202 - Through the Looking Glass - April 23-29, 2017
Don-
I had seen photo in an art show here that I wanted to replicate. A mirror propped up on the ground with a
well know mountain a little west of here showing in the mirror. It won the photograph group, two of my
submissions did not. Anyway the weather here did not cooperate.
So I drove around to get this instead. It took two mornings while going back and forth to school to
get the location I like best. I liked the idea of looking at the rear view mirror while seeing through it
to see the road ahead. If that makes any sense at all.
Camera was a Nikon AW110. ISO 125; f3.9;speed 1/100 and the lens was 5mm. I tapped the 'Auto"
button in Camera Raw. Added clarity and vibrance. Then this is it.
I had seen photo in an art show here that I wanted to replicate. A mirror propped up on the ground with a
well know mountain a little west of here showing in the mirror. It won the photograph group, two of my
submissions did not. Anyway the weather here did not cooperate.
So I drove around to get this instead. It took two mornings while going back and forth to school to
get the location I like best. I liked the idea of looking at the rear view mirror while seeing through it
to see the road ahead. If that makes any sense at all.
Camera was a Nikon AW110. ISO 125; f3.9;speed 1/100 and the lens was 5mm. I tapped the 'Auto"
button in Camera Raw. Added clarity and vibrance. Then this is it.
Byron-
Creativity on the fly. That's what I like about this weekly exercise. The original attempt at this photo didn't give me the results I was hoping for. I changed my tack. The result is similar to my original intent. This looking glass is different than most. In this case, the outside world is unsettled and without color. The looking glass corrects those distortions.
Nikon D3200 on a tripod. 50mm lens, ND filter in front, f8, 1/250 sec.
Creativity on the fly. That's what I like about this weekly exercise. The original attempt at this photo didn't give me the results I was hoping for. I changed my tack. The result is similar to my original intent. This looking glass is different than most. In this case, the outside world is unsettled and without color. The looking glass corrects those distortions.
Nikon D3200 on a tripod. 50mm lens, ND filter in front, f8, 1/250 sec.
Kevin-
Well I knew what I wanted to do for this theme, the problem was that the weather was being as uncooperative as it could possibly be. Constant clouds, wind, rain, even snow was happening or was forecast every night this week. Until finally the forecast began to change for Friday night suggesting that just after sunset there should/would/might be a brief period of somewhat clear skies, if I could put up with the low temperatures.
Clearly Minnesota is confused, We had a seventy degree day in February, and this cold stuff happening in late April.
I spent the early part of the week scouting various locations, finding a park about 5 miles away that I hadn’t ever heard of before, and that was accessible 24 hours a day. Michelle was kind enough to accompany me on the shoot and help me carry and set-up everything.
Nikon D4s on a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 tripod with a Acratech GP ballhead, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens set to 44mm, ISO 100, 13 second exposure at f/11. One Nikon flash unit on the camera and set to commander mode triggering another Nikon flash unit nearby in remote mode to provide a little light on the telescope and the observer.
I would like to say that the true telescope viewing target was the sliver of the moon you see behind the scene and that when the moon rose high enough I would be swinging the telescope over to view it. But the truth is the moon was setting, not rising, so it wouldn’t be visible much longer. And since for the photo I had stripped off the heavy jacket, wool hat and wool scarf I had been wearing, I was freezing. So the second I had captured a “good enough, I hope” image we disassembled and packed everything up and headed back home.
Well I knew what I wanted to do for this theme, the problem was that the weather was being as uncooperative as it could possibly be. Constant clouds, wind, rain, even snow was happening or was forecast every night this week. Until finally the forecast began to change for Friday night suggesting that just after sunset there should/would/might be a brief period of somewhat clear skies, if I could put up with the low temperatures.
Clearly Minnesota is confused, We had a seventy degree day in February, and this cold stuff happening in late April.
I spent the early part of the week scouting various locations, finding a park about 5 miles away that I hadn’t ever heard of before, and that was accessible 24 hours a day. Michelle was kind enough to accompany me on the shoot and help me carry and set-up everything.
Nikon D4s on a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 tripod with a Acratech GP ballhead, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens set to 44mm, ISO 100, 13 second exposure at f/11. One Nikon flash unit on the camera and set to commander mode triggering another Nikon flash unit nearby in remote mode to provide a little light on the telescope and the observer.
