Challenge 13 over

[MHD]

Congratulations everyone who entered on the high quality of the images submitted.

And congratulations to Ladybird for the winning entry Raindrops!

(1) Raindrops - 20 voters (71)
(2) Opposites - 16 voters (58)
(3) Dinner by Candlelight - 13 voters (46)
(4) One good turn deserves another...or is that, everyone deserves a good turn?! - 11 voters (39)
(5) lane - 11 voters (28)
(6) Oil be Right - 10 voters (26)
(7) Fired - 5 voters (22) BAR
(8) Workers Above - 7 voters (19)
(9) Freedom - 8 voters (17)
(10) Is that even a real word? - 6 voters (16)
(11) Jack was sick of being Kicked around at work. - 6 voters (15)
(12) Surfing Prohibited - 6 voters (13)
(13) Dendrobium beetle - 5 voters (10)
(14) Blurry at the Sharper End - 4 voters (10)
(15) paperball - 4 voters (9)
(16) Fresh - 3 voters (8)
(17) Electric Volume! - 3 voters (8)
(18) Word Play - Play Word - 3 voters (6)
(19) Bang!!! - 3 voters (5)
(20) Ergonomic Breakthrough - The Keyball - 1 voter (5)
(21) what no wallabie's - 1 voter (5)


He's back!

Yep, Poon is back from the mainland, and his short break with his family to celebrate the Chinese New Year. He's been very busy catching up on the backlog of orders, both from here, but mainly from his eBay store.

Most outstanding orders should have shipped by now; any queries or stuff that's outstanding ... you know where I am. :)


The bloody Pacific Peso!

Currency rates, as you know, fluctuate from time to time. This can be a bad thing, because if the Pacofoc Peso gets stronger, as it has been, then it makes exports from Oz more expensive, and thus possibly more difficult for Australians to sell their products on the international market.

That's your economics lesson for today.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot - if our exports go up, then our imports, obviously, should go down: I've just reduced pretty well all prices on our bargains page. This is entirely due to the afforementioned strength of our PP.

Enjoy. :)

[Alpha_7]

Congrats to the winners, I clear forgot to vote..

[MATT]

err...me too.


But congrates to LadyBird fine image..

Cheers
MATT

[Alpha_7]

Scott should we be able to comment on the images ? I don't seem to get the option, has that functionality been removed ?

[PiroStitch]

Awesome stuff Ladybird! Love the execution and a well deserved winner!

[Glen]

Congratulations Ladybird, that is a great result for a deserving entry

[Manta]

Congratulations Liz - a standout image, Challenge or not, and a very deserving winner. Spot on as far as the theme was concerned and executed masterfully.

Well done to all the other entrants too. There were some great efforts here.

[sirhc55]

Excellent shot Ladybird and congratulations - now, the question how was it shot

[Finch]

Congratulation, Liz

A well-deserving winner indeed.

Cheers

Michael

[the foto fanatic]

Top shot! And congratulations on your win.

[macka]

Congrats, your image probably fit the theme best. Well done.

[Geoff]

Excellent stuff Ladybird, I too am keen to see how this was executed

[Ladybird]

Thanks all for your kind words, and of course your votes. I'm so shocked that it won considering I'm still only relatively new to this stuff.

I'd been kicking around an idea for a while in my head (but hadn't actually taken a photo) and when the challenge was posted, I got really excited because I thought I could adapt my idea to it.

So the setup.....
I used a shiny surface - in this case a mirror with an OHP transparency sheet on top and put the water drops on this.
Then, used a plain A4 piece of paper with RAIN typed on it attached to the front of a light. This was positioned high above the drops facing down.
Angle the camera to be opposite and also above in a V-shape, not linear (my physics terminology is not great) and presto - you can see the word RAIN in the drop.

I think I had to flip the paper around so RAIN was facing the light (otherwise it read backwards on the drop) but it still showed up quite sharply on the drop. I played with different colours by also putting opaque coloured plastic sheets in front of the A4 paper. Also, it takes a while to get the positioning correct to get the word in the middle of the drop. If you have powerful lights or studio lights, you could probably get away without the shiny surface (some prelim shots before my flood light blew were on a dull base). This also reduces the reflection of individual drops - ie. some of my drops you can see the edges reflected several times below it.

If that doesn't make sense, let me know and I can have another go of explaining it.....

[blacknstormy]

Liz - BLOODY BRILLIANT
Bet you can't wipe that smile off your face
Congratulations - and well deserved
Hugs
Rel & Damo

oops- congratulations to everyone who entered the comp - some outstanding photos .. man I'm glad I didn't have time to enter this one

[phillipb]

Congratulations Liz, well deserved win.
I must confess that I didn't vote for your photo, even though I thought it was by far the standout photo of the comp. I just didn't think it was possible without PP.
I've learned my lesson though, from now on I'm going to have a bit more faith in Scott and the other mods to be on top of it with regards to legitimacy.

[gstark]

Elizabeth,

Congratulations on this win. Your effort was truly a standout, and was most deserving of this accolade.

I just didn't think it was possible without PP.

Phillip,

The issue isn't simply PP, but the nature of the PP; in looking at this image, it seemed to me to defy some laws of physics, which is more a testament to the skills that Elizabeth has demonstrated in this image.

[rflower]

Well done Ladybird. Thanks for the info on how you pulled this shot off.

Well done.

Russell

[Killakoala]

Congratulations, well done and well deserved too.

[Ladybird]

I just didn't think it was possible without PP.

I wish I had enough time to PP a word into all those drops!
Especially as some drops had 2 or even 3 RAIN reflecting and others were distorted somewhat.

Thanks for the kind comments guys!

[MHD]

Scott should we be able to comment on the images ? I don't seem to get the option, has that functionality been removed ?

Sorry... will fix soon

[MHD]

Comments are on now (when logged in)

[drifter]

Great shot Ladybird .

[Willy wombat]

Excellent. You get and A+ for creativity!

[beetleboy]

Well done Liz, this challenge had me stumped!

[Oscar]

Well done to all the entrants. Some really great shots in this challenge.

Congratulations Liz - well thought out and executed for a great result.

Cheers, Mick

[radar]

Congrats Liz,

great shot and you get extra points for coming up with the method

Well done to all that entered, some really great photos again.

cheers,

André

[colin_12]

A truely awsome effort Liz.
That is a fantastic idea put to gret effect.
Regards Colin

[CraigVTR]

Well done on a great shot Liz.

Craig