sleekr:

'Too much text, idea copied directly from www.despair.com'. The style is copied from despair.com, intentionally. I changed it a bit by putting the 'kicker' text at the bottom. No, the idea wasnt copied, though. It wasnt until you mentioned it that I searched despair.com and saw the similar shot (Incompetence). The idea came to me after finding the phrase on a Dilbert quote site.

'Not sure about the color of your title tho / the text in all caps is not as simple to read as regular text would be'. The color was 'eye-dropped' from the wood, but looking back, maybe you're right, a bit too 'orangy'. I made it 'redder' in the printable version. The 'all-caps' text is the same style as despair.com use, and I wanted to stick with that style as much as possible.

'the poster will be ven powerful if the picture is also double framed with a thin line' despair.com use a single frame line around the picture. I was trying for that, but couldnt get it done properly (I havent used PS much yet). I added a line in the printable version.

Thank you all again for taking the time to comment.

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by dsidwell:
This is very high quality work, Jeff. THe words for me tend to visually overpower your fantastic photo, but it's just great.

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by Neil:
Very funny. Well done as an illustration for the text.

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by RHoldenSr:
This is not motivational to me?

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by soup:
well presented.

Bloom
by sleekr

Comment by admart01:
Interesting lighting - great colors. One of my top picks.

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by Jaguar:
Great abstract, it's a negative motivation so it needs a degree of positive motivation; another statement for this can be "Practice" -- and progressively do better from back to front.

Achievement
by sleekr

Comment by cvt_:
Excellent, Love the whole idea, caption, lighting, the lot.. -10