162. Cloud - July 17-23, 2016
Byron-
The cloud theme was meant to allow for lots of creativity. I decided to photograph cloudy water. I started with a glass vase which is simply a 4" glass tube with a glass bottom. I filled it with water and added food coloring. My friend Larry was there to assist because I would have needed 4 arms to accomplish this photo. I lit it with a flash unit on each side of the tube. The shutter speed was 100/sec the aperture was f10. Larry dropped 2 colors and I dropped 1 color into the vase. I used my remote with the other hand to photograph the progress of the color. The benefit of doing this project is that I ended up with about 10 photos that are very interesting. Larry and I will continue with this technique. He is an artist, it was nice to have his input on color combinations. He is as surprised and exited by this results of this project as I am.
This image looks best when viewed BIG. Seeing on a phone won't do it justice.
The cloud theme was meant to allow for lots of creativity. I decided to photograph cloudy water. I started with a glass vase which is simply a 4" glass tube with a glass bottom. I filled it with water and added food coloring. My friend Larry was there to assist because I would have needed 4 arms to accomplish this photo. I lit it with a flash unit on each side of the tube. The shutter speed was 100/sec the aperture was f10. Larry dropped 2 colors and I dropped 1 color into the vase. I used my remote with the other hand to photograph the progress of the color. The benefit of doing this project is that I ended up with about 10 photos that are very interesting. Larry and I will continue with this technique. He is an artist, it was nice to have his input on color combinations. He is as surprised and exited by this results of this project as I am.
This image looks best when viewed BIG. Seeing on a phone won't do it justice.
Kevin-
When Byron designated cloud as the theme of course I want to photograph storm clouds rolling across a prairie, building up to threatening heights, with lightning flashing. But for a supposed prairie state (at least in some portions) there certainly aren't the types of wide open spaces here that you see in the Western Dakotas or in Canada between Winnipeg and Calgary. Plus I was buried in projects later in the week, needed to shoot early, and the thunderstorms which had been predicted hadn’t yet happened.
Besides, I am certain that Paul is committed to capturing a funnel cloud/tornado, and if he succeeds in doing that, and if he lives through it, a thunderstorm cloud will really pale in comparison.
So I went in a different direction, given that one of the definitions of Cloud is "a vague patch of color in or on a liquid or transparent surface.” Perfect, well except for the fact that these colors are NOT vague.
The setup couldn’t have been easier. I took a very small vase to the studio. It had thick flat panes of glass on the front and back about two inches apart. I filled that vase with clean, distilled water. Then I put a few drops of food coloring (blue, red, green, and yellow) at the top of that water and captured exposures as the colors swirled and tangled. I did this 6-8 times with fresh water and new food coloring drops each time.
My first attempts were with a black background. I had three lights set up. Two were behind the vase, at 45 degree angles on one more was directly about the water. Unfortunately the colors didn’t show up at all, but every imperfection in the vase did! So I switched to a white background and bounced one more light off of it.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 100, f/32 at 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
When Byron designated cloud as the theme of course I want to photograph storm clouds rolling across a prairie, building up to threatening heights, with lightning flashing. But for a supposed prairie state (at least in some portions) there certainly aren't the types of wide open spaces here that you see in the Western Dakotas or in Canada between Winnipeg and Calgary. Plus I was buried in projects later in the week, needed to shoot early, and the thunderstorms which had been predicted hadn’t yet happened.
Besides, I am certain that Paul is committed to capturing a funnel cloud/tornado, and if he succeeds in doing that, and if he lives through it, a thunderstorm cloud will really pale in comparison.
So I went in a different direction, given that one of the definitions of Cloud is "a vague patch of color in or on a liquid or transparent surface.” Perfect, well except for the fact that these colors are NOT vague.
The setup couldn’t have been easier. I took a very small vase to the studio. It had thick flat panes of glass on the front and back about two inches apart. I filled that vase with clean, distilled water. Then I put a few drops of food coloring (blue, red, green, and yellow) at the top of that water and captured exposures as the colors swirled and tangled. I did this 6-8 times with fresh water and new food coloring drops each time.
My first attempts were with a black background. I had three lights set up. Two were behind the vase, at 45 degree angles on one more was directly about the water. Unfortunately the colors didn’t show up at all, but every imperfection in the vase did! So I switched to a white background and bounced one more light off of it.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 100, f/32 at 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Paul-
I really enjoy taking B&W infrared photographs. In fact, I submitted one of clouds for the WPOTM theme “Cloudscape” (year 2/no. 56). I was extremely pleased with the result, but wanted to try it again this week to see if I could improve on my skills and catch something compellingly different.
