autofantasia's photos with the keyword: table

Kilmarnock supporters are "allowed to dream" after their side rose to the top of the Scottish Premiership, says manager Steve Clarke. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46462652 Oh, and before anyone says don't be so silly, I have one thing to say … Leicester!

Yet another creation from the 'processing room' for you guys to hopefully enjoy, but this time produced specifically with this week's Sunday Challenge in mind! The challenge this week, if we chose to accept it, was to produce a photograph/image that portrays creativity . My sincere thanks to my fellow challenger, Wierd Folkersma for allowing me to use one of his photographs, which can be found in the Notes, as my starting point. From the moment I saw Wierd's photograph I was curious to see what I could extrapolate from all those interconnecting and overlapping branches. So it seemed an ideal choice for me to work on with this week's challenge in mind. You can see more from my fellow challengers by visiting TSC .

Time was when DIY was considered to be a men only activity. However, times have changed and nowadays an increasing number of women have taken up the hobby, some have even set themselves up in business to offer an alternative to the so-called "handy man". For this week's Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of hot drink , not a subject I've tackled before and one that I found impossible to master as steam is an elusive, temporary and very difficult subject to capture as you can see from this my best effort so far. No smoke brushes or cigar smoke were used here, just some boiled water added to the cup and a piece of black cardboard to try and show of the steam as I'd read it was easier to capture against a dark background. Like I say this is my best effort so far, not great, but then if it were easy to master it wouldn't be a challenge.

Yet another bear selectively lit with a previous Sunday Challenge in mind. This little ceramic bear is actually designed to take potpourri, not that it ever gets used for that. Now, what with the bears, the ice cubes and the Elvis buckle I really need to get outside into the fresh air ... I'm starting to look a little pale!

This week's Sunday Challenge was to shoot something personal with the added twist of having to combine it with a previous technical challenge. So, I decided to use this old enamelled belt buckle I bought many years ago and to give it the selective lighting treatment. Throughout my own life I've been a huge fan of Elvis Presley and as a young man I used to love wearing thick belts with large buckles like the one you see here. This one is rather special though as it was a limited edition produced by the American Legends Foundry to mark the life of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. I really felt it would be ideal for the selective lighting treatment. My only concern was that I wanted to bring out the vibrant blue enamel that forms the background to the design and so had to be careful with how I positioned the Maglite torch that was my only light source. In the end I think I got it just about right.

This was another of the themes I had in mind for the recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of low light. I created these ice cubes using plain water infused with blue food colouring. The shot was taken in total darkness, with the only light source coming from a small torch I placed to the lower right hand side of the glass. In the end I opted to post the little bear with the heart in the group proper, but really liked how this turned out and thought it worth sharing. It kind of reminds me of my earlier wet and red phase!

Yet another challenging, no pun intended, week as far as The Sunday Challenge was concerned. The theme this week was selective lighting, meaning as I understood it a situation where the photographer controls the light. So I came up with a few ideas, one of which resulted in me spilling a tray full of Coca-Cola over my workstation. I hasten to add that was not part of the plan and no photographs were taken! Anyway, of the three themes I came up with, I've decided to use this little lady here for the main challenge entry. We've had her for many years and she’s stating to show her age with a couple of pieces from her derrière missing completely, but from the front sat on our kitchen window sill I think she’s still rather cute. I took this shot with my macro lens, which I have something of a love hate relationship with and with manual focus … a thing I rarely do with any great success. To give you an idea of scale the little bear is just over 5cm tall: 2 inches in old money. I had it sat on my desk with a piece of black card serving as an infinity curve. It was late at night so the room was in total darkness. Lighting was provided from the left with a small Maglite torch and from the right via an even smaller Cyba-lite, which I had shining down a piece of cardboard tubing in the guise of a home-made snoot. That’s the joy of TSC , it pushes you to try new things: to tackle new subjects and to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. I mean, this time last week I didn't even know what a snoot was - lol.