Thursday, January 06, 2011

"Blue Agave"

Blue Agave

"Blue Agave"
©David A. Ziser

Boy…. do I wish it was truly a Blue Agave cactus.  I made this image a few years ago while visiting Sedona, AZ.  We had taken one of the Pink Jeep tours into the mountains and at one of the stops I grabbed this quick photo of the agave plant.

This image has quite a history.  I have had it featured at Imagekind for a few years now.  About two years ago we got a call for an Ad agency about using it as wall décor in a pub.  The deal went through and now this image is displayed at some pub over in England – trouble is I don’t know what pub.  Maybe some of our Great Britain DPT readers have seen it ;~)

A few months ago we received a call from another ad agency that had seen the image.  They wanted to use it for a new Tequila that was going to hit the market this year and wanted complete rights to the image. OK, are you ready for the rest of the story – We asked their budget, them hem-hawed a bit said it was rather small but they could go $10,000 for the image.  You heard it right $10 GRAND!!!

I was blown away.  They said there was just one issue – it wasn’t a Blue Agave cactus so they would have to retouch in the real thing.  Did I care? Heck no!  Just send the cash! We went back and forth for about two weeks just trying to stay in touch.  The rest of the story, alas, they found a different image with a real Blue Agave cactus.  So near, yet so far – it was fun while it lasted ;~)

This image is still one of my favorite black and white images.  The Sigma wide angle really makes the composition work significantly dramatizing the cactus in the foreground.  I tweaked the tonal range in Photoshop and removed a few tourists on the hillside to get the final result.  Who ever thought a vacation image could be so valuable….. well, almost.

Camera specs: Canon 5D fitted with Sigma 12-24mm lens at 12mm, F8.0 @ 1/100 second, ISO 400. Enjoy!  -David

5 comments:

  1. I just recieved your book "Captured By The Light" the other day and when my wife was thumbing through she stopped, put the book down, and said: "the wedding photographs are some of the best I've ever seen... but I think he should make photographs for food". I looked at her funny and asked why. Her response was simple: "the cake photographs make me really want a piece of cake." Who knows David, maybe you have a calling you never knew about? Always a pleasure to read your posts.
    Travis

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  2. Hi David! Where did you have the image of the cactus so it could be seen by the ad agency? Just curious. Thanks! Larry

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  3. Cool shot Ziser:) Very nice ..

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  4. Hello, David. Love your site (first time to post, though), and love your book and videos on Kelby Training. I am sure you are a very busy man, but I was hoping you could answer a question for me. I see lots of shots on your site taken with the Sigma 12-24. All the shots look great, and they look sharp, too. How are the full-sized images? Are they sharp? I have heard a lot on the Internet about how this lens is very wide, but not too sharp. What do you think about it? I shoot a D700 and am torn between this lens, the 14-24, and the 16-35VR.

    Thanks for taking the time to read this overly long post.

    Kev

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