365.241 Dallas Skyline

now with 20% more sunstars!

Well, the North Texas Photography Explorers MeetUp Group met up to shoot the Dallas Skyline from the Trinity River bottoms/levee tonight. I met a couple of friendly people, shot with one most of the night, waved hello and/or goodbye at some others, and generally enjoyed myself.

I’m going to make a concerted effort to get out to more of these, as I’ve been a bit lax on my attendance of late.

Anyway. Here’s a quick and dirty one, with some slapped-together processing.

I’d have a better title for it, maybe, and I’d post a big blob of related shots, and different angles, and whatnot, but it’s waaaay past my bedtime, so others will have to wait for tomorrow.

D7000. Nikon 36-72mm f/3.5 E Series. ISO100, 15 seconds (APmode), f/8, -1EV. Quite a bit of processing in Aperture to gritty-up the the river bottoms while leaving the city nice and shiny.

365.240 Concept Proved… Now What?

So I proved the concept yesterday, and was all excited about playing with it today: thought about it off and on since last night.

But when it came time to shoot… blank.

So here I am doing a U-Turn. Woo. Exciting. Yawn.

I’m going to go put a pen and pad next to the bed, and on the back of the toilet, and somewhere near the stove or food prep area, and on the coffee table in hopes that something will come to me in a flash of brilliance or something.

In the mean time…

My meager backdrop is in the wash, and I think I’ll make a trip to the fabric store for a much bigger piece. My current one is roughly 3’x18″ and was purchased to shoot product photos back in graphic design class in 2004ish, and is not intended to serve as a backdrop for a human person…

D7000. Nikon 36-72mm f/3.5 E-Series, at 72mm. ISO100, 6 seconds, f/8. SB-700, zoomed to 24mm, at 1/8th, fired into a silver umbrella and ineffectually bounced off of a silver reflector (camera right), and triggered via a pair of Cactus v5 triggers: one on the flash; one in my hand. Medium processing in Aperture to remove filth from the backdrop and bring out a bit of detail.

365.239 proof of concept

Feeling better today.

Didn’t make the time, or put in the thought, to get the picture I wanted, since the only idea I had didn’t work very well, but I did manage to learn some things about the general method I used, so a proof of concept is great.

One thing… Why is only the left edge in focus? I was the same rough distance away from the lens/camera/film plane for all. It could be that the Vivitar is a bit heavy for the D7000 (it is), or maybe something is off with the film plane (I surely hope not). Some testing will be needed.

And I’ll need to do some more playing with this… as the possibilities for this method look promisingly possible.

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5, at about 80mm. ISO100, 6 seconds, f/3.5. SB-700, zoomed to 24mm, at 1/8th, fired into a silver umbrella. Mild processing in Aperture.

365.238 not today

I don’t know if it’s something(s) that I ate, or the bs texts I got from a buddy (about nothing of any consequence) last night that brought up a bunch of stuff I put away many years ago, or the beautiful weather, or what, but I feel emotionally wretched today, and really have no desire for anything except beer, cigarettes, and ice cream—all of which I generally feel extremely good about giving up—much less shooting another #*$&^%(  picture for this project.

So here’s a shot of my desk. I just set the camera, lens first, down on the desk and shot away. This was the best of the 1 pictures that I took. Hooray for coping out.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 AI. ISO100, 6 seconds, f/16. No post processing beyond importing into Aperture, converting to jpg, and outputting at 900px wide.

Beautiful, ain’t it.

365.237 closing time

I might be sortof on to something here…

I was trying (unsuccessfully) to do a bit of light painting with the Zomb-E Series and some small LED lights and the laser pointer I used often in Grad school, but now serves as the world’s most adored (or hated, depending on who you ask) cat toy…

Any time I pull out the laser pointer, Ivan perks up, and every time Ivan perks up, Olive takes a strong interest, since she’s the only worthy recipient of attention from the big scary/big cuddly thing that tortures/loves on them.

So I swung the rig around, pointed and focused as best I could, and took a couple of shots.

I find this quite interesting, and processed it to look like a run-down dive bar/club just after last call, when the bartenders flip the lights on to let everyone know it’s time to get the **** out, and then the jukebox/stereo slows to a halt, and everyone looks up from their drinks/conversations, and begins to pound down that last one, stuggles into a coat maybe, or pulls out money to pay the tab.

I don’t know how successful this was, and I’m going to have to do a bit more with this, I think… maybe light the wall somehow to really make Ivan pop, or maybe find a way to trigger a few flash pulses during the long exposure, maybe.

But at least it’s something new (for me), and something that looks like it might have some potential to keep me experimenting/learning/moving forward, so it’s win either way.

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm Zomb-E Series. ISO100, 6 seconds, f/3.5. Medium processing in Aperture to give it that gritty, sort of shined-up Long Island dive bar vibe.

365.236 it even smells like a street

If I were going to scribble out a picture of David Bowie strutting across the Diamond Dogs stage set like any other Candidate, I think it might look something like this… maybe.

Incidentally, I’ve hit a point where I feel a bit stagnant on this project… that means, I think, that my ‘vision’ has expanded past my technical ability, and perhaps I’m close to discovering something new.

Maybe.

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Zomb-E Series. ISO100, 1/10th (APmode), f/3.5, -1EV. Minimal processing in Aperture, mostly to make it a bit dirtier, and to straighten it up a bit.

365.235 the new chandelier

As part of the renovations following the broken pipe and large hole in my bedroom floor, the apartment owners installed a new chandelier in the dining area.

The new chandelier is much fancier than the old chandelier, which was not really a chandelier at all, to be honest, but more of a table lamp, inverted, dangling from the ceiling.

The new one is FANCY. Believe. And I’ll be having some fun with all the shiny surfaces and little plastic crystals and whatnot, for sure.

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron), in Macro mode. ISO100, 1/15th (APmode), f/4, -1EV. Minimal processing in Aperture.