Day 24: Today is Really Day 24

Okay, so now that I'm technically caught up. Here's today's one-derful photo!

20 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 400.
Click image for larger version.

We have a stove top (obviously) back in the Kitchen Store at work. There's also an angled mirror hanging above it. We all know how much I like shooting through mirrors, so this photo was inevitable. At first I was shooting and getting a lot of reflection off the chrome from the ceiling lights. So I killed the lights in the kitchen store to eliminate it, but mostly because I really wanted the red of the burner to stand out from everything.

I messed with this one quite a bit in Aperture, again to make the burner stand out. What I really wanted to do was to make the entire image monochrome except for the burner (and maybe the light that informs us that the stove is on), but I couldn't get it to work (nor do I know if there is even a way to do it in Aperture. Something for the future, I guess). But I still turned down all of the color saturations as far as they'd go, except for the red. I left its saturation alone, but turned up the luminosity as high as it would go. This photo is the result of that. I also cropped the image down to remove some unnecessary background stuff (the floor, rub and a bit of vacuum tube) to make it only about the stove top. I like the fact that you can't really tell it's taken through a mirror unles you pay attention to the text by the burner knobs.

That about does it. Thanks for stopping by like I know you all do on a regular basis, everyday, sometimes three or four times a day. Make sure you comment on your favorite picture for the January contest. Only a little over a week left. If even one of you comments at this point, your chances are pretty good that you'll win. Because, you know, no one else will be entered. But comment anyway, I'm really looking for feedback. It's a big reason that I'm doing this thing. Be harsh. I want to get better. You can be nice too, but only if you really like the picture. Godspeed.