Ta-dah! My first image is ready for submission to NYIP. I came up with this idea the moment I read the requirements. I was supposed to capture motion either by freezing it (which I did here) or use a slow shutter speed and blur the motion. I tried a few times to catch a long streak across the image, but to no avail. Most of the time it was an unidentifiable streak of blue across the image. This one came out perfect, just as I imagined it. Thank you to my wife and lovely assistant for chucking it hundreds of times for me until it came out just right.
So, let's see if I can try and technically describe why I like this image and chose it for my submission. The hardest part was catching the Frisbee in focus while the background was blurred. I set the camera for my largest aperture (f/1.8) to throw everything in the distance out of focus. This left me with an area between 4' and 7' that would be in sharp focus. I set my camera to rapid fire as I held down the shutter button. This allowed me to capture two or three images of the Frisbee in flight from release until it passed the camera. This of course was the hardest part.
We took more than 200 photos and were surprised by how many were actually usable shots. At least 10 were in focus and fit what I had in mind. However, it was readily apparent that the above image was far and away the best option. It was perfectly in focus, tilted just right, and positioned in the frame perfectly. Off to Photoshop we go!!!
I did not edit this much, I really want my photography to stand alone on it's own merit. I used threshold and curves to trim the histogram edges, I used levels to bump the black and contrast, and I sharpened it just a bit. After that I cropped it down to 8X10 (had to pull the wife out of the image) and here it is.
Stay tuned, I still have two more images to go!
Joe
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