This weeks theme was chosen by my good buddy Chris and is "Seed" I was going to double it up with the Teazle from the last shot but thought i should try harder to come up with an image. After a bit of scouting around the house for Conkers that the kids have discarded, and considering slicing trough a banana and taking a Macro shot of the seeds I didn't really fancy either idea.
It was when I was in the garage and just about to shut the door that I spotted the big bag of mixed bird seed that we give to our feathered friends during the winter months. I grabbed it and brought it inside to use.
I attempted a macro shot, but It didn't appeal to me, and I tried a couple of other things too. then I thought about incorporating some txt into the image. And this was the result. Two light setup again. One in my DIY softbox as the key, and one bounced off my "weird" ceiling as a fill source.
The jaunty angle to give the shallower DOF involved me getting nice and close and having to twist round at a nasty angle to get the shot. And the only lens with a wide enough angle of view to get it was the Sigma 10-20mm which is turning out to be a very useful bit of glass :-)
Have a gander at the other boys stuff. >>>>>
Sunday 7 September 2014
Straight Out Of Camera Week 33 "Pointy"
This weeks theme is "Pointy" and was chosen by Bruce. Although time constraints due to having a family and a job and building his own house means he sadly had to drop out of the project, he still kindly finds the time to keep involved via comments and choosing themes for us remaining diehards. So cheers for that mate.
The subject for this theme took about 2 milliseconds to drop into my head. And involved a walk down the village to the river, at 10:30 pm in the pitch black with just a little LED torch because I'd seen the thing I wanted to photograph whilst out for a walk earlier this week.
A Teasel . You don't get much pointier than that. Over here they are an important source of food for Goldfinches and other birds, but In the US I'm fairly sure they are considered an invasive weed and removed.
The lighting setup was a strong light directly behind the seed head to highlight the pointy structure, and another directly in front of it to add some fill light. I also shook all the seeds out and saved them to sow in my garden. Because A) I like these things and B) I like Goldfinches.
Dumb And Dumber are still producing excellent work. Links below, check em out.
The subject for this theme took about 2 milliseconds to drop into my head. And involved a walk down the village to the river, at 10:30 pm in the pitch black with just a little LED torch because I'd seen the thing I wanted to photograph whilst out for a walk earlier this week.
A Teasel . You don't get much pointier than that. Over here they are an important source of food for Goldfinches and other birds, but In the US I'm fairly sure they are considered an invasive weed and removed.
The lighting setup was a strong light directly behind the seed head to highlight the pointy structure, and another directly in front of it to add some fill light. I also shook all the seeds out and saved them to sow in my garden. Because A) I like these things and B) I like Goldfinches.
Dumb And Dumber are still producing excellent work. Links below, check em out.
Straight Out Of Camera Week 32 "Leather"
The theme for week 32 was chosen by my good self. When I decided this would be the theme it's because I was sat looking at the case one of my lenses resides in. But having considered this as the subject of my shot I soon decided it was pretty boring, and knew in the back of my mind that it would end up as a studio/product type shot, and to be honest I've spent a lot of time lately on a paid job doing product shots, so I'm pretty sick of the whole white backdrop affair.
So my mind turned to other things I own that are leather, and sorry to disappoint the rest of the strange folk involved in this project but contrary to popular belief this doesn't involve a gimp suit or a ball gag :-P
After thinking for a couple of nights I was getting ready for a shower after work, and I suddenly remembered about an item I had forgotten to consider. My Belt. It's leather and studded with rivets. It's been a part of my wardrobe for many years, once a belt that used to accompany me and my jeans around the night life of Lincoln city, it;'s now been resigned to living on my work jeans. It's had extra holes punched in it (at both ends :-/ ) and is worn to say the least.
I decided to go nice and simple with this one. The backdrop is simply my office floor because I thought the wood grain pattern would go well with the organic feel of the belt. For the lighting I just went with my DIY ring flash, to evenly light it and bring out as much of the detail as I could. The position of the belt was carefully and painstakingly carried out by throwing it on the floor and photographing it where it landed :-)
The other completely insane 'mericans are still plodding along too. Please take a look and feel free to offer them friendly abuse :-) Links below.
