Assignment 1: Smooth

Today I worked on the Smooth subject, par t of the smooth/rough contrast pair. It was mainly cloudy today, and fairly bright at times and so I decided to use the relatively diffuse daylight that falls onto our dining room table to light a few subjects. Here are the results, I've tried to be fairly abstract, concentrating on the lighting and smoothness:

Assignment 1: Still/Moving

I visited Hesketh farm this weekend with the family. It's just near the Devonshire Arms Country House Hotel (very, very nice place). The weather wasn't too brilliant, but I managed to use the low light and some filters to try some long exposure shots for the moving contrast. This first shot is 15 seconds and shows the paths of the children riding their tractors.
Next we have my in-laws sitting on a bench (still) whilst my wife is pushing our youngest on the swings. This was a 2 second exposure.
And finally, a crop of the above shot showing just the movement.

Assignment 1: Black

My first idea was to use a couple of, almost black, Nepalese containers. I put these in front of a plain black paper background and used a Maglite held by a clamp in a lighting stand for the directable, soft-ish light source (that was to the left, slightly behind the subjects), I also made use of daylight on the right hand side.

Sunset

After a few hours out taking pictures in afternoon and not being too happy with the results, my wife persuaded me to head out in the evening, the sky was looking good and there was still a little light around. I headed for the Pitstone/Ivinghoe, first I headed up towards the Beacon where I took this:

And eventually ended up in a field (with 2 other photographers) where I took a number of shots of the Windmill.

So now I need to figure out how they can be used in TAoP.
Assignment 1 - Diagonal?

Assignment 1: White

This is my first attempt to convey White. Clean, crisp, soft, simple.

Assignment 1: Straight

Yesterday, my little helper (William, our 3 year old son) and I went kite flying, and of course, I took my camera (with just a 17-40mm f/4.0L lens, no tripod, cable release etc). It was great weather for kites, one heck of a wind and nice and constant. The light was poor with a thick cover of clouds. On the way to the flying location, we passed a farmers field and my helper waited whilst I took a few shots. I think this shot works pretty well for straight. The lines lead you into the picture, and the lighting does the same, becoming brighter the further into the picture you get.

I have another shot which might work. It's a tree lined path in a local wood.

And then a third candidate is a wide, tree lined grass path leading from Ashridge monument to Ashridge College. I was fortunate to find a number of deer on the path the day I took this one.

Project 8: recording a sequence

I didn't really like this project, as I said earlier, I don't like the idea of walking around in amongst a crowd of people with a big camera pointing at them. I opted for the Zoo as a location and the flamingos in their surroundings as a subject. Here are the shots I took on the approach and closer in:

1. I could see the flamingos, too far away, walk in.

2. Still not close enough, walk in.

3. Still not close enough and there's William, my assistant.

4. The view of them is getting better, too much in the foreground and the sign is in view.

5. A little further and now we just have the plants, may be they could help frame the subject? A few more steps?

6. Looking a little better, nice reflection of the sky.

7. Let's try a portrait format. Oops, the sky is blown apart from that, the shot is pretty good,

8. A tighter view of the flamingos. Doesn't work so well. Let's walk around a bit further.

9. Not bad but still missing something.

10. Walk along, trying to keep one eye on William, another on the other visitors.

11. Not too bad, I want to try and work the reflection of the sky into the final shot.

12. A different view point. It doesn't work. Move along some more.

13. Okay, now I'm clear of most of the plants that were in the foreground. The reflection is nice. I think this is good. Let's see if we can get it any better. Walk some more.

14. Oops the sky is really blown (and cannot be recovered). I'm not too keen on this shot. Zoom in to see if there's a detail shot of the flamingos.

15. It's a bit dull. Nice contrast between the dark of the greenery anf the flamingos, but there's too much darkness.

16.Not too bad. Reflection is nice. Recompose.

17. That's nicer, I like the tree on the left (okay I like it's reflection).

18. Switch to portrait. Got some of the foreground foliage in the shot, not in focus and a little distracting because of this?

19. Recompose, check the exposure, that's better, wish I had my tripod so that I could stop down and sharpen the foreground.

20. Let's try a landscape from a few steps back. That's pretty good. I like the foreground, the blue in the reflection is hidden though.

I think 19 and 20 are the best of the selection.

Assignment 1: Still

I decided to use this photograph to depict Still; for me it shows the still of the morning, the tranquil sunrise - so still through mood rather than anything else.

Rounded

I think I'm going to use the granite ball for rounded; shot 1 in the last post. I've re-cropped the shot and I think it works better.

Assignment 1: curved, rounded, smooth

The following shots are my first attempt at these three contrasts.
Curved

1.	2.
3.	4.

These are all based on a granite ball in the garden, it sits on a circle of pebbles and in the summer water flows up through it and trickles down it's surfaces back into a reservoir below. I think that 1,2 and 3 work pretty well. 4's not so good. 3 might be too abstract, with only the edge of the curve being in focus. At the moment I'm thinking that 2 might be the best.

Rounded

1.	2.
3.	4.

These are all taken in the same areas of the garden as the above pictures. The granite sphere is used in shot 1. I think this shot works well. Shots 2, 3 and 4 are 2 Scottish cobbles that I stacked up. Out of these, I think I prefer 4.

Smooth

1.

2.

Same location for these shots. They you go, a less abstract view of the granite sphere in 2. I think that smoothness is conveyed more in 1. I should try turning on the water pump to see if a flow of water over the sphere helps better convey the smoothness of the granite.

Continuous

Continuous
Originally uploaded by Richard RP

This is a crop and rotate of the static ring. This works much better.

Assignment 1 - Continuous

I'm working on Assignment 1 - continuous today. I've gone for the age old symbol, a ring (my wedding ring) and have taken some shots on the table top studio in the lounge (the coffee table). I don't had a dedicated macro lens at the moment and so I'm using a Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L and I can fill a tiny bit of the frame with the ring, I could fit 80 or so on the frame! Here's the result of the first shoot:If I use one of the above, then I think I will use one with motion. The still shot is a bit too uninspiring. I particularly like the first shot, it's pretty abstract, almost like smoke. Maybe I should consider different lighting and backgrounds. More colour? Less contrast? I'll head out to the art shop later to get some different colours of paper, probably some pastels.