92. Face - March 15-21, 2015
Jerry-
I started out with photographing the face of a coin - but it just didn't get me too excited. Most of this week I've been in a funk of sorts, hanging out with Sam, the family pet. I saw him relaxing on some pillows on the couch with some nice lighting coming in the window, so I grabbed the camera and took a tight shot of his face.
This was with the D750, 105mm Nikon Micro, f11 @ 1/50, ISO 800. This lens has VR (vibration reduction) which helped a lot with my shaky hands. Sam stayed pretty still and behaved for the camera.
I started out with photographing the face of a coin - but it just didn't get me too excited. Most of this week I've been in a funk of sorts, hanging out with Sam, the family pet. I saw him relaxing on some pillows on the couch with some nice lighting coming in the window, so I grabbed the camera and took a tight shot of his face.
This was with the D750, 105mm Nikon Micro, f11 @ 1/50, ISO 800. This lens has VR (vibration reduction) which helped a lot with my shaky hands. Sam stayed pretty still and behaved for the camera.
Byron-
This weeks theme turned out to be an interesting one for me. I got to combine a story I was told when I was a kid and a new piece of equipment that was waiting for me when I got back to sunny Minnesota. The story was that when you open a peanut you will see the face of Santa Claus at one end. The equipment was a 39mm thread to Nikon adapter. That allowed me to attach a recently rescued enlarging lens to the Nikon Bellows. Why would I attach an enlarging lens to a bellows? Because they are exceptionally sharp lenses, well suited for doing closeup photography. I also needed a subject. I looked at some jars of peanuts but most of them were already open and the Santa face was worn off. I went with a bag of in the shell peanuts. I setup the lighting equipment- a NIkon SB-700 mounted on a boom arm so it could aim straight down. Using a black shirt and some Elvis coasters, I created a place for the peanut to rest. The camera/bellows/lens/peanut housing were sitting on a table. The first peanut I shelled and opened contained a very good Santa face. I put it in its resting place, composed the scene, made sure focus was good and shot the picture. My luck continued. I liked the first exposure so I tore down the set. It's the first time in WPOTM history for me to make one exposure and call it good.
So here it is, use your imagination, and see Santas face. He's wearing a fur hat (the band is clearly visible), with a beard and a fur collar. Seeing it this closeup does add some ugly reality to the object but viewing the peanut with the naked eye from 2 ft away looks just like Santas face to me!
ISO 100, f8, 1/8sec, the bellows was extended about 2 inches, flash at 1/16 power.
This weeks theme turned out to be an interesting one for me. I got to combine a story I was told when I was a kid and a new piece of equipment that was waiting for me when I got back to sunny Minnesota. The story was that when you open a peanut you will see the face of Santa Claus at one end. The equipment was a 39mm thread to Nikon adapter. That allowed me to attach a recently rescued enlarging lens to the Nikon Bellows. Why would I attach an enlarging lens to a bellows? Because they are exceptionally sharp lenses, well suited for doing closeup photography. I also needed a subject. I looked at some jars of peanuts but most of them were already open and the Santa face was worn off. I went with a bag of in the shell peanuts. I setup the lighting equipment- a NIkon SB-700 mounted on a boom arm so it could aim straight down. Using a black shirt and some Elvis coasters, I created a place for the peanut to rest. The camera/bellows/lens/peanut housing were sitting on a table. The first peanut I shelled and opened contained a very good Santa face. I put it in its resting place, composed the scene, made sure focus was good and shot the picture. My luck continued. I liked the first exposure so I tore down the set. It's the first time in WPOTM history for me to make one exposure and call it good.
So here it is, use your imagination, and see Santas face. He's wearing a fur hat (the band is clearly visible), with a beard and a fur collar. Seeing it this closeup does add some ugly reality to the object but viewing the peanut with the naked eye from 2 ft away looks just like Santas face to me!
ISO 100, f8, 1/8sec, the bellows was extended about 2 inches, flash at 1/16 power.
Deron-
This is the face of Jack Torrance from the movie, 'The Shining', which I have painted on the face of my refrigerator. Maybe I'll be able to find some red rum inside.
This is the face of Jack Torrance from the movie, 'The Shining', which I have painted on the face of my refrigerator. Maybe I'll be able to find some red rum inside.
