Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by alien2thisworld:
lol, yep, I remember that.

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by Artan:
The only obviosly British Photo. (Its the conker that gives the game away) I feel that the light source is a little to bright casing glare on the coins and the writing on the pencil/ smartie cap.

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by Pug-H:
glad to see there's a conker there

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by KaDi:
I love the idea here! Well-chosen items to represent the many facets of a shoolchild's life... I have to admit I haven't made up my mind about the choice of lighting. On the one hand it helps some of the items stand out, such as the pencil, coins and rubberband chain. On the other hand it complicates the shoelace...o.k. 1 negative vs 3 positives, you win.

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by apbolt:
Doesn't seem to reflect the challenge very closely, but the composition it good.

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by just-married:
Nothing here really captures my interest. Without the title, this photo doesn't stand on it's own IMO. 4, just-married

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by tristalisk:
excellent shot exept for the shoe string? its could use some more definition

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by melismatica:
Cute take on the challenge. I find the lighting rather flat and dull. I'm not a fan of shooting still-lifes from above like this. I prefer to shoot across the objects---like anything else, your camera is generally best positioned as close to the point of view of the subject as possible. Shooting from above tends to flatten everything into two dimensions. This can work if you are going for an abstract , graphic, quality. In this case, it just looks like visual clutter to me. Typically, a still life should show more modeling of form through the play of shadow and light over the obejcts. Also, fewer objects would have made the statement just as well with less clutter. This may be exactly what was in the students pockets but the viewer doesn't need to know that. Also objects that are familiar to a general audience are important. My choices would be the marble, rubber band, die, sharpener, coins,and the candy. That shoelace/chesnut (conker?) thing looks like some kind of homemade toy which is cute but not very clear to the viewer (this viewer anyway). I have no idea what that orange cap thing is.

Emptied pockets
by Russ

Comment by DigitalNoob:
I like this 7

The Letter
by Russ

Comment by Pidd:
Although significant to the picture and necessary for lighting, the candle seems just a little TOO bright. Is there anything that can be done to soften it so that it doesn't detract quite so much from the paper, which should be the focal point?