There is something so wonderfully insubstantial about a reflection. It can be so vivid, so evocative, so compelling...and yet so completely illusory, so very non-existent. I suppose the same could be said for photography in general.

But nobody can say that about Iron Photographer 80 Iron Photographer, no sir. You want substance? I'll give you substance. Just take a look at Tamelyn's brilliant useless beauty. That photo will make you a jackass for love. And what could be more substantial than Anita's reflected farmer? Farmers (and I'm just assuming that's a farmer) are the very essence of substance. I don't know if this counts as 'substance' but I'm thinking a lot of folks will wish the naked man Dharam has trapped in her mirror had somewhat more physical reality. But, of course, it's not always about reality, as Jeremy's wonderfully disorienting vision through an eyeglass darkly shows.

But as quickly as a reflection disappears when the mirror is tilted another direction, so Iron Photographer 80 disappears, to be replaced by the mystery that is IP81.

Iron Photographer 81. Eighty-one, as you well know, was the year in which the Empress Deng Sui (the moderate and pacifying empress) was born, so you're probably thinking we'll be going with a Chinese Empress theme...or maybe a moderate and pacifying theme. But wait...81 is also the symbolic number of the Hell's Angels, so you might wonder if we're going to go with a motorcycle and drug-induced violent theme. Or maybe even a motorcyle riding Chinese Empress theme.

Hah! Fooled you again! Oh, you silly IP people. You should know by now that Iron Photographer is the Scarlet Pimpernel of...of...damn it. I'm sure we're the Scarlet Pimpernel of something.

At any rate, the elements for IP 81 are as follows:

1 - a flower (or something floral)
2 - something rusty
3 - low key lighting

The first element, a flower (or something floral), is so simple even a caveman could figure it out. We're talking about that part of a plant that bears the reproductive organs. Okay...I'm going to wait a moment until you stop snickering. What are you, twelve?

We don't care what sort of flower it is. We don't even care if it's a real flower. We'll accept anything floral in design...a pillowcase, curtains, a china pattern. The only criterion is that it must show a blossom that contains the...oh lawdy...sexual organs of the plant, even if those organs are not visible.

The second element is something rusty. Rust, as you know, is that reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture. We don't care what the rusty thing is...only that it's rusty.

The third element, as always, is artistic. The photograph must be made using low key lighting. What is low key lighting? I knew you'd ask. It's that moody, dramatic sort of light you see so often in noir films...light that comes from using a single light source and emphasizes the contours of the subject.

Here are some examples from Wikimedia.

Given that the elements for IP 81 are coherent and consistent, you may be surprised to discover that Jamelah helped with them. Granted, at different moments she also suggested "explosions" and "pizza" as elements...and really, it's hard to argue against those because everybody likes explosions and pizza, but in the end we were afraid all we'd see was a lot of photos of thin crust Semtex pizzas.

There may be questions. If so, you know the drill. Ask them here or email me at editor@utata.org. If the question is really crazy, email it to Jamelah@utata.org. One of us may respond.

Here is the standard Iron Photographer reminder: all IP photographs MUST be NEW images; do NOT pull photographs from your archives. The purpose of IP is to challenge you to create new art. We would also appreciate it if you would limit your IP submissions to no more than six photographs. We're delighted that you enjoy these projects, but we'd like to avoid having those folks who only submit one or two photos have their images lost in the crush.

SEMI-NEW dire warning: We'd sincerely appreciate it if y'all would only post ONE photo in this discussion thread. You can post a second photo IF it's materially different from the first. As far as that goes, you can post a third photo if it's materially different from the first two. You get the idea. If you violate this guideline, we will very likely say rude things about you behind your back. You've been warned.

Iron Photographer 81 will be published approximately two weeks from today, on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009.

Tag the photos in the following way: utata:project=ip81.

As always, you may include these optional tags: utata:color=black (which will provide a black frame around the image) and utata:description=hide (which, obviously, hides the description on the image). You can also include the description tags Brenda described in a much, much earlier discussion thread.

Well, that's all there is. Now, who wants pizza?