Photo Contest - The Light Of My Life (3/10-2/16)

[ZapperZ]

The Light Of My Life

This week's theme is on light fixtures. It can be a ceiling light, a table lamp, a wall sconce, a street light, or multiple number of them.

Zz.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a gray area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 800 x 600 or 600 x 800 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. You are also allowed to adjust the brightness and contrast of your picture but these should not dramatically alter the look of the picture. But other than those, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack or photobucket. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest. Once a picture is posted, it cannot be changed other than a total withdrawl by that member from that week's photo contest. Exceptions will be made for modification to comply with the rules, such as resizing.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread. Photos not meant for submission must not be posted in the contest thread. Posting of more than one photos by a member may result in an automatic disqualification from the week's contest.

Zz

 

[dlgoff]

Wow. Nice theme. This one should be really good.

 

[Andy Resnick]

This may seem like an odd question, but i have something in mind: do these have to be *electric* light fixtures?

 

[ZapperZ]

This may seem like an odd question, but i have something in mind: do these have to be *electric* light fixtures?

No. So oil lamps, etc. qualify. However, they must be a "standard" light source. You can't use, say, a bonfire.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

No light of my life in here so far! It's total darkness! <sobbing>

Zz.

 

[Ms Music]

There there, ZapperZ. Don't take it harshly!

I have a picture at home I really would like to enter, but I highly doubt I will have time at home to upload it. *sad* So you can blame me and my lack of time if it makes you feel better!

Go ahead! Blame it on the quiet one! ;)

 

[Andy Resnick]

This was an excellent contest topic- I had to think very carefully about what I wanted to do and how to communicate the idea. My first thoughts tended towards 'product shots' or photographs of the light source itself; this is not what I wanted.

I realized that a 'light fixture' has a single essential function- to control where the light goes. Without a fixture, the light source has no focus (pun somewhat intended), so I wanted to photograph this function- a relationship between source and target. I kept thinking about the view from an airplane, approaching an airport at night, when I can see the illumination pattern from streetlights. The lights themselves are not visible, and the street is not much more than a uniform surface- what is interesting is the pattern of illumination, which is due to the fixtures.

It took a while and lots of test shots, but this is what I came up with. Nothing fancy- straight off the camera, a basic 50/1.8, opened up all the way and at close focus to minimize the depth of field. Shutter speed 1/1000s, ISO 100. The light as about a foot away from a blackboard, and the room lights are on, allowing you to see the heat sink elements on the near side. The angle of view was chosen to let you 'see though' the back side of the lamp.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3976/dsc4955.png

 

[KrisOhn]

 

[SecularSanity]

This was an excellent contest topic- I had to think very carefully about what I wanted to do and how to communicate the idea. My first thoughts tended towards 'product shots' or photographs of the light source itself; this is not what I wanted.

I realized that a 'light fixture' has a single essential function- to control where the light goes. Without a fixture, the light source has no focus (pun somewhat intended), so I wanted to photograph this function- a relationship between source and target. I kept thinking about the view from an airplane, approaching an airport at night, when I can see the illumination pattern from streetlights. The lights themselves are not visible, and the street is not much more than a uniform surface- what is interesting is the pattern of illumination, which is due to the fixtures.

It took a while and lots of test shots, but this is what I came up with. Nothing fancy- straight off the camera, a basic 50/1.8, opened up all the way and at close focus to minimize the depth of field. Shutter speed 1/1000s, ISO 100. The light as about a foot away from a blackboard, and the room lights are on, allowing you to see the heat sink elements on the near side. The angle of view was chosen to let you 'see though' the back side of the lamp.

Wow! I am impressed, Andy. What a great choice. You've got my vote.

Well, this is a light source, right?

 

[Borek]

Hopefully it fits Zz's idea:

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz.

 

[Marzena]

 

[Andy Resnick]

Wow! I am impressed, Andy. What a great choice. You've got my vote.

Thanks! "The joy is in the making", as they say...

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Recessive gene?

 

[SecularSanity]

Recessive gene?

Damn, you nailed it. Very creative. I had better step up my game. You guys don’t screw around.

 

[ZapperZ]

Final day for you to show me the Light of My Life.

Zz.

 

[epenguin]

Gaudì thought artificial lighting through - Gaudì thought everything through.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Great photos, all!

This was an excellent contest topic- I had to think very carefully about what I wanted to do and how to communicate the idea. My first thoughts tended towards 'product shots' or photographs of the light source itself; this is not what I wanted.

I realized that a 'light fixture' has a single essential function- to control where the light goes. Without a fixture, the light source has no focus (pun somewhat intended), so I wanted to photograph this function- a relationship between source and target. I kept thinking about the view from an airplane, approaching an airport at night, when I can see the illumination pattern from streetlights. The lights themselves are not visible, and the street is not much more than a uniform surface- what is interesting is the pattern of illumination, which is due to the fixtures.

It took a while and lots of test shots, but this is what I came up with. Nothing fancy- straight off the camera, a basic 50/1.8, opened up all the way and at close focus to minimize the depth of field. Shutter speed 1/1000s, ISO 100. The light as about a foot away from a blackboard, and the room lights are on, allowing you to see the heat sink elements on the near side. The angle of view was chosen to let you 'see though' the back side of the lamp.

Gives new meaning to "Form Follows Function" :)

Thanks! "The joy is in the making", as they say...

And "Form Follows Fun"

 

[AlephZero]

Postmodernist deconstructionist interpretation: an image of an image of some lamps that no longer exist. (Plus two real, but unlit, lamps)