Photo Challenge: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! The subject is “these are a few of my favorite things.” Please visit the link to see contributions by the other participants! 

This photo assignment was difficult! First of all, I had a terrible time figuring out what “few” things I could use in my photo shoot. I have a lot of favorites! I finally settled on a grouping of new bookends and some treasured books. The bookends are rustic, metal rabbits! They are whimsically shaped into a strenuous pose, showing their struggle to hold weighty tomes upright. I had to buy them. They make me laugh! And the treasured books are ones that my husband bought for us 30 years ago. These are collector editions of the J.R.R. Tolkien classics, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (or There and Back Again). Each book is encased in colorful sheaths. We adore the stories and were thrilled when the movies were released in 2001-2003. And we’re looking forward to the December movie release of The Hobbit! 

The second difficulty I had was setting up and executing the final image. I photographed the scene in my home office and used only natural light. Though the light level was relatively low, I had to deal with some annoying shine on the metal rabbits and the gold lettering on the books. Hot spots in a photo are not attractive. Plus, light was needed to fill in on the right-hand side. I ended up taking about two-dozen shots and half-way processed a couple of them before I finally settled on the final image. The finished product took me an hour and a half to accomplish. (I’m a slow and deliberate learner, LOL.) 

The camera settings were f/3.5 (for a shallow depth of field), 1/40 second, and ISO 320. I used an 85 mm lens and a tripod. I began the photo shoot by using a white deflector on the right-hand side of the image to bounce light into the scene. The reflections on the lettering were mottled. It wasn’t the look that I wanted. Frustrated, I started moving the reflector around to see if it would change the effect. Low and behold, holding the reflector directly beneath the scene evened out the light and eliminated the reflections that were annoying me. It was a breakthrough moment to finally figure that out! Digital processing in Photoshop was aided by multiple filters from the Nik Color Efex 4.0 plug-in program, including ones for contrast, detail, and vignette. 

And now that you know the stories behind the photo, here are the bunnies paying homage to Tolkien. 

The Lord of the Rings

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.