29. Light & Shadow - December 29, 2013-January 4 , 2014
Byron-
My light & shadow photo is of the Witch of Tahquitz. The legend has been around for hundreds of years. There is a commonly used photo of the witch flying o the right. In the photo I took she appears to be flying to the left with her shawl flapping behind her. Here is a story written by a former Palm Springer-
"Growing up my grandmother would ask me, usually in the afternoon, if I could see the witch on the mountain. For years, I thought she was losing it. I could never see a witch on the mountain. Finally it came out that it was a shadow of what looked like a witch on Mt. San Jacinto, it appeared at a certain time of the day when the sun hit the mountain and cast a shadow on it. For the entire 31 years that I lived there, I never saw that darn witch and was convinced my grandmother was seeing things.
I left in 1993, moved first to Oregon, then Idaho. My grandmother died in 2005 on February 22 at 10:00am. I was with her when she took her last breath. After she left us, I went with my mother downtown and guess what I saw? I saw that witch."
My light & shadow photo is of the Witch of Tahquitz. The legend has been around for hundreds of years. There is a commonly used photo of the witch flying o the right. In the photo I took she appears to be flying to the left with her shawl flapping behind her. Here is a story written by a former Palm Springer-
"Growing up my grandmother would ask me, usually in the afternoon, if I could see the witch on the mountain. For years, I thought she was losing it. I could never see a witch on the mountain. Finally it came out that it was a shadow of what looked like a witch on Mt. San Jacinto, it appeared at a certain time of the day when the sun hit the mountain and cast a shadow on it. For the entire 31 years that I lived there, I never saw that darn witch and was convinced my grandmother was seeing things.
I left in 1993, moved first to Oregon, then Idaho. My grandmother died in 2005 on February 22 at 10:00am. I was with her when she took her last breath. After she left us, I went with my mother downtown and guess what I saw? I saw that witch."
Kevin-
I made a number of attempts to get a Light & Shadow photo that I was really pleased with. Many of these efforts involved scouting locations in the Palm Springs area, trying to photograph the many windmills from a high perspective, looking down on them and the shadows that they cast when the sun illuminates them. But basically there is no place here to look down on them, unless I can climb to the top of a high hill or mountain with my camera and tripod. Since that’s not going to happen I had to take a much simpler approach. So in the garage I set up a single Nikon strobe light, controlled by a Pocket Wizard and attached to a light stand. I positioned it so that it would cast my shadow on the wall, then held my Nikon camera and lens in my hands as a prop. Then I used Byron and his tripod mounted Nikon camera, also with a Pocket Wizard, to fire the strobe and capture the image. The exposure was 1/200th of a second at f/10. The ISO was 200, The lens was Byron's Nikkor 18-55mm set to 46mm.
I made a number of attempts to get a Light & Shadow photo that I was really pleased with. Many of these efforts involved scouting locations in the Palm Springs area, trying to photograph the many windmills from a high perspective, looking down on them and the shadows that they cast when the sun illuminates them. But basically there is no place here to look down on them, unless I can climb to the top of a high hill or mountain with my camera and tripod. Since that’s not going to happen I had to take a much simpler approach. So in the garage I set up a single Nikon strobe light, controlled by a Pocket Wizard and attached to a light stand. I positioned it so that it would cast my shadow on the wall, then held my Nikon camera and lens in my hands as a prop. Then I used Byron and his tripod mounted Nikon camera, also with a Pocket Wizard, to fire the strobe and capture the image. The exposure was 1/200th of a second at f/10. The ISO was 200, The lens was Byron's Nikkor 18-55mm set to 46mm.
Paul-
Okay…I wasn’t completely sure what I was going for here. Sometimes you can muck things up trying too hard to capture something (that initially seemed like a good idea) symbolically and pictorially. I wanted to depict the theme of Light & Shadow by having a bright light source project a shape surrounded by darkness. At the same time, I wanted to metaphorically portray the same effect. For some reason, the ace of spades came to mind as it is often used to symbolize the death of something old and the birth of a new opportunity (alternatively, the ending of one period and the beginning of the next). As it happens, selectively cutting out portions of the central spade creates a heart—which doesn’t have quite the ominous significance the spade does. (I hope you can see it in the background.) So—with mixed results—I was trying for a balance of light and dark, as well as death and renewal. The lighting was tricky, and I never quite got the effect I wanted, but sometimes the real fun is in the experimentation.
The usual suspects: Olympus E500; 14.0mm-45.0mm (f3.5) lens; 1.3 sec. at f14; bracketed; ISO 1000; no flash; tripod used. From now on I won’t be playing with a full deck…
Okay…I wasn’t completely sure what I was going for here. Sometimes you can muck things up trying too hard to capture something (that initially seemed like a good idea) symbolically and pictorially. I wanted to depict the theme of Light & Shadow by having a bright light source project a shape surrounded by darkness. At the same time, I wanted to metaphorically portray the same effect. For some reason, the ace of spades came to mind as it is often used to symbolize the death of something old and the birth of a new opportunity (alternatively, the ending of one period and the beginning of the next). As it happens, selectively cutting out portions of the central spade creates a heart—which doesn’t have quite the ominous significance the spade does. (I hope you can see it in the background.) So—with mixed results—I was trying for a balance of light and dark, as well as death and renewal. The lighting was tricky, and I never quite got the effect I wanted, but sometimes the real fun is in the experimentation.
The usual suspects: Olympus E500; 14.0mm-45.0mm (f3.5) lens; 1.3 sec. at f14; bracketed; ISO 1000; no flash; tripod used. From now on I won’t be playing with a full deck…
Deron-
Once again, I have used a model that I have used before. Revo works cheap and won't pull any prima donna shenanigans.
On this one, I shut the lights off, then lit him up with a blue light from my iPad, using the Color Softbox app. The shutter was open a long time, so Rev had to stay completely still... "OH, NOW THAT'S A GOOD BOY!"
Once again, I have used a model that I have used before. Revo works cheap and won't pull any prima donna shenanigans.
On this one, I shut the lights off, then lit him up with a blue light from my iPad, using the Color Softbox app. The shutter was open a long time, so Rev had to stay completely still... "OH, NOW THAT'S A GOOD BOY!"