| Photograph Information |
Photographer's Comments |
Challenge: Lucky 7 V (Expert Editing)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Date: Nov 13, 2014
Date Uploaded: Nov 13, 2014
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[Nov. 15th, 2014 08:47:57 AM]
When I was a kid, I was a great fan of all the biblical stories. I thought they were perfect illustrations of how Humanity should live: tolerance, love, hard work, solidarity. These values really meant something for me, and I was convinced that spreading the word was the best thing to do to make the world a better place.
Then, as the years passed, I realized that these nice parables were mostly for children. Adults would literally fight each other to *force* anyone not thinking the same way to do so. Despite those values, anyone not willing to follow the very same ideas would be considered as an enemy, and treated as such.
Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about one religion particularly: if one takes a look at History books, it is easy to see how all of them have been used as reasons to conquer, divide, exterminate. They still are: turn your TV set on any news channel, and you are going to see many outrageous examples, from many sides.
While there are lots of good things to be learned from religious books, I really cannot understand how something supposed to raise the spirit have led to intolerance, segregation, violence, wars, and deaths by millions. It really is a great, great shame, and definitely contributed to turn me away from religion. Maybe it is time, in this 21st century, to really forget about religion being used as a political tool. Mixing governments and spirituality sounds so anachronistic to me.
A few words about the creation of this image:
- As usual, I first sketched the scenery, to identify the various positions I was going to need. It is not that easy to compose something interesting with 7 knights, so there were a few tries before obtaining something satisfactory.
- Then I wore that armor in my home studio and photographed the various crusaders: my wife was guiding me since I was almost blind with that helm on my head.
- My wife also posed for the victims.
- The clouds and ground have been shot around my hometown.
- For the fire, I used my usual method: I lit a bunch of small branches in my barbecue in my garden at night, and photographed the flames against a dark background, which made their editing easy.
- My wife constructed a few flags for the background, which are constituted of simple pieces of paper glued to wooden sticks.
- The blood splatters were made of ink projected on blank sheets of paper, then processed into the image.
- I drew the different religious symbols and deformed them to fit the shapes of the armors.
Thanks for watching, much appreciated! |
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01/16/2015 02:24:09 PM |
I see your work, and i think art.
thanks as usual\
The only out of place thing i noticed was: the spear thats closest to us in front of the "main" knight, seems like it went a little past the victim, so i felt that was a little off. Other than that, awesome.
Message edited by author 2015-01-16 14:26:26. |
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11/24/2014 09:15:44 AM |
"Adults would literally fight each other to *force* anyone not thinking the same way to do so." Ouch. You live in a terrible world! Yes, people use religion as an excuse to impose their ideas onto others, but those are the "religious" people you hear about. And people use religion to make money too. This makes it seem as though politics and religion shouldn't mix. Religions of the world are generally peaceful and accepting of other people's views. There are the odd one or two which are violent, but that cannot characterize the majority of the major religions in the world.
In South Africa people use racism as an excuse to fight, never religion. I can't recall violent "religious" activity in my life here. Whatever is going to cause the biggest fight will be used as the reason to cause the fight. In the western world religion was used as that reason. |
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11/23/2014 05:59:06 PM |
| Fantastic depiction of the most deadly thing in the world :) As usual, top shelf material. |
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11/21/2014 10:35:38 PM |
| Quite the creation.. love the action. Congrats. |
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11/21/2014 08:27:42 PM |
Someone might be a tad bit jaded. :D "Adults would literally fight each other to *force* anyone not thinking the same way to do so." There are many people of each religion who would not go to war to get what they want, I'm positive.
Even before I heard your narative, I'd voted this lower than your usual wonderful images. This one didn't "ring" with me. It seemed a little bit too "forced", I think.
Still, congratulations on your ribbon! |
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11/21/2014 06:06:33 PM |
| Amazing that you can come up with the idea and carry out all the construction/arrangement etc. in the time you have for a challenge! I'm always so impressed by this fact as well as your brilliant end results. 'Grats on the red. |
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11/21/2014 01:49:16 PM |
| I'm always amazed by the level of detail you put into your work. A lot of depth to this one. I love the flags in the distant background. |
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11/21/2014 01:48:29 PM |
| I'm always amazed by the level of detail you put into your word. A lot of depth to this one. I love the flags in the distant background. |
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11/21/2014 11:53:37 AM |
| My gosh, what a lot of work :-) I find it odd to see a "Buddhist" in armor being warlike (upper left), but what do I know? |
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11/21/2014 10:29:52 AM |
| Very nicely done. Congrats on the ribbon. |
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11/21/2014 10:15:44 AM |
| So cool! I always love the lighting. :) |
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11/21/2014 09:47:33 AM |
| Fantastic work - I never tire of exploring your work or reading your notes - not just those on the actual creation of the scene and eventual image, but also those about your inspiration source and thought processes. Thanks to you and your wife for continuing to amaze, intrigue, move, delight, mystify, fascinate, captivate, etc. us (pick the adjective depending on the work). Congratulations on the red. |
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11/21/2014 08:27:41 AM |
Christophe, I always love reading your notes and following the thought processes that result in great images like this. Can't believe your wife still has the time and energy to help out so much, good for her! :-)
Oh yes and congrats on the red :-) |
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11/21/2014 04:06:38 AM |
| Fabulous work as always. You must have a superb prop department to be able to pull out a suit of armour:) Thank you for sharing the details of the the shoot. You must be fed up lighting that BBQ to create those flames:) |
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11/21/2014 12:12:28 AM |
| Thanks for all the details on how you put this together. A lot of work and a great result, as usual! |
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Comments Made During the Challenge  |
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11/20/2014 09:10:26 PM |
| My choice for the Blue. Simply superb photography. |
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11/20/2014 06:59:52 PM |
| Awesome! Red ribbon from. 9 |
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11/20/2014 11:58:39 AM |
| A top pick from me - the depth and tones are fantastic and the attention to detail amazing as always. Voted way earlier. 9 |
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11/20/2014 07:48:14 AM |
| Not so lucky. Nightmarish. Collage is well crafted. |
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11/19/2014 01:56:00 PM |
| Showing us all up as usual! But of course, fantastic creation as usual! |
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11/18/2014 04:30:45 PM |
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11/15/2014 10:05:53 PM |
| ribbon for sure beats every thing in the challenge. |
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11/15/2014 08:16:02 AM |
| Is there a deeper meaning here? |
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11/14/2014 08:36:20 PM |
| This is easily the best image in the challenge. Utilises the advanced editing well (doesn't over do it). Tells a story. Well composed. Great work. Blue ribbon effort. |
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11/14/2014 10:55:02 AM |
| Best in show award, congrats , looks like ,a lot of work that really paid off. Looking forward to your notes. |
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