Photo Assignment: Weekend 11/03/07

[REBECCAV]

I've used what's called a tilt-and-shift lens. It shifts the lens elements away from (but parallel to) the film plane. I had one or two on my account when I worked for Minolta. They are prohibitively expensive, so I never purchased one myself. Handy for architctural photographers, though.

I see your point about the natural receding of the building's lines. Although barely noticeable, the windows do creep in at the margin. Interesting. . . .

You've probably seen these, but they are a great entry-level tilt shift lens:

http://www.lensbabies.com/

[franze]

Hi Inveterate Lensman.......... didn't realize there was feedback on the shots.. bring it on. Nice guess on the subject but I'm pretty sure that Crowe and Winkel ( that's a new Law Firm) recognized it as a hockey puck on ice........that's the "play in black and white" reference. Anyway, appreciated your comments. I was thinking of calling it... "the only time rubber on ice is a good thing"

[grossjohann]

You've probably seen these, but they are a great entry-level tilt shift lens:

http://www.lensbabies.com/

Great find, Rebecca! The end result can be very interesting. Im trying hard to avoid the impulse buy Do you have one?

Some of the sample images look like the old Vaseline around the edges of your UV filter trick.

[franze]

Ok Glaves, you're the winner. didn't see your reply. I was born in Fargo........left the next day.........HA, that's true, my parents were in Moorhead, MN.

[SNC1923]

Hi Inveterate Lensman.......... didn't realize there was feedback on the shots.. bring it on. Nice guess on the subject but I'm pretty sure that Crowe and Winkel ( that's a new Law Firm) recognized it as a hockey puck on ice........

You can take the boy out of Southern California, but. . . .

[Rapid_Roy]

It doesn't look like any of the Hockey Pucks I have, but mine are relatively un-scarred. I missed too.

[Threeteas]

+500 points.

You could have stopped down the aperature (or lowered the EV rating) but that would have darkened the rest of the picture.

Perhaps move the torch back a bit (you don't have false teeth by any chance?). Maybe diffuse the light with (more?) paper. It's doable, but a small point in an otherwise cool photo.

All my own teeth and none from anyone else. The torch was diffused with muslin and on the anarchy pic with a candy wrapper. Perahps a doubling up of the layers?

Thanks for the tips.
Any further back with the torch and I've have swallowed it, or at the very least activated my gag reflex.

[sonnata]

I had difficulty finding a subject for this assignment. Perhaps it's because I tend to make things more complex than they really are. I shot around 95 images, but this is the only subject appealed to me for some reason. I liked that one of the finials was out of kilter.

[bmwdean]

I've used what's called a tilt-and-shift lens. It shifts the lens elements away from (but parallel to) the film plane. I had one or two on my account when I worked for Minolta. They are prohibitively expensive, so I never purchased one myself. Handy for architctural photographers, though.

I see your point about the natural receding of the building's lines. Although barely noticeable, the windows do creep in at the margin. Interesting. . . .

Perspective control lenses

[bricciphoto]

Some of the sample images look like the old Vaseline around the edges of your UV filter trick.

That was my conclusion. Tilt-shift lenses allow selective focus, but they don't distort the softer focus elements of the scene.

[SNC1923]

Perspective control lenses

Jeff,

You sandbagger! You holding out on us? How cool is that? I'm very impressed. . . .

[SNC1923]

Beerteam is back with more wonderful photography. The shot is a bit atypical in that it doesn't include a bike, something he is very good about. I'm glad I got to read a bit about this photo in his explanation. I confess that I looked at rather quickly and missed the fact that the sky is actually a reflection of the sky in water. It's a wonderfully lit shot besides. I think like a great painting it's easy to glance at and say, "oh, a tree," but a closer inspection reveals a great deal of thought and even planning, although he did say he took it rather quickly. It's a wondeful photo.



I don't think this technically was taken this weekend, but Rocketman isn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, either. He posted a wonderful trip report about his recent holiday. I just love the simplicity, the layers, and the story in this photo. My wife was looking over my shoulder last night as I was showing her some of these and she said, "Ooh, I LOVE that shot!" I do, too. The compression of the telephoto lens and the very shallow depth of field make the subject really pop in this photo. The lighting (late afternoon) is also very subtle, very subdued. It's really an effective photo. Nice work, RM.



I don't think you need me to tell you what an amazing artifact Bluestune's submission this week is. Quite a lot has already been said about it and I appreciate his willingness to illuminate his technique for us to learn from. It's worth emphasizing that this image was recorded with a "point n' shoot" camera, lending credence to the belief that it's the photographer and not the camera that makes an image. It's a magnificent study. It's a tremendous close-up, but there's no missing what it is. The beautiful, warm earth-tones of the leaf stand in stark relief to the other-worldly blue of his fuel tank. This subtlety and three-dimensionality of the shadows are what is most fascinating to me. If you can recall his previous entries, the raindrops on the fender for example, we can see that Bluestune is a photographer who paints with light. We all do, but he's very thoughtful about how he adds and controls light in these images he's shared.

This is one of my favorite photos submitted to any of these threads so far. It's just wonderful. . . .