Kevin-
Well, “Face” made me rack my brain a bit. The obvious approach would have been a photo of someone’s face. But it felt like I had gone in that direction several times recently in various ways. So I stated thinking of combinations of words. Face Mask? That seemed a lot like one of Jerry’s recent photos. Face Paint? I just did that shot of Michelle for “Wild.” It would have fun (for me anyway) to capture an image of somebody falling Face First onto the ground while biking, skating, skiing or some similar activity. But I could carry my camera at my eye every moment of every day of my life and probably not capture a shot like that. So to do it in a week? About as likely as a tornado in January. Then i realized that Jerry didn’t say Face, he said face. That brought up all sort of other words like Preface and Defacement. I finally landed on “surface" and began to think of objects or processes that had interesting surfaces. That pretty much assured that anything would work! So I mixed a fresh batch of gingerbread cookie dough, brought out the baking sheet, kept the mixer and the rolling pin in the frame and added a couple of Nikon SB-900 series flash units. I like the surfaces of the cookies, the baking sheet, the wall behind and more.
Nikon D3s, 24-120mm f/2.8 lens set to 32mm. Tripod mounted. Both flash units were in TTL mode, one bounced off the ceiling and the other was covered with a dome diffuser and aimed down into the mixing bowl. They added to the undercounter LED lights and the tungsten lights in the ceiling that were already present. ISO 200. f/11 at .4 seconds. White balance set with a grey card.
Well, “Face” made me rack my brain a bit. The obvious approach would have been a photo of someone’s face. But it felt like I had gone in that direction several times recently in various ways. So I stated thinking of combinations of words. Face Mask? That seemed a lot like one of Jerry’s recent photos. Face Paint? I just did that shot of Michelle for “Wild.” It would have fun (for me anyway) to capture an image of somebody falling Face First onto the ground while biking, skating, skiing or some similar activity. But I could carry my camera at my eye every moment of every day of my life and probably not capture a shot like that. So to do it in a week? About as likely as a tornado in January. Then i realized that Jerry didn’t say Face, he said face. That brought up all sort of other words like Preface and Defacement. I finally landed on “surface" and began to think of objects or processes that had interesting surfaces. That pretty much assured that anything would work! So I mixed a fresh batch of gingerbread cookie dough, brought out the baking sheet, kept the mixer and the rolling pin in the frame and added a couple of Nikon SB-900 series flash units. I like the surfaces of the cookies, the baking sheet, the wall behind and more.
Nikon D3s, 24-120mm f/2.8 lens set to 32mm. Tripod mounted. Both flash units were in TTL mode, one bounced off the ceiling and the other was covered with a dome diffuser and aimed down into the mixing bowl. They added to the undercounter LED lights and the tungsten lights in the ceiling that were already present. ISO 200. f/11 at .4 seconds. White balance set with a grey card.
Paul-
“Face,” huh? Well, say hello to my little friend…
This week I decided to go big. This is a comparatively new outdoor sculpture in Lincoln. It’s called “Colossus”—which seems fitting—and is a fifteen-foot tall installation consisting of more than 300 individually shaped bricks. The artist stacked them in concentric circles, layer upon layer, and used over ten tons of red clay.
And here’s where it gets a bit over the top—so to speak. A couple of weeks ago a local knitting group asked the city council if it could, as a creative project, knit a cap for Colossus. (This is not quite “yarn bombing,” which I will leave you to look up if you are interested. It was meant to celebrate some kind of unofficial knitting holiday.) The City Council promptly turned the group down, citing some kind of obscure local law. Bummer.
Our story so far: 1/2000 sec; f/6.3, ISO 400, 18-55mm lens focused at 38mm. (And you guys though I had a big head.)
“Face,” huh? Well, say hello to my little friend…
This week I decided to go big. This is a comparatively new outdoor sculpture in Lincoln. It’s called “Colossus”—which seems fitting—and is a fifteen-foot tall installation consisting of more than 300 individually shaped bricks. The artist stacked them in concentric circles, layer upon layer, and used over ten tons of red clay.
And here’s where it gets a bit over the top—so to speak. A couple of weeks ago a local knitting group asked the city council if it could, as a creative project, knit a cap for Colossus. (This is not quite “yarn bombing,” which I will leave you to look up if you are interested. It was meant to celebrate some kind of unofficial knitting holiday.) The City Council promptly turned the group down, citing some kind of obscure local law. Bummer.
Our story so far: 1/2000 sec; f/6.3, ISO 400, 18-55mm lens focused at 38mm. (And you guys though I had a big head.)