Project 365 - Day 31 - Picture in picture (in picture, in picture, etc)

Do you ever feel like your work will never end?  I have had that feeling from time to time.  Today's pic is inspired by that feeling - although I can't say that I ever feel this way about photography.  I tend to lose hours taking photos and then massaging them later.  I have been getting better at getting the shot right in the camera and then the post processing work is not that bad.

But today's photo is also about perspective, and vanishing lines, and a whole bunch of other elements of design - wouldn't my photography instructors be proud of me! 

Here's the shot:

This took a really long time to set up, I had to get the horizontal lines right or the effect would get worse all the way through to the first pic way down in the middle.  But once I got it set up, and did a custom white balance, it wasn't that hard.

Process:
1) Take photo of your desktop computer (this won't work with a MAC ... kidding)
2) Import photo to lightroom
3) View photo in lightroom
4) Take photo of your desktop computer
5) Repeat from step 2.

Interesting enough, without blowing up the picture, 5 layers is about all you can do using my setup here.  If I had less space around the outside of the first pic I could have done more.  That would probably mean more images and a more pronounced effect.  But effect achieved nonetheless.

As an aside, I have made it through the first 31 days of this assignment.  A landmark for sure but my work is not even close to being finished.  There will be challenges (let's be honest, there have already been challenges) to my creativity.  It will be a fun journey, and I hope I am not sick of it by the end.

Project 365 - Day 30 - A tourist in your own town

Every once in a while it's good to look at your city or town through the eyes of someone who is visiting.  How many times do we drive through our neighbourhoods and ignore the beauty that first attracted us to the area.  Today, I decided that it would be a good day to do some sightseeing. 

I went downtown to the Trafalgar / Lakeshore area where there is usually a lot of activity and lots of stuff to shoot.  It was very dark out by the time I went, but the Christmas lights are still on the trees (they are white twinkle lights - very nice).   Downtown Oakville is awesome with the mix of old and new, and it is very clean as well.

I happened upon Knox Presbyterian church, the old home base for the Oakville Camera club of which I am a member.  We outgrew the location and had to move last year.  It is a beautiful church.  So out came the tripod and the 24-70 lens, and a shooting did I go.

As an aside, it's interesting to see people actually stop on the sidewalk to allow you to shoot.  I even had a car stop in the middle of the road so they didn't block my shot, even though I was shooting above the sidewalk and road.  It was very nice of them, and I thanked them.

Here's the shot. 

I had to adjust the perspective on this as I was shooting up from the tripod and I don't have a tilt/shift lens.  That adjustment was made in Photoshop.  4 second shutter at f22, and the lens was at 24mm to capture the whole church - I actually had to back into a store entrance to get it all in, as I knew I was going to lose some with the perspective adjustment.

My advice?  Get out and shoot areas you see every day.  Shoot what you think you know, and you will find new and interesting things that you may not have seen before.  Once the weather improves, I will be out a lot.

Project 365 - Day 29 - Looking at things differently

So I had a bit of a block today, wondering what to shoot.  Those who live in the GTA can relate to the general feeling that today's weather created.  So off I went to the pantry to find something colourful to shoot to lift my general spirits.

And what's better at lifting spirits than Skittles? 

So I started shooting.  I tried different lighting and different angles, but nothing really was working out.  I was somewhat satisfied with one of the shots, and seeing that I am short of time and inspiration today off I went to the computer to see what I could do with it.

After trying to bump the saturation and bring the colours to where I wanted them, I still was not satisfied.  I decided to embrace my grumpy side.  I clicked the "B&W" button.  Voila.  Now there was something I could work with.

I adjusted contrast a tad, and brought the reds and greens to different gray levels (if you convert a picture that is red and green to black and white, the reds and greens look like the same colour).  I played around with the magenta, yellow and orange.  Now this is a different shot.

When you look at skittles in black and white, they don't look all that appetizing.  I, however, would still eat them ... :-)

Here's the shot.  Heavy post on this one today.

Project 365 - Day 28 - Beautiful instruments

For our 10th anniversary ... many moons ago, Sonia bought me a guitar.  I love this guitar, but I cannot play it for the life of me - it's something about the size of my hands and the total lack of co ordination (hence the frequent tri pod use).  I did take lessons for about a year, but I only progressed so much.

I can play a couple of intros to songs, but once it gets complicated my fingers decide to do strange things and I can't get my brain to control them.

Still, every now and then I pick it up and strum along to the songs in my head.  One of my favourite songs to play is Nothing Else Matters by Metallica.  I can get a few bars into the intro, and it sounds awesome, but once it picks up I am lost.

Maybe I should just write my own song ... one note all the way through.  Yeah, that will work.

