James Cockroft

365.57 Ohne Titel (and a friend…)

James — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:52:35 +0000

I made 150-odd photos today, trying (in vain) to capture a macro version of yesterday’s optical illusion with the crayons.

I got some interesting-enough shots, so groovy.

All were shot with the D7000, Nikon 75-150mm E Series, Reversed, on 49mm of extension tubes, and at ISO100.

The runner up (see below) was taken from about a foot away, 1/10th, f/3.5 with the SB700 at 1/2 power near camera right.

The 365 was more complex in that it was a multifun shot in addition to being macro. The end of the lens was about 3 feet away. Shots 1 and 2 were at f/11 and 1/10th, with the SB700 at 1/4 power at camera left. Shot 3 was at f/3.5 without the flash.

This was perhaps the most fun I’ve had with a 365 shoot: no cussing or grumbling or checking the clock and the shot count. And I’m reasonably pleased with the results. All in all, pretty much win, methinks.

365.56 Optical Illusion

James — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:15:07 +0000

The idea for this came quickly, but took many tries to execute (poorly). It looks better as a thumbnail, fyi.

D7000, 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series at 150mm (225mm equivalent), ISO100, 1/10th, f/16, SB700 at 1/4 power, zoomed out to 28mm set to it’s wide beam setting, about 3 feet from the subject maybe 10 inches to the left (about 2 feet from camera-left).

I tried a bunch of multiple exposure trickery, and I’ll be trying that again tomorrow, but maybe with the lens reversed, get my macro-multiple-exposure-strobism on…

365.55 Wino (3rd Attempt): Take it Easy…

James — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:53:32 +0000

I’ve been sober for almost 2 years.

But some days, I really feel like tying one on…

Maybe tomorrow. For now, though, it’s clean up the mess I made making this mediocre (at best) picture, then it’ll be dinnertime (it’s already way past…), and then time to relax so I can have a good night’s sleep and start all over again tomorrow. Hooray.

D7000, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, ISO100, 1/100th, f/1.4. SB700, at full power and zoomed to 70mm, on its wide angle setting and firing through CerealBoxStripBox(tm) on a tripod outside the window at camera left (fyi, probably the most complex I’ve gotten with the whole strobing thing…).

Well, I probably won’t shoot this again, and I probably won’t submit one to Alex Koloskov and Dave Nitsche’s Studio Photography Insights Hangout, as I’m in no way satisfied with any of the three attempts I’ve made thus far. Oh well: I’ve learned some things, I think, and that’s what counts!

365.54 Wino (Second Attempt): One Too Many

James — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:00:23 +0000

Once again, not happy, but oh well. I’m not happy with much of anything today: nothing in the way of sleep last night… Oh well.

I did mess around with this a bit: cloning, cropping, etc.

D7000, 50mm 1.8, ISO100, 1/80th, F/1.8, snooted SB700 high camera right, aimed at the label, at ~1/64th power, iirc.

365.53 Wino (first attempt)

James — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:03:46 +0000

Even though I’m always already asleep by the time their Studio Photography Insights hangout starts, I’m still going to try my hand at Alex Koloskov and Dave Nitsche‘s weekly project.

This is my first attempt (but not my last: the next will have to wait) at shooting this week’s assignment, an unopened bottle of red wine.

Seeing as I don’t drink, this bottle is on loan from a neighbor. I thought I’d try for a sort of disco (as in 1976) vibe. This is shot number 217 out of 227 attempts… Needless to say, there was some cursing and gnashing of teeth involved, and my apartment is a wreck.

I’m not happy with this much at all, but it’s got a few interesting things going on methinks:

the backlight, uneven though it is, is quite striking.
the tungsten glow from underneath is fairly rocking.
the slightly soft focus, thanks to my sneaky multiple-exposure process (see below) gives a hazy sort of vibe to the whole image that sorta works for the subject, imo.

So I need to get some better light going on the front, while somehow avoiding all the reflections I got earlier.

And I need to get the camera and subject lined up better.

And I need to get the flash involved to a greater (and more obvious degree).

And I’d like to get some light shining through the bottle, but given the green glass + red liquid, I don’t think that’s going to happen…

I may make some more attempts tonight, but I doubt it. I’ve already been at it for 6 hours, and I need to try to get the place straightened up, have some dinner, and relax before my early-honking bedtime so I can get back to my day job tomorrow. Whoo!

So.

