I decided to enter this month’s competition on the theme of ‘Waiting’. However, I wanted to do something different from the usual and eventually decided to make a set based on word-play or puns on the word waiting. This is what I came up with:
Colour Print:
For this I used the words “Whey Tin” and came up with the still-life titled “Whey Tin: Baking with a tin of whey”:
I didn’t have a tin of whey so made a label that I wrapped around an old syrup tin (it doesn’t go all the way round). The spilt powder is actually flour. This was taken in our kitchen. The lighting was an old hammer-head flash pointing to the ceiling. This was triggered by the flashgun on the camera on the minimal manual power setting but pointing at the scene to give a little ‘lift’ to the lighting.
The judge liked it a lot both technically (sharpness, exposure, lighting, etc.) and for the originality of the idea. So I was surprised when he awarded it just 16 (out of 20) points.
To be honest, I didn’t know how this would be judged so I wasn’t upset with the marking.
Monochrome Print:
For this I used the words “Weight in” giving the title “Weight-In a jar”:
This was taken on a welsh dresser in our kitchen. I used Tippex to whiten the weight markings. This was taken in daylight with the sun streaming in from the left, so I had to obscure the direct sunlight. There was a yellow painted wall just to the right which reflected light back giving quite even illumination.
The judge enjoyed this one and complemented the originality and the technical aspects so gave it 19.5 points making it third place (there were two with 20 points). I was both surprised and pleased as I thought this was the weakest of the set.
Projected image:
This one used a pun based on “weigh ting” giving a title “Weigh-Ting for despatch”:
This used a similar setup to the colour print. However, I wanted a different background so used a board with brick wallpaper pasted to it.
The judge liked the originality and the setup but he didn’t like the brick background and correctly identified the brickwork as wallpaper. For this he awarded 17 points. When it came to choosing 1st, 2nd, and third there was one with 19 points, one with 18 points and four with 17 points. He chose this for 3rd place due to the originality.
My wife would like me to point out that we do NOT have brick wallpaper in the house, but that this was set up for the photography!
Overall, I wasn’t expecting much for the results but, because the judge liked the originality, I did far better than I expected.