The guitar is beautiful.  It was made in Canada and has some gorgeous inlay work in the head and neck.  So, today I decided to use it in a different way - as a model.

I started shooting the strings to create a vanishing point shooting up the neck.  Yeah, this was okay, but it lacked punch.  So then I focussed on the body, trying to capture the curves.  That didn't turn out nearly as well as I had hoped.  So then I started shooting the head, specifically the tuning pegs.  Bingo.

Here's the shot.

Off camera flash, 60mm macro at 1/20s shutter.  ISO 400, f13.

Project 365 - Day 27 - Custom bokeh

I was reading a recent edition of one of the magazines I subscribe to.  There was an article on custom bokeh in the magazine.  For those who do not know, bokeh is the artistic quality of the blur in the out of focus areas of a picture.  This is something that most photographers strive for, it brings the eye of the viewer back to the subject in a photograph.  Sometimes, the blur can be overdone, and there are ways to add this blur in photoshop.  There's a good explanation on wikipedia that can be found here. 

The article was about how to make a template that covers the front of the lens that allows you to create customized blur.  What the article does not mention is that it works best if you have highlights in your picture that can show off this custom shape.

So today, I took one of my old 52mm filters and put a paper start cutout over it using black construction paper.  I then attached this to my 50mm f1.4 lens and looked for something to shoot.  This would have been a perfect project when the Christmas tree was up as I could have blurred out the tree itself with the lights on and had them all come through as my star.  But alas, this year we actually took the tree down on time.  So I had to improvise.

Sonia has a cake stand that has electronic candles on it that go in votive holders.  So I used the electronic candles, and placed them under brandy glasses from our crystal.  I then started experimenting with different techniques, but ended up here with this picture.

f1.4 to take advantage of the largest aperture of the lens.  2 second shutter to allow the light from the candles to play on the wall.  I then used my flashlight to paint the figurine in the foreground.

You can see the shape of the cutout on the base of the brandy glasses (remember, they are inverted) and also playing on the wall behind.  I put a piece of foamcore behind the glasses, but this took away from the effect.  Also, I was not able to see the total effect until I had the image on my big monitor on my computer.

Here's the shot:

 

And, as per usual, here are some setup shots.  Not much in the way of actual setup, but you can see the cutout over the lens and the candle/brandy glass I was talking about.

 

Project 365 - Day 26 - Playtime in the snow

Brodie loves the snow.  He loves to run around and plow through the snow with his nose.  The truth is he is looking for something to eat under the snow - he is a dog after all - but it's very cute.

This shot is in our backyard, and it's basically straight out of the camera.  24-70 mm lens.  I adjusted the contrast so he would stand out from the background more.  

When I was in Banff last year for a week shooting with a group from The Mentor Series, one of the instructors showed us how to shoot snow.  If you set your meter to +2 stops, the snow will show up perfectly.  I have been using this technique successfully since then, and my snow is never blown out.

Here's the shot.

 

Here's a bonus shot from today.  I thought about saving this picture for tomorrow's post, but it wouldn't be right and I would only really be cheating myself.  Here's my gnome from the backyard, shot on the same day.  His expression is perfect for snowy days.  I shot this guy earlier this year and posted it on facebook as well.  

 

Project 365 - Day 25 - Blue Ice

This week has been very cold in Toronto.  There were a couple of days that the temp dropped below -14 deg Celsius and that is before the wind chill.  Of course those are the days that I ended up going out to shoot.  :-)

I have been working some long hours at work this week, and as such the time for shooting, editing and posting is dwindling.  I realize that this post is late, but the shot itself was made well before the deadline of midnight eastern.

Today's shot is of some blue ice that is hanging off one of the satellite dishes at work.  This ice is not really blue, but it's also not a photoshop trick.  This is the result of firing a speedlight with a blue gel at the icicle.  I am actually shooting through the icicle, and the speedlight is aimed at the camera.  I shortened the shutter speed to get rid of the background - well most of it - as it is uninteresting and muddled.  Who want's to look at the back of a bunch of antennas?  Well, who else besides myself anyway?  :-)

Here's the shot. 

 

See how the blue light catches some of the snowflakes that are falling?  I wanted to bring out the texture of the ice, where the cascading water has come down the icicle.  The water is actually melted snow and ice from the antenna.  In the winter, we melt the snow out of the antenna as it interferes with the signal going to the satellite.  This is the result of a week of cold temps and a couple of snowfalls.  I have seen times when the bottom lip of the antenna looks like it is attached to the ground by an icicle.

Post on this one was white balance adjust to bring the snow closer to white..  There is a security light behind me here, and it's a yellow tinted light, so it cast yellow everywhere.  That was one of the reasons why I chose the blue gel.