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Kali


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Best of 2008 (Advanced Editing VII*)
Camera: Nikon D70s
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
Date: May 11, 2008
Galleries: Candid, Children
Date Uploaded: Jan 15, 2009

This was an outtake from the ABC...LMN...XYZ challenge. I don't expect this one to place/score high but it's one of my favorites from the year and just about the only one that came to mind when I thought of my best for the year.
2008 was a very experimental year for me. I left my comfort zone behind and went full throttle into film, (35 & 120mm) IR and time lapses.

My beautiful darling Derbi is one of my favorite things to photograph but when posting on the web I try and keep her somewhat anonymous... it adds a bit of mystery and allows the viewer to connect emotionally. Sorta like how you think a song was written just for you.

Prediction: I have no idea... maybe a 5, if I'm lucky.

Post challenge: Thanks everyone for all the great comments and especially to Paul for his award, I am quite flattered. 21 comments and 6 favs is more valuable to me than a good score, thanks again.



Statistics
Place: 405 out of 531
Avg (all users): 5.2009
Avg (commenters): 7.5000
Avg (participants): 5.2822
Avg (non-participants): 4.9643
Views since voting: 1064
Views during voting: 383
Votes: 219
Comments: 24
Favorites: 6 (view)


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AuthorThread
01/24/2009 12:04:09 AM
PostLuminous Award Nominee!
an overlooked gem of an image--exuberant joy-filled childhood depicted exuberantly and joyfully
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2009 08:02:52 PM
Awesome storytelling. 7 from me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2009 03:20:13 PM
Congratulations on the "Thumb" Clarissa. This is beautiful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2009 10:41:16 AM
I scored this an 8, I thought it would place higher, I love this shot and think you should have it blown up and put on your wall.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2009 06:03:10 AM
One of my favorites in the whole challenge - great perspective!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2009 05:04:13 AM
One of my favorites. I remember this and your other entry from way back when, so that says a lot when you think about how many pictures we see here. Excellent work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2009 02:47:10 AM
A very disappointing finish for an outstanding photograph.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/22/2009 10:43:22 PM
Operatic. I love it. 10.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/22/2009 05:49:31 PM
Superb - perfectly captures m memories of childhood.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/22/2009 03:53:49 PM
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.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/22/2009 01:32:53 PM
I wish I could see a bit of her face. I really like the perspective.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/21/2009 07:15:01 AM
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 clich̩. 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 Рjust enough to animate the launch Рas 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:
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/20/2009 01:01:21 PM
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 :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/19/2009 11:29:07 PM
A moment captured!!
Great perspective!
Love the look of the light beams flying past.
This picture's alive!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/19/2009 09:30:03 AM
love it, i like the softness, excellent well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/18/2009 03:32:25 PM
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....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/18/2009 05:13:24 AM
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.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/18/2009 12:31:18 AM
I can't imagine this is scoring well for you, which is too bad. It strikes me as very artisitic. The lighting and especially the angle are very effective, and it has a great feeling of anticipation. Let's hope I'm wrong.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/17/2009 02:45:49 PM
oh, happy days...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2009 03:22:11 PM
Tremendous shot and POV.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2009 01:43:52 PM
I like the perspective and the expression of this photo. 7.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2009 11:58:47 AM
This is such a cute and fun photo. It has a slight vintage feel to it with the duotone and the slight blur/out of focus element. Great angle. It really gives a sense of how monumental the flying of the paper airplane must be for the child.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2009 09:13:24 AM
This would be really cool if it were sharp.
01/16/2009 12:13:30 AM
I like the POV here
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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