245 - Wild Card II - February 25-March 3, 2018
Kevin
Well obviously from the name, Wild Card week had a wild card intent. Either a chance to do something that hadn’t been done before, or a chance to try to do something better than one had done in a previous WPOTM effort. I went with the latter philosophy. I have enjoyed photographing flowers, particularly Birds of Paradise and also Calla Lilys. There is a flower shop here in Palm Springs that carries an extraordinary assortment of truly beautiful flowers, better than I can find in any Minnesota flower shop, particularly when it comes to Calla Lilys. I have enjoyed the process of photographing flowers in the studio and that’s what I decided to do again. Particularly after finding that my previous Calla Lily images were cropped too tight when a print was made to hang on the wall.
So I backed off a bit to give the flower more room to breathe. Also, after photographing the Lily against white and against black backdrops in previous efforts I decided to go with dark gray, (which of course meant a white background, but without any direct light falling on it). I also debated between going with full color or a black and white version, and ultimately landed on the color version.
Two Nikon flash units, one in a large gridded softbox, and the other direct from the back of the frame adding a little bit of fill light. Nikon D850 mounted to a Manfrotto CarbonOne 440 tripod with an Acratech ballhead. 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 200, f/16 @ 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Well obviously from the name, Wild Card week had a wild card intent. Either a chance to do something that hadn’t been done before, or a chance to try to do something better than one had done in a previous WPOTM effort. I went with the latter philosophy. I have enjoyed photographing flowers, particularly Birds of Paradise and also Calla Lilys. There is a flower shop here in Palm Springs that carries an extraordinary assortment of truly beautiful flowers, better than I can find in any Minnesota flower shop, particularly when it comes to Calla Lilys. I have enjoyed the process of photographing flowers in the studio and that’s what I decided to do again. Particularly after finding that my previous Calla Lily images were cropped too tight when a print was made to hang on the wall.
So I backed off a bit to give the flower more room to breathe. Also, after photographing the Lily against white and against black backdrops in previous efforts I decided to go with dark gray, (which of course meant a white background, but without any direct light falling on it). I also debated between going with full color or a black and white version, and ultimately landed on the color version.
Two Nikon flash units, one in a large gridded softbox, and the other direct from the back of the frame adding a little bit of fill light. Nikon D850 mounted to a Manfrotto CarbonOne 440 tripod with an Acratech ballhead. 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 200, f/16 @ 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Paul-
Work hours and commute time (to another city) being what they are these days, I scope out interesting things to photograph while driving to
as well as walking around Beatrice during my lunch hour. So this week I pulled over by an abandoned barn to take pictures; shot a fence line along a rutted road; re-tried a shot of a clock’s pendulum; took a close-up of a bronze statue; and clicked away on a cupola (from the inside). All within about a five mile radius of each other.
As a result, though not usually the case, I got four different subjects I liked to varying degrees. I’ve attached all four. But it is the first one, the interior shot, I’m going with. Depending on the time of day, the cupola at the Beatrice Public Library, provides for an interesting (and sometimes challenging) subject to shoot. I used a Lightroom preset I imported (Medium Contrast Curve) to provide the rafters with a little more of the color I was looking for, but it’s not significantly different from what I believe I was actually seeing.
I like it a lot. I hope you do, too.
Francis Ford Cupola couldn’t have done better: (2:39PM) Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 26mm; ISO 800; 1/80 sec. at f/8.0; matrix metering; Auto WB. The camera was hand-held.
Work hours and commute time (to another city) being what they are these days, I scope out interesting things to photograph while driving to
as well as walking around Beatrice during my lunch hour. So this week I pulled over by an abandoned barn to take pictures; shot a fence line along a rutted road; re-tried a shot of a clock’s pendulum; took a close-up of a bronze statue; and clicked away on a cupola (from the inside). All within about a five mile radius of each other.
As a result, though not usually the case, I got four different subjects I liked to varying degrees. I’ve attached all four. But it is the first one, the interior shot, I’m going with. Depending on the time of day, the cupola at the Beatrice Public Library, provides for an interesting (and sometimes challenging) subject to shoot. I used a Lightroom preset I imported (Medium Contrast Curve) to provide the rafters with a little more of the color I was looking for, but it’s not significantly different from what I believe I was actually seeing.
I like it a lot. I hope you do, too.
Francis Ford Cupola couldn’t have done better: (2:39PM) Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 26mm; ISO 800; 1/80 sec. at f/8.0; matrix metering; Auto WB. The camera was hand-held.
Jerry-
I chose to stay with the emoji theme and extend it another week. I tried some of my wife holding a large printed emoji in front of her face but decided that was kind of unflattering. So I took my “favorite” pillow and posed it in a location where it could do no harm until I drop it off at a local thrift shop.
Camera was the iPhone 5c, f2.4 @ 1/15, ISO 400, 4 mm lens.
I chose to stay with the emoji theme and extend it another week. I tried some of my wife holding a large printed emoji in front of her face but decided that was kind of unflattering. So I took my “favorite” pillow and posed it in a location where it could do no harm until I drop it off at a local thrift shop.
Camera was the iPhone 5c, f2.4 @ 1/15, ISO 400, 4 mm lens.
Don-
i went with the literal translation of wild card. Here are two
jokers being wild
focal was a 24 to 70mm 2.8 lens set at 58mm
exposure was 1/8 sec f3.2 iso100
aperture priority and pattern metering
i went with the literal translation of wild card. Here are two
jokers being wild
focal was a 24 to 70mm 2.8 lens set at 58mm
exposure was 1/8 sec f3.2 iso100
aperture priority and pattern metering
Byron-
My picture this week wasn't intended to be my submission. It was something I shot from the hip (so to speak). After I got home and viewed it, I decided I liked it. I like the fact that the closest portion looks like anyone's yard and then the grass gradually transforms into water. The only trick in this photo is that I darkened the biggest leaf a bit. It looked overexposed.
ISO 800, f4, 1/2000 sec.
My picture this week wasn't intended to be my submission. It was something I shot from the hip (so to speak). After I got home and viewed it, I decided I liked it. I like the fact that the closest portion looks like anyone's yard and then the grass gradually transforms into water. The only trick in this photo is that I darkened the biggest leaf a bit. It looked overexposed.
ISO 800, f4, 1/2000 sec.
Darin-
My Wild Card is reshooting Year One, Topic #36, Selfie.
Since I'm still working through the tail end of the flu, plus making a trip to Colorado for Dad's 75th birthday, my time was limited. So, I took the easy route... Selfie.
Natural light (that's the shadow of the window cutting across my cheek), transferred to black and white, then bumped up the saturation and darkened the shadows. Geez, this makes me look old.
My Wild Card is reshooting Year One, Topic #36, Selfie.
Since I'm still working through the tail end of the flu, plus making a trip to Colorado for Dad's 75th birthday, my time was limited. So, I took the easy route... Selfie.
Natural light (that's the shadow of the window cutting across my cheek), transferred to black and white, then bumped up the saturation and darkened the shadows. Geez, this makes me look old.