365.204 S/V#002 (wave-like particle)

After much pondering, I noticed the wavy lines in the bottom of a pie pan reflector that I’ve never used, and remembered the wavelike particle-ness (and particle-like wave-ness) of water, and then remembered that sound is also a wave, and falls on the electromagnetic spectrum.

So I shot the pie pan: fail.

And then I had a flash of brilliance, and added a bit of water to it: still fail.

Then I added some agitation: better, but nope.

Then I added some flash: getting there, but not enough DoF.

So I cranked down the aperture, and Poof! Something that get’s a bit closer to ‘Don’t you wonder sometimes… about Sound & Vision!’ for the sliproject. We’ll see if it makes the cut.

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E-Series. ISO100, 1/250th, f/8. SB-700, mounted on-camera, with diffusion flap down, zoomed to 11mm (automatically, I think), at 1/8th. Rather heavily processed in Aperture.

365.202 sorrow, sorrow. Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, hoo-hoo

I wanted to make an ugly picture today, but my eyes fell across the wadded-up reflector, which was busily bouncing all sorts of colors all around, so this will just have to do, I guess.

And maybe it does sorta capture sorrow sorrow oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, ho-ho. Who knows.

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Zomb-E Series. ISO800, 1/4th (Apmode), f/3.5, -1EV, and deliberately defocused. Minimal processing in Aperture.

365.202 trip to heave and ho, up down to and fro’

Well, I was afraid of running out of time to try and play at photographing sound and vision, so I snapped a couple of quick early-morning highway driving shots on the way to work.

There’s a rather new apartment mid rise with these neon (probably led or something) lights on the edges that change color every few minutes. If I’m running on time, they change from blue to red as I go past. If I’m early (like today), they’re blue the whole time. I don’t know if they change to any other colors…

So I actually shot this with some intent: I knew the building would be there, I knew the camera had to be ready (and not endlessly writing some 18 second exposure to the cheap memory cards I have), and I knew I wanted to try and get it coming and going, just to see what that looked like, and this panning as I went around the curve on the highway resulted in the arc of oncoming headlights at the bottom.

I also knew that I would need to stop the exposure at some point, so after I passed the building, I pressed the front of the lens agains my slacks, which prevented a bunch of blow-out like I would normally get with this lens.

So I’m acting with more intent when I shoot while driving to work, and with all the pretty, swirling colors and other stuff going on, I’m really pleased with this shot.

Good times.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO100, 30sec. (AP mode), f/11, -1EV. Rather heavily processed, but not as much as you might think.

365.201 S/V#001 (Iron Man)

Head’s up: this week, I’ll be attempting to capture “Don’t you wonder sometimes about Sound & Vision,” a line from David Bowie’s ‘Sound and Vision’ from theLow album, for the sliproject.

I don’t expect to capture it properly, which is why I’ve given myself at least 998 more tries…

This is a desktop speaker with its cover off and 3 light sources battering it into beautiful submission. I hoped the speaker would vibrate noticeably: alas. Perhaps it was song choice? I played The Bad Plus’s cover of Iron Man (if you haven’t ever heard it, head to youtube… you can thank me later) at quite a high volume, and I could feel the air around the speaker vibrating, but couldn’t capture that vibration with the camera, so I focused on vision instead, and just made it sorta pretty.

I like that the circle with the two eyes sorta looks like a cheerful frog or something.

So this one was fail, but I’ll try again tomorrow. Whoo!

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Zomb-E Series. ISO100, 15 seconds (ApMode), f/3.5, -1 EV. Mild-to-Medium processing in Aperture.

Oh… light provided by a large window, a tungsten bulb under a large yellow shade, and one of the LED Light Pipe things, hence the dark blue, golden yellow, and pale blue stripe on the left…

365.200 just a lazy Sunday

Not much to say here. I inherited a groovy old lamp from my stepdad, and I’ve been wanting to put its chrome spherical shade/cover to some photographic use, and I guess a selfy is as good a use as any.

Also, I feel like I should be doing something monumental for the 200th 365 shot, but I don’t really think 200 has much significance when the span is 1-365. I think the important numbers would be maybe 183 (halfway to 366), maybe 122 and 244 (1/3 and 2/3), maybe even 92 and 275 (roughly 1/4 and 3/4)… but 200? Nope: not special.

But it seems like it should be, yes? I don’t know.

Focusing was tricky, here, due to the spherical surface… so please to forgive my out-of-focus eyes.

D7000. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. ISO100, 1/5th (APmode), f/2.2 (finger slip… I should switch the camera over to full stops only…), -1EV. Mild-to-moderate processing in Aperture.

Ok… off to swipe off the counters and sweep right quick, and then it’ll be back to being lazy. Hooray for Lazy Sundays!

365.199 Abstraktes Bild

In an attempt to have a wider variety of city roads to choose from for the sliproject shot, I snapped a bunch of pics on the way to Momma’s house this morning, and on the way home too.

The light was all that beautiful morning light, the time when you’re supposed to get the best shots, but in the canyon that is US75 through Dallas, the dynamic range was too high to get anything useful, and I could see that without even looking at the pictures I was making.

But some interesting reflections happen in the early morning, and so I casually sprayed out the side windows a couple of times…

And lo and behold, when I got home, uploaded the pictures, and started looking, this one jumped out.

I think I may have the makings of a brief series… But I think I’ll keep it to myself for now, as I may never do anything with it, may decide it’s a banal idea, or may just give up before I even get properly started…

I wish I had a bit more control over the exposure in this, as it would’ve been nicer had the sky not been completely blown out. But then the trees would’ve been black, and there would be very little detail in the shadow areas.

I’m not really sure how to solve this, but I’ll do some research, and keep experimenting. If you have any ideas, I hope you’ll share them!

Anyways, I like this, and maybe you do too.

D7000. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. ISO100, 1/40th (APmode), f/4. Mild processing in Aperture.

365.198 July 13, 2012

Homage Gerhard Richter

I somehow don’t think this photo, depicting the ubiquity of road construction, will have quite the same impact on viewers as Richter’s October 18, 1977…

For one thing, October 18, 1977 depicts a national event of some import: the suicide of 3 imprisoned members of the Baader-Meinhofm Gang, and other events of the Deutscher Herbst.

My July 13, 2012, on the other hand, depicts something that is unending: highway construction in North Texas.

Oh well. I like the he treated his subjects in that series (and in his realistic oeuvre as a whole), and the treatment of the tractor in my photo reminds me of poor digital approximation of his analogue painting style.

If you’re not familiar, do a search for his Woman Descending the Staircase, or perhaps Uncle Rudi and you might see what I mean.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 AI. ISO100, 1/15th (APmode), f/8, -1EV, .9 and .6 ND filters attached. Moderate processing in Aperture, mostly to straighten, crop slightly, and add back that stop of exposure I lost.