Copyright ©Kipp Baker, 2007. All rights reserved.The assignment was, again, generated by the camera club's competition in closed category: Tabletops. Should be simple really - just construct a set for a photograph on a table top.
Only I'm such a contrarian.
I wanted to impress the viewer - a judge no less. I wanted to make it look as non-tabletop as possible and thereby stand out from the crowd. To be sure, the finished product has those elements, but the clues are overwhelming - this is a small set...It could have been made on a table...despite the exterior trappings and look of a high mountain desert in the southwestern US...
When judged, the print immediately drew gasps, guffaws and snickers (which, btw, is the cat's name - not Catzilla - [that's just to help the concept + visual effect.]) As the judge began his critique, he immediately began his discussion with a comment about heavily Photoshopping an image.
I shook my head, no... There was very little Photoshopping to this. The audience reacted and the immediate buzz and commotion drowned out any beneficial comments or observations the judge was making.
He didn't believe this wasn't "Photoshopped."
I didn't know why it mattered.
It was taken with a digital camera (Canon 20D, 10-22mm zoom and strobe lighting), but truth is - the only digital effects were to remove some sensor dust spots and lightly enhance the flash-bulb effect from the girl's toy camera. (It really does light up - but it's an incandescent bulb - like in a small flashlight - incorporated into the toy - and it only glows - it doesn't flash...) My cat - Snickers, AKA "Catzilla" had jumped up onto the table during my setup - and I decided to put him to work.
To me the cat made the image a perfectly humorous comment on our automobile culture and obsession with being tourists. Again, my photograph got modest points and no ribbon - but the stir of the crowd (about 120 good folk) made it all worthwhile and fun.
It's not often a photograph reaches the plateau where its elevation is well above a tabletop...but I think this one's a real butte.
kipp @ pixure.com
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