Day 121 – Sunlit tree and another illusion

Taken this evening as the sun was setting. The dancing light on the branches really caught my eye. Black and white seemed the best treatment of this photo.

I shot the photo below through our glass front door looking southeast. I used a very large aperture and focused on the far horizon. Those dark lines are not shadows. They are the bars of our stair railing. And yet . . . look closely. You can see right through them. The effect is even more noticeable if you click on the photo to see the larger image. If there is someone who can explain this illusion to me, I’d really appreciate it. Does it have to do with bending light?

Day 120 – Wine glass illusions

I’d set these two wine glasses on the counter after taking them out of the dishwasher and kind of forgot about them. I worked on printing most of the day so hadn’t given much thought to my photo of the day. I’d been snapping some photos of the kitties (more shallow depth of field stuff) and happened do walk by the two glasses on the counter. I snapped a quick photo (I love shiny glass) and then noticed something interesting. I could see the second glass through the first one. Well, one thing led to another . . .

There are all kinds of optical illusions happening in the various planes of glass.

More f/2.2 – In color this time

I mentioned yesterday that I would post more photos from my f/2.2 experiment on Friday. Here they are. The only adjustments I made were to correct the white balance as there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between my camera and Adobe Bridge, and I bumped the exposure on a couple of them to brighten the photos a bit. Lighting for all: Diffused daylight through my office window and white fluorescent lights above (set to low). No reflectors. (I’m still trying to talk Sweetie into letting me shoot him today. In the meantime, he’s off flying his radio-controlled plane with his pals.)

Day 119 – Spring!

Spring is busting out all over in my backyard. I shot these this morning while the sun was still relatively low in the sky.

Some apple blossoms . . .

I’m loving the rim from the sunlight in this one.

The lilacs have gone nuts.

I plan on posting more of my f/2.2 photos a bit later today, but first I have PRINTING to do!

Day 118 2.0 – Goslings! Ducks!

I drive by this pond every day on my way to and from work and have seen the babies for a couple of weeks, but haven’t been able to get out and get some proper photos. I made the effort today.

And then there was this lovely lady. I love how ducks appear to smile.

Day 118 – Starting to get the hang of it

If you can stand another self-portrait. I’m fascinated with shallow depth of field portraiture, so I was experimenting today – on myself again since I had no one else at hand. I’ll have to try this on Sweetie this weekend, if he’ll let me. I think I could get better results if I didn’t have to rely on auto-focus to get the shot.

I shot this in my office. Lighting: diffused daylight to camera right and I held a large white box cover camera left to fill in the shadows on my right side (your left). Shot at ISO 100, 1/60s at f/2.2. The extremely shallow DOF puts my eyes in focus but makes the rest of my face and hair quickly fall off into blur, and even my nose is slightly out of focus. I really like this effect when I see it, and from what I’ve read, can be an effective technique when shooting the “mature” face.

Day 117 – My Reality

My current reality is stress. My final project is weighing heavily on me. Time is short and I have to have all my prints done by next Thursday when final critiques begin. In the meantime, I’m sorting and making decisions about what I want to go into the collection. I worry that I’ve not met the demands of the class, but also proud of what I’ve done. I want to tell the story more than worrying about lighting, but it is a lighting class and my grade will reflect how I was able to incorporate what I learned into my final project. Given the subject matter, the location shoot, the sensitive nature of it all, that wasn’t easy. So we’ll see. At this point I just want it to be over. It feels a bit like being nine months pregnant. I’ve enjoyed the experience, but I’m tired.

And then there is work. We’ve got important clients in today, with high level execs from their company and ours, and as the site’s executive assistant it falls to me to take care of the logistics (in addition to all my other duties – the plate is never empty). That will be over at 2pm. Then I leave at 3 for class. The schedule says “lab time” for printing, but I’ve seen these things go awry before. And the fact of the matter is there are more students than there are printers and trying to jockey for space is a pain in the ass. I personally prefer to come in on my own time to print. My goal tonight is to get a test strip done. That’s it. If I get more: gravy.

I hardly have time to think of anything else. I am neglecting my family right now. Ugh. Again, it will be over in a week and I can heave a sigh of relief.

Anyway, today’s Dilbert desk calendar page seemed especially fitting. Taken with my 50mm (1/60s at f/1.8).