171. Pottery - September 18-24, 2016
Don-
Theme Pottery was brought forth by the great and knowledgeable
WPOTM member Don (me). Enough foolishness and lies.
My submission this week is a vase that sits on the mantle in our living room. It has no story of interest as it just
sits there and in the early morning just after sunrise it lights up like shown in the picture.
I shot this with my D810 on tripod with a 70-200mm 2.8 lens at focal of 95mm. The exposure was f/5.6; shutter 0.5 sec;
ISO 100. No flash was used and the camera set to Aperture Priority.
Theme Pottery was brought forth by the great and knowledgeable
WPOTM member Don (me). Enough foolishness and lies.
My submission this week is a vase that sits on the mantle in our living room. It has no story of interest as it just
sits there and in the early morning just after sunrise it lights up like shown in the picture.
I shot this with my D810 on tripod with a 70-200mm 2.8 lens at focal of 95mm. The exposure was f/5.6; shutter 0.5 sec;
ISO 100. No flash was used and the camera set to Aperture Priority.
Byron-
I my have stretched the definition of pottery a bit. I found an object that started out as a lump of clay, was formed into a shaped, fired in a kiln then painted. To me that's pottery. So here goes. W.C. found himself in a poker game with some serious folks. What's his hand? Aces & 8s. Oh, No. That's dead man's hand! He was kind enough to turn and face my camera long enough for me to take an exposure.
I'd like to say I shot this with a Kodak Premo, the light was created by the magnesium flash powder in a tray. Of course, none of that is true. I used a Nikon D3200, a NIkon 50mm f1.4 lens, a Nikon D700 bouncing off an umbrella. 1/100 sec, F4, EV 0.0. Some Photoshop work was required to sepia tone and resize it to fit.
I my have stretched the definition of pottery a bit. I found an object that started out as a lump of clay, was formed into a shaped, fired in a kiln then painted. To me that's pottery. So here goes. W.C. found himself in a poker game with some serious folks. What's his hand? Aces & 8s. Oh, No. That's dead man's hand! He was kind enough to turn and face my camera long enough for me to take an exposure.
I'd like to say I shot this with a Kodak Premo, the light was created by the magnesium flash powder in a tray. Of course, none of that is true. I used a Nikon D3200, a NIkon 50mm f1.4 lens, a Nikon D700 bouncing off an umbrella. 1/100 sec, F4, EV 0.0. Some Photoshop work was required to sepia tone and resize it to fit.
Kevin-
So the theme that Don picked this week was “Pottery” and as soon as he named it I knew what I wanted to do. Long ago, probably at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, I came across a small piece of pottery that was labeled as a “Snot” jar. It sat behind my desk at Best Buy and again later during my consulting career. Whenever someone would see the jar and question “Snot?" I would cheerfully reply “Take some if you need it. Leave some if you have it.” And then they would say something like “Eeew!” At least for me that jar provided hours of amusement.
Sadly in spite of much searching I was unable to find the snot jar. Maybe the cork that had plugged the top of the jar (which was going bad) had caused me to throw it away. Or perhaps someone who really needed a lot of snot took the entire jar. But clearly I needed to come up with an alternative.
Traditional pottery like cups, bowls, etc are pretty boring to me as objects. And while the movie “Ghost” with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze demonstrated how much fun hands on wet clay can be I didn’t have time to seek out a potter’s studio.
So instead I chose a clay garden um, what is it? A gnome?) A happy mushroom-headed creature? Whatever it is it stands outside the house guarding plants. It’s about the size of a volleyball, and I brought it over to the studio.
I set up a large sheet of heavy black stock with a little bit of sheen to it as the background. Then I set up two studio strobes. On one side was a strobe with fine grid over it plus an orange gel as the key light. Behind on the other side was an un-gelled strobe with a snoot on it as the back light. A small bounce card extended that backlight somewhat onto the creature’s face. Still, I deliberately went for a fairly high contrast ratio in the lighting to reveal more detail in this happy head of clay.
The entire effect seemed to be rather adorable or at least as adorable as pottery can look. Though believe me, if I still had it I would have photographed the snot jar. And I definitely would have prepared the recipe for a snot-like substance that could have been dripping out of it!
So the theme that Don picked this week was “Pottery” and as soon as he named it I knew what I wanted to do. Long ago, probably at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, I came across a small piece of pottery that was labeled as a “Snot” jar. It sat behind my desk at Best Buy and again later during my consulting career. Whenever someone would see the jar and question “Snot?" I would cheerfully reply “Take some if you need it. Leave some if you have it.” And then they would say something like “Eeew!” At least for me that jar provided hours of amusement.
Sadly in spite of much searching I was unable to find the snot jar. Maybe the cork that had plugged the top of the jar (which was going bad) had caused me to throw it away. Or perhaps someone who really needed a lot of snot took the entire jar. But clearly I needed to come up with an alternative.
Traditional pottery like cups, bowls, etc are pretty boring to me as objects. And while the movie “Ghost” with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze demonstrated how much fun hands on wet clay can be I didn’t have time to seek out a potter’s studio.
