Challenge 2014 - Week 5

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.
-Plato

This Week

I had an idea early on. I decided to take a trumpet and put in a background to make it look like birds were coming out. I added a stuffed hummingbird I had to play the instrument, and I added an Eagle to control the valves (though it's hard to tell). The bird choices were primarily based off of what I had in the right size that would allow me to create a flapping appearance (slightly reducing the appearance of the trumpet just floating there with nothing holding it up). This is why I have a hummingbird that is larger than both a Bald Eagle and the Cackling Geese I used for the birds flying out.

It took longer than I would have liked. I also had to go with a held object to keep it all together while allowing basic corrections. This caused some problems because I don't have good lighting. Usually, I make up for this problem with long shutter speeds. That would have caused blur this time. I had to use a flash. I didn't want to change cameras and lenses (kind of like musical chairs) to get the picture, so the only way I could get enough light was to shine directly on the trumpet and birds. This causes other problems. A shadow was unavoidable on the blue background I was trying to replace. It also amplified some of the waves in the fabric so that they were hard to correct after the shot.

Since I was going after more of the quote, I described the picture with the quote rather than my usual horrible commentary.

 Picture

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." -Plato

Flickr Friday - An Object's Point of View

I had a few ideas for this one. I could try to get a shot that appears from the inside of a glass with a drink flowing out (mirror?). I could cut a hole in my shoes and show feet approaching. I could try to get a shot from inside a slinky going down the stairs. I didn't think I could get a decent shot of any of these, especially if I didn't want to destroy anything. I had an alternative idea. With some bizarre unidentifiable white substance that had literally fallen from the sky, I was wondering about a picture with The Slug (art) at Homestead Park looking over the... whatever that stuff is called. I made a slight mistake. The Slug faces the wrong way. Instead of an open field, I had to point at the trunk of a tree with some shrubbery. I took a shot, but I can't make it look decent. That's why I have not submitted anything to Flickr Friday this week.