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Underwater Hurdling
1st PlaceUnderwater Hurdling
gyaban


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Make Believe Sports (Expert Editing)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Date: Mar 21, 2013
Date Uploaded: Mar 21, 2013

[Mar. 28th, 2013 05:25:02 PM]

It is nice to create a fun image from time to time, this was a perfect occasion! I found the idea while wandering in the sport supplies store: I was looking at the various goods, trying to combine them in a silly way. A few doable concepts came to mind, but I had never done an underwater image before, so I decided to give it a try.

- All the fishes and the turtle were photographed at the Paris Tropical Aquarium. As usual with such places, high ISO settings are required!
- I shot some water texture at the river next to my house.
- The ground was also photographed in the same area.
- I bought some cheap fins and diving mask, and posed with them in my home studio: let me tell you that jumping decently with these things is hard, haha! Way too hard for me anyway. I had to shoot the lower part of the body separately (I hang myself to a beam with my arms), then used another photo of the upper part of my body to create the composite. The lighting setup was prepared with the final image in mind: 2 softboxes from behind/above the model, then a third frontal strobe for some filling.
- My wife kindly built a hurdle out of wood, and painted it.
- The bubbles were photographed at home, in a small aquarium that I put in my studio.

Thanks for all the kind votes and comments!

Statistics
Place: 1 out of 35
Avg (all users): 7.4630
Avg (commenters): 8.5833
Avg (participants): 7.4375
Avg (non-participants): 7.4674
Views since voting: 3207
Views during voting: 410
Votes: 108
Comments: 37
Favorites: 3 (view)

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AuthorThread
 04/04/2013 09:22:31 PM
I'm sure we'll see this in the next Olympics.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/31/2013 03:14:39 AM
you are a genius!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/30/2013 04:39:41 AM
Great work! Once again.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 08:54:40 PM
Really impressive, love the bubbles from the hand, makes it really seem real!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 08:51:57 PM
Great photo Christophe. Everything seems to be so real...!. The idea was perfect, and you have done a great job to make it look so credible. Congrats on the blue!!. Well... and congratulations also to your wife for her invaluable help!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 06:14:24 PM
Very clever!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 01:50:18 PM
This one made me burst out laughing! :) Well done- congrats Christophe!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 11:24:36 AM
This is so realistic man! Congrats on the weekly Blue :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 09:13:56 AM
I am always amazed and in awe of the great lengths you'll go through to achieve your images. And it obviously pays off, over & over again. Kudos to you for your dedication and amazing entries!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 09:10:30 AM
Fascinating description of the process. First time I've seen these entries -- good job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 09:02:30 AM
Digital photography brings basically two types of people to the table, some are technically talented, some are artistically talented, the rest of the ingredients are smaller parts. You are talented in both area, Congratulations on another master piece!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 07:34:46 AM
Good grief, your wife's handy with tools too?! There's no stopping the gyaban and family creative team!! Huge congrats as always on the blue!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 07:21:35 AM
congrats on the blue, well deserved. perfect underwater lighting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 07:05:38 AM
Congrats on the blue Christophe! I knew this was the blue as soon as I saw it! :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 06:42:19 AM
Tremendous effort, pays off again. congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 04:59:46 AM
Congrats, well deserved!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 04:36:31 AM
congrats christophe!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 03:04:08 AM
SC must roll there eyes when they see you enter a challenge the proceed of validating your entry at times must long and tiring one..lol congrats chris
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 02:09:47 AM
Congrats, Christophe!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 12:16:51 AM
Its amazing how you think and you tend to bring so many elements from the world around you to create the perfect picture. The thought process, the photos, the assembly and the final processing is so flawless its almost depressing for fellow photographers! They should change 'Flawless' in the Oxford dictionary to 'gyabans photos'. Way to go man.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 12:14:01 AM
Congrats again on another well deserved blue. I am always amazed at the lengths to which you go, but I should be used to it by now.
My wife kindly built a hurdle out of wood, and painted it. This just cracks me up!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2013 12:01:54 AM
Your energy never fails to impress me. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
03/28/2013 04:03:25 PM
I was a hurdler. Yes this looks more fun. bump
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2013 03:14:39 PM
It's a good day when sharks are absent. Nice job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2013 04:30:57 AM
clearly the winner. and an uncomfortable position to hold while waiting for the self-timer. Original Idea and great execution.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/27/2013 05:03:14 PM
Looks real ... nice work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/26/2013 10:02:51 AM
Excellent. You even have some bubbles coming from movement, that is a nice touch.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/24/2013 12:48:21 PM
This is freakin FANTASTIC I really hope you post how you did this!!! If not the blue then the red!!!

Voted earlier commenting now
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/23/2013 11:30:30 PM
Nice form Christophe! Eagerly awaiting to read how you did this :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/23/2013 09:08:00 PM
Hahahah! Ok, this is very funny, Christophe. Love the details of all the cirtters around you. It's liek a treasure hunt.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 09:17:43 PM
Very well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 12:40:55 PM
this is one of my favorites from the challenge.
the biggest problem is the legs look distorted - his right leg appears to be his left leg when you're focused on the upper body, which in turn makes the left leg on bottom look like a mutant side-leg if you're thought process says there's no right leg.
i'm not a hurdler myself, so this could well be proper form, but to me the bottom half looks to be rotated about 30-40 degrees from the body abnormally.
post processing is spot on with the watery reflections, the fish are great and the bubbles off the find and hands add a nice touch of realism.

i'm hoping that the 42 refers to "how many roads must a man walk down?" - and if you get the reference i hope it made you smile :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 05:18:51 AM
Except for the fish above your arm this looks almost real - and maybe would have been easier to setup than to create from single esxposures in photoshop. Excellent lighting and perfect tint. This is a 9 and would have been a 10 if you had managed to have one or two competitors in the background
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 12:48:47 AM
Best in show award, congrats
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 12:42:30 AM
Love this...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 12:20:03 AM
No problem winning this race Christophe. Excellent concept and execution. Blue! And as I can't fault it: 10.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2013 12:14:28 AM
Ha! Brilliant!!

Looking for a podium for this one!


(commenting only)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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