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Moonrise, Habaneros, Nantucket Sound
Moonrise, Habaneros, Nantucket Sound
Bear_Music


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: The Number 10 (Advanced Editing IV)
Collection: Challenges
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Location: Harwich Port, MA, USA
Date: Jul 8, 2006
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 200
Shutter: 30 sec
Date Uploaded: Jul 8, 2006

 Shot at 10mm, only inches from the peppers, in RAW near nautical twilight. Filled with moving maglight :-)

Contrast masking, hue/sat, a tiny bit of cloning, gradient from top and bottom, a touch of selective color, resize, USM, border, save for web.

**************************

I needed a "10", I bought 10 Habanero chiles, they sat around for a day and a half, no good ideas. After dinner Saturday, I noticed an interesting lowering sky. I knew we had a moonrise at nautical twilight, so I decided to head to my beach at the last second. Wanted to arrange the chiles somehow, on the beach I assumed.

Saw the little low fence, the dunes behind, the moon, and flashed on Ansel's "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico", perhaps my favorite photograph of his. Laid out the chiles in near darkness as fast as I could (hard to balance them on the split fence rail), set the camera up with remote and the tripod as low as it would go, mounted the 10-22mm Canon lens, set up like 20 inches from the chiles with me on my knees in the sand madly arranging this.

Used maglite to set the manual focus at 24 inches, manual settings 30 seconds at f/11, started an exposure and began painting the chiles with the maglight, then switched to the grasses behind. One exposure down, looked good in the lCD. Went up to the fence to adjust a chile, touched the fence rail and it rotated, tossing the 10 chiles to the ground.

These chiles, incidentally, are at most an inch and a half tall. Bear that in mind when you realize this was shot at 10mm! Talk about DOF...

I decided enough was enough, grabbed my chiles and camera, went back to the car with this single exposure on this hand-painted twilight scene, and here it is. Surprisingly little post-processing. The unedited capture is a perfectly useable image, pretty amazing considering it was a guesstimate that was intended to show me what I needed to do for the "real" shot. This image is essentially uncropped, btw; I had to rotate half a degree, so that took a tad off, that's it.

I wonder how it will do? I love it. It seems such an eerily reminiscient re-visioning of the original to me.

Statistics
Place: 9 out of 219
Avg (all users): 6.5228
Avg (commenters): 8.1304
Avg (participants): 6.3563
Avg (non-participants): 6.6545
Views since voting: 3039
Views during voting: 351
Votes: 197
Comments: 48
Favorites: 19 (view)

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AuthorThread
 09/05/2006 09:21:58 PM
Should have ribboned...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2006 06:00:01 PM
What a great photo, with that sky and the colourful chillies. I wonder if I can find somewhere to set up something similat to test out my lens with. Excellent.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/20/2006 06:09:30 PM
Congratulations on your top ten finish. Excellent shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/19/2006 04:26:35 AM
your setup and execution is more impressive than the photo itself. It reminds of Halloween somehow....couldn't you see pumpkins in place of these favorable peppers?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/19/2006 01:48:38 AM
LOVE the lighting on this photo. This would have been a great challenge when you were a Lighting Mentor. :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2006 08:01:55 AM
After reading your comments again I am impressed by your ability to produce such excellent results in what was merely a first trial shot. You have an awful lot of knowledge of photography floating around in your head. Keep `em coming Bear.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 11:06:00 PM
Robert: great use of vibrant color against a subdued background. Congratulations on your top ten finish. Love the line up.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 09:19:34 PM
Ahhhh. . . I love your style!!! There is definitely that beautiful soft, dreamy Bear_Music look and feel to this photo! Congratulations on to 10 honors :)

