Random Object Challenge: Nails

The choice given this time were the words ‘nails’ and ‘cart’. I’m assuming the word cart refers to an American shopping cart. Here in Alice Springs they are called shopping trolleys so I went with the ‘nails’ option.

Interestingly it gave me the plural which did little to inspire me. I remembered I had a figure made of nails so I tried using that.

Most of the experience was stumbling around with lights and hope.

There is a clever way of showing of nails I’m sure. I just need to think of it.

Anyway, here are the results:

A Few Bird Shots

We’ve had some rare cloudy days here in Alice Springs. A good time to practice some bird photography in ‘the shade’. A couple of times the sun came out for the Port Lincoln Parrot.

Of course, the billions of birds we normally have around here mostly decided to hide today.

Here are the two that decided to make an appearance.

I’ll try and google what the yellow job is is but please comment if you know. (Update: Apparently it’s a White-plumed Honeyeater. Thanks to my Dad for that).

More Macro Messing.

More macro experiments. First up; Paper, Shades of Blue.

Next: Toy Slinky.

Finally more paper: Paper, Shades of Purple.

Messing with Macro

Macro photography I find is one of the most rewarding forms of photography. I have just been playing with water, oil and soap. I plan on doing some more with a different setup, possible using speed-lights (flash).

These were using a bright light off at an angle and a glass container with coloured card underneath.

I’m hoping that flash will help to obtain a faster shutter speed as the oil blobs would very slowly move making clear shots difficult.

Random Object Challenge: Comb

This time the choice was between ‘comb’ and ‘rug’. I decided to go for ‘comb’ as I remembered we had a weird pink pet comb that Mr Pixel, our cat, wouldn’t mind me using. Also, we don’t have a rug.

Total shot count for this challenge was 46; a lot less than I usually take.

Here is the comb.

Here is the same comb with a black background.

Yet another with a different background.

Here’s a close up of Mr Pixel’s loose hair remover and the common design that is ‘comb’.

Although hard to detect in the photos, I noticed as I was taking them, that the comb was a bit grubby, so I gave it a wash.

This process lead to some other ideas . . . the classic close-up water shots.

Using a cardboard box to hold the comb, I experimented with back-lighting.

Then I tweaked it a bit.

Interestingly enough, I sometimes use my phone to snap ideas for shots. This helps to see if there’s a chance of things working. In this particular case I think the phone did remarkably well - probably the best so far (the other phone shots weren’t as good unfortunately).

Overall Mr Pixel’s Pink Comb was a fun challenge . . . I think the advantage being it wasn’t a stapler (see previous post).

My choice, if I had to pick one, and I will, is this final shot. It probably wouldn’t be the favourite for most but for some reason I was more drawn to it.

Random Object Challenge: Stapler (from Hell)

The two words that were randomly generated this time were ‘Sponge’ and ‘Stapler’. I decided to opt for the stapler as I knew we had an interesting looking one and since I think the best sponges are the ocean ones, well, those are hard to find in Alice Springs.

In hindsight I should have searched high and low for a sea sponge since the stapler threw up various problems. The main one was the metal dome. Not surprisingly it reflects everything.

I was tempted to just photograph certain parts of the stapler but thought it would be cheating not to show the whole thing … it does have an annoyingly wonderful design.

How about throwing in some stationery and reduce the depth of field? This almost hid some of the reflection problem but didn’t really do the stapler justice.

I then got sidetracked with taking more shots of the stationery, one of which i decided to put on my contact page.

Stapler problem solved … just remove it.

Returning to the stapler, I ventured into the world of bright lights, metallic textures and a healthy dose of desperation:

The idea was better than the result.

I tried photographing it suspended from fishing wire, taking shots outside, having it standing in water. None of those ideas worked. At all.

I then had an idea of creating a pattern with the staples only to find out it was staple-less. How ironic.

The final shot was a low angle one just to try and hide the reflections, but the ceiling fan and a picture are clearly visible, plus I then realised there were specks on the metal dome.

So in the end I figured I would need a lot more time ( a year or two?) to try and think of something that would work.

Final shot. For now the stapler had beaten me.

Note to self: Search for a sea sponge.

Random Object Challenge.

I decided to try a challenge. Using a random word generator for objects, I would see if I could photograph whatever it came up with. I let the generator generate two words to give myself a little bit of leeway. A good idea as the first two words were ‘SNAKE’ and ‘CLOTHES PEG’.

Clothes peg it was then as Alice Springs is home to some of the most venomous snakes in the world and i didn’t fancy … well, possible death.

Yes, we have clothes pegs here in central Australia although the ones we have at our home are made of metal. The amazingly powerful sun here tends to destroy plastics due to the high UV and replacing them as they broke every 12 months was a hassle.

These I believe are French made and whoever designed them deserves a medal. We have had them for years and for some reason they don’t get too hot to the touch.

So to the photography challenge. First of all here are the pegs:

Clothes pegs, exciting stuff indeed.

Next a shot of the subject in situ:

Possibly a bit more exciting?

To be honest as far as a shot of a clothes peg goes, well … there you are really. Then I thought about focusing (pun intended) a little more on the subject. I would attempt to be artistic or something.

First I thought of a pattern idea:

Not one but three clothes pegs.

But the word generated was not plural so I decided to abandon this path and chose one lucky peg to be the focus of attention.

Put it in the spotlight so to speak.

Single clothes peg almost in focus.

Using a 50mm lens I struggled a little with focusing at the distance I was attempting. I realised I was starting to creep into macro territory and that a macro lens would have been better suited. I ignored my own advice and instead suffered a bit of a focusing issue in the final shot. Lesson learnt.

I thought why not throw it under some Hollywood lights? Then it could return back to the line with the rest of its family.

The setup was less impressive than Hollywood though:

The focus was on the star subject though and that’s when it dawned on me I was forming a bond with a clothes peg.

Finally a Star was born:

A star in the making: Steve the Clothes Peg.

(Now admitted to the Still Life page.)

That’s where the object challenge (and relationship) ended.

The experience left me thinking that not all clothes pegs are built the same, but they are safer than snakes.

Portrait Challenge

Taking a photo of myself. What a distressing thought.

I have been well aware that I am certainly not model material. I also have little experience in portrait photography, so this was a challenge I was not particularly keen on. I took lots of shots. Four hundred and twenty three to be precise. The more I took the uglier I seemed to get. Peering at shots of my face, like the one below, was just too much of, well, my face right in my face.

I took some of me hiding behind a tree. The ones where I was too hidden I quite liked.

In the end I went for a collage that I hope isn’t too frightening for those that visit my About page.

Big scary face.