MLS2GO is back with another submission this week, one which I think fits the theme well, especially considering that it is on a motorcycle forum. This is, perhaps, our most universally beloved symbols, is it not? His choice of composition is nice, centralizing and focusing on the arrow itself and not so much the sign. The bullet holes add an ominous air to the picture and makes me ask what did this sign do to merit its assasination. Pure and simple, that's for sure.



I think the most important thing to say about this photo is how much I hate Kbasa and curse the good fortune he has to own such a magnificent motorcycle. I don't really know him very well, but whatever his story is, he couldn't possibly deserve this.



Seriously, though, this is a nice series of photos of a beautiful subject. I like the headlight refelcted in the fender but I prefer this shot, I think. Something about an afternoon ride in the country and the no parking sign (as was pointed out) tell a story here. The angle from which it's taken is flattering to the bike (is there a bad angle on a bike like this?) and he handles the lighting well, given that he's starting to shoot into the sun. The leaves, the grass, the rolling hills. . . . It's all good.

Got to put my game face on and go to work. More later. . . .

[REBECCAV]

Great find, Rebecca! The end result can be very interesting. Im trying hard to avoid the impulse buy Do you have one?

Some of the sample images look like the old Vaseline around the edges of your UV filter trick.

I don't have one of the lenses but I have done a few shots with a friends digital SLR with one on it. My sense was that it was more on the artsy side rather than a serious commercial lens. But it was very fun to use and you can see from the sample images on the site that it makes some great images.

I am surprised that no one has one - they have been out a while. If you do a search on Dgrin you might find some info on it.

Where's ian408? He's probably shot with one......

[SNC1923]

Jackie joins us this week with a photo that might have been as at home in the "Shadow of a Doubt" assignment. Still, this fits our theme well, too. I love these shadow studies, particularly when the shadow is especially distorted as this one is. The picture of this dilapidated old house is infinitely more interesting with the added interest of the shadows. I agree with Jackie's assessment that the image is over-exposed. It is, however, very nicely composed and interesting which goes a long way towards successful.



I already gushed of BMWDean's second submission, which I referred to as Bikerotica. It's obviously a simple photo but an imaginative interpretation. It also goes to show that have good subjects helps. This would make a nice desktop, greeting card, etc.

Did I actually just quote myself? Sheesh. What's next? Maybe I'll start refering to myself in the third person. . . .



Speaking of greeting cards, BeerTeam has got another winner here (although it is yet another bikeless picture. This is a disturbing trend. . . .) This photo is just wonderful. It is beautifully composed with the river leading the viewer's eye directly up to the mill. It is spot-on exposure, great saturation. . . . Just a wonderful picture. Both the texture and the reflection in the water add such a degree of interest. Imagine this photo horizontally composed without the water--just a mundane picture of a building. I agree with Rapid_Roy; sometimes BeerTeam makes me want to smash my camera!



Speaking of whom, I think RR was being a little hard on himself with this week's submission. This is a nicely composed, well-exposed shot. It does fit the theme and is not without visual interest. What's not to like? What does grab my attention in this shot is the vine creeping up the wall--this makes for a much more specific subject. Suppose Roy had decided to move in just a bit closer and perhpas compose the shot vertically, for something like this:



It's very easy for me to make a suggestion like this after the fact, and of course I accomplished this by breaking the rules. But it helps to notice the details about a scene that grabs your attention. Sure, it's interesting, but what specifically is interesting about it? Sometimes honing in on a detail reveals a more powerful image.

Oh, by the way, 1,000 bonus points for the new avatar. Very nice.



Sonnata joins us this week with a stark image. I like the way this is composed, with the flag poles arrananged in an ascending order. I hate to see a photo of a flag unfurled, but we can't control the wind, can we? The sky in this picture is so dark and so blue. I'm pretty certain a poloraizing filter was used. Perhaps too much of a good thing? I know that I've shot some skies that I thought were too blue. I wonder if a different composition might have greater visual interest, but with a subject so high and inaccessible, I don't know what you might have done differently.

25 bonus points for teaching me the word finial and I agree that one being out of kilter does add a point of visual interest.

Barring any last-minute submissions, that about wraps up this week. Thanks for all the great photos. We've learned a lot this week. We've seen one of the Poobah's cool rides; we've learned that one of our members is a published architectural photographer; we've visited Mexico; we learned what a hockey puck looks like when you are actually playing hockey; we've seen the wisdom of taking it one day at a time; we've learned that a torch is an indispensibel lighting tool; we've seen that with product photography, simpler is better; and--perhaps most importantly--it's the photographer and not the camera.

[Threeteas]

Barring any last-minute submissions, that about wraps up this week. Thanks for all the great photos. We've learned a lot this week. We've seen one of the Poobah's cool rides; we've learned that one of our members is a published architectural photographer; we've visited Mexico; we learned what a hockey puck looks like when you are actually playing hockey; we've seen the wisdom of taking it one day at a time; we've learned that a torch is an indispensibel lighting tool; we've seen that with product photography, simpler is better; and--perhaps most importantly--it's the photographer and not the camera.

Damn your anglophilia, I'll have to give you all those bonus points back!
Thanks for all this week's input.