CHEAP MACRO REVISITED

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Charcoal Chicken - Graphique de Nancy

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Japanese artist Tanaka Tatsuya has created what is quickly becoming one of our all-time favorite calendars.

Everyday for the past four years, Tanaka has constructed a diorama featuring miniature figurines engaged in hilarious activities.

Artist Creates Intriguing Dioramas Everyday For the Past 4 Years

via Laughing Squid

The key to great studio photography is in well-planned and well-executed lighting. It not only creates dynamic portraits, but it can dictate the style, mood, and tone of a photograph. This video seminar takes us through the steps to create dramatic high-key and low-key portrait lighting: High-Key Lighting A high-key lighting set up is a photographic style […]

Dynamic High-Key And Low-Key Portrait Lighting Tutorial

Lettering for magazines by Jackson Alves

AMAZING what he does with High speed. I don't have the capability or the equipment, but I have see the rigs for sale that allow you to do this. Cool.

Even though he only describes it as a hobby, Heinz Maier’s high-speed water drop photography is some of the best we’ve seen.

Using simple white backgrounds and colored liquids, Heinz transforms water into amorphous sculptures.

High-Speed Water Drop Photos Are a Cut Above the Rest

via 2photo

SELFIES 2 the project continues...for now.

The backstory

Funny story about these orchids: I got one of the centerpieces from our student design show reception in April. It was the end of the night, and we were cleaning up the area, and there was a remaining orchid after all of the students and guests had theirs, so one of my colleagues said that I should take it home for my wife.

I know very little about flowers, but what I did know was that orchids were supposed to be finicky. It was a cold night, so I warmed the car. There was a support clip that the orchid stems were attached to a small rod on, to train them up. I set it carefully in the cup holder and began to drive home.

As I turned right at some point, my elbow hit the plant, snapping the stems almost in two in two different places. Aaagh! If not for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!

So I ran into the house, and grabbed some packing tape, wrapping it around the stems, propping them up. Yeah..that should work I thought to myself. Using the logic of a mischevious six year old, I brought the plant in and showed it to my wife.

She also was disappointed about my careless elbow, and slightly amused at my packing tape "cast." But we figured that we'd give it a go anyway. After about a week, one of the stems showed signs of dying, so I pulled it off and tossed it. The other seemed to be OK though, so I kept it in the sun and kept on watering it. 

It appears to have come through OK (knock-on-wood). You can see in the top pic the areas where both stems snapped, and the one surviving stem thriving with two flowers, and a new "bud" forming behind them. The tape is till in place (afraid to remove it for fear of breaking it again).

The photos

On a rainy Wednesday, I thought I'd photograph this survivor for kicks. Put a cheap poster board v-flat behind it, and propped it up on pizza boxes. Used only window light (which admittedly wasn't much on this very gray day).  

I also wanted to see under similar conditions what I could get out of the old iPhone 4 camera I have (5 mp). The bottom two shots are from the iPhone. They are a bit more contrasty, and have some noise in the bgnd, but look really good in average light conditions. There is also a bit of the flat and tape that got caught in the shot as the angle of approach is different with the phone (tried to smooth the tape on the flat out, and looks sad I know). The data on the iPhone shots is saying they are f2.8, and 1/120 to 1/60th of a sec? What that means on a lens that is a few mm is pretty relative, but still impressive. I imagine the Samsung and the iPhone 5 would look even better. 

Oh...and guess what happened next? The flimsy V-flat fell onto the plant. But alas— alive and well still. That thing is like ROCKY.

PARDON MY CLOUDS II.

This month is all about skin skin skin! Check out 5 Things That Ruin Skin in Your Photos (and how to fix them) on the Miller’s Professional Imaging blog! http://ift.tt/1ri7rTg http://ift.tt/1toOGJE

homemade camera bag... 7 bucks from hardware store. SUPER tough, double stitched canvas (it is for tools y'know), strong strap. I custom cut some high density foam for the interior, and felted it for a custom fit to the camera. Its a great camera bag for when don't want to carry around the aluminum case (also a repurposed toolbox--with room for lenses, triggers, etc.)