“Trapped in the Amber of the Moment” was created by Melanie Hall, M. Photog. Cr., CPP of Conroe, Texas, and won a Distinguished Ribbon at TPPA Summerfest 2017. She photographed this image during an editorial stylized wedding shoot that she arranged with local wedding vendors. To start the day, the crew had set up a mobile studio setup at the wedding venue. However, a couple of hours into hair and makeup, they discovered that their time was to be cut short due to a misunderstanding and rushed to tear down the setup because they had to photograph the other vignettes that the stylist designed. Luckily, at the end of the day, the crew was able to stay late and reassemble a studio setup in another building where she could photograph each model in a completely controlled studio environment. Melanie chose the background (Kelly Golden Brown by Backgrounds by Maheu) and used a large strip box (f8) adjacent to a horizontal 4×6’ softbox (f4) to layer the light, add direction, and still hold details in the shadows of his dark attire to the camera left. Then, to separate the subject from the background, she used two strip boxes on either side (f5.6). The title of the print is a steampunk reference to the novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. Basically, all time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.
