137. Knick-Knack - January 24-30, 2015
Don-
As I prepared for the difficult decision on which piece of Knick-Knack to place before the camera I first cleaned my choices. As I rubbed the lamp with the cleaning cloth.........whoa a Genie appeared. I fortunately had a camera setup and got the shot.
But this was not my choice. I did get my three wishes. I am now emailing from my manor on Jupiter with my platinum keyboard.
The picture I chose was a salt and pepper shaker. I just like the picture. Bits of glare I know but the blue with the
orange-ish beaks seemed to work for me. Shot at 1/8th of a second, f/3.0, ISO 100 and using the 105mm Macro lens.
As I prepared for the difficult decision on which piece of Knick-Knack to place before the camera I first cleaned my choices. As I rubbed the lamp with the cleaning cloth.........whoa a Genie appeared. I fortunately had a camera setup and got the shot.
But this was not my choice. I did get my three wishes. I am now emailing from my manor on Jupiter with my platinum keyboard.
The picture I chose was a salt and pepper shaker. I just like the picture. Bits of glare I know but the blue with the
orange-ish beaks seemed to work for me. Shot at 1/8th of a second, f/3.0, ISO 100 and using the 105mm Macro lens.
Byron-
Homer is happy! He's saying "Whoo-Whoooo!" He is so happy because he loves Palm Springs in the Winter. The only thing that doesn't go over so well is when he brings beer and doughnuts to the hot tub. Everyone else leaves when he does that. Oh well, it's better than shoveling snow.
ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/1751/sec, focal length 3mm. Natural light, no reflectors or flash.
Homer is happy! He's saying "Whoo-Whoooo!" He is so happy because he loves Palm Springs in the Winter. The only thing that doesn't go over so well is when he brings beer and doughnuts to the hot tub. Everyone else leaves when he does that. Oh well, it's better than shoveling snow.
ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/1751/sec, focal length 3mm. Natural light, no reflectors or flash.
Deron-
I went with the hula girl on the dashboard of a knick knack.
I went with the hula girl on the dashboard of a knick knack.
Kevin-
One person’s essential object is another person’s knick-knack I suppose. Still I looked around the house and could spot very little that a normal person would call a knick-knack. So I quickly concluded that I would photograph a store that sold knick-knacks. And downtown Palm Springs, California is full of stores selling all manner of knick-knacks, thing-a-ma-jigs, trinkets, do-dads, what-nots, gee-gaws and other generally useless nonsense.
Earlier in the week I scouted a store that seemed promising. GREETINGS sells all manner of cards, gifts, lamps, vases, curios, books, stuffed animals and whatever else your gay or straight tourist heart may desire but I quickly concluded that it would be great to be there in the pre-sunrise light. Waking up early and driving downtown I saw perfect clouds in the sky, beginning to glow pink. Then I turned too early on one of the only one-way streets in Palm Springs, and by the time I was able to correct myself and arrive in the right spot, that magic light was over.
For whatever it’s worth I tried again this morning. But there were none of the clouds from yesterday. So I’m going with the original shot.
Nikon D4s, handheld, 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor with VR, daylight white balance, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second.
One person’s essential object is another person’s knick-knack I suppose. Still I looked around the house and could spot very little that a normal person would call a knick-knack. So I quickly concluded that I would photograph a store that sold knick-knacks. And downtown Palm Springs, California is full of stores selling all manner of knick-knacks, thing-a-ma-jigs, trinkets, do-dads, what-nots, gee-gaws and other generally useless nonsense.
Earlier in the week I scouted a store that seemed promising. GREETINGS sells all manner of cards, gifts, lamps, vases, curios, books, stuffed animals and whatever else your gay or straight tourist heart may desire but I quickly concluded that it would be great to be there in the pre-sunrise light. Waking up early and driving downtown I saw perfect clouds in the sky, beginning to glow pink. Then I turned too early on one of the only one-way streets in Palm Springs, and by the time I was able to correct myself and arrive in the right spot, that magic light was over.
For whatever it’s worth I tried again this morning. But there were none of the clouds from yesterday. So I’m going with the original shot.
Nikon D4s, handheld, 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor with VR, daylight white balance, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second.
Paul-
It’s the Little Things: A Not Brief Enough Treatise and Trifle Too Long Etymological Tour of a Few of This Week’s Thematic Cousins.
