Category Archives: Close-up

Mixing things up

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A friend sent me a link to a little photo project to try, so today I gave it a whirl. The original idea was to mix water and cooking oil and shoot the resulting effect. After initial tests, I decided to mix rubbing alcohol and canola oil. This seemed to work pretty well as the two were easy to stir up and then they slowly separated from tiny circles to progressively larger circles as time went by. I have included an image of my messy setup to give visual aid to anyone wanting to try this. In the setup photo, you will see a clear glass bowl that the camera looks straight down into, and I simply cut a hole in a board slightly smaller than my dish. I did this to keep spill light from the flash hitting anything but my colorful items and not the glass bowl. The arrows point to my two flashes that were aimed at the pile of colorful clothing that I placed about two feet below the dish. Basically the flash hits the colorful items and the liquid picks up the colors. Flashes were set on manual and I shot around f 16-22 for most shots. I may try water and oil at some point,but initially it seemed they separated too quickly. Lens was a 105 micro and I was almost at 1 to 1 magnification.The three white sticks are to keep my dish from moving.

Birds of a Feather

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Today I decided to shoot this group of hand-made birdhouses that I occasionally pass in my travels. They are for sale at a roadside stand that features a variety of items for the passerby.They are all made by an older gentleman who lives there. He has no electricity or power tools and cuts everything utilizing good old muscle power on an old miter box. Sometimes it seems I forget many of the places I have shot before, because the wife of the owner came out to tell me about a nice photo another photographer gave them years ago. Turns out it was my photo, and I figured I would share that image along with tonight’s shot. I came up with the title because I think many of the people who follow me here also have a good appreciation of beautiful places and things, hence birds of a feather, flock together. The top image was done with my flashlight this evening using a thirty-second exposure.

Banzai Pipeline

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During the winter months, Landscape photography can be a bit lackluster at times, so doing a little shooting inside helps to keep things interesting. Todays image features nothing more than liquid dish soap and its intense colors. To do this shot, I filled a tray with soapy liquid, and then used an old tennis racket frame I had, to dip into the liquid. When the racket is carefully lifted, the soap stretches across the frame and starts this interesting swirling motion. Colors and patterns vary greatly,and do not usually last long till it pops. I basically pre focus on a spot and then put the racket in position, and quickly fine tune things. To really bring the color to life, I used a technique called cross polarization,which uses a sheet of polarizing material on the light source and then a polarizer is also placed on the lens. My title references the surfers paradise in Hawaii called the Banzai pipeline because I thought the soap looks like a huge crashing wave.

Antique Biscuit Box & Tins

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Once again, thanks to the generosity of many people I meet, I am lucky enough to be allowed to photograph items that are a part of their lives, and at the same time, express my creative side through my photography. Sometimes these people own things that are so cool, I just have to ask if I can photograph them. The antique biscuit box and old tins shown here are one such example. Owners Margi and Dan have quite a selection of quality antiques they sell, and they were more than happy to let me capture some that have a personal connection. The grained wood box supporting everything is a family heirloom from the 1800s, many of the tins are early 1900s and were found in old general stores. Margi’s great great uncle was Newton Graybill who operated an old general store until the mid 1900s in Richfield,Pa, and in the late 1980s, a huge public sale was held featuring countless new merchandise items from the 1900s. Margi was able to buy several items from that sale. The old calendar reads 1922, and the american lady shoe sign is early 1900. finishing off the image is a door that is original to the house from around 1790. I light painted the whole scene with deer spotlights that have snoots and diffusion that I added to control the power they have. I use many types of flashlights and flash to do this,but I favor my spotlights the most. small items need more subtle flashlights, so its good to have a variety.

Unlock your Imagination

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I chose the title of todays post after my wife and I went out to eat on friday. The restaurant walls had several quotes stenciled on them, and one by Albert Einstein caught my attention. The full quote reads like this, “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my own imagination.Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited.Imagination encircles the world”. As an artist, I am constantly looking for inspiration all around me, whether its music, photographs, art,  or in this case an inspirational idea, one can enhance their own artistic expression by unleashing their imagination.

Whenever I read a quote like this, I think to myself, I sure wish I could say something so profound, yet so simple, but you can’t have it all I guess. On the topic of creativity, I have always been intrigued by how some people are seemingly born with the gift of creativity, others seem to learn it along the way, and others do not have an artistic bone in their body. Personally I don’t like to even say I am artistically blessed, because I am a small blip in the creative world, but I do feel I have been given a gift from God to capture the beauty around me. I know this because every time I see a gorgeous sunset or scene, I can feel something inside me stir, and am so grateful to have that feeling.

My image today features old locks and was made possible by the Burkholder family who have an antique business. They allowed me into their home to do two shots I had envisioned in my mind. One of the two images was this old group of keys and locks, and I wanted to photograph them in a way to accent their aged quality. I decided to use some old barn wood I had, and put some old lanterns in there as well. I light painted the scene to bring out the textures and shapes, and to make the lanterns glow,I held a lit match near the wick to simulate the glow, simply because these old antiques could not be fired up. The door in the photo is from an old prison and provided the background to complement my shot.

So in conclusion, I wholeheartedly believe that imagination is more important than knowledge, and I encourage anyone that follows my blog to imagine the possibilities you have each day to photograph what you love, and do it in a way that pushes your photos to the next level, and as you do so, may you find great satisfaction in producing something you are proud to put your name to.

A chill in the air

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Tonight you could feel the cold raw air on your neck as a wintry mix moved into our area. Freezing rain, snow and everything in between are possible,but unfortunately it sounds like it will be just a small storm. For those who enjoy taking photos, it’s the kind of storm that leaves you wishing for a good old-fashioned nor’easter that drops inch after inch all night long, and as you lay in your warm bed listening to the wind howl, you anxiously await first light and the glorious landscape. Tomorrow I am shooting a few antique items using light painting, so unless the storm surprises me, I plan to be inside most of the day. This image was taken last year about the same time as everything was covered by freezing rain, and I found myself rushing around to catch the endless possibilities that were melting before my eyes. Author Bill Watterson once said “getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery” and that sums things up pretty well.