T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by posthumous:
Operatic. I love it. 10.

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by SaraR:
Superb - perfectly captures m memories of childhood.

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by K3Master:
When he had written the note on that piece of paper that day, and folded it into a plane, and went up to the top of the ridge over-looking the town, he had thought it a lark, a joke, good times. The chances of anyone finding it and responding to those silly words -- "Please help me, I am a pilot on a mission of great importance for the Paper People. I am going down, mayday, mayday." it read -- was very slim. Maybe it would get a note in the local paper, was the most his imaginative mind could conjure. More like, he would give someone a little chuckle before they balled it up and tossed it in the trash.

So were his thoughts when he stood there, and reared back, and tossed that plane into the emptiness before him, and watched it catch a breeze and float off out of sight. He smiled and rejoined his parents and continued on his hike.

Had he really known what would happen, perhaps he wouldn't have been so innocently foolish. Perhaps.

In a freak, million to one chance, that paper airplane hit a dimensional rift at just the right time, and ended up in the hands of an inter-dimensional protectionary unit. Not knowing Earth, or its peoples, it translated the note on the paper plane and took it seriously. Very seriously indeed.

Not long after, when the rifts began opening in the skies above our planet, and the ships started coming through, we were doomed. Sadly, they never did find the Paper People.

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by Lydia:
I wish I could see a bit of her face. I really like the perspective.

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by ubique:
Just quite brilliant, and the best photograph in this challenge. The subject of a child flying a paper plane would normally be a sure recipe for sentimentality to the point of schmaltz. Cute little freckled face, intense little Norman Rockwell determined expression, tongue protruding in concentration, and so on ad nauseam. And all of it then grotesquely over-processed as if by Liberace's interior decorator.

And yet this photograph is instead so totally original and so entirely absent any hint of cliché. The arm boldly obscuring the face, thus giving accent to the fingers reaching for flight; the plane cocked into the launch position and illuminated by a beam of light: all wonderful. The strange point-of-view, anchored and validated by just enough marginal trees to ward off vertigo in the susceptible viewer: more wonderful. And the hint of blur – just enough to animate the launch – as well as the simple and sympathetic toning and processing: wonderful again.

But of all its outstanding qualities, if I could encourage other viewers to reflect on just one it would be the counter-intuitive marvel that the photograph is made so much more powerful because the child's face is not seen.

This is the camera used with real purpose: to sound out the imagination of both photographer and viewer. It's the best photograph of 2008, and one of the very best here of any year. 10. And also the dubious distinction of the Order of the Thumb:

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by jlanoue:
Dreamy. Like lying on the ground chewing on grass straw watching the kiddos do their thing. Not sure if like the soft focus... but maybe that's what I like about it... I'm such an amateur. Anyway, really like the shot :-)

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by qui-bow:
A moment captured!!
Great perspective!
Love the look of the light beams flying past.
This picture's alive!

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by JulietNN:
love it, i like the softness, excellent well done

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by bassbone:
the clouds provide a lovely floaty feel - one of my favorites in the challenge for the sheer simplicity of the shot and how it feels like a child actually playing not just playing to be playing....

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment by Charlene:
VERY cool! I love the perspective, I love that you can't see the child's face, but you "get" the emotion and enthusiasm but way of the body motion and pose. Great sky as an added bonus, and love the duotone.