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Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Flat Lay Still Life (Standard Editing)
Collection: Portfolio
Date: Dec 11, 2021
Aperture: 8.0
ISO: 6400
Shutter: 1/20
Date Uploaded: Dec 12, 2021

 [Dec. 18th, 2021 10:43:56 AM]

This has been a fun ride - about 36 hours to go and only dipped below 7 once in the very early hours. Whether it stays there remains to be seen; but, as I say, it's been fun.

Though I had all the elements (and more!) of this image firmly in mind for days, life kept getting in the way of the actual shoot. I finally got to it in the late afternoon of the last day and, since lighting was natural, my time for arranging and re-arranging and positioning and re-positioning the camera and myself was short and fast dwindling. Though I liked the result a lot, neither the composition nor the image quality were quite what I wanted. So a few days later I re-shot.



Statistics
Place: 1 out of 23
Avg (all users): 7.1143
Avg (participants): 7.1429
Avg (non-participants): 7.0952
Views since voting: 697
Views during voting: 74
Votes: 35
Comments: 12
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 12/25/2021 10:25:21 AM
Congratulations!
A beautiful blending mix of black and white.
A very well deserved blue on so many levels of creativity and balance with the perfect title.
This is an image that makes you stop and really realize all it says.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2021 10:55:32 AM
Originally posted by Neat:
This is magnificent, did you have inspiration from another photo or is it clearly your unique idea?


Probably a little of both, Anita. I had no specific image, photo or otherwise, in mind when I put this together. However, I did do an image search on "flat lay still lifes" and quickly realized that the simpler and/or more purposeful ones appealed to me the most (EX: Wendy's for simple; Gaby, Melethia, Lydia, Barbara for purposeful). Strong graphics, design elements, and balance were important.

As mentioned, I had all these objects and more. The tray and odd-shaped vase were my daughter's - she had a fondness for Oriental, especially Japanese decor. I've kept them among my "prop possibilities" and have always wanted to use them; I knew they would work well "from above" and decided to start with them. I then gathered every small black or white object I had in the house.

Once I had the black/white thing going in my brain, it was impossible not to think of the yin yang symbol which is pretty much ubiquitous; if anything outside my brain inspired me, it was probably that.

I have to give a serious nod to Mary Ann's forum mentoring discussion, especially her (and others') comments about the importance of having a variety of shapes and textures; it really drove my selection of items.

From my perspective, the "inspired" part was my decision to use the pebbles to pull the two halves together - though I'm sure the traditional yin yang circle was in the back of my mind. The black ones are actually more metallic gray/grey, so I cut circles of black construction paper and glued them to the bottom to make them look blacker.

Message edited by author 2021-12-20 12:50:02.
 12/20/2021 06:38:22 AM
This is magnificent, did you have inspiration from another photo or is it clearly your unique idea?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2021 05:17:47 AM
Huge Congrats on the Blue, was my highest vote.
great idea
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2021 12:13:49 AM
I love this very modern looking image, Nikki. It was my top pick and I was working on a comment when something took me away and I didn't get back. Congrats on the blue.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2021 12:05:28 AM
Congrats Nikki.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2021 12:05:25 AM
Congratulations, very happy this did so well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/19/2021 10:37:55 PM
Avant garde and surrealistic. Graphically strong, with intriguing elements. Yin and yang, revisited. Really grabbed my attention.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/19/2021 06:48:31 AM
Oh I LIKE this.Pitty about the highlights/reflections in the black pebbles
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/18/2021 07:07:07 PM
In my top three.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/18/2021 09:53:18 AM
well composed like the B&W look and the balance
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/18/2021 07:00:11 AM
brilliant image! the relationship between the whites and the blacks are very interesting, also the black area is smaller.. I'm guessing for the male?:) make me count and find out that are 26 on each side. I'm upgrading from 9 to 10 just cause I have counted..:)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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