365.140 a Happy Accident

While speeding to work this morning (I wasn’t running late, just speeding), I came up on an suv of some sort, and the light coming off of its spinners was AMAZING.

So I slowed down, whipped out the camera, popped off the lens cap, pointed it, and tripped the shutter…

But a D7000 in AP Mode, with ISO and Aperture determined by the user performs quite a bit differently than would an iPhone or any camera in full auto mode, and the D7000 didn’t see the beautiful spinners twinkling in the pre-dawn darkness, it just saw the pre-dawn darkness.

And while my choice of ISO (leftover, incidentally, from I-don’t-know-what), was far higher than I would have knowingly left it, it was not high enough to provide anything approaching hand-holdability, especially since I had a relatively high aperture value set.

I can’t in any way fault the D7000 here, as it performed admirably, and eked out its usual one stop overexposure (with this lens) that led to this image.

And I don’t know why I expected a relatively short shutter speed, or, rather, I didn’t even think about it because 1) I was driving, and 2) I got maybe one hour of sleep last night and have been pretty well out of it pretty much all day.

Anyways…

This shot, to me, looks like a candidate for an outtake of the cover shoot Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album, as covered by the Scissor Sisters, and I think I’ve stumbled on to a project to try for a week or two, or at least something to try again…

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai. ISO800, 15 seconds (AP Mode), f/8. Adjustments to exposure, black point, and contrast in Aperture to help tighten everything up.

Hipstamatic Disposable update 10 – the BlackKeys 44 camera

Well I finally managed to finish up the BlackKeys 44 camera I started several months ago, then realized I hadn’t played with the slider at all in it, so I shot another one.

This is my current favorite, I think: gritty, contrasty, black/white, with a minimal border = good times.

I also shot another roll of the Rodney X69 camera, in hopes that the slider controlled the intensity of the light leak. Unfortunately, it controls the intensity of the double-exposure offset. This is incredibly unfortunate, as it renders that camera completely useless for my purposes.

But this is all about the BlackKeys 44 camera, and it is a winner, IMO.

365.140 Ivan (homage Daido Moriyama)

I shot through a second test of the BlackKeys 44 camera on the Hipstamatic Disposable series app today, and had no intention of using one of those for the 365. In fact, I shot a nice picture with the 645 Pro app that captured my agoraphobia in a beautiful and suggestive manner, and which I planned to put a hurt on with one or another or several of the Topaz Labs plugins for Aperture, but when I saw this picture pop up during import, I knew this was it.

Anyway.

Any time my hands get within 2 feet of the floor, Olive runs over to be petted, and this time was no different.

I had just pushed the shutter when she started rubbing all up on my hand, so half of the credit for this shot goes to her, for sure.^

The only thing that would make this picture better is if I had shifted about one degree to the left, to crop out the electrical plug and part of the cat tree, but then there wouldn’t be as much tail… Other than that, I’m extremely pleased with this, though it would mostly be a huge fail if not for Daido Moriyama…

iPhone 4. Hipstamatic Disposable series, BlackKeys 44 ‘camera.’

^Olive and Ivan are two black cats that live with me, in case you were wondering.

365.139 that kitten in the window

 

This cat tends to watch me head out to work every morning, so today I whipped out the phone and shot it.

Good thing I did, since I had loads of stuff to do after work, and couldn’t be bothered to shoot anything for the 365. I did shoot a house, though, so that’s something, even if I didn’t do the best job ever. It doesn’t matter though, since my superdoublesecretmagic settings in the d7000 will pretty much render brilliant real estate photos with the lens cap on, so all is well enough.

iPhone 4, built in camera app.

365.138 Smear Campaign 2012

Insofar as I’m feeling wildly uninspired today, I decided to shoot one of the tiny little painting things I made in late 2011, in an attempt to relax and kickstart my creative juices after months/years of neglect. I wasn’t ever satisfied with the paintings much, but it was more an exercise than anything else.

Anyway, I think this one makes a better photograph than it does a painting.

The paintings I made were a variation on a technique I developed as an undergrad, and pretty much stole (poorly) from Gerhard Richter (his Abstraktes Bild paintings, specifically). I smeared acrylic paint onto any smooth surface I could find, and ultimately settled on dry-erase marker board. I named this series of paintings “Smear Campaign” and you can view here if you like, though I wouldn’t really suggest it…

Again, this picture was made in a sort of feeble giving-in, and only out of necessity to keep up the 365 project. Hopefully I’ll be able to do something more  soon.

D7000. Tokina 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X, in close focus mode at about 4:1, according to the markings on the barrel of the Tokina. ISO800, 1/25th (AP mode), f/3.5. Some color correction and enhancement in Aperture.

365.137 a bad capture of some brilliant light

If you pay attention, there’s a great light show going on somewhere nearby at virtually any time of the day or night.

Realizing this fact and coming to appreciate light of all types is, on my view, one of the keys to improving skill as a photographer.

Sometimes it’s easy to capture the amazing light that’s all around all the time. At other times, not so much.

I see this sight most weekends (I leave too early in the morning to see it during the week), and I’ve tried to capture it multiple times, but I can’t seem to get it just right.

First, I’m usually on my way to go do something when I notice this light. It’s right outside my front door, and all I have to do is open the blinds and look out, but I usually don’t open the blinds until after 8 or 9 am, if at all. And so I only ever see it when I’m headed out somewhere, and I don’t take the time adjust settings manually or even play with exposure compensation or exposure locking, if I even bother to pull out the camera at all.

Second, I have yet to find a spot where everything lines up just right. (It doesn’t help that this apartment complex is 50+ years old, and a bit out of square… and the big black fountain in the center of the courtyard doesn’t help much either.)

Third, it would help if I had taken the time to check the focus… I thought I had it, but I didn’t really.

So there are two lessons I need to learn from this (at least): 1) Take Your Time, James! Check your settings, adjust your focus, and don’t be in such a hurry! and 2) move around more! If it looks good from here, it probably looks pretty good from over there too!

Actually, I’m usually pretty good about the second, but only when I attend to the first.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8. ISO100, 1/30 (AP Mode), f/5.6, -1EV, very minor adjustments in Aperture.

365.136 Scavenger Hunt Photowalk

The Dallas Photowalk MeetUp Group met up today for a scavenger hunt. I didn’t get much rest last night, and so I sort of mumbled my way through it, but I did manage to capture 8 out of 12 things in one picture (the 365 shot for today, above), another 4 in this one…
365.136 Scavenger Hunt Photowalk
and the final two here:

365.136 Scavenger Hunt Photowalk

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8. ISO100, 1.6 seconds (AP mode), f/22, -1EV, minimal processing in Aperture.

If you’re curious, here’s the full list:

  • Red
  • Big
  • Soft
  • Money
  • Water
  • Reflection
  • Triangle
  • Parallel
  • Place to sit
  • Arch
  • A cover
  • The letter “R”

As you may have noticed, some of my finds were a bit more conceptual than others…