D7000, Nikon 75-150mm E Series, at about 140mm (~210mm equivalent), ISO100, 1/20th (chosen by the camera as I was in Aperture priority by accident), f/3.5, three shot multiple exposure, processed in camera.

Shot 1: no flash, just the styrofoam-cooler-as-softbox-ish-type-thing and two LED light bar things I picked up at the home improvement center earlier today.

Shot 2: SB700 at 1/128th power, with it’s diffusion dome in place, about 4 inches in front of the subject and about 16 inches below, and with a handheld flashlight aimed down onto the top of the bottle to give it some definition.

Shot 3: same flash setup, sans flashlight, deliberately defocused.

365.52 Point of Impact, part 7: Liquid Metal

James — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:53:57 +0000

Aluminum roasting pans were on sale at the Fiesta for $1 each, so I bought a rectangular one and an oval one…

I wondered what the grooves and ridges in the pans would do for the light, and I got my answer: they make it Awesome!

This setup was rather complex: the SB700 (on the not-broken-after-all Cactus V5 trigger) standing to the right, and slightly in front of, the subject, zoomed to 70mm and on the narrow beam, fired over top of the subject and into the round roasting pan, which I bent up quite a bit so it would cantilever out a bit and positioned on the left of the subject, and slightly behind, angled back towards the camera a bit, so it would bounce light into the second roasting pan which was directly next to the flash.

This is probably a bit confusing, so here’s a picture (and I think I’ll start doing this for most of my shots going forward):

75-150 @75, 1/10th, f/16 (also back about 5 feet from the original shooting poisition)

I think I’ll head back to the Fiesta and pick up about 20 of these pans and stack them in the closet for future flash-bouncing fun!

Good times.

D7000, Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series at 150mm, ISO100, 1/250th, f/16, SB700 at full power, and bounced all over the place.

And thus ends my full week of shooting the same object over and over again… I think I got some good shots, and definitely got to play with flash some, so GoGo. This weekly project thing might just become a regular occurrence…

365.50 Point of Impact, part 5: Small Craft on Milky Sea

James — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:25:01 +0000

And once again, this took a long time…

And once again, I’m too tired to say anything about this shot…

D7000, Nikon 75-150 f/3.5 Series E at 150mm (~225 equivalent), ISO100, 1/250th, f/22, SB-700 at 1/2 power, fired into the CerealBoxStripBox(tm) with its diffuser in place, triggered with Cactus v5 system.

And, once again, the CerealBoxStripBox makes some amazing light…

365.49 Point of Impact, part 5: Shearing Forces

James — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:15:03 +0000

I was wondering when I was going to resort to macro…

D7000, Lens Baby Muse (plastic), with +10 Macro lens, ISO400, 1/50th, f/5.6. I lit it with the usual Macro combo: Desk Lamp, Mini MagLite, and single-bulb bicycle lamp.

Normally, I have something more to say, but not today: too tired. Oh well.

365.48 Point of Impact – part 2 – Ist es nicht sehr schön?

James — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:33:52 +0000

And this one really was fun! And it went quickly too!

I did tear half the apartment apart to get the camera in a position to shoot it, but that’s my own fault for not yet having a proper shooting platform set up: soon, probably not this month due to work-related time constraints, but soon.

Ok. This was another multiple exposure shot, this time with flash. Both were shot with the D7000 and 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, zoomed all the way in, with the ISO set at 100:

Shot 1: 1/200th second, f/16, SB700 at 1/2 power fired into the CerealBoxStripBox(tm) that I positioned over the subject and slightly behind, as I wanted the light to spill over the side and bounce off the foamcore below to illuminate the underside.
Shot 2: 1/2, f/5.6, same flash set up (I meant to shut off the flash and try to get some hint of the yellow tungsten bulbs and afternoon light in the reflection, but I forgot, or got in too much of a hurry, or something… I don’t remember). Either way…

I think it’s beautiful.

365.47 Point of Impact, part 2: Dizzy

James — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:32:22 +0000

Well, this was a fun one…

D7000, Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5 – 4.5 at 10mm (15mm equivalent), ISO100, 1/60th, f/6.3; SB-700 with its Florescent filter thing, at 1/4 power, camera left, triggered with Cactus v5 trigger.

I don’t do much with the 10-24 unless I’m shooting real estate, and this photo shows it! Wow. I need more practice with this lens, and with shooting in general.

It didn’t help that I put in a 9.5 hour day after not sleeping well thanks to the light snow fall and loud drainpipe outside my window last night. Yuck.

But tomorrow is another day, and another step towards getting better at making photographs! Woo!