Day 124 – Back to Basics – Ball, Cube, and Cylinder – Updated

Maybe I’m feeling a little sad that the lighting class is just about over. I was in the first group so my final project was critiqued at tonight’s class. Next Tuesday we will critique the second half of the class and then say our good-byes. I’m not eligible to take the advanced lighting class as I have not taken the color class which at this point is an impossibility since it is only offered during the day (9 – 11:45 am), and there is no way I can leave work for 4 hours a day twice a week to take the class. Not that my learning will stop. I’ll just have to look elsewhere.

Anyway, our first assignment was to shoot a ball, cube, and cylinder using a single light source. This assignment was to get us to “see” the light: its intensity, the quality of it, how it falls on objects of different shapes, planes, angles, etc.

At the time I wrote:

It seems simple enough: shoot a white cube, sphere and cylinder against a white background using a single light source. Simple, yes. Easy? No! Here’s the catch: Nothing can bleed into anything else. All planes must be distinct, including the backdrop and the table top. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, photographically speaking.

My results at the time were less than stellar, even after hours upon hours over several days of trying to get it right:

Jeff challenged us at the time that if we wanted to, we should re-shoot this assignment, once the class was over, using what we’d learned in the class. I gave it a shot tonight. It didn’t take me long to get close to what I was looking for. Not perfect, but not bad for just a few minutes of trying. I may give this a longer whirl this weekend.

I guess I might have learned something.

08-May-2012: After looking at this last photo again, I’m still not satisfied. Top of the cube and cylinder are too close to the shade of the background. Will. Keep. Trying.

Day 123 – It started with pancakes

We had a pancake breakfast today at work to kick off our social responsibility program and to raise funds for the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation. We raised a nice chunk of change, had a good time, and the pancakes were terrific.

Day 122 – Crazy Day

It didn’t start out that way. In fact, I was actually able to get away at lunch which allowed me to take this lovely photo.

Peaceful and lovely.

BUT.

Then I found out that a corporate visitor would be arriving late in the afternoon rather than tomorrow morning AND wanted me to schedule meetings for him.

Say what?

I’m the executive assistant so I needed to be there, but I was also supposed to leave for class at the same time Big Guy was scheduled to show up. Something had to give.

Quick email to Jeff letting him know that I would not be able to make class which bummed me out because I was hoping to get some feedback on my prints. Gracious man that he is, Jeff offered to take a look at my prints tomorrow. So at 9am I’ll slip away to his studio which is literally right around the corner from where I work (after arriving at work early to make sure Big Guy is all settled in).

I left work around 5:15 and took a different route home trying to miss all the spring/summer road construction.

I missed the construction, but not the head-on collision traffic jam on the alternate route.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I arrived home after 7pm.

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.