So my mind turned to other things I own that are leather, and sorry to disappoint the rest of the strange folk involved in this project but contrary to popular belief this doesn't involve a gimp suit or a ball gag :-P
After thinking for a couple of nights I was getting ready for a shower after work, and I suddenly remembered about an item I had forgotten to consider. My Belt. It's leather and studded with rivets. It's been a part of my wardrobe for many years, once a belt that used to accompany me and my jeans around the night life of Lincoln city, it;'s now been resigned to living on my work jeans. It's had extra holes punched in it (at both ends :-/ ) and is worn to say the least.
I decided to go nice and simple with this one. The backdrop is simply my office floor because I thought the wood grain pattern would go well with the organic feel of the belt. For the lighting I just went with my DIY ring flash, to evenly light it and bring out as much of the detail as I could. The position of the belt was carefully and painstakingly carried out by throwing it on the floor and photographing it where it landed :-)
The other completely insane 'mericans are still plodding along too. Please take a look and feel free to offer them friendly abuse :-) Links below.
Saturday 23 August 2014
Straight Out Of Camera week 31 "Screen"
The theme for this week was "Screen" and popped straight out of the expansive nothing filled void of Eje's mind. Now when I was wandering through the vast, knowledge filled and concept rammed expanses of my own brain to think of a shot for this I immediately thought I would do some sort of "Trapped in the screen" idea. But then having explored this idea further, I couldn't really make it work. And I haven't done a self portrait for ages.
It was then that an image from one of the people who has probably influenced my photography more than anyone else so far. David Hobby aka The Strobist has literally given me all the knowledge I have in off camera lighting. It has transformed my work and opened up a whole new interest in what I can do. His sit e is a must read if you want to learn in an easy, way, at your own pace, with detailed instructions on how to go about it. There's a linked banner on the right hand side of this blog (If you're on a pc or mac)
One of his shots (You'll see it if you Google his name) is of him sat in front of his Mac. It's been ripped off A LOT so I've added one more to the list. Two flashes, one sat on the keyboard and bounced off the screen as a reflector, and the other camera left to put light onto the laptop and the Photographer Fuel. I'm quite pleased with the result, and the beer (which was ESSENTIAL to the shoot) went down nicely too.
The other gentlemen are still plodding on too so have a look.
It was then that an image from one of the people who has probably influenced my photography more than anyone else so far. David Hobby aka The Strobist has literally given me all the knowledge I have in off camera lighting. It has transformed my work and opened up a whole new interest in what I can do. His sit e is a must read if you want to learn in an easy, way, at your own pace, with detailed instructions on how to go about it. There's a linked banner on the right hand side of this blog (If you're on a pc or mac)
One of his shots (You'll see it if you Google his name) is of him sat in front of his Mac. It's been ripped off A LOT so I've added one more to the list. Two flashes, one sat on the keyboard and bounced off the screen as a reflector, and the other camera left to put light onto the laptop and the Photographer Fuel. I'm quite pleased with the result, and the beer (which was ESSENTIAL to the shoot) went down nicely too.
The other gentlemen are still plodding on too so have a look.
Sunday 17 August 2014
Straight Out Of Camera Week 30 "Corrosion"
This weeks theme was set by Bruce and is Corrosion. I like this theme because for me it's all about composition. There are plenty of old rusty bits of metal laying around all over the planet because lets be honest, as a species, we don't give a shit. Life and the contents of it are disposable like never before. Things are discarded rather than repaired and replaced with a new thing that will be discarded in the future and so on and so forth. Anyway, that's enough ranting.
This is one of a set of images I took for this theme, and its my favourite for two reasons. Firstly, I like the composition, and tried hard to go for a point of view that added interest to the image.
