160. Two - July 3-9, 2016
Jerry-
As I wandered the earth, hoping "two" or "2" would speak to me, I took a few photos of things like tomatoes, reading glasses, flowers, and a walk sign, with none of these really exciting me. So while working at the thrift shop on Friday, I mentioned to a couple of the volunteers my quest - and they provided a photo opportunity for me. So the photo of the two volunteers is my official entry.
Again this was with the Sony A6300 with 16-50 set to 26mm, f11 @ 1/60 with ISO 6400. I like compact and light weight!
As I wandered the earth, hoping "two" or "2" would speak to me, I took a few photos of things like tomatoes, reading glasses, flowers, and a walk sign, with none of these really exciting me. So while working at the thrift shop on Friday, I mentioned to a couple of the volunteers my quest - and they provided a photo opportunity for me. So the photo of the two volunteers is my official entry.
Again this was with the Sony A6300 with 16-50 set to 26mm, f11 @ 1/60 with ISO 6400. I like compact and light weight!
Don-
The dog
This is my favorite of the many two photos. I believe
that you see the obvious. I was loading him into my
jeep and thinking of making another drive to take some
pictures when I looked him in the eyes and saw "two."
Focal length was 70mm from a 24 to 70 mm lens.
Exposure was 1/160th of a sec; f/8; ISO 3200; and shot
in Aperture Priority with pattern metering.
The dog
This is my favorite of the many two photos. I believe
that you see the obvious. I was loading him into my
jeep and thinking of making another drive to take some
pictures when I looked him in the eyes and saw "two."
Focal length was 70mm from a 24 to 70 mm lens.
Exposure was 1/160th of a sec; f/8; ISO 3200; and shot
in Aperture Priority with pattern metering.
Byron-
One of my favorite possessions is my pinball machine. It is a 2 player model. I looked at the back glass to see how it referenced "2". It is designed to look good when the machine is on. I used a mini tripod sitting on the glass above the paying field. Because I couldn't look through the viewfinder I used Live View to compose and focus. I then used the wireless remote to trigger the shutter.
ISO 800, 1/8 sec, f8. Obviously I liked the number 8.
One of my favorite possessions is my pinball machine. It is a 2 player model. I looked at the back glass to see how it referenced "2". It is designed to look good when the machine is on. I used a mini tripod sitting on the glass above the paying field. Because I couldn't look through the viewfinder I used Live View to compose and focus. I then used the wireless remote to trigger the shutter.
ISO 800, 1/8 sec, f8. Obviously I liked the number 8.
Kevin-
I sort of acidentally let Byron on to some of the objects I was thinking of photographing for Two the other day, hopefully he didn’t copy me! The ideas came after the notion of photographing my niece and nephew fell through because of the storms that hit the Twin Cities and the twenty hour power outage that resulted.
Anyway, on to Two!
Carrying some objects like playing cards, dice and dominoes to the studio, I spent a lot of time trying to light the dice in a satisfactory way. They are red and sort of translucent. Looking to see a glow of light inside, plus reflections or shadows of some of the dots on the dice, I used one Nikon flash above, another below with a blue gel on it, and one more from slightly behind, also with a blue gel. But I wasn’t that happy with the result.
So I switched to the studio strobes to light a couple of dominoes I had brought along. This time I placed them on glass, to create a nice reflection. And hopefully they communicate Two in a number of ways.
One flash, with a small softbox attached provided the key light. Another, which was gridded and snooted with a blue gel provided the accent.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 100, f/40 @ 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
I sort of acidentally let Byron on to some of the objects I was thinking of photographing for Two the other day, hopefully he didn’t copy me! The ideas came after the notion of photographing my niece and nephew fell through because of the storms that hit the Twin Cities and the twenty hour power outage that resulted.
Anyway, on to Two!
Carrying some objects like playing cards, dice and dominoes to the studio, I spent a lot of time trying to light the dice in a satisfactory way. They are red and sort of translucent. Looking to see a glow of light inside, plus reflections or shadows of some of the dots on the dice, I used one Nikon flash above, another below with a blue gel on it, and one more from slightly behind, also with a blue gel. But I wasn’t that happy with the result.
So I switched to the studio strobes to light a couple of dominoes I had brought along. This time I placed them on glass, to create a nice reflection. And hopefully they communicate Two in a number of ways.
One flash, with a small softbox attached provided the key light. Another, which was gridded and snooted with a blue gel provided the accent.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 100, f/40 @ 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Paul-
The story behind the making of this week’s photograph has almost an iron-clad certainty of being more interesting and engaging than the end result. I’d like to hope this happens to all of us from time to time. (I’ll save the actual story for another time, save to say that I was able to walk into a local bank and have no fewer than three Tellers and one Secretary help me create the shot.)
I am captivated by bison. ‘Always have been. So much so that this is my third WPOTM submission that has featured them. They are noble, majestic, and historically important creatures that (ironically and tragically), helped influence the westward expansion by nearly being slaughtered to the last hapless herds. Forget the bald eagle—I’m siding with these hirsute behemoths. Thank goodness they survived another Great Plains denizen’s greed and stupidity.
I would like to go back and shoot this again with more attention to lighting and detail, but I worked with the time I had. These two bison appear on the North Dakota Commemorative Quarter which was released in 2006. I placed one coin on the bottom of a large, white, translucent bowl and lit it by placing one light parallel to near side of the bowel and was mostly occluded by it. I also used two extension tubes on my lens. (See below.)
It takes two to tango: 18-55mm lens set at 48mm (with a 12mm and 20mm extension tubes added); aperture priority; -0.67 EV; center-weighted averaging; ISO 1250; 1/13 sec. at f/5.6. The camera was attached to a copystand. Post-processing done in Adobe Lightroom as well as my favorite freeware photo-editor: PhotoScape.
The story behind the making of this week’s photograph has almost an iron-clad certainty of being more interesting and engaging than the end result. I’d like to hope this happens to all of us from time to time. (I’ll save the actual story for another time, save to say that I was able to walk into a local bank and have no fewer than three Tellers and one Secretary help me create the shot.)
I am captivated by bison. ‘Always have been. So much so that this is my third WPOTM submission that has featured them. They are noble, majestic, and historically important creatures that (ironically and tragically), helped influence the westward expansion by nearly being slaughtered to the last hapless herds. Forget the bald eagle—I’m siding with these hirsute behemoths. Thank goodness they survived another Great Plains denizen’s greed and stupidity.
I would like to go back and shoot this again with more attention to lighting and detail, but I worked with the time I had. These two bison appear on the North Dakota Commemorative Quarter which was released in 2006. I placed one coin on the bottom of a large, white, translucent bowl and lit it by placing one light parallel to near side of the bowel and was mostly occluded by it. I also used two extension tubes on my lens. (See below.)
It takes two to tango: 18-55mm lens set at 48mm (with a 12mm and 20mm extension tubes added); aperture priority; -0.67 EV; center-weighted averaging; ISO 1250; 1/13 sec. at f/5.6. The camera was attached to a copystand. Post-processing done in Adobe Lightroom as well as my favorite freeware photo-editor: PhotoScape.