Photo Assignment #13: "Bounce" (ENTRY HERE)

[Voni]

Post your single entry for Photo Assignment #13 - BOUNCE, in this thread.

The picture has to have been taken between August 25th and Monday, September 7th midnight.

Also, please refrain from comment on pictures (yours and others) until after the winner has been selected. Any comments posted prior to the announcement of a winner will be deleted. Pictures should stand on their own for your interpretation of "BOUNCE".

You may post only one entry but you may change it any time until midnight, Monday, September 7th.

Paul Glaves

[Voni]

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn335/Glaves/2009%20ME%20to%20WI/DSCF2645.jpg

[M38A1]

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg237/M38A1_bucket/Photography/Bounce3copy.jpg

[Jbay]

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff142/jbay524/bounce2.jpg

[Voni]

And - the winner is: M38A1

This topic was all about motion - and motion that is difficult to capture. M38A1's photo of the golf ball is a good example illustrating the effects of both lighting and shutter speed. The name on the golf ball captured on the image is a huge plus - and probably took several tries.

At the risk of being charged with nepotism, I almost declared Voni to be the winner. This is such a happy image. It captures the ball in mid bounce, and if the dog isn't bouncing I don't know how to describe it. Even the thrower is captured in the photo. It would have been nice if more of the thrower were in the picture - maybe - but peeking in from the side isn't all bad.

I like Jbay's photo because it is whimsical. I can visualize knocking the duckies (?) off the table to capture the image. It would have been better if the image conveyed a stronger sense of motion though.

This topic seems to have been more difficult than I intended, but I hope you all had fun with it.

[M38A1]

Thanks for the vote!

Yes, this assignment was tough for me, and I suppose a lot of other folks who normally participate. Remember.... the purpose of the assignments are to develop our skills at shooting better photographs and a challenge such as this fit the bill just right. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? Just think outside the box. For that matter, if you get in a bind, do a google image search in the topic or over at Flickr and you'll get some ideas. ;-)

Now, about the shot for those of you who are interested. I wanted to have a 'swoosh' behind a bouncing object, then have the object 'frozen' in space. The first try with the tennisball didn't work well, but layed the foundation for a lot of experimentation. I layed down a black piece of fabric on a table and put the camera on a tripod with manual focus at a point where I'd be dropping the object. That way, the camera wouldn't have to take time to focus, lock and then fire. It would just fire and I played with the f/stop to be deep enough to give me some wiggle room for focus.

After 50 or so drops with varying manual shutter speeds of 1/10, 1/20, 1/30, I noticed the 'swoosh' was always from the top and the ball was frozen below. That didn't look right so I figured I was releasing the shutter as the ball was moving down. So I tried to time the shutter release after the ball hit the table and was moving up on the 'bounce' or rebound. Whoa! I'm on to something here. The 'swoosh' was now below the ball which was frozen in place by the flash.

I played with the ambient light as best as I could with lights and shades in the house for natural light, but they pretty much came out yellowish. The swoosh was there, but the lighting didn't work. Hmmmm...... Let's go B&W and see what happens. The change was dramatic. Not only did the yellow tint go away, but the blacks became blacker and the ball much more pure in white. So I dropped another 50 or so shots trying to get the right swoosh effect. And then another 50 or so to get the name on the golfball to look right. So after 150 shots or so I had the process down. When I figured all that out, a few drops later I got one I thought I could work with.

Now.... off to think about the next assignment. Stay tuned!

.