Day 158 - Clematis in Glass

Combining my recent interests of flowers and glass, here's a flower in a glass.  Aside from quite liking this shot from an aesthetic point of view, I'm really pleased with the range of tones in the grey that the lighting brings out.  This also gives me another tool in box for effectively photographing glasses of liquid.  Rather than relying on edge definition with a separate colour out of shot, this uses the gradient in the background and its reversal when viewed through water to tell the viewer that there is a liquid there.  Lovely bit of optics for the scientists out there.  Hello Robin.

Day 157 - wind bottle and glass

About time I had some more practice with tricky lighting, so here is some more glass for you.  As in previous low key glass photos, I placed a large white board just out of shot to give the lovely edge definition.  I like the way the light on the label gives the shape of the bottle and so more depth to the shot, but really the label could do with lighting separately so we can read the writing more easily.

Day 156 - flower portrait

And another... Not quite sure what these are called.  Back in the garden for this one, shooting in the evening but using the background to block the direct sun to soften the light.

Day 155 - Linthwaite Sunset

I was experimenting this evening, looking at how the colours are given a huge boost when underexposing an evening sky.  The real sunset wasn't really this dramatic to the naked eye but underexposing allowed me to bring out the contrast in the brighter area near the sun.

Day 154 - Clematis

Another diffuse light flower portrait, this time shot in the kitchen and converted to mono.

Day 153 - Scabious

Similar technique to the other night.  I made sure I was above the flower so the shallow depth of field caused the stem to fade out.

Day 152 - Redcurrant cutting

This was an attempt to make use of some clever techniques for shooting glass, without it looking too much like an exercise in lighting theory.  Cutting stuck in water, lit using diffuse window light with black boards to left and right to give the edge definition in the glass.  High contrast conversion to mono to bring out the texture in the leaves.

Day 151 - Clematis

The first of a number of natural light flower portraits that I'm planning to shoot now life has returned to the frozen land of Yorkshire.

This was shot in the garden using natural light on an overcast evening.  I placed my big white foam board behind the flower, set aperture to f/1.8 and set exposure compensation to +1 stop.  Fairly minimal post-production work means this is pretty much seen as shot.

Day 150 - Sea Holly zoom burst

Another technique that I've never played with before is a zoom burst.  You could do also this in post-production, but I think I've made my thoughts on that approach clear now!  My subject was a sea holly on white, which isn't really a classic zoom burst shot as it doesn't have the radiating blurred lines in the background.  However, I quite like the effect so here it is.

After a bit of experimenting, I put the camera on a tripod and used a shutter speed of 1/2 sec for this shot.

Day 149 - Self Portrait

I wanted to experiment with some very strong side lighting, so I put myself in front of the camera for the first time in a while.  I used one flash in a shoot through umbrella camera right and placed a second one rear camera left on the background to give a tonal gradient opposite to the one across my face.  I asked Sian to press the shutter as I find the trial and error of using the remote release and a tripod a little frustrating.  In return, she suggested I take my t-shirt off.  Fair's fair I suppose.

Day 148 - Growers and Grocers

I had a fantastic day shooting with Marie-Claire for a story she's writing about Slaithwaite's Green Valley Grocers and the growers who produce local, seasonal goods for the shop.  Frankly, I was astonished at the gardens that we saw.  They ranged from small terrace plots with a few fruit bushes to huge greenhouses and orchards.  Best of all was the enormous three sided plot dedicated to rhubarb - Slawit's own rhubarb triangle!

As well as being a professional journalist, MC doubles up as a member of staff at the shop, so she didn't escape the camera either.  I'll save the rest of the pictures for elsewhere!