Knick-Knack is a delightful word. It speaks both to utility and frivolousness at the same time. And while not onomatopoeitic in any sense (literally) of the word, what other utterance when spoken so effortlessly and immediately conjures up the image something smallish, cheap, unremarkable, ephemeral, and nearly purposefully pointless?
Quite a few, as it turns out.
While I applaud the choice of the theme, my mind (such as it is) started casting about for similar words, or those living in the lexiconic neighborhood. Some of the beauties dwell in (and others almost completely out of) contemporary usage. This is not an exhaustive list, of course. The spoken word—in its myriad tongues, jargonesque expressions, cryptic argot, regional dialects, slang, etc.—are rife with enough knick-knack-like synonyms to blindside even a tenured linguist (such as they are).
But while we’re on the subject, let’s also pay cursory homage to…
1) Gewgaws and Gimcracks (See also: Jimcrack): Something you’d likely hear in lyrics to the “Music Man” and likely collects dust fairly fast.
2) Bibelot: No, not a nation-wide chain where you can be the Christian Testament for a dollar or so.
3) Baratija: A trinket a you might buy at a bazaar in a sleepy little Mexican town.
4) Bric-a-brac: Knick-knack wrestling with obesity issues.
5) Furbelow: A higher class of knick-knack without the aforementioned problems bric-a-brac has.
6) Trifle: A small truffle that you have a special affinity for and keep on your sofa table.
7) Kitsch: Not strictly within the category-at-hand, but a lot of kitsch appear as knick-knacks—and this is simply a word that demands inclusion. Example (and I am not joking here): A small set of figurines I saw in a Christmas catalog portraying Santa Claus kneeling in front of the Christ Child’s straw crib. And it only gets worse from there. This word may pop up as a WPOTM theme at some point. You’ve been warned.
8) Slum (Carney slang): A favorite of mine. It’s a little, no-nothing prize you win in a midway game of skill that costs about two bucks/gross, and you’ve grown way too attached to because of your sizeable investment in acquiring it for your girlfriend.
9) Trumpery: A cheap little trifling of almost no value.
10) Eˊvtin (Middle English, used as an adjective): Something flimsy, inexpensive, and deemed of little worth.
11) Tchotchke (Origins in Yiddish and other Eastern European languages.) See also: tshatshke, tsatske, tsatski, tsiats'ka, czaczko, etc.): My person favorite. I won’t begin to even define this save to say it’s best practicing the appropriate pronunciation and inflection in private before attempting to utter it in certain circles.
And…we’re back.
My submission is a small oil painting on a piece of common porcelain tile. An old street vendor was creating these in front of a small group of turistas when my family was in Mexico in 2003. He had cardboard box full of the tiles, a battered chest of oil paints, and no brushes. Every rendering (mostly seascapes) was done with the tip of a finger, with the finer details rendered with a finger nail. It was the kind of thing you stuck around and watched for quite a way. I sidled up to him, complimented him in severely broken Spanish and bought three difference scenes after I explained what I wanted him to paint. So, this is my knick-knack with some wonderful memories that come with it.
Our story so far: 18-55mm with the lens set at 20mm; aperture priority; pattern metering; ISO 500; 1/50 sec. at f/7.1; -2.5 EV. Camera is tripod-mounted. 2’ X 2’ x 2’ light tent used with a single spot defused and held-held near the front of the box. I had some problems with glare, gradation, and parallax (the bane of my existence this evening), so I shot it over. Some parallax issues are still there (because I gave up my ham-handed attempts to correct for it in Lightroom after it started looking like a Dali painting), but I’m try to cut myself some slack because it appears like the artist never painted the picture exactly perpendicular to the tile edges. Or so I tell myself…
It’s the Little Things: A Not Brief Enough Treatise and Trifle Too Long Etymological Tour of a Few of This Week’s Thematic Cousins.
Knick-Knack is a delightful word. It speaks both to utility and frivolousness at the same time. And while not onomatopoeitic in any sense (literally) of the word, what other utterance when spoken so effortlessly and immediately conjures up the image something smallish, cheap, unremarkable, ephemeral, and nearly purposefully pointless?
Quite a few, as it turns out.
While I applaud the choice of the theme, my mind (such as it is) started casting about for similar words, or those living in the lexiconic neighborhood. Some of the beauties dwell in (and others almost completely out of) contemporary usage. This is not an exhaustive list, of course. The spoken word—in its myriad tongues, jargonesque expressions, cryptic argot, regional dialects, slang, etc.—are rife with enough knick-knack-like synonyms to blindside even a tenured linguist (such as they are).
