Through One Eye » flower

The window seat

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:36:43 +0000

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”
~ John Updike

“A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.”
~ Frederick The Great

Unedited except to crop. Natural light.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm 1/4 lens, f/1.4, 1/80, ISO 200, manual, spot metering, Manfrotto tripod. Converted from RAW/NEF to B&W jpeg using Nikon’s Capture NX2.

A tiny new world, and freedom

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:40:17 +0000

macro photos and flower photos with extension tubes offer, in this shot at least, something akin to life without my spectacles. I’ve been feeling a little grumpy recently, and realized that I’d confined my views of photography to proper rules. After spending yesterday viewing a tiny vine and even tinier blossoms with varying degrees of sharpness and aperture openings, from ultra blurred, as in the photo (left), to an aperture of f/67—what the remarkable macro lens is capable of—I felt freer. What or how did I confine my efforts to mountains or “representing Alaska”?
And why?
Please ignore the underlined links. I’m playing with a new site, which requires a specific code.

Nude poppy

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:17:57 +0000

Nude poppy innards without petals. Untouched from RAW. Playing with extensions tubes is a hoot! Now I’ve had to order a micro rail from Adorama.com—but look at all the money VISA saved me by not letting someone fly to Spain on my card! (Not counting the other charges on PayPal the anonymous bloke charged.)

Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens, 105mm, f/3.5 and 1/6sec, -0.3ev, IS0 100, manual exposure, manual focus. Manfrotto tripod, SB-800 flash slaved with attached Honl grid from left. Converted from RAW/NEF (14 bit) tojpeg using Nikon’s Capture NX 2.2.4. Using 36mmm extension tube.

Testing new extension tubes

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:42:17 +0000

Poppy stamens and fluff closeup. Three brand new (one hour old!) Kenko extension tubes on the macro lens. UPS delivered the set from Adorama.com at 8 p.m. Good fun during a (lovely) rainy week. Rain feels good for the soul and dry mountains; tough on camera parts. The link has a mini-video about how the tubes work.

This closeup used:
Nikon D300 and Nikkor 105mm macro lens, 105mm, at f/22 and 5 sec, -0.3ev, IS0 200. manual exposure. Manfrotto tripod, softbox lighting. Converted from RAW/NEF (14 bit) to jpeg using Capture NX 2.2.4. Just a bit of de-saturation, since the poppy seemed too orange–at least to me.

The drenched poppies seemed bent and flattened; I felt only small qualms about plucking them. This is a very shallow (f/1.4) shot using a softbox to light them.

Red!

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:43:44 +0000

After shooting (without killing) a lusty red amaryllis plant yesterday and posting to my RedBubble sales account, I began to ponder.

Does the sharp detail err on the side of masculine? A quick perusal of others’ photos reveals shallow depth-of-field photos, blurred intentionally using the Orton effects, and then covered by a layer of texture. Softness seems to be in style, whether the original were in focus or not. As wikipedia states about the Orton effect:

“Photography enthusiasts, such as groups on Flickr, have embraced the technique and used photo editing programs, like Adobe Photoshop, to replicate it. Some have modified the technique to selectively apply the technique, producing images that have regions of crisp focus and high detail and regions of intense blurriness.”

Pssh. I was pleased that I didn’t touch the RAW photo with Photoshop, except to convert to a jpeg. One assumes that softness sells, but that’s not the aim here. I aim to see in new ways every day. Okay, sales are nice. My accountant likes them.

Or softer, perhaps, with a vignette and lighter background, as in the next shot? Perhaps this looks less clinical and more romantic. (Photo links to sales site.)

Light through the window

Admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:33:47 +0000

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman

Last call

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:22:09 +0000