Old Trick

I was truly fascinated when I saw this plumb near a construction site the other day. Despite the fact that this wonderful method of obtaining exact vertical line was devised thousand of years ago, it is but still being utilized today. I am at awe to see the intelligence of man to discover such a simple but effective technique. I was totally inspired. Without hesitation, I asked the site supervisor to let me have the plumb so that I can photograph it. After much persuasion, the supervisor shook his head and passed me the apparatus.
1 - To prepare the dramatic background, I utilized a piece of white paper measured 4'x4'. I used spray can paint to spray on the paper arbitrary. Then, I hang the paper about 45 degree and 2 feet away from the window.
2 - Next, I tied the plumb on a cross bar and hang it about 3 feet away from the paper and approximately 3.5 feet from the ground. While waiting for my sister to get ready, I begin to play with the aperture to obtain the desire DOF.
3 - I have to pay my sister 50bucks to get her hand painted with poster color. Though she was rather excited in the beginning but after about 30 mins of entering the act, she was kind of regretting it.
4 - Next, I asked my sister to sit beneath the plumb and told her to hold her hands high and formed a shape much like a lotus flower. The biggest challenge was to maintain a symmetrical form between her hands and the plumb while not touching it. Even a slight rush will cause the plumb to swing and I have to wait for it to settle so that I could resume shooting.
5 - And thus the shooting begins. The session sounds easier than done. My impatient sister though was cooperative but was complaining through out the entire sessions. Holding up her hand high was rather tiring so she said. After numerous adjustments to position of my sister's hand and fingers I finally got this shot.
Aperture: F5.6.
Shutter speed: 1/15s.
Light source: Natural light from window.
Filter: Circular polarizing filter.
Time: A few hours.