22. Petrichor - November 10-16, 2013
Deron-
My official submission is this mountain biker riding into the mist of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park in Riverside, CA. For me, there is nothing better than the smell of petrichor while hiking in the mountains or getting lost on my bicycle in the middle of no where.
My official submission is this mountain biker riding into the mist of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park in Riverside, CA. For me, there is nothing better than the smell of petrichor while hiking in the mountains or getting lost on my bicycle in the middle of no where.
Byron-
A welcome rain fell on the plants in this area. As the water drips from the leaves to the ground, a pleasant scent is emitted when the oils in the ground react with the water.
This photo was shot at ISO 200, at 55mm. The exposure was f/6.3 at 1/125 sec.
A welcome rain fell on the plants in this area. As the water drips from the leaves to the ground, a pleasant scent is emitted when the oils in the ground react with the water.
This photo was shot at ISO 200, at 55mm. The exposure was f/6.3 at 1/125 sec.
Paul-
As all of you are undoubtedly aware—since this was drilled into each of us at an early age—the etymology of the word petrichor comes from two Greek root words. ”Petros” refers to stone or rock. And “ichor” (in Greek “ikhôr”), used to describe the fluids which flowed in the veins of the gods.
Bearing in mind that the Greeks, like virtually every culture before or after, heavily anthropomorphized and co-opted various characteristics of their deities, I took the liberty of using red for the color of ichor. Our blood is their blood.
So, I took a literal interpretation on this theme. Which, of course, is also my predictably pedantic way of saying I was tearing my graying hair out trying to do justice this week’s word. When Deron’s turn comes around again, I hope any suggestions his friends make are equally challenging ones such as “cardboard,” “toothbrush,” “kitty” or a doozy like “paper.”
The morbid details: Olympus E-500 mounted on a tripod; shot at 0.5 sec. at f5.6; ISO 200; 14.0-45.0mm f3.5 lens set at 45mm. No flash. No mustard.
As all of you are undoubtedly aware—since this was drilled into each of us at an early age—the etymology of the word petrichor comes from two Greek root words. ”Petros” refers to stone or rock. And “ichor” (in Greek “ikhôr”), used to describe the fluids which flowed in the veins of the gods.
Bearing in mind that the Greeks, like virtually every culture before or after, heavily anthropomorphized and co-opted various characteristics of their deities, I took the liberty of using red for the color of ichor. Our blood is their blood.
So, I took a literal interpretation on this theme. Which, of course, is also my predictably pedantic way of saying I was tearing my graying hair out trying to do justice this week’s word. When Deron’s turn comes around again, I hope any suggestions his friends make are equally challenging ones such as “cardboard,” “toothbrush,” “kitty” or a doozy like “paper.”
The morbid details: Olympus E-500 mounted on a tripod; shot at 0.5 sec. at f5.6; ISO 200; 14.0-45.0mm f3.5 lens set at 45mm. No flash. No mustard.
Kevin-
Okay, this was certainly a challenging WPOTM theme. I mean Petrichor is "The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell? How exactly do you photograph a smell? Really? We've gone through cold spells in Minnesota, even snow, but we haven't really had a dry spell for a while. Hmmm.
So, lacking actual on dry land and rain, I started researching rain scented sprays. And sure enough I found out about one that looked like it could make an interesting photograph. Now, I wanted to capture the spray reasonably frozen (not like the aforementioned ice, just frozen motion). So I started researching the actual timing from flash units. I found that my Nikon strobes could actually fire really fast and stated to play around and experiment. The tough part was that I had to shoot in total darkness. See, the flash sync speed on my Nikon D3s is 1/250th of a second. But I only wanted to expose for the far briefer flash duration, with no extra exposure from ambient light. Research told me that with the strobes set to manual and turned all the way down to their lowest setting (1/128th power), the flash time could be as short as 1/38,500 of a second. But that would have required me to shoot at f/1.4 which I didn't think would be a good idea as I would have needed to keep Michelle, (my hand model), holding an aerosol can - in focus with the lens wide open - in total darkness. A little too challenging. So after experimenting I decided to set the flash units to 1/16th power which gave me a flash duration of 1/10,000 of a second and gave me an aperture of f/5 (so that thankfully there was some depth-of-field). Two flash units were used. One positioned high above and behind the aerosol can and the other down low and also behind to further highlight the spray itself. I found a blue card at an art store that gave me a sky colored background. Then I needed a hand model to hold and spray the can while I triggered the camera. So Michelle stopped by the studio after work and held the aerosol can and pushed the spray button in the darkness. So the aperture was f/5 at ISO 100 with an 85mm lens.
So this is my photo of Calming Rain, which was a close to Petrichor as I could come.
Okay, this was certainly a challenging WPOTM theme. I mean Petrichor is "The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell? How exactly do you photograph a smell? Really? We've gone through cold spells in Minnesota, even snow, but we haven't really had a dry spell for a while. Hmmm.
So, lacking actual on dry land and rain, I started researching rain scented sprays. And sure enough I found out about one that looked like it could make an interesting photograph. Now, I wanted to capture the spray reasonably frozen (not like the aforementioned ice, just frozen motion). So I started researching the actual timing from flash units. I found that my Nikon strobes could actually fire really fast and stated to play around and experiment. The tough part was that I had to shoot in total darkness. See, the flash sync speed on my Nikon D3s is 1/250th of a second. But I only wanted to expose for the far briefer flash duration, with no extra exposure from ambient light. Research told me that with the strobes set to manual and turned all the way down to their lowest setting (1/128th power), the flash time could be as short as 1/38,500 of a second. But that would have required me to shoot at f/1.4 which I didn't think would be a good idea as I would have needed to keep Michelle, (my hand model), holding an aerosol can - in focus with the lens wide open - in total darkness. A little too challenging. So after experimenting I decided to set the flash units to 1/16th power which gave me a flash duration of 1/10,000 of a second and gave me an aperture of f/5 (so that thankfully there was some depth-of-field). Two flash units were used. One positioned high above and behind the aerosol can and the other down low and also behind to further highlight the spray itself. I found a blue card at an art store that gave me a sky colored background. Then I needed a hand model to hold and spray the can while I triggered the camera. So Michelle stopped by the studio after work and held the aerosol can and pushed the spray button in the darkness. So the aperture was f/5 at ISO 100 with an 85mm lens.
So this is my photo of Calming Rain, which was a close to Petrichor as I could come.