One of the things that makes Carl so successful in the Contest Corner Challenges is not in his skill as a photographer, but in the way he thinks through and sets up each of his photographs. For each Contest Corner Challenge, he spends time putting together a shot for the contest, then sets it up, and works on it until he has the shot that he wants. While he’s not a professional photographer, he certainly has the skill to be.

So..here is how I shot this one. When I saw the theme, I wanted to create an image that showed movement in music. The theme Music Visualization made me want to create an image that you could hear when you looked at it. My original idea was a mini drum solo on on drum. I figured using a slow shutter speed, I could create movement patterns with the sticks. Then while diggin in my dreaded crawlspace for my snare drum, I saw my bells. Since it was the last day before the deadline, I had to shoot something really quick. After getting the bells out, I realized my mallets were broken. I only had one which might not have worked, cause they had black handles and the handles were thin, so possibly the movement might not have been captured against the black background. So I used the sticks, and even tho it is taboo for any drummer, I went for it. I set up a 100 watt flood light behind a white sheet hung from the ceiling. The black background is actually a black comforter drapped over a couch. My settings were. Canon XTI, with a Sigma 10-20 at 10mm, ISO100. 6sec, @F11. The first few shots I actually played a tune…How Dry I am. But had too much movement in the sticks. After a few tries, I got the movement down, and began counting to 6 second while pausing for a split second on each key to capture some still ness in the sticks. That was pretty much it.