Secondly, I went old school with this one. Using my trusty 50mm prime, I used an old Blue filter from my old film gear to get a massive contrast boost on the chain and bring out the texture. I have a big stack of filters from the days of film, so given the success of this one I might have to play with some more later.
This is part of a sluice gate on the river that runs close to where I live. When the river swells because of heavy rain, it is cranked open to release some of the water into the adjacent drainage ditches, then eventually when they are also full it just floods our village.
As always, check out the other numptys and their stuff .
This is one of a set of images I took for this theme, and its my favourite for two reasons. Firstly, I like the composition, and tried hard to go for a point of view that added interest to the image.
Secondly, I went old school with this one. Using my trusty 50mm prime, I used an old Blue filter from my old film gear to get a massive contrast boost on the chain and bring out the texture. I have a big stack of filters from the days of film, so given the success of this one I might have to play with some more later.
This is part of a sluice gate on the river that runs close to where I live. When the river swells because of heavy rain, it is cranked open to release some of the water into the adjacent drainage ditches, then eventually when they are also full it just floods our village.
As always, check out the other numptys and their stuff .
Saturday 16 August 2014
Straight Out Of Camera Week 29 "Dirt"
This weeks theme was picked by Chris "Zombie" Lane and was "Dirt" . As with many of the themes picked by my friends in the colony that we abandoned there is a slight language difference present. Here in the UK the term dirt usually means that something is unclean, dirty, mucky, covered in filth etc. But in the US of A it is their term for soil. So for this shot I used our meaning but showed the subject Chris actually meant.
The image below is of my daughters feet after a "Bare foot" woodland walk at a visitor centre we recently visited on our "Staycation" Both the kids and my wife did it. The kids loved it, Ali.....well, lets just say it clearly wasn't the first thing she would choose to do. I think this fits in well with Chris' theme, and its one of a bunch of family shots I got whilst we were away too. :-)
As always, check out the other numptys and their stuff .
The image below is of my daughters feet after a "Bare foot" woodland walk at a visitor centre we recently visited on our "Staycation" Both the kids and my wife did it. The kids loved it, Ali.....well, lets just say it clearly wasn't the first thing she would choose to do. I think this fits in well with Chris' theme, and its one of a bunch of family shots I got whilst we were away too. :-)
As always, check out the other numptys and their stuff .
Straight Out Of Camera Week 28 "Glass"
Ok, so this is the second half of my big catch up push, It seems every time I get near to catching up, the frequency of stuff getting in the way seems to increase dramatically, pushing me further behind.
The theme for this week was chosen by me and as the title suggests was Glass. I have done a few glass shots in the past that I liked (you can check them out Here if you want) but Didn't want to replicate any of them for this project.
So I turned to the shelf in my daughters bedroom, where she keeps her glass duck that her grandparents bought for her on a trip to Whitby in Yorkshire here in the UK. The duck has a lot of nice colours within it, so I thought that it would make an interesting subject so here is the Image.
Lighting wise I went nice and simple, the background is just a piece of craft foam, with a flash pointing at it to make it pure white and blow out the detail, and the duck itself is sat on top of my DIY softbox and so it's lit from underneath to bring out the colour (color)
The other boys are also still playing catch up too so take a gander (Deliberate water fowl reference)
The theme for this week was chosen by me and as the title suggests was Glass. I have done a few glass shots in the past that I liked (you can check them out Here if you want) but Didn't want to replicate any of them for this project.
So I turned to the shelf in my daughters bedroom, where she keeps her glass duck that her grandparents bought for her on a trip to Whitby in Yorkshire here in the UK. The duck has a lot of nice colours within it, so I thought that it would make an interesting subject so here is the Image.
Lighting wise I went nice and simple, the background is just a piece of craft foam, with a flash pointing at it to make it pure white and blow out the detail, and the duck itself is sat on top of my DIY softbox and so it's lit from underneath to bring out the colour (color)
The other boys are also still playing catch up too so take a gander (Deliberate water fowl reference)
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