So instead I chose a clay garden um, what is it? A gnome?) A happy mushroom-headed creature? Whatever it is it stands outside the house guarding plants. It’s about the size of a volleyball, and I brought it over to the studio.
I set up a large sheet of heavy black stock with a little bit of sheen to it as the background. Then I set up two studio strobes. On one side was a strobe with fine grid over it plus an orange gel as the key light. Behind on the other side was an un-gelled strobe with a snoot on it as the back light. A small bounce card extended that backlight somewhat onto the creature’s face. Still, I deliberately went for a fairly high contrast ratio in the lighting to reveal more detail in this happy head of clay.
The entire effect seemed to be rather adorable or at least as adorable as pottery can look. Though believe me, if I still had it I would have photographed the snot jar. And I definitely would have prepared the recipe for a snot-like substance that could have been dripping out of it!
Paul-
When I was very, very young—not long after the discovery of clay—my first-grade cohorts and I were initiated into a time-honored school ritual that manifested itself in form of the “Make a pottery jar for your Mom and Dad” project. In those ancient days, all kids had Moms and Dads at home. And a school’s Arts & Crafts budget was lavish.
I remember our class was taught by a youngish woman of indeterminate age (and make-up) who wore a wild head scarf, gestured enthusiastically with her hands, and spoke in a sing-song voice as she directed the parent volunteers to distribute the rectangular bricks of clay.
We were told, as each of us labored to make something that might pass for a jar which we could then slop with bright colors, a little about the history of pottery and how our pieces would be glazed and baked in a kiln. The completed masterpieces would be returned to us in about a week.
At the outset, it was pretty exciting day—partially because it came with permission for us to beat the ever loving crap out of the clay to soften it. And doing so gave further gave hope to our young minds that other projects such as gluing macaroni to construction paper might one day go the way of the dodo, cursive writing and filmstrips.
Anyway... The pot on the left is the one I actually made for my parents. They liked it so much they gave it right back to me and told me to put in a box then put the box in the basement so I’d always know where it was. The more creatively rendered piece on the right is what my daughter, Hannah, produced during her own pottery rite-of-passage several years ago. (Her piece resides in our china cabinet.)
How things shaped up: 3:28PM; 18-55mm lens at 24mm; aperture priority; 21-point metering, flash compensation -3.0; -0.5 EV -2.0; ISO3200; 1/45 sec. at f/11; auto white-balanced. One light (pointing down but not exactly so) is positioned about two feet above the jars.
When I was very, very young—not long after the discovery of clay—my first-grade cohorts and I were initiated into a time-honored school ritual that manifested itself in form of the “Make a pottery jar for your Mom and Dad” project. In those ancient days, all kids had Moms and Dads at home. And a school’s Arts & Crafts budget was lavish.
I remember our class was taught by a youngish woman of indeterminate age (and make-up) who wore a wild head scarf, gestured enthusiastically with her hands, and spoke in a sing-song voice as she directed the parent volunteers to distribute the rectangular bricks of clay.
We were told, as each of us labored to make something that might pass for a jar which we could then slop with bright colors, a little about the history of pottery and how our pieces would be glazed and baked in a kiln. The completed masterpieces would be returned to us in about a week.
At the outset, it was pretty exciting day—partially because it came with permission for us to beat the ever loving crap out of the clay to soften it. And doing so gave further gave hope to our young minds that other projects such as gluing macaroni to construction paper might one day go the way of the dodo, cursive writing and filmstrips.
Anyway... The pot on the left is the one I actually made for my parents. They liked it so much they gave it right back to me and told me to put in a box then put the box in the basement so I’d always know where it was. The more creatively rendered piece on the right is what my daughter, Hannah, produced during her own pottery rite-of-passage several years ago. (Her piece resides in our china cabinet.)
How things shaped up: 3:28PM; 18-55mm lens at 24mm; aperture priority; 21-point metering, flash compensation -3.0; -0.5 EV -2.0; ISO3200; 1/45 sec. at f/11; auto white-balanced. One light (pointing down but not exactly so) is positioned about two feet above the jars.
Jerry-
I found this cute little vase at one of the local thrift shops (prism in golden valley) a few months back and thought my wife would love it. She has come to tolerate it and at least hasn't tossed it out. It was made by Nemadji pottery of Moose Lake, Minnesota. They were in business from 1929 to 2001. I posed it on the back deck in the open shade.
Camera was the Sony A6300, 16-50 zoomed to 50. Exposure was 1/40 @ f16, ISO 800.
I found this cute little vase at one of the local thrift shops (prism in golden valley) a few months back and thought my wife would love it. She has come to tolerate it and at least hasn't tossed it out. It was made by Nemadji pottery of Moose Lake, Minnesota. They were in business from 1929 to 2001. I posed it on the back deck in the open shade.
Camera was the Sony A6300, 16-50 zoomed to 50. Exposure was 1/40 @ f16, ISO 800.