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Sugar Loaf Mountain
Sugar Loaf Mountain
lawrysimm


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Homemade Landscapes II (Advanced Editing VII*)
Camera: Sony DSLR-A200
Lens: Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha
Location: My Kitchen, Cheshire, UK
Date: Oct 30, 2010
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 100
Shutter: 2.5
Galleries: Landscape, Rural
Date Uploaded: Oct 31, 2010

 Inspired by by rinac as far using bread for mountains and cauliflower for sheep. I wanted to avoid water though (too hard) and elected for a pathway leading through the image.

This is setup on a large chopping board on my kitchen worktop. First I laid slices of white bread all over the chopping board (this was so I could build some height into the landscape, but also so that I could stick things in the bread to make them stand up. Then I cut out a pathway into the bread which I filled with brown gravy powder. I also covered over the edges of the cut bread with gravy powder. Next I covered everything that wasn't to be the pathway with finely chopped kale which I pressed flat as best I could with the back of a spoon. I then cut my "Tiger Bread" from Asda in half and turned the ends in on each other to make the valley. A punnet of salad cress was split in half to make the greenery to line the loaf mountains.

Then I just dressed the foreground. A few stalks of brocolli for the taller trees with a couple laid down as bushes. Curly leaf parsley to make the rest of the shrubbery. The bottom third of a swede upended to make the mound on the left and a few pecans dotted around as small rocks. I was determined to have cauliflower sheep even though they may be incongruous with the type of landscape. They are small florets of cauliflower with cloves for heads (I tried black olives like in the rinac shot above but my sheep were much smaller and the scale was off. I also stuck a couple of pieces of chipped bark from the garden to pose as fallen trees. The sky is just a blue bedding sheet dangling down. The path looked a bit flat and grey so I misted it slightly with some water which brought out a nice texture and a bit of brown colour.

I had lots of fun making this landscape. I know that it's not a technically great photo - by the time I finished setting up the natural light had all but gone so this was artificial lighting. But hopefully where I drop marks for technicals I will pick up marks for effort :-)

Editing Steps
Crop,
Topaz photo pop
Tidy up the sky a bit (crease in sheet)
Extra sharpening on sheep and fallen logs
A bit of housework to tidy up the path and the cress at the back.
A touch of sharpening on the top of the loaves to bring out the texture a bit more.
Save for web


Statistics
Place: 11 out of 30
Avg (all users): 6.4153
Avg (commenters): 6.8333
Avg (participants): 5.3684
Avg (non-participants): 6.5069
Views since voting: 1672
Views during voting: 554
Votes: 236
Comments: 14
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 11/10/2010 12:04:30 AM
Very cool, I think it came out wonderfully. I'd love to see the same scene from a perspective closer to the ground.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
11/09/2010 11:46:50 PM
Nice idea.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2010 08:35:45 PM
Well done. I like the DOF and the leading line of the "trail" to the mountains. I think I might like it more if the greens were a bit more saturated.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/08/2010 08:28:41 PM
I love the trail... and the mountains.. and the... 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/08/2010 05:31:58 PM
Inviting for a nice and pleasant hike on a cloudy day :) Nicely done! The folds in the fabric sky are the only nit I can pick after staring for a long time. Hope this ribbons.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/07/2010 09:45:33 PM
Very nice hills. This is a great scene.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/07/2010 08:24:11 AM
Really nice depth in this photo for a homemade set. Trail leads your eye in. Great sky. Good work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/05/2010 02:02:17 PM
love it 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/05/2010 12:29:55 PM
I love how this is framed. I wonder what is on the other side of the path. Focus is just a bit off, but other than that I like it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/04/2010 11:44:56 PM
Oh wow. What a lot of work. This really threw me for a loop because it really looks like a landscape at first sight. Only after a moment can we start to pick out the individual veggies, and the bread hills. Great sky too!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2010 04:05:10 PM
way cute and a good photo to boot! 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2010 12:14:49 PM
nice job, 6.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2010 02:11:45 AM
not really Carl Warner, but very good try. Needs a bit more DOF, the leaf in foreground distracts
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2010 12:26:22 AM
This is good, you worked it!!! Please tell me that thing on the lower left isn't a dog turd??? LOL 8 (even if it is a dog turd!)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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