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 08:15:18 PM
Wow! I loved this one! Glad it placed well, congrats on the top 10!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 06:30:20 PM
Congratulations on a top ten! Just Really Awesome Work!! Very cool shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 11:42:57 AM
Good to see ya in the Top 10 Robert.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 11:20:34 AM
One of my favorites from the challenge. The whole mood of the image is divine. Congratulations Bear :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 09:48:56 AM
Beautiful. The colors are awesome.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 09:02:36 AM
Thank goodness you did this, for you and for the team Robert, as it is just excellent. I really love everything about this image, and also the story behind it.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 08:25:23 AM
Congrats. Beautiful picture and it is always nice to have the reasoning behind a picture.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 08:04:37 AM
What a cool idea Robert! Keep up the great work team mate!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 01:51:02 AM
Awesome shot Robert, well done, and a very, very good score for the team! :P

This is the kinda thing I would hang up on my wall. Love it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 01:23:41 AM
Sweet. Nice to see you shooting landscapes again and not flowers although you did pretty well with one of them. :P
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 01:01:38 AM
Congrats on a wonderful image!

Thanks for the point, too, about using the brighter light to set your focus. I was going nuts trying to get my camera to autofocus in low light until I hit on the same idea. It's nice to know I thought up something you knew, too. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 12:42:25 AM
Oooooh! This was my favorite picture -- glad it placed so well. Being my favorite is usually the kiss of death.

That's a neat essay on your Adventure in Photography. Thanks for sharing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 12:30:29 AM
Pretty darn cool, Robert! Love the story that goes with it, too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 12:18:39 AM
Congrats on a top ten, bear! Great image!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
07/16/2006 05:54:57 PM
Nice colour. Clean composition.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/15/2006 10:24:39 PM
Love the colors - nicely set off by the background scene.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/14/2006 11:38:33 PM
Nice color range here. Excellent lighting too
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2006 04:51:57 PM
What a quirky and surreal shot - I love it! The contrast between the fiery autumnal colours of the peppers and the cool blues, greens and greys of the setting is just fantastic as is the composition - so glad you positioned those peppers so low in the shot rather than on a third line or some other compositional "rule". This one breaks the mold and works fantastically well!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2006 11:49:25 AM
excellent photo. love the colors. 10!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2006 10:49:29 AM
the colour composition is great, i like the lighting, 8.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 07:51:41 PM
Ah, the color of pepers. I love the contrasting colors of the sky, grass and pepers. The fence just sort of ties it all together. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 02:53:45 PM
wonderfully vivid colors! excellent composition. 10!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 02:28:33 PM
Very nice, unexpected and fresh. I love how the peppers have a glow to them, Really fantasctic.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 01:52:51 AM
awesome image and great title! the "10" of the challenge!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 01:26:43 AM
wow, I really like the composition and the colors in this one... awesome setup and really sharp focus, 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 01:24:14 AM
Love the contrasting colors, I like how the habaneros seem to glow. I wish that was played up just a bit more so they'd really pop even more. Nice mixture of landscape and still life. I'm not sure I like the color of the border, the light color is drawing my eye away from the main portions of the photo. 6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 10:25:34 PM
my eys are watering just thinking about those habaneros! good contrast with the colors of the subject vs the blue background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 09:44:10 PM
A very unique combination of items in this shot, but it's colorful and nicely composed. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 09:07:51 PM
a very very hot night. nicely done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 07:36:23 PM
Gorgeous colors and composition. Back to bump you up to 8. Ok - what was I thinking....9.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 06:35:41 PM
My mouth is watering... great idea and set up, good control of light and fill. Wonderful work - 10 :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 04:27:43 PM
Very 3D image, and effective....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 01:21:29 PM
very pretty. hope you have better luck than I did with Habaneros:)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 11:37:03 AM
Beautiful blue tones in the sky. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 10:39:58 AM
Beautiful! I really like the intense contrast of color that is working within this image, the wide angel view is so very effective...nicely done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 10:03:19 AM
lol!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 06:16:24 AM
that's a great shot and wonderful light and colour...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 03:49:33 AM
I love how the subject is much warmer than the background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 02:58:56 AM
Slick colors. Good luck but I doubt you'll need it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 01:58:08 AM
Simple and beautiful. I love how the colors stand out in mostly colorless photo. I feel a little higher placement, of peppers, might have made it even better.9.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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