I had just returned from meeting with my shooting partner Cynthia and a portrait client where we discussed finishing and displaying the portraits we had taken a few weeks ago as well as some others the client had available. We took notes and I’ll work up some options for the client this afternoon.
Meantime it is raining steadily. We definitely need it, this and a lot more. And I need it to help me be OK with staying inside and doing some much needed work. But… but…
I’ve been going quietly berserk from not shooting anything, not even demos. If it were not raining I would be seriously thinking about heading out somewhere – ANYWHERE – to search for a wily image. But lo and behold, as I was walking in from Cynthia’s car I just happened to look at the pile of trimmed brush awaiting pick-up in my driveway. Maybe it was image deprivation, capture withdrawl, the visual DTs, who knows, but the next thing I knew I had a camera in my hands, standing there in the drizzle, getting soaked, working out angles and settings for some detail compositions from that pile.
I finished shooting and came inside knowing I should change out of wet clothes and then be instantly working on the portrait issue. Honest, I really was going to do just that… But I could not stand it; I was mush in the hands of the demon screaming in my ear to just at least look at what I had just shot. He would not go away, so, just to shut him up and get some peace in my head, mind you, I did download them and looked at them.
There, I did it, I looked at them, so leave me alone. But then the little devil was screaming at me to just work up one of them to “…see how it might look! It will just take a moment and then you can change clothes and get to work.”
“No, No, get thee behind me!” I demanded of the evil one. But my will power had been weakened by the drought of image making, so, well, just one image I thought… just one and then I’ll get right to work. Just one would be OK…
“Yeah,” the Demon said, “Just one and then you can get dried off and get to work. Just one…”
So here are four of them.
Nature detail of pile of trimmed branches. Canon 5D MkII with Lensbaby Velvet 56
Another angle of the pile of trimmed branches. Shot with Canon 5D MkII and Lensbaby Velvet 56
Detail from pile of trimmed branches. Shot with Lensbaby Velvet 56mm lens on Canon sD MkII
All of these are shot using the Lens baby Velvet 56 to give me very shallow depth of field to isolate the focal points from the jumble right behind them. After shooting the images above I moved around and my target focal point was lined up against a blue recycle container and the color contrasts just seemed to work. I opened up the lens all the way to use its soft, glowing look.
Detail from pile of trimmed branches. Shot with Lensbaby Velvet 56mm lens against a blue recycle container for color contrast. Shot wide open it really does look like the Morton Effect has been applied.
Next week is finals week at City College so it will be a little chaotic but I’m glad to see this semester come to an end. However, for now, its off for some dry clothes (though these are almost dry already) and on to playing with some options for a family portrait display…
Travels with Rocinante 