Selling Lollipops To Survive
by alanfreed

Comment by CynSeaSure:
Jeez! this picture made me so sad

Selling Lollipops To Survive
by alanfreed

Comment by Yomi:
That's sad that he has to do that.

Selling Lollipops To Survive
by alanfreed

Comment by spiller:
This guy looks like a very tired tourist to me. Like the color and composition.
Spiller

Selling Lollipops To Survive
by alanfreed

Comment by enigma:
It's a nice photograph, but I believe it could use a touch more contrast and it may look better cropped a little wider.

Not Again...
by alanfreed

Comment by Sonifo:
This brings back memories. Good job!

Not Again...
by alanfreed

Comment by DigiPique:
I loved this shot - my favorite this week.

Not Again...
by alanfreed

Comment by alanfreed:
Just a quick note of thanks for the comments -- I'm very excited and proud to have a Top 5 photo!

A couple notes about the picture... I had about a 15-minute window of time to capture this in the light I wanted (as the sun went down below the roof). I struggled quite a bit to get the whole birdie in focus. My initial efforts had part of it in focus but not the whole thing, plus some of the shots had a pretty weird effect with the grains of the roof tiles being in/out of focus, so I did a lot of experimentation with the F-stops to get the appropriate DOF.

My other challenge was the wind. Even the slightest breeze would knock the stupid thing off the roof, so I stuck a big bolt in the tip of the birdie to keep it there. If you look really closely, you can actually see a very small part of the silver in the bolt where the tip meets the yellow material.

Oh, and my first thought was indeed to use a frisbee (as a couple people mentioned). I couldn't find a suitable frisbee around the house, so I actually went to several stores in search of one. The stores apparently discontinue them at the end of summer, so I was out of luck. In retrospect, I'm glad I went with this because it offers a little more depth than what I probably would have had with a frisbee.

Not Again...
by alanfreed

Comment by jsabbarton:
Superb... Really well planned, really great idea and a fantastic use of DOF and lighting...(10)

Not Again...
by alanfreed

Comment by KarenB:
LOL! How true. Brilliant idea, and well executed!

Not Again...
by alanfreed

Comment by cq107:
lol. great shot... how do you hit a birdy up there anyways ? jk