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.