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Lick of Salt, Tequila, Lime
1st PlaceLick of Salt, Tequila, Lime
ekmai


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Shotglasses (Basic Editing)
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Location: Home
Date: May 2, 2011
Aperture: f13
ISO: 640
Shutter: 1/250
Galleries: Food and Drink, DPChallenge GTGs
Date Uploaded: May 2, 2011

 WOW, Blue and a new PB!! Many thanks for all your comments and votes.

Technicals: Nikon speedlights – 1 in a softbox above, 1 with a yellow gel behind and below fired at the wall, 1 with a grid and snoot below right aimed at the lime.

Shot glass was hot glued onto a sheet of Perspex, which was taped to my son’s model car. The lime is held on place on a wire-V hotglued onto a pane of glass. Damp salt sticks to glass to a point, but I still had to have the glass at an angle so it didn’t slip down, which is why the shot glass is so close to the edge and the f stop small to make sure everything was sharp. Pre focused, then switched off the focusing.

Triggered by taping down a cable release past is focus point, so as soon as it was touched it tripped the camera. Clamped a rolling pin to the table, put the cable release next to it, rolled the car against it, and when it hit, it jolted the tequila up out of the glass and fired the flashes – perfect timing every time.

This was a massive learning curve for me. I could see the image clearly in my mind, but had no clue how to execute it.
Day 1: I originally was making a real mess trying to time everything in the dark and triggering my flash manually. Gave up!
Day 2: It suddenly dawned on me that I could trigger the shot splash using my cable release when I slid the Perspex sheet against it. But still couldn’t get the timing of the salt and lime right. I had some thick wire taped to the end of the Perspex out of the picture with the lime stuck on it and a pile of salt on another so when it struck the cable release it fell into place. Gave up on that idea.
I finally got the idea to hot glue a wire-V onto a pane of glass and stick the lime wedge on it. The salt was damp so stuck to the glass. Once I had figured it out, I got all sorts of wonderful tequila shapes, but felt this looked the most like a tongue. Incidentally, if you don’t tape the cable release, it causes a tiny delay, so you get some cool dancing tequila shapes next to the glass. (and most important, a polarizing filter to minimize the reflections)

Statistics
Place: 1 out of 53
Avg (all users): 7.8531
Avg (commenters): 8.7368
Avg (participants): 7.7667
Avg (non-participants): 7.8674
Views since voting: 8024
Views during voting: 540
Votes: 211
Comments: 39
Favorites: 12 (view)

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AuthorThread
 05/15/2011 08:16:21 PM
Congrats on the ribbon and pb. More importantly, thank you for the detailed description. I love knowing how people performed these crazy shots and yours was very well detailed. Thanks and good job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/14/2011 07:11:03 PM
I still don't know how you did it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/13/2011 10:04:29 PM
Amazing! Effective coincidence of creative talent and drive.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/12/2011 10:34:04 AM
Congratulations on the ribbon,top shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 10:57:00 PM
Great job! You deserve a blue after all the work you put into this challenge to make this picture look as awesome as it does.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 10:11:19 PM
Nice. Congrats on blue!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 03:15:44 PM
Thank you for explaining the details. A well deserved blue ribbon. Very creative setup.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 11:49:15 AM
Awesome image! Congrats on the well deserved blue! Really appreciate the detailed tech notes. Amazing!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 11:12:07 AM
Great shot, congrats on the blue and new PB! Also mucho thanks for the details on the setup.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 08:47:25 AM
Great score and thanks for explaining the process...loved reading it. This was my favourite
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 02:38:43 AM
So exactly how many hands DO you have!!?? Fabulous shot. Congrats on the blue. Although this could also have worked for gold :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 02:12:13 AM
Many congrats on the blue and a new PB, Ekmai. Fantastic shot and a fantastic score (love your lighting).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 01:22:00 AM
Well done!

Anthony was right, it was very close to have Hong Kong Trio on first page!

Congrats for the Duo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:40:54 AM
Congrats, well done :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:38:12 AM
Very nice shot - congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:29:31 AM
Congrats! What a great image!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:23:59 AM
awesome, congrats! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:23:02 AM
Well done on a well deserved Blue!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:06:22 AM
Congrats on your blue ribbon.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/11/2011 12:05:17 AM
Ah Ha I do have good taste!! Congratulations on the Blue!!!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
05/10/2011 11:41:15 PM
Brilliant color, clarity and action capture. A ribbon coming your way. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2011 08:57:54 PM
Oh Yeah, my kinda drink, and my kinda photo!! Well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2011 04:00:13 AM
Now your talking!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/09/2011 06:20:56 AM
beautifully done! I am sure you had a few 'shots' at this :) 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/08/2011 11:46:25 AM
The best of the tequila and lime images. Kudos
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/08/2011 02:49:19 AM
nice fun looking shot, expect it to do well.

on the technical side of this, the cropping needs some rotation still, it's just a smidge leaning still. I think the only other thing that I'd like to see done just a bit differently is that the shotglass seems *very* close to the edge of the table, which makes the background feel a bit overwhelming/close.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/07/2011 04:29:37 PM
perfect!!!!! 10!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/07/2011 03:49:26 PM
Very well done. I would really like to know how you did this in basic.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/07/2011 10:20:02 AM
Nice image,certainly in my top five.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/06/2011 12:31:18 PM
Great shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/06/2011 11:45:12 AM
Wow! How did you do this? Awesome and captures the spirit of the challenge well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2011 03:28:03 PM
Well done... 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2011 12:21:25 PM
Fantastic, nice shot and I love the golden background!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2011 08:45:04 AM
We have a winner! Good luck
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2011 01:20:58 AM
Excellent entry! I'm looking forward to the notes on this one.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/04/2011 11:25:06 AM
Color, composition, and action are excellent.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/04/2011 09:29:09 AM
This is brilliant!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/04/2011 04:39:49 AM
Action!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/04/2011 12:25:38 AM
nice timing
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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