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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 84 : Empty (hosted by iso) >> CSLR Challenge 84 : Eligible Gallery > Graduation Balloons
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28-DEC-2006 Victor Engel

Graduation Balloons

Canon EOS 10D ,Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
1/125s f/8.0 at 50.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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alexeig08-Jan-2007 19:19
Optimistic and colorful. It makes a nice photo without being simplistic
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Jan-2007 05:20
Colourful and a nice take on the theme. Unusal broken egg like shape with that pink balloon. ~kt
Canon DSLR Challenge02-Jan-2007 01:01
Happy new year. Sam Attal.
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Dec-2006 22:18
Neat idea, I like the addition of the colored beads. --Melanie
CameraShy0929-Dec-2006 22:14
I like your take on the challenge theme. Very well seen.
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Dec-2006 19:29
Such games have never lasted longer than the party around here! LOL! ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Dec-2006 18:28
Those balloons went through a lot of experiments, some instigated by me, some by my brother, others by my daughter and her friends. More evidence of the experiments is the string of glass beads. Those beads were added to the string as a counterweight to the helium so that a bunch of balloons could meander around the house, floating above the ground but below the ceiling, wafting around with the gentle breezes of the house. Another string had a breath-filled balloon at one end and a helium-filled balloon at the other. Depending on which was stronger, the helium balloon would pull the other one across the room (we have vaulted ceilings) until the breath-filled one stopped the helium one or until the helium one hoisted the other one up to the wall.

After the party, the breezes and A/C moved the balloons over mostly to the corner of the living room. My mother started asking how many balloons had popped. It turned into a fun sort of thing, being surprised by balloons bursting at random times. So that's where it started -- seeing how long the balloons would last until they burst.

At some point, they stopped bursting, and I saw the piles of limp balloons as being something I'd like to capture with my camera. At that point, I made a conscious effort to not throw them away until I had captured them.

--Victor
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Dec-2006 16:36
Interesting. I guess most of us would not have ever experienced this, which leads me to ask... why *did* you leave them there since then? Too busy to clean up? The Oscar Madison in you didn't care? It was an experiment? ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Dec-2006 16:29
Lonnit,

The balloons have been sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, partly exposed to the sun, since graduation in May. Most of the balloons popped over a period of a couple weeks. Some of them just deflated into limp rags. Some were helium filled -- others breath-filled. Various amounts of devulcanization have occurred with all of them. Most of the balloons are soft and pliable on their undersides, where they were in contact with another surface. But where they were exposed to air (or plastic) they have dried out.

This pink one is the most friable of all of them. It didn't break until I tried moving it. I've got another green one hanging on a string that may be the subject of another photo. It looks like it's dripping/oozing. I find this all very interesting, as you can tell. If I were a neat freak, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to see any of this.

-- Victor
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Dec-2006 15:22
Nice - not quite what I was expecting when you mentioned you were going to shoot it. What's with that really wild shattered balloon? How did it break like that? It looks stiff and dry. I would expect such a look only from a baloon shattered after being frozen in dry ice. The others look as I'd expect. What's going on with that one??? ~ Lonnit
jnconradie29-Dec-2006 05:39
Also so clever... and a completely different take on the theme than either of the previous two entries. I like this very non-empty empiness! Regards ~jnconradie