81. Money - January 4-10, 2015
Jerry-
Here is my finest pocket watch (courtesy of Byron and Erleen) photographed on a pile of standing liberty half dollars. "Time is Money" might be the title. I started out this weeks shoot by taking photos of Monopoly game money, then moved on to stacks of "junk" silver coins that I had collected. Even put some in a whiskey glass. Eventually I thought of putting the pocket watch on the silver coins. After that I progressed to putting some coins from the change jar into a bird's nest complete with fake eggs (a thing my wife had bought a while back, she likes those kinds of things). But "Time is Money" is my final choice.
The data is: D750, 105mm Micro at 1/200 @ f16, iso 200. Lighting was from a Photogenic monolight (left over from my wedding photography days) bounced into a white umbrella.
Here is my finest pocket watch (courtesy of Byron and Erleen) photographed on a pile of standing liberty half dollars. "Time is Money" might be the title. I started out this weeks shoot by taking photos of Monopoly game money, then moved on to stacks of "junk" silver coins that I had collected. Even put some in a whiskey glass. Eventually I thought of putting the pocket watch on the silver coins. After that I progressed to putting some coins from the change jar into a bird's nest complete with fake eggs (a thing my wife had bought a while back, she likes those kinds of things). But "Time is Money" is my final choice.
The data is: D750, 105mm Micro at 1/200 @ f16, iso 200. Lighting was from a Photogenic monolight (left over from my wedding photography days) bounced into a white umbrella.
Kevin-
With great wealth comes great danger…
Some little piggies go to market, some little piggies stay home, and others simply become piggy banks, collecting lots of money. Being a piggy bank is a pretty easy role. Just sit there and collect all the stray coins that are left over in people's pockets. It’s easy to get wealthy, at least wealthy for a piggy. But when you’re full and there’s no more room for all that money it can become scattered about and obvious. Leaving a poor little piggy bank venerable to criminals. The sort of thieves who like to grab their loot and get away quickly. Which means a powerful hammer smash, and the poor little piggy bank is gone. 😥
Nikon D3s, tripod mounted. Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 zoom lens set to 86mm. One Nikon SB-900 flash unit in manual mode in a single softbox. ISO 200, 1/250th of a second (flash sync), f/11.
To pull this off I downloaded a free app called Triggertrap onto my iPad. Triggertrap can trigger a camera based on sound, movement, face recognition or just about any other imaginable way. Unfortunately along with the app I needed a cheap cable/dongle combination to go between the iPad and the camera. I ordered it anyway, even though I didn’t expect it to arrive in time and went ahead and shot the piggy bank without the hammer smash. But late yesterday I found out it would arrive today! Byron and I had a drive to LA scheduled today, and then people were coming over to watch the NFL playoffs, but all the while I was finalizing the setup for this image, finally shooting it about an hour ago!
With great wealth comes great danger…
Some little piggies go to market, some little piggies stay home, and others simply become piggy banks, collecting lots of money. Being a piggy bank is a pretty easy role. Just sit there and collect all the stray coins that are left over in people's pockets. It’s easy to get wealthy, at least wealthy for a piggy. But when you’re full and there’s no more room for all that money it can become scattered about and obvious. Leaving a poor little piggy bank venerable to criminals. The sort of thieves who like to grab their loot and get away quickly. Which means a powerful hammer smash, and the poor little piggy bank is gone. 😥
Nikon D3s, tripod mounted. Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 zoom lens set to 86mm. One Nikon SB-900 flash unit in manual mode in a single softbox. ISO 200, 1/250th of a second (flash sync), f/11.
To pull this off I downloaded a free app called Triggertrap onto my iPad. Triggertrap can trigger a camera based on sound, movement, face recognition or just about any other imaginable way. Unfortunately along with the app I needed a cheap cable/dongle combination to go between the iPad and the camera. I ordered it anyway, even though I didn’t expect it to arrive in time and went ahead and shot the piggy bank without the hammer smash. But late yesterday I found out it would arrive today! Byron and I had a drive to LA scheduled today, and then people were coming over to watch the NFL playoffs, but all the while I was finalizing the setup for this image, finally shooting it about an hour ago!
Byron-
To show money one could photograph coins and bills. Another way is to show what you can buy with money. The Spirit of Ecstasy that you see here represents a brand of car that sells for an amount far out of reach for the common Joe. Rolls Royce has always positioned itself as a premium brand.
This photo was shot with available light under a protective roof. The light was coming in from 3 sides. It was shot at f5.6 1/30 sec.
