I struggled today and tried lots of different photos and lots of different Photoshop effects but found nothing that I deemed good enough for a photo of the day. So I turned to my reliable, of late, inspiration, the Flickr “Our Daily Challenge” group. Today’s challenge is “through a hole.”
I was busy all afternoon and by the time I got to the grocery store, I was tired and hungry. As the Courtesy Clerk at Nugget Market walked me to my car, he asked if I had more plans for the day. “Well,” I said, “I’m learning photography and I have a blog where I post a photo I take every day. Today I’m looking for a photo that exemplifies ‘through a hole.'” It was then that I looked at him and realized that his ears were “gauged,” the practice of enlarging the holes in one’s ears until they are gaping holes. I never knew that’s what the practice was called. I only remember seeing issues of National Geographic Magazine, with natives in various remote continents with their earlobes stretched grotesquely with huge disks. I wondered what this young man will do when the holes no longer have plugs in them and start to sag. Despite my misgivings about the future of his earlobes, which we discussed, by the way, he was a good sport and posed for me so I could take photos of the holes in his ears. He plans to continue enlarging them. I guess I shouldn’t worry about him. Afterall, when I got my ears pierced in 1966, all my family members were aghast except my grandmother, who, I found out when I first saw her after the “piercing,” had her ears pierced in the late 1800’s and had stopped wearing pierced earrings when the practice went out of fashion in the early 1900’s. So, I guess as they say, what goes around, comes around. Just not always the same way.
The photos I got were rather lackluster, though, and despite this young man’s help at trying to hold his ears so that I could get good photos, they were rather uninspired. My fellow photoblogger Melinda suggested I try changing it to black and white so I did. I used the blue filter to get this effect and I rather liked it. I also cropped the photo slightly.
Really awesome take on the challenge- so creative! You did a great job with the black and white conversion- I love those Aperture choices. I often use the red filter, but have used all at one point or another. It is so interesting to me how they change the look of the black and white. And nice focus- look at his goosebumps! All in all, a super photo!
And about his earlobe- Ewwwwwww!