But while we’re on the subject, let’s also pay cursory homage to…
1) Gewgaws and Gimcracks (See also: Jimcrack): Something you’d likely hear in lyrics to the “Music Man” and likely collects dust fairly fast.
2) Bibelot: No, not a nation-wide chain where you can be the Christian Testament for a dollar or so.
3) Baratija: A trinket a you might buy at a bazaar in a sleepy little Mexican town.
4) Bric-a-brac: Knick-knack wrestling with obesity issues.
5) Furbelow: A higher class of knick-knack without the aforementioned problems bric-a-brac has.
6) Trifle: A small truffle that you have a special affinity for and keep on your sofa table.
7) Kitsch: Not strictly within the category-at-hand, but a lot of kitsch appear as knick-knacks—and this is simply a word that demands inclusion. Example (and I am not joking here): A small set of figurines I saw in a Christmas catalog portraying Santa Claus kneeling in front of the Christ Child’s straw crib. And it only gets worse from there. This word may pop up as a WPOTM theme at some point. You’ve been warned.
8) Slum (Carney slang): A favorite of mine. It’s a little, no-nothing prize you win in a midway game of skill that costs about two bucks/gross, and you’ve grown way too attached to because of your sizeable investment in acquiring it for your girlfriend.
9) Trumpery: A cheap little trifling of almost no value.
10) Eˊvtin (Middle English, used as an adjective): Something flimsy, inexpensive, and deemed of little worth.
11) Tchotchke (Origins in Yiddish and other Eastern European languages.) See also: tshatshke, tsatske, tsatski, tsiats'ka, czaczko, etc.): My person favorite. I won’t begin to even define this save to say it’s best practicing the appropriate pronunciation and inflection in private before attempting to utter it in certain circles.
And…we’re back.
My submission is a small oil painting on a piece of common porcelain tile. An old street vendor was creating these in front of a small group of turistas when my family was in Mexico in 2003. He had cardboard box full of the tiles, a battered chest of oil paints, and no brushes. Every rendering (mostly seascapes) was done with the tip of a finger, with the finer details rendered with a finger nail. It was the kind of thing you stuck around and watched for quite a way. I sidled up to him, complimented him in severely broken Spanish and bought three difference scenes after I explained what I wanted him to paint. So, this is my knick-knack with some wonderful memories that come with it.
Our story so far: 18-55mm with the lens set at 20mm; aperture priority; pattern metering; ISO 500; 1/50 sec. at f/7.1; -2.5 EV. Camera is tripod-mounted. 2’ X 2’ x 2’ light tent used with a single spot defused and held-held near the front of the box. I had some problems with glare, gradation, and parallax (the bane of my existence this evening), so I shot it over. Some parallax issues are still there (because I gave up my ham-handed attempts to correct for it in Lightroom after it started looking like a Dali painting), but I’m try to cut myself some slack because it appears like the artist never painted the picture exactly perpendicular to the tile edges. Or so I tell myself…
Jerry-
My house is filled with knick knacks and it was hard to decide which ones to photograph, finally I chose the rubber skins of some wind-up toys that failed in the line of service. While searching for a suitable background, I noticed one of my wife's scarves that looked about as crazy as the knick knacks. Perfect! So I gathered the skins on the scarf and put the D750 to work. Used the 105 Micro lens, aperture priority f32 @ 1/10 second, ISO 3200, camera on a tripod. Lighting was from a new toy, a 6 x 12 inch LED light panel. I'll have to take a photo of it sometime for you guys. It's certainly not as hot and nasty as my 500 watt quartz light which makes it easy to work with - but it's not that bright. That's why I went with ISO 3200.
My house is filled with knick knacks and it was hard to decide which ones to photograph, finally I chose the rubber skins of some wind-up toys that failed in the line of service. While searching for a suitable background, I noticed one of my wife's scarves that looked about as crazy as the knick knacks. Perfect! So I gathered the skins on the scarf and put the D750 to work. Used the 105 Micro lens, aperture priority f32 @ 1/10 second, ISO 3200, camera on a tripod. Lighting was from a new toy, a 6 x 12 inch LED light panel. I'll have to take a photo of it sometime for you guys. It's certainly not as hot and nasty as my 500 watt quartz light which makes it easy to work with - but it's not that bright. That's why I went with ISO 3200.