Unfortunately, this is late July in Nebraska. The heat index this week was/is/will be over 105°. And no clouds. Not a one. They’re elsewhere.
Like Finland.
So I went with a temperature controlled approach in my nano-studio™.* (It sure beats sweat dripping on your non-weather-sealed camera and lens.)
I decided to capture the wonderful cloud-like effects caused by plopping beads of different colored inks (I also tried dyed milk and tempera paint) into warmish water. It’s kind lot of fun and stains your hands so you get to look like a mad scientist. (Or a sloppy one.) It also requires, after every unsatisfactory attempt, having to thoroughly clean out your glass—in my case a large cylindrical vase—and spritz it with some kind of cleaner to banish finger prints and smears for the next go-around. This process stopped being exciting after a while—despite the endless thrill of spilling liquids near a couple of electrical sources.
Incidentally, I was serious about mixing colored ink and milk together. You can retain a fair amount of the color’s intensity while increasing a cloud-like effect. However, it’s easy to get too much of one and too little of the other. And so, more subsequent clean-up and Windex.
Eventually, I tried a combination of (in order of steps): 1) A few drops of yellow Dr. Martin’s yellow ink, and after it was uniformly dispersed; 2) a few drops of scarlet tempera, which was followed by; 3) a few drops of rich blue Dr. Martin’s ink. Clearly, I had no idea what I was doing—though I knew the tempera could be interesting because it was thicker and slower to dissolve, and the blue would provide contrast and (perhaps) dissolve more slowly because of the tempera.
The result was wonderful—not so much for a cloud effect but for what my imagination I saw, as well as the artistic technique it felt the image reminded me off. To me, this looks like some diving, ocean-dwelling dragon that spits fire. (Maybe you see it. Maybe you don’t. Everyone’s different. In Rorschach tests everything looks like mating armadillos to me.) I did do post processing on clarity, contrast and what kind of photographic film I would have liked this final picture to reflect had that been an option. (PhotoScape allows you to do that. I selected “Provia.”) I’d like to say the luridness of the colors are pretty much right from the camera, but no. I tweaked the blacks, yellows, oranges, vibrance…and possibly a few lines of the software code itself. The cylindrical shape of the vase makes for an interesting (though hard to pin down) addition to the end result.
As for the artistic expression/technique this reminds me of: Suiboku-ga. It’s a Japanese word
(some use the word Sumi-e) that describes the East Asian use of brush and black ink for calligraphy. Still, I saw numerous examples on the web of Suiboku-ga in which color was used for painting landscapes and animals. So I forged a little artist license here.
There you have it…a cloudy, fire-breathing, water dragon. Hey, you interpret what you interpret, right? Either way, it beats armadillos.
Getting cirrus about the details: 18-55mm lens at 55mm; aperture priority; center-weighted metering; ISO 320; 1/30 sec. at f/18. The vase was placed on a light box, with another light directly above it and pointed slightly to the back to further illuminate a folded, three-sided piece of white card stock that flanked three sides. I did try some shots with the camera set on BULB but didn’t like the results. Or was impatient. Or both. Let’s go with both.
Oh, and I threw in a couple of other shots to look at.
* Nano-studio is licensed trademarks of Hoffman & No Sons, LLC (hereafter referred to as “The Company”). Use of this phrase or any grammatical variant thereof by any individuals, pets, groups, businesses, commercial consortiums, or ethereal entities without the written permission of The Company is expressly prohibited (at least in my basement) by law.
I really enjoy taking B&W infrared photographs. In fact, I submitted one of clouds for the WPOTM theme “Cloudscape” (year 2/no. 56). I was extremely pleased with the result, but wanted to try it again this week to see if I could improve on my skills and catch something compellingly different.
Unfortunately, this is late July in Nebraska. The heat index this week was/is/will be over 105°. And no clouds. Not a one. They’re elsewhere.
Like Finland.
So I went with a temperature controlled approach in my nano-studio™.* (It sure beats sweat dripping on your non-weather-sealed camera and lens.)
I decided to capture the wonderful cloud-like effects caused by plopping beads of different colored inks (I also tried dyed milk and tempera paint) into warmish water. It’s kind lot of fun and stains your hands so you get to look like a mad scientist. (Or a sloppy one.) It also requires, after every unsatisfactory attempt, having to thoroughly clean out your glass—in my case a large cylindrical vase—and spritz it with some kind of cleaner to banish finger prints and smears for the next go-around. This process stopped being exciting after a while—despite the endless thrill of spilling liquids near a couple of electrical sources.
