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The Captive
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The Captive



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It was such a silly thing, when all those tiny boats approached her. She had only been cooling her feet in the river, when the tiny armada attacked. Now, it w...
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It was such a silly thing, when all those tiny boats approached her. She had only been cooling her feet in the river, when the tiny armada attacked. Now, it was too late to escape.
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cameraNIKON D7000

settings Aperture f/2.8 ISO 400 Shutter 1/100 

upload_dateDec, 2014

Views

4982

Likes

Awards

Contest Finalist in It Is Red Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Getting Creative Photo Contest
Featured
Contest Finalist in Sci Fi Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Fantasy World Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Contrasting Colors Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Unreal Realities Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Fantasy Portraits Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Her Photo Contest
Staff Favorite
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Peer Award
Vorster davidjprosser gman176 PhotosByJEM jorgealbertopealozapealoza Tudorof arcrem +128
Outstanding Creativity
SteveWebb_captured_light Petrut CAphotos ShellyRwanda 9435_0903 Ruby1 leannewalters +104
Superb Composition
DEBOLINA_MOITRA cristinacovas paulmccorriston Merlot lyhamm7 ths205 gilesrrocholl +54
Absolute Masterpiece
SkMcQueen-Cheffey MERCEDESS AllenHrenyk BarryMiles robaartsen debbieblack_8105 jennay510 +34
Top Choice
johannarhrlinger agendean OliverSteinPhotography Dals-Photography jstowe812 Kcable p_eileenbaltz +27
All Star
rozabara Niladripaul12 AaronM renmurr Albert-Serra-Photography Gary151 AvidPhotographer +1
Magnificent Capture
Ulysees charliefrizell anthonymannion thricegrate Dragonflies_Dream lucidimages
Superior Skill
ArtphotoCarineEricVilley RAPJones andrew37ot Dizbee54 angelarivera Patriciaarbaje
Genius
Obidon

Emotions

Impressed
sujayramagoni JoaoLavadinho

Top Ranks

Lakes And Reflections Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Lakes And Reflections Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Fantasy In Color Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Fantasy In Color Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
It Is Red Photo ContestTop 10 rank
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Anything Water Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Anything Water Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
By Myself In Nature Photo ContestTop 20 rank
People And Water Photo Contest 2017Top 30 rank
People And Water Photo Contest 2017Top 30 rank week 2
Post Editing Magic Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Post Editing Magic Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
People And Water Photo Contest 2017Top 30 rank week 1
A Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 10 rank
A Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 3
A Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 2
A Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Getting Creative Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Getting Creative Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 2
Getting Creative Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Covers Photo Contest Vol 32Top 20 rank
Covers Photo Contest Vol 32Top 10 rank week 2
Covers Photo Contest Vol 32Top 10 rank week 1
Creative Self Portraits Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1
Portraits with Props Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1
A World Of Red Photo ContestTop 10 rank
A World Of Red Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Sci Fi Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Fairytale Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Fairytale Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Wtfocus Photo ContestTop 30 rank
Wtfocus Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 2
Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Contrasting Colors Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Contrasting Colors Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 2
Contrasting Colors Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
Unreal Realities Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Trains Boats And Planes Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1
Unreal Realities Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 2
Unreal Realities Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Artistic Expressions Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Artistic Expressions Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Enchanting Waterscapes Photo ContestTop 20 rank
Enchanting Waterscapes Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 2
Fashion Photo ContestTop 30 rank
Enchanting Waterscapes Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1
Fantasy Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Fantasy Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 2
Primary Colors Photo ContestTop 20 rank
Fantasy Portraits Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1
Primary Colors Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 2
Primary Colors Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
Her Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1

Categories

5 Comments |
jameswhaynesjr
 
jameswhaynesjr January 01, 2015
I love your creativity!
rhamm
 
rhamm March 09, 2015
Great shot. Outstanding creativity
Dragon28
 
Dragon28 August 30, 2015
Great shot
RamyDelariarte
 
RamyDelariarte June 10, 2018
Awesome
garymintz
 
garymintz July 04, 2018
awesome photo

Submitted to Photo Contests
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Behind The Lens

Location

I shot this photo in the Redwoods/Jedediah Smith State Park last summer. This is Northern California just next to the Oregon border. I spent my whole summer camping alone in the National Parks doing this Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales series. If you want to read more about that adventure you should check out the blog I wrote about it, it was an amazing trip. https://exploredexposure.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/an-artist-alone-in-the-national-parks/

Time

This was shot in the late afternoon, just after the sun set behind the trees so that I could shoot in the shade.

Lighting

This is a composite image so the lighting is really important. Everything in this image was shot on location, so it is necessary for the boat and the subject to have the same lighting to make compositing easier and more believable. Shooting in shade helps out with this a lot because the shadows are really subtle and don't change so fast between shots.

Equipment

This was shot with a Nikon D7000, and a Nikkor 28-70mm lens. I used a tripod and a remote. As it is a composite, it is really important for the image to be stable so that the compositing lines up in photoshop layers.

Inspiration

This image is called The Captive, and was inspired by the story Gulliver's Travels. Each image in this series comes with a little caption to describe it, and for this image it is: "It was such a silly thing when all those tiny boats approached her. She had only been cooling her feet in the river, when the tiny armada attacked. Now, it was too late to escape." What you probably don't know, is that this is a self portrait!

Editing

This is a very complex composite as all the boats in the image are the same boat. To get this multiple boat effect, I tied fishing line to the boat and held it in the water and took a photo. I walked around with it like a puppet and did this over and over again until I had a whole armada of boats. Then I layered the photos in Photoshop revealing all the different boats. The dress I was wearing was actually blue, so I changed that, and then I added a nice blur to the back ground, to soften it, and put a texture layer over the whole thing to help blend it together. Finally, I did some color editing in Lightroom to get the overall feel. It's not a simple process, and you have to really have an idea of where you are going before you even start shooting, which can be hard.

In my camera bag

Well, not to much actually, I have a Nikkon D7000 and a variety of Nikkor lenses that range from 10mm to 300mm. I always have a tripod and a cheap remote, but I would like to get a fancy one so I can shoot images from longer distances.

Feedback

Well, pre-visualization is the most important part of getting an image like this to work. I have a very vivid imagination, so I can really see what I want to shoot in my mind's eye, but some people might find it helpful to sketch out what you want to shoot before you start. Second, take way too many photos, because in the end you never have enough! When you are compositing, it's really important to have lots of options, too few can really be so frustrating. Especially, if you are like me, and you don't get around to editing your images for months after you actually shoot them, so re-shooting at that point isn't an option. Remember to have fun, I am never scared to walk away from a shoot that just isn't working and come back to it at a later date. Rather than fighting with a situation, it's so much more helpful to let it go and think it through for a while, then when you do re-shoot it will be awesome.

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