autofantasia's photos with the keyword: collectable

Whilst out looking for interesting doors I could shoot for this week's Sunday Challenge I came across this. It's an old petrol pump, which was apparently manufactured many moons ago by Gilbarco. It has obviously seen better days, but it still caught my eye not least because of the patination. This image was produced from combining 3 bracketed RAW files and processed in Photomatix. Press z to view large.

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.