To show money one could photograph coins and bills. Another way is to show what you can buy with money. The Spirit of Ecstasy that you see here represents a brand of car that sells for an amount far out of reach for the common Joe. Rolls Royce has always positioned itself as a premium brand.
This photo was shot with available light under a protective roof. The light was coming in from 3 sides. It was shot at f5.6 1/30 sec.
Deron-
This is my Nephew Wyatt and a 50 dollar bill.
I'm in Colorado, without the Nikon D40 (not enough room in my carry on), so I had to shoot this with my cell phone.
Wyatt is a freshman at NYU and I fully expect him to have his own bill sometime. Smarty Pants.
This is my Nephew Wyatt and a 50 dollar bill.
I'm in Colorado, without the Nikon D40 (not enough room in my carry on), so I had to shoot this with my cell phone.
Wyatt is a freshman at NYU and I fully expect him to have his own bill sometime. Smarty Pants.
Paul-
Cold. Hard. Cash. And not easy to come by. I mean the “cold” part. Yes, yes, freezing water is easy. Freezing water so it appears crystal clear—a little harder. I tried freezing two different “water bricks” before this one. I starting with distilled water, boiled it (twice) to get rid of any remaining impurities or particulate, allowed it cool, and then froze it. The first result: nice cloudy ice you’d be safe to hide behind if a polar bear was nearby. The second time around: much less cloudy…so sorry, the bear wins. The third time around…still not what I wanted, but there were some trapped air pockets that I decided to break to produce an interesting effect.
I had plans to have coins imbedded too, but wanted them suspended in different layers of the ice—not laying right on top of the bills. (There’s actually three in there.) So as a test I froze a first cross section with the bills in it, waited until it could support the coins, then placed them on top and added more water. Nope. There was a cloudy demarcation between the two layers. With enough time, I know I would have found a satisfactory solution (so to speak), but I am not the most patient person. Nor the smartest: the melting ice block sat on top of a small light table I build a few years ago. Rivulets of water on top, electric cables underneath…I figured I be a shoo-in for this year’s Darwin Awards [www.darwinawards.com] if I wasn’t careful. Lavishly applying duct tape and several towels, I sealed off the edges of the glass—which do not reach all the way to the table’s edges (don’t ask)—and got off as many shots as I could before the towels started to get wet.
Anyway, lighting from below, with foam core used a little like a light box as a reflective source.
Our story so far…
Setting up this shot, he clearly wasn’t a pound wise…and barely a penny foolish. Just the same, he took a series of shots (but fortunately no shocks) with his Olympus E-500 with a 35mm; ISO 100, 1/30 sec. at f7.1; aperture mode, and shot at -7/10 EV. In addition to other tweaks, I dialed down the green in the ink a bit so it would look less vibrant.
Cold. Hard. Cash. And not easy to come by. I mean the “cold” part. Yes, yes, freezing water is easy. Freezing water so it appears crystal clear—a little harder. I tried freezing two different “water bricks” before this one. I starting with distilled water, boiled it (twice) to get rid of any remaining impurities or particulate, allowed it cool, and then froze it. The first result: nice cloudy ice you’d be safe to hide behind if a polar bear was nearby. The second time around: much less cloudy…so sorry, the bear wins. The third time around…still not what I wanted, but there were some trapped air pockets that I decided to break to produce an interesting effect.
I had plans to have coins imbedded too, but wanted them suspended in different layers of the ice—not laying right on top of the bills. (There’s actually three in there.) So as a test I froze a first cross section with the bills in it, waited until it could support the coins, then placed them on top and added more water. Nope. There was a cloudy demarcation between the two layers. With enough time, I know I would have found a satisfactory solution (so to speak), but I am not the most patient person. Nor the smartest: the melting ice block sat on top of a small light table I build a few years ago. Rivulets of water on top, electric cables underneath…I figured I be a shoo-in for this year’s Darwin Awards [www.darwinawards.com] if I wasn’t careful. Lavishly applying duct tape and several towels, I sealed off the edges of the glass—which do not reach all the way to the table’s edges (don’t ask)—and got off as many shots as I could before the towels started to get wet.
Anyway, lighting from below, with foam core used a little like a light box as a reflective source.
Our story so far…
Setting up this shot, he clearly wasn’t a pound wise…and barely a penny foolish. Just the same, he took a series of shots (but fortunately no shocks) with his Olympus E-500 with a 35mm; ISO 100, 1/30 sec. at f7.1; aperture mode, and shot at -7/10 EV. In addition to other tweaks, I dialed down the green in the ink a bit so it would look less vibrant.