Landscape

This weeks Photo Friday theme is Landscape.  I live in part of England that is fairly flat and boring, so sweeping vistas tend to look like the walls of a 1970's hospital, bands of beige and green.  So instead I decided to try and do a little abstract instead.

Experimental Light Modifier

If like me you have only a small permanent space for studio work, and budget (aka cheap second hand tat) lighting you will know that it can be difficult to control light.  I have only a soft box, and a few brollies to use.  Rather than get all 'woe is me' about it, I occasionally have a go at DIY solutions.  You may have seem my Pot Noodle snoots.  Today I decided to have a go at some micro soft boxes with the view to using them to light a background whilst reducing the spill onto the subject.  The results aren't brilliant, but I had a go.  This is how I did it.

1) Gather the bits

We have a cheap storage basket, some reflective foil, the sort you shove behind radiators to safe energy, a white sheet, some clothes pegs, duct tape, and electrical insulation tape. The tools I used were scissors, a Dremmel, and a sharpie.








2)

 First I used my light as a template, then cut out a hole with the Dremmel (wear goggles, and cut the hole outside kids)

3)
Use the basket to mark out the fold on the back of the foily stuff.  Cut off the corners

4)

Check the foil fits properlyish.  You can score, or fold this stuff which helps.







5)

Use the Duct tape to join the edges of the foil, then shove it in the basket.







6)

  Tape the excess foil over the side of the basket to hold it in place








7)

Carefully cut out a hole for the light to poke through.  Leave some excess to fold over and tape to the back.  This helps hold the whole contraction to the light without having to use tape on that too.






8) 

This is what it looks like in situ.








9)

I added some of the cotton sheet to soften the light a little

Golden

This week's theme for Photofriday is Golden.  My first thought was a pint of lager, but then I put my mind back onto the task in hand.  Actually I bought some glycerine to do some of that clever water droplet on a cold glass effect, but couldn't find a little sprayer to apply it, so the lager lives to fight another day.  My next idea came from watching a curious program, about very curious people which was on tv last night.  It was called Kinky Britain, and documented folk who make fetish videos for others.  I though I could do something with Golden Syrup.  It sounded very messy so I held it in reserve in case my last effort was hopeless.  The last effort is the one pictured above.  It's not eggsecuted brilliantly, but it's a nice little yolk......lets crack on.  So there it is.  i hope it gives you a little smile if nothing else.

Let's revive this blog

Well that was a long break.  I did go to another blog site for a while, but I like this one better so I'm back.  So this is not a photo, but it is a screenshot which is technically a picture.  I learnt a bit about databases way back when I was at polytechnic.  I have, of course, forgotten most of what I learned at the time, which wasn't much.  I have vague recollections of trying to stay awake whilst some lecturer or other tried in vain to make normalising data structures both comprehensible, and interesting.  Not to worry I surmised, when would I ever use this stuff anyway?  As it turns out I could do with a little of that knowledge now.  I have landed myself with a few web based projects which inevitably require a database behind them.  I'm not thrilled about it, and I hate doing web interfaces at the best of times (potential future employers ignore that bit).

Contrast

I'd completely forgotten about Photo Friday but as my photography has died a bit I was glad to rediscover it.  So just in time for the current challenge is this effort. Not a great image, but it shows my new fad.  The piano, not the nail varnish.

Half way Through, nearly, well sort of…

Ok tomorrow will see me completely over the midway part of the project in terms of time, but there is still the matter of the missing pictures, namely 54, and 74.  I feel fairly sure that I did not miss them, and they are languishing somewhere on one of the various computers I use.  I like to think they have bunked off, and are having a furtive ciggie whilst sneaking a look around the edge of a long forgotten spreadsheet to look out for pesky users, i.e. me.  If I cannot track them down I will have to retake a couple more photos to fill the gaps.  So you pesky pictures, if you don’t want to be replaced then you had better show up hadn’t you.

‘What about the other missing images’ ,I optimistically hope to hear the audience cry.  Well they are not missing, but are in a state of self imposed censorship.  There is nothing illegal, or morally reprehensible about them, but they are of a nature that I would prefer them to remain private until such time that I am either rich enough not to worry about upsetting my employers, or I am just plain brave enough to cock a snoot to society and say, sometimes I look like this OK?

So here’s to another 182 days of me.  Hurrah!

This image from my 365 Self Portrait project was inspired by propaganda posters from the USSR.  I had in mind doing something akin to this with some friends, but I thought I would try it out myself first.  I really like this for a number of reasons.  Firstly,apart from re-sizing, and saving to a different format, it was all done in camera.  I really wanted to capture the blue sky and clouds, whilst keeping my face reasonable well exposed.  I had toyed with the idea of using some neutral density filters, but I wanted my face to be against the sky, so that wouldn't have really worked without some post processing work.  The technique I went with was to use the on-camera flash.I slightly raised the flash compensation hoping to win the battle with the sun.  The feel of the picture is one of a studio portrait against, or with a superimposed background with the subject, i.e. me, being almost outlined by a shadow.  Another reason I like this picture is that I'm not looking my best.  I love portraits, although not exclusively, that show something of the character of the subject, and not just a record of how well they scrub up.

I am definitely over the halfway mark numerically, although I am still missing a number 74, and still have today's contribution to create.  With 171 images still to create there is a long way to go.  Having a sometimes hectic family life, and bouts of self doubt makes it difficult to find the will to continue on occasion.  This is why there is often a glut on uploads after a period of nothing.Despite this not adhering to the accepted nature of this project I fully intend to have a complete portfolio of 365 self portraits by the time the new year has been rung in.