Ok, 'present' presented several challenges and I think that can be seen when looking at other peoples interpretations. Have to admit time limitations did not help me on this and I finally took the shot I had been thinking of on Sunday, same day as the next one was announced. Hey ho, its my 52, there will be weeks when I run late or have to play catch up but hopefully not too many.
This is a shot of a work of art I was incredibly flattered to receive as a gift from a long standing member of this forum, so spent some time trying decide on the best way to photograph this present to me. In the end I opted for very simple lighting, by way of a torch, and a background that would produce more than a simple shadow. The background is basically a red piece of fabric, overlayed with a brown transluscent sarong that has tiny spanges sewn into it, hence the starry effect, I might even add an edit later with a few starbursts! The actual piece is carved from wood, and on initial sight appears to be a feather, but has a character within it. After playing with angles on the torch I noticed that at certain angles, the shadow started to look shorter and dumpier and more like some kind of forest gnome [well in my imagination anyway], which I thought quite appropriate from a Spirit of the Feather carved from wood.
It was hung from colour blend thread so getting it to stay still and not twist was hard work, impossible in fact so you may be able to detect the tiniest amount of motion blur, but in many ways this shot is also about the lighting and the shadow too so please don't hit me too hard
Anyway, my eternal thanks to Charlie for this beautiful piece of work, which is now hung back in the display cabinet [looking left again, which it refused to do when free hung - we both agreed it was slightly better that way for some reason we couldn't fathom] and here is the initial edit, but I might take on a little inspiration from Sarahs stuff and do some fancier editing when time allows.