Creative52, Week 24: Shoot an Out of Focus Photo Well
Getting back into the swing of things after recovering from Hurricane Ida, we've got a challenge about taking a photo that's intentionally out of focus and making it work. And this time around I wanted to subvert the expectation of the out-of-focus photo a bit and play around with the parameters of what it could mean. I've seen some brilliant out-of-focus photos that work really well: Photos that give a sense of movement, passing, transition, urgency. You get the idea.
But with Hurricane Ida fresh in my mind, there was a moment during the hurricane that kinda stuck with me that I wanted to call back. We’ve got these stray cats that come around the house. When the hurricane came through I was a bit concerned for all these cats. One cat in particular, Clytemnestra, will come around in the morning and afternoon to get fed. Well, when the hurricane started to crank up, we weren't able to find Clytems anywhere.
I went to go to the bathroom and that's when I heard it.
Clytemnestra has a very tiny, very dainty meow. But I heard it from where I was inside the house. It was faint but I heard it.
I looked out the window and there she was, little Clytems was under my car and she was freaking out. She didn't know where to go.
I put on my raincoat and ran out to try and get her. The thing is Clytems is very skittish. But I had to get her out from under my car. She just wouldn't come to me when I called her.
So, I just spoke calmly to her, motioned for her to come over, and eventually she came over to me. When she got close enough I scooped her up and ran her inside. She freaked out a bit cause she initially felt trapped but after about an hour she calmed down and settled in for the night.
That was a long night.
So, no, this week's challenge isn't some out-of-focus fashion shoot with a long-exposure twirling dress. It's me keeping vigilant at a window until I caught sight of that little stray cat I wanted to keep safe during a storm.
#hurricaneida #hurricaneida2021 #longexposure #outoffocus #creative52 #outoffocusfriday #outoffocusphotography #behindglass #duotones
Let's take a little look at how some of the Wizards in the Harry Potter universe are absolute jerks. Of course, this is all in good fun, but I want to take a look at the behavior and piggishness that Wizards have in this Potterverse. I mean, if they existed along with us here, they'd have a lot of explaining to do.
Creative 52, Week 29: Shoot a Very High-Key Image
High-key photography, damn near blowing out your image with copious amounts of light. Make your subject look like a pretty angel coming through heaven’s gate or something.
For this image I wanted to do a slight combination of high-key with low-key elements. By that, I mean, I wanted to put some form of viking face paint on the upper part of my face so I could later overlay an image of stars, the galaxy, or something of that nature. I wasn’t quite sure what yet. My girlfriend helped me with the makeup and even did an initial splatter spray of white on my forehead for texture and added pizzazz.
I wanted to wear a suit for this because you usually don’t see vikings in suits and I wanted to be a Work Viking…Assistant to the Regional Viking.
To make the blown out effect I hung up a white sheet in a doorway. Behind that sheet I put two softboxes with two 100 watt bulbs each to the side. I put two large LED worklights down a bit lower. ...
Creative 52, Week 28: Shoot a Very Low-Key Image
10/14/2021
Low-key in photography doesn’t mean relaxed, chilled out, and soft spoken. Low-key simply means that the emphasis is on the shadows, on the darks. Whereas high-key is all bright and damn near blown out, low-key has crushed blacks and is all mysterious. Perfect for getting close to Halloween, right?
Well, Gina was shooting a video for an upcoming belly dance gathering and was dressed like a witchy crone named Cailleach, a divine hag and Queen of Winter. She had a cool twiggy head band and some matching make-up; plus, we just finished watching this movie, Censor, which had this cool lighting theme all throughout. So, we decided to shoot this low-key image and video using only colored video lights…no strobes. The lighting was inspired by Censor and another movie called Mandy. Both movies are worth checking out.
This whole thing was a challenge because I really wanted to utilize the sharpness and look that I get with my ...
Collective Isolation
I have a strip of 75mm film I use for a bookmark and recently I was admiring just how damn cool it was. And then I was walking past these windows that look out upon the Mississippi River levee. In a way, this section of windows, framed by the support poles, reminded me of that 75mm film strip.
People, for the most part, tend to mind their own business. It's why we can go out to a restaurant with a loved one and pretend that we're not in a big room with dozens of other couples also pretending that no one else is around. When I set up my camera to take these pictures I decided to capture little frames of people minding their own business. So, no, I didn't want to "Shoot a Frame Within a Frame" using shadows or doorways; I wanted to use the entire wall of windows as a frame to separate interactions, use the lower section of windows to frame individuals going about their business while ignoring others, the upper part of the windows to frame birds flying together in ...
