Christmas photo of 20,000 objects

[Mike Buckley]

It was the week before Christmas and all through the New York Stock Exchange the Dow Jones Industrial Average was only 15 points shy of the 20,000 mark for the first time in history. I like round numbers, so I wanted to make a photo that displays 20,000 of anything as a nod to the Dow. If you don't believe there are 20,000 staples in the image, please feel free to count them! I also wanted the image to have a Christmas theme as a nod to the holiday season.

When I planned the photo, I anticipated the Dow getting to 20,000 the week before or after Christmas but I'm now less confident of that happening. So, I'm posting the image now so at least the timing with regard to Christmas is appropriate.

Setup
20,000 staples are laid on black foam core. The camera is mounted above the scene on a boom. A medium continuous-light lamp is at the bottom left corner. A smaller one is at the bottom right corner and another smaller one is at the center of the top. All lamps are at the level of the tabletop, allowing the light to rake across the staples, which defines the lines they create. The purple vignette and colors on the subject were added during post-processing.

[Rita]

I like the creativity in this one, very nice! Seems I only counted 19,999 staples though

[Mike Buckley]

Seems I only counted 19,999 staples though

Though I generally completely distrust marketing and merchandising information, I am perfectly happy to absolutely trust without any verification whatsoever the indication on the four boxes that each one contains 5000 staples.

[GBO25]

Great concept and very well executed.

I can remember the Bryant and May match company getting into serious trouble down here. Their boxes of matches had a statement on the label saying "Average Contents 50".
Someone with not a lot to do (and it definitely wasn't me) actually went to the trouble of counting matches in MANY boxes and not one of them had 50 in them. It was quite a few years ago and I can't remember what they had but all were less than 50. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was contacted and they copped a big fine.

So now I'll see if I can find that person, magnify your image and get them to begin counting

[Mike Buckley]

So now I'll see if I can find that person, magnify your image and get them to begin counting

I'll be happy to provide the full-size original to make the task ever so slightly easier. Even so, the combination of my lighting scheme and the resolution provided by the lens and sensor even at that size don't make it possible to singularly identify each and every staple. Too bad!

[Wavelength]

Very nice and well composed

[NorthernFocus]

Pretty darn creative, Mike. Where'd you come up with the idea of using staples?

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, guys!

Dan asked how I came up with the idea of using staples. Staples are the only objects I could think of that 20,000 of them would be small enough to fit within the tight constraints of my makeshift studio, are large enough to be recognized at the current magnification at least when their identification is explained, are reasonably inexpensive (in this case free because my wife's employer loaned them to me), are readily available in an exact count of no more and no less than 20,000, and have a shape that makes them stable on a flat surface. It would be fun to learn of any other object that meets all of those criteria, as I still can't think of anything.

[madcrow]

Have to say very imaginative and interesting.

[bnnrcn]

Very creative and stunning work Mike, congrats

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Maurice and Binnur!

[ST1]

Well thought out and executed Mike, I note that you've included your usual little bit of tension to the image, with the random slight spacing between some of the staple strips. Well done


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike Buckley]

A belated thank you to Peter!

[Dave A]

I like the concept and image. Nicely done Mike.

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

When I planned the photo, I anticipated the Dow getting to 20,000 the week before or after Christmas

I wrote that in the first post of the thread. Today (January 25), the Dow got to 20,000 and a bit higher in the first few seconds of trading. Unimportant history has now been made!

[rpcrowe]

I like the creativity in this one, very nice! Seems I only counted 19,999 staples though

Great creativity... However, I counted 20,001 staples. But, I think that I may have counter that one, just to the right of the center, twice

[Dave Humphries]

Great idea Mike,
(well executed goes without saying, but I just did anyway)

Did you draw any blood stuffing them back in the packets?