A. Aronsson's WeBOLLog

As you might have noticed contests do motivate my creativity. This time it was the annual contest of Tenimages.org that seemed interesting, even though I got into it quite late and was very stressed out because of my planned trip to Japan. I was actually leaving the country on the deadline for submissions! In spite of this I managed to submit an entry, though sadly it did not even make it to the 142 finalist posters, but I’m happy anyway :) It was fun to participate!

The theme this year was: labels

A label is any kind of tag attached to something so as to identify the object or its content. Labeling means naming. It is human instinct to group things with what they are most similar and name them as a whole. We live in a world filled with labels antagonising each other to win our preference. There are labels associated with consumer products and fashion. People voluntarily label themselves in order to have a sense of belonging to a group, but there also labels that people use to categorize others stemming from feelings of racism and xenophobia, political and religious discrimination, etc. What is the role of these labels in your life? How can a label describe the world you live in? Can a label give the infinite set of experiences, beliefs and desires that summarise each human being?

I had a number of ideas, but with my limited time and brains I only managed to realize one of them.

Recursive Labeling

re·cur·sive
–adjective
pertaining to or using a rule or procedure that can be applied repeatedly.

la·bel·ing
–verb (used with object)
to affix a label to; mark with a label.

As you can see I had created labels in different sizes and tied them together as a chain of labels that labeled each other… it’s a bit abstract, I guess. The picture with the black background also looks a bit dark, but I guess that depends on it being next to the other picture.

The process was quite straight forward. I printed a bunch of labels in relative sizes, cut those out and used them as templates to cut the actual labels out from table placement cards I had bought at the book store. Then after deciding in what order I should put the different colors I made string holes that were supposed to fit the scale of the different label sizes. Lastly I glued the labels which I had grouped together to create the final labels and then I just tied them together with pieces of string!

The harder part was to get them to look good in a photo. I messed around with many flash configurations, mainly because I’m a newbie strobist with little experience, but after two sessions I had to be satisfied because I really had no more time. The pictures themselves had to have a high resolution so they are both made from three pictures each stitched together as panoramas.

Again, the entries did not fare well in the contest, but perhaps next time! If you find a creative contest you figure I should participate in, send me a message! That was how I ended up creating something for this contest! :o

I’ve been following the terrific blog of David Bicho, a Photographer who shares very nice information of how he works and facts about photography! April the 18th he posted a contest where you could win a Canon lens, and naturally it was a photo contest. The theme was “a potato in a bathtub”. I found this very funny and instantly decided to enter the contest :)

After some brainstorming and juggling ideas with a few friends I had formed a plan. The day before the deadline, last Friday, I went to a toy store and bought a doll house bathroom set. I used this bathtub to let my potato get some relaxation time! He got hot water and soap bubbles, while being monitored by rubber ducks. A disappointment was that the ducks were molded solid and did not float, but at least they look cute!

The location was at a friend’s place as I had been invited over that evening; and because I would have no other opportunity to make the shoot that week I brought all my gear to her place! Preparing and shooting took all in all around 1½ hours. This was the first time I tried using my eBay flash equipment, and I have to say it makes working with a scene way more interesting!

Up top you can see the image I submitted to the contest, and below are a few behind the scene shots!

Oh, and the result of the contest? This Saturday I got an email from David himself with the message that I *shock* was the winner!

This is actually the first photo contest I have ever won, and I have lost count of how many I have participated in. Though often the theme of a contest is very broad, like “summer”, “motion”, “pets” or “Christmas” which can be just about anything. The theme this time was much more specific while still leaving many parameters up to creativity, I like it!

There was a few questions in the email and I couldn’t help myself so I just wrote down everything I thought of in my response; it was received so well that the reply was hacked into a fake interview and promptly posted! You can read it in Swedish or in English translated through Google.

All in all I thank Mr. Bicho for a fun contest and I greatly look forward to future contests that he might host :) I hope they will be of the same inspiring nature!

Update: Today, May 6th, I finally got an adapter to use the lens I won on the GF1! I have not had much time to experiment yet, but it fits quite nicely on there :) I can’t wait for Panasonic to release an official adapter, perhaps with more functionality than the one I got now, which does nothing except being a solid lump of metal. See pictures below!