I would like to say that the true telescope viewing target was the sliver of the moon you see behind the scene and that when the moon rose high enough I would be swinging the telescope over to view it. But the truth is the moon was setting, not rising, so it wouldn’t be visible much longer. And since for the photo I had stripped off the heavy jacket, wool hat and wool scarf I had been wearing, I was freezing. So the second I had captured a “good enough, I hope” image we disassembled and packed everything up and headed back home.
Paul-
When I was very young—no snide comments here, please—I read Lewis Caroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” and was, understandably, enthralled by it. A little bewildered, too. Like some of Shel Silverstein and Edward Gory’s* books (all written quite a bit later), Caroll pulls no literary or imaginative punches. You get the whole ride for your nickel, and every tableau along the way is pretty much the antithesis of anything Disney ties in, churns out, or tosses around.
Yikes…off-topic.
“Jabberwocky”--a poem within the book (and a quirky 1977 film directed by Terry Gilliam)--is one of my favorites in literature. So I thought I would capture a scene from the poem wherein the “beamish boy” sets out to kill said “whiffling” and “burbled” creature armed only with his “vorpal sword” (which apparently makes a “snicker-snack” sound when properly wielded). As everybody knows (I hope), the result is a “frabjous day” when the Jabberwock is beheaded.
In some illustrated books of “Through the Looking Glass,” you can see some splendid artwork executed in all kinds of media and printing styles. This picture is a humble homage to those who applied as much imagination in their illustrative contribution as Carrol did with his words.
The mimsy borogroves of this picture: Not much, I’m afraid. I used my cellphone, from which I could pull no metadata whatsoever. Strange. Anyway, I was on a bike ride and I stopped to ask a local medieval reenactment group if could grab a few shots (in exchange for sending them some of the better pictures I took). In post, I started with the color image and converted it to what you see with a color pictorialization app to make it look a little like an illustration you might see in a book. Emphasis on the “might.” At worst, this is still a fun and whimsical interpretation of the brave boy going forth to seek out his “manxome foe.”
* Read “The Gashlycrumb Tinies.” Seriously. Pick it. It’s a short, small, inexpensive, and shockingly illustrated book. If you don’t chortle a little (in private) while you page through its ghastly wonderful scenes of dire disaster then you’re simply too straight-laced a person and have no appreciation for twisted minds and macabre menace. Shame on you. Shame, I say.
When I was very young—no snide comments here, please—I read Lewis Caroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” and was, understandably, enthralled by it. A little bewildered, too. Like some of Shel Silverstein and Edward Gory’s* books (all written quite a bit later), Caroll pulls no literary or imaginative punches. You get the whole ride for your nickel, and every tableau along the way is pretty much the antithesis of anything Disney ties in, churns out, or tosses around.
Yikes…off-topic.
“Jabberwocky”--a poem within the book (and a quirky 1977 film directed by Terry Gilliam)--is one of my favorites in literature. So I thought I would capture a scene from the poem wherein the “beamish boy” sets out to kill said “whiffling” and “burbled” creature armed only with his “vorpal sword” (which apparently makes a “snicker-snack” sound when properly wielded). As everybody knows (I hope), the result is a “frabjous day” when the Jabberwock is beheaded.
In some illustrated books of “Through the Looking Glass,” you can see some splendid artwork executed in all kinds of media and printing styles. This picture is a humble homage to those who applied as much imagination in their illustrative contribution as Carrol did with his words.
The mimsy borogroves of this picture: Not much, I’m afraid. I used my cellphone, from which I could pull no metadata whatsoever. Strange. Anyway, I was on a bike ride and I stopped to ask a local medieval reenactment group if could grab a few shots (in exchange for sending them some of the better pictures I took). In post, I started with the color image and converted it to what you see with a color pictorialization app to make it look a little like an illustration you might see in a book. Emphasis on the “might.” At worst, this is still a fun and whimsical interpretation of the brave boy going forth to seek out his “manxome foe.”
* Read “The Gashlycrumb Tinies.” Seriously. Pick it. It’s a short, small, inexpensive, and shockingly illustrated book. If you don’t chortle a little (in private) while you page through its ghastly wonderful scenes of dire disaster then you’re simply too straight-laced a person and have no appreciation for twisted minds and macabre menace. Shame on you. Shame, I say.
Jerry-
A view through the local looking glass revealed my more animal side in this self portrait. Camera was the Sony a6300 with 16-50 at 16mm. Exposure was 1/200 @f11, ISO 25,600.
A view through the local looking glass revealed my more animal side in this self portrait. Camera was the Sony a6300 with 16-50 at 16mm. Exposure was 1/200 @f11, ISO 25,600.