Incidentally, I was serious about mixing colored ink and milk together. You can retain a fair amount of the color’s intensity while increasing a cloud-like effect. However, it’s easy to get too much of one and too little of the other. And so, more subsequent clean-up and Windex.
Eventually, I tried a combination of (in order of steps): 1) A few drops of yellow Dr. Martin’s yellow ink, and after it was uniformly dispersed; 2) a few drops of scarlet tempera, which was followed by; 3) a few drops of rich blue Dr. Martin’s ink. Clearly, I had no idea what I was doing—though I knew the tempera could be interesting because it was thicker and slower to dissolve, and the blue would provide contrast and (perhaps) dissolve more slowly because of the tempera.
The result was wonderful—not so much for a cloud effect but for what my imagination I saw, as well as the artistic technique it felt the image reminded me off. To me, this looks like some diving, ocean-dwelling dragon that spits fire. (Maybe you see it. Maybe you don’t. Everyone’s different. In Rorschach tests everything looks like mating armadillos to me.) I did do post processing on clarity, contrast and what kind of photographic film I would have liked this final picture to reflect had that been an option. (PhotoScape allows you to do that. I selected “Provia.”) I’d like to say the luridness of the colors are pretty much right from the camera, but no. I tweaked the blacks, yellows, oranges, vibrance…and possibly a few lines of the software code itself. The cylindrical shape of the vase makes for an interesting (though hard to pin down) addition to the end result.
As for the artistic expression/technique this reminds me of: Suiboku-ga. It’s a Japanese word
(some use the word Sumi-e) that describes the East Asian use of brush and black ink for calligraphy. Still, I saw numerous examples on the web of Suiboku-ga in which color was used for painting landscapes and animals. So I forged a little artist license here.
There you have it…a cloudy, fire-breathing, water dragon. Hey, you interpret what you interpret, right? Either way, it beats armadillos.
Getting cirrus about the details: 18-55mm lens at 55mm; aperture priority; center-weighted metering; ISO 320; 1/30 sec. at f/18. The vase was placed on a light box, with another light directly above it and pointed slightly to the back to further illuminate a folded, three-sided piece of white card stock that flanked three sides. I did try some shots with the camera set on BULB but didn’t like the results. Or was impatient. Or both. Let’s go with both.
Oh, and I threw in a couple of other shots to look at.
* Nano-studio is licensed trademarks of Hoffman & No Sons, LLC (hereafter referred to as “The Company”). Use of this phrase or any grammatical variant thereof by any individuals, pets, groups, businesses, commercial consortiums, or ethereal entities without the written permission of The Company is expressly prohibited (at least in my basement) by law.
Jerry-
My cloud photo involved a lot of walking (without tripping) and looking into the sky, hoping for something dramatic. I settled on a sculpture by the Physics and Nanotech building by the U of M. I've previoulsly taken photos of the male sculpture, this time I worked with the female sculpture and made sure there were plenty of clouds in the backgrounds. The work was created by Julian Voss-Andreae and it is named "Spannungsfeld".
This was taken with the Sony A6300 with 16-50 set to 19mm. 1/125 @f22, ISO 200. Underexposed 1 stop.
My cloud photo involved a lot of walking (without tripping) and looking into the sky, hoping for something dramatic. I settled on a sculpture by the Physics and Nanotech building by the U of M. I've previoulsly taken photos of the male sculpture, this time I worked with the female sculpture and made sure there were plenty of clouds in the backgrounds. The work was created by Julian Voss-Andreae and it is named "Spannungsfeld".
This was taken with the Sony A6300 with 16-50 set to 19mm. 1/125 @f22, ISO 200. Underexposed 1 stop.
Don-
Wednesday a friend and I went over a pass between Hermosa and
Rico Colorado. We took the Hermosa Park Road and then county
road "S" which is a one lane dirt path.
Shot with D810 and 24-70mm lens at a focal of 24mm.
Exposure is 1/125 sec; f/8; ISO 64. Camera set to Aperture Priority
Wednesday a friend and I went over a pass between Hermosa and
Rico Colorado. We took the Hermosa Park Road and then county
road "S" which is a one lane dirt path.
Shot with D810 and 24-70mm lens at a focal of 24mm.
Exposure is 1/125 sec; f/8; ISO 64. Camera set to Aperture Priority